Easter holidays

James's 30th birthday, easter holidays as well as the `battle of the borders' race were all good reason for the White crew to gather on the Gold Coast. We all converged on a lovely beach house at Rainbow Bay, Cooloongatta on Good Friday. We managed to load the car up and get away around 9 after hosting our street's annual easter hunt. Compared to last year, the number of kiddies has almost doubled with the addition of Richie, Noa and Brigitte. We tried to keep the sugar levels to a minimum by having a hunt complete with clues to the next egg. Toby and Hana were fired up talking across the fence days leading up to the now coined `hunter eggs' hunt. By the time Lucia arrived they were all raring to go and hardly had the attention span to figure out the rather obvious clues. Despite it being an operation in keeping the chocoate eggs to a minimum there were wrappers and half eaten chocolate eggs strewn all over the yard. But it is always a pleasure to meet with our neighbours this time of the year to observe our rather hyper, excited children and have a fleeting discussion about the holiday plans ahead.


Packing the car up and heading down the Coast we were away in a reasonable fashion with our car resembling the usual scene from National Lampoons. James was the first to arrive at the Coast early morning. Waiting in vain at the Cooloongatta Airport, ringing Adam to ask where the hell his arrival party was (apparent miscommunication where he was led to believe a certain someone with a truck would be there). Team TAS arrived later that afternoon, with Henry George jumping out of the mazda with a smile and big hug for Uncle Adam. We all enjoyed a fun reunion with much to celebrate.

James's birthday dinner consisted of fresh oysters, prawns and salad with asian dressing, followed by flintstone sized rib fillet with garlic mash and James's favourite dessert, trifle. Since Hana had been waiting for a long time for this special occasion we had to ensure there was some ceremonial birthday cake ritual. So, while James was having a shower, we all donned our party hats and scrounged around to find matches which we had to drive around to Poppy's truck for. As James came out we all sung him happy birthday as he blew out his candles. We played some music while kiddies busted some moves. What a delightful way to celebrate James's 30th and his and Nic's wonderful news. As number 7 White baby is expected late this year. There has been lots of excitement as we all share in the good news about the newest family members and the epic gatherings that lay ahead.

Our beach house was in close proximity to the north facing beach that had a lovely sheltered inlet that is ideal for children to paddle in and play. Of course the kiddies were loving all the beach fun getting a kick out of picking up handfuls of sand and throwing them in the water, stealing other kids trucks and chasing Daddies up and down the beach throwing a footy. It is lovely to watch Noa experiencing a new environment, seeing her surprised look at the sight of seagulls for the first time kept me well amused. 

We got a call from Nicole that Oscar had contracted, `hand, foot and mouth' so the likelihood of Noa getting it were high. And sure enough that day Noa had a elevated temperature and an emerging rash. Poor bub was not her usual happy self for a couple of days but was surprisingly tolerant dosed up on panadol and bounced back. The start of the week saw all of us bar Poppy Ross with every ailment from chest cold, head cold, morning sickness, tummy bug, flu, blurgh, blurgh... Turned out we all must have given it to him as upon his departure he managed to contract what sounded like a combination them all.



Hana and Henry are proving great mates and there is often a request for `cuddles?' from Henry. With Hana reluctantly giving in or saying `no' if it takes her away from her `kiddies shows'. He is speaking heaps now and the two are really cute together. Enjoying more hunter egg fun. Although, the weather was changeable midweek we took every opportunity for walks along the beach, swims and of course the obligatory cafe and retail visits with Spidey. There was some brilliant surf that brought every decent surfer on the Coast out of the woodwork to surf some unbelievable waves. Greenmount and Snapper Rocks provide the perfect viewing for spectators. Of which there were plenty, cameras and all.

The last few days the boys had the `battle of borders' race which sounded absolutely epic. We were all lucky enough to spectate the Criterium on the final day which entailed 30 minutes of around 20 laps of high powered zoom zoom cyclists. We were positioned upfront to watch the spectacle as they sped past. The warm up laps lasted around 10 minutes and once the race had started the pace picked up and was full on from then. The boys faces said it all with that look of clinging on for dear life as they averaged over 40km/hour. They did us proud with that competitive spirit in full swing.

I think Adz placed15th overall in `Elite B'
Pretty damn good!

An afternoon back at the beachhouse to take in the sunset and catch that last swim before heading back to reality. Everyone well and refreshed (despite some very tired muscles and a tonne of washing).