Nathan & Jenni

Way back in the beginning of the year we organised for Cleon and Michelle to babysit the kids so we could go to my brothers wedding in early November. We spent months talking and preparing both them and us and the boys. As we leave them very rarely! Just recently for reasons I am not going to go into because they are so heart breaking on many levels (but all parties are healthy if not happy!) my brother was unable to get married. (We do hope it will be able to happen some time in the near future!) With everything else that has gone on in the last couple of months including Nathan's health scare and Ben's hearing issues we decided it would be best if we stuck to our plan but instead of heading to Adelaide we went to Merimbula instead.

 It was a great opportunity to remind ourselves of Jenni and Nathan. Not Mum, not Dad, not defence analyst extraordinaire, not volunteer giver. We went out to look for Nathan and Jenni before children and work etc, etc. Remember before you got married and your relationship was about getting to know each other with dinners, dates, holidays and quality time chatting about the meaning of life? Our aim for the weekend was to get back to that!

We started with an early knock off for Nathan and a gorgeous trip through Bredbo and Cooma. When we arrived at Merimbula we had one of our very favourite meals fish and chips. That's not special you might say but for us when it is on the beach it really is!

 Now things were not exactly like Jenni & Nathan BC (before children!) because in those days we might not have woken up until 10am. We couldn't shake off Rickard mornings so quickly so we still woke up early. So we hit the Benjamin Boyd National park for a quick hike to the most beautiful site. We could see footprints in the sand at the bottom that must have been penguins or seals or something other than human!

 During out hike we came across a black wallaby on the track. Unfortunately Nathan was a bit slow on the camera and we missed the shot!

 We then walked along the beach with not one other person in sight! If it had have been warm enough in the water we might have gone in but the water was ICY!!!!

 After our walk along the beach we drove off in search of some wineries. We drove all through out Bega looking for one that was not where the internet said it would be! But it was a gorgeous drive through Bega cheese country. Finally, for Nath we found the second winery on our list and he picked up a couple of bottles of Merlot and White Shiraz. We then moseyed on through Bermagui where we followed a Maserati much to Nathan's delight. We had a funny conversation about how we could have a Maserati if we chose to live in a shack. The Maserati then pulled into his driveway at the end of which sat..... a shack!!!! We arrived back at our hotel just in time for our massages! Yum!

For dinner that night we had our other favourite meal. Nathan had fresh oyster with a drizzle of lemon juice and I had fresh prawns with crusty bread and thousand island dressing. Devine!

 This was the view from our balcony,

 After dinner Nathan took me out or an ice cream.I picked chocolate and honeycomb and I picked Nathan mango and passionfruit. It always works out that Nathan eats half of my main and I eat most of his dessert!

We had one final walk along the beach with the sun setting before we went back to watch the swimming on the tele and then a soak in the spa before we headed back to real life. But with a much greater appreciation for the wonderful man who is going to spend the rest of his life with me!

Both Nath and I really do have to give a big thank you to Cleon and Michelle for having the boys. I know they had a great time and said it was easy and the boys were good and they loved it! But we still really do appreciate everything they do! We don't live close to family so the boys really aren't used to staying with other people and the fact that they did it so well is really a testament to how well you have become a part of our family. I don't think they could tell you the difference between the family they are biologically related to and the one they are related to with their hearts!