Anzac Day. 100 years.
When I was little we went to the Dawn Service in Kings Park every year. I'll admit I wasn't the best about going but still, I grumbled my way through it each year.
This year was the first year I've been in a long time. I bundled up the three kids and we all went to our little towns Dawn Service.
And can I just say, I'm so proud of our little town.
There are only a couple thousand people in this town and there were over 1000 people at the service. Good effort Tom Price!
The service started at 5:30 which just happens to be around shift change time, all the night shift mine workers are finishing up and day shift is getting ready to start. Looking around the crowd it was clear to see who was who. There were crowds of dirty, dust covered hi vis clad men and groups of shiny clean hi vis clad men. It was so great to see no matter how tired or how 'important and busy' their day was they all came out to pay their respects before heading off to work or heading home to sleep.
There were plenty of families there too.
The national anthem was sung, wreaths laid, a bagpiper played and then when it was all over there was music of a different kind-the loud beep of all the work vehicles reverse beepers as everyone left to go about their day.
It may be a small town of a couple thousand people, but today I was proud to say I live in Tom Price. A town when so many came out to pay their respects to those that have done so much for our country.
Proud To Be Australian!
Saturday, 25 April 2015
Friday, 24 April 2015
It's Only The First Week. . .
First week back at school.
How are your little ones going?
I thought we were doing well, apart from a bit of tiredness I thought we had settled into this term really well.
Today I dropped Kaitlyn off at school for a day she was excited about. Anzac service in the morning and computers in the afternoon. She seemed happy.
There was a relief teacher in her class as her normal teacher was off sick. But she still seemed happy enough.
11:30 I got a call from the teacher. "Kaitlyn's been saying she feels like throwing up, I left her to see how she would go but she's still saying it, can you come and pick her up"
I knew, straight away, that Kaitlyn wasn't sick. How bad is that? I never believe her.
I didn't feel like explaining to the very shy and quiet relief teacher that Kaitlyn wasn't sick, I didn't feel like going through the whole spiel of 'this is what happens when she's not coping and wants out' I just agreed to pick her up. I had a feeling the teacher wouldn't understand.
When I got to class I opened the door and the look of pure relief, like a huge weight was off her shoulders, flashed across Kaitlyn's face and she smiled at me. I had to look away so I didn't cry.
I brought her home and she ate her lunch and went for a 'rest'. I know she's not sick, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let her skip school and have fun at home.
I wish I knew how to help my girl.
I wish I could make school a better experience for her.
I wish I could help her cope.
I wish the teachers understood more-although I don't understand her enough so I can't really expect the teachers too. . .
How are your little ones going?
I thought we were doing well, apart from a bit of tiredness I thought we had settled into this term really well.
Today I dropped Kaitlyn off at school for a day she was excited about. Anzac service in the morning and computers in the afternoon. She seemed happy.
There was a relief teacher in her class as her normal teacher was off sick. But she still seemed happy enough.
11:30 I got a call from the teacher. "Kaitlyn's been saying she feels like throwing up, I left her to see how she would go but she's still saying it, can you come and pick her up"
I knew, straight away, that Kaitlyn wasn't sick. How bad is that? I never believe her.
I didn't feel like explaining to the very shy and quiet relief teacher that Kaitlyn wasn't sick, I didn't feel like going through the whole spiel of 'this is what happens when she's not coping and wants out' I just agreed to pick her up. I had a feeling the teacher wouldn't understand.
When I got to class I opened the door and the look of pure relief, like a huge weight was off her shoulders, flashed across Kaitlyn's face and she smiled at me. I had to look away so I didn't cry.
I brought her home and she ate her lunch and went for a 'rest'. I know she's not sick, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let her skip school and have fun at home.
I wish I knew how to help my girl.
I wish I could make school a better experience for her.
I wish I could help her cope.
I wish the teachers understood more-although I don't understand her enough so I can't really expect the teachers too. . .
Saturday, 11 April 2015
Quarter Life Crap. . .
If you've ever read a single one of my blog posts you will know that things are pretty hectic here sometimes..ok most of the time.
But sometimes, like right now, I kind of reach the end of my tether.
So tonight, my 25th birthday, I'm sitting down watching a dumb movie, eating piles of junk food and feeling really bloody sorry for myself.
