Have We Packed Everything?

Friday.

The start of a long weekend.

The day is spent racing around the house. Packing things, tidying, making sure that the house was in order. I checked the kids items twice; nappies, clothes, shoes, beach stuff, books and toys.

Check.

I packed for myself. A horrendous amount as I am not a huge fan of my clothes at the moment and always seem to wish I was wearing something else. This may have to do with the fact that within minutes I have stains on them from the kids sticky fingers.

Anyway, check.

Pretty much the whole fridge worth of food.

Check.

Empty the pantry.

Check.

Pack up the thermo.

Check.

Washing brought in, dishwasher on, house all locked up and we are off, twenty minutes early as Leo is screaming and crying and has barely slept all day.

Off to pick up my husband.

He takes an insane amount of time to come down from his office and get into my car despite a warning that we were on our way half an hour before. The usual with him.

We are finally off. I hand the driver keys to him and settle into the passenger seat for some anticipated relaxation whilst my kids (hopefully) nod off.

It takes them a while. Ages in fact. There’ s a flurry of questions (Are we in Mandurah yet? No, honey we are still on the street where Daddy works) and some intermittent bursts of annoyance from Leo who is sick of being strapped in already.

Eventually though we have two sleeping children.

For five minutes.

Then Leo wakes up and cries. And cries. And cries.

This is the point where my husband asks me if I grabbed the keys for my Mother-in-laws Mandurah house, where we were staying. Um, no.

“You always grab them.” I accuse.

“They’re in my car. Why didn’t you grab the copy we have at home? What’s this key on your key ring.”

That key is hope.

I’ve never known what it does so surely it means that it is the key to our old house, the same key that was cut for the Mandurah house.

Hope.

We debate whether to place all our bets on that key.

The key wins.

Some more crying and some tension later we turn up at our holiday place.

Breaths are held as the key is tried.

Swear words said as it doesn’t fit.

We try every key we own.

Nothing.

It’s just an hour home and an hour back again. Our kids are tragic and my husband and I are ready to kill each other. No one will survive that long in the car together.

My husband suggests we call a friend who also has a house in Mandurah, not far from us to see if they are by any chance down for the weekend.

She answered. She was in Mandurah. And then to ask the question….”Can two children and two dogs come crash the start of your long weekend with your family?”

Not only did we get a yes but her hubby wasn’t down yet, he was still in Perth! My Mother in Law dropped a key off to him and  our story ended well.

Our friend and her parents and their dog got some company for the evening (not sure if their story ended that well for them!) and our kids played gorgeously together. They were amazing enough  to offer us dinner and wine!

God I needed that glass of wine.

Luckily the rest of the weekend was serene.

How was your holiday weekend? Hopefully off to a better start that mine!