Just back from . . .

Travelling is never dull and Cutie and Percy do their best to keep things entertaining. This time, on our two week working trip/holiday to Tasmania, they were in fine form. On our first day out, Percy decided to inspect a newly poured cup of tea at close range. Unfortunately, it was not a profitable experience for anyone, but an hour later, after sitting in cold water, a little codeine, and a big bandage, all was good. Now Cutie really thought this was a rather amazing event and for the rest of the holiday, she frequently recited something like this:
Mommy, Daddy make a mess, jammies off, medicine Percy, bandage Percy . . . well you get the drift.
All this now means that she has developed a passionate relationship with bandages and nothing will do but she bandage her owies, too. Fortunately, she doesn't want to bandage every imagined hurt - yet. Of course, unlike Percy, when Cutie wears a bandage it seems to immobilize the entire region. In fact, this morning, she immobilized her fingers after we trimmed her nails. She looked like a teenager letting her nail polish dry.

So that was a rather inauspicious beginning to our holiday, but it did get better from there. We stayed with friends on a dairy for the first week while Daddy worked. The dogs, the cats, the chooks, the cows were all entertainment to a little girl and boy. Cutie didn't understand why she couldn't "horsie" (her term for riding anything) the cow. That made them much less interesting. The chooks were always fun to chase. No wonder we only found two eggs while we were there. :) If the animals lost interest there was always a tractor to ride or bales of hay to climb on. Things went well and someone even told us that we were such organized parents. I suspect our incredulous looks and high fives were not quite the response expected.

After a week in rural Tasmania (oh, wait, isn't most of Tasmania rural), we spent some time travelling around the state. The kids enjoyed picking up shells on the beaches around Freycinet and playing in the sand. Cutie especially enjoyed the chocolate factory (with free tasting) on the Tasman peninsula. We all enjoyed the Port Arthur penal colony ruins - the kids because it was outside and the adults because it was really interesting. We took a small cruise around the river Derwent before heading back to Devonport to catch our ferry to Sydney. This may have been the highlight of the trip for little Cutie - until they blew the horns coming into port on Sunday morning. That noise, she could do without.

The morning after we got back, Cutie went to the Easter show with her grandparents and came back suitably exhausted. Percy had a nap-challenged day and both kids were in bed by 7 and asleep by 7:03. So, as Daddy says, "It's all good".