.We went to Queensland.

We went to Queensland.  But not for 1 month. I certainly can't blame our family holiday for my blogging absence, but I'm not really sure that I can put my finger on the reason that my desire for blogging has gone down the drain lately.  Maybe it's the uninspiring weather, or perhaps after 5 years of blogging I was just ready for a break?  It was getting to the stage where writing a blog post seemed to require a lot of effort and I didn't want to do it if I didn't enjoy it.  I'm also at a crossroads as to how much family information to share on the blog.  In the last year it has been very, very little.  I'm missing having somewhere to record our day to day happenings but I just don't feel that they fit on what the "Make It Perfect" blog has evolved to be.  I'm thinking of starting a personal family blog to keep a record of the day to day events that happen in our family and keeping this blog for my creative endeavors with a spattering of the major family events here and there.  Lots to consider and the break has been nice.

We DID go to Queensland!  It was amazing.  Really, the whole holiday was one big reunion and we got to spend time with family members from near and far all together in one place.  My Grandad turned 80, which is reason enough for a family reunion.  We stayed at a family-friendly holiday park in Maroochydore and the kids had the time of their lives running from cabin to cabin, playing catch and swimming, canoeing and frolicking in the river.  And the weather - oh, the weather!  I vow to take a winter break every year from now on.  What a welcome relief to go from rugging up with our jackets and scarves to wearing shorts and tshirts every single day.  So refreshing and lovely to break winter up a little bit.  We got to meet new baby Poppy with her big eyes and cute cheeks, she is a delight but even more of a delight is seeing Fil and Chris as Mama and Papa - the rock at it! There was a bigger than big 80th birthday bonfire, a 5 year old birthday celebration for Miss Lil, Poppy's baby blessing topped off with face painting for the kids, strawberries and passion fruit galore, sea-side knitting, Aunty Cath's hair salon, Australia Zoo, Filipa making wise use of her time feeding Poppy while being pushed around in a wheelchair!, music, laughter and love - lots of love!  

After our family reunion, we stayed in Queensland for another week and stayed with my sister-in-law Eve and her family.  It has been waaaay too long since we last spent time with them and was lovely for the kids to get to know their cousins better.  My in-laws gatecrashed our holiday by surprising us all with a visit all the way from New Zealand!  So much fun and what a great way to end our trip.

Now, this is the part where I do a big, HUGE, unordered photo dump of our holiday - enjoy!