PuddleduckLane: Winter Wonderland

We snuck away last weekend for a family holiday in the Snowy Mountains,

celebrating the Jackman's 3rd Birthday.

The last time we were at the snow I was 32wks pregnant with this little guy so it was really sweet to watch him playing in the snow, all grown up.

Sunday morning was a perfectly glorious day for a roadtrip. We took our time driving down, stopping at Gundagai for lunch and a play in the park.

Our base was Ribbonwood Cottages at Tumut. It was the perfect setup for a family with small kids like ours. A sweet, super comfortable, self contained cottage set on a 100 acre working farm.

No sooner had we set our bags down then we were tramping across the paddocks to explore the river.

And traipsing along cow trails.

After an early dinner we rugged up and headed back across the paddocks to light a campfire. A lot of fond childhood memories came flooding back as we searched for the perfect stick to toast marshmallows. We lit sparklers and tracked satellites across the night sky.

Monday morning was an early start with a drive to Selwyn snowfields first thing. The birthday boy and his big brother may or may not have been just a tad excited.

So lucky that its been a brilliant season with a really decent snowfall. The boys were booked into Snow World for the morning so we snuck off for a child free coffee before coming back to see them both rocking it in their ski lessons.

The boys were so proud of themselves and we were a little bit amazed at how quickly they'd picked it up. During lunch I realised that my credit card had fallen out of my pocket. Eeek!!! Was a tad stressed but thankfully some lovely person eventually handed it in so...crisis averted.

The afternoon was filled with snow tube rides, tobogganing, snowball fights (mostly Husband firing at us as we were being towed up the snow tube hill, yes, you're right...he's evil) and making snowmen and snow angels.

It was brilliant fun.

Can't wait to come back next year for a longer stay so we can all hit the slopes on our skis.

The boys conked out on the drive back to Tumut.

At sunset Jack opened his presents and after dinner we had cake.

He was so thrilled to have us sing Happy Birthday to him. He gave me a huge hug after he'd blown out the candle exclaiming, "Oh THANK YOU Mum for gedding me my ca-ake, oh THANK YOU!! So stinkin cute!

Tuesday morning started with a lazy sleep in, one last meander about the farm and a play at the river.

None of us really wanted to go home. Harry in particular was quite attached to the cottage, I had to giggle when he exclaimed with great passion, "I just LOVE this little cottage, it's just so ADORABLE, I never want to leave it!".

It took some convincing to get the boys into the car, with the promise that we'd come back next Autumn to see Tumut in all its splendour during the Fall Festival. We stopped for a late lunch in Yass, took a stroll about town and fell in love with a gorgeous 1920s kitchen dresser in the antique store. Long story short, it's being delivered to its new home, aka our dining room, next week.

The perfect end to our mini holiday.