Only 5 days late...

..to blog about one of my favourite weekends - Conference. I wonder how everyone manages to blog on the right corresponding day? I'm already 6 blogs behind! Not all of them big entries, some are small things I would like to remember 5 years from now - but trying to keep up with them all....any hints??
Ok so back to this blog...

Back home in Melbourne, going to conference was a 3 min drive around the corner. Often we only stayed in the chapel for a fraction of the time before heading off to the parents room (which should really be called the 'social room') to spare other members from our noisy little ones. Problem was the social room was more noisy than my kids - and that's saying something! Last time we went, I remember walking out an hour before it finished, frustrated that I hadn't heard a thing. We usually rely on Ensigns and the Internet now to watch General Conference. So anyway.....here in Tassie, conference weekend is exciting. We travel up to Devonport which is just over an hour away. The Rogers and us love the trip as we make a day of it, stopping off at the cheese factory, chocolate factory and sometimes rasberry farm and cherry shed along the way. Last conference weekend we stayed at a local caravan park. Kids loved it, right on the beach with a playground and jumping pillow. We hoped we'd be able to stay there every six months and save travelling back and forth to Devonport three times (Friday night for Stake activity, Saturday for leadership and adult session and Sunday) But it turned out to be too costly this time round.

So this February, the Tai family set out early Saturday morning so that we could make the most of the day before the guys went to leadership at 3pm. Job has been wanting to take us to a beach he loves since visiting it on school camp. In order to save some time and get to the beach for low tide, we unanimously decided to skip the rasberry farm and cheese factory. Our family is good at prioritising and so we wound up at the chocolate factory. We ate some samples (of course) and bought a chocolate each. Sisi missed this photo as she was asleep in the car.



The only reason we missed buying my favourite ice creams at the cherry shed is because I accidently dozed off (in the passenger seat of course!) I woke up too late to stop the car.

We arrived at beautiful Port Sorell. Job showed us the beach and it was just beautiful. Due to it being low tide, we could walk all the way out to a little island ahead of us. The best part though were the hundreds, maybe even thousands of little crabs. The kids had a ball!!

    Here's an idea of how many there were

They were literally everywhere.

We had to be careful not to step on them. Here's JJ trying not to squish one. All the dark dots are crabs. The kids had heaps of fun exploring all the beach had to offer..

Including star fish and a triangle rock that reminded the kids of a piece of cheese..

We figured we'd walk out to the island first and then go back to the car to get all the bathers....

...but the kids had other ideas

So bathers stayed dry and clothes got wet. Except for Sisi but we're used to her looking like this, she is a chronic nudist. We made it to the island where the little ones found lots of small pools of water to play in and Job and JJ explored. Aparently there are penguins there on the island....during penguin season. We're definitely coming back to this spot!

When we got back to the car, the Rogers had arrived and we had lunch together. Here we are during lunch, seated on a nice comfortable bit of gravel



We hung around eating and playing for a little while..

...and then realised we were fast running out of time. The boys had to get to their meeting soon. The Rogers had a quick look at the beach and then it was off  to the chapel. They were only a few minutes late!



So once we'd dropped off the boys, we took the kids to another beach...I think its called the bluff? This is our usual conference spot. We had heaps of fun playing in the water and drawing in the sand. Lani, Chelsea and I took turn tracing eachother in the sand. I think the drawing of me is quite flattering except maybe for my knee :) I also made and awesome snowman but didn't have the camera on me . The picture with the three drawings is meant to be of me, Chelse and Sisi holding hands.

I LOVE sandy bums..  (as long they belong to babies)

And crazy beach hair.. (I love this photo, purely for the fact that it shows how wild her hair is)  If you can't tell, she's singing wise man, foolish man.

JJ and Lani tried to build a wall to stop the tide coming in....

Then our beach party got crashed by some guys in suits.

It was time to do a swap. Kym and I got changed quickly behind our cars. We gathered the kiddies and set off back to the chapel. Kymbo and I attended the adult session while the boys and the kids went and got some dinner and watched a DVD  in the car. The adult session was fantastic. I really enjoyed it. Kym and I were so proud of Karina who spoke. We knew her insides must have felt like jelly, but she did such a good job. Bronwen spoke too and she was so .....herself! I love it when she speaks or teaches in rs. When Pres spoke, you could have heard a pin drop. We loved all the speakers, I felt uplifted and enriched. Afterwards we drove home, had a sleep, then drove back the next day. Nothing much changed for the Sunday session - I still didn't get to listen to much of it since we were there as a family. I was able to listen to Elder Scott and I was touched. He gave such beautiful counsel to husbands and wives. After that I was in and out with Sisi. Once conference was over we had lunch at the Anvers gardens and took some photos.

Awesome weekend!

Here are some of my favourite pictures from those two days:

Sisi trying to point the crabs out to Benny

The three big kids JJ, Benny and Charlotte. They go everywhere together...

Secrets

How beautiful is Kymbo..

...and Chelse

The bubs

Have I told you how much I love this face?                               This one is pretty cute too, nice for kisses

I enjoyed looking through these photos of the weekend, but I have to say I have saved the best for last.

Photo of the day belongs to my sister Kym...