About 3 weeks ago my hubby went away for a 2 week work trip. In that 2 weeks baby Isla was sick for approx 10days, she wasn't sleeping well and was very unhappy. My oldest daughter Kaitlyn suffered terrible from insect bites, in fact she had over 155 bites all over her little body. And then I got sick and lost my voice for about 5 days.
After that I was tired and run down, in need of some time with my husband, I miss him so much when he's away, and was really looking forward to our family getaway over Easter. Hubby doesn't get days off work too often so for him to have 5 days off in a row was nothing short of a miracle. I was picturing beautiful family bonding, fun, laughter and a memorable family trip.
What I got was nothing short of a disaster (refer to previous blog post for details).
So I came home from that tired, grumpy, stressed and worried for my children. It took a few days to get over that trip.
And then today. My birthday. To be honest I wasn't really in the mood to celebrate being a quarter of a century, I think I'm having a quarter life crisis, but I was at least looking forward to spending the day with my kids and having cake and possibly a nice lunch/dinner.
Instead my day started at 4am with Kaitlyn screaming "mum!!!!! Bradley's vomiting" (just a random side note Bradley is a really scary vomiter (is that a word) he doesn't wake up so he lays flat on his back, asleep, vomiting-I'm always scared he will choke). After rescuing him and cleaning up the bed, sheets, floor and Pajamas I crawled back into bed.
Only to be woken minutes later by Kaitlyn throwing up. It was that quick, literally within 10minutes of each other.
By 6:30 Kaitlyn was onto vomit number 3-a spectacular projectile vomit that covered the entire length of the hallway. Yay!
By 8am Kaitlyn was up to 4 vomits, Bradley at 2 and while on the phone for my traditional early morning "happy birthday" phone call from my mum Isla spewed on me.
Happy. Freaking. Birthday.
I'm not a typically selfish person, when asked what I want for my birthday my honest answer is 'nothing.' But sometimes, just sometimes I would like to enjoy a day that's just about me. With my family of course.
Tonight I was looking forward to spending the night with a friend of ours who knew phil was on nights. She had made a cake, planned a dinner and was putting on a casual 6person party for me. It was such a nice thing for her to do and I really wanted to be there.
I whinged to my hubby today "no one ever gets sick on your birthday, or the kids birthdays, why does it always happen to me?" That probably isn't 100% true but after doing the single mum thing with sick kids (and me) for 2 weeks, having the worlds worst holiday (MY relaxing time) completely ruined and now my birthday cleaning up vomit and spending the day washing blankets, towels, pillows, buckets, Pajamas etc I was pretty much at the end of it.
So yes, it may be immature and selfish, but tonight I'm heading for a sugar coma and eating away my sorrows-if I wasn't breastfeeding I would be drinking away my sorrows, I'm not sure which is worse. . .
But sometimes, like right now, I kind of reach the end of my tether.
So tonight, my 25th birthday, I'm sitting down watching a dumb movie, eating piles of junk food and feeling really bloody sorry for myself.
About 3 weeks ago my hubby went away for a 2 week work trip. In that 2 weeks baby Isla was sick for approx 10days, she wasn't sleeping well and was very unhappy. My oldest daughter Kaitlyn suffered terrible from insect bites, in fact she had over 155 bites all over her little body. And then I got sick and lost my voice for about 5 days.
After that I was tired and run down, in need of some time with my husband, I miss him so much when he's away, and was really looking forward to our family getaway over Easter. Hubby doesn't get days off work too often so for him to have 5 days off in a row was nothing short of a miracle. I was picturing beautiful family bonding, fun, laughter and a memorable family trip.
What I got was nothing short of a disaster (refer to previous blog post for details).
So I came home from that tired, grumpy, stressed and worried for my children. It took a few days to get over that trip.
And then today. My birthday. To be honest I wasn't really in the mood to celebrate being a quarter of a century, I think I'm having a quarter life crisis, but I was at least looking forward to spending the day with my kids and having cake and possibly a nice lunch/dinner.
Instead my day started at 4am with Kaitlyn screaming "mum!!!!! Bradley's vomiting" (just a random side note Bradley is a really scary vomiter (is that a word) he doesn't wake up so he lays flat on his back, asleep, vomiting-I'm always scared he will choke). After rescuing him and cleaning up the bed, sheets, floor and Pajamas I crawled back into bed.
