DAY 301 - 14/12/2010 - Main Beach, QLD

Early morning beach visit and then a dip in the pool.

Alicia and Taylah have a craft class in the rec room today and made some dream catches.

Back in the pool after lunch and then early showers because Waz and I have a business meeting with an old boss of mine whom we bumped into coming out of the surf yesterday. He invited us over to his place which is a huge apartment overlooking Main Beach with million dollar views. So this is how the other half live. Not bad, not bad at all.

We go to todays meeting and we have another scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at his place of work. Not sure if we are too keen on his proposal and not too sure that we fully understand the whole concept behind currency trading which is what its all about but we will decide tomorrow.

Enough of boring business meetings and back to the fun stuff. A quick scoot around the park looking at peoples Christmas decorations. Lilly spots an inflatable Santa just a bit down from us. It lights up and goes up and down the chimney.

Tonight after dinner, we take the girls to the outdoor movie, Toystory 3. The big screen is down the end of our street on the grassy area near the camp kitchen and if you get there early enough you can snag a deck chair....which the girls do.

The park is getting quite full and everyone is in Christmas spirit and many vans are decorated with fairy lights. Some even have these huge Christmas trees. Everyones out in huge gatherings eating, drinking laughing. You can tell some have been coming here a while and they all seem to know one another. I thought our decorations were good but ours are quite simple compared to others.

DAY 300 - 13/12/2010 - Main Beach, QLD

Day 300, woohoo. I woke up fairly early this morning with a killer sore throat. Dropped some pain killers then back to bed.

Back up at 9.30 and feeling much better.

Today was the hottest day so far on the Gold Coast. And what better way to spend a beautiful Gold Coast day than to spend it at the Centrelink office in Southport. On a positive note the trip to Centrelink turned out pretty good. Not there long and all our personals were sorted out by a very competent gentleman who is definately underpaid for his efforts.

Off to the beach for the rest of this glorious day. Water temps were fantastic and the clearest I've seen it.

Back to camp for the afternoon and Lilly takes a dip in the pool while I laze about on the banana chair reading.

Calamari, prawn skewers and hot chips for dinner. Yumo!

Early night.

DAY 299 - 12/12/2010 - Main Beach, QLD

We wake up to another rainy day and I am feeling a little fuey. I seem to have caught Taylah's coughing bug.

Tonight's carols are on at Burleigh Beach but if this rain continues they may be cancelled.

The rain eases and eventually stops and the carols go ahead as planned. What a line up.......Lots of past Australian Idol singers and Santa is arriving in a helicopter. They really know how to throw a carols here.

We got some takeaway pizza, wine, beers and softdrink for the kids and plonked ourselves on a picnic blanket in amongst the other carollers. Hundreds if not thousands have come out to enjoy this Christmas festivity. Alicia and Taylah love going to Carols and are very happy that it was not cancelled. Our Carni mates met us here and we also managed to bump into some old childhood mates, the Nelson's. They live close by and I had a feeling we would see them here. We haven't seen them in a few years and they have invited us back to their house when the carols are over with.

Shortly before the fireworks were due to go off we moved from the grassed area and made our way onto the beach. It was so much better here. Even the speaker quality was better from here. We should of come here from the beginning.

The fireworks display was quite impressive and the girls had a ball playing tiggy with other kids on the sand.

We lost Lilly for a brief moment. I panicked because there were kids everywhere and it was dark down by the water and I knew thats where she probably would be and sure enough she was.

Went back to the Nelson's house after the carols and had a great catch up with them. Thier kids have grown up so much since we last saw them which we worked out to be at least 4 years ago. Didn't leave their place till 2am with a very drunk husband and 3 very tired children.

DAY 298 - 11/12/2010 - Main Beach, QLD

No exercising this morning. Everyones stuffed from yesterdays Dreamworld adventure. Off to the beach instead.

A mid morning swim in the surf and it rains quite heavily on us while we are in but it is still hot so we continue swimming.

Back home for a yummy healthy lunch and we decide that we will hang indoors watching tv for the rest of the day. The rain hasn't stop and no one is interested in doing much else.

Lilly loves her new helmet and wears it a lot.

Waz ducks out for a bit and Lilly decides to take a late afternoon nap giving me plenty of opportunity to get dinner prepared.

Alicia cooked us a raspberry white chocolate cake and it was delicious.

After dinner we play boardgames for a bit but then its bedtime for the kiddies and movie time for the adults. Unfortunately I do not stay awake for the duration of the movie and Waz is left watching the movie alone.

DAY 297 - 10/12/2010 - Main Beach, QLD

The girls are getting their theme park fix and enjoyed another fun filled day at Dreamworld and White Water World.

It was bloody hot and we were out in the sun all day. We packed on the sunscrean but it didn't stop us from all getting a little burnt. The lines for the rides were all long, sometimes waiting over an hour to get on a ride.

Waz and Lilly get soaked

 by the bucket

DAY 296 - 09/12/2010 - Main Beach, QLD

The first thing Waz and I do this morning is take turns in going for a jog along the beach.

