We’re off!!!

On the day we left it rained like crazy.  We had a toddler still in his pj’s because he’d been sick with a fever the night before.  Our car went in for some last-minute maintenance. (Air-conditioning, might need it this summer!)  I don’t think we left until 5pm, but we made it!  We are finally on the road! 

That first night we travelled less than an hour to Dargile Camping Area, a free camp near Heathcote.  We just wanted to get closer to Melbourne since we had to take the caravan in for maintenance the next day.  There were just two other caravans there, it’s a quiet spot in the bush and because of the weather felt more like a lovely autumn night than the steamy days we’d been having in Bendigo.  We spent just one night there and spent the next day getting the water pump in the caravan replaced.  Unfortunately they were unable to fix a problem with the heating so we’ll be heading in for another fun day of van maintenance next month.

I snapped a quick pic of the kids as we left, Turbobug fell asleep almost immediately and I didn’t quite get all of Ladybug in there, but you can still see her smile (and what’s left of the huge scratch on her cheek from her dive into Bendigo Creek).

Those are some excited kids, happy to finally be starting on our big adventure!

(For the record, we left Bendigo on 24 November, 2014!)

Moving. Again.

For the kids, moving out of our house is a mostly an adventure.  Packing up our stuff, playing in the truck, seeing the rooms empty.

There’s a lot of talk amongst the kids about when we live in a house again.  Can we move back into this house?  [Heavens, no!] Can we each have our own bedroom? [Um, a five bedroom house?  Probably not.]  Will we be able to paint the walls?  [I sure hope so, but anything will be better than the wallpaper in this house!]

We’ve been in a rental house, which made the process of leaving a little easier since we didn’t have to decide whether to sell or rent our property while we are gone.  But the process of moving into our caravan has still been hard.  A lot of sorting, packing, moving, and saying good-bye.  By the end we were exhausted and emotionally spent. 

And yet the kids seem mostly unaffected.  As long as we’re together, as long as they are fed and have a place to sleep, they’re good.

All good.

Best drawings ever!

A few weeks before we moved out of our house, Jitterbug (7) created these pictures.  I just love them.  The airplane below represents the first part of our journey, our trip to America.  All of us are in the plane, plus a pilot.  See that red one with the smile on his face?  That’s Jitterbug.  :)

 

This drawing is the next part of our journey.  Our car towing a caravan.  Our car is a gold-ish colour, and our caravan is white.  I love this one.

The kids are so excited about our year to come.  They started packing for the trip the day after we told them about it.   So many adventures in store for them.