Love, life and a little bit of mess: Our First Family Holiday

Since Elizabeth was born almost everything we do is a first; first nappy change, first full night's sleep, first smile, first roll, etc. Every week something new is added to the ever growing list of firsts, this week was no exception.

We went on our first family holiday. On Friday we traveled to Albany on the South Coast of Western Australia. Despite the predictions of some hairy weather we had 4 days of relatively beautiful, warm and sunny days. Relative because it's not quite as warm as the tropics at this time of year, maximums of 20degrees aren't quite as nice as 27's, but hey it's Albany.

My (Ben) Parents have their birthdays within a week of each other in August (each year funnily enough) and so as a newly formed "Good Family" tradition we have made a habit of going away to celebrate. The first year we went to the old Donnelly River logging village, last year we went to Busselton and this year: Albany.

We had a great time down there. For Elizabeth there were many highlights including: A first time at the beach, and a first time hiking up a mountain. Her trip to the beach was, in our minds, a bit of a disaster waiting to happen.

Elizabeth hadn't been sleeping well the night before and we had been on the go since morning so she had no day sleeps, she was in her car seat for most of the morning as we traveled around and then to make matters worse she was stuck in her pram (very upset I might add) while we walked the 6km to the beach at Emu Point. And so you can imagine that she would possibly not take too well to being thrown in the icy cold Albany water...

But guess what? She loved it, she wiggled her feet into the sand, got her clothes wet like all good children do, laughed and smiled non stop as she experienced this wonderful sensation of beach sand and ocean water. It was a great privilege as her dad to share this experience with her. Hopefully there will be many more to come.

Elizabeth also had her first mountain climb too! On our way home we went via the Porongorup Range about 40km from Albany and 50km from the Stirling Ranges. The hike we did was to Castle Rock, a hike I had done when I was at college in 2004. I was pretty certain that when I did it the first time we parked the car directly below the rock formations at the top of the hill. Maybe they moved the rocks or maybe my memory is faulty but there was no car park directly below the outcrop on top of the hill. The car park was at the bottom of the hill and we had to walk 1.5km on a category 5 trail (1 being a stroll in the park, 6 being a vertical rock climb) to the top.

It was a tough climb and the fact that we had been eating holiday food (AKA take-away and restaurant food) for the whole weekend wasn't really helping the situation. But the climb was definitely worth it, Elizabeth loved every minute of the trip up. And to say the view from the top was spectacular is an understatement. We would highly recommend the hike to anyone. As for the way down, it was much the same as going up except the strain, instead of being on the cardio-vascular system, was now on the leg muscles. Elizabeth enjoyed the first meter of the hike back down then spent the rest of the hike in a deep deep sleep. I think the toll of the holiday had finally caught up with her, she was so zonked out.

It's good to go away for a holiday but it is also good to be back home in your own bed and that is exactly where our beautiful daughter is, fast asleep and probably dreaming about her next holiday. Sweet Dreams!