"Three girls, a man and a caravan".: April 2015

With the worst month of our lives over with, it was time to try and get our lives back on track and put some positivity into it. The girls had witnessed way too much and been thru the wringer like both Marty and l and we were all exhausted and ready for some fun and laughs again. What better way to put some fun back into life than celebrating Easter and seeing the girls all excited. Boo and Meg spent an afternoon after school one day making their Easter parade hats, which ended up very creative and colourful. Cant believe how much time goes into school activities, life can be so busy!

Girls loving their hat creations....

Over Easter we enjoyed catching up with Nikki, Ella, Billie, Dale and Soul by heading out to a farm that was having an Easter Egg hunt. The kids had a blast, however, it was totally unbelievable how far some parents will go. They were going around and pushing other children out of the way to get more eggs, plus l cant believe that they didn't pull their own kids up when their arms were overflowing with eggs, giving other littlies a chance to get at least one. Our girls, however, got a few and were happy with that. After the egg hunt they went and checked out the baby animals in the petting zoo and even found the small guinea pigs, which they wanted to take home! After an hour or so we headed off to Coolum Surf Club for dinner, such a great place right on the beach watching the sunset, plus had great meals too!

Ella's a bit unsure of the crowd and animals....

Getting lined up ready for the Easter Egg Hunt...

And their off and racing....

The eggs were hidden in anything,,,,rummaging in the hay bail...

Soul still scavenging....

Time for the petting zoo....

Miss Ella's the boss....

Meg always attracted to animal fun...

Girls loving the guinea pig interaction...

With the fun of the Easter Egg Hunt and petting zoo over with it was time to set off to Coolum Surf Club for an early dinner.....

Easy way to distract the kids while waiting for our meals...

Panoramic view from our seats on the balcony of Coolum Beach....

Dales happy with his meal....

Easter bunny luckily arrived and deposited his vast amount of eggs to the girls, and bigger kids, AKA Marty! Meg had nearly finished all hers by the time l woke up, she was pinging off the walls before breakfast from all the sugar! We headed over to Billie and Dales for a get together with Ton, Cam, Candy, Macka and Nik for lunch and drinks. The kids had a blast with Tonia getting her face paints out and giving the kids a make over. She does such a great job. The kids then enjoyed another egg hunt, this time sharing it all out between themselves. Cant believe how much chocolate our girls had consumed over Easter!!! It was such a great weekend, being surrounded by friends and family. Pity Boof couldn't be there, he unfortunately was out at the mines....

Meg's lovely Easter Bunny illustration....

Meg's got her sugar high going on early....

Time for cousin Easter pressies.....at Billie
and Dales

Tonia getting her face painting groove on....so talented.

Ella inspecting a job well done...

Meg's turn...

Getting into character....Sugar Skulls are the
in thing apparently...

Boys usual stance around the barbie.,,

Jordy and Boo decide to create their own designs.

Not bad girls.....

Notice everyone else smiling but Boo is in character of warrior princess!

After all Tonia's hard work,,,it was short lived
as all the kids wanted a swim...

Time for yet another Easter Egg hunt...

We hid them well....lol

Boo's happy with her find...

Meg a little disappointed...lol

Time to share the eggs around....love Rileys pose...lol

The following week was quiet, which is what we needed after the Easter period. We enjoyed some family time together, hanging out at home. The girls loved it when "Mr Whippy" came into the park, we all treated ourselves to some choc top cones... The girls got a Monster Jam remote control car for Easter off Marty and l, so they had been flat out scaring the grey nomads around the park!!! Lol

Meg getting pretty excited....look the other way
honey, the icecream truck is behind you lol

Decisions...

Time for some remote control car fun...

One glorious afternoon spent was when Tonia and l went around to Nik's where Tonia did some "belly art" on her expanding pregnant belly. I took some pics for them once Ton had completed her masterpiece, totally magical! Was so great to be around seeing Nik go thru her pregnancy, cant wait for the bub to arrive...

Gorgeous....again Tonia is so talented.

It was time to get out and about, even though it was pretty cold and crisp. Boof had been bugging us to go camping with him ever since we had arrived on the Sunny Coast. So we agreed to go camping at Double Island Point with him for two nights with Ella, giving Nik some relaxation time to herself. Our luck meant that the weather had turned more cold with rain fore casted, but we still decided to head out and see what happened. Was a bit of an expensive two night adventure with having to fork out for the ferry across and back, a vehicle pass for the beach plus two nights camping permit, totalling the expense to around $60 per night just to camp on the beach with no power or toilets!!! Anyway, Boof raved about this place so we had to go and check it out....

