10 Year Anniversary

James and I have been married for 10 years. I have loved these past 10 years being married to him and the last 11 years of knowing him. He is so loving, caring, encouraging, funny, cheeky, silly, supportive, technologically advanced. We have a lot of similar interests, he is the one who makes me laugh, who listens to me when I am upset, who is patient when I have silly thoughts or don't know why I am upset or overwhelmed. He encourages me, supports me in my decisions, talks with me about things he might not agree with me about, pushes me out of my comfort zone. He is an amazing dad and he helps me be the best mum that I can be. I can't wait to see what the next 10 years bring and many, many, many more. We often say that we are a team and it is true, we are. Particularly with our parenting, we are a team. When one gets frustrated the other steps in a support and assist with the kids so the other can have a break and take a breath. When one makes a decision the other backs them up. When one of us sees something encouraging we tell the other one, particularly when the kid is there to hear. I can't imagine doing this journey of life with anyone else and I don't want to.

Anyway, soppy post finishing. James asked me if I wanted to know where we were going for our 10th year anniversary. I told him that if he wanted to organise it and make it a surprise then that was fine by me. He did this and it sure was a surprise! On Wednesday 2nd January in the morning we dropped the kids off at Mum and Dad's place. Thanks so much to them for looking after the kids for 2 night so we could have a lovely time away. We then headed south. 1st stop was Berry for lunch. James found a cute hipster cafe, called Berry Sourdough Cafe, that we had a delicious lunch at.

Our table

Yum!

 Dessert was then donuts from the Donut Van. Afterall they do make the world's best donuts.

We then kept driving south. As we got closer I made a comment like 'We're staying in a tent aren't we...' Of course I was being sarcastic because we were driving past all these caravan parks. James replied 'No... well.....' and left it at that. I thought he was joking so laughed at him. As we got closer, he told me that we were going to stay at a place called Paperbark Camp. I was a bit taken back because this was a campsite. Did he not know me at all?? He then explained that it was a campsite but it was glamping. It had really good reviews and was off the grid so it would be a time of no distractions. The tents are solar powered so had warm water and lights that charged in the day by the sun. So cool! I quickly asked if there were toilets and he told me that we had our own bathroom. Phew! It still took a little bit to settle in in my mind, especially because when we arrived there were mosquitoes around and I also am not a big fan of mosquitoes. But after a short time I was won over. What an amazing surprise! 
The tent looked amazing both from the outside and the inside!

Our 'room'

There was a toilet in our tent that had a window looking out over the bush - a bit weird and I was a bit nervous about someone walking past but there weren't any paths and you tended to stick to the paths so it was ok.

The shower was similar in being an outdoor shower. It was weird but nice having a shower in the bush.

And inside we had a double vanity 

and a small bath (which James mistook as a swimming pool when he booked because of the wide angle. Definitely not a swimming pool! Ha).

There was a cute little verandah out the front of our tent that had a mosquito net around it too so we could sit on the day bed or couch and read. Perfect!

Time to sit and read

And this is how the tent looked from the outside.

At dinnertime we headed over the the restaurant, 'The Gunyah Restaurant'. This restaurant is in the campsite and is just so cute. It's name is aboriginal for meeting place or place of shelter. It had a lovely view over the bush/campsite and it wasn't too hot to sit there on the verandah and there weren't many mosquitoes (although we did spray ourselves before heading up each time just in case). 

Our table

The view

The meals that we had here were amazing! We had 4 course meals that were beautifully presented and it made me be a bit more adventurous. 

Cold Pea soup

My first time having raw tuna

The amount of food was perfect and just so tasty. Our waiter and waitress were just lovely too. They were chatty but not too imposing. 

After dinner we headed back to our room for a bit to sit and read again and play some games. We got out Yatzee and had a couple of games of that. It was nice to sit and play some games. We then headed back up to the Gunyah for James to have a coffee. While we waited we saw a chess board on the table. As I had never played chess before we decided to have a game and James would teach me. My conclusion of chess? It is a silly game. It didn't help that James didn't give me all the rules of the game so when I thought I'd won by taking his king he then told me that you need to say 'Check' or 'Check mate' or something like that so that he can move away. What is the point of that? As I said to him, what is the point of playing quiet and strategically to then at the final stage say 'I'm about to get you' so they can then move away. Silly game. Anyway, that almost spoilt the night. Ha! James was happy to stop the game but I am stubborn and told him that we were going to finish it but it was a silly game. In the end he actually won, but in my mind I won 2 times before he did because he missed out on an important explanation of the game. I wasn't very happy during this match! I have told him that I'm never playing chess again!

We then headed back to our room and played Skip-Bo which was a bit nicer as I knew how to play it and I think I won. Then it was sleep time.

In the morning I woke around 7am. You can take away the kids but you can't turn off my body clock! Ha. Being in a tent the sunlight came in pretty bright too so that helped wake me up too. James is much better at just sleeping as long as he can though so I lay in bed and read my book. So nice to lie there and not have a kid come and jump on me!

