Easter Sunday & kids

Easter at our house has always been one of fun times, however the past 2 Easter’s have been filled with incident. Last year Leonie fell and broke her arm. This year wasn’t much better. The day started fine, the kids were all extremely excited having received their Easter eggs, to which they spent the day devouring.

Late in the afternoon I was getting ready for a trip out to Penrith, the kids were happily playing in their rooms. When one of the rooms was filled with screams, I found Sam on the floor holding her left arm, telling Daddy how she’d fallen from the bunk bed ladder.

After some reassurance and basic first aid it was off to casualty where after a long wait and no x-ray it was decided that the arm wasn’t broken. This was only the start of our concerns. Ethan, who had been a bit off-colour for a few days was checked over and a chest x-ray was done on him. He’d had a bad cough/virus, was running a temperature, not taking fluids and in general didn’t look too well. After another lengthy wait (8hrs) he was finally seen to by a doctor who admitted him to the children’s ward.

In the meantime I had taken Sam home where she continually complained about her sore arm. Needless to say the whole family had a restless night, spread all over Wollongong. In the morning it was back to the hospital to visit Leonie & Ethan. Both of them were well established in the children’s ward. Ethan’s condition had slightly improved, he was on a ‘drip’ and resting. We then took Sam back to casualty where finally an x-ray confirmed she’s broken her arm (near her wrist). This resulted in a half cast being applied, as the swelling was too great for a full cast.

Back in the children’s ward the staff joked with us stating ‘how both of our kids could be admitted to beds side-by-side’. Thankfully this didn’t happen and as the day progressed Ethan’s colour and enthusiasm slowly returned to a point that some 30 hrs after arriving at casualty he could be discharged.

Its now 2 days later, Ethan is slowly on the mend. Sam goes to the specialist tomorrow where a full cast will likely be fitted. Lets hope next Easter isn’t marred with the same drama.

Macquarie Pass Canyon

Its not Claustral or Empress or one of the many other canyons in the blue Mts. It is however the closest and most accessible canyon to the Illawarra and one the SES often like to go and play in.

Today was the first time this season we’d been down this canyon, a recent planned trip had to be called off due to high rainfall. Today’s trip however was bathed in full sunshine with a tinge more water than normal. We had 13 in our group, some hadn’t canyoned before while others had done plenty. With a group this size our speed through the canyon at times was slow, but all the time enjoyable. The water was refreshing and clean, however those recent rains had washed and dislodged so much debris into the canyon that you were constantly checking jumps or clambering over fallen trees.
With our travel time slowed we opted out of some of the abseils thus hoping to make up some time. We eventually stopped for lunch, not at our usual spot but one downstream further and one that was bathed in sunshine. As we enjoyed lunch one of our party stumbled upon a diamond python who too had just feasted on some animal. Its torso was easily the size of a mans lower thigh and due to this the snake was happy to rest while we all marvelled at its size.

Pressing on after lunch it wasn’t long before we’d come to the end of the canyon and the largely popular ‘jump rock’. This spot has a huge rock while towers over a seemingly bottomless pool. We all took it in turns to ride the slide, ride our bike or jump from the heights into the pool.

Unfortunately from this point there’s the dreaded walk out, but for those of us that canyon know, this is part of the deal. Thanks to all who made this an enjoyable day.