in with the cows.

1. Looking down from the road to our campsite. It looks really crowded, but it wasn't. Everyone tended to set up camp by the river, but we set up camp a bit up stream. It was lovely.

2. N's camp, right next to ours. I rather liked it. A swag under a tarp, stretched over a frame on the back of his ute. N also had a bar that hooked onto the tray of his ute, providing a shelf. Simple, and so effective.

3. M and Willow setting up our tent. Note the cows in the back ground. On the surface it sounds like trouble- a field full of campers, their dogs, children and cows, but in reality it was really nice. Everyone really enjoyed watching the cows getting herded by the working dogs at the end of the day, and Willow wanted to pat the cows. 

4. Hills.

5. Cow. One morning one stood really near our tent and kept mooing at M as he cooked breakfast. (Perhaps making sure it wasn't a friend M was cooking up?) Willow kept asking what that noise was, and insisted it couldn't be a cow because cows go moo, and this sound? It was more like a mmm-nnnnnergh-oh.

6. Willow and Josh. Willow and Josh became very good friends. Also, that's an old fire pit. They got very grubby.

7. Down by the riverside.

8. "Hey, do you want to come into my tent? I have lots of toys to play with!" Willow asked, while we cracked up at their faux romance. They also (very briefly) went AWOL for a few minutes, and were found half way up a barb wire gate, trying to get to the river together.

9. Climbing the really steep hill with Josh (and several adults) to watch the sunset.

10. Willow and Z. First Josh, then Willow, got to slide down the hill with Z. Z was very good and sat with his legs out to protect the little ones... as a result, he ended up with thistles all down his leg. Both the kids loved whizzing down the hill. The next day, Josh and his twin brother, Matthew, were dead to Willow as she slavishly followed Z around.

11. On top of the world/ hill/ mountain.

12. Night time fun for the kiddies. They had all sorts of glowing things to play with, and the kids thought it was fantastic.

13. Sparkler fun.

14. Sitting by the fire.

15. N's dog, Diesel, decided to share our tent for the second night. Initially, he slept on a pile of our clothes, but after Willow went to bed and crawled into bed with her. For a small dog he had a lot of dignity.

16. The best thing about camping with several other parents is that there was always a billy of hot water on the fire, in case anyone needed to warm up a bottle. It's the little things.


Not pictured:
1. Josh's twin brother, Matt. Matt kissed Willow by the campfire one night, causing a collective "awww" from all the adults. Willow said she liked being kissed by Josh. Matt decided to do a wee before getting in the river, so his brother bolted out of the water to wee too, and Willow came running after him, shouting "I can wee standing up too!" I opened my mouth to find some excellent explainations for why Willow shouldn't wee standing up with the boys, but Then Josh started to get wee on his shirt, so I yelled at him to lift up his shirt, but he only seemed to hear "Lift it up" and so lifted up his pee tube and... I gave up.
2. If you've wondered what the fox says, it turns out Willow can mimic a fox surprisingly well.
3. Thanks to M, everyone is now familiar with the time Willow drew a creepy face and was all "I drew a picture of the face in the window!"
4. It was so cold. M warned me it might be "a little chilly, so bring a jacket for Willow." But, oh my god, it was much colder than that. Like, "so cold steam was rising off our pee early in the morning." Willow was ok, because she was tucked up between M and myself, and she had extra blankets piled onto her.
5. The people. Oh the people were lovely. So friendly and generous and good. It was just so fantastic to have that real sense of security and community around the children- knowing that if Willow wasn't with me, there was another adult or two keeping an eye on her.