Kicking off the New Year in a Great Way!!!

 

I got very little sleep on New Years, sadly I wasn't out partying.. although we did have a fantastic night at home with the boys having a BBQ dinner, sparklers, Christmas crackers (that we forgot to bring out on Christmas) and lots of dancing (Mr 1 loves to boogie). 
 

 

 

We watched our local fireworks at a family friendly time and were later disappointed that they didn't do midnight fireworks this year (because it was the first night we'd stayed up to watch them..) so that was an interesting drive home with an upset Mr 7 (who was quite overtired by midnight but desperately wanted to see the new year in!)

 

After everyone else was tucked into bed.. I lay awake.. wrestless.. so I played too many apps on the Ipad until the early hours of the morning and fell asleep somewhere around 5am.. partied hard.

 

I woke up again at 8am.. to a new year.. 2013.. what do you have in store for me?  I think that is what I lay awake pondering so many hours before.. although one can never really predict what the year is going to bring/hold so I probably shouldn't have lost so many hours sleep..

 

But whatever the year was going to bring, we decided to start it off on the right foot and head to the beach!  Beautiful weather, the sun was shining and the boys were nice and happy, despite their late night antics so we headed up the coast to beautiful Mooloolaba on the QLD Sunshine Coast to go to Underwaterworld.

 

 

Iv been to Underwaterworld a handful of times, but I particularly love taking my boys when they are young.. Mr 7 first went when he was 11 months old and I loved seeing how in awe he was of everything (particularly the vending machine and the cane toads back then..) there is just so much for the little ones to see.. Mr 1 (17 months) had an absolute ball yesterday, checking out all the fish, calling the seal a 'goggy' (dog) and was absolutely mesmerized by all that he saw.. Mr 7 loved his return visit (having not been in about 3 years..) his favourite was of course the sharks and the otters. 
 

 

  

 

I personally love the turtles they are just so peaceful.. quite the opposite of my life I guess, hence the attraction.. :)

 

 

 

After Underwaterworld (and a quick stint in their gift shop where Mr 7 got a huge soft toy shark and Mr 1 got a soft toy stingray) we walked the dock and had a look at some gorgeous little shops that are there.  My favourite was Marine Dreams and after writing this I MUST go and see if they have a Facebook page because they had the absolute best beach homewares I have seen in a long while.. they were truly gorgeous! Im sure if they do have a Facebook page or a website Hubby will cringe because I believe I could spend a lot of $$ in a shop like that!  He was just thankful we live a fair way from it.. LOL.


So after shopping we then headed to Maroochy Beach for a picnic lunch and some beach play.  We didn't go into the water due to the 'marine stingers' warning (and we saw a few blue bottles here and there on the beach) so instead we built sandcastles (that Mr 1 destroyed), hunted for shells and rocks (to add to our 'beach bottles' keepsake) and went for a long walk admiring the beautiful sea and got our feet wet.. 

A beautiful day and a great way to start the year.. There should be more days like this one in 2013.. I hope 2013 brings you great health and happiness and that your new year kicked off to a great start xxx Dani xxx