Going away for Christmas

We were so excited that a couple of months back, we were given the amazing opportunity to stay a week down the Gold Coast at a beautiful resort for a very good price. 

Hubby gets holidays over Christmas as his office closes and usually it is way too expensive and difficult to book accommodation over this period so we normally stay home and prepare for Christmas. 

We are so grateful for this past week.... Feeling so relaxed and we have had some beautiful time together as a family. 

Some of the many highlights :

•daily beach swims 

•swim and fun in the pool and spa. Also going to the pool at night is always amazing

•walks into coolangatta to browse the shops and grab supplies 

•Pizza Hut all you can eat buffet dine in lunch (first for the kids ) 

•night beach walk spotlighting for crabs 

•sleeping in 

Celebrating Christmas :

We took a little tree with us and all the presents and decorated the apartment a little to make it feel more festive. 

It was still important for us to spend Christmas with our families while we were Away. Hubby's parents live close to where we were holidaying and we had Christmas night dinner with his family there. Boxing Day my family traveled to the coast to spend the day with us at the resort, we had brunch and lunch in our apartment and had a great day hanging out together. Kids were blessed by both our families with gorgeous presents. 

To conclude...I loved being away for the Christmas season. It didn't feel any 'less' like Christmas and I actually really liked being removed from the busyness and last minute lead up to Christmas. We seemed content with keeping it simple but still special. 

What a great week !!! 

Luke 2 vs 8 to 12 
 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Girls weekend!!! 2013

I have just come back from 3 nights away with my close friends for a 'girls weekend'.

Every Mummy should do this! It is so great to have a few days enjoying simple pleasures that only a Mum can appreciate.

No cooking , preparing food or feeding anyone but yourself
We went out or bought in for breakfast , lunch and tea. What a treat !!!

Doing whatever you like, when you like.
Some of the things we did...
-strolling up and down the streets browsing the shops
-going for a jog, walk along the beach
-putting your feet up with a good book or magazine or having a nap
-walking over the road to one of the many
Cafes, juice bars or gelati shops for a coffee, juice or ice cream!
-going for a swim in the surf
-playing board games
-watching a movie that is not animated
-chatted and giggled till we could chat no more(literally!!!! One night I nearly lost my voice)

Going to bed when you feel like it and naturally waking up when your body tells you it's time !

Come back feeling refreshed, energized , rested and yes, missing your children!

So good for the whole family, for kids to have Dad all to themselves for the weekend is also a treat.

Go on what's stopping you ?? If you can't do 3 nights , start with 1 or 2 or even a few hours.   

I am truly blessed with great friends who also value this time, this one wasn't even finished and we were making plans for our next one!!!

Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times

Some of our favourite things to do in Stanthorpe

In the past 10 months we have had 3 holidays in Stanthorpe. We just LOVE the area. It's close enough to home (just under 3 hours from our place) and far enough to away to feel "away" from it all.
We stumbled across grice lane cottage on stayz , a website we regularly use when looking for holiday accommodation.

We have managed the 3 times we have stayed to get an awesome deal, especially if staying mid week and "off peak".

The cottage is fully self contained and is really a home away from home. It has 3 bedrooms, comfortably sleeping 6. The bedrooms are comfortable with lovely beds and gorgeous crisp linen. The kitchen is well appointed and has everything you need to cook for the family. The pantry and fridge is stocked with all basic supplies which you are welcome to use. The rule is: you finish it then you replace it. There is also a great BBQ and outdoor setting outside.

We love the cottage for our family as it has bikes on the 40acre property plus a climbing frame and swing set. Our family loves exploring the property on foot and bikes. Inside there is also toys, books and DVD's for all the family to enjoy plus the cottage comes with high chair and port cot for those with littlies. A plus not to have to drag these along.

Some of the things to do in Stanthorpe that we ave discovered and enjoyed on one of our trips:

Bush walking and swimming holes :

Giraween National Park
We have done a couple of the shorter walks here and just gone for a stroll to paddle in the swimming holes when we are their in summer.
This winter we did the pyramid walk which is quite challenging but very rewarding. Medium fitness required, good walking shoes with grip. Lots of stairs! and some scrambling required. The view from the top is amazing and this walk is well worth the effort, however I don't think  I would attempt it in the warmer months. The granite rocks at Giraween can get very hot as they can also get very slippery in wet.

