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You can't really go to Noosa without going to the beach. Having said that, it is sometimes a hard sell to get Eli to the surf beach because he often prefers to go to his 'favourite place' on the sandbank. So, to get us to the surf beach I really had to convince Eli that it would be worth it. Fortunately, in addition to the promise of some waves, there are a couple of other ways I can pitch the surf beach trip to Eli. First, we're always a chance of spotting a koala (one of Eli's favourite animals) on the short walk to Little Cove - here's one we saw (and pointed out to others, including Grandma and Grandad) on our first trip to the beach (the photo is particularly for Eli's Aunty Anne, who still has not seen a koala in the wild!). On yet another trip we saw a large goanna basking on the side of a tree - Noosa Heads is such a great spot for wildlife.
The other appealing feature of Little Cove are the sea squirts (also known as Cunjevoi, Pyura stolonifera) that Eli loves to touch and make squirt whenever he gets the chance. Even though the tide was a bit high and the waves occassionally smashed into us, Eli was desperate to do some 'squirting'...here are a few photos of me holding onto him while he happily squirted away.
Little Cove is great for kids, because the surf is never too wild, there are no troughs or rips and there are always some critters to look at around the rocks. It's been Grandma's favourite beach for a long time and after a visit or two on these holidays, Eli declared 'It's my favourite beach too'! 
Despite the poor surf conditions for most of our holiday, I was still keen for Eli to try out the boogie board again. He was really into it, kicking with his legs and enjoying the small rides he had. Hopefully we'll have better surf conditions next time - I'm keen for Eli to have a really good ride (and the odd spill) - I'm sure he'll love it.
After a busy session of board riding and sea squirt squirting, here's Eli enjoying a snack on the rocks at Little Cove. Life is so tough...
Our Noosa trips are never complete without visits to the sandbank near the mouth of the river. Unfortunately, due to the high tides and high river flows (from all of the rain we've been having) there really wasn't much sandbank to enjoy on most of our visits. This photo shows Eli at his 'favourite place', a small depression between two banks of sand dune vegetation. He always races to this spot when we come to the sandbank (and declares that 'this is my favourite place') - I particularly like this photo because it makes him look like he's on his own little island, complete with a catamaran in the background.
The fact that there was so little exposed sand on most of our visits also led to some confrontations between some of the sandbank inhabitants, most notably the terns, seagulls and bar-tailed godwits that had taken up residence and the young upstart (Eli) that occasionally took great joy in making them take flight.
On several occasions, there was so little sand at Eli's favourite place that we had to bypass it and stop at the North Shore instead, right near the mouth of the river. Here Eli enjoyed the stingy sand (it was quite windy) and he even went for the windswept and wistful look whilst gazing out into the water...
We eventually made it out to the sandbank one day when the tide was low enough for us to have a good look around and to our delight, there were heaps of soldier crabs. Eli loves running into the middle of the 'clouds of crabs' and he picks as many up as he can. Alora is a little more reserved in her appreciation of them, but she's starting to come around to touching them.
These final two photos are from down along the river where we enjoy picnics and fish and chips in the park from time to time. We'd scheduled, and then cancelled and rescheduled, fish and chips in the park a number of times before the weather held off long enough for us to finally do it, towards the end of our holiday.
On the second-last day of 2010, and fuelled by excitement generated by the 'as-advertised-on-tv' promise that Bindi the Jungle Girl would be there (NB Eli was excited, I was not), we decided to brave the crowds and head to Australia Zoo. It was packed, but we were determined to get a good seat in the 'Crocoseum' to watch Bindi 'sing and dance' (and, from my perspective, to see some animals too!)... For those of you not aware of Bindi Irwin's talents, here's a taste of what you've been missing...
Despite my reluctance, I eventually agreed to go with Eli and Alora up to in front of the stage where Bindi was performing...just look at how excited Eli was...I'll be sure to pull this photo out again when Eli turns 18, just to embarrass him - there were a few boys there, but not many.
After Bindi's show, the real stars came out and I don't just mean Terri, Bindi and Robert - we actually saw a great animal show which featured a snake (which swam next to its handler) and lots of different birds which were released into the Crocoseum or, in the case of the Jabiru, flew in from his enclosure! And then finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Graham the crocodile took centre stage. 
Here's Graham leaping for his lunch...
