QLD Beautiful one day Perfect the Next......

Warning long post ahead.......................

Well we're are back and what a lovely weekend we had. We arrived Thursday afternoon checked in and headed straight over to Shaun and Amanda's to say hello and meet Charlie.












Isn't she cute???

Shaun and Amanda look great all be it a little tired. They certainly have that our baby isn't 6 weeks old yet and therefore we're exhausted, look about them.They are totally besotted with their new baby girl as you would imagine and believe it or not are already talking about the next one. YIKES!!!!

It was so nice to get to hold her and cuddle her for a few days, I love the smell of new babies and all their little noises they make. Although I didn't get to keep her for long as Madeleine was always trying to get her off me and won most times. We got to spend alot of time with them and also do a few things on our own.

We always have to go to Pacific Fair shopping centre, Its such a nice centre with it being indoor/outdoor certainly nicer than most centres anyway. So after a little retail therapy on Friday we ended up back at the resort for a swim.

They have the most beautiful (well actually they have two) lagoon pools only one is heated though. So Madeleine made the most of that and I just sat on the lounge chairs soaking up the sun. It was quite amazing although the temp never got over 20c it was lovely and warm sitting reading my book and watching Madeleine of course.

Where we were staying in Miami is not right on the beach, but its only one street back so its very close. So we headed down on Saturday to the beach for a walk and of course Madeleine decided to paddle and as usually happens when children paddle, ended up completely wet. It was just beautiful, I really love the roar of the sea its so relaxing to sit and listen and watch the roll of the waves as they break onto the beach, and she had so much fun chasing the waves.

After that we spent the afternoon with Shaun's grandparents (his mums side) Don and Nancy and his Aunty Linda . I haven't seen them for a couple of years and it was so nice to catch up. They are such warm, friendly people and so easy to talk to. You just pick up were you left off with them like it was yesterday. Everytime we catch up, I think we should make more of an effort to see them as they don't live that far from us. Life gets busy though and before you know it a couple of years have gone by. Anyhoo we ended up sharing fish and chips with them on Saturday night before heading back to our place. Linda wanted to go out for a drink or two or three, but I had to decline as there was no way I could go out with her and front up for a day at Dreamworld the next day. Shaun had said Madeleine could go to their place while I went but I knew what Linda and I would be like out together and stood firm.

So now you know what we did on Sunday. Dreamworld I love thrill rides (well at least ones that don't go round and round anyway) and although we didn't go on everything we got our moneys worth. First things first though even though neither of us have watched this years Big Brother we went over to have a look, and all you can see is the TV studio part and you can look into the control room we're they edit the show. Not at all exciting. While we were there Daniella who was evicted last week was there signing autographs. As I say not that that meant much to us as we haven't been watching. Then we went on the Log ride and got drenched. From there we went to the Raptor ride which is a very tame version of the Lethal Weapon ride at Movie world. Then Maddy went on the matahorn by herself (see above re whizzy rides). After that she plucked up the courage for the Cyclone rollercoaster, we had to queue for well over 1/2 hour for that but it was worth it. It has two big loops (lots of fun). Here is a picture of the queue, well you can't see the whole queue but you get the feel for how long it was.

It was worth the wait and then we went on another 2 times. We went on a couple of other rides and all day I had been pestering her to go on the Tower of Terror, but she just wouldn't do it. So in the end I went on alone. What a blast, 25 seconds of pure adrenalin you don't really get a chance to get scared its so quick. Then I more or less dragged her on it even though she was still putting up a fight. I knew she'd like it, if I could just get her to have enough courage to try it. Of course she loved it and we had another couple of turns just before the park closed. Next time we go we will have to to try the giant drop. It's so tiring walking around the theme parks I was exhausted by the time we left. We had dinner at Shaun and Amanda's on Sunday night and then headed home to pack and get ready for our flight this morning. It's always hard to say goodbye and now they have Charlie who we are going to miss seeing her on a regular basis and all the new things she'll be doing and learning it makes it even harder to say goodbye.

Thanks again to Deb Ross who organized for me to bring back a car from the airport. Its so nice knowing you have that waiting for you when you arrive home.

Well that's it in summary on the weekend can't wait to do it again soon. I can certainly see why people go up there in our winter. The weather is just glorious especially seeing how cold and wet its been in Melbourne lately.

Last but not least tonight we went to see the new Harry Potter film at Southland. We met Neil up there for the 6.30pm show. It was fabulous we all really enjoyed it. The order of the Phoenix would have to be my least favourite book in the series. However the movie was great and the 138minutes was over before you knew it. If you're a Harry fan you'll love this one.

I'll leave you with one more photo of my gorgeous new grand niece Charlie:- awwww (pretty in pink)

Cheers

Leeanne x