Braces are fitted

For the whole Christmas holiday period Tamika has been waiting for this day to come. Tamika was nervous and excited. However, both Matt and I held back the hurt that was to come over the next couple of days.
Since it was the first day of school with the students I was unable to take the day, likely Matt was able to extend his holidays for a day.

These photos were taken during the day.

A work in progress.

The finished product. Tamika chose purple elastic bands. 

Happy Australia Day

 Happy HOT Australia Day! Our nation is one of many extremes. We survive through fire, floods, cyclones, drought, extreme temperatures and good and bad politics. Today is a day where everyone of all cultures get together and celebrate being Australia.
We celebrated with baa, baa lamb cooked on the BBQ along with sausages, salad and coleslaw and the traditional Aussie dessert of pavlova. With the heat the only way to keep cool was to swim, drink and stay in the air conditioning.

Night Shots from Holiday

During various times throughout our holiday Matt took some night photographs.

 The moon's reflection on the water.

 Another building at Surfer's Paradise from the pool area.

Taken from our balcony.

Queenslands Sunsets

We didn't get many amazing sunsets and sunrises this trip as there were always so many clouds about.
There is nothing like  seeing sunsets and sunrises around water, it brings out so many different colours.

These were taken from Cabbage Tree Point.

Crowne Plaza - Surfers Paradise

Welcome to Crowne Plaza Surfers Paradise. Not really the welcome I would have expected but the view was spectacular and an amazing pool area. However, it is a place that I won't be heading back to very quickly. Actually when we headed out to Cavill Ave it become apparent that the area of Surfers Paradise has lost its appeal to both Matt and myself.

 The pool area with a Pirate ship and slide for the young ones.

 The view from one side of the hotel.

 From the foyer looking up at all the rooms to level 12.

My Segway Birthday

Another year older today and suppose to be wiser... we will leave that for the moment.

A beautiful Sunshine Coast day today. Warm, sunny, blue sky with some scattered cloud. Since it rained so much last week we had to cancel our Segway tour at Novetel Twin Waters, instead we did it today. I had never heard of a Segway until my parents-in-law went on one in Paris so when they found out there was one up here they said we had to do it.

Matt has come up with the saying that on each and every holiday we have to do something unusual or special. The Segway was this holidays something.

A Segway is a mode of transport that uses the bodies centre of gravity and balance to move it. It has two wheels and handlebars. Since we were going all terrain ours had bulky wheels with great tread. Our tour went for two hours  giving us a variety of challenging areas including the sandy beach and rugged bushland. The rugged bushland had tiny spaces to  manouvere  the segway in, it was challenging and yep I took one fall and found a tree. They say to let go when you get into trouble and not try to correct the turn, but that just isn't right to me.
At one stage we drove passed Tamika, Logan and Lynne at the pool. Boy did Tamika look disappointed that she didn't get to join in the fun.

After our tour was over the instructors said to bring Tamika back to see if she could manouvere it. She was  thrilled with that idea and breezed through the training of manouvering over ropes and in between witches hats. 

Logan had a small moment of disappointment when he found out that he couldn't have a go as he isn't heavy enough to be able to move it. They let him stand on it with Matt and the instructor on either side. The smile said it all after that.

Glasshouse Mountains

Being tourists to the district we picked up some tourist guides and found a lookout over the Glasshouse Mountains at Beerewah which Chris and Sam didn't even know about.

The view was from a fire tower which they use to spot exactly where fires are in the valley, not that they should have to worry about that this summer as there is so much water about.

The views were amazing looking over the valley and all the mountains. See the photos for yourself.

Montville

 We visited a lovely town called Montville which reminded us of Bowral in the Southern Highlands of NSW. We had a drink at the top of the village over looking the valley below. Just spectacular!!!

Then the misty clouds came over and it drizzled, not too much though

 I have also never seen a fudge store window look so colourful, they even had a bubblegum flavour.

.

 The Premier of Queensland said on the television that the best thing people could do to help them get back on there feet after the floods was to visit and spend money in Queensland. Well, Montville is the place to go. They sell locally crafted piece of art, kites, candle holders, glass blown jewellery (my personal favourite) garden statues, handbags, shoes, tea and fudge.
I added to my collection of necklaces and earrings thanks to the handblown glass store.
It was a good day out. Both Tamika and Logan even managed to spend some money there. I think my family spent the most though. OOPPPS!

On the way back to the apartment we saw a sign for a dam (can't recall the name) so we took a detour.

After the rain the sound could be heard from the driveway in. It was gushing and boy was she full!

Mooloolaba

During January, 2011 we drove up and spent 10 nights in Mooloolaba, Queensland to visit Chris and Sam. We stayed at the Osprey apartments which were lovely and has given me my new kitchen setup. Unfortunately, the weather at first wasn't very kind to us, though we did fare up better than other places in Queensland. We had massive storms, persistent rain and extremely high winds. Looking out our balcony window out to sea all I could think of was that I would have hated to be on a cruise ship right at that moment.

The rain caused flash flooding in our local area. Toowoomba which was 50km away from where we were staying had a sudden 3 metre wall of water come through the town then flooding in the Lockley Valley which caused many deaths and total destruction. Even the capital city of Brisbane flooded. It was devastating to receive the local papers. For at least the first week the water was a horrible brown colouring not very inviting to swim in and it had white froth crashing in with every wave.

Towards the end of the first week the rain stopped and we finally got some nice weather and were able to get out and about. We swam, walked, went to the beach and made use of each bit of sunshine. On one occasion we had to walk through knee deep water just to get to the beach.

 Playing at Mooloolaba park down by the beach.

 Riding the brown waves on their boogie boards.

 The white froth being churned up onto the beach. This was a good day.

 All the boys.

 Trudging through the water just to get to the beach for a proper swim.

The Ezzy Clan.