A Farm Wedding

In October we had a very special event here on the farm!  Good friends of ours Paul and Crystal held their wedding and marquee reception on the hill in a paddock behind our house!

It was the most spectacular wedding I've ever been to, and I'm not biased at all!!

It was lots of work for Paul and Crystal but so much fun!  We were very happy to see them enjoy their special day so much.

As you know Emma is a bit of a singer!  She was asked to perform the National Anthem before the local Football/Netball League Grand Finals.  She admitted to being just a bit nervous singing in front of a big crowd, but she did a fantastic job with lots of compliments coming her way.  The best part was being paid $150 to sing for 2 minutes!!

Ryan Arrives Home

Ryan arrived home at the end of September after being in Orlando, Florida USA for 3 months waterski training.  He improved more than 10m in the jump event, and more than 2 passes for his slalom.  He has been training for the past 7 weeks also with a view to spending 6 months in the USA next year training even harder.  He has been rewarded with being selected in the Australian Under 21 Team to compete against NZ in Christchurch at the end of January 2014!  So Farmer Phil and I are off to NZ for 10 days - yay!!

Emma's High School Graduation!

September 19th was Emma's Graduation from High School.  It's hard to believe that we have finished with high school - it only seems like yesterday when we sent Emma off as a tiny 4 year old to Kindergarten!!

Emma had no preconceived idea of what her formal dress was to look like.  She just said that she wanted something completely different to what the other girls in her year would wear.  So we decided to buy a dress for her on our trip to the USA and Canada in July/August.

The first shop we walked into we were both drawn to a particular dress.  Emma tried it on and we immediately knew that it was "the one"!!!  The shoes came from the same shop in Calgary, Canada also.

It was definitely different from any of the other girl's dresses - for starters it was patterned and fitted.  Her hair was sleek and stylish.  She looked stunning!!

This is Emma's music teacher Miss Elyse North - you could not find a better music teacher in the whole of Australia!

Emma's best friends - Ness, Steph, Emma and Courtney!

The graduating class of Yanco Agricultural High school 2013!

Pippa!

After losing our Jack last Christmas it has taken a while to get another dog.  We wanted another Jack Russell but his time I wanted a female and a wire-haired one that wouldn't remind me so much of Jack.  Farmer Phil wanted one exactly the same as Jack!!

So in August I found an advertisement in the local paper and went to check out the litter of puppies.  I came home with Pippa - she was 8 weeks old and tiny!

She has a naughty streak in her!

She joined me on the header a few times during harvest!

25 Years!

On August 26th Farmer Phil and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary!!  I know - we can't be that old!!

We spent 2 nights at The Buckland Retreat near Bright, VIC.  It was just beautiful and soooo peaceful!!

This was out accommodation!

    

This was the view from the deck!

We did some beautiful walks in the mountains, ate, drank and relaxed for 2 days!

Emma and Billie - Skinny Love - YAHS Performance Night 2013

Emma and Billie started kindergarten together when they were both 4 years old!  It was lovely to see them perform together for the last time at Yanco Ag's Performance Night! 

Daniel and Ange - Exciting Times Ahead!!

Daniel is 24 1/2 years old, so it is time for him and Ange his partner of 5 years to build their first home!  We had a look at the display home which was in Shepparton, Victoria a few weeks before we went on holidays.  I must say it's a gorgeous home and much flasher than the first home Farmer Phil and I purchased!!  They have bought a beautiful 1 acre block of land near the Edwards River at Deniliquin.  The slab is to be poured in the next few weeks, then it'll be full steam ahead from there.  Hopefully they will be in their new home by Christmas.

 

 

The Chelsea by Metricon

 

Fabulous entertaining area

 

Gorgeous kitchen with a walk through pantry

Our First Overseas Adventure!!

We've been home almost 3 weeks so I thought I'd better get some photos posted about our amazing trip to Canada and USA!!  Here is a tiny selection of the 850 I took!!

We had 2 weeks with the Emma's school travelling around Canada and some of the USA, and we then had 5 nights in Orlando, Florida to see Ryan while he's there for 13 weeks water ski training.

Beautiful Vancouver Harbour

Golden Gate Bridge - San Francisco

Lombard Street - the crookedest street in the world - San Francisco

The most famous streetscape - you might recognise it as the "Full House" house - San Francisco

Alcatraz Island - excellent tour - San Francisco

Emma looking a bit bewildered about the size of her breakfast!

Every second vehicle is a "pickup truck"!!

Custer's Last Stand - Montana

The water towers in every town.

Oil rigs or "grasshoppers" as they're called are on almost every farm throughout Montana

Our fabulous host family in Sidney, Montana - Krista, Kathy, Kirk, Hailey and Jared

The prairies heading towards Canada - all wheat and canola

We visited a Huterite community near Sasskatoon, Saskatchewan.  They farmed 12,000ac, had a large commercial dairy, beef feedlot and poultry farm to support the 105 people living there.

All the females wore neck to ankle outfits with headscarves, and they all wore their hair this way

Our teenagers were fascinated with the Huterite teenagers, just as they were fascinated by ours!

It was 30 degrees when we drove through a huge hailstorm

Very odd!

American red barns were everywhere

Calgary Tower

Emma and one of the Calgary Stampede mascots

Visiting the Calgary Stampede

The chuck wagon races - so much action and super fast horses!

An Indian village at the Stampede

Canadian Mounties

Calf roping at the Stampede Rodeo

The bullrider who wins on the final day takes home $100,000 prizemoney!!

Heading for the Canadian Rockies

The Fairmont Hotel at Banff

Castle Rock 

Farmer Phil and I at Lake Louise - this was the highlight for me!

Beautiful Lake Louise

Friendly critters!

Moraine Lake - so blue it was ridiculous!

Farmer Phil and Emma heading up the valley to the Colombia Icefields

Athabasca Glacier

Some of the Yanco kids posing with the Canadian flag on top of the glacier

Gorgeous lake and Rockies

The luckiest kids in the world!

Hogwarts Castle at Universal Studios, Orlando Florida

Emma was super excited to have a "butter beer"

The Weasley car

Sea World, Orlando Florida

Ryan jumping at Lake Grew, Orlando

Ryan, Jason, Hilary, Jeff, Nic, Casey and Michael - more of the luckiest kids in the world!