Weekends AWAY!

Rob and I went our separate ways this weekend – Rob went to Bluey’s Beach with the guys and I had a weekend away up on the Gold Coast with the girls (Annie, Keth, Sian and ME!).

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The day before leaving, my colleagues informed me that every year around this time the ‘schoolies’ get out for summer holiday – which means the Gold Coast bars and pubs will be filled with 18-year-old boys (think freshman year spring break in college). Now that isn’t all that bad, but after doing some googling I found it’s quite a big deal and is something to be avoided. ‘Schoolies’ even have their own website!! http://www.schoolies.com/. Fortunately, for us 20-and-30-somethings looking to relax on the beach with a good book, it wasn’t as bad as I would’ve thought. Sian and Keth were smart enough to know to stay off the main drag. It was such a lovely weekend … and was perfect … until we found out our flights were cancelled and we had to drive to Brisbane to catch the next flight out.

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Rob spent the weekend at one of his workmate’s family beach house – which was a four hour drive up the coast at Bluey’s Beach. The guys were able to get two rounds of golf in (surprising since it was pouring rain in Sydney that weekend) and even had a very close encounter with a huge kangaroo named Ben (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVU7lG4nx60&feature=youtu.be). Rob also caught an awesome sunset at the Rekky Club.

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Success!

We had such a fabulous time during our 2 weeks in the states. Thank you to all of our family and friends for making our trip so wonderful!

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It was a busy few weeks with an engagement party, 2 stunning mountain weddings, a Broncos game (Rob’s first ever regular season NFL game), a Rockies game (Todd Helton’s last home game)…

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…plenty of day hikes in the mountains, walks and runs, golfing, story telling, Tim Tam Slams…

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…birthday celebrations, brekky/lunch/dinner/coffee catch ups with friends, wedding venue ‘shopping’, shopping in general, alcoholic beverages, BBQs…

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…minding the kids, awkward O’Keefe family photos (see below)… the list doesn’t stop…. But it was all worth it! All said and done, we stayed at 8 different places over the course of 16 days! A special thanks to The Ralph’s, Al, Jeremy, Maria, Kristen and The Schneider’s for giving us a pillow to sleep on during our time at home.

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And thank you for those who made the trek to Ft Collins for our engagement party – during some of the worst flooding Colorado has seen in years.  Luckily, the skies cleared and it turned out to be a lovely afternoon at The Ralph’s in FoCO!!  Thanks for hosting, Mom/Mum/Maureen and Dad!!!

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