Today was a day for catching up with our friends, the Boldens. Michael, Lauren and Sam had chatted to them at the church service last night, and had made arrangements that, as well as going over there for lunch today, Lauren, Sam and Michael were going to meet up with Stephen (the Dad) and Caitlin (the daughter who is Lauren’s age and also horse-mad like Lauren) to go ride Caitlin’s horse. She’s had the horse for a couple of years, and Stephen also likes riding it, but they have found it is not the right personality for Caitlin after all – a bit too ‘rebellious’. But since Lauren and Sam are not beginner riders, they said it should be OK for them to ride her. So Stephen and Caitlin came by the van park around 10am to pick up those guys. Meanwhile I took Hannah and Bethany over to the pool for a swim, which they really enjoyed. I also had a bit of time reading and blogging. At 12.30, the others arrived back at the van – having enjoyed the riding, but feeling hot and sweaty as it was a humid day today. They changed etc, and then we all got in the car, went to Woolworths to get some salads and bread to take for the lunch, then went to the Boldens house which was not far away. 

We had a lovely lunch and a lovely time chatting away the afternoon. Lauren and Caitlin, and Sam and Ryan reconnected (they had last met each other about 6 yrs ago) and had a great time together. The Boldens had a pool, so they went for a swim again. Hannah and Bethany didn’t have any new playmates as Caitlin and Ryan were the only Bolden children, but they got to have a swim and play with some new duplo (which Karen kept for times like this I think). We ended up staying until almost dinner time and then came back to the van. But before we left, they had told us about a rodeo happening in Mareeba (1 hr away) tomorrow that they had been thinking of going to. We had never been to a rodeo before, but Caitlin had described to Lauren and Sam the horse-type things that happened there and they thought it sounded interesting. So we made plans to meet up with the Boldens again the next day at the rodeo. This meant staying an extra night in Cairns – but the van park office was already closed – so we would have to check with them in the morning if we could stay put one more night.