I have forgotten to write about a few things.  Catching up…

HVAC.

I cannot believe I haven’t blogged about this – shows just how busy we have been lately!  When Jess and Jason were here, our air conditioner in Australia was broken.  At the same time, our furnace in Iowa broke.  Unfortunately our renters had moved out a few weeks before and nobody noticed that the cold had caused one of the water lines to the dishwasher to freeze and break.  Our fantastic next door neighbor, Mr. Paul, checks on the house every few days and discovered water flowing into the garage from the kitchen.  He kicked into action and got the inmediate things taken care of.  We had a clean up crew come in and rip out the ruined bits of the house – carpet upstairs, carpet padding downstairs, basement ceiling.  Bubba is planning on going to the house soon to start putting it back together again.  Was a sickening feeling to know that was happening at home and we couldn’t do anything about it.  One of the (many) challenges of living abroad. Thank you to everyone back home who is helping get things sorted!

Rubbers.

Last weekend we went to the mall.  While Em, Lily and I were shopping, Jay and Ty went to the bowling alley.  When we met up with them later that afternoon, Ty came running up, all excited, and said “Mom!  I won a bouncy ball and 2 rubbers!!”  I nearly peed my pants from laughter.  Similar to how Australians call flip flops “thongs”, they call erasers “rubbers”.  Poor kid is going to go back to kindergarten in the US and ask his teacher for a rubber…

Special Friend.

I stayed home on the last day of Term 1 so that Em could go with Ty to Grandparents/Special Friend Day at school.  It sounds like they had a great day – Em was really amazed at how talented the students were at the ceremony.  



World Travellers.

Jay met Deanne and Dave for lunch on Thursday.  They bought an airplane ticket that allows them to literally go around the world, stopping in as many places they would like to within a year, as long as they continue going in the same direction and end where they started.  What an amazing adventure!  They were in Brisbane for a few days.  Unfortunately it didn’t work out for the kids and I to meet them – hopefully sometime when we are all back in the US!



Ok, I think that is all I had forgotten to write about.  Caught up now!

Royal Easter Show.

It was a rainy day on Saturday, so we couldn’t go to the Blue Mountains.  We decided to go to the Sydney Royal Easter Show, which is sort of like the State Fair.  We took a double-decker train, which worked out pretty slick, to Sydney Olympic Park.  It was the location of the 2000 Summer Olympics.  We wandered through the barns, ate some yummy donuts, watched the “World Woodchopping” competition, saw a crazy American get blown out of a box of dynamite, and tried to stay dry.  Em and I bought some new hats (we kept shouting “JESSICA!!!!” because mine looks like the hat Jessica wore in the Man from Snowy River).  We ate a plate of sourkraut and a gross chili baked potato.  We had a lemonade that didn’t taste like the sheep barn, but was the closest thing to real lemonade that I have had since we moved here.  Lily loved the pigs.  Both kids loved the goats milk.  Em loved being in the barns.  I think she would have been content staying there all weekend.  Some cool observations…  

Trains really are a slick way to travel.  Easy peasy and you’re there!  



The horse grooming is very different than back home.  Google checkerboard horse rump.  Looks awesome!  Subtle but classy.  

They have the living quarters in the barns figured out.  Instead of using space for livestock for livestock owners to camp out for the show, they have these two story “motels”.  Genius.  I would maybe even stay in one for a night.  Well, maybe.  Probably not, but at least it isn’t at cow poop level!



Lily loves pigs.  Big pigs, 3 little pigs, she isn’t picky. 



Em found a new passion in life – Woodchopping groupie.  In particular for the New Zealander world champion wood chopper.  Poor American bloke flew all this way to get his tail kicked by all of the Aussie and New Zealanders…  We were sitting in the front row like a couple Woodchopping groupies.  

  We went to the Woodchop bar to celebrate victory, and Em chickened out about getting her photo taken with the winner.  Would have made a great addition to the blog.  All we got was this picture of the sign of the bar instead.  



The kids were beat, so Jay stayed in with them and ordered room service.  Em and I went down to the Meat & Wine restaurant in the hotel.  A bottle of wine, 2 burnt fingers, a couple yummy meals, and lots of laughter.  We walked down to the Opera House so she could see it lit up at night.  She had to get her picture taken with a water taxi.  

Easter.

Sunday morning we had an Easter egg hunt in our hotel room.  The kids had fun “MORE!!”  Ty was super excited about his boxing kangaroo.  Lily loves the choc-o-lot.. 



So the whole point of coming to Sydney was to go see the Blue Mountains.  However, it seemed as though it was not in the cards for us to go to the mountains.  The tour was not running due to concerns about the weather – overcast days are not good days to go to the mountains.  However, when we woke on Sunday morning, it was clear.  We walked around the Rocks markets and then thought we should try one more time to see if a rental car was available just for the day.  No luck.  Damn.  



Ferry.

So we rode the ferry over to Manly Beach instead.  Let’s talk about the ferry.  It deserves its own little section in this blog.  A ticket was only $2.50, and it was good all day for any of Sydney’s public transportation – buses, trains, ferries.  We got in line to get herded into the waiting area, and then we got herded into the ferry.  With 1,100 other people.  I don’t like feeling like cattle.  Nor do I enjoy public transportation.  But the boat itself was surprisingly nice and clean, and you can’t beat the views…for $2.50!!!!  This time Em used Ty as an excuse to get a picture taken with the ferry workers.





We ate some ice cream and walked around the Harbour a bit.  Wasn’t long before Ty fell asleep in the pram, so we picked up Happy Meals for the kids and went back to the hotel.  Em and I ordered some salads from the hotel restaurant.  Em waited at the bar until the food was ready and struck up a conversation with a guy from Kentucky that raises race horses.  He has a horse in some big auction today.  He gave her the name of a guy near Brisbane that is in the racehorse business.  Might be fun to check it out.

Journal.

I had picked up a photo album from the Rocks markets for Ty to keep a journal.  There just happened to be a photo shop in Manly next to the playground, so I printed off about 50 pictures and got some notecards for Ty to write a description.  That night he was super excited to work on his journal.  I love seeing him write words.  

Slumber party.

Ty and Em had a slumber party.  Wine and chocolates for Auntie, milk and chocolates for Ty.  





Bridge.

On Monday we decided to walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge – not the $300 walk, the free one. It really is huge.  And has amazing views.  



Luna.

On the walk over the bridge, Ty was singing “tell me tell me tell me where the freaks are.”  We found them.  We went to Luna Park, which is a mini amusement park on the Harbour.  I suppose it is kind of like Coney Island.  I think the word Luna translates to “crazy scary freaky clowns.”  We were able to walk through without paying admission, and Jay, Lily and Ty went into one playground area.  Em and I sat outside and enjoyed the nice weather and the views.



We walked back to the hotel, grabbed a quick (and oh not so peaceful) lunch, then caught our ride to the airport.  There were some delays – not terrible – but the kids (and adults) were all pretty tired.  Em had the Fitbit on and tracked 8.5 miles for the day.  We finally got on the plane, and the kids instantly fell asleep.  Thank goodness.  We were entertained by a couple happy drunk guys that showed us all of the safety requirements on the plane by mimicking the flight attendants.  Just as quickly as we were up in the air, we started the descent and had a smooth landing.  When we got home, we were amazed to see that the goldfish, Nochee and Doodee, were in a state of hibernation, but they were alive!  Amazing since they hadn’t had food since Thursday.  

Baths, books, bed.  And with that, another Shearer family vacation was in the books.  G’day mates!