Lorella Springs Trip

We did this trip from June 29th to July 11th 2013 - just a placeholder - will add more info and photos.

Pauls goes sailing to Dundee for an overnighter

Paul went with John and Sandy and their family (John is a work colleague) to Dundee for the night.

John wanted to give the boat a run as he is planning to do the Darwin to Ambon in August.

It was Paul's first real trip in a sailboat and it was fantastic to cruise along just using windpower.

We went into the Lodge of Dundee for dinner and then back out to "Sirocco" to sleep very comfortably for the night - albeit in a wet and rough trip back out in the little zodiac tender.

Was a little bit rocky at night initially, even in a 60' cataraman, but was good cool sleeping weather and the wind eased later in the night.  We motored most of the way home as the lighter wind on the sunday was pretty much on the nose.

John and his son Paul with me up the front of the little tender heading into the lodge

Sanra, John and their other son Stephen.



Overnighter at Douglas with some of Pauls work colleagues

Paul had booked a trip to Douglas Hot Springs with a few work colleagues a few weeks ago to show them the place as they had never been there - well one had been there years ago.

 

Just went for the one night but had a good time and some more practice with the camper trailer.  We took the scenic route home and the others enjoyed the view at the top of the Telstra Tower hill near Robin Falls.

 

Was good sleeping weather without being very cold - although it was cold enough for some nice steam early Sunday morning when we all went down for a swim around sunrise.

 



Monica "hops" into a new job

Monica started her new job today where she works for a WA government program with troubled youth in Wydham.  She's always been interested in following her mum in this kind of work so this is hopefully a great foot in the door.

She was working for Toby's family business helping out in the office which is in the same building as her new office.

Unfortunately she hurt her knee quite badly in netball the week before and is on crutches at the moment.

Testing the camper at Douglas

We spent the long weekend at Douglas Hot Springs and used our new old camper trailer for the first time. It went well although we're still learning how to set it up etc.

The weather was a bit hot during the day but cool enough for sleeping at night.  Water was nice and there wasn't too many others there.  A few of the family went including Rob/Jessie, Tim/Tania, Baggsy, Kevin/Jo etc.

Uncle Wilson's funeral

Today we joined family and friends in Maryborough to celebrate the life of Wilson Thomsen.

 

It was a big turnout and Uncle Wilson was obviously very respected and loved in his community.  The service was really beautiful.

It was great too to catch up with cousins Paul , Craig and Peter hadn't seen for ages or in some cases ever met (eg some of Aunty Hazel's children) - they would've loved to see more of them.  It was really good to see Uncle "Nookie" also who is in poor health.  Uncle Nookie is Uncle Gilbert's older brother and son of Sophus (Dick).

Was really awesome to have Craig with us as he hadn't caught up with the QLD relatives for many years and was able to spend some time at Traveller's Rest etc.  Peter had to go back on the Tuesday but Paul, Gwenny and Craig stayed until the Wednesday.

Rosanna and Shannon's wedding

 

The big day has arrived!

 

 

Well was a beautiful day - even if it didn't go quite to plan!    The plan was to have the ceremony on the beach but a very rainy day made that out of the question - fortunately as you can see we were able to get a few photos later at the spot.

So the ceremony was held inside where the reception was held later (this was always the backup plan) and it was a lovely intimate occasion.  Family and friends were wonderfully helpful and it was great to share the occasion with them.  A special thanks to the likes of Jessie (doing photography), Ree-Ann (make-up etc) and Nadine (general organising and support) who all worked very hard!  There were of course many others who helped out a lot and we are just very thankful to those who made the trip to celebrate the big day with us.

Shannon and Rosanna Beath left early the next morning to their honeymoon in Thailand.  They'll be passing by Darwin on the way back home in a couple of weeks where we'll have a bit of a get together for those who couldn't make it down to the wedding.