Bushwalks with grandpa

Although my parents live only 5 miles from the coast they live in an area that is surrounded by miles and miles of bushland - the 'bush' as we call it in Australia. I can remember going on bush walks in the area with my dad as a kid, and after me my nephew Corey used to go regularly with my dad. Now it is Luca's turn and he loves it. He is forever telling me about going on bush walks with Granpa and seeing animals and aboriginal carvings in the caves up there, throwing rocks at a rusty old car that was abandoned years ago, all this like he is the first person in the world to see this stuff.

Luca has been begging me to go on a bush walk with Grandpa and him so he can show me all of this, so last weekend while Kelly and Scout were at a birthday party Luca and I collected my dad and we went on our bush walk. First stop was under the tree where Luca hides all of the special 'walking' sticks he finds in the bush - I was privileged to be allowed to use his favourite stick. Then we were off throwing rocks at the wrecks and trees I used to throw them at, there are a million other memories up there for me as well.

Luca had a ball, he was our 'leader' and he didn't stop talking the entire time, telling me about different paths he has been down, caves he has been in, where he saw snakes, pointing out where kids had made fires and telling me the animals the aborioginal carving represent. We saw an eight foot long diamond python and a five foot water monitor on this walk - allways adds some excitement! A great few hours hanging out with Luca and my dad and we even managed to bring home a bunch of wild flowers for Kelly and Scout.

diamond python

water monitor on the walking trail

Khao Lak - Thailand

We had such a good time last year that we returned to the Le Meridien in Khao Lak, Thailand,  for another 10 days this year. Because everything was such a known it was really easy to organise.

Luca and Scout are getting better with the travel and Kelly is super organised:- new sticker books, movies loaded on the iPads and lots of snacks the kids love - still 9 hours on the plane with next to no sleep still takes plenty of creative entertaining to avoid a meltdown.

We arrived in Phuket later at night this year, so what was close to a 2 hour drive last year to get to Khao Lak was exactly an hour this year. We had Popa and Nana waiting at the resort this year so the kids were more excited rather than tired when we arrived. 

With a three hour time difference compared with Sydney we were all up early the next day and I was barely able to contain myself knowing the buffet breakfast was waiting - it didn't disappoint! I didn't eat lunch a single day we were there after big, big breakfasts.

A new addition this year at the resort was the baby elephant. The elephant came out around breakfast time and then again in the afternoon when the kids could feed it. Luca and Scout didn't get sick of going to see the elephant and it was slightly surreal lying half asleep on a sun lounge by the beach and the next thing you have an elephant standing next to you.

Although the weather was a little more unpredictable than last year and we had a couple of rainy days we still managed to get into the pool everyday and for most days we spent six hours splashing about which was exactly the plan for holiday.

Kelly and I also logged plenty of hours chilling in the kids club while the kids did different art projects, watched movies or played with the other kids. Luca was able to fit in a couple more Muay Thai kickboxing lessons and had a 'bout' against the instructor on the last day - he loves it and was happy to practice on me whenever he got the chance.

We tried a number of new restaurants around the Khao Lak area this year and without exception the food was unbelievable. A highlight for me was a restaurant called Chong Fah which was right on the water near the main town. The afternoon had been rainy but cleared in time for dinner, because it was monsoon season there aren't too many tourists so we had the place to ourselves, we got a beautiful sunset with lots of pictures and a great dinner.

 In all a very cruisy but very fun holiday with tons of time spent together as a family - it was awesome.