Gold Coast

I have been off the air for a bit because we went down the coast with friends for a few days.  It was a deal that let us stay in a two bedroom apartment for less than staying at the caravan park.  When we got there the place was about the same size as my house, so there was plenty of room for the kids to play Hide and Seek and generally run around!  There was multiple pools to play in and one was heated (barely).  The kids would play in the heated pool, jumping in, swimming across and diving for toys.  When it got too cold in there they would move to the spa and warm up, before repeating the whole cycle.  They would go until they were dropping with exhaustion and then we would go upstairs again and stick them all in the bubble bath. 

The most interesting thing for an observer in all this swimming was the behaviour of other parents.  I must be a very intense parent, I decided.  I went in and swam with the boys a couple of times and otherwise sat on the side and watched them play.  While watching, several other unaccompanied kids would wander in and out without parents.  The youngest would have been about three.  At no point did a parental unit even poke their head in to check.  None of these random kids could swim well.  They could keep their heads above water but that was about the extent of it.  I couldn't leave while they were there, mostly because they terrified me and I couldn't leave and then find out later they had drowned, alone, with no one caring or watching.

One of the days (Tuesday), we all had tickets on an excursion to Stradbroke Island.  It involved a boat trip and a BBQ and then free access to multiple watercraft on the bay side of the island.  Levi loves kayaking (and calls it hayaking), I think mostly because we do it together and it is a novelty.  I went out in the bay with the kids several times.  We built a sand castle, that became a sand mountain, that became Mt Doom from Lord of the Rings.  Of course, none of the kids are old enough to have a clue what Mt Doom is but it kept me amused!

Most nights we all just fell into bed and as the curtains didn't block the light very well, we all got up at about five am to do it all again.  It was a great holiday and already I feel more relaxed than I have for some time.

Holidays

Levi and I are both on holidays now. It may be as much as a week before I can get back to the computer, but we will both be having loads of fun!! We fly to Sydney on Monday and are staying at a place in Haymarket. I don't really know that area at all but I figure that we are pretty safe as there is really nowhere in Sydney unsafe in daylight and Levi dinner is at 5.30 and in bed by 7 so we will be back in the hotel before dark.

I plan to go to Cockatoo Island to see the exploding cars and for the free ferry. We will do the Powerhouse and the Maritime museum. I will work on seeing how many modes of public transport we can use in 4 days. I am amazed at how differently I am organizing this trip compared to the last time. The last time we had Ross and Evan only (Well Levi was there but only 2 months old) and they are both animal type people, so our trip was more Taronga Zoo, Wildlife Park oriented. This time it's all about machines. I hope we will meet up with my aunt down there and will give her a call tomorrow. It is hard because at 70 some her body clock is so different to that of a 5 year old, it will be amazing if we can get them at the same place at the same time. We will also visit the photography shop and subsequently the US Consulate. Then we can complete the real reason that we are in Sydney.

Today was fun. We went to the park and the kids scootered around and around and around. It was great to see these guys again and it had been a while. I love that Levi can wear out some of his boy energy with another kid. It makes life so much easier for me. Tonight he was bundled into bed because we ARE NOT missing another swimming lesson because he decides to sleep in the one morning we have no other option.

Holiday thoughts

It is only one more week and I get to go on holidays. I am so excited I can barely breathe. I think that I can get there but it is amazing how excited I am. I talked to a friend today who knows lots about Sydney and she gave me so many ideas, I actually think that there won't be enough time there. I was a bit nervous that the Sydney trip would look more like a theme park tour, but there are more things to do than I thought. I think that Levi will just love it.

I can't wait to take him there now. Then we have a week of day trips in BrisVegas and then I hope we will be on the road relocating a campervan. I love the idea of random holidays. Trips where just a minute ago you didn't know what you were doing and then suddenly there are all these possibilities in front of you. Endless really.

I tell you I just can't wait!!

Shower Carnage

My shower is the scene of a crime. Actually several crimes if you cut the fact that it needs to be cleaned really badly. I went in to have a shower tonight and dinosaurs were eating each other. Levi got the dinosaurs for his birthday and he loves them. Mostly they fight each other. At least in the shower it will be a clean kill.

Today was the Queen's birthday. It is all a bit unrealistic as a public holiday. First of all the queen is irrelevant to Australia now. Secondly the queen's birthday is not even in June. However I am just happy to have a day off regardless. We had a very busy day. First Ruby's Mum had no sleep last night because baby Hugo is teething. It meant that we spent a lot of time with Ruby today. Levi went to play with her in the morning and then in the afternoon, she came to our house, along with Luke and Nate and then Harry as well. Basically we had kids coming out of our ears this afternoon. They dug in the sandpit and played on the cubby. They rode bikes and/or scooters. They played with playmobils and Legos.

It was a freezing day and even in the sun, with the wind it was quite cold. The kids were so active though I'm sure they didn't notice. It was very fun to watch. The kids all have very different personalities and yet they get along very well. It is fun to watch them learn how to get along with each other without having to intervene every few minutes.

Warning: About to Whine

Levi is sicker again today. I think that he gets better on the weekends and then gets sick again during the week. He is coughing, snorting and snotting everything again. He nose is rubbed raw from his new two fingered nose pick and eat technique. I think that he gets less rest on the days that he goes to school and I think that we are both ready for holidays. I think that I had plenty invested emotionally in the trip to USA and I am struggling to get back on track for work. I feel distracted (more than usual) and I find myself struggling to do the endless paperwork (more than usual).

I am looking for another holiday though. One part will be a trip to Sydney to get Levi's passport. The other is shaping up to be a campervan relocation with Mim and Mikey. There is a system of relocating campervans when they are in the wrong town for the company. It is essentially free rental and generally a fuel allowance to go from point A to point B. This time we are looking for a relocation that starts or stops in Brisbane. There is a potential from Cairns to Brisbane. The idea would be to fly up a couple of days before, spend a weekend up there and then drive south. By the end we will really like each other or possibly hate each other. I think that it will be the former as we are good friends. It seems like a good cheap way to gradually see Australia. As we get more adventurous, there is no real necessity to have Brisbane as a point as you can fly to one point and fly out of another. I think that if I have 2 weeks a year it will get us throughout Australia by about 2050.