Fun in the Sun (and the Rain)

We have returned from a week spent at the beach. We arrived in Evans Head on a beautiful sunny day. We admired the great house Larissa had found for us right near the beach. It then rained for the next four days!

While a holiday at the beach is slightly less fun in the rain (although not for David because the surf was great), we were able to make the best of the situation with a variety of alternative activities. It was a perfect opportunity for the kids and I to try making rainbow pudding pops.

Here are the results..

I was worried that frozen pudding may not hold together very well on an iceblock stick, but it was fine. The kids enjoyed figuring out which colours were 'must haves' and which order the colours would appear in their pudding pops.

For the weeks prior to the holiday Erica asked me nearly every morning if she could go swimming and surfing that day. I had to keep telling her that we weren't at the beach yet and she would need to wait. You can imagine her disappointment when we were finally at the beach, and she still couldn't go surfing! So, when the rain cleared a little I took her for a walk and a paddle in the waves.

Right after this photo was taken Erica and I splashed in the water. Unfortunately Erica's shoe came off and was carried out to sea by a wave. She started yelling and screaming about her shoe, so I ran after it. While I was retrieving the shoe, Erica fell over in the water. She landed on her bottom in about 2cm of water, but this was enough to convince Erica that the waves were not for her. During our walk home Erica repeatedly turned to the waves and yelled "STOP"!

From that day on Erica still woke up in the morning asking if she could go swimming, but instead she clarified that she wanted to swim in a pool. She wasn't too keen to be at the beach the next day (which was now sunny) until Uncle Carl built a very big sandcastle. Erica was easily occupied for the next two mornings climbing up, sliding down and digging around in the giant sandhill.

Here is a picture..

And Ethan leaping from the top..

Ethan's highlights were surfing, the sports day, playing cricket, running races, flying kites, building a huge sandcastle at the beach, seeing Despicable Me in 3D, playing ping pong, everybody having dinner together, playing with his cousins and watching his Lego Clutch Powers DVD (got a few runs while it was raining) - so pretty much everything was a highlight!

As a side note, David's foot has improved enough that he was able to leave on his business trip yesterday. He cut it while surfing and ended up needing five stitches. It became quite painful and swollen for a while. As evidence of the (crazy) enthusiasm of my husband for surfing - he accidentally cut his foot down to the bone and instead of leaving to find a doctor, he taped it up and continued surfing!