Road Tripping...

Boxing Day 2014, we decided it was a good day to go on a road trip to our 'nearest' shopping centre.
Thanks to the front shocks being stuffed on our 4wd (STILL waiting on approval from warranty place to get them fixed) we had to take the LONG way from Tom price to karratha.

And by long way I mean 600kms one way!!

Kids haven't been on a road trip in ages so it was always going to be 'fun'

We were totally set up-food, water, DVDs, notepad and textas for Kaitlyn, toys galore for Isla and toy animals for Bradley. We even had a piece of cardboard to put up at the window to block out the sun from Isla's side.

We left at 6am and were in the next town just before 7. We stopped to have breakfast, get the kids out of their PJ's and get DVDs set up.
Everyone still laughing and joking and excited at the prospect of McDonalds for dinner.

By hour 4 the fun was wearing off-we had made a number of peeing stops and a feeding the baby stop.

By hour 7 we were slightly less happy. Isla-although a very good traveller-is definitely not the 'silent, sleep the entire way type' that Kaitlyn and Bradley were.
I had woken with the head cold from hell and had used up all my tissues, had a completely red raw nose and was making my way through baby wipes.
Bradley chucked a tantrum at the only roadhouse-Fortescue Roadhouse-and they weren't serving enough food to satisfy us.

By hour 8 we had arrived!! We stayed at a caravan park. We had booked for 3 adults and 1 kid (as ALL rooms could only sleep a maximum of 4 people) so we didn't have to pay an additional $600 for another cottage we were a bit dodgy and tried to hide 2 kids... Oops!!

BUT Our cottage was within complete viewing distance of the front desk!!! 😁😁
We only had 2 aircons (not 3 like other rooms) the kitchen tap was broken and swinging around and it took us 20 minutes to lock the front door! But I dare not complain, upon arrival I was given a huge discount off the room, apparently they had a sale on. And since I was sneaking an extra 2 kids in (seriously why can't a baby in a port a cot NOT be included?!) I felt super super guilty!

We had our Maccas dinner and all went to bed early.
The next day we hit the shops-we got there at 8am and left by 3:30pm. It was a big day: school shoes, clothes, post Christmas sales, tools for hubby, new lunch boxes, shoes, drink bottles, storage containers. The list was endless.

But the kids were amazing!! They helped out, sat quietly while trying on their shoes, helped pick clothes, found where the torches were in the store. I couldn't have asked for better behaved kids. We had a morning tea stop and a lunch stop and the kids were allowed to choose their own food.
The biggest excitement at morning tea was having a babycino!! It's been so long.
Lunch was popcorn chicken from KFC. It was a weekend of junk food, not much sleep and lots of fun.

That night we decided to go out for dinner, but since I was still unwell and Phil appeared to be coming down with it too we opted for a casual pub dinner. Even then I was still super excited to be 'eating out.' That is, I WAS excited, until Phil brought my drink over to me and I was given a PLASTIC CUP. So much for 'a nice meal out' I was still drinking out of kiddie cups!! 😁

We got to see the beach (for the first and last time in months!) We saw the statue of Red Dog in Dampier-google the story or watch the movie it's amazing!!

I was still dying of my head cold and wasn't sure I would survive the day. But somehow I did-I think that was mostly due to having mum tag along for the trip, she was able to help with the kids so I could survive. We never would have made it without her.

The next day was leaving day. A trip to the chemist for baby panadol, One last Maccas run for breakfast and we were packed up, trailer full, new DVDs in the players and plenty of snacks.

The trip back wasnt nearly as joyous as our trip to karratha;

"shut up fish lips"

"shove it up your ass"

"if that smells your face is going to be imprinted on the window"

"look Grandma I can wink and eat at the same time" (along with a hilarious demonstration)

'What kinda pop corn is that?'
'Its watering popcorn'
'no mum it's MOUTH watering popcorn'

"Mum, why are you building Isla a for with blankets and cardboard"
"She likes to sleep in the dark-I'm making it dark for her!!"
Are just a few of the hilarious moments on the way home.

We were giggling like crazy-actually we were crazy! We had a few stops on the side of the road to pee. We had a feeding stop for Isla, we had an 'oh my god the esky is almost flying off the back of the trailer' stop, we had a 'look at the cows' stop.  But finally 8 hours later we made it home.
I was still sick, Phil was sick, and Isla had come down with a fever that day!!

Even through all the madness and rushing around we made so many memories and had a great time! The driving was painful but I'm sure I will remember some of the madness for many years to come.
In such a short time so many lifetime memories were made and so much fun was had.




Emma Currie