A weekend at Hotham

Every January we head up to Hotham for a weekend. We're family members at a ski lodge up there so we participate in a work party to get some work done around the place. Despite the long drive (it's a 5 hour drive although it takes a lot longer than that with Esme in the car!) it's always really nice to get away for a weekend. We try to make the car trip as pleasant as possible and stop at least every couple of hours to let the kids have a play. There are some really great parks along the way that we've discovered since having kids! On the way up we stopped at Howitt Park Adventure Playground, which is in Bright. It's a huge playground with lots of things for the kids to explore. It's also right by the Ovens River and has an area that you can swim in, as well as a slide into the river.

Jacob tries out the slide at the Howitt Park Adventure Playground

Esme on the flying fox, with only a little help from Mummy. I can't believe she can hold her own weight!

Esme and Daddy relaxing by the river

Walking over the bridge to the other side of the River

While we were at the lodge we decided to walk up one of the ski runs nearby - the Big D. It's always funny seeing the slopes without snow on them and the lifts all packed up. It's so quiet up there in Summer that it's hard to imagine just how busy it can get in Winter! It was such a beautiful, sunny day on the Saturday. On the Saturday evening though we had a huge thunderstorm hit! It was kind of eerie.

It was Jacob's idea to walk up the slope!

Looking down at the road from the (almost) top. Jacob wanted to keep going but Esme and I had had enough by then!

On the way home we stopped at the Yea Railway Reserve Playground. This is a very cool playground (and the shadesail over the top of the whole playground was pretty cool too!) It's situated on an old railway site so the playground has a bit of a train related theme.

This train slide had a motion sensor and made train noises when the kids went nearby

Jacob was quite taken with this conveyor belt that moved.

Esme thought it was funny when Mummy tried to sit on the rocker with her and made it tip to one side

It was a lovely weekend. I'm not sure when we are going to make it back to the lodge again though. We would normally go up in July to the snow but with a baby due in late June/early July I'm not sure what we're going to do! I think Jacob will be a little disappointed if we don't go though...