Hi, we are the Wood family Tam (the mum), Michael (the dad), Spencer (the big 8 1/2yr old), Phoebe (the gorgeous 7yr old) and Scarlett (the spirited 3 1/2yr old)! We are from Brisbane and have talked about "going around Australia" LOTS!!! So now we are actully doing it! We have a Jayco Expanda and going to take the adventure into the great unknown for 6 mths. So here we are, closed the family business, got the house looked after (thanks Kathryn and Pete), organised schooling and away we go. Yes we have had a comment here and there "are you crazy with 3 kids, you'll be alcohlics" and "How are you going to live in a caravan for 6mths, you'll kill one another" Well I'm sure we are going to find out! So with 5 weeks to go, journey mapped out, caravan serviced and ready, Nissan Navara pimped up, 1st aid course done, flu shots, dentist, bills paid, school stuff sorted and a million other things to do. But getting there!
COUNTDOWN ON!! Keep you posted.
Not long to go now!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your trip! We have been home now for about 10 weeks. We did our big trip last year with two kids and a jayco expanda for 12 months. We didn't kill each other - we had a ball and did so much. We miss it heaps and are now readjusting to 'normal'life. Have a great time - we will be watching. Our website was www.marshallsoz2009.com
ReplyDeleteif you are interested in having a look.
Regards
Damien, Sharon, Emma and Corey Marshall
Hi there Marshall family,
ReplyDeleteSo good to hear from you, we were following your trip and were inspired by you to go on our trip.
Hope you are settling back in must be so hard!
Thanks for tuning in.
Tam
4 more sleeps to go kids
ReplyDelete3 sleeps to go kiddies!
ReplyDeleteOnly 3 sleeps to go......Have a great time, stay safe, & we're so jealous of how much fun & adventures you're about to have. Will miss ya's heaps x x x The Abels x x x
ReplyDeleteOK, found it myself. Happy travels
ReplyDeleteAm happy your first day went with out a hitch and also the future. Mum cried for the next 1/2 hour after you left.Mum has sent you a quick e-mail to say hello.Good travels . Talk soon. Say hello to kids for us.
ReplyDeleteGot your photos and story lines. Great hats boys!I thought you could have had some "bush tucker" and cooked up some locusts.Has scarlett and phoebe got any legs left after the hike.Yeh, I could not believe the surf "f____t"as a tack., but we will go down again soon.Talk soon.Love xxx/Mum&Dad.
ReplyDeleteHello Wood Family,
ReplyDeleteI finally found your blog so we thought we would send you a quick hello! There were tears at Harty St on the first day back of term 2...."Where's Scarleeeeeeetttttttttttt???????"
"She's not back yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" So, as you can see, Grace doesn't quite have the knack of just how long 6 months is. I made it worse by saying "She'll be home in time for Christmas..." Stupid. Anyway, she is very lost without her best mate but has started making cards, drawings etc...The next question was "Mum can you post this to her?"....Ahh, no.
Anyway, hope you are all having a great time and still have plenty of wine left Tam...you may need to ration ;) Now that I've found you we can keep in touch more. Best of luck and happy travels! Rachael, Grace & The Oike's.
Happy Birthday Phoebe
ReplyDeleteWe hope you had a wonderful time on your special day. We hope you got some great presents. Did you have a yummy birthday dinner? Emma is on holidays too but she will be back on Tuesday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHOEBE - WE MISS YOU!!!!!
From 2I
Hi Phoebe
ReplyDeleteHope your having a great holiday. Grace and I are missing you alot. We've been very busy at school and recently we got a new grid book. We have been learning about Floating and Sinking.I miss you alot,
Lots of Love,Caitlin
Hello Miss Grace,
ReplyDeleteMissing you so much! Hope you had a good holiday and kindy is lots of fun. I hit a low point about a day ago where I just wanted to come home to see all my friends, and cried all day but mummy said it would be ok.
Rachel it is so good to hear from you make sure you keep in contact and wil try and keep in touch through our email address. Scarlett constantly talks about Grace, Lara and kindy. Hope all is well with you and I'm definately on the wines. Take care.
