We just arrived home following a great few weeks down at Rosebud. Following a jam packed Christmas, it was great to get away to the beach and enjoy some lazy days. Ella certainly scored very well out of her first Christmas, and needless to say, we haled a car load of toys down to the holiday house. The ‘bud’ quickly transformed into Ella’s own play centre and she loved every minute of it. We also made a quick trip to K-mart to get Ella her very own shell pool – an Aussie tradition for kids. As soon as we got it back to the house, it was filled with water, the sunscreen, hat and bathers were on and she was splashing about. Much to her delight, our dog Lloyd equally enjoyed having this ‘large water bowl’ in the back yard.
A steady stream of visitors, trips to the beach, lazing with friends in Portsea and soaking in the spa filled up the couple of weeks quickly. Apart from one (very hot) night, Ella slept really well and her parents were delighted to get a bit of extended shut eye. Ella has quickly found her legs and is now pulling herself up to stand on anything within reach. This is proving to be a new challenge, and is certainly testing the quick reflexes of both Dan and myself. It will be interesting to see how long it takes before she is stomping around the house!
The best part of our trip was most certainly seeing Ella love the beach. A huge part of both Dan and my life growing up, Ella loved it all and did not even bat an eye lid when she swallowed the salty sea water. It was just gorgeous to see her enjoying the sand and the sun, and even though she was covered from head to toe (slip, slop, slap!!), she certainly loved being outside in the Aussie summer. I hope it lasts for many more weeks to come!
Some of our happy moments were captured below:
Ella splashing and laughing in her new shell pool..
Enjoying yummy new summer fruits for the first time…
Sleep ins (sort of) and morning cuddles with Lloyd…
Cuddles and a bath after a swim at the beach…
I look forward to summer lingering around for a while….not long now until Ella turns 1!!