After getting across the ferry it was time to let the tyre pressures down for the beach drive. The day was nice, not a cloud in the sky, so hopefully it will continue.

Tyre pressures go down...

Girls decide to have some fun in the sand while they wait...

Time to go!!!

The drive on the beach was nice and flat, was almost like a highway in parts, having to keep an eye on the two way traffic! We eventually found a good camp spot, up in the dunes to try and protect us from the wind. Unfortunately, as we drove along some clouds began to roll in and the windscreen soon had some spits of rain on it.....

On the beach on the way to Double Island Point...

Not looking promising of rain staying away...

Gorgeous cliff views on the left...

After setting up it was time for a BBQ lunch and some games of cards due to the rain and wind picking up. Ella had a sleep while we all huddled to keep warm under the gazebos, it was going to be a long day!

Lunchtime with glorious views....

Not a bad set up....

Ice and drink ute goes past frequently up and down the beach..

Not a bad set up....

While Ella sleeps its time for cards with Uncle Boofa..

Meg more interested in her pet crab she'd found

Surprisingly, later in the afternoon the grey clouds moved off for a while which allowed us to go and kick a footy around and explore the beach a bit. I reckon in the summer, this place would be a cracking spot, just not in the middle of winter!!

Beach footy time...

Beeson's make their usual beach stamp....

Ella's found her own fun...bored with footy!

The girls saw the big sand dune behind camp and got their boogie boards out. Boof looked a bit confused with what they were up to, but after seeing them slide down the dune laughing their heads off, it was his turn with Ella to have their first ever sand dune experience together....Ella absolutely loved it, and so did Boof l think!

Short climb to the top but bloody steep...

Sand dune fun....

Meg not making it very far down...

Concentration plus...

Quad fun....

Uncle Boof's got the right idea...

Ella loves it!

Got to go back up again....

Thumbs up from Uncle Boofa....

After some beach fun activities in the arvo, the weather had surprisingly been kind to us so we decided to build a fire before the sunset. Marty thought he'd have a crack at cooking over the fire like old times. As soon as the sun had set, the weather turned and the rain started to drizzle lightly on and off. We were so wanting to be around the fire that at every chance the rain broke, we were back at the fire warming up! At least we still got to have a marshmallow cook up and a few drinks around the campfire.....We all headed to bed reasonably early as the wind was giving us the shits!

Time to build a fire...

Looks like rain out there...hope it goes around!

Just when its time to cook the rain arrives....

Thank god for umbrellas lol

Rain has passed....marshmallow time!

Girls decide its a good idea!

Keeping to routine....milk and book time
before Ella's bedtime...

Next morning we woke to a grey sky and after breakfast we decided that it wouldn't be too much fun siting under the marque for the whole day, so we quickly packed up and then took a drive up the beach towards Rainbow Beach. Lucky we had packed up as the rain started and it didn't stop for the whole day. Even though we had less than 24 hours out camping, it was still worth it, the girls still had fun and now at least Boof will get off our backs to go out camping with him for a bit....lol.

Time to pack up before the rain returns :(

Girls all ready for the drive back together....

Couldn't leave without a porn truck beach pic lol

Packed up just in time as the heavens open
on the drive back!

Another great time this month was when the Cronans pulled into Forest Glen caravan park for a few days over the school holidays. We hadn't seen them since Geraldton in WA! We had a great time catching up and having laughs over a few drinks with Ton and Cam. I think at one stage we even got a warning for being too loud, surprise surprise! This totally took us all back to the life we once had, travelling on the road with no stress and pure joy of being amongst friends. God how l couldn't wait to get back out there. Bummer it seemed that it wasn't looking too close in the future!

Obviously selfie after a few wines...lol

Always fun times with these mobs...

And after a few more wines....

Poll dancing Cam....

Boo kicking their butts at pool!

Left pocket Nik!

Our "Nut Meg"!

We seemed to be spending alot of time with Nik and Ella these days, which was brilliant for all of us, but especially for Boo, Meg and Ella. Was so great to see them spending quality time with their cousin after being apart for so long. One day we ended up at Maroochydore Botanical Gardens. The girls had fun exploring the gardens and coming across all the magnificent sculptures. Nik is doing a great job still getting out and about so far into her pregnancy, l think she's only got a month to go!

Rollie pollie fun down the hill....

Ella unsure what her cousins are doing! lol

Meg not sure if the boobs are real lol...

