Our snow adventure...

On the Queen's Birthday long weekend we decided to head up to Lake Mountain, near the town of Marysville that was ravaged by fires on Black Saturday in February 2009. And on a tangent, can I say that that area is hauntingly beautiful. The fire ravaged trees still stood and building works were going on everywhere, but there was something so heartwarming and beautiful about seeing this little town and its people keeping it going despite the enormous loss they suffered.

Now its fair to say that I am not a fan of the outdoors in general. I am often heard chanting, " I HATE nature". I don't enjoy the sun, or the cold, or dirt or bugs.... and snow.. well I hate the friggen stuff. BUT being a good mumma who knew at least 1 of her children would love it, I obliged, helped pack up the car and off we went. Now I have a very valid reason for my dislike of the snow, the last time I went, I slipped and sprained my ankle quite badly within about 10 minutes of stepping foot on the snow. So this time, I was going to be extra cautious. 

Kids all rugged up ready to go...pity about the face on Xave would be a good pic otherwise

Well was I wrong about 1 of the kids enjoying the snow, they both loved it. I honestly thought Stels would feel the cold of it and freak and spend the day clinging to me, but she was in heaven.

I made it out of the car park easily enough and spent a good 20 minutes wandering around near the toboggan run and was still alive. Adam suggested wandering over to another area where there appeared to be some more fresh snow that they could make a snowman with.. okay!?!?!?!

Well I made it over there too and was standing watching the kids loving it when...BANG!!! Down I went like a sack of potatoes. Freaking ankle.

As usual while I'm gasping in pain, begging Adam with my eyes to help me the fuck up, he is more interested in asking what happened. Well clearly darling, I'm on the ground in obvious pain...WTF do you think might have happened? What is it about asking me to talk when I'm in so much pain I can barely breathe?

Eventually Adam helped me up and perched me on a wet rock while he and the kids continued to play. Where I did at least get some great pics of the kids playing.

Some pictures from my wet rock

Experience with my life long shonky ankles tells me that what I should have done in that moment, was take off my shoe, elevate my foot and ice it. But the mumma bear in me, didn't want to ruin my kids day, so I left the shoe on, knowing as soon as it came off the ankle would swell making it impossible to get the shoe back on, sucked up the pain and spent the next 2 hours either limping around in the snow or sitting on cold wet rocks resting and watching Adam and the kids enjoy the snow. Why sitting on wet rocks I hear you ask and not in the warmth of the cafe sipping hot chocolate with marshmallows? Because there are NO FREAKING CHAIRS in the cafe at Lake Mountain.. WTF is that about?

Stella our little speed demon, was in her element on the toboggan, screaming when the run ended and carrying on all the way on the walk back up to the top... Adam claims that I hurt myself just to get out of dragging the kids up the hill time and time again... little does he know, injury or not, I was not going to dragging anyone up a freaking hill in the snow.

It was in the car on the way home that the pain really amped up to unbearable, I tried my best to elevate it, but it was impossible to get it as high as it needed to be, so we ended up stopping in Lilydale for Adam to go and buy me some pain killers.

Just a little bit swollen? Excuse the ugly toe nail polish.

The following day I headed off to the physio to have it strapped properly and checked over and he suggested an x-ray to rule out a fracture. The x-ray showed there wasn't a fracture, BUT it did show that I had a moderate heel spur.. which while not life threatening, it does explain a lot of the foot pain I often have, and means that I will need to reconsider my love of wearing thongs all the time... bugger

Operation 'proper shoes' here I come.

Oh and for those of you who have heard me refer to my 'hot' physio, he was busy when I needed my ankle looked at so I had to settle for a much younger, 'cute' physio instead. Seriously, is it a pre-requisite to the course, you have to be a bit of a looker?