A drive up to Central Coast

Before Justin was born, Row and I use to make a concerted effort to go to church but since his birth, we haven't stepped inside of a church bar his baptism and a wedding. Since moving into our apartment and having discovered a Catholic church 3 blocks away, we've been saying we will go back to church and it hasn't happened. But one of our new housemates is also Catholic and regularly goes to church so yesterday we decided to make an effort. In preparation for the hour long mass, I packed a bottle of water, a tupperware filled with grapes, crackers, a toy car and a toy fish to amuse Justin. We were pleasantly surprised; Justin was quite well behaved during the mass until it was time for communion. He saw everybody going up and decided he also wanted to stretch his legs so it was up to dad to take him out for the last 5 minutes.

After mass we took a drive out to the Central Coast to visit Row's cousin, Diona, and her family who recently moved back from Brisbane. Umina (pronounced Oo-mine-ah) is 88kms out of Sydney and we had trouble just getting out of North Sydney so it was a longer drive than expected but thankfully Justin slept for part of the drive. It also helped that it was a very scenic drive so we could appreciate the beauty of Australia. When Justin woke up I had to sing "The wheels on the bus", "Round and round the garden" and "This little piggy"; I was pointing out the water, the trees, the big yellow dinosaur, the speed boat....you get the picture. Eventually we arrived at our destination and from the minute we stepped into Diona's house, Justin made himself right at home. Diona and her husband, Ben, have 3 kids, a 6yo (Matthew), a 3yo (Nicholas) and a 2yo (Catherine) and they had a pool, a trampoline and so many toys. Justin's head was spinning round as he looked around trying to decide what he should play with first. After a delicious lunch, we took the kids to the beach and they went wild. Justin had so much fun because it was low tide so no pesky waves to worry about. He was running up and down the beach, jumping in a puddle of water, helping the boys dig their trench and rolling about in the sand. He had so much fun and when we got back to the Diona and Ben's house, Justin had a bath as there was sand everywhere and then he joined us for dessert before we headed back home. Needless to say, Justin fell asleep in the car but by the time we reached home, he had his second wind which didn't last long and soon it was tantrum-throwing time. Poor guy had such an exciting day that it took him much longer to settle and fall asleep. 

Seeing Justin running around the beach without us having to worry too much about him made us remember why we made the sacrifice of leaving family and friends in South Africa and realising that it is worth it. 

Lunch time

Playing in the puddle of water and having a ball

Playing in the sand is good fun!