2016! Another incredible year…

I just read back on our 2015 recap and remember thinking what an epic year that was…and now, as I sit down and recap 2016, my mind explodes a little bit as I recall another incredible year.

Jan 2016:  Another year and we were ready to go to print AGAIN! It makes our hearts burst with so much pride that thousands of families are enjoying our Travel Journals.  We worked on a NEW cover design which saw the addition of a plane, in the hope that families would see that our Travel Journals are designed for ALL types of travelling adventures.  We were very proud to become members of the Caravan Industry Association of Victoria and they joined us as our major supporter.  Let’s all Go Make Some Memories…

Feb 2016:  Our NEW cover was released and we were overwhelmed with the feedback! Our first caravan show for the year and it was the BIG ONE! We remember visiting the Victorian Caravan & Camping Supershow with the girls in 2015, thinking and dreaming about how wonderful it would be to see our Travel Journals and Caravan/Camper Log Books at a show like this… fast forward a year…WE ARE HERE! What a show! We got to meet some amazing people in the caravan industry, an industry that we have grown to love and respect.  A quick cheeky interview with Macca from What’s Up! Downunder, playing with snakes and chatting with hundreds of families and looking at hundreds of family caravans…phew…it was a fantastic week.

March – July:  Lots of weekends away in the van for our family.  A few highlights were a ripper weekend in Melbourne staying at Crystal Brook Tourist Park and visiting Puffing Billy and another one chillaxing in Cobram at the RACV Cobram Resort.  We worked behind the scenes, building our list of stockists and posting out hundreds of Journals.  In May, we hosted our first kids event in our little home town of Numurkah.  The Mik Maks joined us at the town hall and you could hear the kids screaming and singing for miles!!  We were featured in many magazines and newspapers which was humbling.  Truck loads of time and fun was spent researching our big Red Centre Adventure.  We also launched our new sister platform Travelling with Kids, website, Facebook and Instagram (like we weren’t busy enough!)

August:  We set off on a trip of lifetime for us.  Our bucket list was about to be ticked numerous times as we headed up the middle for a 4 week adventure that saw us explore and experience some of the BEST this country has to offer.  We hosted a few magnificent happy hours in Mildura at Apex Beach Holiday Park, Alice Springs at the Big 4 MacDonnell Ranges Holiday Park and Coober Pedy at the Oasis Tourist Park.  From the Devils Marbles to Broken Hill we LOVED every single day on the road and struggled to come back to ‘real life’.  Wayne celebrated his 40^th birthday at Uluru and we saw the best of this region with many thanks to the Ayers Rock Resort.

September 2016: Home and cleaning red dirt out of EVERYWHERE, constantly dreaming about doing it all again.

October 2016:  Another massive caravan show in Melbourne at the Leisurefest and news from Wazza from What’s Up! Downunder that we would be joining them on their Summer Series TV show!! WOAH!! WOO HOO.  An opportunity of a life time – we got to road test a New Age Gecko van for 2 weeks, help raise money for the National Breast Cancer Foundation and watch all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes of making a television series. (Tune in to Channel 10 on Jan 7^th for the first episode – we will be the goofy family in the background.)  On top of all this we made friends with the most amazing group of people.  Macca, Tania Kernaghan, Angie Hilton, ALL the WUDU crew and fellow caravanners.  Friends for life!

November 2016:  Back to reality again with a thud although you couldn’t wipe the smiles off our faces as we had had the best few months EVER!  Off to our final Caravan show for the year at the Bendigo Leisurefest where we stayed with Neil and his team at the BIG4 Bendigo Ascot Holiday Park. Loads of shade, a gorgeous little park that we can’t wait to go back to one day.  Once again, we met some super friendly travelling families and caravan industry people, including the owners of a new business called Step ‘n’ Store. We had to grab one and can’t wait to give it a good crack in the New Year.  We also started working on a NEW cover design for 2017 as we geared up for another print run!

December 2016:  For anyone out there working in retail, you will all know what a crazy month December is.  Our family work in retail stores, including our little shop where Caravanning with Kids lives – Little Bags of Magic – so December this year was all about packing Travel Journal orders, writing articles and serving our loyal local customers.  Behind the scenes, we worked hard with a very talented illustrator Marie O’Neill, developing a NEW cover design that we hope you all LOVE and our Facebook community reached 10,000! A bloody ripper year over all…

THANK YOU so much to everyone that followed along, read our articles and had a laugh with us.  You all mean the world to us xx

I wonder what 2017 will bring. We have huge plans and we hope you all stick around to join in the fun.  Here is a sneaky peak of what to look forward to:

• Our NEW cover design will be released in Feb! Massive thanks again to Roxy from Rocko Designs and Ian from WillPrint Shepparton – we are once again using our local printer, supporting Australian business and making our Journals 100% Australian Made – YAY!!
• We will be working hard on our very first DIGITAL MAGAZINE! This will be filled with so much cool caravanning stuff…you are not going to want to miss it!
• We will also be launching a MASSIVE photo search! Would you like to feature in our 2018 Travelling with Kids CALENDAR? Stay tuned for more information soon.

 SNEAKY PEEK!!! Eeeeeeeeek