Beach Day

Today we went to King's beach Caloundra.  It was just a gorgeous day and I took lots of really fun photos that now won't upload to Blogger no matter what I do to it.  I think soon I am going to switch to something else so I can load photos and do what I want.  I can't complain about the price because it's free, but still it is months now and getting pretty annoying. 

 

We went to the beach because I'm so tired of packing and other things and I just wanted a day off.  I wanted a day to just play in the sun and and spend some time with friends.  Levi had a blast and was just supremely happy all day.  He laughed a bunch.  He ran around and swam in the ocean.  He was just happy and carefree and unstressed for a day and as close as was possible, so was I.  The day and the weather was perfect!  I am feeling refreshed and recharged and because of it, I might just last the next two weeks and not say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing. 

RV Trip - Day 6

We were in what feels like a primordial forest.  As you are walking through, it feels as though it wouldn't be overly surprising to have a Stegosaurus walk out from behind a tree.  Some of it is the ferns.  Some of it is the drooping moss everywhere.  Even the trees themselves seem to be ancient.  This phone box was outside the ranger station.  Obviously with the advent of cell phones, the phone itself isn't necessary anymore but the forest is taking it over!  This was the Hoh River Rainforest.  Now you have to have a pretty good self esteem for a river, to hang around with a name like Hoh, but this was a big enough river to pull it off.  Icy blue from glacial runoff and running quickly it is just beautiful running through the canyon.  We took a long time to do the walk to see the river.  It wasn't that long a walk but when we got to the river, the boys just played and played.  Initially they tried to build a set of stepping stones across the creek.  Then we moved to a spot where they could get across by wading and they explored the island together.  Then Evan came back and he and I split flint to make 'shavers' and 'knives' to cut through wood.  It was just lovely!

Then we drove through Forks.  Notably the setting for Twilight, we however found the best playground!  They had an area for all ages.  Our kids played for a while and then moved to the exercise area and competed for, well, everything; number of chin ups, number of jumps, number of... well you get the picture!  Levi won the chin up contest but only because he had lots of help!  It even broke through with sunshine while we were there and that had been a rare sight in the last few days.

Our night ended on the coastline.  We had a campsite right on the beach.  There was a steep goat path down to the beach and an outlook that went for miles!  We lost all the boys for several hours in the afternoon.  OK, not really lost but they were not up at the camp.  They found a tiny stream on the beach that they worked to dam.  It is a rare time that I can just let Levi go like that and be so secure in his whereabouts.  I knew that the three of them were unlikely to find something that was urgent and then mostly they could deal with things themselves.  At one point, Levi made the trek up to complain about something that one of his brothers had done.  My answer?  "Annoying brothers? Check!"  He went back to play.

After a while Evan came up to try to make fire with his fire starter.  It is great to have some quiet time with each of them.  It is a good way to do that!  Stick everyone in an RV and go from there!

Beach Day (Reprise)

Today we went back to the beach.  It was a fantastic day.  Sandgate has a pool with four waterslides (only one big one) and a large number of other structures half in and out of the water to play on and climb.  The lighting on the beach was really beautiful.  The kids played and ran all over the pool and then all over the beach.  Levi was getting cranky and testy tonight and I'm sure that he is just exhausted.  We went with Jac and her kids plus one.  The kids had multiple possible options for toys and yet all they really needed was the beach and each other.  They dug in the sand with sticks and their hands.  They collected jellyfish and then thought about throwing them at each other.  They could run half a mile away on the beach and they couldn't really hurt themselves and we could watch them the whole way.  I love watching kids and beaches interact!

Beach Boy

We went to the beach today.  It was a perfect perfect day!  Sunshine all day and yet we were never too hot.  The Easter holidays are generally perfect weather here, except when it isn't!  I texted friends again yesterday to see who wanted to come with us.  This time it was Ty and his family.  Levi and Ty are already over the tiff from yesterday and played together all day.  Sandgate beach is perfect for them.  That coupled with the king tides around the full moon of Easter means that there is a huge flat sandbank to play on when the tide goes out and when the tide is in, you would have to try to drown as the water is only about knee deep.

We took our bikes as well because there is a bike track along the whole foreshore.  It was fun until things started to fall off!  Levi's swimmers fell off the back of Shannon's bike at some point and then in quick succession we lost Ty's bell and finally Levi's pedal off their bikes.  Obviously Levi's was a show stopper!  We stopped and Shannon rode back to his car (finding Levi's board shorts on the way).  Then luckily we stayed where we were.  Our spot on the foreshore was shaded and the beach completely our own.  It was Levi and Ty so we didn't have to worry about them pushing themselves beyond their skills.  They are both very careful boys.  It meant that we could sit in the shade watching them.  They thought up games and played with little intervention.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday.  We have nothing planned.  I love the sound of that!  In light of Sizzlers with friends tonight and chocolate eggs for breakfast tomorrow, I'm thinking Levi will be bouncing off the walls by about 9.30 anyway!

Coast Weekend

This weekend we went to the coast with Julie and had such a wonderful time!  It was just what we all needed but I can only really speak for me and Levi.  We had a little house very close to the beach and it was all set up.  It made everything so relaxing to not have to worry about anything.  Initially we drove down with Julie and found the house in pounding rain, making both the adults a little nervous about the weather report for the next few days.  We shouldn't have worried.  By morning the weather had cleared somewhat. 

