Lathams News: WHERE HAS THIS YEAR GONE.....

It is unbelievable that we are nearly at the end of July and it is months since I have posted anything..
This has been an incredibly busy year (aren't they all. To catch up, I think I am going to just have to do some short Monthly general posts...

END OF JANUARY.....
We arrived back home only a week before we were due back to work, but January is a month of birthday celebrations. Steve's birthday was a quit a fair with just him and I at home to celebrate it. The kids however, did contribute to making it a special birthday, by all putting in with me to buy him a birthday present. I wanted to surprise him with a gift that he had no idea about, so I had a chat to Pete, to get him to give me the heads up on the exact present it needed to be... I was pretty stoked about surprising him with this present, because I knew it was going to be a total surprise to him... Usually I have to consult him on the exact brand of what ever he wants... NOT THIS TIME....

We ended up at a trendy little cafe, called "Hendrick's Lane" for breakfast. Food was excellent, and service was great... He was so stoked with his present, it was hard to get him to have a decent conversation as he was checking out all the things he could do with it, and all the settings. Still it made my day, just to see him so excited about his birthday present, and also the fact that I completely pulled it off without him suspecting anything at all.

Eggs Benedict was our chosen breakfast for today, along with hot chocolates. Totally delicious, especially the home made sauce...

In the afternoon, a group of us heading down to the National Park near Kemp Beach for afternoon tea. It was a lovely relaxed afternoon and a great way to celebrate a birthday...

An afternoon of cake, good company, and relaxing....

Best way to spend a birthday...
Some of us even went for a walk up to the top of the hill...

Lovely views from Kemp Beach - Yeppoon

Then it was back for Cake time... So good to share this with good friends...

Lighting the candles

Blowing them out.

Group photos....

Great memories of a lovely day... back in the warm Aussie sunshine... How we have learnt to appreciate the amazing weather we have in this wonderful country we live in...

Australia Day celebrations are always held at the end of January, and whilst we didn't go down to the beach on the actual Australia Day we did our celebrating on Steve's birthday the following day...

Happy Australia Day everyone...

Celebrating with all things enjoyable for a day at the Aussie Beach...

Don't you just love our Aussie Birdlife..

FEBRUARY:
Can I even remember back that far....
I do remember that we celebrated Valentine's Day this year by going out for a meal on the River Bank. Trying to make the most of opportunities to spend time together...

Towards the end of February, our Ladies Group at church get together for a day retreat down at "Beaches" one of the restaurants at the Roslyn Bay Resort. This is always a wonderful day of relaxation, learning and sharing. The ladies that organsied it this year went to a lot of trouble to create a beautiful setting for us, and our speaker was quite inspiring...

Ladies Retreat Venue for 2019

Luncheon set up on the balcony

view from our lunch table

Even the conference room we had booked for our day was beautiful decorated, with special little gifts to make us feel welcome..

bowls of colourful lollies to nibble on during the sessions.

Origami made for us by one of the younger members in our church - Her beautiful contribution..

Just before lunch we had the opportunity to have a wander across to the beach before he had our lunch. This area of the Capricorn Coast is really a little slice of paradise and I haven't fully grown to appreciate it until we did our lap around Oz a couple of years ago...