For the fourth year in a row I set off north-west to Louth for a weekend of Scrapping, this time with a special guest.. Caleb! As I'm still feeding him he wasn't an optional extra, just a requirement!
We stayed at Trilby, which is fantastic and highly recommended for an outback getaway. If I could figure out how to link the words to show you I would - oh, hang on, it's not that hard after all so I have done it!! (I'm cleverer then I think sometimes!). Gabie does a fantastic job at organising and I take along my little shop so there are some goodies available.
Once again it was a memorable weekend. Always an adventure, we had every type of weather possible other then snow, and all types of bugs dropped in for a visit. Thursday it was warm but quite nice, Friday was very hot and Caleb who has been wrapped warmly since his birth in May suddenly found himself in a short-sleeve-no-legs all-in-one as it was so hot. Saturday we had a dust storm, followed by a massive but fairly short-lived thunderstorm with rain, and hail, in the evening. The first year we went to Louth we had to drive back home through thick yucky mud on the dirt roads, so I was getting a bit anxious about the drive home on Sunday, by myself (Caleb isn't much good if you get bogged), with no phone as Paul's doesn't work from Louth to Cobar, even though Telstra swear Next G is better then the CDMA system, it's NOT TRUE, Paul's phone worked there before they changed. I digress.
Where was I, oh yes the weather (I must have a pretty lame life if I'm talking about the weather on my blog). Anyway, come Sunday morning at 6:30am we awoke to overcast and more rain seemed to be coming in so all us Cobar girls just left. You've would never have seen anyone pack up as quick as we did! And despite all that the rain didn't last long and there wasn't a drop on the Cobar road, it was just the first section of the trip. Typical!
Despite all the fun weather stuff we did have a great weekend including a cool 'pink' themed dinner on Saturday night and a 'pamper' session. There was heaps of scrapping done despite the interesting conditions and I reckon Jillian gets 'die-hard scrapper of the year' award. Besides having a baby and running the shop I managed to get a few layouts done, see some of them below. And yes, Caleb was very well behaved for a 3.5 month old but I think he found scrapping very tiring as he conked out when we got home and slept for ages.
Next year will be the fifth annual Louth Scrapbooking Retreat. The dates will be Thursday 10th September to Sunday 13th, 2009. If you want a memorable experience come along for the weekend - you've never truly lived until you've been to the Louth Retreat and experienced the flies, the bugs, the heat, and been able to write your name in the dust coating your layout. Keep watching this space for further information.
The boys had a great time examining him/her (how do you tell??!!). They decided to call him Uncle Andrew - don't ask, I have no idea why although they did suggest that name for Caleb when he was born). They made a little house for him next to a puddle which he seemed quite happy in, though he did try to escape a couple of times (I'd be a bit worried with three little boys staring at me, wouldn't you??!!). He ended up disappearing into the bush at some stage when the boys weren't looking - they can actually crawl pretty fast. The boys followed his 'tracks' for a while but couldn't find him. We aren't too worried about him though as we have found a turtle on our place before and the neighbours have a ground tank that he'll probably make his way to. The boys were a bit disappointed in losing their 'pet' but I'm sure he's better off wherever he is!
