Sewing project or family trip?

Yesterday afternoon I received a package. Packages always make me smile, especially this one!

I had a great night and dreamed about my next blog post.

At the break of dawn our kids decided that the content of the blog post would not be the one I dreamed about. They unanimously decided to do something fun all together and more specifically something fun WITHOUT a sewing machine.

Mister P invited us earlier this week to join him on a trip to the mountains. As our ‘pater familias’ was absent this week, I told him I did not have the courage to go on an off road trip with all five of our kids on my own.

So mister P was asked ‘last minute’ if the offer that was turned down earlier was still standing. Luckily mister P was happy to take us on the trip. We agreed to meet in an idyllic mountain village and where he would guide us to a secluded lake.

The way to the village was long and dry. Luckily there were some distractions along the way. Construction work pipes, which –according to the kids- looked like bombs: exciting!

A stack of shriveled palm trees (enough for a huge bonfire).

A couple of goats, who were eating the only patch of grass for miles around.

A house with an outside sitting area, with a grandstand view of the desert.

And a very lonely fruit seller.

After kilometers of sandy scenery we finally reached the mountains.

We tried to call mister P who seemingly did not have network! So we were left to our devices to find the idyllic lake.

After some climbing and clambering our efforts got rewarded.

A little hour and some nice pictures later we left to go back home, disappointingly enough without the promised swim as the local authorities put a ‘no swimming allowed’ sign on the shore of the reservoir.

To soften the disappointment of the kids, we did a pit stop in the desert on the way home. The love horse around in the dunes. Like real locals we stopped on the side of the highway and picnicked 50 meters away from heavy evening traffic. The photo’s look way more romantic than the actual spot really was.

Omar got his whole face covered in sand when he fell over.

Finally the sun started to go down and the wheels of our off road toy car were getting stuck because of an overload of sand; time to go home.

Back home, a phone call with mister P taught us that we were at the same lake but at other sides, we were hidden from each other by a high rock formation. On his side of the lake there was no ban on swimming. Next time we take dad on the trip and we go for a swim too!