The Great Escape

It's another long weekend in the Sunshine State and my mother-in-law called a few nights ago to offer to mind the kids Saturday night so my husband and I could go out for dinner or to the movies.

A date! Woohooo!!! We never have dates anymore.

So Friday night I went to bed dreading the packing the next day (1 night x 4 people = 2 much).
Turned out I should have been dreading the bleeding nose my 2 year old woke up with...twice!
That almost blew the date for me.  She's had this happen a few times and usually it takes a few days to go away.  Of course then I was worried about her bleeding all over my mother-in-law's crisp white bedsheets and us being out when it happened again.

But my husband suggested we have a day time date instead.  Yay! Brilliant!!  It was all systems go again...yep, I had to get packing.

We actually visit my in-laws, who live 100km away, every weekend because
a) we like to escape this town
b) they live on the Sunshine Coast, and
c) we actually like them!

So we arrived Saturday morning and my mother-in-law wanted to check out an 'open house' four doors down from them.  So we went for a sticky, too.

There's nothing like going for a little stroll through a $1.63 million home.

Oh yeah, it was nice!







Anyhoo, back to reality...

At 12.30 we escaped!
Skipped out hand in hand like two giddy teenagers.
Well, not really.
But it felt that good!
We went to a fancy restaurant.
Well, not really.
We went to the local tavern but this is where we sat...

I had a nice glass of white wine.
Well, not really.
It was cheap house wine but who cares!
And the yummiest chicken tenderlions on pumpkin risotto.
It was so good. And the fact that we don't eat out very often any more made it taste a million times better.
I was as happy as Miss Piggy in a pink bubble bath!
I was sitting there thinking, "I'm not even thinking about the kids."
Well, not really. Of course my next thought after that one was, "I hope she doesn't have a nose bleed when she's napping."

Then we went child free shopping which is nearly as good as...it gets!
We bought all sorts of lovely trinkets for ourselves.
Well, not really.
I bought new clothes, shoes, a DVD and X-Box 360 game for the kids and nothing for me.
Well, not really.
My husband did buy a bottle of expensive champagne for us to share with his mum that evening.
Well, not really.
It was the latest in bubbly-turned-alco-pop (but it was good!)

And we had to go to Man Heaven, aka Bunnings!

Three hours after escaping we returned home bearing gifts and everyone was happy.  Our 2 year old was napping (finally, it took a bit getting her down...as usual) sans nose bleed!  And our 5 year old retold the fun they had in catching butterflies, and had evidence to prove it.

As soon as the napping beauty awoke we were off to the beach.  It had been a hot day, but wouldn't you know it, as soon as we get in the car a shower appears!  So the beach was a bit cold, dark & windy but that's not enough to stop a five year old boy getting in, is it?

Sunday morning we went for a walk/bike ride/play in the sand along the water front.

 

And then we went to the markets, as you do.

Then Sunday afternoon we were back home with a lovely weekend and a date tucked under our belts.
And, there's still one day left of this long weekend.
Hmmmm, what to do tomorrow??