Beach days

We had the fortune of spending some beautiful days on the beach. These first pics are from a morning spent on Waikiki. Grandma and Erik spent some quality time playing in the sand.

 That day we also rented a large tricycle looking thing that floated and everyone took turns out on the ocean with it. When Erik, Theresa and I had a go, we actually saw a wild sea turtle, it was so cool. And it was within just a few feet of us. Definitely a highlight of the trip for me.

Below was a different day. After Marcus and Theresa and Cindy had gone back to the mainland, my parents stayed for a few extra days. We spent those days at the base and it was so much fun. What am I saying this whole trip was fun! We spent an afternoon at the base beach which is nice because although it catches some crowds, it is nice and peaceful away from heaps of tourists.

 We rented some Kayaks and went around the bay.

 Then we got some grub and well.....you can see my Dad's true colors coming out!

 Oh there we go...

 Cutie pie

 And us ladies!

So much bliss. Almost makes me ready for beach season here in Oz....but not quite because that means I pack around at least double if not more gear everywhere we go to make sure everyone stays hydrated, free from sunburn, dry, fed, etc. In the warm months here I carry heaps of extra weight. Not too mention the sand is fun at the beach but gets old at home. And if only I had a little room to just put all our summer gear, it just gets shoved around and hangs off everything drying. A lovely mudroom, or something would be great! Dreams....

Rainbow Beach and Tin Can Bay continued

So how can you really finish off your adrenalin rush of a morning skydiving? Let me tell you, the BEach of course. Thats the main thing to do in the summer here, it keeps you cool and its fun, its a workout if you play in the water, it wears you out and we usually pack our own food-especially on public holidays when everything is closed so you get good food in your belly. Usually lots of fresh tropical fruit and other things that wont spoil in the heat and humidity. 

So we headed down to Rainbow beach, here is the entrance for 4 wheel drive vehicles to drive the beach, which is a huge draw and many people camp this way. We have yet to experience it but maybe someday (we can't do everything right, just like we wont see all of the south pacific, or even all of Australia)....

 I found these two hits interesting. I dont know if you can tell ( just realized my pics are too small) but the one on the left is a massage hut. While the thought is nice, I wouldnt want to be doing that in that climate, maybe when its not the middle of the summer. And the ice cream hut. So very interesting to me, not sure why

 Giving Erik his first body boarding lessons. This child is fish and I am sure he will go into withdrawals when he realizes that not everywhere in the world has pools and beaches close, free, and easy to get too. However that will not stop us from taking it all in when we can.

 Then we went fishing. Erik has been dieing to go. We went to a sporting store that sold bait and Lindsay asked where the bait was and the cashier replied with an answer that neither Lindsay nor I could decipher with his thick Aussie accent (they vary a bit here, just as the accent varies in the states). We asked him to repeat himself and I got it that time but Lindsay still didnt. I directed us to the proper place we paid for our worms and left. We couldn't help but bust a gut as we got out of earshot. They man has said 'beach worms' but it sounded like a mottled 'beachwams' spoken quickly. Now we joke often about the beach wams up in rainbow beach. And long those suckers were...

 that was only part of one.

 The next  morning we were heading out and the one and only thing I was dieing to do up in Tin Can Bay was feed the wild dolphins. Its free other than you pay for your fish that you give them. They keep the dolphins wild by only giving them so many fish (up to only 10 percent of their daily diet). There is a pod of dolphins that come in regularly but each day they dont know which ones will come or how many. This day there were two...the alpha male and his female mate.

 The food

 Erik giving it a go

 And myself. It was soooooo cool! We couldn't touch the dolphins as they were wild but it was cool to be near them and know that through the years they had trusted these volunteers enough to come get a morning snack.

Mission accomplished. Christmas Holiday was splendidly awesome that will forever go down in our family's history books and one that may never be beaten. I am ok with that-it will long be cherished!

His 'once in a lifetime'

I must be quick, I have a little due who I am pretty sure is in a growth spurt or else I have become an expert mum at wearing him out who is napping again today. Perfect opportunity for me blog! You never realize the value of things until you dont have them anymore hey.

So Boxing day, we were staying up in Tin Can Bay and that morning we were to be somewhere fun by 7:30 am we will say. I dont remember now I just remember it was something like that. We packed our day's bags since it was a bit of drive and showed up for Lindsay's Christmas present..................

SKYDIVING!

Yep I was that cool wife this last Christmas, don't hate me because I only come up and do stuff like this about never, so sorry Lindsay I can't say I will be able to come up with something as equally cool ever again.  I had come across a great deal on one of those groupon sites and thought, 1-I never can think of cool things to give him 2- He has always wanted to skydive (even almost went when we were dating) and doing it in Australia would make it that much more cool especially because with this company you land on the beautiful beach.