Our tent closed up to stop the possums coming in at night

James still asleep, even as the sun had risen

My book that I read from start to finish while we were away!

Once James woke up and we got going we headed back up to the Gunyah for breakfast. It was continental breakfast with a hot breakfast option. They have the camp breakfast which is the normal hot breakfast - bacon, eggs, mushrooms, etc. I chose the special which was smoked salmon and scrambled eggs. Yum!

Our table last night

Delicious muesli! I do love a good bowl of muesli

Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs. I even ate the fish eggs!

Friday morning was our 10th Anniversary and it was going to be a special day of us. I love being married to James. I love how he spoils me like this and is constantly encouraging me, showing me love and caring for me. Today was no different.

We headed back to our tent and took a few more photos in the daytime.

 We decided that we would get some bikes from the camp and ride into town, Huskisson. I haven't ridden a bike for a long time but it was easy to pick it up again. There was a path that went all the way, most of the ride was lined with lovely trees and it wasn't too steep. Lucky because our bikes didn't have any gears. 

When we arrived at Huskisson James found a coffee place and then we went for a walk through the shops down to the view over the beach. It was really nice to just take our time.

We then rode back to our tent and got ready to head to the beach for lunch. We had a little friend in our shower. Thankfully James removed the cicada.

James went up to collect our picnic hamper that they had made for us and then headed out to Murrays Beach. They recommended this beach because it is more remote and beautiful. They mentioned Hyams Beach but also said that it is really busy and hard to park at so to probably go somewhere else if you wanted it to be quieter. We parked and did the short walk through the bush to get to Murrays Beach. So pretty.

The water was stunning, so crystal blue and the sand was so fine and white. We found a spot partly in the shade and set up the blanket and picnic that they provided. We had our lunch while our sunscreen soaked in.

The food was tasty - chicken sandwiches, quiche, nuts, cake, biscuits. It was a really lovely way to celebrate our anniversary. The water was quite cool but once in it was really refreshing. So nice to be at the beach and just enjoy the water and sitting on the sand. Definitely my happy place.

After a few hours we hopped back into the car and headed back to our place. After a quick shower I sat down on the day bed and again read. It was so lovely to sit and read and listen to the sounds of the bush.

Also, the yellow building that you can see is the Gunyah. Not a bad spot to sit. James thought so too so came to join me.

We then headed up to the restaurant to have another amazing 4 course dinner. 

I forgot to take a photo of the menu but we did take photos of each meal and they were all delicious!

cold corn soup

roast vegetables salad - beetroot, baby carrots, etc.

Barramundi

James had mentioned to our waitress Gemma that it was our 10th anniversary when he was picking up the hamper and asking for recommendations on where to go. When we walked in for dinner she saw us and said 'Happy Anniversary'. When dessert came out there was a very cute touch for us.

Cake and icecream and white chocolate truffles

 After dessert we sat down and decided to play a game of backgammon. We had to look up the rules to refresh our memories but once we started to play it quickly came back to our memories. It was lots of fun playing it. We are now on a hunt to find a nice boardgame of it for us.

 When we headed back to our tent we saw a visitor on our verandah, a cute little possum. Fortunately it ran away as we came closer because I wasn't keen to try and get past it!

The next morning I again woke around 7am and James again slept past. I decided that I would get up and sit on the verandah to read in the morning. They do 'room service' early in the morning by delivering a thermos to your steps so you can have a cup of tea or coffee in your tent. We didn't know this until we walked past it on our first morning so I decided to get up and take advantage of the thermos and made myself a cup of tea to drink while I read.

Again, I loved listening to the sounds of the bush.

We wore our dressing gowns in the morning just because you could.

We packed up a little bit and then headed up to the Gunyah for our breakfast. This morning's special breakfast was french toast with grilled stone fruits. It was so nice and fresh! It has definitely been special having these amazing meals!

After breakfast we said thank you to Gemma and the other people and headed back to the tent to finish packing. Then we hopped in the car and headed home via Kangaroo Valley. Such a pretty drive. We giggled at the town 'Cambewarra' because we could imagine Alexander pronouncing it like this when trying to say 'Canberra'. We stopped at the lookout which was stunning!

We then kept going to Kangaroo Valley and went for a little walk through the shops and then found a cafe that had aircon inside for lunch. It was wayyyyyyy too hot outside for us to sit outside for lunch. We both got a calamari burger and James got this amazing lime drink.

It was a bit too much. Haha. But still nice.

We then drove the rest of the way back to pick up the kids and then home. It was nice to see the kids again. I had missed them but it was also so lovely to get away and have a kid free break. Thanks to Mum and Dad for being willing to look after them! 

This time away was so special to celebrate 10 years of being married to James, and to have some just us time, but it was also so lovely to just stop. To not have a tv meant that we talked, we read, I stopped and read my Bible instead of rushing though inbetween the kids calling out. We played games and remembered that it is fun to play games with each other (even though we both are competitive). I was able to stop, something that hasn't happened for a while, atleast not properly. So a wonderful time away :-)