Only to be woken minutes later by Kaitlyn throwing up. It was that quick, literally within 10minutes of each other.
By 6:30 Kaitlyn was onto vomit number 3-a spectacular projectile vomit that covered the entire length of the hallway. Yay!
By 8am Kaitlyn was up to 4 vomits, Bradley at 2 and while on the phone for my traditional early morning "happy birthday" phone call from my mum Isla spewed on me.
Happy. Freaking. Birthday.
I'm not a typically selfish person, when asked what I want for my birthday my honest answer is 'nothing.' But sometimes, just sometimes I would like to enjoy a day that's just about me. With my family of course.
Tonight I was looking forward to spending the night with a friend of ours who knew phil was on nights. She had made a cake, planned a dinner and was putting on a casual 6person party for me. It was such a nice thing for her to do and I really wanted to be there.
I whinged to my hubby today "no one ever gets sick on your birthday, or the kids birthdays, why does it always happen to me?" That probably isn't 100% true but after doing the single mum thing with sick kids (and me) for 2 weeks, having the worlds worst holiday (MY relaxing time) completely ruined and now my birthday cleaning up vomit and spending the day washing blankets, towels, pillows, buckets, Pajamas etc I was pretty much at the end of it.
So yes, it may be immature and selfish, but tonight I'm heading for a sugar coma and eating away my sorrows-if I wasn't breastfeeding I would be drinking away my sorrows, I'm not sure which is worse. . .
Thursday, 9 April 2015
First Quarter Is Over
Have you ever dreaded your birthday? Like turning that one year older will make a big difference? You will feel so much older? Maybe turning 30? Or 40? Or even 50 hit you like a tonne of bricks?
Well for me it's turning 25!! I know right-sounds pathetic! 25 is still 'young'
Saturday is my 25th birthday and for some reason I'm actually dreading it.
It's like I'm no longer a 'young and cool' teenager, I'm past my early 20's and I'm smack bang in the middle of my 20's.
Quarter. Life. Crisis.
Wwaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!
I suddenly feel old, and like I should be mature, and like I should have all these accomplishments and should be well travelled and well educated and have built my dream house and have fancy furniture and be well 'set up' and well....just done more.
(Just a side note-WHY is there so much pressure to accomplish so much so young these days??? Anyway that's a whole other story.)
Back to me feeling old...
Wwwwaaaahhhhhh!!!! I don't want to be 25.
That feels way too grown up for me!!
I still think of most 'adults' (because I'm definitely not one of them) as Mr or Mrs, I'm not up with calling older people by their first name. I feel weird asking 'adults' things about their personal life, like how many kids they have or what they do for a job or how are they REALLY going.
Surely I'm too young to be speaking to 'adults' this way?
Surely they see me as a fraud- 'she's not an adult, she's too young and immature'
Well apparently not! Apparently I'm supposed to be mature and an 'adult' now!
And yes I've accomplished a lot in my 25 years, I'm married, I have three beautiful kids, a crazy dog, we've lived in different towns, we have a house full of mismatched, second hand furniture and we have a very nice car. But by today's standards-we have 'accomplished' absolutely nothing worthwhile.
Well dammit my kids are worthwhile thank you very much!!
And while I may enjoy every single second (ok maybe not EVERY second) of being a mum, I still don't want to be 25!!!!!
I'm getting old :-/
Help me!
Quarter. Life. Crisis.
Well for me it's turning 25!! I know right-sounds pathetic! 25 is still 'young'
Saturday is my 25th birthday and for some reason I'm actually dreading it.
It's like I'm no longer a 'young and cool' teenager, I'm past my early 20's and I'm smack bang in the middle of my 20's.
Quarter. Life. Crisis.
Wwaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!
I suddenly feel old, and like I should be mature, and like I should have all these accomplishments and should be well travelled and well educated and have built my dream house and have fancy furniture and be well 'set up' and well....just done more.
(Just a side note-WHY is there so much pressure to accomplish so much so young these days??? Anyway that's a whole other story.)
Back to me feeling old...
Wwwwaaaahhhhhh!!!! I don't want to be 25.
That feels way too grown up for me!!
I still think of most 'adults' (because I'm definitely not one of them) as Mr or Mrs, I'm not up with calling older people by their first name. I feel weird asking 'adults' things about their personal life, like how many kids they have or what they do for a job or how are they REALLY going.
