One Perfect Winter's Day...

Some days everything just goes right...

We had a day like that today...left John at home, rather unwell, but also needing some quiet time to finish an essay...(he's completing his Masters in Public Administration this year...finally). The last six weeks or so has been really full on with study so on the weekends I have been taking Matilda & Myles out on Sunday afternoons to give him the space he needs to get work done. We would, of course, prefer to have him with us but that will happen soon enough.

Today we headed up to the Sunshine Coast...Myles & Matilda had been wanting to visit Bellingham Maze for some time so today was it. It was fun but didn't hold their interest for very long...I think they are getting a bit old for some of the activities they enjoyed when younger. They did enjoy the bird aviary though.

After leaving the Maze we drove to to Mooloolaba on the coast...it was a gorgeous day, around 23 degrees (that's 73F for those of you in the USA), clear & sunny...we just love the Winter climate in Queensland. Of course, when at the beach what else do you have for lunch but fish & chips..!!! We found a fish shop that sold fresh fish as well as takeaway f&c's, collected our order and headed to the beach. They were truly the best f&c's I have ever eaten, the surroundings helped of course though.

*Note - the photo above isn't mine but is of Mooloolaba Beach

It was a perfect beach day, gentle breeze, not too hot to be in the sunshine & lots of smiley happy people about. Matilda & Myles changed into their swimming gear and spent the next hour and a half being dumped and jumping through the waves. More than once I wished John was with us, I really miss him when we do something special and he's not there...his absence is palpable.

We headed home around 4.30ish with two exhausted, sandy, damp kids in tow...both had warm jackets to put on and clean dry towels to wrap themselves in. They were very talkative for the first part of the trip home...we have decided that a beach day at Mooloolaba is a must for the next school holidays, with a little more preparation this time. I hope it's as much fun...part of what made today so special was that it was (mostly) very unexpected. We had planned to head to a beach but beyond that there were no expectations. That we found a perfect beach, ate fabulous fish & chips and that the weather was glorious was just luck.

I cooked a pot of Chicken & Vegetable Soup, I had brewed the stock yesterday and chopped all of the vegies last night so it was just a matter of putting it all together and whizzing up some bruschetta to have with it.

Exhausted now, off to bed...I have been dozing in front of the television hence the lateness of this post.

Night all.