I wrote about the Brisbane bits of our trip in my last post.  The majority of our trip was spent at my parents place on the Sunshine Coast. Both Astrid and Søren have been there many times, and love staying there and having non-stop grandparent attention.

Astrid had been hanging out to go to the beach. She LOVES the beach and when asked what her plans for the day were she would say ‘go to the beach, eat some lollies and go to the pool’. Pretty nice life for a 3 year old.  Søren’s first trip to the beach, when he was 2 months old was spent feeding and napping. We had another Sunshine Coast trip in May, when he was 7 months, and he hated the beach –  screaming about the waves, the sand and the noise. Astrid had a similar reaction at 5 months of age, so it must be something about that age!  This time around, at 12 months, Søren was a huge beach fan. We weren’t sure whether he would like wet sand, the cold waves and all the noise but he was more than happy.

The cold water was a bit of a shock at first but soon he was happy to sit and let the waves wash over his legs. Then he discovered the joy of sand!

Astrid the beach veteran, spent her time playing in the shallows, making sandcastles and investigating the non-existent waves.  This day we had ventured to the nearby Kawana beach, and it was unusually flat. Astrid was only extracted from her beach loving activities by promise of a fish and chip lunch at the surf club.

That lunch was a hit – fish and chips are the baby and toddler favourites, and the club had a play area with toys.  Kiddy happiness……. until they had to leave for Søren’s afternoon nap, then I was pretty unpopular.  There were another few beach visits to come though……

Pretty much every day we go for a swim in the pool.  For a lot of the year the unheated ‘big pool’ is a bit too cold for the kids (and me, I like it warm), We tend to swim in the large heated spa with the bubbles off.  This time it was warm enough to swim in the big pool too.

Astrid never misses a chance to practice her swimming and had a great time with her kickboard, noodle and just swimming laps between people and the edge. She is a happy pool-goer!

Søren is also a massive pool fan. That baby is a part-fish. He can butterfly under water and always wants to be swimming between people. Half an hour in the pool with him and you are exhausted from him constantly trying to swim.  I meant to get some photos of him swimming but was obviously too busy trying to keep him from throwing himself in.  One day I will get his impressive butterflying on video!

During the week we’d had 2 beach visits. When Anto arrived for the weekend the agenda was pretty much beach, pool and eating.  Our Saturday beach visit was to our regular beach at Mooloolaba.  There weren’t many waves to be seen, but that made for happy kids.  After Søren had extensively played in the sand he had a swim out in the big water, which was also a hit. His sister spent most of her time out swimming too. Even when sitting in freezing wet swimmers and playing with wet sand, Søren spent his time pointing out to the water, where he wanted to be!

We had promised fish and chips on the beach for lunch, so luckily both kids could be convinced to give up sand and water for some fried sea creature.  I’ve mentioned before how I hate fish and chips. I ate a lot of salad that week while the rest of the family enjoyed their fishy lunches.  Søren has always been a fan of fish and chips but he was going crazy for the food after his big morning of swimming. Literally climbing across the table to get the calamari and fish, he had us cracking up with laughter at his antics.  Both he and Astrid thoroughly enjoyed themselves – food monsters through and through……

Do think they enjoyed their lunch?  They did get another beach visit the following day, but it was very rough. Astrid loved jumping in the surf but Søren was not impressed with the big waves and we didn’t last too long out in the hot sun.

Aside from lots of beach, swimming, and fish and chips, the rest of our time was spent getting up WAY too early………. before 5am was the standard, which led to tired kidlets.  Astrid conned Granny into craft on a daily basis, and playing word games on her tablet.  Søren just destroyed their apartment, making sure everything he could reach ended up on the dining room table – the wine rack was emptied pronto after he discovered it! There were also lots of outings to the shops for lunch and afternoon tea and plenty of time to play (or annoy) Granny, Gramps and Aunt Triona.  Oh and since Anto hadn’t eaten quite enough seafood he did make some chilli crab for the meat eaters one night……

After 10 days it was time to come home. I survived the flight back with both kids on my own.  Luckily Astrid is an excellent flyer and she had Peppa Pig to keep her entertained while snacking on crackers, olives and smoked chicken.  Søren was a huge wriggle worm and very cranky for the first part of the flight but eventually slept soundly for most of the flight and put all the other screaming babies on the plane to shame.  One day he’ll discover the joys of staying awake on flights, but for now it’s convenient when he doesn’t.  All tired out from their big trip of swimming, beaching and eating they both slept in the first few days until 7am!