Townsville

It was pretty much a spur of the moment decision in some ways, although we'd been thinking about it for a couple of months - but we finally made it back up to Townsville to see our son Jaron, DIL Renee and Grandchildren - LJ, Jacey and Jaxson! 

We went down to Melbourne the day prior so we could also catch up with Stace & John briefly and Pete got to finally meet Benjamin Bunny and see how much Buttercup had grown.  

I couldn't resist putting this close up of Benjamin in here ......

And Carly made the effort to drop everything to have a chance to catch up with us as well and bring Abbie to see us!  Carly has been part of the family since she and Stace became best friends at 14 and she has granted Abbie to be our adopted granddaughter (which is even sweeter now that our eldest son has chosen to remove himself and Mila from us - I'm no longer choosing to apologise for his poor behaviour - enough said, but a shame Mila doesn't get to know us).  Abbie is such a sweetheart and will be 1 in May.

Finally on the plane - 3 hr flight.... and excited to be heading to Townsville .....

No in flight movies on this plane!  Thank goodness I had a book to keep me occupied ...... A Dilly Court ......

Jacey and Jaxson up early before we left

It was sooooo nice to see them again since we haven't seen Jaron since he made it to Melbourne in March 2023 when Pete was having his quadruple bypass and the others we haven't seen since we left Maryborough in October 2021 a week after Stacey and John got married!  Jaxson, now 14, in particular ha grown heaps!!!  

LJ with Pete and I - he was on night shifts the whole time we were there, but he still spent time to sit and chat with us before needing to sleep xo

We were only there for a few days but we had such a lovely time with them!  We flew out from Melbourne as it was a direct flight saving 5 hrs of sitting around another airport.      Much to Lucy's horror she was left with our friends up the road - We had just had Bella here for 5 days whilst they were in Brisbane so it worked out well .... for us .......  Deb sent me this via snap chat lol

Saturday morning Nay had to work, so Jacey and I went to visit the Arcane Bookshop ..... look how

clever the set up of it is!  I very nearly purchased a book, but instead got a bookmark that not only looks good ..... it actually has a lovely feel to it if you can imagine that!

So many cool and amazing ideas that give this shop character ..... check out this photo with the butterfly's coming out from the books ......

It made me think about my little reading corner with my rocking chair ........ there is or are a few seeds I can feel fluttering around looking for something to grab hold of and turn into an idea that can be used in my space ...... the painted wall definitely helps 

Little whimsicals  everywhere

Jaron and Pete picked us up and we went to the shopping centre where Renee was working to catch up with her for lunch and do a bit of browsing/shopping ...........  And Pete bought me this lovely heart shaped Ruby Ring for our 40th Anniversary!  We decided to make Townsville our Anniversary Trip!  Pete bought some much needed shorts and singlet tops we haven't been able to get locally and I ended up in QBD coming out with a book from there and another from Big W lol

The shopping Centre  is using the focus of Womens Week to promote women who work within the centre ...... Renee is manager of City Chic in the Stocklands Centre.  Jaron did his "adoration of wifey pose" lol   We showed her all our photos which she thought was pretty cute xo

Me with my daughter in law - poster size and real life hanging out in the kitchen the next day lol

The boys went fishing on Sunday and Pete came home with a new rod which then had to have a homemade cover/holder made to be able to come on the plane with us .....Lucky Jaron has a good shed and the two of them got to work sorting it out.  Even LJ managed to hang off sleeping and went on the fishing trip getting to spend a bit more time with Pop which was pretty special given he is 20 now!

I love this photos!

All too soon we had to say goodbye to Townsville ....... (I realised as Jaron dropped us off and drove away that I didn't get a photo with my son! He was having to fly out to Phillipines for work a few hours after we left)    

                          And then into Melbourne - although we had a brief touch of the wheels to the ground before they took off again doing a lap of Melbourne before coming into land .... properly this time ......I can tell you everyone in the plane was a little anxious!

And then our 31/2 hour drive back up to Corowa!  We left at 5.20 from Jarons place and got to Corowa at 3.30 pm! But at least we made it!!!

I'm missing them already!