January holidays

It must seem to readers of this blog as though we are on one endless holiday - constant pictures of sun, sea and sand!! The Australian Summer is long and with the school holidays starting early December and finishing at the end of January, there have been plenty of opportunities recently for beach and pool visits, and long lazy barbecues.

We are just home from a week at Diamond Beach - we went to the same resort we visited last year, and once again enjoyed the pools, beach and kids' clubs to the full. The sun shone for most of our stay and we made the most of the relaxed resort lifestyle, right down to the wallabies hopping past our lodge in the early evenings!

Messing around on Forster Beach

Prior to our holiday, we enjoyed a visit from our French friends Patrice and Ilhame with two of their three children (the littlest one stayed back in France with his grandparents), and their friends Patrick and Karine and their three children. They stayed in a house not far from us and we spent happy evenings together barbecuing and catching up, while Katy enjoyed sleepovers with the two French daughters of Patrick and Karine, one of whom is exactly the same age as her (same birthday, same year!) They got on so well together and are now email/penpals!

The Grants and the Frenchies

Katy and her two French penpals

We have also just seen Morag and the children, who were down in North Turramurra house and dog-sitting for a friend of Morag's from back at school in Elgin (long story!) - more pool time and barbecues and a wonderful catch-up for us all.

Ally and Morag