Bon Voyage Bells

Last week after Jonty got back from Bridport, the Bells came to stay with us for their last weekend in Tassie before moving to Adelaide. Hayden was successful at getting into a speciality programme at a hospital over there which will take five years to complete. Doctors certainly do more than their fair share of study and hard work to get where they are at. Simon was still on holidays from work so we were able to get out and do heaps of stuff together.

I'm going to go and visit them in June and stop in and see Jess in Melbourne on the way but even in that short time, little Toby Woby will have grown.

The weather was still very hot so we did heaps outside and joked how Adelaide was the hottest city on the earth that week. We went for a swim in our local river. Simon has an underwater camera he got for search & rescue and it is so good having a camera in the water and not worrying about it getting wet.

Toby wasn't too sure about the water. :)

  

Did a bit of kite flying.

Flynn felt very chuffed with himself, flying the kite.

We went and played a few games of tennis. I won one set against Collette and then promptly lost the next two.

We then went and had icy poles and a play at the village green.

Both nights we watched movies and just relaxed on the couch and chatted.

Mum's blurry photo taking but here Collette and I are saying goodbye to each other Sunday morning before Collette headed off to the airport. We sure am going to miss these guys!!

Moving from Bridport

It only seems like yesterday that we were moving Mum to Bridport to continue her sea change teaching career at Scottsdale Primary School. She had already been teaching and living there for 2 years with Collette, but was now renting her house out permanently after Jess and Kyle moved out of her house, to live in Melbourne. Collette got a transfer to Oatlands District High School and was moving to Hobart (Brighton) and so Mum was now going to finish out her teaching career over the next few years, near the ocean.

I just finished a post last week which included many links to all the great times we have had at Bridport over the years. I can't think of any one great memory that has stood out. Having the opportunity to visit family who have lived near the beach for so long has been a wonderful privilege and we have been very spoiled staying at a house near the beach as opposed to tenting it!!

The week after we helped Mum pack up her house in Bridport, Jonty and I went back for two days to help Mum finish up and move the rest of her things and the final clean of the house before the new owners moved in.

This is the great view over the ocean we have been spoiled with whenever we have visited.

On the last night before Mum left, we headed off to the local pub for one last Bridport meal. Jonty kept calling it a cafe and I think he loved going out for a meal with just him.

Mum being always thoughtful had left some chocolates and a card for the new owners.

The new owners had bought most of the big furniture because they are using it as a holiday shack so that made it HEAPS easier for Mum to move as there was not so much big furniture to move out.

Jonty was actually a really good help while we were there. He brushed cobwebs, helped mow the lawn cleaned windows, helped walk Coco one last time along the beach and swept some floors. He was very excited about his jobs and I kept chuckling at his enthusiasm.

Jonty grabbed my camera on the last morning and I couldn't help but laugh at the random photos he took.

This was me getting VERY frustrated with myself at trying to untangle the ropes and then have a go at tying everything down. I really should have googled how to tie truckie knots. In the end I took a pic of the trailer all loaded up and sent it to Simon and he tried to tell me the best way to tie it all down. With the heat quickly reaching 36 degrees that day, I kept teasing Mum that she picked the hottest week of the year to move.

We took a few last photos of Collette's house before we headed off.

Mum followed closely behind me incase anything fell off but my rope ties held and we surprisingly made it back to Westbury without incident. 

We stopped at Lilydale on the way for something to eat and an ice-cream. The temp was sitting on 36 degrees so we definitely enjoyed the break. Even though we had a few days of hard yakka, I really enjoyed spending the time with Mum, one last time at Bridport.