A slow blogging start to the year.....

It has been a slow blogging start to the year. We have had two weeks on the Sunshine Coast and I hardly took my camera out. Mind you in some ways it wasn't really a holiday as we spent most of our time down there this year working around our home.. Lots of cleaning, repairs, windows, doors, new clothes line in, new security doors. How sad is it that I never even managed to feel sand between my toes, or go for a walk around the lake.

We did though manage to get a lot of little jobs done that we have needed to do for the past 12 months. The weather didn't allow us to do much when we were down last year. We did manage to take a couple of days off. One to celebrate my months birthday, and another to go to Brissie to visit the Chiropractor. We also managed to spend the afternoon at the GOMA and Art Gallery.

This year we took our van down and stayed in the Caravan Park at Alex Headlands. Great park right next to a lake, only a block from the beach. Very reasonably priced and very clean. Definately booking to go back there again next year.

The drive down was gorgeous. The countryside was looking so good, and so green.
We stopped at Tiaro just outside of Maryborough to check out a free camp place. There were quite a few vans there. We only stopped to have a break and a drink, but it definately would be a great place to stop. Very close to all amenities.
It felt good to be on the road again. I think buying our caravan was the best investment we have made towards future holidays. Pleased to say we have had three holidays away in it this year.... and hopefully we will have many more again this year.

It was Mum's birthday whilst we were there so we had a days outing and heading up to Coolum where we also caught up with my sister and her family and we all went out for lunch and drinks.

We managed to catch up with one of my second cousins and his wife. We always enjoy spending time with them. Simone and I have so much in common. We are both crafters and are always getting ideas off each other. These are a couple I picked up from her on this visit. Keen to try a few of these ideas myself this year.

We managed a couple of trips to Brisbane to see the Chiropractor. (Have found an excellent one in Brisbane in Ascot) It was so hot on Monday when we were there that we decided to spend the afternoon at the GOMA and the Art Gallery( air conditioned comfort) before we were to meet the kids for dinner that night.

Pete met us here for Lunch
After he went back to work, we headed to the Galleries.
Some snapshots of our afternoon there:
The Queensland Art Gallery
We checked out the Eugene Von Guerard exhibition. Some great works of art. Amazing colours and depth of field to her work.

We then headed over to the GOMA
The reindeer above were amazing under the lights. They are made up of glass balls of all different sizes and truely looked quite specatular under the lights.

One of my favourite exhits was the "Sticker Room". We were given this before we got to enter
and we had fun doing this:
This was quite amazing. It consisted of three or four rooms which were totally white, including all th furniture, even the keys on the piano and all the plants. We all got to go in then and put our stickers where ever we liked. It actually looked brillant and was constantly changing all the time.
Some close up shots of the rooms

These rooms were especially popular with the kids.
Another really neat display was this mystical experience. These displays were all made from sugar in their different forms, and it was a definately no touch zone. It really did look quite amazing though.

It really was like fairy land and everything so so detailed and intricate and the colours were gorgeous. Photos definately do not do it justice.

Steve managed an afternoon out to see with my cousin and they went crabbing for spanner crabs. The got their full quota after only a couple of hours. So much easier that going for the mud crabs and of course we have had a great feed of crabs all week.

We managed to catch up with a few other good friends as well. ( Forgot to take photos) Too busy enjoying the moments.

On our last night we caught up with Sim and Lloyd again and had fish and chips on the beach. So nice. We should have done it more.
Peter managed to get up to the coast for a visit, but Sarah and Colin were pretty busy, so didn't make it up. We managed to go down to Brissie and catch up with them one day. They enjoyed their break.

They had a day of pampering
Spa, massages, out to lunch and the the Gold Class Cinema to top of their wonderful day.
They also had a weekend in Sydney - they went down for one of Colin's cousins wedding. They did manage though to squeeze in a little rest and relaxation.
All too soon our holidays have come to an end. Steve goes back to work tomorrow and I have one day left. All going way too quickly. Sigh.......

I did come accross this though in the last couple of weeks and thought it was worth sharing
This year I want to put a lot more of these into practice. I know it will be a busy year, but a lot of these will definately be on my list of priorities.

Just read this on Julia's blog and loved it so wanted to record it here for my future reference.

Peace does not mean to be in a place
where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work.
Peace means to be in the midst of all those
things and still be calm in your heart....Unknown.

Must go sleep awaits me....