HUGE CATCH UP TO END THE YEAR...

It has been a crazy year, and I nearly thought that the days of this blog were coming to an end as I had not had time to update since we came back from our overseas holiday.  But I have finally managed to update our Holiday of a lifetime so now I will attempt to do a quick blog post for each of the last four months, so that I have a record of life in 2016...

August was really about catching up from our two months overseas.  We came back to a attend a funeral of the son of friends of ours, and it was an especially sad time.  Joe was too young to go.  It was a huge funeral, and Nick and Angela were so open and raw about Joe's last weeks.  Chloe flew home from Sydney for the funeral as she was very close to Joe's sister Hannah.  They were best friends through their high school years and have kept in touch.

We also managed to go and watch a couple of Dan's football games.  We had been trying to go all season but it had never eventuated as we had so much happening before we flew overseas.  Only disappointment of the match was that they didn't win...

 August rushed into September...
Colin headed back overseas with Band to the UK and to Germany for a month, Sarah came home to visit and we had a wonderful month together.
During the first week she was home, Steve and Dan (Chloe's boyfriend) went fishing together for a week.  A little male bonding time....
They had a great week, really exciting for both of them,,,'
Great catches and just good fun together.  Think Dan got to do all the dirty work, like baiting up the crabpots.... but they both came back good friends, so it can't have been that bad, as he is still a regular at our place. 

New addition to fishing at the shack - what a hit it was too...

Pretty proud of himself......

 Whilst the boys were away fishing,  Sarah, Willow Max and I had fun around town,  We went to the beach, the movies,  the zoo and the parks.... and it was great just to chill out around town...It also meant that I did managed to get a few of the jobs I wanted to get done at home

What a wonderful part of the country we live in.....

Sarah had a surprise meet up with a friend she hadn't seen for quite a while... nice surprise

 We had a really great day down at Yeppoon.  We are so fortunate to live close to this amazing part of our country.  I don't think I truly appreciated just how special this area is until we started tripping around in our caravan 6 or 7 years ago.  This new beach water park has only been completed for a year now and the kids just love it,  they had so much fun there even Maxie and either of them wanted to leave....

On one of the other days we took the children to the Zoo.  Willow loves going to visit it each time she come to visit,  and we are very fortunate to have a Zoo like this in town that is actually free to go too.  Another great day was had by us all. 

visiting the koalas

a very big goanna

another big goanna

checking out the big goanna

Max is real interested in that goanna also. 

this kangaroo even has a joey inside her pouch

old bird emu

Willow loves to visit the Kangaroos although she is happy to keep a bit of distance

Lovely Australian natives

Australian grevilla

A hive of native bees at the Zoo...

Then it was off to see the Crocs... one of Willow's favourites and one of Sarah's nightmares.

There are a couple of huge ones here.  Mind you when the Danes were over last Christmas they were keen to see them also...

looking for crocodiles

Over here Willow

Where Mummy

There it is Mummy.... I see it....

A large Crocodile

A very LARGE Crocodile

 Then it was off to see the Wombats..

Looking for the wombats

Mr Wombat out in the open... unusual... normally they sleep through the day.

Time for a play....

Even Max enjoying playing on the Koala

Then we went and fed the ducks...

Feeding the ducks and turtles

Love this photo of Willow in a carpet of flower petals...

Time to head up and watch the gorilla's being fed...
Whilst Willow loves them, she is also a little nervous of them especially when they start making their loud screeching noises.  We did find this fellow though outside of their cage that both children were happily enough to sit near so that we could take a photo......

 Then finally before leaving we went to check out the otters... How cute were they....

Watching the otters swim

Max enjoying his time at the zoo...

 We also fitted in a trip to the movies which was a big surprise for Willow...
All she knew was that she and Moppy were having a Moppy/Willow Day. 
She is at an age now where she really enjoys little outings like this...

The second week of the holidays we headed to Hervey Bay..
More about that next post....