18/52 - beach bliss

Lily 

My little beach beauty!

Eli

I'll take a sandy smooch from this boy any day!

Miles

Happily kicking around in the good light.

Project 52: A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.

Other highlights from the week that was...

We spent a few days at Kiama last week - a beautifully lush seaside town. We have a little annual tradition of taking a few nights away each year just to have time as a family.. just US. Every year this retreat becomes more important to our family - quality time, without a schedule or anyone else to see. Time as a family to relax together and build memories and bonds through a good chunk of blissful beach side time. This was our first adventure as a family of five, and it was wonderful. 

We stayed in a little beachfront cabin on a beautiful and quiet beach. It was simply heavenly to have long and peaceful days to meander through together. We spent countless hours just digging in the sand, building sandcastles, exploring tide pools, and of course jump-jump-jumping the little waves that rolled onto our beach. Pretty sure the kids could do that forever... if only we had the energy! The kids were happily exhausted from the fun and we loved the peacefulness and uninterrupted time with each other and the kids. I read an entire fat juicy novel! (bliss) We went for long beachside walks. We ate yummy holiday foods. Just.... delightful. Time with my family is my very favourite time and this year it felt extra nourishing. 

Afterwards, we ducked into Sydney for a whirlwind weekend of catching up with family and friends. In retrospect we probably should have done the crazy-busy-social portion of the trip first!! But even so, we loved catching up with a bunch of lovely folks.  

PS Quite a few iPhone pics as I was enjoying chill-out time too much to drag the big camera around! The moments matter more than the photo quality anyway, right?! 

Our beachfront cabin meant when the kids wanted to hit the sand first thing in the morning, they could -
while we sipped coffee and watched from the balcony. Oh yeah, we all loved that!

Fish and chips by the beach at dusk.... a holiday requirement! (Spot the baby?!)

The kids were thrilled to be sharing a double bed. Do they look tired and ready to quietly drift off to sleep?
I don't think so!!! Much giggling ensued...

Simply Stunning - Kendall's Beach Holiday Park at Kiama.
Can't recommend this place highly enough, especially for families!

I look at this and I see a child... not a toddler or preschooler... a child. Almost five and feeling oh-so-grown! 

Our family project was making the biggest sandcastle we could. It was not fancy or pretty but it was BIG. (Much bigger than this but I was too busy patting sand to take more shots, haha). 

This kid is about to get dumped!

Smooshing kids into sandcastles... good times. 

We arrived with a weather report predicting rain for our whole 4 days. However it only lightly showered briefly
a couple times and then we were blessed with a gorgeous rainbow!

Long and Lazy Afternoon Walks/Scoots...

Miles took his beachside wardrobe very seriously. 

Afternoon rest time - Daddy rests while Lily reads. She eventually fell asleep snuggled up to him - so cute!

Now my boy is getting older, it's time to begin some 'Mother&Son' outings. So during
our holiday we had some time together - walk on the beach, hanging at the playground
and enjoying a yummy ice-cream. He did not stop chatting the entire time and it was my
 privilege to listen.

Examining his ice-cream

Happy munchkins with a yummy salmon dinner... not caught but cooked by Daddy!

Um, yes... they holiday hard.