Surely I'm too young to be speaking to 'adults' this way?
Surely they see me as a fraud- 'she's not an adult, she's too young and immature'
Well apparently not! Apparently I'm supposed to be mature and an 'adult' now!
And yes I've accomplished a lot in my 25 years, I'm married, I have three beautiful kids, a crazy dog, we've lived in different towns, we have a house full of mismatched, second hand furniture and we have a very nice car. But by today's standards-we have 'accomplished' absolutely nothing worthwhile.
Well dammit my kids are worthwhile thank you very much!!
And while I may enjoy every single second (ok maybe not EVERY second) of being a mum, I still don't want to be 25!!!!!
I'm getting old :-/
Help me!
Quarter. Life. Crisis.
Tuesday, 7 April 2015
Camping-The Currie Way...
Currie Family Holiday. Easter long weekend. 5 days of camping and quality family time. Relaxing. Peaceful. Beach. Campfires. Stargazing. Exploring.
These are all words I would usually use to describe camping trips. And what I was expecting from this camping trip.
Chaos. Stressful. Pain. Infection. Puss. Humidity. Flies. Bugs. Hospital. Bites. Swelling. Black eye. Sweat. Tears.
Those are the words that best describe what ACTUALLY happened on our family holiday.
So here's how the worlds worst holiday played out.
Day 1: 5am phone call from our bank telling me our credit card had been used fraudulently numerous times in the past 4 hours. All credit cards are blocked-thank god it wasn't our debit card! This was our first sign.
6am Everyone piles into the packed family car with smiles on our faces. We had been looking forward to this trip for weeks. Watching the beautiful pink sky as the sun rose about the horizon made for a beautiful start to our trip.
By the time we arrived in Nanutarra (about lunchtime) the two small bites I had on my knee had swollen and were painful.
1:30 we arrived at Bullara Station. And it was hot. But not just hot. It was humid. The humidity was like nothing I've ever experienced before-and I like hot weather! Isla couldn't be outside for more than 10minutes without needing a feed, her hair was soaking wet. Phil was trying to put the tent up, a 2 person job that he was doing alone. Kaitlyn and Bradley had run off straight into the mud and Isla wouldn't settle-it was too hot for her.
Phil bribed the kids into holding up tent poles while I sat in the car with the air con cranking keeping Isla happy. I wanted to pack up and leave right then and there. We were so close to the coast and yet it was easily 5 degrees hotter than our home town Tom Price. This was our second sign.
Finally everything was set up (well the tent and beds were-everything else was thrown back in the trailer to finish off the next day when it would hopefully be cooler).
My bites were so swollen I couldn't bend my knee at all and I was in a fair bit of pain.
Bradley came and showed us a teeny tiny 'itchy bite' on his toe. I put some cream on it and he went off exploring some more.
Isla was still unsettled so we chucked her in a bucket of water while we cooked dinner.
After dinner we decided to have a shower to cool down and get cleaned off. Well we certainly did cool down. The hot water system was broken (thanks cyclone olwyn!) so we had a cross between a sponge bath and being brave and running straight through the freezing cold water. The bathrooms were outside with no roof. Supposedly a 'stargazers' bathroom. Too bad there were too many clouds. Why didn't see a single star our entire trip.
Day 2: Bradley woke at 3:30am "mummy! daddy! My foot hurts" it seems the teeny tiny 'itchy bite' was now big and gross and infected. Puss was oozing out of the sore and his foot was swollen.
While Phil was out cleaning Bradley's foot up Kaitlyn woke up. "Mummy, I think someone has just punched me in the eye" seriously one of the best one liners of our trip. I grabbed a torch and went and inspected Kaitlyn. Obviously no one had climbed into her tent and punched her but she was pretty spot on with how it must have felt. Her eye had swollen almost completely shut. Opening and closing her eye was very painful. Grabbed some more 'magic cream' and sent her back to bed with a kiss and cuddle and a promise that no one punched her in the eye.
By morning we were all tired. Phil seemed to be getting the sore throat and cold that I had not long recovered from! The flies were out in full force and by full force I mean you literally couldn't open your mouth. I spent most of the morning hiding in the gazebo so I could have a break from flies. And those outside showers...have you ever tried to shower with a cloud of flies around you, or pee with flies? Yep. Not even a little bit fun.