So random side note. My family know I have a hard time keeping fun secrets like this from Lindsay because I get so excited about them and he only likes surprises when he can know what it is as soon as he finds out about it. Well my friends I failed again, Partially because I needed to let him know about the weight requirements and make -ahem- any adjustments as needed and partially because he is so darn smart and partially because I wanted to book it, but with his schedule being so wacky I needed his help. I let him know about the weight restriction shortly after I bought it s he would have the time needed to lose a few kilos. As soon as I said what the limit was he automatically guessed it because he had already researched it I guess since we have lived here. I played it cool for a while and thought I had him a bit deterred.He hounded me a bit, but then left it alone, then I needed to book it and I just couldnt contain it any longer and I knew we would need to get accomodation since it was a good 3 plus hour car ride and he would dive in the morning, so I spilled the beans and we  planned the mini holiday as a family.

 Back to showing up at 7:30. WE walk in and tell them we were there for the scheduled dive and they tell us we were 30 minutes late, my heart dropped, I had remembered the wrong time. There are no refunds....great. Luckily these guys are cool and they say "well it's been too windy this morning anyways and we couldn't have left yet anyways. phew. Then they see Lindsay and ask how much he ways (mind you he has been starving himself the whole week of Christmas and hadnt eaten anything for a good 12 hours prior to this. He responds and they say, 'it will be close lets put you on the scales........dun dun dun.....300 grams OVER....my heart sinks again. So now we have come late, and he is over the weight limit. Do they let him fly-why yes because they rock. They say that because he is a fit guy it will be ok. They worry about weight for the landing because you have to hold up your legs and land on your bum, you can seriously injure yourself if you are too heavy or out of shape. So On we go. They let Erik and I tag along (with Erik's new toy plane too) to watch it all. We get bussed out to the plane. Erik has his first experience in the pilots seat of a small plane-he has done this before on the big jets but not a cesna.

 He is in absolute heaven! We watch them taxi down the grass strip and take off...

 the real pilot

 the instructor that Lin will fly tandem with.

 On your markey's

 get your car keys

 GO!

 Safe at last! He was able to do a 60 second freefall before the big chute came out and enjoyed the view on the way to the big 'x' on the beach where we excitedly waited for him.

Both of my men were in heaven that morning and thus I was also. I am glad I didnt have to skydive, it doesn't appeal to me in the least and I am happy I could make my man's dream come true while fueling my little man's passion for planes. It was summing up to be one spectacular Christmas season.

Christmas part deaux

 Isn't that a nice view? Over the Christmas break when it seems nearly everything shuts down for the summer season we spent a lot of time at the beach. Which was good since it's the rainy season and after the new year boy have we seen our fair share of the rain! This beach is down in Coolangatta, which I believe is technically in New South Wales the state just south of Queensland.

 Lindsay went surfing here one morning with a mate and realized that his surfing skills weren't quite up to the skill level of the surf here. The current is strong and you have to walk a long way from where you end up riding in to where you start. But it's beautiful. In fact recently we had our first set of family come visit us and and "Cooly" as the locals call it was a beach that we went to. We played and were able to watch part of a pro surf competition going on that day. Saweet!

 Back to Christmas....in March....On Christmas eve we did an afternoon activity with some friends. We made gingerbread houses- the boys doing one and the girls the other. It was fun to compare the attention to detail between the genders.

 And of course when it's that hot out...who wants to be cooking? Not me so we did a simple yet yummy sausage sizzle for lunch. And then we headed down to the pool for a swim

 That little doll of a face makes me want to just love on her. Her affection is openly given to anyone and I have been able to earn her trust a bit and it makes my heart truly sing. I have even been able to babysit her without any crying, which is an achievement for this little girl. She is very attached to her parents, so it's been nice for everyone that I can help out, especially since she will have a new sibling next month!

My good friend Jody and the little munchkin. We had a blast with them and tried our best to exhaust our little ones for the big visit from Old Saint Nick. Having Christmas in the summer is not something I want to do forever but right now I absolutely love it! It's so different it is hard to compare and while there are lots of things to miss about a cold and white Christmas, we can create just as magical as a Christmas in the beautiful shining hot sun. Where else can you swim all afternoon to take up a Christmas eve day. Where seafood is plenty and so yummy for the dinner. Where you want to sleep with absolutely no covers rather than piling them on. It's so cool!

Christmas morning to come!