Julie gave Levi a 'Dinosaur Dig', where he needed to dig a dinosaur from the plaster 'soil', so the day started with that.  Then we went to the beach.  It wasn't really sunny but didn't pour with rain so good enough.  We all swam for about three hours.  It was lovely to have concentrated time with Levi for me and I think he reveled in the time as well!  For the first time, Levi learned how to time the waves on his Boogie board.  He learned to catch waves.  He learned the most important rule of all, that if a wave looks too big to jump over, you go under and if it looks too big for that then turn around and catch it with your board.  He had so much fun and it was lovely to help him do that!  Julie and I stayed out about break level for the waves and chatted.  We could stop Levi from going too far, put him on the wave, cheer him on and chat all without getting pounded by the waves ourselves!  Levi had to fight his way out through the breakers to get to us each wave.

 

By lunch, we went home and had a bit of quiet time, watching a movie and a bit of recuperating our strength.  Then we went to the creek and played there.  We built a castle and climbed trees.  We played soccer and we went for a walk.  It was just a great day.  A great weekend.  The next day?  More of the same.  Just swimming and sunshine!  Ah it is these weekends that dreams are made of!

Underwater

 We went to Underwater World with another family.  They brought their two youngest.  One is a little girl Levi's age and the other is a boy about 12.  They had so much fun!  It is a pretty cheap day anyway and with the reduced prices because the big aquarium closure, it becomes really affordable.  The kids loved the seal show and laughed at all the jokes and got caught up in all the tricks.  They actually took you through teaching the seals the tricks esp the ones that aren't natural behaviour.  I then found it fascinating to watch the instructor.  Suddenly every movement and nuance of behaviour was important.  Every time that she moved her feet, she was giving instruction.  Simple hand movements became portentous.  It was fun!  Fun to watch the interplay that I hadn't noticed before.  By the end Zoe wanted to be a seal trainer when she grew up!

It was a lovely day too, for me.  I had like minded adults to talk to.  I was talking to adults!!  Not that I am complaining about talking to Levi all the time, but talking to adults, now that was great.  Talking to adults with Levi entertained by other kids?  Heaven!!

Yawning Otter!

After Underwater World, we went to the beach.  It was incredibly busy but the kids all swam in the ocean and climbed trees.  They played on the play structure and chased each other around.  We drank coffee and watched them.  They are pretty good swimmers but not close to strong enough yet to be out there without specific 'watching'.  There were lifeguards and I am sure they had their eyes on them as well but they were watching the other thousands of people.  I am happy to watch our three just to make sure that they were all fine!



Sandgate

Today we went to Sandgate.  The beach is about thirty minutes from home and is really a littler kid beach.  It is protected by the islands and has a long flat beach at low tide.  In fact, so long and flat that we were about 200m out from shore at one time and still in less than ankle deep bath water warm water.  I had Levi and two much bigger kids.  They played in the water and ran around chasing each other.  They climbed trees and played on play structures.  Basically they blew off a bit of steam and used up a bit of energy.

Levi went to bed exhausted tonight but of course won't go to bed at any time other than eight pm.  The eight pm bedtime is only for holidays so he isn't giving it up come hell or high water!  He can be falling over exhausted but still stay up until eight!  Today he was falling asleep in the car but do you think that he would go to bed early?  No, of course not!

Couple of Days

It has been a wild week as you can tell because I haven't been here at all.  Monday was a day off for all of us and Levi and I and four other kids and two other parents went to the beach.  Shorncliffe is about 25 minutes drive from Samford.  Now all the adults made the same decision before leaving that it was too cold and the kids wouldn't swim.  Yes it took the kids all of about 3.5 seconds to actually get in the water when we arrived! 

They played beautifully together.  They dug in the sand and they played in the water.  They climbed on the rocks and jumped from them.  They played all day without our having to correct them or direct them.  I love beaches!  Kids can just go and go and there are endless things to do.  I spend time loving watching them.  I get joy watching them.  I see them running and jumping and digging, and I enjoy seeing how easy it is for them.  There is such beauty in that ease.  So many of the kids that I see struggle.  They struggle to get up and walk, let alone freely run to the jetty and back!  I get so much enjoyment realizing that there are kids out there not struggling!  I get a warped view at times and need a day (or more) at the beach with Levi to realign my views again.

My computer has been acting up.  It has been doing a really weird thing with scrolling and not allowing me to get to the bottom of any page.  Luckily, one of the Mums that went to the beach is an IT legend and found an exact link describing a cure.  It involved throwing out my mouse and buying a new one, but in the meantime, I haven't been able to access much!

Today my work mates and I went to the Ekka (the State fair) and helped out while Mick tried to break the world record for staying underwater on a single tank of air.  Mick is the diver that helps with the Shark Bait kids and he was raising money for the program.  I am really bad at these things.  That many people is just a day in hell for me.  But there are parts of our team that are, in fact, extroverted and they thrived.  I did the media thing.  I updated our page and twittered, sorry twitted.  Oh that's right tweeted.  Yes I can think of little reason to know what anyone is thinking during the day but I am happy to use it.  Plus I got to chat to a friend in USA at the same time when there was space in the day.  Mick didn't quite make it to the record.  He missed it by 15 minutes.  After 8 hours underwater it was a pity for him but he was a hero regardless.  He put Shark Bait Kids at the fair and he raised money for us as well.  I hope he can be proud of himself because we are!