Burleigh Heads National Park

so over the christmas holiday we took an extended break.

we always go on a family holiday during the christmas time

but we normally leave on boxing day.

this year we went from the 23rd and arrived back in sydney on the 5th january.

this was a long holiday.

14 days.

and anyone who knows me knows i am a homebody.

so this was particularly long for me.

we spent 10 days with family and had 4 days to ourselves.

we loved spending time with family,

watching the boys with their cousins always brings such joy to jevan and i.

but spending time with just our family was also just as great.

we got to work on our little family unit and to get to know one another that little more.

jevan and i love our christmas family holiday tradition we started in 2012.

i don't want to try and jam pack everything into one post about this holiday,

because it was a BIG one and we did so much.

so i'm going to go day by day.

and we will start with boxing day.

jevan and i headed with the boys to Burleigh Heads National Park.

i had heard that there was an easy coastal walk that the boys could easily do.

it was called Ocean View Walk.

and the name of it describes exactly what you will see.

it's beautiful,

it takes you right along the edge of the National Park.

ocean on one side trees on the other.

there were alley ways were you could walk down to get right up near the water.

the boys really enjoyed climbing down over rocks 

to a boat that had been washed up.

we walked and found a beautiful place to give the boys their treats

(we NEVER go hiking without a whole lotta bribery)

and it was a beautiful lookout to Surfers Paradise.

while heading back we stopped at Tallebudgera creek 

the boys ripped off their clothes -bar undies,

and had a swim in the beach.

it was forecast rain this afternoon,

- and for once the forecast was correct

so we all went and saw Jumanji at the movies.

and it was freaking HILARIOUS !

Christmas 2017

this year we did something i said we would never do,

(lesson learnt - never say never.)

we went away for christmas.

last year was crazy crazy hard for me

and because of that we decided to do something different

and get away for christmas and take an extended 13 day long holiday.

even though it was fun to have a change

and i came back feeling super refreshed,

i don't think we will be doing that again anytime soon.

we had an awesome christmas 

but it just felt a little different not being at home.

there's something a little special about opening presents around your tree.

we had brunch by the pool

and then most of us went for a swim fully clothes

- i'm taking shoes and all.

my nephews phone also went for a swim to the bottom of the pool 

and never regained consciousness.

we had pool basketball and nfl games.

and because we are all getting old those games knackered us out for the rest of the day.

we did manage to get a quick nfl beach game down at burleigh beach before a massive storm hit.