Lunar Eclipse

A few photos of last night's nature show. Wonderful education session for Caitlin who had great excitment yesterday talking about seeing the moon turn red. We do have more photos but they didn't look so good when uploaded.

Weather Contrasts

Wow, what amazing weather we've had here. It all started for us on the Gold Coast but a little later on the Sunshine Coast. Tuesday was beautiful blue sky with not much wind but a forecast of a major storm, one would say 'yeah right' but sure enough the meteorologists know what they are talking about. About 7pm the wind whipped up to that equivelent of a grade 2 cyclone, not much rain but a disturbed night with a certain little Caitlin being a bit freaked by the noises, so Gary headed off to her bed and Caitlin bunked down with me. (Better than three in one bed or continual disturbances!). Then the rain started ............. some parts of the Sunshine Coast recorded over 1000mm's in 24hrs! It's quite a contrast for us when we're enjoying the Sunshine Coast winter weather and yet we need to be excited about the rain filling the dams, yes we were happy to see the rain but now we've had some it's nice to see the sun again.

A little tid-bit of Ryan's thoughts on weather.
I went in to get him up a few weeks ago, he looked out the window with a confused look on his face and said "sun gone" with the question tone in his voice, now he's got used to not seeing the sun in the morning he just says "sun gone bed" but it was qute telling about how quickly he has got used to seeing the sun in the morning.

Gold Coast Weekend

We are now back from our wonderful but wet weekend away. It's really good for the Gold Coast to have the rain but it would have been nicer if it was the following weekend!

The highlights of our trip were having breakfast with our wonderful friends Joanna, Nigel and Tessa, and fun family time which included a bus/boat ride, ten pin bowling, dining out in the evening and walking around Surfers in the dark. I also got to drive past the house we used to live in and show it to Gary, Caitlin and Ryan. Isn't it funny how different things are to how you remember them. Although I guess things do change over time - it has been over 17 years. I think what was so different is it looked quite dark, but it was a grey old day and the trees were a lot bigger, it would be nice to see it on a blue sky day.

For those of you with preschoolers who haven't tried ten pin bowling, give it a go. We had so much fun and yes even Ryan played. They have ramps for the kids so they set the balls at the top and push them down the ramp to get the speed and when it was Caitlin or Ryan's turn gutter rails came up so they always hit some pins. By the end of it Caitlin even had "the stance", hand on hip, one knee bent watching until the pins got bowled, she didn't have the steering with her head movement, maybe next time! Caitlin and Ryan both enjoyed the good old high five after their bowls.

Another highlight for the kids was going on the amphibious bus/boat painted as a duck. They both were able to have a go driving the boat part of the ride. Ryan would have kept driving if he could have.

For Gary and I it was really nice catching up with Joanna, Nigel and Tessa. It's really nice to have friendships that can be picked up from the last time we caught up. Thanks guys for a really wonderful few hours

So after a lovely weekend away we are back home to pack more boxes for our big move on Monday week. We also get to catch up with Ang and Paul this coming Monday, looking forward to it!

The latest happenings ......

Well it's been a while since I last blogged so thought I should add a word or two. The last three weeks we've been busy searching the real estate websites and spending the Saturdays Gary wasn't working looking at houses. And yes we have found one! It's in a new subdivision in Caloundra (southern end of the Sunshine Coast), has four bedrooms and two living areas with a park just around the corner. We move on the 3rd of Sept so the boxes will be out again for our final move for a long time. Kathy and Trev, we've been thinking of you while we've been looking at houses, it is so much more family and lifestyle friendly here there is hardly any open homes on a Sunday, I think most agents reserve the day for themselves, I guess it works as the majority follow suit.

Well winter seems to have finished here, very quick and yes we were cold for a bit. Today's forcast was for 28 deg, not sure that it quite got there but the jeans are definitely back in the cupboard along with jumpers.

We have a busy few months ahead of us, along with packing and moving we get to catch up with lots of wonderful and special friends. Starting with a weekend on the Gold Coast so we can catch up with Joanna, Nigel and Tessa for breakfast (they have a whirlwind visit of just over 24hrs in the country), followed by Ang and Paul the following week, and then a few weeks later with Adrienne and Murray for a long weekend. Looking forward to lots of talk over coffees and hot chocolates.