Weekend away starts

Friday 14th: Asher got picked up by her teacher aide before 9 so that we could get an early start to our weekend away.
We stopped in at a shopping centre on our way as we needed to get a few pairs of summer shoes. You can see Hannah in her boots, and Hezekiah's jandals are just a pain (he can't run with them on) so we needed to look for summer shoes for the two of them and I needed some jandals too.
Typical rural kids, they wanted to go on the escalator - just for the fun of it.

It was nice to not have any set plans for the day but to just take it easy and enjoy what we could on the trip. We had planned our food for the weekend and it included Pizza for Sunday lunch. So we travelled through Timaru so that we could get pizzas at Pizza Hut. It was nice to have them all ready made so we just need to reheat on Sunday.
Obviously it was a great opportunity to enjoy the beach while we were there. Anastasia's first time on sand. We remember Ruth's first time and she just hated it. So it was fun to see Anastasia not worried at all. We had to tell her a few times to not eat it, and then she just had loads of fun.
BELOW: A friend of Rachel's who lives in Timaru came down to the beach while we were there so that they could catch up.
I love this photo. The two dots close to the Frisbee are Hannah and Hezekiah.

What a beautiful afternoon for it too. I always love the dark blue sky in sea photos.
I'm so thankful for this time away.

It felt very strange to go away as a family and not have Asher with. The reality though is that we just don't go away with her as it's too hard (and tiring). So we were very thankful to be able to have a restful weekend away. And she had a great time with her teacher aide - in a familiar environment with all her familiar things.

The water was surprisingly warm so Hezekiah really enjoyed it.


BELOW: Ruth seeing how far she could go out.

Happily full of sand.
This is the only part I really don't like about the beach. Sand stuck between your toes and it just seems to get everywhere.
Then we headed over to the park for a bit. That helped get most of the sand off everyone's feet. :-)

Hezekiah did manage to get quite high on this too. I just had to pick photos otherwise there would be dozens more on this post.

Something different. Brendon gave them a few fun pushes to make it even more enjoyable.

We got to the house a bit later than planned but it was still light and we quickly got everyone's beds made and bags unpacked.
Anastasia just loved visiting the baby in the oven. :-)


Rachel and Ruth found an amazing chess set, with Lord of the Rings theme. I forgot to take a photo so will have to get one the next time they play.


BELOW: A game of Cluedo happened this evening too. So nice to just sit and relax and enjoy being together.