even more beautiful friends

Firstly I would like you to know that this will be the last "beautiful friends" post for a while, take that as a hint, take it as you will. Secondly I am fully aware that I am currently blogging events that happened nearly two weeks ago, yes this is an exercise in recall, hopefully my brain will not fail me.

So tag teaming with Jen, Lily and Saul, Vince, Tracey, Remy and Jenna made their journey up from Sydney. We were lucky enough to have this beautiful family as neighbours and even luckier to have them as dear friends.

As soon as they arrived Ilo leapt into Vince's arms and there he stayed for quite some time, gloriously content and happy to be reunited with his special friend.

We did quite a bit of exploring, eating, talking and laughing. As always it so wonderful having people that we know and love, do the things that we love to do and explore the places that play a starring role in our lives.

On the Monday we headed up to Dorrigo, where Ilo entertained all of us by being a dog. He is going through that wonderful stage of taking on different personas, as well as assigning various ones to other people, often I am Harriet  and he is Mumma, sometimes he is Charlie and Poe is Tallulah, I am sometimes Peeba and he is sometimes Sophie, sometimes he has a baby in his tummy and sometimes he is little Poe Poe's Mumma (!)  He manages to keep these up throughout the day and is very serious yet highly entertaining whilst doing so.

 These are the beautiful Dangar Falls, we hadn't been there before and hadn't really expected much. But they were totally amazing, spectacular in fact. And although we didn't go anywhere near them the ponds at the top of the Falls look like they are made for whiling away days, obviously whilst paying particular attention to the certain death that would occur if you happen to stray a bit too close to the Falls.
At Dangar Falls, just about everywhere you looked was a picture perfect scene, except for maybe the enclosed brick bbq area (sorry no photos). Next time, I think we will go on the walk that leads you down to the base of the Falls.

There were even log rides for kids of all ages.

Scott then took us on a drive-by tour of the Dorrigo Train Museum, which has one of the most comprehensive railway collections in the world. Unfortunately it is not actually open but it is pretty amazing seeing so many engines and carriages all in one place.

and it wasn't long before a fairy home was made

We were then granted a day where a swim was a possibility for some, depending on cold water tolerance, so we decided to head out in search of suitable salt water swimming venue. But first we headed to downtown Coffs, which is always an experience when you venture away from the safety of the op shops, and headed to a park which has a selection of really awesome play equipment, an alphorn (thanks Cass) that actually works due to the length of it, and an almighty slide, amongst other things. Unfortunately unlike other times when we have visited,  the park was inundated with children (i was going to say infested but.....). So after a whirlwind tour of various said play items we headed to the beach at Urunga. Now after the park people fiasco I was a bit fearful that this little slice of awesomeness would also be inundated but no, we pretty much had it to ourselves.

Remy and Jenna, with much encouragement and barracking from the sidelines managed to swim from the beach to the sandbar, whilst Poe and Ilo got down to the very serious business of creating some dams and rivers.

That night we were treated to an Indian feast, Tracey and Vince spent most of the afternoon slaving away over a hot stove to present us with the above awesomeness, complete with homemade chapati (Tracey, I am saying nothing). There was also a beautiful Saag Paneer, Dahl, Chickpea curry, burnt onion rice and a delicious tomato, onion and coriander salad. Oh my goodness, thank you dear ones, it was so wonderful. Now at this very special dinner we also were treated with the presence of an extra two and a half guests; Robin and Stewart dropped by on their way back to Sydney after a few days in Byron. Unfortunately I have no pictures of these two wonderful people, as someone always ended up blurry, I think there was far too much laughing going on. But thank you for dropping by, it was such a lovely evening.

Vince, Ilo and Poe spent the morning creating some little people out of wooden pegs and felt. Vince managed to impress everyone with his needle and thread handiwork, he even admitted to being a little impressed himself. It was lovely seeing Vince spend this time with Poe and Ilo, I guess when we see each other so much in the general day to day busyness of life, these moments don't happen that often. We are very lucky that when people come and visit we get so much quality time. We have the luxury of time, so things and catch ups aren't rushed, we are bathed in them.

I was lucky enough to assist Jenna with a school project she was working on. She had to make a tea-towel as part of a promotional package for her designated state; South Australia. It was really lovely seeing her ideas form and assisting her with some of my skills. Hopefully Jenna will send a picture through of her completed tea-towel so we can all check it out.

beautifully this backpack did not leave Ilo's back all day

We ventured out to the Promised Land and Never Never creek and although the day was sunny the water was particularly icy and the pebbles in the creek proved to be somewhat uncomfortable for those not quite used to such rocky (pebbly?) terrain. Rest assured when this family returns in December they will all be wearing river shoes.

i spy a little river elf

How sweet is this, it is from a napkin that Tracey gave to me, amongst other things in a beautiful basket of birthday goodies, I don't think I have ever had a birthday that lasted this long.

Scott, particularly enjoyed some quality moments with Remy Kenneth Blatch-Williams, you know times when Remy would address him as someone other than Scott and Scott would show how much he loved this by giving Remy a bit of a head rub and face massage (and by this I do mean, head rub and face massage not some awful stereotype of what people think men do, it was lovely, gentle, very funny and full of love, Remy loved it but also considered it payback for his name calling). It was so beautiful seeing some Alloparenting at work and so wonderful that both Remy and Jenna feel so comfortable with us.
Thank you beautiful ones for making the effort and coming to spend such special days with us, we can't wait til you all visit again.