Paradise Resort

I hope everyone is warming up slowly. We are cooling down as fall has arrived down under! Three weeks back from our big trip and we are back into the routine of school and dreaming of another trip. The kids still start their homework when we get home without too many arguments and get upset if I pick them up from after school care too early. With the arrival of a new term and a new season, some of our activities have changed. Swimming is the one constant, still at 0700 every Saturday morning. Ellie has finally moved up after a frustratingly long time for Emma (one step away from becoming a swimming mom from down-under!) at her current level and Alex is just about to move up again away from lessons into the start of the developmental squad. Alex is taking a break from soccer and has started tennis. He is loving it and there is lots of room for an Aussie, or American male, tennis player on the big stage. Ellie dances away the rest of Saturday mornings with her ballet, modern jazz, and tap.

A couple of weeks ago we all went to some friends house for a wine tasting event. The kids had other activities, but we learned a lot about Australian Rose wine and had a lovely time. A week later we were back at the same friend's house for a birthday party for the kids. They had a petting zoo set up in the yard with goats, pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, and guinea pigs. The kids loved petting the animals. We had ANZAC day off from school and work so we went for a family hike. At the end of our road you go up some stairs and you are into the hills. Our suburbs name of Ferny Hills is very apt. We had a great hike up and down some serious hills. The kids were running way out in front of us and didn't slow down until the last monster hill when Ellie needed a little bit of help.

The next Sunday, 28 April, we went to watch the netball. Emma is temporarily working at ANZ and the bank is one of the major sponsors of Queensland's professional netball team, the Queensland Firebirds, so she was able to get some complimentary tickets. It was a very close game, but in the end the Adelaide Thunderbirds won by one point. The kids really enjoyed their introduction to netball.

Since it has been three weeks since we have been away from home we decided we needed a weekend away. This weekend, after all the kids activities were done on Saturday, we headed down to the Gold Coast. We stayed at the Paradise Resort. The hotel is appropriately named as it may be the best hotel ever for a family with kids. The water play area is amazing and the kids spent five hours today playing on it with their only breaks to sit in the large hot tub for kids to warm up a bit. (Alex and Ellie were the only kids running around in wetsuits as apparently even Queensland is not warm enough for them year round.) As part of the cost of the room you get up to four hours for each kid in the amazing kids club. We took full advantage Saturday night and wandered around Surfer's Paradise and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. We haven't eaten there since we use to have dinner regularly at the Hard Rock in Cayman. It was a fun night and our second Saturday in a row out for a date-night dinner. (The Saturday before Aunty Kat watched the kids while Emma took me out for a birthday dinner to MooMoo, an awesome and fancy steak restaurant in the city.) The kids had a fantastic evening also. They had a yummy dinner, drove the peddle go carts around and want to go back everyday. The whole hotel is designed for kids. The hotel is a little old and dated but you don't even notice because the kids are having so much fun and you get kids club everyday. The kids already want to know when we are going back. Can't recommend it highly enough if you have kids, but DO NOT stay there if you do not have kids!

Emma is hard at work planning Ellie's birthday party, as these events require extensive detailed planning starting months in advance. After last years party she has very high standards to exceed this time round!

Happy Mothers Day in advance to all those special ladies out there. Hopefully we will have more details from our Easter holiday trip up soon so stay tuned....