Canungra/Tamborine Mountain Oct/Nov 2014

We arrived back at Canungra with the hope that the caretaker might let us stay longer than 2 weeks, but no she wouldn't budge, so Brad worked his charm on Tamborine Mountain and found us a place that doesn't usually allow campers but made an exception for us. We were so lucky and very grateful. Brad started work and Lucy was very keen to go back to school, and thinking we would be here for about 3 months, we enrolled her at the local school. She was so excited to go back to school and had no hesitation even making us drop her off at the gate in her first week. So before we knew it, it was just Chloe and I, who was missing her sister immensely.

Tamborine Mountain is such a beautiful place, there are quite a few small rainforest walks but unfortunately Chloe is totally rainforest walked out and we only managed to convince her to do one of them. 

While we were there the annual scarecrow festival was on. This was incredible, the effort that the locals go to for this festival is amazing.

We also put the kids into Little A's which Chloe just loved and it gave her a bit of interaction with other kids as well. 

Another big hit with the kids were the Tamborine Mountain Markets, it would have to be one of the better markets we have been to. For our little horse lover there were pony rides and also a petting farm where both the kids, but mainly Lucy fell in love with guinea pigs, we came very close to having 2 additions but thankfully common sense prevailed!

Brads job turned out to be a bit of a circus and Lucy wasn't entirely happy at school, she was loving the school aspect but wasn't fitting in as quickly as she thought she would, so when Brad started getting less and less hours we decided to change our minds again and continue on our journey. 

The weekend before we left we discovered a pretty cool fairy shop, that for a small amount of money you could leave your kids for an hour of fairy fun. So for the 1st time in 4 months Brad and I had an hour kid free time!

Lucy was quite keen to get back on the road but in true Lucy style when we picked her up on her last day of school, she was sad to leave because she made a best friend that day!

We treated ourselves to one last day at movie world and wet'n'wild. This was probably the coolest day we have had in a long time but it was still warm enough to swim. We had a great last day here and we finally convinced Chloe to have a go on a couple of the 'bigger' rides in the junior section which she loved, so she agreed to go on 'mammoth falls'. We went on this a few times and every time Chloe squealed as loud as she could all the way down, I think part of it was from fear but a big part was because she discovered she could actually squeal without getting told to stop! It doesn't sound it but this was actually hilarious and she had the rest of us in stitches laughing all the way down!

That briefly sums up our time on Tambourine Mountain, I know I've missed so many things, we were really lucky and had absolutely beautiful weather and the kids spent heaps of time at the local pool, we only had 1 storm and hardly any rainy days. The kids experienced their 1st halloween and went trick or treating with their cousin and her friends, they really surprised me by not hesitating and getting right into it, but I suppose there were lollies and chocolate on offer! Actually I am really proud of both my kids and in the past month or so they have showed me that they have changed in small ways since we have left. The confidence Lucy showed in her first couple of days starting at a new school where she knew nobody floored me and we even took Chloe to a couple of pre-prep mornings and she got really involved here too. Obviously though the best part of being on the mountain was spending time with family that we don't see nearly enough and getting to know our beautiful nieces a bit better.

After the storm

Mullumbimby - Sept/Oct 2014

We left QLD feeling a bit flat and without having any real direction of where we were going in the coming weeks. After seeing how busy Canungra got during the school holidays we were also a bit concerned that a lot of places might be full. We had rung the caretaker at Mullumbimby Showgrounds and he assured us he had plenty of room, so that was our first stop. Mullumbimby itself didn't do too much for us but the show grounds were great. The caretakers were a lovely couple, with a beautiful big dog and they had their grandsons staying with them. There was plenty of space, lots of green grass, it wasn't too busy and with a few other kids to play with, a tree house and a dog our kids were happy so we decided to stay here for the rest of the school holidays.

Catching up on a bit of washing!

I think Lucy and Chloe were pretty worn out after a busy couple of weeks at Canungra, they really didn't want to go anywhere while we were here and were more than happy just playing with the couple of friends they made. However Brad and I don't cope as well sitting around doing nothing while the kids play, so we managed to drag them away on a few occasions to do some exploring. 

We drove into the Nightcap ranges to Minyon Falls and did half of the Minyon Loop (7.5km was a bit far for the kids) the first half of our walk had very recently been burnt off but the 2nd half was beautiful. We spotted our first snake on this walk, which our little scaredy cats handled pretty well and continued the walk without too much hassle. 

Another day we headed into Byron Bay, wow! I'm not sure if Byron is always that busy or just during school holidays but it was crazy, beautiful but busy.

We managed to drag the kids away from Mullumbimby one more time and drove up to Hastings Point, we had been here a few years ago and really liked it. It has a fantastic inlet thats great for kids although the water was still too cold we had a great day. Lucy even got brave enough to walk in the water where we could see little tiny fish!

The kids happily spent the rest of our time in Mullumbimby playing with new friends and riding their bikes around the show ground, while Brad and I started worrying about what was next. We decided it might be time to stop for a bit and get some work. Brad found a job quite easily so we made plans to head back towards the Gold Coast.

The kids made friends with a little girl and a lady camping with her family made these balloon horses. About 4 seconds after this photo part of Chloe's popped and she spent the next hour crying hysterically. 

Macadamia time!

