Our last couple of days after coming back from our road trip were fairly busy and went by very quickly. We spent a good day making pineapple jam with my mom with all those juicing pineapples that we had purchased just outside of Maryborough.  It was quite an expedition to find jam equipment (lids, jars and a funnel) and after a few trips to malls and specialty shops, we managed to get everything we needed. We couldn’t believe how expensive the jars were compared to here in Canada – nearly quadruple the price! I guess canning isn’t a very popular activity in Australia. Meghan had to improvise on the jam recipe as well because there wasn’t one exactly for the type of pectin we had. In the end, we managed to get about 40 cups of jam and it was very delicious!

We also spent some time at home letting Tanish and Rhys just play together. We took a bunch of family photos one evening that were quite challenging to get with two kids under two! However, we finally managed to get some decent photos though and the whole photo shoot was actually quite fun.

The last two days mainly revolved around packing our bags, preparing our carry-on and Rhys’ food for the plane. We did take a few hours one afternoon to visit Main Beach – one of the local beaches on the Gold Coast. It was probably the least favourite of our beaches but it was easy to get to with lots of parking. It was quite noisy with all the boat (and jetski) traffic going past as they made their way out of the Gold coast towards the open ocean. Rhys still had a fantastic time at the beach running into the waves, splashing about and even trying to swim a bit as we held him under his armpits. The water was quite warm and both us went for a dip as well.