our beach trip

firstly can i say, i cant believe that we are already half way through January!! eeeep, this time next week i will be sitting at my school hall being bored to bits by someone telling me something i already know. the only good thing about going back after 16 weeks off is seeing my teaching partner and the rest of the gorgeous staff i have the pleasure of calling colleagues. i know i have said this already, but i think i need a change. i love teaching and it really is the most rewarding job, but i have lost my mojo for it and would rather be doing something much more creative with a little less accountability. i guess the only way that is going to happen is if i win the lottery or someone takes me on in their small business. so i guess i better just 'suck it up fuzzball' as my husband would say and get on with it :)

warning *overload of pictures coming up*

just after Christmas we headed on our annual Christmas holiday to the sunshine coast town of caloundra. we had just under two weeks away thanks to our good friends who rented us their unit at a very reasonable rate. the weather wasn't perfect, in fact it probably rained everyday we were away, but it didn't damped our spirits or keep us away from the water. i remember one day thinking how unusual us tourists must look swimming and sitting on the beach in the rain. of course i was probably doing the 'imagine if we didn't have children' dream of me in a cafe somewhere sipping a nice hot latte :p

it was nice to get away and be out and active each and every day. unfortunately i kept thinking of how much decluttering of our home i wanted to get to get done before we went back to work so i didn't relax as much as i should have, but i did sleep in till after 7 each morning and indulged in reading magazines and several books that i bought while away. (which i will post about on my other blog soon).

i have uploaded a few photos *coughs nervously* of our time away.

before i show you i must say that being away from blog land after Christmas is not much fun, sort of feel out of the loop about all the fun and gifts everyone received. so i guess i will have to do a catch up on Christmas after this post.

Santa was smart and gave each of the girls scooters for Christmas which folded up nicely in the FULL boot of the car and were put to good use along the long and gorgeous boardwalk which runs the length of the beaches in our area.

here we are at kings beach heading along the boardwalk towards the park at happy valley.

the sky is typical of most of our days away but not enough to stop us from getting a bit of a tan and having a heap of fun.

half way along the board walk is a great park with trees to climb and a pirate ship to explore and swings which face the ocean. but the best feature is the COFFEE VAN which supplied us with our afternoon fix everyday @_@

soon after this photo lili was sprayed on the chin by a stink bug which caused her enormous pain and left a red welt for days. she was also stung by a blue bottle the next day, poor little sausage.

Claudia is at a good age where she can roam the park without our assistance and is happy to play by herself or tag along with others.

each day we lathered the kids in sunscreen. even a thick layer of sunscreen wasn't enough to stop Claudia's birthmark from getting darker so we bought a tube of zinc in an effort to lessen it's colour change. here is lili ready for a swim.

what trip to the beach would be complete without a beach bum shot? and besides Claudia is such a ham for the camera i can never get her to pose properly!

i hate photos of myself but i want to put one on here for prosperity and to look back on in years to come. here we are trying to look relaxed...all i look is wrinkled!

we followed a daily ritual of heading to kings beach, in the morning, which has big waves, a public 'beach pool' and a water fountain and then home for a rest only to head out to happy valley in the after noon. happy valley has waves which tend to roll in gently and then there is a sort of catchment area where there are no waves at all but lovely tummy high water for the girls to splash about in.

here is lili exploring the sand while the girls enjoy the thrill of the waves coming towards them.

they can be so pleasant to each other when they want to ...they had so much fun with these waves.

we found lots of things that we wanted to take home and then we found this which was obviously someones new year dinner :)

the boogie boards came everywhere with us. i love this photo of Mia pretending to surf. i cant believe how tall she is getting! she will be 6 this year and starts grade one soon!!

we dug many holes, built heaps of castles and invaded many others :) this hole provided ages of fun for us all.

and sadly our trip has come to an end and seems like a lifetime ago. we really did have a good time away and are already thinking of next time.

the exercise machine is calling me, i have put on 3 kgs since starting my long service and i need to get it off before it gets stuck there for good.

i will be back with another post soon, and i am slowly getting round to all of your blogs, please forgive me if i dont get there soon.

%*_*% rosey