Surf and Sun

A family weekend away in Queensland ... how good does that sound?? Afterall ... Queensland ... beautiful one day ...... perfect the next and since we live in Canberra where winter is cold and summer is hot the idea of a weekend in Queensland was just wonderful. We of course had a purpose - a friends 40th and an opportunity to spend some time with many of our friends who either live there or came to the party.

The alarm going off at 4am on Friday morning was not the most inviting thing but by leaving home then it meant we were going to get a full day of fun in on that day and enjoy a day at the beach on the Saturday, party Saturday night and the aquarium Sunday morning before heading home. Great in theory til you throw a 2 1/2 yo in the mix.......
We caught up with friends, had lunch out, settled into our motel, went for a walk, had dinner out, fell in love with staring at the beach and the waves and the blue sky and we were so relaxed. Saturday was breakfast watching the waves, swim at the beach (hmmm things start not going to plan) ... Mario is not happy with the waves or being in the water so we have a play on the rocks and play in the park and back to the motel for a swim in the pool, Mario has a nap and I get to go shopping .... oooh now I am as happy as a pig in mud and my credit card is having a work out. We shower and change and head off to the party. Nothing fancy just relaxing on the deck of a pub overlooking the marina and dreaming about owning one of those huge luxury "boats".

Before midnight Mario wakes .. he climbs into bed with me (Daddy was still partying) ... an hour or so later ... ah oh ...things are not good as we end up with a sick little boy. We shower, clean up and remake the bed ... 30 min later we have to repeat the process but by this time we are scrounging for bed linen that is clean. Poor little mite is feeling hot, uncomfy and just not well. By morning he is a little chirpier or so we think (or maybe we were just hoping given we had plans). Breakfast went down and breakfast came up and so our plans were in tatters. No seal show today. All we could do was put him to bed and hope he felt better before travelling home that afternoon. Sleep (and panadol) does wonders for a kid and we survived.... but only just .....the trip home and could not wait to get Mario changed and into bed. But look at the photos he does look like he is having fun. I know that mum and dad were!!

It took a couple of days but things are back to normal ... how do we know ... Mario is back to eating and drinking like he usually does. We have a history of Mario being unwell when we go away like this and we are hoping to break the cycle ... so maybe we will have better luck next trip and yes of course there will be a next trip as we really have some great family moments!