Camping

Last weekend, Cam and I chucked a few* things in the car and headed off for a weekend getaway with the kids. We camped at one of the few dog friendly areas in Victoria, and aside from the gale force winds, inflatable mattress deflating every 15 minutes throughout the night (until my dearly beloved discovered he hadn't tightened the valve properly at around 5am...) so we slept on the rather hard ground, and me worrying about Phoenix's bladder**, we had a pretty good time. I wont bring into the near war that occurred when Cameron and I both had our ideas about how a tent should be erected - things were said, punches were thrown*** - but we got there in the end.
The dogs were scarily well behaved. Not only did they get to spend every waking moment by our side; they also got to frolic and run in and out of the surf (or, in Phoenix's case, get completely smashed by wave after wave after wave...), but they also got various bits of sausage, bacon and hash browns from our breakfast feast.
On the way home, we went a little out of our way to visit the 7 and a half 12 Apostles. As pretty as they were, there's only so much excitement one can glean from staring at rock formations, so I was soon in a world of my own imaging galloping Darcy up and down that gorgeous stretch of sand...
See? Off in fairy land.
*How we managed to shove not only the 2 dogs - who, as you can see, aren't exactly lap-size- but the 8 man tent, queen sized inflatable mattress, Esky and various bags of food, a gas cooker, lantern, bellows, large cardboard box full of saucepans (and 4 bottles of bug spray - I came prepared!) plus our king sized doona, two pillows, a slab of Johnnie Walker and Cameron and myself into my car is beyond me. Beyond me.

** The dog wont wee on lead. Let alone do anything else. After boiling up 3 litres of water for them, and all the sea he swallowed as he crashed through the waves, I was so worried the poor childs bladder would burst I got up at what seemed like every hour, on the hour, to take him out for a potty break. To absolutely no avail.

*** I kid, I kid.