Introducing Frankie Grace

It’s been ages since I posted the first entry of ‘Ourtime 2014’ and as I prepare this one we are well and truly into our trip, but I’ll fill you in on where we’re at and what we’ve been up to.

Maudsland housesit

At the end of March, Vic got the news from the doctors that she’d been hoping for regarding her recovery from the surgery, and the ok to resume our travels, so we prepared to leave the housesit at Maudsland on the Gold Coast.  

We’d decided to stick around for awhile to be handy for the arrival of our little grand-daughter so moved to the footpath outside our son and daughter-in-law’s house on the Sunshine Coast. All indications were that the baby would come early, but this was not to be and we spent 3 weeks here enjoying valuable time with Lakyn (our grandson), Glen and Allie.

Sunrise Beach

We had fun walking through Noosa's National Park, visiting the Yandina Ginger Factory, taking walks along the beach and doing normal chores like washing cars and bikes, and of course Lakyn would always be close by helping Poppy .....  especially up the ladder.

Giggle time with Poppy (or is it Pa....?)

Gingerbread man at Yandina

Lakyn loves the train at Yandina Ginger Factory

Picnic lunch at the Noosa Botanical Gardens

Feeding the ducks and turtles

Watching tele at Nanny's place in the morning

Helping Poppy is always fun

Washing the bikes

Catching crabs on the beach

On the 14.4.14 (at 1.40am) our gorgeous little grand daughter, Frankie Grace, was born.  It is easy to say babies are beautiful but this little girl won everyone's heart when she eventually arrived.

Frankie Grace Maden

 

Proud Nanny

One happy little family

We stayed a week after Allie came home to help where we could, but they needed to settle into their new life with 2 children, and we needed to get moving so this trip can be completed. 

It’s rather ironic though, to think that Vic and I came back from Darwin to be here for the birth of Lakyn, and now we were hitting the road again so soon after the birth of Frankie!  

On Easter Sunday we hooked up the van and made our way to Neil and Jan’s on the Gold Coast where we spent the night, before saying goodbye, again, and moving on to Ballina.  

Vic and I checked into the Ballina Lakeside Resort and got a nice spot along the fenceline backing onto the reserve. It’d probably been 25 years since our last visit here when the kids were little and we had the trailer-tent.

Jeep heaven

The following day, we were joined by Ann, Miran, Paul and Jenny, all great friends and fellow Jeepers. They’d been attending Camp Coffs, an annual Jeep event staged in the Coffs Harbour area. 

It had been 5 years since all of us were together so the next couple of days and nights were made up of a lot of laughs, ribbing, heckling, social drinking and good food, including some sensational local seafood. We are extremely lucky to say we have had these wonderful true friends for well over 30 years now and love having them in our life.

 

Friends for life - Paul, Jenny, Vicki, Rod, Ann & Miran

Vic and I were getting pretty good at farewells as we left the group and made our way over to Casino where we would spend the next 3 nights visiting more good friends, Chris and Greg, fellow caravanners we had spent a lot of fun times with while working in Emerald. 

Greg & Vic and one of
the local clydesdales 

They're working in Narrabri at present as they travel around and Casino is their home base, where they were spending a 2 week break. It was a really enjoyable few days here with Greg, Chris and their family and we got to check out the area including, a couple of op shops, a Flag Lowering Ceremony on Anzac Day, Greg’s manshed, which houses his HQ Monaro project (insert Tim the Toolman grunt here!), his outside fire pit and how well his beer fridge works!

Flag Lowering Ceremony

The week blasted by and we hadn’t travelled too far, but it was important to us to see all these wonderful friends and take some time to thank them for their help and support over the past few months. We had one more day of farewells to go and it was also a very important day.

Until next week… Happy travels!