Let’s be clear, camping with twin two-year-old toddlers, boys, FULL to their brim with energy and excitement for life.

This trip was starting to be planned, almost the day I fell pregnant. I was just a given that when we had children, camping, fishing and exploring would be on the cards and be a big part of our family trips. Poppy has been building the camping ideals for years, campers, tools, tents, fishing gear, everything! This was a colossal part of my childhood, every Easter holidays, at a minimum we planned a trip away, a camping trip with successful fishing the goal. This stopped after October 2017.

After we lost my little brother, we didn’t and don’t want to do the normal things we used to, the fun times we had, feels like we’re doing something we shouldn’t, we shouldn’t be doing this without him; for some this is a difficult concept to grasp, why would we want to stop doing these things if they bring us joy? Because joy feels fake now, enjoying something together, when we’re not all together, doesn’t feel right.

But, we now have two little tinies to think about and share the world with. Their eyes look at the world through innocent, kind, loving, curious eyes, they haven’t felt loss, grief or great pain, they have an incredible zest for life, joy and adrenaline, for taking risk, laughing, running and jumping off high things.

So what to we do?

I guess we just take a deep breath, close our eyes and jump, headfirst into a scenario that we want to enjoy, but is surrounded by this dark cloud, and lots of tears.

Leading up to this trip, we made a special trip to look for the boys first fishing rods, Poppy had done some research and was ready with suggestions, we looked at clothes, rods, reels, shoes and just admired all the awesome things in Anaconda before selecting our very first, very special fishing rods.

The trip was planned, camp site booked, truck packed and ready, we hit the road – luckily, the boys travel relatively well, we have a box of goodies at the ready and plenty of snacks before they nod off for the reast of the trip.

We arrive and its set up time! Both boys were deeply curious about the tents, chairs, tables, lights and people all around us, often trying to slip away and join a new family…

I spent most of the time worried, they’re going to run away, they will get out of the tent, the tree will fall on us, they will fall of the pier, someone will grab them… the brain was on fire with rubbish scary scenarios, shitting all over the shreds of joy we did find.

Watching the boys hold a fishing rod, being so engrossed in the moment keeping them safe and trying to manifest happiness for everyone, we forgot to really stop and be in the moment, well, I did, so these photos were snapped, unknowingly by my mum, who had an eye on us the whole time, watching the joy and knowing these moments were important and special and needed to be captured, I will be forever grateful for these moments in time, looking at their faces, realising they couldn’t see how I felt, and enjoyed every messy second of it.

You can almost see the fear on my face, flat, worried, calculating face…. I have focused incredibly hard to move away from the overwhelmed and no fun mum status, it’s a work in progress.

This was also Easter long weekend, a wild, busy time of year. To this point in time, they boys hadn’t really had too much chocolate, so, to wake up and find a whole bunch of chocolate sprinkled throughout the tent after we slipped away for a morning shower was pretty exciting for them, they had chocolate for breakfast, bad parent moment or amazing fun parent moment? tiny, happy, buzzing chocolate covered toddlers gave me the answer.

The bits we nailed!

The boys slept like champions, we took small army cot style beds that are raised off the floor, folded a quilt in half, tucked one half under their bedsheet to keep it tight on the bed frame ad to give them padding underneath the sheet, folded over on top of them to stay cozy, throw in a pillow & winner. They eve slept through the crazy windstorm that swept the coast Easter 2023.

Using the plastic zip up bags that the pillows came in, to store, 1 quilt, sheet and pillow each – threw in their sleep toys and each had a neat little sleep pack ready to go!

Poppy suprised the boys with head lamps for night walks, we stayed up a little late (despite my stress about overtired and overwhelmed children), we walked around the campsite and saw owls, bats, birds, brush tail possum and a ring tail possum, oh and their favourite, the moon.

Taking a microwave and heating up precooked dinners, no hot plate sharing! easy 3-minute wait time for tired boys.

Taking a bathmat to place dirty shoes on inside the tent.

Epic new tent! A single large room that has one entry point and can be divided across the middle, we slept in the front, they in the back and my mind was at ease that the likeliness of them exiting the tent (despite the high zips etc), was significantly reduced.

The bits we sucked at-

Showering with one each was a task, too hot, too cold, want my towel, I don’t want soap, the bubbles touched me! Nanna suprised them with a little toy lizard that changes colour with the water temperature, this worked against us when in the shower they changed colour and naturally… they didn’t want them to change colour, cue awkward shower block, naked, freezing cold tantrum and crying about a blue lizard.

My stress nearly won. End of story there.

Prepping for torrential rain, oops leaks in the common area marquee.

Not enough tissues.

Overall, a win, we won, they won, we went, fished, loved and laughed, cried a little and ate chocolate, we watched sunsets, the moon, the stars and just watched the lake be still, calm and glorious.

So, to conclude a much shorter version of our long story, the joy they found in this trip far outweighed any stress I had, I’m grateful for every second we had there, and we will be back Burrill Lake.

What a wild ride!

Avg. Mumma xx