Thursday December 30th

Thursday December 30^th

I was awoken in Sydney to the Olympics above our heads very early in the morning. Lucas was up and wanted to play! Sienna soon joined in and Nicholas up as well. Jacob dragged a little but soon too was very excited to get caught up with his cousins.

We had a little breakfast and contemplated going to an outdoor waterpark, but as the prices were quite exorbitant, we elected to go to the beach and swim in the ocean. We packed quickly and headed to the beach before 9am. The tricky part is getting parking as most people go for 8am and stay til 4pm.  We drove around for a while but eventually found a couple spots and set up on the beach near the ocean. There were thousands of people spread out over 2 km of beach enjoying the +30 weather. Many were body surfing or using boogie boards. A lifeguard patrolled the water just off the beach as there had been at least one shark sighting yesterday. None seen today though – phew!

We lasted til nearly noon and headed back to the house for a bite to eat. We all had a swim in the pool and a nibble and lounged around for most of the day. We had gotten quite a bit of sun in Adelaide for a couple days and had had quite enough at the beach by noon.  Darren put a dent in a book, while the ladies ran off and did even more shopping for food and extras.
We got the kids fed by 630 and bathed/into pyjamas.

After getting the kids to bed, we packed our 4 suitcases and 4 carry on bags for the trek to New Zealand for part II of our adventure.  Toni, Melissa, Krista and Darren played Canasta for an hour and called it a night around 1030.  Both boys couldn’t sleep and made several appearances before finally settling down for the evening. After doing some work on the computer, we hit the sack close to midnight as we had to be up at 630 to leave by 730 when he left for work. Great day at the beach and relaxing at home on our last Aussie Day!