Donneleys Castle
We did a couple of the small walks here. One to a lookout with beautiful views. A nice easy walk for the family.
We also did the cave walk, which the kids loved. Our children are climbers and love all the granite rocks to climb!

The bramble patch ! Where do I start? We never visit Stanthorpe without a visit here. We plan our whole day around having afternoon tea at this place. It' s a beautiful berry farm with a gorgeous shop and eatery. They sell hot and cold drinks and about 5 dessert items all based around their delicious berry products. The shop has tastings and sales of jams, coulis and sauces. Hubby and I always get the same thing here, the ice burgerer. It is an amazing chocolate sponge cake filled with gorgeous berry sorbet and ice cream drizzled with berry coulis and dusted with icing sugar. You must make sure you have a light lunch prior to fit this one in! The coffee here is also devine.
They do children's sized portions of all the desserts too, which is nice.

Felsburg Winery and Cafe As above this is one of the places that we never come to Stanthorpe and not eat here once. We think that for family friendly, value for money this is the place to go. It is set up high on a hill with gorgeous views. It has a casual, relaxed atmosphere and the owners and staff are laid back and friendly. They have high chairs, kids menus and a small area for young children with a few toys.
The menu is simple with not a huge variety of choices but we find sharing a couple of their very yummy pizzas and a bow of chips is enough for our family. With food and drinks we never spend more than $50 on lunch. It's the cellar door, you need to watch out for (lol) while we wait for our food to be made we taste some of the felsburg wines and port (which is quite nice) and end up taking a glass back to the table to have with lunch.

Heavenly Chocolate As the name suggests, this place is devine. It is a cute little humble shop positioned on the main strip when heading to Giraween National park. The way we tackled this one was to go for our walk and then treat ourselves on the way back with a hot chocolate ( which is AMAZING) or iced coffee /chocolate here is also reaaaaaalllllly good! The kids have a portion of money each which they can spend on treats and the adults too. They sell the yummiest rocky road I have ever tried. IT has the yummy(real) jelly and marshmallow in it which to me is how rocky road should be.

The cafe doesn't sell food(just amazing drinks) but is set out in the gardens with old style tables and chairs looking out at the gorgeous land and chickens ( which the kids love to look at and feed grass to)
There are cottages (wisteria cottages) that you can stay at,  a little pricey but they are well appointed and come with the nice extras of a home made brekky basket (with home made bread and fresh eggs straight from the farm) and wine and chocolates on arrival.

Suttons Apple Farm Well known for their beautiful, crisp and very natural Apple juice. Adults and children can have a free tasting of all the yummy apple juices(from various apple varieties), they also have sauces and cider's for tasting and sale too.
After being patient with Mum and Dad tasting wines at various wineries, the kids really enjoy this experience. During Apple season(late Jan to June usually), there is apple picking where for a small price per kg you can pick your own apples. This is most FUN!

Inside the big shed is also a small cafe, with a simple menu of homemade meals that are all made from fresh, local produce where possible. The apple pie and ice cream are devine!!!!

Strawberry fields
Pick your own strawberries is open from October to May. Our kids thoroughly enjoyed this experience! For approx $14 a kg we could pick our own strawberries to take home and eat! The little shop attached has all strawberry themed nick nacks and the all important chocolate dipping source.

Wooden Maze and Mini Golf
There is enough to do here to keep the family busy for 2 to 3 hours. IT costs about $12 per person and under 4's are free. We managed to come across a voucher at one of the wineries and got 1 person in Free so it cost us $36 for our family that day.
Upon entry you receive a little puzzle card that you need to solve as you walk through the maze. You can come back for as many of these as you like. There is also a mini maze for little children, gardens to explore, a big chess set game, an over sized chair to climb on AND Mini Golf is included in the admission, which was a lovely way to finish our visit to the Granite Belt Maze. Attached is a little kiosk with ordinary coffee, but plenty of cold drinks, ice cream and all the snack food you could need.

