Day Three

Today was a pretty amazing day all round! Firstly, and most importantly, it was Lachlan's 8th birthday!! It was very cool to wake up in my birth town and celebrate my son's birthday! Lochie had a big party before we left and he had already received his big presents, so he was pretty excited when we gave him a few more little presents to open this morning. He announced that this has been his best birthday ever! :)

After a birthday breakie we packed up Bertha (oh...that's what we've named the campervan) and hit the town of Newman! Up until today, Newman (or Mt Newman as it was when I was born) was just a word to me really...it was the word I wrote on forms next to the 'place of birth' question.  I was only 18 months old when we left Newman, so I have no memory of the place. I have loads of photos of me, as a baby, in a house with very 70's decor, and old super 8 footage of my brother and sister playing on a street covered in red dirt. Today that all changed for me. I was a little taken back by how emotional it was. I was sitting in front of the first house that I lived in and it looked pretty similar to the photo that I was holding...except that in the photo, the house had a living garden out the front! When I text my Dad a  photo of the house today, his response was "they're not wasting any water on that garden now, are they?!" He he he.

Next stop was the hospital where I was born...apparently I was the only baby in the hospital at that time, so I was spoilt rotten by all the nurses...I did give my poor mum a few dramas and ended up arriving a month early weighing in at 4 pounds 12 ounces...Mum says I may have been little, but I was pretty feisty! (Nothing's changed, hey Mum?!!)...standing in front of the hospital, I was thinking about how Mum must have felt, bringing her third child into the world, in this tiny little town that was very hot & covered in red! The Irish blood runs through those veins and it does not like the heat!! :) She managed though (as she always does!), and Dad told me that the night I was born, was the night he learned how to cook a casserole!! :) He had two other kids to look after while I was keeping mum's hands full in the hospital! :)

My parents have always spoken so fondly of their time in Newman.  The friends they made in this town are still some of their best friends today...most of them live in perth now, so they all get to catch up on a regular basis and talk about the good old days! It was such a great opportunity to be able to visit some of the places that played a part in the start of my life. I really enjoyed this visit and now Newman is much more than just a name I write on a form!

We grabbed some more supplies for Bertha and hit the road again!  Next stop was Port Hedland to spend some time with Clay's brother Andy, and his lovely girlfriend Amy. We love these guys! They're just great people to spend time with! On the way to PH, I got the chance to captain Bertha for a while! Talk about an exciting experience! Once I'd gotten over the nerves of driving a home on wheels, I settled in quite well and really enjoyed driving. I got to over take a road train, see some willy-willy's in action and actually have a huge tumbleweed roll across the road in front of me! It was like an old movie!  It was a little sad to see so much of the land burnt by bushfires and I always shed a little tear for the road kill (yes I'm a sook), but the drive to Port Hedland was great.

We didn't get the chance to visit Karijini National Park this time around, as we can't drive Bertha on unsealed roads and domestic pets are not allowed in national parks. Although Zappa is trained to assist the kids with meltdowns, he doesn't have his official accreditation as an assistance dog yet, so he's still considered a pet. We knew all this before we set off, so it wasn't a disappointment as we waved at Karijini on the drive past. We'll be back to see Karijini another time! :)

We arrived in Port Hedland, to be treated with birthday balloons and decorations for the little birthday boy! Andy and Amy had gone all out with a wonderful dinner for us and the most amazing Minecraft Birthday cake for Lachlan!! It has been such a wonderful night, just chilling with family, enjoying each other's company! :)

Tomorrow we head to Karratha to visit some friends of ours and check out their town! :)


Alyssa says "my favourite thing about today was seeing Uncle Andy and Aunty Amy...and seeing the minecraft cake that Aunty Amy made...it was awesome!!"

Lachlan says "today was the best day because it's my birthday!!  I'm 8 years old now...I'm almost a grown up! I loved my minecraft cake that Aunty Amy made me...it was so yummy and it had minecraft toys on it too!"

Zappa says "woof woof woof...snort...woof woof"


Bolgie Adventurers out!