And here he lunges for some tucker which he devours (after a customary death roll or two).
Thankfully, Eli likes the animals a little bit more than he likes Bindi (although that popularity contest is still a bit too close for my liking) and he was pretty excited about the prospect of seeing his favourite animal, namely 'koala, horsey, elephant, cassowary, emu' - that's what he always says when someone asks him what his favourite animal is, although the way he says it is something more along the lines of 'koalahorseyelephantcassowaryemu', which tends to confuse people just a bit.The animals and the enclosures at Australia Zoo are great and we did manage to see all of Eli's favourite animals. Eli was delighted and he was really taken with the Blue Macau's too, so much so that when I asked him what animal did he like best at the zoo he replied 'koalahorseyelephantcassowaryemu and the parrots'.
Eli is impressed that Cassowaries are considered to be dangerous...
We were all pretty tired after a big day at the zoo, but we thoroughly enjoyed it.
I must have missed it during the year, but it turns out that according to Santa, Eli had been an extraordinarily good boy during 2010...he absolutely cleaned up on Christmas Day, so much so that we were still opening some presents at 3pm in the afternoon! Admittedly, we did take a few breaks along the way. Here's how the day unfolded...First thing in the morning (although thankfully not too early, despite Alora getting up before 5am!) Eli, Alora, Oliver, Harrison and Charlie explored the contents of their stockings. Santa clearly does his homework, because the contents of Eli's stocking were overwhelmingly blue and included some plush toys that Eli loves - a blue horse and a blue Penicillin, yes, you read correctly - a blue antibiotic!
After breakfast, Grandmop, Grandpop and Aunty Bam arrived and we got into the serious task of distributing gifts...Eli and Alora were my helpers for this very important task - I read the gift tags and they were my 'runners', taking the gifts and telling the recipient who the gift was from...it was all a little bit exciting to start, but we soon got into the swing of things. Alora got a bit distracted from the task once she started opening some of her presents, but Eli, to his credit, kept on going, delivering the presents to everyone, all day. Maybe he'll become a courier, or a postman, one day?Here are some shots from the morning - Grandad, Alora and Eli getting into the spirit of Christmas and Eli, Charlie and Oliver helping Grandma opening one of her presents.
One of Alora's gifts was a keyboard with a microphone, so around lunchtime we were all treated to a show. Eli was on the keyboard first, while Alora, quite seriously, sang us a song (she actually had to stop singing at one stage because Eli's keyboard playing wasn't up to scratch). Then they switched and Eli assailed our senses as he yelled a long string of gibberish into the microphone. Not everyone can be musically gifted...
No Christmas Day at Noosa would be complete without a trip out to the sandbank. This year there was plenty of water around (and not much sandbank), but Eli and Alora still had a great time, especially once Grandpop declared himself to be a hungry crocodile! I don't think I've ever seen the two of them run so fast.
After some previous run-ins revolving around a certain blue ball (from a very old post a couple of years ago), it's great to see that Eli and Fudge are now great mates. The two of them often run around together on the sandbank. I actually think that Eli might just be starting to become the leader of the pack...it probably doesn't help that I call him 'Blue Wolf' every now and then...but it seems so fitting.
Another summer holiday and Christmas spent at Noosa. Eli and I arrived there first this year (even before Grandma and Grandad), and Eli quickly made the most of it by enjoying a swim in the inflatable pool, which had, somewhat miraculously, survived the winter intact (albeit deflated). Armed with even more confidence and bravado than last year, he jumped around like a lunatic...here are some photos of some of his spectacular landings off the top of the slide (apparently just sliding down into the water is a bit mundane).
Eli loved it and once Alora turned up the pair of them went a bit crazy with their splashing around. They really are good partners in crime these days and a lot of their games revolve around them teaming up and 'getting' one of the adults...typically Grandad.
As if jumping around in and on the pool isn't enough, one day Eli ended up with the hose at his disposal. As you will know from some earlier posts, he loves a good waterfight, so long as he's on the drier end of the hose... He absolutely loved it and was out to spray anyone within striking distance. Grandad made a hasty retreat into the house, but Uncle Shane was up for the game and Eli's second cousins, Madeleine, Tyce and Brittany got caught up in some of the crossfire too.
Here's a short video showing Eli chasing down and hosing Uncle Shane...