We decided it was going to be too hot for the beach today and besides the girls havn't been to see Santa yet and I believe Santa can be found at Pacific Fair in Surfers.

Sure enough Santa was there and so was his Polar Express.

Lilly is a little apprehensive at first. The last 2 years she hasn't been too thrilled in meeting Santa and refused to sit on his lap.

But this year is different and is happy to get her photo with Santa and her sisters.

Merry Xmas my gorgeous girls.

What a treat....Lilly meets Rudolph as well but he's fast asleep in front of the fireplace.

Back home to decorate our humungus tree.

Then a cool off in the pool before dinner.

Tonight while I lay with Lilly in bed Waz and the girls went for a twilight walk along the beach and viewed the Surfers skyline all lit up at night.

DAY 295 - 08/12/2010 - Main Beach, QLD

Hallaluia.....the sun is out and shining bright.....its a miracle!

A protein packed breakfast of bacon, poached eggs and mushy's. mmmmmm

Off to the beach, for the first time since we arrived a week ago today. At first touch the water was quite coolish but beautiful once we got used to it. It was great to finally have a swim in this beach after a week of pathetic weather.

By midday we had to leave the beach because it was too hot to stay in the sun so we left and went by the pool under the shade sails instead. I read my book while Waz and the kids cooled off in the pool.

On our way to Australia Fair.

This afternoon we set off for a walk to Australia Fair. It was much further than I thought and it was still pretty hot, maybe even hotter. I started some Christmas shopping and I also had to get some groceries.

Back home for Tandori Chicken cooked on the Webber for dinner and an early night.

Had a great day.

DAY 294 - 07/12/2010 - Main Beach, QLD

Lots of clothes washing this morning then a dip in the pool to cool off. The sun finally showed its beautiful and much missed head. It didn't last long though and by midday it was raining on and off quite heavily again.

Multitasking

Later on....... lunch with our Carni mates at the Currumbin Surf Club.

Perusing the menu....

  

Lilly downs her lemonade and wants to know whats taking so long for her lunch to arrive.

Views from the surf club balcony. The Surfers skyline in the distance.

The views were priceless, the company great as usual and the food was scrumptious.

Back home to finish washing our clothes, then an afternoon walk along the beach followed by a yummy baked dinner on the Webber.

DAY 293 - 06/12/2010 - Main Beach, QLD

The rain sucks and its really starting to get annoying.

We heard today that there has been some shootings close by and we are pretty sure we heard them last night. Pretty scary because we walk up and down the esplanade from Main Beach to Surfers every morning and some afternoons.

Carni's Rod and Chris pop in for a cuppa. Good catch up with them.

It finally stops raining for a bit in the afternoon so we go for a walk into Surfers. The girls ride their rip stiks in but Lilly prams it. We watch a reporter and camera crew filming along the pathway, reporting the latest shootings. The girls try their damn hardest to get into his shot and continually ride their boards behind him trying to look casual. It was quite funny to watch.

As soon as we get back home the heavens open up and it buckets down.

DAY 292 - 05/12/2010 - Main Beach, QLD

Today we spent the day at Wet n Wild with the Jones's. It was their work Christmas party and they had some spare tickets and invited us along for the day.

The girls thought we were going to Wet n Wild alone and were not aware that their friends Maddy and Mikala were going to be there. They were so surprised when we suddenly pulled up next to their car in the car park.

Most of the morning we experienced monsoonal rainfall but by lunch time it eased off with the occassional light shower. It was still hot and it did not hinder our day out just lots of soaked towels.

Had a fantastic day and the new ride "Aqua Loop" was awwwwwesome. Poor Alicia and Taylah could not get on it because they were under specified weight. Hey girls, did I mention how awwwwesome the Aqua Loop was.

DAY 291 - 04/12/2010 - Main Beach, QLD

Rain, rain go away...........

Off to Harbour Town to do some hard core outlet shopping.

DAY 290 - 03/12/2010 - Main Beach, QLD

I begin the day with an early morning walk into Surfers and back.

It rains on and off all day and the temps have dropped. The forecast is rain till Tuesday or Wednesday which sucks big time.

For the better part of the day we watch dvd's indoors.

There's a break in the weather and the afternoon calls for a scooter ride to the playground.

The playground is always a great stomping ground for making friends and Lilly makes a few here this afternoon while I supervise from the camp kitchen table and read my book.

Tonights activities comprise of an early dinner and more movies.

DAY 289 - 02/12/2010 - Main Beach, QLD

An early walk into Surfers and then we headed to Dreamworld.

Taylah was stoked that she had grown taller and was finally able to go on every ride except the MotoGP.

Alicia got called up on stage and copped a cream pie in the face.

Lilly had lots of rides to go on and enjoy, in particular, the Angry Beaver and the Thunder River Rapids. They were her favourite and she went on them over and over again and still couldn't get enough. You couldn't wipe the smile off her face.

Look at that smile.

Still smiling and on the Angry Beaver with Dad.

Love the Big Red Car.

On the rapids

We had a fantastic but very tiring day.