A Day With Family

I'm posting this the day after, but we arrived back at our hotel so late last night by the time I got organised it was nearing midnight and there was no way I was going to turn my Macbook on.
We had set aside Thursday as a day to visit with family.
First up was Geoff's Aunt Helen who later last year was diagnosed with breast cancer and is the middle of having chemotherapy treatment. Earlier in the week she had her last of the big doses of chemo and on the 16th of January she starts having a not so heavy lot of doses.
When Geoff called her early in the morning to see if she was still up for a visit he said she didn't sound too well at all but was happy for us to pop in. I really didn't think we would be there that long. When we arrived Helen looked a lot better than I thought she would and she really seemed to enjoy our visit, I am hoping that the visit brightened her spirits a little. She really is a wonderful person and has certainly been dealt a harsh hand with life. Geoff's father died over 20 years ago in his late 40's. Helen then living back in Sydney ended up caring for her parents who after Geoff's father's death were emotionally frail which then took its toll and they became physically frail and dependent upon Helen until they were both required to go to Nursing Homes until they passed away. It still is a little sad to go and visit at Helen's house and not have Nan and Pop there, they were truly beautiful, caring and loving people. Helen gave Geoff a book that a former war mate of her fathers had compiled and published. It is quite a thick book and I'm looking forward to sitting down and reading through all the stories. It is solely focused on Geoff's Grandfather's battalion and there are quite a few photos of Geoff's Grandfather in there. Its a wonderful book to be able to pass down to the children. History becomes lost if we don't retell the stories.
From there we travelled out to Castle Hill to see Geoff's Aunt Pat and Uncle Merv where we had some sandwiches. They had an old friend drop in for a visit. We then had a quick trip out to Castle Towers to look at the shops. I of course found a handbag I really liked that I couldn't afford.
Geoff's Nan had given the kids each $10 when they arrived earlier in the week and then Helen had given them each $30 for Christmas. Emma and Thomas spent half of theirs when they found some Pillow Pets. The other boys are being very cautious about what they spend theirs on and are hanging out for something they really want. Quite sensible I thought.
We then headed back to Pat and Merv's house where we were staying for dinner. Geoff went and picked up his Nan so she could come for dinner.
Pat and Merv aren't used to having small children around so dinner was a slow preparation and the kids were getting a little hairy. Merv ended up playing a couple of movies which kept them quiet for a while. As dinner was late, the evening ended up finishing very late and by the time we got home and I got all the kids into bed it was nearly midnight.
We had a big day planned the following day and we had to re-think those plans because I thought the kids would be very tired.
It was great to catch up with family again, really the sole purpose of the trip. I think Geoff's Nan really enjoyed getting to see her Great Grandchildren, something I'm sure she wishes she could do more regularly.