From baby shower to baby {Toby's blessing day}

{Toby's blessing day - 4th August 2013}

Back on the 25th of May, Mum, Lisa, Jess and I hosted a northern baby shower for Collette at Lisa's house. It was a beautiful late Autumn day and we had a heap of fun.

Mum running the Price is Right game.

For one of the games, we got Hayden to supply some urine sample containers (clean of course) and I filled them with  6 different yellow liquids and they had to guess what was in each container.

It was SO funny watching everybody study thee urine specimen containers.

It's a tradition at a party for Collette to have pass the parcel and this time we added in a twist. Once the music stopped (Jayme compiled a list of music for the game, from the year Collette was born - 1983), there was a little treat but also a question which had to be answered by Collette. It was all about pregnancy and labour and if she got it wrong, she had to eat a piece of bubble gum and keep adding a piece to her mouth if she got another one wrong. She was pretty good though and only ended up with six pieces in her mouth at once.

Wer had some great food.

Jess drinking some of her amazing yummy drink that she made.

Little thankyou gifts for the guests.

Them just six short weeks later fast forward to this weekend and we find ourselves heading off to Hobart for a baby blessing. And in between of course, meeting Toby Robert Bell who was born on the 2nd of July.

Simon couldn't come as he had search and rescue training which tied him up for three days over the weekend of Toby's blessing.

He was able to take some awesome pics from his three days in the snow though, so I got to see a little bit of the kind of conditions he was training in. There were about 20 police search and rescue and roughly 40 SES volunteers doing the training.

 the packs on their backs weigh about 20 kilos.

This pic looks so amazing. It looks like a big hole in the side of the mountain.

snow shoes and snow poles.

Simon thought it was cool to find a place called Flynn's Tarn.

So while Simon was out in rain and snow blowing sideways, Mum and the kids and I headed down to Hobart Saturday afternoon, ready for Toby's blessing yesterday.

We stayed next door to the Wheelers at the Treasure Island caravan park and stopped there first to dump off our gear before heading to the Bell's house, It felt even too cold to get out of the car. We had to drive quite slowly most of the 2.5 hrs, coming down as the rain was hitting the windscreen so hard but at least everybody else was driving slowly and carefully too.

At the Bell's we caught up with everyone. Jess, Kyle and Bastian had flown in from Melbourne and it was a perfect opportunity to take a photo of Mum with all ten grandkids together.

It was just kinda hard to get them all looking at the same time.

 Later that night back at the caravan park, Mum and I couldn't help but laugh because we used to stay at this caravan park 25 years a go and nothing seemed to have changed since then. There was no heating except a tiny little fan heater but the lady brought us in another one, after Mum asked her if that was the only heating we had. The kids slept altogether in a triple bunk, which they thought was a real novelty.

One good thing was the view from our cabin as the sun came up the next morning.

After Toby's blessing yesterday, we had a whole heap of photos with all the family.

Andrews

Hayden's family.

The menfolk that helped bless Toby.

4 generations

Wheelers

a little biut windy. ;)

After Toby's blessing we headed to Hayden's parents place and Hallie got to ride there on the back of Hayden's motorbike. She was grinning from ear to ear and LOVED every minute of it.

It was lovely spending some time at the Bell's chatting with Hayden's family and enjoying cuddles with Toby.

I love this photo I got when Hayden's sister Alice, was making Toby smile at her. What a cutie!!

All in a day's work...

When I hear or see some of what Simon's day has been like at work, I feel the familiar shudder of worry settle in my heart. Worrying about him whenever he puts on the uniform or goes off to search and rescue someone is so familiar to me, that it's like an old friend - except it's not a friend at all. And that's just about the stuff he does tell me. 

There is so much more that Simon doesn't tell me because it's either not right (out of respect for the persons involved), not professional to discuss it, or can't/won't for reasons of confidentiality or because going into every single bit of detail, especially if it involves car accidents, would freak me out.

But he sees things, smells things, hears things, touches things that many of us just can't comprehend.

Simon has gone away today for a three day winter search and rescue training where he will sleep outside in the snow. I couldn't think of anything worse... brrr! The sad part is it's his birthday tomorrow so he will be spending it training in freezing weather for a day where he can use his training to make sure other people enjoy plenty more of their birthdays. :)

burst water main

going up in the police helicopter.

this photo speaks for itself.

Simon is going to be on the television show, Outback Coroner later in the year, and here they are filming him and a few others in relation to a missing person, that Simon found deceased a few days after they went missing.

rope work - Simon is one of the more skilled and experienced rope workers, having been in Search and Rescue for a number of years now.

This is what Simon loves the best about his job, not having to deal with the day to day stuff on the frontline, but out there in nature, in Tasmania's beautiful wilderness. I would like it too - just not halfway up a REALLY tall tree.

A group of bushwalkers stuck on one side of the Meander River.

People are more than willing to bag out the police and I see it in the media alot where police around the country are criticised over questionable behaviour that in my opinion is sometimes warranted and sometimes not.

But I wonder what they would say if it was their family member that these officers were risking their own lives for, to bring safely home to them.

the raging Meander River

As the rain comes pouring down on this wintry cold and windy Friday, I salute my husband and all the other men and women out there this weekend, up in the snow and rain and wind, training and sacrificing the comforts of warmth, family and a birthday cake, in order to time and time again, save  a complete stranger's life.... before their own...

... they are the real heroes to me.