Bradley's foot was looking disgusting and the swelling was worse. We decided we needed a dr and packed off for a day in Exmouth.
First stop info centre for directions to the local hospital.
After seeing the Dr (our old family Dr from when we lived down South) it was confirmed Bradley's foot was infected, his glands in his groin were raised and the infection had already spread up his leg. Yuck!! No one could get a close enough look to tell what it actually was that was infected. Sand fly bite? Mozzie bite? Blood blister? No one knew for sure. We were given scripts for antibiotics and some cream.
By this time it was lunch time, we were hungry, grumpy and wanted the 'fun' to start already.
Isla refused to eat any baby food that comes from a jar-great!- so I was breast feeding her every hour or so and she was eating bits and pieces of everyone's lunch to try keep her happy.
Kaitlyns eye was still swollen but not bothering her as much.
Phil was still silently fighting off his cold-he was refusing to let himself get sick! :-/
Bradley was not a happy camper-literally!
We found a cafe/pub for lunch and grumbled our way through the meal.
When would the fun start?
This wasn't relaxing.
Why did this have to happen when Phil only gets such a short amount of time off work, why did our family holiday have to start so badly.
After lunch we went to a cool little splash park in Exmouth. Basically a playground with water everywhere. Fun! Yay!
Until 5 minutes later when Bradley ran head first into another little girl fell flat on his back and hit his head pretty hard on the ground.
I'm done, I want out, let me go home!!
It took a good 15 minutes to calm him down and by then they wanted to leave the splash park.
Off to the beach. We had about 1 hour left before we needed to grab some stuff from the shops and start heading back to the station.
That night the flies were even worse and there were bugs and moths everywhere. Now I'm not a bug person anyway so it was annoying for me. But even Phil who doesn't mind bugs was getting annoyed. Ever tried cooking dinner with 30,000 moths? Yuck!
Another cold shower and we all hit the hay by 7:30pm. A crappy start to our holiday.
This was our third and final sign-get out now before shit gets real!! Of course we didn't listen! :-/
Day 3: Bradley woke up and went to do a bush wee. "Oh my god Bradley what have you done to your willy?!!!!" All I could see was an angry red swollen rash? Bite? On his willy. Yay! More fun! It looked like he had more bites but they were gross and painful. Thankfully he could still pee so I wasn't too concerned-actually I was so tired and over it I didn't care. Oops. Bad mum moment.
Easter egg hunt and new pajamas made the kids happy, seeing smiley faces after our bad start to our holiday was amazing.
Isla was still refusing all the jar food I had brought (and I specifically tried to find ones close to what I made at home as I know she can be fussy with jar food) so she was living on breast milk still. Kaitlyns eye was better but Bradley's foot was still gross. Trying to keep him clean on the station was impossible, even with socks and bandages. He also had another couple big bites on his ankle (opposite leg to his infected foot) and his ankle was quite swollen. More fun!
We packed up and headed into Coral Bay for the day. And wow if the flies were bad at the station it was nothing compared to the flies here. You couldn't breathe, open your mouth, move, do anything without a massive cloud of flies around you. Phil swallowed a fly, I snorted one up my nose, Kaitlyn had them in her ears and Isla's eyes were constantly full of flies. It was bad, so freaking bad. You could literally see black clouds circling people as they walked along. And the moths here were even worse. I remember saying to Phil eww your armpit hair is all weird, he lifted his arm and voila it was a freaking moth in his armpit! Every time you touched a towel or moved your bag, every time you picked your hat up or opened the esky there were moths. It sucked.
But Coral Bay-wow! Just wow!! The beach was crystal clear, the water beautiful and cool. We hired out some canoes (well one canoe, one kayak-thanks cyclone olwyn for making half the canoes un-useable) and paddled out over Ningaloo Reef. That was amazing. The kids saw a big rainbow coloured fish, there was beautiful coral and it was just amazing. One of those once in a lifetime moments. Until we are paddling in a crowd of snorkels and divers and Bradley cheekily shouts out "look! A shark!" Dude!!! Do you have a death wish!! Not funny!
We tried going to a fishing spot and letting the kids have a turn at fishing but the flies were even worse around there-if you can believe that-we all sat in the beach up to our necks just to keep the flies off us.
After a beautiful lunch and the best fun time in Coral Bay we headed back to the station.
