Holiday!

  We organised a couple of months ago to go and visit Mum and Dad at the pink house with the African family during the school holidays.
  Well, we are now back from that. I am happy to be home!!
  The ride up was pretty uneventful. Martha has a current suspension on her license that prevents her from driving more than 10 k's from her house, so I was driving her car, and Michael was following me in ours. Other than that, it was a smooth uneventful trip with maybe two extra toilet stops than normal.
  We actually managed to leave about 10 am, VERY unusual for Michael and myself, but usually the children would go to 'ninja school' in the morning and we would leave after lunch. Tis time we decided to give the class a miss, an the African children did not go, and we didn't think it would be fair.
  Upon arrival we went to the pink house first to announce our arrival and make introductions. Mum and Dad had a little trouble wrapping their tongues around Tomuto and Chollil's names, but all in all, no complaints there. Everyone behaved very nicely. We got there about 1:30 or so (I think) and had lunch before we rove back up to 7 Smith, where we were staying.
  I was very thankful, when we got out of the cars, to see my brother Adon had done an excellent job of filling in the hole that he had made earlier in the season to fix the gray water pipe that was buried in that spot. He had been unable to finish the job as it decided to rain and the five foot deep hole had filled with water. I was a bit worried about this, as you can imagine, but he is a sterling bloke, and my mind was instantly at ease when I saw the smooth turf :)
  The children all went outside the explore the 3/4 of an acre that was to be their new home for the next three nights, and Michael, Martha and I all set to work emptying the cars and settling in. Of course, while we were thus occupied the children found the two spots that they could get dirty in and played in them!!! Grr grr grrrrrr! There was the spot on which the chook house used to stand, which has soft dirt, an the pond out the front, that has about a foot of water in it. Let it be said the children had been previously warned about these spots and told to keep out of them and were given the warning of what would happen if they disobeyed. So annoyed were we upon discovery that there was COLD showers all round. The children were very happy to get warm clothes on and they stayed away from the mud for the rest of the day.
  That night we all congregated at the pink house fort dinner except for Martha who wanted to have a rest, (she has a very bad back and is nearly constant pain) and she kept Bubba with her.
   I had the children all ride their bikes down the road to the pink house and I walked along behind. Hadassah stayed with me as she was still learning to control her bike. I really wanted all the children to sleep tonight, and you know that a day spent in a car only wears out the adults, not the children!
  We had a lovely dinner of shepherds pie with my family, and the chocolate babies pronounced it delicious! And then afterwards we drove back, leaving the bikes there.
  Everyone slept well that night. Martha and I had gathered three spare mattresses together and put them all on the floor of the second smallest bedroom, along with a heater, and they were all piling in there, as they felt the cold more than us. My family simply had extra blankets, but we were warm as toast.
  The next morning our guests were introduced to a breakfast of crumpets, and this went down very well. Shortly afterwards Martha and I walked with the children to the other house and Michael drove our car with Eli, Phebe and Bubba.
  The morning was spent by the children getting to know each other. Tomuto and Zibbiah seemed to hit it off straight away, which Hadassah was a little put out about, but she got aver it quick because she still had her Aunty Zi and Aunty Hannah to play with. Martha spent most of the time dozing in the sun. It was good to see.
  After lunch Tim, Mum and I organized to drive down to the beach with most of us. Those who stayed were Michael with Eli, Martha with Bubba, and Dad. The rest of us squeezed into two cars.
  The road was dirt, and VERY bumpy. On the way there I spent most of the time hunched over the steering wheel and squeaking a lot, but we made it there in one piece.
  No one was allowed in the water as it was a treacherous stretch of water, and riddled with rips, with the beach itself was nice, and Mum and I watched as the children built sand castles, hunted shells, and buried each other. The chocolate babies had not been to the beach before so they were happy as pigs in mud.
  As we were heading back to the car several children were overlooked, and Mum and I hurried back to the beach to find them. It turned out Hannah had lost a shoe, and was frantically looking for it, and Zi, Phebe and Chollil stayed with her.
  She never found her shoe, and was most upset about it, but we were just happy to find them safe and sound!
  The ride home was hairy as the sun was directly on my windshield and it was dusty. I could hardly see! Unfortunately I missed the biggest bumps and the car threw itself over them, bumping us all ferociously.
  I asked Mum if she would drop all ours that were in her car at 7 Smith for showers, and she was fine with that. Zibbiah asked to stop off too, because she wanted to walk back with us. So we rushed through showers to remove the sand, and then I walked back with them, leaving the car behind.
