Extended family loving

Love can take so many forms and I am so ever thankful that Mountain Dad is open to it in all it's rich variety. These last few weeks he's been open to the love of packing our stuff every few days for a trip down south, up north out west or out to sea. He's been open to the love of a sweaty body as the mercury rises as high above zero as it is below zero back home in Whitehorse. Open to the love of a family of drunkards constantly bemused by his indefatigable enthusiasm to corral us into some kind of organised activity. Lawn bowls, stick picking, walks, moonlit paddles, card games, dictionary games; as we're mustered into movement, we all wonder vaguely if these won't interfere with our drinking and reminiscing of old family stories.

Since we've been back in Australia we've had time to camp on our own on the South Coast. We've had time with my brother, his family, the Grandparentals and Mountain Dad's sister on the North Coast. There's been time with aunts, uncles and cousins for Chrissie on the farm and time on the sailing boat with just the Grandparentals. All this interspersed with a few days at home in which we barely had time to wash the nappies before we'd load up and drive off again.

Mountain Dad has been open to all of this good love.

Good on 'im, we say.

And don't we just miss him now that he's back in the Horse of White? Little Ladie answered the phone today for the first time (we were holding the phone expecting Mountain Dad's call).

"Hello Daddy!" she brightly said, "Lachlan's here! When are you coming home?"

I heard Shea exclaim something back to her and then she breezed on.

"I want a cuddle!" and then the line dropped out. Break your heart wouldn't it? We poised over the phone waiting for the call back.

"Hello Daddy" she brightly repeated, "Lachlan's here!"

"Muffle, muffle, something or other," said the local mechanic. And then there was a tantrum as I tried to wrestle the phone from her little fist to explain, and then Buddy set up wailing in indignation at all his Big Sister's noise making and then I really began to miss our Mountain Dad.