McCarthys in Oz: Easter at Wivenhoe

Some photos from our wonderful camping weekend at Wivenhoe. This has been a McCarthy family tradition for 20+ years, but Peter & Jennie are now selling the property, so this year was our last. The property was looking even more beautiful than usual with all of the rain we'd had in the past few months. We will certainly miss these Easters!

Chillin'
(See the water in the dam behind Julia? This is the 1st time in 4 years that I'd seen any water on that side of the property. My 1st year we actually rode the 4-wheelers all through those dry lake beds.)

Different chair, same chilled out pose

"Hmm...I'm not so sure about you taking my picture..."

"Oh, okay, I'll pose for you."

"Liam and cousin Mikey"
(Mikey is the same age in this photo as Julia was her first year at Wivenhoe when she stood unassisted for the 1st time -- nearly 8mos)

Grant prepares the Hangi (prounounced "hungy") -- there are metal crates of meat (lots of it) under those blankets and a huge fire pit under the crates -- ice gets poured on top of the blankets next

Julia & Daddy at the Hangi Pit

Cousin Drew

Drew & Tracey's youngest son, Cooper (he's a few months younger than Liam)

An Easter egg!! (Julia and Maverick-- in the background -- were not thrilled that Cooper found it first)

Like father...

like son.

"Whatchya drinkin', Daddy?"

"Ah, a fine lager, indeed, I see."

"I don't get to have some?!?"

Sophia seemed to have the same fixation with beer bottles (maybe it's the Aussie in these kids)

Devlin, Liam & Julia were kept very entertained by the gravel and some plastic cups

Seriously, this lasted for over an hour!

Doing some yoga stretches with Mama

Viribhadrasana III

The Mommy & Me version of Warrior II

I was trying to get Liam to put his palms together over his head, but I realized his arms are actually too short to reach ;-)

Devlin and Liam were so cute together. They were born one week apart, but Devlin doesn't have any siblings, so Liam was a bit more outgoing and was the instigator of mischief.

Liam had a train here (behind his back). I heard him say, "I throw it...."

"Now you go get it." (A good game of fetch). But then as soon as Devlin got close to the train, Liam said to him, "Oh, look!" and pointed in the opposite direction. As soon as Devlin turned to see what Liam had pointed to, Liam picked up the train and walked off (very happy with himself).

The Easter egg hunt was a a huge hit!! There are probably way more photos here than y'all want to see, but I promise you this is only a small fraction of the ones I took! Easter egg hunts in Australia are quite different to American ones. Instead of hiding plastic eggs or dyed real ones, all the hidden eggs are solid chocolate (and at Wivenhoe, there is no shortage of hidden eggs -- I think Jennie had bought about 4 kilos of chocolate eggs for us to hide around the property!). Consequently, there is usually a massive group meltdown (i.e. sugar crash) about 2-3 hours after the egg hunt each year.