Half way there we met Michael, walking the other way, and looking like a thunder cloud, because I wasn't driving the car down and so we had no vehicle to come home in after dinner. Fortunately he didn't stay any longer than it took to share his consternation with me, and then we went our separate directions, but I was glad he was going back to get the car, as I was wondering how we were going to work that detail out. I was thinking I would have to go back myself to get it, but it worked out better than that.
  That night we had dinner with Mum again, and the chocolate babies discovered the joy of potato mash.
   The next day I wanted to give Mum and that a break, so after a breakfast of bacon and eggs Michael stayed with he children while Martha, Bubba, Eli and I ducked into town to buy some much needed supplies. We tried to hurry, but it still took us most of the morning, as the nearest town is over 20 minutes away.
  When we got home, Michael was spitting chips as the children were arcing up. We (Martha and I) had hoped that Tomuto, being 13, would have helped Michael a little, but she was not behaving herself either. Never mind. I calmed Michael down, and we all trotted down to the pink house again after Martha and I had some lunch. Michael stayed behind to have a rest. The plan was to come back to the house for dinner, not stay with Mum and Dad this time.
  That afternoon I and my siblings took my children and the chocolate babies on a bush walk.
  I knew that the younger ones wouldn't make it far, so 20 minutes into the bushwalk I called Hadassah, Monday, Hannah, Phebe and Eli to me to walk back, and Adon, Tamar, Billy, Zibbiah, Tomuto, Zi, Chollil and Malachi all went on.
  It took as a little while longer to get home because they WERE tired, but we made it in the end.
  I stayed only long enough to drink a cup of coffee, and then, as it was  nearly 6pm, Martha and I decided to gather what children we had and walk back. Mum agreed to drive the rest of them up to the house when they got home.
  It turned out Mum didn't have to, though, as we met them walking back, so we just separated our lot from theres, and we all walked the rest of the way home, in what was now the DARK!!
  Fortunately Michael had started dinner, 'cause we were both blurry eyed tired!! Everyone was in bed asleep in a couple of hours.
  Our last morning there the chocolate babies shared porridge with us, and this didn't go down very well, so they were told to eat up or go hungry.
   Martha quickly packed her car and then took everyone but Eli down to the ink house in her car, leaving Michael and I (and Eli) to finish packing and cleaning the house and tidying the yard before we went home.
  While we were working Michael told me Adon had discovered our car had formed a crack in the radiator hose, so the trip home was going to be slow. Sigh.
  We had the job finished by lunch, and were at the pink house eating by 1pm. We managed to say our good bye's and be on the road by 2pm. Chollil was in our car, and beside him were two new pets! My family had given him two guinea pigs, and he was tickled with them :)
  The car over heated three times on the way home, despite us stopping at every town to refill it with water. Once it turned itself off half way up a hill!!    
   Fortunately there was a rest stop not far away, so I jumped out of Martha's car and Martha took my place, and Michael and I pushed our loaded stationwagon the last couple  of meters to this rest stop so we could get both cars off the highway! It was a good fifteen minutes before the car cooled off enough to unlock itself! I was SO glad the children behaved themselves!!
  It was ten past six by the time we got to Martha's house, and I had agreed to stay at her house long enough to help her unpack the car and get dinner on, then she would drive me home. Michael went on to our place ahead of me to start getting everything sorted for bed.
  It wasn't as simple as that.
  About 5 minutes after we arrived, as Martha ans I were in the process of getting everything out of the car and dinner on, we noticed the house was verry quiet.
  Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that Tomuto, Chollil and Monday were not to be found. It was 7pm, and Martha and I were deathly tired, and the children had disappeared.
  After a frantic search it was discovered that they had dashed up the road to get their rabbit, without telling either Martha or myself where they were going. The Dad of the family brought them back. He could see Martha and I had both been scared to death, and spent a good couple of minutes trying to talk Martha calm, but as soon as he left, she told them all off BIG time! She never laid a finger on them, but when she was done telling them they were sent to their rooms.
  I finished dinner quietly and then told Martha I would walk home, as she was looking quite gray. She nodded, saying God would look after me.
  Took me all of about fifteen minutes to trot home in the dark streets. I was so tired I felt like I was floating though the cold air, and there were fireworks happening at the edges of my vision, but I made it home alright. God did indeed look after me.
  When I got home Michael and the children were blessedly calm, and so I helped finish emptying the car, helped finish dinner, helped get the dinner eaten, helped put the children to bed, then Michael packed me off to bed too.
  And that is the story of our holiday. Needless to say I completely forgot the camera!!