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The last weekend in the two week break between term 3 and term 4 was a long weekend. We went camping in Glenworth valley with Katy, her dad and youngest brother. While the toilet blocks were improvised and shade was hard to find during the 30 degrees Celcius weekend, we had a spacious spot and were allowed to light a fire for our barbecue. The kids also much enjoyed poking their firesticks into it.
Reptile park
On Sunday we went to the local reptile park, with a crocodile, aligators, snakes and lizards, but also a few
koalas, while kangaroos hopped around the whole park. The kids were not as impressed as on their first visit with mum, though. Back at the campsite, Piet was fond of the local
goannas, who we sometimes saw walking around tents looking for easy food, but mostly in
trees. Piet chased them with our camera. Juultje would point at them and say "anna". Emma and Katy had a pony ride, while all kids enjoyed climbing up the steep river bed, which ended near the campsite.
The next weekend mum, dad and Juultje went to Penny and Andrew's wedding in Melbourne. Piet and Emma had chosen to stay in Sydney for a two night sleep-over at their best friends. That was a novelty and on Sunday morning both were keen to go back home. We met Sarah's family for a laugh and a frown and a pose. Juliana was happy seeing oma. She often asks for "opa", but we wonder whether that is because she finds it harder to say "oma". After a nervous wait, the bridal couple arrived. Penny wore the dress she had selected with Sarah a decade ago. The ceremony and lunch followed.
In the second half of October, Piet built a tower out of skewer sticks and marsh mellows at Dutch school with Kai (with whom we carpool). He has been rather reluctant to go to Dutch school as of late, but this does not always show at school.
The last Sunday of the month we went to Shelly beach. The kids on the beach, while dad and Juultje went back home to pick up Piet's ear plugs - he has grommets in his ears and needs to wear earplugs plus a headband when swimming. When they returned, dad took Piet and Emma on their boogie board for a 'swim' in the bay to another beach. Unfortunately, when Piet got out of the water on some rock, he hit a sea urchin with his toes. A few spines got lodges in his big toe. What was even more unfortunate was that only in July dad had taken him to the hospital in Belgium to remove a splinter from a toe. That splinter was removed after a local anaestetic, but the needle prick for the local anaestetic hurt so much, that Piet strongly objected going to the hospital again. We had a look at home and left it for the day, but on Monday there was no other option than a trek to the A&E. After various hours, paracetamol, ibuprofen, some ointment, laugh gas and lots of screaming, the Dutch doctor managed to get all but one of the spines out. An x-ray showed a last remaining spine, which fortunately came out within a week.
