It is so easy to take family for granted.
We had our annual Hawkins Family get together last weekend on Moreton. Most of the fifth generation are now in their 20's and have partners and some have littlies. So as you can imagine, everyone has so much going on in their lives - it is a rarity that the whole family gets together.
In true Hawkins style, after having lunch at yellow patch (where I left the bread rolls behind so we had to eat coleslaw out of the bowl) we randomly decided to go for a walk to find the rainforest that is situated on the walking track, and that goes between the Blue Lagoon and the Mount Tempest tracks. It is around a 2-hour walk if you know excactly where the rainforest is, which we didn't. Most of us were wearing our togs and only had thongs or no shoes, which is fairly normal Hawkins logic. (Though we weren't completely irresponsible - we did have water with us.)
Since the fire, everything you touch is covered in ash. So you can imaged after a couple of hours, we staggered out of the bush(after eventually finding the rainforest) covered in black soot, legs covered in scratches and half of us limping from something sharp going through our feet. The funny thing is that everyone had a FANTASTIC time - we all laughed together, got back to Castaways and dressed each other's wounds, and now have that great memory of our crazy bush walk together.
It's the simple things in life that are often the most special.