Since we arrived the kids had been begging for a camp fire, but it was just tooooo hot. We had already made the decision to leave in the morning-a day early-because Bradley's various sores, bites and swollen areas weren't getting any better. So for the last night we had a fire.
"I'm getting good at making fires now" hubby bragged to me
"Anyone can light a fire with a few sticks and 2litres of petrol"
The sunset was beautiful, we had our first warm-ish shower of the trip and and we sat sweating (literally) next to the camp fire while the kids roasted marshmallows. It was a perfect moment (if you could forget how stupid it was to sit next to a fire while it was boiling hot).
And then we heard the scream, it was high pitched, scary sounding and bloody loud. Bradley had stepped just that little bit too close to the fire and had put his foot (the one with the swollen ankle, not the infected one) straight into the fire. Burning, screaming, crying, stinging, pain, screaming. It was all happening. Thank god I packed a brand new tube of burn aid cream! Ice, cold water and cream plus lots and lots of cuddles and he survived, although he's got a couple nice big blisters on the bottom of his foot.
We gave up. Bed. Now. Everyone!
Hubby packed up our camping stuff while I continued to feed a hot, sweaty, hungry Isla. She still hadn't eaten any jar food the whole trip!
Next morning while trying to get to the toilet with a burn underneath one foot and an infected pussy swollen other foot poor Bradley just couldn't do it anymore, he couldn't go fast enough and he peed his pants. I actually nearly cried. My poor boy. He had had such a shitty run of things this holidays but he still tried his very best to have fun. More cuddles and some help to change and we packed up the car and were gone by 7:30am. While packing the car my handbag broke too-the icing on the shit cake!
The trip home was pretty uneventful. Isla slept for 2 hours straight-poor kid! Needed the aircon and a break from bugs and flies to have a decent sleep. We had a beautiful cooked breakfast at Nanutarra roadhouse and were finally home.
Bradley's foot is now looking amazing, his willy is looking better and isn't painful, his burns are healing. We've all had nice warm showers, washed ourselves head to toe and last night had a beautiful sleep in our own beds.
The whole trip was a disaster from start to finish. We really had to stop and find the magic and the joy in our trip. But we did. And now we can laugh about how much of a disaster it was. There were definitely some life long memories made. The station was beautiful. The beaches and towns of Exmouth and Coral Bay were beautiful. The kids although in pain and starving in Isla's case were so well behaved.
When we got home I asked how they liked the holiday. They both said they loved going and want to go back again-maybe next time it won't all go quite so bad.
But, hey, it wouldn't be a Currie trip without the Currie drama!
These are all words I would usually use to describe camping trips. And what I was expecting from this camping trip.
Chaos. Stressful. Pain. Infection. Puss. Humidity. Flies. Bugs. Hospital. Bites. Swelling. Black eye. Sweat. Tears.
Those are the words that best describe what ACTUALLY happened on our family holiday.
So here's how the worlds worst holiday played out.
Day 1: 5am phone call from our bank telling me our credit card had been used fraudulently numerous times in the past 4 hours. All credit cards are blocked-thank god it wasn't our debit card! This was our first sign.
6am Everyone piles into the packed family car with smiles on our faces. We had been looking forward to this trip for weeks. Watching the beautiful pink sky as the sun rose about the horizon made for a beautiful start to our trip.
By the time we arrived in Nanutarra (about lunchtime) the two small bites I had on my knee had swollen and were painful.
1:30 we arrived at Bullara Station. And it was hot. But not just hot. It was humid. The humidity was like nothing I've ever experienced before-and I like hot weather! Isla couldn't be outside for more than 10minutes without needing a feed, her hair was soaking wet. Phil was trying to put the tent up, a 2 person job that he was doing alone. Kaitlyn and Bradley had run off straight into the mud and Isla wouldn't settle-it was too hot for her.
Phil bribed the kids into holding up tent poles while I sat in the car with the air con cranking keeping Isla happy. I wanted to pack up and leave right then and there. We were so close to the coast and yet it was easily 5 degrees hotter than our home town Tom Price. This was our second sign.
Finally everything was set up (well the tent and beds were-everything else was thrown back in the trailer to finish off the next day when it would hopefully be cooler).
My bites were so swollen I couldn't bend my knee at all and I was in a fair bit of pain.
