A South West Weekend Drive.....

Well I have been absent again for quite some time, mostly due to we're still trying to sort Lady out so I don't have to re-house her too and partly because we were out all weekend and I've spent the last couple of days trying to catch up on a bit of house work and trying to shake the last of this flu......just about gone thank goodness....

I'm hoping you all had a great weekend and the start to your week is going well. We decided Saturday morning that we were out of this house and going for a drive......sometimes you just have to escape for the day...especially when things seem to be coming at you from every direction. We were just going to stay home and tidy the yard a bit and do a tip run but I desperately felt like I needed to get out of the house and do something as a family and go for a drive....I didn't really have any idea where we were going as we hadn't planned anything but the advantage to living down south is that there is always somewhere to go. I grew up going out a lot on weekends and lots of picnics and drives and fishing and camping....all that sort of stuff, so while I love my home and being in the garden I really love getting out and about and exploring places.....I blame my grandmother as when we stayed with her growing up we were never home unless the weather was completely wild.......and because of this I have many great memories of my childhood and that's what I want to do with my kids so they can look back and say 'man we had fun growing up.'........For years I've been using a product called Tinderbox and it's made down south here in a place called Boyanup so I said to Chris lets go there and check it out......I knew roughly how to get there going through Capel...a town about 20 minutes from here........We packed up snacks and things and piled everyone in the car  and by ten o'clock we were on the road.....if you know the south west of W.A you know it's a lovely drive no matter where you're going. We made it to Capel fine but turned right when we should have turned left and missed Boyanup so decided we'd keep on going to Boyup Brook, another place I'd heard of that was lovely but hadn't been there.........we arrived in Boyup Brook to find it's the Country Music Capital of W.A.....and then I realized that this is where they have the country music festival after the big one at Tamworth. Being that we had been on the road for two hours we decided we all needed a toilet break and found the nearest ones...

Bec and Luke with Guitar Guy out the front of the public loos...

Bec with the Singing Girl in front of girls loos....

So after a much needed toilet break we wandered back to the car and drove a little further up the road to find somewhere for lunch as we were all starving.....this lovely, cosey, little place caught our eye so we thought we'd try some lunch there....

The Bluestone Cafe & Take Away......

We didn't realize when we walked in there was a separate dining area with a dine in menu and ended up ordering from the take away menu but dining in hehe.....they make a mean toasted cheese and tomato sandwich...I was dying for some ham but thought I better not with being pregnant.....

Bec, Chris & Luke enjoying lunch.....

Bec, Me & Luke finishing lunch....

Once lunch was done with Chris was in search of a giant white guitar he spotted driving into town, so we went in search of it.....I think Chris quite enjoyed Boyup Brook as he kept telling me it reminded him of Tamworth (he's from Tamworth originally).....We found the guitar not too far up the road from the cafe, right as you come into town....so like tourists we pulled over and took some pictures.....

Not as big as the golden guitar in Tamworth we know but it's our little piece of country here in W.A....

Daddy and Daughter sharing their love of country music......

Bec playing the giant guitar and dreaming about being a famous singer one day hehe.....

After we finished getting pictures of the guitar I noticed as we were walking back to the car there was an old Museum and although it was closed I did the touristy thing and took a picture as I loved the windmill....

The Museum just up from the guitar....will go in their next time.....

Boyup Brook is a lovely little town and as you can see it was a grey day but we enjoyed it any way and surprisingly we didn't get too much rain......before we left we had a drive around and I spotted this view from up high on one of the hills as we were driving...

I love the way it looks like the sun is shining just in the valley......

We left Boyup Brook and continued on with the rest of our country drive....we came home a slightly different way which brought us through Bridgetown where they have the Blues Festival every year, through Donnybrook which for anyone who lives in W.A knows it's the heart of Apple Town.....we're actually heading back to Donnybrook next week when we have Eva for the school holidays for a proper picnic and they have this amazing Apple Fun Park there for the kids....(will be lots of pics next week) Donnybrook is another lovely town we have here in the west. We also went through Balingup which is home to their famous Lavender Gardens and tea room so that's where I'll be taking Lyn when she comes for her holidays in the summer.......By the time we reached Balingup it was raining so we didn't stop as Bec was getting cranky and Luke was having technology withdrawls so we decided to keep heading home........it's a beautiful scenic drive over here even if you're not stopping to get out.....When we hit Capel there were cows out everywhere so I snapped some taking it easy in the rain.....

Just coming into Capel.....

We finally got home around four o'clock and it was colder in Busselton than it was where we'd just come from and they're all a lot further inland......Chris and I said we'll definitely go again soon when we haven't got kids for the weekend as then we can stop at all the towns and take our time and just enjoy it.....And although we were cold and getting tired when we got home it was the best thing we could have done it was so good to get out and just be away from home for a while.....

Sunday morning saw us at the meeting by ten o'clock, then it was home for lunch by twelve and with another afternoon in front of us we decided to go for a drive down to Cowaramup to see Chris' brother and sister in-law.........Bec was happy about that as it meant she got to see her cousin Brianna who's around the same age......it was another good afternoon out and we gave them the news about the baby and they were really happy for us...so it was a good catch up....we left after a couple of hours to head home as I needed to stop  at IGA to get a few things for dinner......Bec fell asleep on the way home singing to one of her favourite cd's so Chris ran into IGA then it was home and on with the usual routine of dinner, tidy up and get Bec to bed...

All in all we had a great weekend and I'm looking forward to doing it again soon.....sometimes there's nothing better than getting out of the house and exploring where you live and I have to say if it wasn't for kids, Luke loving his job and Chris' work you could drop me in a farm house in Boyup Brook in the middle of nowhere and I'd be as happy as Larry, as they say.........So that's it from me today and I do hope you all had the best weekend and had lots of fun and did something you love to do......soon we're going fishing and I need to teach everyone how to rig a rod and how to cast it....stay tuned....xo