Near the end of April we decided to head off on a quick road trip in between work to visit some other travelling mates, the Perkins, who had moved to Evans Head, NSW after finishing their trip a few years ago. We hadn't seen them since they called thru Geraldton in 2013, so we were all excited to see one another again. We first met Sally, Aaron, Riley and Holly while we stopped in Darwin for a work stop in 2012. We spent many months together and had formed a great friendship. When we arrived it was like old times and we picked up where we left off. Sal and Aaron spent the next few days showing us around their new home town and the gorgeous beach they live around. It was a lovely little quiet seaside town with all the usual country quirks. We also got to catch up with another lot of friends, Bronwyn and Gavin, who we all went out for dinner at the local pub one night. To this day, it still amazes me the amount of new friendships we have made on this trip and most have made themselves back home and were spread around Australia! Sadly, our time went quick and it was time to push off as we had made plans to catch up with other mates on our way thru the Gold Coast on the way home.

Road trip time!

Gorgeous Glass House Mountains on the horizon...

Meg, Boo and Holly on our scenic walk around
Evans Heads,,,

Out for dinner at the pub....

Girls loving their sleep over quarters....

Meg fell in love with their dog Missy...

Overlooking Alex Heads beach...

Perkin and Beeson selfie shot....

Riley, Holly, Boo and Meg...

Sal and me...

Man stance....

Surfs up....

Meg in her normal sight seeing grumpy mood,,,

It was a quick drive from Evans Head to the Goldie where we were able to call in for a few hours to catch up with old school mates from Shepparton, Michelle, Robbie, Jaylin, Tyarna and Riley, who were up on a family holiday. Like the Perkins, as soon as we saw Shell and Rob, it was like old times and we hung out with them at Treasure Island caravan park where they were staying. The girls had a ball hanging out with Jaylin and Tyarna, at first a bit shy as they hadn't seen each other for years, but after a little they were giggling and having a blast in the pool! They too wanted us to stay for longer, but we had to get back to the Sunny Coast for me to work the next day.....l was just so happy to see them again, even if it was for a short while.

Love my tunnels....

At Paradise Resort at the Goldie to visit Shell
and Rob...

Boo and Jaylin

Meg and Tyarna,,,

Boo's new doo....

Boo, Meg, Jaylin, Riley and Tyarna....great catch up!

Group selfie....

Been a long day....back to the Sunny Coast..

The month was going so fast with so many events and catching up with people. One Satuday Marty took Boo out for a hit of golf so Meg and l decided to do some catch up housework and baking, finishing off with popcorn and a movie. So great to spend some one on one time alone with Meg, as Marty had also enjoyed his time with Boo. Not very often that we do this and after the wonderful afternoon, l reckon we should try and do this a bit more often. The girls seemed to like their own time with us too...

Relaxing with popcorn and movie...

Fun with the whip...

One last big event for April was Anzac Day. This year it was extra special with it being the 100th Anniversary of Anzac Day and the girls had been invited to participate in the march at Maroochydore with their school. So for the first time, we woke before dawn to make our way to Mooloolaba Surf Club for the dawn service. I was prepared for it being busy, but l was shocked to see the hundreds of people already down on the beach. We got down on the beach area just in time for the beginning of the service and it was so cold! As the sun began to rise, the service began and it was spectacular! They had an army man riding down onto the beach, followed by the rising of the ores with the surf club out in their boats. I was so moved and became quite emotional. Glad the girls got to experience this and to pay our respects to the lives lost to protect this wonderful country of ours!

Sunrise at Mooloolaba Beach for the dawn service....

Huge crowd...

Surf life savers ore tribute....

Wouldn't be a service without a soldier on his horse...

After the service we met up with Boof, Nik, Billie and Dale for breakfast at Mooloolaba. OMG it was so delicious, l felt totally sick after l polished my plate off! But l did need my energy as after breakfast it was time to get the girls to Maroochydore for the Anzac Day March Parade. After dropping them off, we all headed to Cotton Tree to enjoy the parade. Seeing the girls walking up the road made me have a "mummy proud" moment. So glad to see them get involved in their school and community. Loved exposing our girls to events that let them show their respect for others and the sacrifices they have made for us. The girls did a fabulous job and were very well behaved. After the whole day, they fully understand the significance of war and the damage it leaves behind. It also taught them the significance of paying respect and what a wonderful country we live in. After all that seriousness, we decided to head down to the water at cotton tree and let them have a bit of fun in the water, even though it was way too cold for me!