A quick trip home

We ducked home for a quick trip to see our eldest daughter move off to Canada for a year or two. Benita was so busy with lots of last minute stuff and seeing her friends just one more time, that we hardly got to spend much time with her and before you know it is the last night and away she went. A few email reports and she reports everything is great on the other side of the world and she adores her little charges. She will be a nanny to 2 young kids mostly after school care and a couple of younger kids during school time for another family twice a week. She will also be doing some work for her new local church involving children’s ministry. So she is certainly off and running.

Oma & Opa De Rooy

We also made some time to attend Bob’s family reunion, which is the first one for a decade or so. Even though the weather was damp, it didn’t dampen our enthusiasm and a good number of cousins & aunts rolled up along with a spattering of younger kids and grandkids. There were some gaps especially in the teenage and young adult ages, which was a pity, but maybe we can encourage them more the next time. The larger a group, the more unlikely you are to get everyone along to any type of gathering. I hope this is something we can do a get together annually or bi-annually if at all possible. I think everyone who attended agreed that it was good to have this time to see everyone else. The cousins who put it all together had a display board made up with photos of Opa & Oma De Rooy and some relatives. They hired a big covered picnic area with an adjacent BBQ which was put to good use. There was also a mobile coffee truck which our people certainly took advantage of, with the majority of us being avid coffee drinkers and the cooler weather certainly was conducive to having a hot drink or two.

The De Rooy cousins & the aunties

Being back home also meant catching up with our youngest son who has been minding the house whilst we are doing the grey nomad thing and road tripping around sunny Queensland. He had quite a good job of keeping it all going.

I guess I must be a fusspot as I still felt the need to do lots around the place especially in the garden, which admittedly Dean has never been keen on. He'll do the lawn mowing and whipper snipping but that's it! In between weeding the garden, washing every towel in the house, making breakfasts, lunches & dinners, and some miscellaneous running around that was needed, we still made time to visit some friends though not as many as we had hoped. Still it is only another 6-8 weeks are we will be home well in time for Christmas and all that entails.