DAY 7 - EASTER AT TANNUM SANDS 2021....

 The rain has finally stopped and although it is still a little overcast the day today looks a lot more promising..

We decided to spend the morning at the beach with Anna and Barry and their two children, and with Sherilyn and her two grandchildren...

The kids had a ball, all of them had a swim in the surf and then it was a play on the beach...

Because my back is still giving me so much grief, we decided to drive down to the Surf Lifesaving Club and park there and walk down onto the beach.  Since we were last here, the Clubhouse has had a bit of a make over with this lovely mural painted on the outside of the building.  I have noticed that this seems to be a bit of a trend with the SLSC's around as Yeppoon on the Capricorn coast also has murals painted on it and the Emu Park is looking that way too..

Tannum Sands beachfront is very appealing and has been restored with artwork along with plenty of parklands with picnic tables and play areas.  It is well set up for families.  There are kilometres of walkways along the beach front and any morning of the week will see people out walking or jogging along these pathways.  

There is an amazing playground and flying fox, grassed areas for playing footy and pathways to enjoy riding scooters and bikes. There are also free gas barbecue facilities. There are also a number of beach showers and toilet blocks for public use - all within a few steps of Tannum Sands main beach.

Then it was down onto the beach for a swim and play...

Max is not a hugely confident swimmer in the water and whilst he was happy to play on the edge of the water he wasn't too keen to venture out too much past his knees.  It wasn't long before he was happy to join Poppy and then Barry and Hugo up on the beach..

Max loved collecting the shells on the beach and used them to decorate some sandcastles that BArry was working on.... He found a very special shell which looked to have a smiley face and was quick to point out to us that he had named that particular shell "Mr. Happy"

"Mr Happy"

Their decorated work of art...

Splashing in puddles with Poppy...

Whilst Elia and Jace were keen to keep swimming the girls wanted to come out and play on the beach.  Anna came out with them and sent Barry in to swim with the boys as they are just a little too confident in the water and it doesn't seem to phase them too much that they can't always quite reach the ground.

Anna has had enough...

The girls had their own game to play and although Max wanted to join them, they weren't that keen so in the end he found a sand pencil on the beach and decided to do some drawings...

 

It was nice to have Steve down on the beach with me this morning.. Quite often when we are at Tannum like this he is off fishing but the tides this year mean that he has been able to mostly spend the mornings back at camp with us or doing things with the children...

This really is a lovely stretch of beach and the children had a wonderful time playing on it.  Us adults enjoyed it also.  It was nice to be able to do the grandparenting thing with other families and grandparents.  The kids loved each other's company and other than having to take them to the toilet were quite happy to amuse themselves and each other...

It was almost lunch time by the time we decided to leave the beach.  Steve was keen to get out and check his crab pots, and Craig and Emma were keen to go back out with him again today.  I on the other hand needed to drive into Gladstone to pick up a new booster seat so that we could travel with Max back to Brissie as Sarah had forgotten to take his out of her car and leave it with us...

Sherilyn, Anna and Barry and I had also decided that we would take all the kids into Gladstone to the movies to see "Peter Rabbit 2"this afternoon.

When we got back to the Caravan Park we came across this rather large species of frill neck lizard.  He was darting between trees just in front of our van.  He was quite majestic..

We took off an hour earlier than the others with the plan to just meet them at the cinema's in Gladstone.  I needed to get this carseat and I had a couple of other things we needed to buy before we headed to the cinema.

We were the first to arrive so the kids decided to play on some of the games machines there whilst we were waiting,  Anna and Barry and the boys arrived next closely followed by Sherilyn and her grandchildren.  

Th

The kids were pretty keen to see Peter Rabbit 2.  They had enjoyed the first movie so it didn't need much convincing for them to come and see the second one...

Because there were so many of us, we ended up taking up a couple of rows in the cinema.. Anna and Barry sat with all the boys, and Sherilyn and I both sat in the row behind with all the girls...

We had talked about having dinner in Gladstone with all the kids before heading back to the Caravan Park, but STeve put a stop to all of that by ringing me just before the movie started to let me know that he had forgotten to take the boat winder out of my car before I left to go into town.  He was able to put the boat into the water without it but it would be impossible to get the boat back on the trailer without it, so I needed to be back at the boat rand at Wild Cattle Boat Ramp by 6pm.  

As we got out of the movies just before 4.30pm, we decided to go for a drive into East Shores Parklands on the waterfront in Gladstone...

The East Shores Precinct is one of Gladstone's newest place to play!

The precinct spans along Flinders Parade and includes a water play park, waterfront boardwalk incorporating a viewing platform, barbecues and an abundance of green, open space to play. The water play park is open from 9am till 9pm during the hotter months (and till 6pm in the cooler months).

Provided by Gladstone Ports Corporation, East shores is a world-class recreational precinct for Gladstone residents and visitors of all ages to meet, relax, exercise and enjoy the foreshore area.

The HMAS Gladstone is also birthed up at the Precinct and particularly drew the attention of the boys...

Sherilyn and I both parked at the wrong end of the park so we had to take quite a walk through the park to get to the children's play area where we were to meet Barry and Anna...

We found Barry and Anna at the playground already by the time we got there.  The kids were eager to play and had a wonerful time all together....

By the time the kids had a bit of a play it was going on for 5.20pm so I knew that I needed to round them up so that we could head down to the boat ramp to give him the handle he needed for the boat.. I still wasn't keen to go home and have to cook dinner so I informed the others that once I had delivered the handle for Steve I was going to head back to Tannum Sands McDonalds and take the kids there for dinner... Everyone liked that idea and agreed to meet them in an hour's time..

The timing back at the boat ramp was spot on.  I was almost 10 minutes late getting there and he was just arriving back at the boat ramp.

Once I safely delivered his handle,  I headed back into town and headed to McDonalds.  We were the first to arrive and had placed out order's before the others had even arrived...

We had just received our food when they arrived and headed to the counter to order....

It's been a big day for the kids.  All morning on the beach, and they both fell asleep on the drive into town and then they both fell asleep on the drive into Gladstone and then on the trip home as well.  Normally after sleeping during the afternoon you would have had bucklies trying t get them to settle in the evening, but I had no trouble getting the dressed and ready for bed.  The hid the pillow and were asleep before you could almost turn the light off...

What a wonderful day we have all had... hopefully we get to do this a little more often..