A DAY ON THE GOLD COAST....

Our really good friends Ian and Kathy were holidaying on the Gold Coast for a week and invited us to come down and spend some time with them...
We decided to head down and take Sarah, Willow and Max with us....
What a great day....
So relaxing after all the hectivities of the past few weeks...
It was just a wonderful day to unwind, catch up with good friends,  good food,  lots of laughs,  a bit of exercise,  a perfect day,  the day couldn't have been better.....

We arrived a little before lunch.  Ian and Kathy were staying at Tiki Village.... Lovely one bedroom apartments but you could actually sleep five in there... Great views and wonderful amenities and all within walking distance of the main street in Surfer's Paradise and the beach.....

View from Ian and Kathy's Unit....

 We could understand them when they said they were totally relaxed and just sitting their looking at the view was a great way to spend the day..... 

Kathy in the kitchen preparing lunch...

Max having a little rest....

Enjoying the view....

 Ian and Kathy's daughter and son-in-law were also staying at the resort and they were up on the 8th floor... They have a daughter  a little over 12 months older than Willow and the girls soon became fast friends... It was kind of cute to see them together with their dolls and sharing Ruby's stroller as they went walking later in the afternoon....
After lunch the children wanted to go for a swim, so we went up to Linda's room with her and her children to get ready....
The view from their place was equally spectacular and you could actually see further afield, plus their was a good view of the pool area from up there...

view from Alan and Linda's apartment...

The kids all dressed ready to head down to the pool area...

David, Willow and Ruby

 Willow couldn't wait to go swimming but she still is a little nervous around the water....
She has been having swimming lessons and is now at the point where she will put her head in the water....
It was wonderful to see her confidence grow whilst she was swimming... She was often taking the lead from Ruby who is quite confident to swim out to her Mum now without her vest on... Ruby though wasn't too keen on going down the waterslide until she saw Sarah and Willow go down...

It was the perfect day... Not a cloud in the sky,  vibrant blue skies... So pretty in fact that I couldn't resist taking a photo of it...

Absolute perfect day....

Max was still feeding so I took Willow down to the pool with the girls.... It was a pity Steve and I didn't think to pack our togs in....  Thankfully though,  Kathy was happy to hop in with Willow and as she knows Kathy pretty well so was happy to go in the water with her...

Kathy and Linda with all the kids...

sticking close to Kathy

A very happy little chicken

Ruby and Willow had a lovely time playing together....

Practicing her swimming in the toddler's pool with Kathy

practicing her diving...

 I loved seeing the confidence build...
At her swimming classes they have been learning to put their arms out in front of them and slip into the pool.  Willow was so cute when she would put her arms up in the arm and then fall down  into the water.... 

Swimming to Kathy

super cute

much more confident now...

 Sarah came down not long after this and they had a ball together...
I think Sarah was really surprised at how confident Willow was getting in the water and how keen she was to try some of the things they had been learning at her swimming classes...

with Poppy

 Showing her Mummy what she can do....

Proud Mumma moments...

 She was keen to do this over and over again with Sarah....
It kind of blew us away also to see how much she had grown in confidence in the short time we had been down there....
Sarah asked her if she wanted to go on the slide with her and she was a little apprehensive but decided to give it a go... Ruby wasn't so sure.....

On the water slide with her Mummy

Loving it...

 She loved it so much that she wanted to go time and time again......
Once Ruby saw that Willow was enjoying it she was also keen to have a go....

Sarah with Ruby coming off the slide...

Sarah and Ruby

Sarah and Willow....

 We must of spent a couple of hours down at the pool...
 I might have forgotten my togs but the bonus for me was that I got to cuddle this gorgeous little man....

Cuddling Max

Could cuddle this little man all day....

 After our swim we went back upstairs to have showers, and have afternoon tea.  Alan, Linda and the children joined us, and Linda bought down a Peppa Pig DVD for the children to watch...
We always have a ton of fun when we catch up with these guys...
The men all sat down and had a good chat about all sorts of things, including education, investments, you know it they discussed it....

Us woman kept and eye on the children and had a good chat also...
Ian and Kathy talked us into staying for an early dinner as Alan and Linda needed to feed their kids early and also get them to bed...
We thought it was a pretty good idea, as we could feed and bath Willow down here and she should then fall to sleep in the car on the way home...

About 4.45pm we decided to walk down to the beach to have some fish and chips on the beach for dinner.....  We walked down through Cavill Avenue in Surfer's...
It was packed with holiday makers.... It was a little surprising actually as it wasn't a public holiday and it was the middle of the week.  
 The streets were still all decorated from Christmas and it was almost dusk as we headed down so all the trees were lit up with fairy lights....
Very pretty.....

Trees lit up for Christmas

 

Relaxing in Cavill Avenue

Relaxing in Cavill Avenue

Street was full of buskers...

 This actually added to atmosphere of being in the Mall...
There were all sorts of different things happening there....
This guys was blowing up balloons and making all sorts of animals for them...

Mr Balloon Maker...

 

 

 

 

Walking through Cavill Avenue

These girls were so cute with their dolls...

They were being such good mummies....

Willow and Ruby with their babies...

 Sarah was a little nervous walking around so many people with her new baby, so we headed for the beach as quickly as we could...
We decided to give the kids some time to run around on the beach to wear themselves out....
We found this fish and chip place right on the beach front  and ordered our dinner.....

Fish and chips right on the beachfront...

Whilst Kathy Linda and Sarah ordered our dinner,  Steve and I had found this cute Blinkey Blue Koala right on the beach front and decided it might be fun to show the children and get a few photos taken there...

 From here we took the kids straight across to the beach for a play...
They had a ball on the beach chasing the sea gulls...
In fact it was pretty hard to get them to even eat their dinner...
It really was a lovely time to be outdoors and on the beach....

It was kind of cute as well to watch this pair as they walked together holding hands...

Ruby and Chloe....

building a little friendship...

 Fun on the beach.....

 

 

Chasing the seagulls...

 

 

 

 It was a lovely time on the beach...
We just sat on some concrete steps right on the beach to eat our dinner....

dinner time on the beach...

fresh fish

Our fish and chips...

Enjoying dinner with these guys....

Blessed to have their friendship..

 I had to snap of few more shots of the beach around us...
Such a lovely spot and the perfect end to a perfect day...

 It was dark by the time we eventually walked back to the apartment...

Visiting here for the day

Lovely spot on the Gold Coast...

 Sarah wanted to make sure that Willow had a quick shower before heading home...
We had a quick cuppa and admired the view at night...
All the pretty lights....

 

 It was about 8.30pm before we finally left to head home...
It really was a wonderful day...
A day where we actually felt very relaxed and refreshed....
Probably one of the few days these holidays that we have totally felt like this....
It was sad to head home...