Bradley came and showed us a teeny tiny 'itchy bite' on his toe. I put some cream on it and he went off exploring some more.
Isla was still unsettled so we chucked her in a bucket of water while we cooked dinner.
After dinner we decided to have a shower to cool down and get cleaned off. Well we certainly did cool down. The hot water system was broken (thanks cyclone olwyn!) so we had a cross between a sponge bath and being brave and running straight through the freezing cold water. The bathrooms were outside with no roof. Supposedly a 'stargazers' bathroom. Too bad there were too many clouds. Why didn't see a single star our entire trip.
Day 2: Bradley woke at 3:30am "mummy! daddy! My foot hurts" it seems the teeny tiny 'itchy bite' was now big and gross and infected. Puss was oozing out of the sore and his foot was swollen.
While Phil was out cleaning Bradley's foot up Kaitlyn woke up. "Mummy, I think someone has just punched me in the eye" seriously one of the best one liners of our trip. I grabbed a torch and went and inspected Kaitlyn. Obviously no one had climbed into her tent and punched her but she was pretty spot on with how it must have felt. Her eye had swollen almost completely shut. Opening and closing her eye was very painful. Grabbed some more 'magic cream' and sent her back to bed with a kiss and cuddle and a promise that no one punched her in the eye.
By morning we were all tired. Phil seemed to be getting the sore throat and cold that I had not long recovered from! The flies were out in full force and by full force I mean you literally couldn't open your mouth. I spent most of the morning hiding in the gazebo so I could have a break from flies. And those outside showers...have you ever tried to shower with a cloud of flies around you, or pee with flies? Yep. Not even a little bit fun.
Bradley's foot was looking disgusting and the swelling was worse. We decided we needed a dr and packed off for a day in Exmouth.
First stop info centre for directions to the local hospital.
After seeing the Dr (our old family Dr from when we lived down South) it was confirmed Bradley's foot was infected, his glands in his groin were raised and the infection had already spread up his leg. Yuck!! No one could get a close enough look to tell what it actually was that was infected. Sand fly bite? Mozzie bite? Blood blister? No one knew for sure. We were given scripts for antibiotics and some cream.
By this time it was lunch time, we were hungry, grumpy and wanted the 'fun' to start already.
Isla refused to eat any baby food that comes from a jar-great!- so I was breast feeding her every hour or so and she was eating bits and pieces of everyone's lunch to try keep her happy.
Kaitlyns eye was still swollen but not bothering her as much.
Phil was still silently fighting off his cold-he was refusing to let himself get sick! :-/
Bradley was not a happy camper-literally!
We found a cafe/pub for lunch and grumbled our way through the meal.
When would the fun start?
This wasn't relaxing.
Why did this have to happen when Phil only gets such a short amount of time off work, why did our family holiday have to start so badly.
After lunch we went to a cool little splash park in Exmouth. Basically a playground with water everywhere. Fun! Yay!
Until 5 minutes later when Bradley ran head first into another little girl fell flat on his back and hit his head pretty hard on the ground.
I'm done, I want out, let me go home!!
It took a good 15 minutes to calm him down and by then they wanted to leave the splash park.
Off to the beach. We had about 1 hour left before we needed to grab some stuff from the shops and start heading back to the station.
That night the flies were even worse and there were bugs and moths everywhere. Now I'm not a bug person anyway so it was annoying for me. But even Phil who doesn't mind bugs was getting annoyed. Ever tried cooking dinner with 30,000 moths? Yuck!
Another cold shower and we all hit the hay by 7:30pm. A crappy start to our holiday.
This was our third and final sign-get out now before shit gets real!! Of course we didn't listen! :-/
Day 3: Bradley woke up and went to do a bush wee. "Oh my god Bradley what have you done to your willy?!!!!" All I could see was an angry red swollen rash? Bite? On his willy. Yay! More fun! It looked like he had more bites but they were gross and painful. Thankfully he could still pee so I wasn't too concerned-actually I was so tired and over it I didn't care. Oops. Bad mum moment.
Easter egg hunt and new pajamas made the kids happy, seeing smiley faces after our bad start to our holiday was amazing.
Isla was still refusing all the jar food I had brought (and I specifically tried to find ones close to what I made at home as I know she can be fussy with jar food) so she was living on breast milk still. Kaitlyns eye was better but Bradley's foot was still gross. Trying to keep him clean on the station was impossible, even with socks and bandages. He also had another couple big bites on his ankle (opposite leg to his infected foot) and his ankle was quite swollen. More fun!
