FIRST DAY OF HOLIDAYS WITH THE GRANDCHILDREN..

We have bought the kids home for a week's holiday with us whilst their parents have a bit of couple time.  We love being able to do this, we love building memories with our beautiful grandchildren.  We just wish that Theo lived here and could be included also....

On their first day in Rockhampton we decided to take them down to Yeppoon.
Yeppoon is really a great spot on the Capricorn Coast and is the gateway to Great Keppel Island and the wonders of the Southern Great Barrier Reef.  It's main street is full of beach-chich boutiques and surf stores and there are quite a few street art murals adorning local walls....  There are also a wid range of restaurants, and cafe's serving a wide range of speciality produce like good quality beef, seafood and tropical produce and they really do cater to all tastes and budgets..
More importantly families are well catered for in Yeppoon with the magnificent foreshore which includes the wonderful Keppel Kraken, which is really a zero-depth water park and a couple of  great kids playground.  The new lagoon pool at the southern end of Yeppoon Main Beach also has a children’s play area and dining areas.  We planned on taking the kids there after lunch..
Our first stop with them was the foreshore of Yeppoon Beach where they had a wonderful time playing at Keppel Kraken....

 They loved it here, especially Max, he did not stop running the whole time we were here...
There were so many different areas of water play to explore and at times they couldn't make up their mind which puddle to play in...

 We found a picnic table close to the water play area that we could have lunch at , as whilst I continue to watch the kids play, Steve ducked across the road to find a fish and chip shop to grab some lunch for us all..  It was always going to be hard to get the kids away from the Keppel Kraken to come and eat their lunch.... they were having such a good time...

love spending time with this munchkin...

 The fun bit was convincing the kids that it was lunch time and they needed to come and eat their lunch.  I loved that the kids were having such a good time.... Kids to some degree these days have lost this innocence of enjoying the simple things in life....

Our lunch... it was delicious, the fish was fresh and moist and the chips were crunchy..

 Of course the seagulls were around everywhere and the kids enjoyed feeding them their left over chips...

 We just  sat there appreciating all the good things around us... appreciating our beautiful grand children and the fact that we were blessed to have this time with them..  We were simply enjoying the moment....

 Max spotted a climbing frame right next to where we were having our lunch and was keen to go have a play on it...  we let them have half an hour on so climbing all over it....

 After their play here they were keen to go for a bit of a scooter and bike ride along the path in front of the beach.  We were keen to let them do this as they had bought their bikes and scooters with them on holidays, but we were also equally keen to taken them to the Yeppoon Lagoon....

 it was lovely down on the beach front today,.. Even though we are in a bit of a drought, everything down here was so green...

We decided to let the kids ride their bikes to the Lagoon as we already had a good car park need the Keppel Bay Sailing Club and normally parks are very hard to come by near the Lagoon.  The kids were happy to ride anyway....
On our way we came across this bird...

By the time we got to the Lagoon we noticed there were heaps of spare car parks there ( so unusual) so Steve decided to walk back and get the car and bring it closer to the Lagoon.  One of the things Sarah wanted us to do was try and get Max used to the water...  He is terrified of water where he cannot touch the bottom and Sarah wanted us to work with getting him used to wearing his safety vest.

Getting all sunscreened up and getting on Max's safety vest ready to hop in the water....

  He was clinging to Steve as if his life depended on it....

 Steve encouraging Max to let go and swim to me at the edge..  He did it and we were so proud of him, but he was not keen to do it again...

 He took off to swim to the edge..... and he made it...

 After Max had made it to the edge of the pool he was keen to get out and have some afternoon tea..

I had to work at to encourage Max to hop back into the water, so I got him to walk over to the island part of the pool with me, and then gradually got him back in the pool.  I can't remember the last time I have been swimming in a public place like this but I did enjoy gteting in the water with the kids....

Swimming with the children

 After our swim, we decided to get the children some ice cream for afternoon tea...  It sure helped to get them out of the pool in double quick time...  they have a great little cafe and eating area around the Lagoon where you can enjoy the views of the ocean and islands....

 We headed home mid afternoon.  The kids had a bit of a sleep in the car heading home....
Once we got home Max found the Duplo Box and had a great time building towers... He enlisted his Poppy's help and they had a great time playing and building together... Love to take photos of things like this to help keep the memories alive....

 Meanwhile whilst the boys were building with Duplo, Willow was keen to find out all about her Mum and Uncle Pete and Aunty Chloe and what they got up to growing up.  I pulled out Sarah's photo albums from when she was growing up.  Willow loved them and spent the next couple of days reading every page and asking lots of questions about her Mummy's younger years.

 Since the kids had a good sleep in the car coming home we thought that night might be a good night to take them to see the light show on St. Joseph's Cathedral.  It has been a part of the Rocky Christmas culture for the last three years but this is the first time that we have managed to see it as we were away the previous two Christmases.

Max and Willow loved in,  in fact so much so that we sat through the program for almost two rotations and even then Max did not want to come home.  I must admit it was beautiful and very well done...

It was after 8.30pm by the time we got home which was way past the children's bed time.  Fortunately they had had their baths and were dressed for bed before we took them down to the Cathedral, so all we had to do when we got home was to clean their teeth and get them to bed....