A Full House

Nearly 2 weeks ago, Big Spring's cousin and his family (wife and 2 kids) arrived in Cairns for a holiday. It was a very full house for the week that they were here, but it was so wonderful to share our time with them. Just spending time with family is precious, but it's also a great opportunity for us as locals to see some of the area that we haven't seen yet, and to revisit some things we had seen. It was a busy, but fun week... here are some things that we got up to:

Monday: Mainly Music with the girls; met the boys (minus Big Spring) at the Esplanade, where they'd been hanging out and drove to the shopping centre to meet Big Spring for lunch. Can't remember the afternoon!

Tuesday: Drove north to see some sights:

A play on the beach and lunch at Palm Cove...

A quick detour through Port Douglas to grab an ice cream, thick shake and/or coffee

Further north to Mossman Gorge (no, he didn't fall in climbing those rocks!):
















Home again for a much needed rest... until I had to head out to play basketball that night!

Wednesday: I had a 'day off' to stay at home and catch up on some housework while our visitors went out as a family to explore some more of Cairns.

Thursday: Headed into the city to:

Visit the Casino Dome Zoo where we saw some pretty cool birds and patted a few reptiles (lizard, snake, crocodile, turtle):









(We didn't pat the big crocodile - which by the way, at 4m long, was only a baby and could grow up to 8m! - just the small one that you see Little Spring patting in the photo above)



We then met Big Spring for lunch down the Esplanade. I think we then headed home and that's where we stayed for the rest of the day... I think!

Friday: We headed up to the Tablelands:

A picnic lunch at Lake Tinaroo:









A trip to Gallos Cheese and Chocolate factory:









A disappointing visit to the Strawberry Farm... you're meant to be able to pick your own strawberries, but we couldn't on that day and all the produce was quite expensive... even a punnet of strawberries cost $8. Given, it was a bigger punnet than you'd normally find at the supermarket, it was still a bit of a rip off. So, we drove away, empty handed:

We then headed home for a quick relax before heading out for dinner at Sizzlers. Yum!

Saturday: I had another 'day off' to stay at home and catch up on some housework and rest while our visitors went out as a family to explore south of Cairns.

Sunday: In the morning, we all headed to church and then came home for a lazy lunch. By the afternoon, Big Spring and I were both not feeling great, so alternated with naps, while our visitors started to get ready for their flight home on Monday. In the evening, we relaxed in front of the TV and had an early night.

Monday: An easy morning and then an airport run, where our time with our wonderful visitors ended. As a family we went to the doctors in the afternoon and discovered that Big Spring and I had tonsillitis and Little Spring thankfully just had a cold and perhaps teething.

So, as you can see, quite a full on week!