Yesterday the kids went to visit Aunt Carol and Uncle Vere at Castle Rock.  Earl and I decided to have a quiet day at home.  We went to the mall to do some necessary shopping and to have breakfast. It was busy everywhere but we bumped into my cousin, Susan at Mugg and Bean chatted to her and Andy for a while and then took over their table.

Here are the pictures of the kids’ day at Castle Rock.

Today they visited Anneline and Jeffrey. Earl went to sort out a problem with the repeater in Somerset West and I got the urge to tidy kitchen cupboards!

In the afternoon Lauren, the kids and I climbed Elsie’s Peak.   I have climbed this mountain more times than I can remember – as a child, with my Sun Valley Grade Four class many years ago, with the boys when they were Cubs.  I remember it as an easy stroll along a contour path.  When the boys were little I rode bikes with them, hiked with them and always enjoyed the challenge of keeping up with their antics.  Now that they are in their teens …… the pace seems to have increased somewhat.  Those kids ran up Ravine Stairs! ( I should have stuck to the original plan of parking outside my sister’s house on Berg Road!)  They then leapt up the mountain like Klipspringers! Lauren and I found ourselves separated from them and took a slightly different route.  Jay called on the cell to tell us we’d taken the wrong route. We told them to just wait and went up Elsies thinking they were already there.  But they were waiting on a different path and we only met up on our way down. The kids then ran up Elsies and we waited for them before making the descent.  Anyway it was tremendous fun.  But I did freak out when they leapt and ran instead of taking care.  “Gran, you can do it – just plan which rock you’re going to jump on next and go for it,” suggested Jay”  Yes right!

I wanted to climb up onto a rock I remembered doing as a child and Josh led the way through the bush – but on the way back I slipped and fell, grazing my knee!  I’ve reached the stage that I just need to stick to the path!

The whole excursion took us about three hours and it was well worth the effort.  We all had an amazing time and returned home for a Pizza supper!