Cheese Shop
A little cheese shop on a beautifully set dairy farm. You can taste very yummy cheeses and other condiments that are all available to purchase. They are welcoming to children tasting also, providing you watch they are being considerate and hygienic.

Castle Glen
One for the adults and the children. The shop is set in a gorgeous looking castle. Great opportunity to take some pics in the front. The shop is very colourful and beautifully layed out with wines, ports, beers and liquors of nearly every flavour!
The kids love all the different flavour fudge on offer. To help them decide they usually allow a few free tastings of it before purchase.

Last but not least.......there is the wineries of course. We love supporting the local wineries.

We are slowly making our way through the many wineries to visit in the area and we often will revisit the same wineries that have made it to our "favourite's" list.
Some of the ones we enjoy and like to support:
summit estate wines  has a nice cellar door - average wines
boireann is one of Rob's favourites. He often sells out tho before he can even open his cellar door to the public, which is why we are members. 
harrington glen  has a beautiful cellar door, nice people, unique accommodation, good budget wines. Art gallery too.
pyramid rd wines  we really like the wines here.
ballandean  great cellar door, full tasting experience. Restaurant and shop attached . We enjoy their whites & the late harvest sylvaner (sweet one) is very yummy!
tobin wines  A Unique cellar dooer experience, nice intimate, sit down, only 3 wines to taste left, but all very good quality and the winemaker talked alot!He had a Jacob and Charlotte wine! (names of our children!)
There are lots more, too many to name!

There is so much more to do in Stanthorpe that we are yet to discover and explore. I have been told that there is a beautiful path that you can go riding bikes along and stop along the way for a play and a picnic but we are yet to get family bikes and an attachment for the car to transport them BUT it is on our to do list next time we are in the region.

Colour

I had the amazing opportunity in March this year to attend Hillsong Colour Conference. It is an annual conference held in Sydney each year for women. I attend sisterhood at my church Hillsong Brisbane most weeks on a Thursday and absolutely love it. It is a very important part of my week so I was absolutely stoked when all the plans began to fall into place for me to experience Colour conference, which to me is like sisterhood just on a grande scale!



opening night

My brother and his wife were living in Sydney at the time and we stayed with them along with my sister in laws mum and niece. It was a really nice time spending time with family as well as being spiritually fed and enjoying some child free time away. I really enjoyed all the sessions and loved soaking in God's presence for 2 whole days and a night. Such a great atmosphere for Women to soak in all God has for them and go back to their homes and make a difference in their worlds. It definitely opened my eyes to the bigger picture and how together we are better.

We got a little time to see some of Sydney too as we shopped in a multi level shopping centre( i think it was Westfield with 5 levels) had dinner by the harbour one night and went to cronulla beach and had the best coffee I have ever had so far!



One morning we were cooking brekky and we noticed when looking outside the window there was a man sleeping on the street out the front of the woolies over the road. My mum and sister in laws mum, put a cooked brekky on a plate and a glass of juice and took it to him. They were "being the change" just as we had been learning all about at conference.
Beautiful moment!

Another gorgeous moment at conference when all these white paper doves came down from the roof!

Colour Conference will defnitely be on my radar each year and I will do what I can to try make it most years.

Psalm 65 vs 11 "You crown the year with your goodness"

Camping by the beach

We have found one of our new favourite spots to camp. Some would say it isn't camping because its a caravan park with full bathroom facilities, BBQ's, sinks and playground. It is Fingal, NSW.

We love it mainly because it is right on the beautiful beach with no roads to cross.

In the first half of the year we went twice, once for a weekend and another time for 4 days midweek.

We spent the majority of our time swimming in the surf, enjoying the last bit of warmth from the sea before winter. The days were gorgeous, the nights a little fresh.
Some highlights:

• Body boarding with the kids in the surf
• Walking on the beach at night with the kids, crab spotting with our torches and listening to the roar of the waves. The kids loved this.
• Eating a very tasty, fresh seafood feast and drinking a very nice bottle of wine.
• Relaxing on our camping chairs while Mum (Meme) took the kids for a walk to spend a couple of dollars at the local store and play at a very cool park only about a km away
• Walking to the headland where the lighthouse is....the scenery was just beautiful
• Late night chats with the adults while the kids are snugly asleep in the tent

J(ds 9) was stung quite badly by some sort of jelly fish which we are still not quite sure what type it was and in hindsight going by his reaction we should have taken him to the DR's or hospital to have it checked. A couple of months later he still has the scar's around his wrist of where it wrapped itself around him. HE was quite the HERO for a couple of weeks, ensuring everyone he came across knew what he had endured! He even used it for show and tell at his Public Speaking Class at his distance ed school!