Canungra - September 2014

The kids were very excited to be heading to the Gold Coast for a couple of reasons. They were looking forward to seeing their cousins and we had a change of heart and decided that we would go to the theme parks, which they were VERY excited about, especially since according to Lucy 'we haven't done anything fun since Townsville'. Just a slight exaggeration! We had 2 weeks before school holidays started and planned to get as many theme park visits in as we could before it got too busy. 
Canungra show grounds is a great spot. Its close enough to walk into down, right next to a creek, a short walk to the heated swimming pool and about half an hour to movie world. It does get pretty busy on the weekends and it was pretty packed for the school holidays.
So the first week we pretty much just hit the theme parks, mainly movie world. It was still a bit cold for wet'n'wild and although sea world is my favourite it is just that little bit further, plus the kids absolutely loved movie world. Lucy surprised us both by loving the roller coaster. We worked out if we got there after lunch the crowds had thinned and the kids could pretty much go on whatever they liked with minimal lining up!

So after an action packed week at the theme parks, the kids were pretty excited to be going to their cousins birthday party on the weekend, where they partied hard for most of the day. Its pretty fair to say that by Sunday we were all exhausted and spent the day doing absolutely nothing to prepare for the theme parks again the next week.

5th birthday celebrations Frozen style

Relaxing after a busy week!

We hit the theme parks again the next week but not as much as they were a lot busier with only 1 week to go before the school holidays. Last week we had made a very quick trip into Seaworld so we headed back this week for a better visit. While Brad and Lucy went off to test out the roller coasters, Chloe and I went to watch the Sea Lion show where I was picked to be part of the show and got a big sloppy kiss from a sea lion! We caught up with Brad and Lucy again and they convinced me (by lying) to go on the new roller coaster 'Storm'. Lucy had already been on twice so I figured it couldn't be as bad as it looked, WRONG!! I still can't believe Lucy who is a pretty big sook, loves roller coasters as much as she does. Thankfully Chloe won't even try so I've got an excuse not to go on anymore!

Chloe patting the rays

It took her so long to work up the courage to touch a starfish.....

But this she does with no hesitation!

Because I'm pretty behind in my posts I'm not exactly sure what we did for that week I think it was basically more theme park visits and catching up with family when possible. We did take a drive to Currumbin on the weekend for the Swell Sculpture Festival, which was great but packed. Brad was nearly ready to turn around and go home after taking nearly an hour to find a park! The kids loved seeing the sculptures though and then we spent a lovely afternoon at Palm Beach which is a beautiful spot.

The kids had a fantastic last few days in Queensland they were either playing with their cousins and when we were home they were off playing with the tons of kids that arrived at Canungra for the school holidays. Before we knew it, it was time to head off back into NSW.

A bit of a storm for our last day in Queensland

Caboolture - September 2014

So Brad and I are enjoying a couple of drinks after a stressful day and not long into the night I got hit with what I'm assuming was a 24 hour bug, the worst one I've had for a very long time. I have no idea what the kids and Brad got up to the next day. I was in bed until mid afternoon when I managed to move to the lounge for the rest of the day. I was very glad when this day ended and thankfully woke up the next day feeling much better! I was keen to make up for a lost day yesterday, so we got stuck into some school work in the morning and then went out for a drive around the glass house mountains. 

We were keen to find a decent walk to do, but majority were a bit to big or dangerous for the kids. We thought we found a good one called Beerburrum lookout. Its 700m to the top so we thought that would be a piece of cake. Wow, this walk was nearly straight up it was so steep the kids walked backwards to make it easier! 

The kids were amazing during this walk, and as Chloe said when we got to the top, the view was worth it!

Its not clear in the photo but you could just see Brisbane on the horizon

Doing yoga before heading back down - (she dresses herself!!)

The way down was so much harder than the way up, I think my knees are still recovering and Chloe was a bit disappointed, generally the only reason she will go up a hill is so she can run down but this was way to steep for running!

More and more we have pulled into a dump point only to discover that we can't dump because the dump point is actually higher than the outlet on our tank, so we called into Mooloolaba to buy a macerator pump to hopefully eliminate this problem and had a look around Mooloolaba and Maroochydore as well.

Maroochydore

Brad spent the rest of the next day installing the new pump, which we will test out when we leave here as the dump point here is about waist high.

A couple of weeks ago we had arranged to stay at a farm in Redland Bay, they had told us we just need to contact them when we get closer to confirm dates. We had been trying to contact them since we arrived at Caboolture but were unable to. So we made a last minute decision to do a day trip into Brisbane to have a look around. We spent a couple of hours at Southbank in Brisbane. Lucy and I went for a ride on the big wheel, we couldn't convince Chloe to come, which was a shame because I think she would have loved it.

We then went to visit some relatives before driving back to Caboolture. The next day was spent doing some school work, catching up on the washing and we even gave the car a clean. I realised about lunch time that Fathers Day was the next day so Chloe and I did a quick trip to town for some very last minute presents. The kids then spent the rest of the day 'pampering' Brad and getting him ready for Fathers Day.

We spent the next morning wandering around the markets at Caboolture. Going to the markets with Chloe is usually exhausting because she just wants everything and doesn't cope well when she is told no, so there is usually quite a few tears whenever we venture to the markets. Today was Lucy's turn, disaster struck when Chloe was holding my hand instead of Lucy (yep, pretty drastic stuff!) so she spent the first half of the morning sulking. After lunch we had made plans to meet up with some friends at Bribie Island, which turned out to be the coldest day Bribie Island had all year! But it was great to catch up with them and the kids had a great couple of hours playing at the park with some new friends.

Happy Fathers Day!!

Trying to get warm at Bribie Island

It was raining on our last day at Caboolture, by lunchtime we all had a touch of cabin fever so we went for a drive up to Noosa for a change of scenery. It was a bit cool here but the sun was shining on the beautiful spot. We sat at the beach for awhile and spotted some dolphins having a play, the perfect ending to our visit to the sunshine coast.