day trippin

As you guys may or may not know, blogger had a little meltdown last week and had to have a little lie down... but we are up and running today so rest time is OVER :)

Recently, our little gang went adventuring to Ellenborough Falls, about an hour ( or so) drive to the biggest free falling waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere.
It was rainy and chilly but oh so fun to be out and about and TOGETHER.
So often, we fly through our weekends, months, lives and we get caught up in just getting through it. The tricky baby years, the tanty toddler years, the school years... and all too soon they are gone. I am madly trying to hang on to my three so I dont have to deal with them getting older but do they listen?? Not so much.

So every now and then, I try and find somewhere or something new to try that creates new memories that will hopefully last a lifetime... and if not, I take a stack of photos so they cant forget ;)

Ellenborough Falls is just beautiful.

See 3/4's of the way down the falls you can see something red?? Its a jacket on a person!!

The falls themselves are pretty spectacular but walking through the rainforest in the rain with three happy rainbirds was just bliss. Until rain bird number 2 ( Jared) noticed the mud. And the fact that his shoes were sandals and his feet were getting dirty. Amahli at this point, watching Jareds disgust, refused to go any further without being carried.

And so we plunged on, hopeful to make it to the lookout about 20 minutes on the mud track. Jumeirah and I talked about the different shades of green, from moss green, to dark green, to new green to wet green (?), Amahli talked about smooth trees and rough trees and spiky trees, Jared was all about the "dangerous" mud ;)

I , the other hand, was in sheer photo clicky Heaven... madly snapping away at the incredible greens and probably stopping at every tree to look at the moss... we finally made it to the Falls lookout.

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It was truly a sight to see... but the rain was now getting harder and we had to start heading back... which was when my husband realised he had a leech on him.

OH CRAP. I HATE LEECHES.

Seriously, hate them. I take a hundred spiders over a leech. Oh it makes me shudder to even type this... He put the leech on the log ( he didnt get a chance to start his sucking on hubbins finger) and the kids thought it was hilarious to watch it dance, trying desperately to attach itself to his finger again... And now, I put the camera away and walked without trying to panic the kids, back to the car as fast as I could, whilst now carrying Amahli ( and the camera bag and camera) ( and also stopping to check every 5 seconds how many of the blood sucking monsters were on me... * shudder*)

We were half way back when Miss Eagle Eyes spots another leech. This one was huge and fat and as she said " Its pretty!" so I was made to take his photo before being allowed to move on.

Once back and the car, I tore my shoes off and jumped in the car ( yes I am sorry to say, I was first in the car. The kids werent really worried :) )
Amahli was next and came up clear ( little buggar was carried the whole way she pretty much had nil chance of copping a blood sucker). Jumeirah had a couple on her shoes but she had sneakers so they hadnt gotten in. Hubbin had another one but nothing to serious and I was clear too.
Jared, still happy to be out of the muddy area, was last to get in. I pulled his shoes off and.....

Little Bastard ( the leech, not my son)

I tried not to panic, the blood was oozing and this buggar was getting a lovely big feed. I calmly told Jared he had a leech and not to worry. His comment??

"I not worried, Mum. He's got a lovely happy bed there and hes so cute!"

Nup, hes not mine :) Although when I asked him if he wanted to go here again he said " No Mum, its too dangerous and the mud is terrible".

Finally, with some salt I somehow randomly packed ( ??) we got it off and began home. Halfway home, I took each kid to the toilet before they all fell asleep. Lifting up Jareds shirt, another great big fat leech falls off FROM INSIDE HIS BELLY BUTTON. Could be awhile before we trek there again :)

But aside the horrors of mud and leeches we had the best day.
I totally recommend pulling out a map, plotting a day visit and setting off with your own gang. The bonding and fun times last forever :)