07 October 2012

2012 Camp Bus Story - Prequel

What is camp without a good bus story?  This year we didn't manage to steal a bus, or the obvious one-up from that: exploding a bus, but we did manage a bus incident two nights before camp.  But before I tell you about the bus incident, which will seem quite tame after this wind-up, I need to tell you what we did the night we took the camp bus for a pre-camp trial run and fuel-up.

Before the warm spring holidays in our Queensland town, we received a flier in our school newsletters saying that there would be ice-skating and tobogganing in a Fitness and Recreation Centre 20 minutes from where we live.  Buzz and Jessie had been ice-skating before and enjoyed it, and we decided that we'd take all our kids along with Justamum, Belle and Banana (from the blog Yes I Said Four) to try it out.  They had a family friend, a boy of about 10, staying with them, so it seemed like a good idea to take the 22-seater bus to fit us all in, and also to do the pre-camp trial run in the same trip.


The kids loved ice-skating!  Buzz thought he was an Olympic-standard skater as he shuffled around the rink, Jessie and Woody both cried until they got little-kid skates which helped them shuffle around too instead of their usual falling/crying routine, and Mr de Elba and Justamum helped their respective children around while trying not to fall down, get wet or get bruised.

I was glad to sit out with baby Rex in the wrap, because can I just remind you of this:

which, while much improved since the birth of little Rex, cannot be trusted in a slippery-floor situation, much less an ice-skating situation.

The tobogganing was also a winner after initial tears from Jessie and Woody.  Jessie seemed to have had no real reason for tears, but we thought Woody's tears were probably justified.  His first ride went perfectly if his cape is anything to judge by, despite his facial expression:

 But his second trip was generally considered to have been a mistake:




Tears ensued, but Daddy saved the day:

Banana and Belle had a blast on the toboggans:
 As did Buzz and Jessie:

And when it was all over, we hopped into the bus to go home, with a quick stopover to buy 30c cones at McDonalds.  It was late, dark, rainy and cold.  Everyone was tired, especially baby Rex who needed a feed, a bath and his own comfy cot.  The bus felt a little old and unreliable, but what could go wrong, right?

11 comments:

gartcott aka Penny Hannah said...

My breath is bated for the next instalment.

robyn said...

Looks like so much fun! Look forward to finding out what happened :)

Tracy P. said...

Look at all those gorgeous pictures! Those expressions, Superman's cape, and oh! the suspense! I'm a little nervous, but at least I know you lived to tell about it. :-)

Charlie said...

I tried to reply earlier but my phone ate it. :( I'm looking forward to the next instalment - you really know how to produce a good cliff-hanger!

Also, what are little-kid skates?

Allegro ma non troppo said...

What COULD go wrong?

Givinya De Elba said...

Hey Sue Ellen, see those 2 pics side-by-side up there with Woody? On the left he has blue big-kid skates with one blade, and on the right he has a two-blade contraption strapped onto his regular shoes with red straps. It was the two blades that saved his night! Little kid skates :-)

Givinya De Elba said...

And Tracy - I thought they were terrible pics from a photography perspective - I had Rex in a pouch on my front the whole time and I just set my camera to AV and snapped away, because 'Auto' would have given me too much flash) So the photos were quite dark in places, and I edited them with some of PW's actions in PS3.

And the blurriness! Ugh! I thought it was all a disaster but then I realised how cool the blurriness was at times. So that one with Mr de Elba and Woody on the toboggan - first I thought "I can't put that in - it's ruined by blur!" then I realised I really REALLY liked the blur after all, and left it in!

Terrible pics from a technical viewpoint, but great memories, and mostly salvageable through Photoshop!

Charlie said...

Ah, got it. So it's more of a "lift you 10mm off the ice and let you pretend you're skating" contraption? Very cool. (Unintentional pun, I swear!)

Givinya De Elba said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Givinya De Elba said...

Sue Ellen: Sort of a dual-blade contraption for the kiddies :-)

Tracy: I meant CS3, not PS3! Honestly! C and P aren't even close on the keyboard!

Justamum said...

What a night!! ;)

I love the photo sequence of Woody spinning out :)