Our First Family Holiday!

As already mentioned, I have been lucky enough to travel a lot. Family holidays to Surfers Paradise, being dragged to the outback (horrible as a 15 year old, but a part of Australia I later fell in love with), island escapes, backpacking around Europe, Asian adventures and 6 months working as a tour guide in The Kimberley and Pilbara regions of Western Australia. I have learnt more traveling than I ever did at school and I believe I am tolerant and open minded as a result of meeting so many different people and seeing so many different ways of life. I want my daughter to experience the same (I feel guilty that we are not given the opportunity to include my step sons in all of our adventures, but I do try to show them as much as I can when they are with us). Sadly our budget wouldn't stretch to Paris (my favourite city) so a little camping adventure it was! We jumped in the car and headed to Cooma, where we stayed in a 'Shearers Hut' at the Cooma Snowy Mountains Tourist Park. My (less adventurous) husband was a little weary, but it turned out to be cute, comfortable and warmish! Next morning it was off to Perisher to show Mia the snow! Although only 4 months old, she was definitely taking everything in and shared lots of smiles! I built her a baby snowman (without my gloves, which I forgot - see, I really, really do love you Mia!), wrote our names in the snow and took lots of photos! A short (stressful - we thought the petrol station was closer than it really was) drive saw us in Hobart Beach Campground, Bournda National Park, near Bega. Mia experienced her first campfire and watched the possums running around! Co-sleeping definitely works for our family and it was both easy and fun for the three of us to be able to snuggle up on a mattress in the back of the car. Next morning we toasted some marshmallows on the fire, took a walk along the water and packed the car up. My husband stood on a log to brush his teeth... And literally two minutes later, as we were leaving, drove straight into the same log (which he "didn't know was there" ?!?!) Front bumper on the ground, fog lights disconnected and a container of something dripping! We got creative and tied the front bumper back on with my dressing gown cord for the short drive to Holden in Bega. Hmmm, how to kill 5 hours in Bega?! My husbands answer was stubbornly arguing his point about incorrect orders in KFC. My answer was a visit to the Bega Cheese Factory. I'm not sure which idea was worse. I had wanted to visit Bega Cheese since I was a child and had visions of something similar to the cheese factories in Edam, Holland. What a let down! A few cubes of cheese to taste, some plastic cows and a few rusty old pieces of machinery! Bega was turning into a disaster!! As soon as the car was patched back together and deemed safe to drive, we were out of there and off to the beautiful Murramarang Resort, near Batemans Bay. The next morning was spent walking along the beach and showing Mia the Kangaroos! She smiled and giggled as we held her close enough to pat their soft fur. Our trip was finished off with an afternoon in Huskisson, watching the sunset over afternoon drinks and fish for dinner, before the short drive back into Sydney (well, it would have been short if we didn't miss our turn and add 40km to the trip!) As I read over all I just wrote, I realise quite a few things went wrong, but with lots of giggles and cuddles, we got through it and actually shared some beautiful experiences and many of Mia's 'firsts' - exactly the type of lesson I want Mia to learn!