Beach break

We recently took advantage of some beautiful winter weather and had a break at the beach. Grandma and Grandad came along too, which meant we were able to go for rides in the boat and visit the sandbank in the middle of the Noosa River, which is one of our favourite places for a run and a splash.

For the first few days we were joined by Tyden, Anne, Alora and Fudge - here's a photo of the three beach bums that we spent most of our time chasing on our first visit to the sandbank...

On subsequent visits Eli and I did most of the running, while Grandma and Grandad watched on, although Eli did challenge Grandad to a few short sharp sprints.




Guess who has come this way?

Lifeguards (and little engineer) on duty.






Finally, I've recently acquired a new camera, which can do movies - so here's one of Eli splashing around in a small puddle on the sandbank.

"I like animals!" and "I like cake!"

Alora's birthday brought out two new phrases from Eli - "I like animals" and "I like cake". Tyden and Anne has arranged for farm animals to be at the party, which pretty much meant that Eli felt like the party was for him, not Alora. I hadn't told him about until we got in the car that morning, because I knew if I mentioned animals that he'd want to get in the car and go and see them right away. I was right, because for most of the trip to the party all he would say was "I like animals!". And he certainly lived up to this proclaimation too - in this photo here we are, eager as anything, waiting for all of the animals (ducks, chickens, sheep, goats and a pig) to be released into the makeshift pen in Tyden and Anne's yard.

Once the animals were in and we had the green light to get in with them, there was no stopping Eli. He spent much longer in the pen that any other kid and he took it upon himself to pat, chase, feed and cuddle all of the critters. I think he thought the pig felt funny and he liked how soft the goats were. Here are a couple of photos showing Eli packing a scrum (apologies for using a rugby term for the uninitiated) with a couple of goats and carefully caressing the pig.







All of that animal action makes for one hungry little boy. As Eli has only recently discovered cake (wheat free of course) he then made the bold claim "I like cake!". Fortunately, Anne had made one just for Eli (Alora's pink giraffe cake was not wheat free) and he hungrily devoured his piece. In these next few photos he demonstrates his cake eating technique, which pretty much involves holding the cake to his mouth and pushing it in, as much as it will go at any one time. His style makes me think that he'll be a good harmonica player down the track, as he doesn't take his hands away from his mouth until it's all gone and he seems to be able to breathe through his nose the whole time too.