We really enjoyed our first couple of beach camping trips and I'm sure these are the first of many summers camping by the beach....

ready for a swim at the beach





Breakfast time!



Little C(dd2) has taken nicely to the whole camping thing



Easter Camping with friends

This Easter long weekend we went away with friends camping. My good friend B who has an awesome blog found an awesome spot that we will now name: our secret camping spot. We loved it so much and it is so quiet that for now we have decided to not reveal it's whereabouts....selfish I know ;-) us campers can be a little possessive.

Being Easter we had easter egg hunts and consumed way too much chocolate. The kids loved exploring the massive camp ground.

Some of the things the children did:

• went for walks explring the massive camp ground
• tackled
• played board games
• easter art and craft
• paddled in the creek, rock jumping, looking at tadpoles and making a dam wall
• toated masmallows on the fire
• played spot light running around with torches and glow sticks
• exploring the remains of a very old house and rebuilding the bed in one of the rooms

Some of the things the adults got up to:

• 4wding
• collecting firewood and making the fire
• talking
• eating
• drinking
• reading

Perfect weekend in a beautiful spot with lovely company....cant wait to go back again!

Palm Beach

Another one of our favourite holiday spots is Royal Palm at Palm Beach on the Gold Coast. We have been going there since my oldest was about 3 months old so over 8 years now. Some of the apartments have been renovated and modernised and the pool area has been refurbished.

If you ask you can get 2 bedroom units that sleep 5 from $100 a night(usually for a min of 3 night stay) to get that price and $125 a night for a refurbished one on a higher level(which is what we like) just remember my tip:Ask for their best price.

Our recent 5 night stay was lovely and relaxing. The kids have an absolute ball and mummy and daddy have a relaxing time. With all the swimming, fresh air and sun, the kids sleep really well.

The balcony's are ocean front and you look out right into the ocean(spectacular views) and often if it is the right time of the year you will see dolphins and whales like we did.

Each day consisted of a walk and swim on the beach, swimming and relaxing by the pool and spa, day time naps and eating yummy food.

One night we had promised the kids we would take them for a night out on the town(surfers paradise) and go to Timezone and go out to a restaurant for dinner. For $30 we loaded our timezone card (Which gives you $35 of tokens and a special rate on all the games), this gave the whole family 2 hours of fun and the kids walked away with a few little prizes each that they had won with tickets. The surfers paradise one has been upgraded and has lots of very cool games and little rides for the young and old.

After pooping ourselves out at timezone we walked around looking for a place to eat and found a fairly new restaurant called Vapianos. It has a very modern and different feel about it. The waiter who welcomed us was very friendly and helpful getting us a high chair and BIG colouring in and activity sheets with crayon cups for the kids.
A different concept, you receive a card on arrival and you go up to each area and order your food and you can watch the pasta, pizza, bread, salad and starters chef make your food. You just swipe your card and at the end of your meal you pay for it. Hope this makes sense.
Not sure this style would suit everyone but we liked it. I also liked the fresh herb garden and herbs on the tables that you are welcome to add to your meal.
The pizza and pastas where reasonably priced and very fresh tasting, we had an enjoyable dining experience here.

One afternoon after a lovely few hours in the sun and a small afternoon nap, we went for a late lunch to the surf life saving club at Currumbin. Such a lovely spot. The food is OK, typical pub like seafood but the view and the location is spectacular. The kids menue is good value for under $10 they get a meal, with drink and ice cream with topping and a activity bag with things to do and some lollies.

All in all a lovely holiday, we all came back a little browner and a lot more relaxed!

LOVE FAMILY HOLIDAYS