Hi Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteMiss you and Grace soooo much. But having a really fun time away. Saw lots of fish at the reef and loving the pretty country. Hope you are going ok at school still doing lots of schoolwork as well. Hope to talk to you soon.
Phoebe xxxxxx
Hello again Phoebe
ReplyDeleteThanks for the letter. We hope you have done your homework. We have, but we wish we didn't have to do it! We wish we could go on holidays with yoooooooooooooooooooouuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!!! best wishes, Caitie and Grace.
Hi Phoebe
ReplyDeletewe made our poppies yesterday.I am mooving to the cuntry.Love Emmersen
Hi Phoebe,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you are having sooooooo much fun on your trip.Mrs Igoe hopes you are doing most of your school work.I can't wait till you come home and tell us about your trip.
Love from Jaime
Hi Spencer,
ReplyDeleteI heard about your website.Hope you are having fun.
From
Stephanie Hesse
Hi to the Wood family, Glad to hear that you are all safe and well and enjoying your adventure so far. We had a great easter in Phuket and I was thinking of you Tamara when I was at the markets shopping!!! We have just had the may long weekend at Yamba as the kids were in a bridal party. It was nice.... Chat soon Kathryn and Georgia Buckley xx
ReplyDeleteMe again... Georgia said that she had seen some photos of your trip at school in 2I classroom so we looked for you and found you. Great way to document your travels!!!! I had a few laughs as I was reading about your past weeks! the photos are gorgeous. Look like you are all having a ball!! Kathryn
ReplyDeleteHi Phoebe
ReplyDeletewhat's up with the writing back? I've been waiting for aaaaages! Well atleast it seems I have. Are you having so much fun that you don't have time to write back? Anyway,I just noticed on Wednesday that school is very different without you and that the vally is not as much fun. By the way, on Friday we didn't get any free because some boy's started talking nonsense and Mrs igoe had already reminded them not to talk. So we didn't get any free for the rest of the afternoon, which wasn't normal for a Friday. Ofcourse I was annoyed. Also on Friday Mr Maclenen came into school to show and talk to us about his boat. I feel sorry that you couldn't be with us and I'm also sorry that I can't spell Maclenen properly. Do you mind? I hope you don't. I'm looking forward to writing to you again, lots of love, Caitie xoxoxoxo
Dear Phoebe,
ReplyDeleteHope you are having a great time on your holiday. I miss you. What colour did you paint Harry the Hermit Crab?
Love Nicola
Hi Nicola,
ReplyDeleteI painted Harry red, he's pretty fast. Imiss you too.
Love Phoebe
Hello again Phoebe
ReplyDeleteI still haven't got your letter. Have you still got Harry the hermet crab? What colour did Scarlet paint her crabby? And what did Spencer paint his crab? So far so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From Caaaaaaaaiiiiiittttiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Hello Phoebe, its Mackenzie Devine here. How many hermit crabs did you get? I saw the picture of you on the rocks, were they slippery?
ReplyDeleteWhat else have you been doing?
Love
Mackenzie
Hi Mackenzie
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you. No the rocks wearn't slippery. We caught 3 crabs.
We are off to water falls tommorrow. We have seen lots of animals and are having lots of fun.
Love Phoebe
Hi Phoebe, it's Mackenzie Devine here. Hope your trip is going well. I love looking at the photos ane reading about your adventures. Guess what! I got my ears pierced today, I have small silver studs. It didn't hurt like I thought it would. Where are you now and what have you been doing? Love Mackenzie.
ReplyDeletePhobe can you tell us what you are doing today. We are learning about Farming. On Wednesday farmers are coming to talk to us about farming. Hope you are having a great time on your holiday.
ReplyDeleteLove Mackenzie
Hi Phoebe we are missing you, we all want you to come back now. We miss your laugh, we miss your smile, we miss everything. We are missing you in our hearts.
ReplyDeleteLove Mackenzie
Hi Grace,
ReplyDeleteI don't have your email so I just wanted to say hi and hope that you are having fun at kindy and I miss you,we are in Darwin at the moment it is very hot and we are going to see the crocodiles for my birthday tomorrow.