We packed up and headed into Coral Bay for the day. And wow if the flies were bad at the station it was nothing compared to the flies here. You couldn't breathe, open your mouth, move, do anything without a massive cloud of flies around you. Phil swallowed a fly, I snorted one up my nose, Kaitlyn had them in her ears and Isla's eyes were constantly full of flies. It was bad, so freaking bad. You could literally see black clouds circling people as they walked along. And the moths here were even worse. I remember saying to Phil eww your armpit hair is all weird, he lifted his arm and voila it was a freaking moth in his armpit! Every time you touched a towel or moved your bag, every time you picked your hat up or opened the esky there were moths. It sucked.
But Coral Bay-wow! Just wow!! The beach was crystal clear, the water beautiful and cool. We hired out some canoes (well one canoe, one kayak-thanks cyclone olwyn for making half the canoes un-useable) and paddled out over Ningaloo Reef. That was amazing. The kids saw a big rainbow coloured fish, there was beautiful coral and it was just amazing. One of those once in a lifetime moments. Until we are paddling in a crowd of snorkels and divers and Bradley cheekily shouts out "look! A shark!" Dude!!! Do you have a death wish!! Not funny!
We tried going to a fishing spot and letting the kids have a turn at fishing but the flies were even worse around there-if you can believe that-we all sat in the beach up to our necks just to keep the flies off us.
After a beautiful lunch and the best fun time in Coral Bay we headed back to the station.
Since we arrived the kids had been begging for a camp fire, but it was just tooooo hot. We had already made the decision to leave in the morning-a day early-because Bradley's various sores, bites and swollen areas weren't getting any better. So for the last night we had a fire.
"I'm getting good at making fires now" hubby bragged to me
"Anyone can light a fire with a few sticks and 2litres of petrol"
The sunset was beautiful, we had our first warm-ish shower of the trip and and we sat sweating (literally) next to the camp fire while the kids roasted marshmallows. It was a perfect moment (if you could forget how stupid it was to sit next to a fire while it was boiling hot).
And then we heard the scream, it was high pitched, scary sounding and bloody loud. Bradley had stepped just that little bit too close to the fire and had put his foot (the one with the swollen ankle, not the infected one) straight into the fire. Burning, screaming, crying, stinging, pain, screaming. It was all happening. Thank god I packed a brand new tube of burn aid cream! Ice, cold water and cream plus lots and lots of cuddles and he survived, although he's got a couple nice big blisters on the bottom of his foot.
We gave up. Bed. Now. Everyone!
Hubby packed up our camping stuff while I continued to feed a hot, sweaty, hungry Isla. She still hadn't eaten any jar food the whole trip!
Next morning while trying to get to the toilet with a burn underneath one foot and an infected pussy swollen other foot poor Bradley just couldn't do it anymore, he couldn't go fast enough and he peed his pants. I actually nearly cried. My poor boy. He had had such a shitty run of things this holidays but he still tried his very best to have fun. More cuddles and some help to change and we packed up the car and were gone by 7:30am. While packing the car my handbag broke too-the icing on the shit cake!
The trip home was pretty uneventful. Isla slept for 2 hours straight-poor kid! Needed the aircon and a break from bugs and flies to have a decent sleep. We had a beautiful cooked breakfast at Nanutarra roadhouse and were finally home.
Bradley's foot is now looking amazing, his willy is looking better and isn't painful, his burns are healing. We've all had nice warm showers, washed ourselves head to toe and last night had a beautiful sleep in our own beds.
The whole trip was a disaster from start to finish. We really had to stop and find the magic and the joy in our trip. But we did. And now we can laugh about how much of a disaster it was. There were definitely some life long memories made. The station was beautiful. The beaches and towns of Exmouth and Coral Bay were beautiful. The kids although in pain and starving in Isla's case were so well behaved.
When we got home I asked how they liked the holiday. They both said they loved going and want to go back again-maybe next time it won't all go quite so bad.
But, hey, it wouldn't be a Currie trip without the Currie drama!
Early morning talk to the horses
At the Exmouth splash park
Easter morning
Canoeing over Ningaloo Reef
The campfire-before Bradley burnt his foot
Sunset for our last night
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