zoliphotography

Was spent in Port Macquarie overlooking Town Beach with my parents in tow.

It was a magical week and a thank you to them for all their hard work in helping us raise our children last year. As my husband says, it takes a tribe and we are so lucky to have that with really active grandparents on both sides, not to mention my brothers (one of whom has my first born tonight – thanks J! xx). They bend over backwards for us and we are so appreciative. Liam says the best part of his holiday was having Nanny & Poppy there – awwww.

We were also very lucky with the weather we hear from our friends Chris & Gina (whom we had a lovely dinner with sans children – I’m still full from the squid you guys or was that the squid I had at lunch or from the day before? Who knows??!!). The two weeks prior to us arriving saw nothing but rain and the day we arrived, the skies cleared to beautiful weather which remained with us the entire week.

We hit the beach every day and Liam is now boogy boarding and ducking under waves like a fish. Zoe is still quite scared of hopping on the boogy board – especially when her Dad nose dives her into the sand. We lunched in lovely spots on most days. Liam was dragged jet boating by his Poppy for 40 minutes and came back looking like they’d been swimming in the ocean – I kid you not! Apparently his eyes lit up after the first dunking. I was surprised to hear they don’t require life jackets in the river – thankfully I was in my own “extreme sport” hell when his boat pulled away…..

To calm Zoe from missing out on the jet boating (she was an inch too small) Paul & I took Zoe on a “quieter” ride. I guess I should have been alarmed by the life vest we were required to put on but no, I was quite calm about it all until we headed out into the open sea. It was late in the afternoon so the swell was big and it was windy (which equals choppy) – but hey, we’ll get great “air”. I was sitting behind Zoe “motorbike” style and was advised to hang on to her whilst putting my hand on the bar in front of her to protect her teeth from hitting it. Did she care? No, not in the least. At one stage she even attempted to wave to swimmers on the beach. She squealed “wee, wee, wee” the whole way and was sorely disappointed when the boat slowed down in the river. The experience had my Dad, Liam, Paul and Zoe back on it again the next day for more adventure. I stayed at home and read the paper.

We attempted fishing but had no joy unfortunately which is a bummer because I’m really not a good morning person. I did capture my first sunrise though which was a bonus.

Giving birth two days before Christmas is not something she will thank me for when she’s older, I’m sure. We had her party in late November, so she was kind of wondering what all the fuss was about because “you know, I’m 5 already, I’ve had my party”.

She was awoken bright and early to jewellery, Barbie and clothes and then spent the day at pre-school (which also happened to be her very last day of pre-school). I arranged a donut cake the size of the ancient pyramids for her to enjoy with her friends.

Her Uncle cooked her favourite meal of all time (spaghetti) for dinner and we were also joined by my Dad and my Aunt who was visiting from Cowra. The funniest thing she did was to promptly blow out all her candles before anyone could even start singing. I’d love to post some photos of the look of horror on my face but you know, my husband took them and they’re kinda “blah”. No offence P!

Happy birthday sweet pea. xxx