Scarlett
Hi Emmerson,
ReplyDeleteMissing you let me know when you move and if you make new friends.
Love
Phoebe
Hi Mackenzie,
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say hi and I miss your smile. Wish you could be here and come and see crocodiles with me tomorrow,sending big hugs.
Love Phoebe
Gday guys,
ReplyDeleteyour trip looks great, love the red undies mich lol changing the tyre. where to from here?
cheers
tony weeks ( and the weeks family )
Spencer, It's Grandad saying hello!I have been reading the family blog and it seems you are left out mate with people contacting you.It's all about Phoebe and Scarlett. Don't worry mate as you grow up you will learn that it's always about the girls.May be some of Spence's mates can help out here!If those teeth keep going Spence they will be as big as the croc's.
ReplyDeleteHi Spence,
ReplyDeleteI have been following your blog with Mum's help. It was great to see you at school last week. I do miss you heaps. I'll try and write more to you.
From Tom McBrien
Hi Tom,
ReplyDeleteMissed you at school would love to know how you are going at school. Missing you hope you have a good holiday soon.
Spencer
Dear Phoebe,
ReplyDeleteRight now we are all on school holidays for two weeks. I have had a great time looking at your blog. It sounds like you have been doing a lot of amazing things. I wonder what your favourite part is? I cannot wait for you to come home! I hope you have enough time to write to me, your the bestest friend. How long were you aloud to ride the camels for? Get back safe.
Love from Jaime.
Hi Spencer,
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday! What did you get? Having fun? I got a gun for my birthday which can snap into two smaller guns. I like shooting my brothers with it.
Have a good holiday, Daniel
Dear Jaime,
ReplyDeleteHow exciting, school holidays. I love school holidays, you can do what ever you want to do.
My favourite part on the trip has been swimming with the fish at Nigaloo. We rode the camels in Broome for 30mins.
Hope you are well and say hi to everyone at school.
Love from Phoebe
Hi Spence,
ReplyDeleteWishing you a very Happy Birthday, hope you have had a great day. What adventure did you go on? I have posted a couple of comments but we think we haven't been doing it right?
Looking forwrad to you coming home
from
Tom
Hi Tamara and Phoebe, looks like you are all having an awesome time. I have tried to comment on some of your spectacular photos but I must be doing something wrong as it doesn't work. You look like you have been enjoying the country living...Jen and Emmersen are enjoying their new farm life too. We have been to visit a few times and last week we went out to help build a house for the goats Miranda and Sally. Allen loves it out there and Max is a natural. Georgia is a bit more wary. When are you due home? I thought it must be soon as it was near the end of term? Anyway enjoy the last bit of your trip. Keep posting your blog as we LOVE reading it!!!! catch up soon, Kathryn and Georgia B
ReplyDeleteHi Kathryn and Georgia,
ReplyDeleteSo nice to hear from you. We will be back as planned. Having the best time, so nice to hear from old friends.
Tam & Phoebe
Hi guys, Central Oz is awesome, so much to see & do. Disappointed to see you didn't climb Ayers Rock, it is a truly amazing experience & not dangerous at all as long as you are sensible.
ReplyDeleteAlso, surprised you didn't like Whale World, we thought it was a really incredible place that showed a big part of Australia's history.
We were in Broome this time last year - would love to be back & in that nice warm weather again.
Good luck & enjoy the rest of your travels.
The Marshalls
very sad to read what seems to be your last blog....I know I have said it before but you have an awesme collection of photos, maybe that is a new career option for you Tam as a photographer. What a great way to end your trip having so much fun and laughter. You all seem to have changed...Phoebe looks taller from the photos and your hair is so long Tam. Enjoy you last few weeks. Loning forward to catching up when you return.....if you return....Kathryn and Georgia
ReplyDeleteHi Kathryn and Georgia,
ReplyDeleteIt's so nice to hear from you and you have followed our travels, I know it has all nearly come to an end, we can't believe it. We've had an amazing time and so much fun!!!!
I hope you are all well and we will see you in no time. Not quite sure how we are going to cope with reality but will always have those incredible memories. Thanks for the lovely comments along the way and will see you soon.
Tam xx