Siesta Park Holiday

In early March we (Mick, Augie, Huxley, Grandma Carma and me) had a little getaway a few hours' south of Perth in the South West of WA.  We stayed at the Siesta Park Holiday Resort, which is located about halfway between Busselton and Dunsborough right on the Indian Ocean.  It's a beautiful, well-kept property with great entertainment for kids, a private jetty, calm beach and fire pits in which you can actually still burn wood.    The reason for the trip was to have our family photos taken by the same photographer who took our wedding photos - he is based in the South West.  

Here are a few photos and videos from that getaway.

One evening Hux had a bath in the sink.  As you can see, he was pretty happy about this.

That's our photographer Pete Battye up there on the rocks.  The beach we're on is just up the bay from the beach where we were married. 

Hux hung out in the shade of the beach umbrella we brought and only came out for pictures.  The sun was so very intense and there was just no shade on this beach!

Action shot!

And here's what that action shot looked like through his lens.

Pete got us to jump off of some of the rocks for a photo and Grandma Carma captured the action on video (from her post at the beach umbrella with Hux who was a wee bit small at the time to participate in the action shot).

And here's the best photo we got out of all the trials at jumping.  Ah, well!

After we shot the family photos, we took Grandma Carma down to have a look at the beach where we got married.  Here she is under the tree that featured in our wedding photo...

Hux and Augie enoying a snack (Mum-Mum's) back at Siesta Park.

Cuddles and Mum-Mum's

Hux was very into developing his pincer grip during this trip.  He spent ages exploring this blade of grass.

We had a wood-fired BBQ one evening.  

Laughs with Dad.

Laughs with Mom.

Laughs at that funny little man in the camera.

When Hux was going to sleep he would do this half-moaning, half, jabbering thing.  We came to call it his 'bad western death scene' because it sounded like the scenes in those b-grade westerns where the cowboy gets shot off the horse and lies on the ground writhing and moaning for what seems like an eternity.

Every bad western death scene of Hux's ended in a trip to the Land of Nod.

Augie crashed out on this car trip too!

One afternoon we went into Busselton for some entertainment.  Here Grandma Carma, Mick and Augie are on the Busselton Jetty, the claim-to-fame of which is that it's the longest timber-piled jetty in the Southern Hemisphere.  It's no longer a shipping point but is now used as a tourist destination.  A little train takes you out to the underwater observatory at the end of the jetty.

They all took the train ride out (Hux and I stayed on the shore so he could have a sleep in his stroller) but only Grandma Carma did the underwater observatory as it was a 40-minute guided tour, which is about 35 minutes too long for Augie to be contained in a tube underwater listening to someone talk about mussels and fish.

Their train embarking on its loooooonnng journey to the end of the jetty (that speck in the distance).

After the train ride Augie did some extreme trampolining.  Loved it!

Then we moved onto some water fun in the bay just near the jetty.

Swimming races.

Siesta Park had some absolutely fantastic play equipment for kids.  This flying fox type thing was one of them.

it was clearly suitable for 'kids' of all ages!

Hux taking in the hijinks on the flying fox.

Thankfully there was also play equipment that was more Huxley's speed...

Augie likes pushing Hux in the stroller.  

This was something called the Tarzan Swing.  It's actually for older kids but Augie surprised us by really taking to it.  For a kid who has never enjoyed swinging, this was a BIG step!

Having a ball.

Augie in action on the Tarzan Swing.

Hux having a great time watching Augie on the Tarzan swing.

We didn't want Hux to spend his whole time watching the fun from his stroller or a picnic blanket so we tried to give him time on the rides that suited him.

Augie was great about joining Hux for fun at his level.

Back on the Tarzan Swing again with an enthusiastic audience.

Grandma Carma even had a go on the Tarzan Swing.

And at the very end of the day we gave Hux a little taste of joining Augie on his level!  He LOVED it.

After we were finished with the Tarzan Swing we moved on to the beachside Flying Fox.  

Grandma Carma had a great time on this one as well.

Then Mick had a few silly runs...

And I even got to ride this one.  The only person who missed out was Huxley but next time we go back I imagine he'll be in there boots and all!

Below are a few of the photos from our family photo session with Pete.