Our First Overseas Trip!!

In 30 short days Farmer Phil, Emma and I will be jetting off to sunny USA and Canada!!!  We're all very excited as it will be the first overseas trip for both Farmer Phil and Emma - I have been to New Zealand a few times.

The reason for the trip is it is the overseas trip that Yanco Agricultural High School organises every 2 years.  And as this is Emma's last year at school we decided 18 months ago that we would go on the 2 week school trip.  There are about 50 students, parents and teachers going.

This is our itinerary:

• Fly into Vancouver, Canada and do a 3 hour city tour
• Fly to San Francisco, California for 2 nights with a tour of Alcatraz Island, Golden Gate Bridge and Fishermans Wharf
• Fly to Billings, Montana and tour Little Big Horn and General Custer's Last Stand
• Bus to Sidney, Montana where we are being billetted by local families for 2 nights with visits to a sugar beet factory, power plant, the University of Montana Agricultural Research facility, heritage museum and local Petroleum industry with many farms having their own oil rigs
• Bus to Saskatoon, Canada with visits to the Moose Jaw tunnels, bootlegging re-enactment, Chinese immigrant history, the influence of the Mafia on the town, and then a visit to a Huterite Colony.  The Flexicoil factory is visited along with the University of Saskatchewan, Western Development Museum and Prairie Town.
• On to Calgary for 4 nights where we will spend each day at the world famous Calgary Stampede
• Bus to Banff with the spectacular scenery of Lake Louise and the Canadian Rockies
• Final stop is the Colombia Icefields with a tour of the glacier and lakes

Whew!!!  It sounds non-stop but we just can't wait!!

Farmer Phil, Emma and I are then adding on 5 nights in Orlando, Florida to visit Ryan.  He is leaving on June 21st to spend 12 weeks there training at a water ski school with 5 of his water skiing friends!  I know, how lucky is he!!!!!

Disney World, Sea World, Universal Studios, Cape Canaveral here we come in Orlando - the Theme Park Capital of the World!!!  I'm sure we won't have time to do them all!  We'll have to master driving the rental car on the wrong side of the road first!!!

Anyway, the next few weeks will fly by with lots of jobs to be completed on the farm before we go.  We finished sowing our 5,000ac of wheat and canola yesterday, so now Farmer Phil is quickly trying to get the canola sprayed for weeds and insects before the expected rains come tomorrow.

We'll only be away 3weeks, but I'm sure this will be the first of many overseas trips for us now that we will have no more children at school in a few short months!!

2013 Australian Waterski Titles

Easter is always a busy time for us as it is when the Australian Waterski Titles are held each year.  this year it was hosted by NSW and held at Stoney Park near Port Macquarie.  Farmer Phil was chosen to be one of the boat drivers over the 5 day competition so we didn't see a great deal of him!

 

If you remember last year, Ryan broke his collarbone so was unable to compete even though he had rated in all 3 events.  This year he was fit and ready to do well.  He had put a lot of time into training this summer so was hoping to do well.

 

He slalomed badly after admitting he was very nervous! Trick was next where he performed okay.  Then jump came and this event is the one he wanted to do really well in after improving a lot from  last year.

 

Well, his training paid off and was awarded the Silver Medal in the Under 21 Mens Jump event!  He narrowly missed out on a Bronze for overall - if he had slalomed better he may have came in third overall.

 

Anyway, it was a great Easter and now it's back to the reality of farm life and getting ready to put another crop in.

 

 

Medal winners - Charlie, Ryan, Angus, Mitchell, Trent and Nick

 

Very happy!

 

NSW won the Beynon Shield for the 9th year in a row!

 

Brother and sister!

Beach Carnival & Gala Day 2013

2013 is Emma's final year of high school - it's a bit sad really!

 

So here are some photos of her last ever Beach Carnival and Gala Day at Yanco Ag!

 

 

Mighty Mutch House marching - we came second!

 

Emma - second row from the front and second left.  Marching is taken very seriously at Beach Carnival!!

 

Year 12!

 

Then an all in water fight!

 

Gala Day - Grand Parade!

 

Equestrian Team!

 

Parading the cattle!

 

Parading the sheep!

 

The Year 12 Fashion Parade where Elvis made an appearance!

 

KISS were there too!

 

The Wiggles and their Big Red Car!

 

Lady Gaga!

 

Emma, Vanessa and Courtney as Charlie's Angels!

 

 

Year 12 on the balcony of McCaughey House!

Emma is 17!!!!

On March 14th Emma turned 17!!  I can't believe my baby is almost an adult!!

 

She had a singing lesson the night before her birthday so we had a small celebration and cake for her before getting her back to boarding school the next morning.

 

Emma passed her driving test on her birthday so she is now mobile and can drive herself to all her singing lessons etc!  It will make my life so much easier!!

 

 

Emma and Farmer Phil (who turned 47, 11 days before!!)

 

A rainbow cake which turned out pretty great!

Another 5 Weeks Go By...................

............... and not a single blog posting!!!  How slack am I?!

We had a shocking end to 2012, so it's taken a while to get back into the swing of things!! 

First off Farmer Phil's 74 year old dad broke his leg in 4 places stepping down off a tractor!  Then we lost our beautiful Jack to a snake bite.  Someone backed into our new ute while I was doing the Christmas grocery shopping and broke the tail light.  Then Christmas Eve there was a short, sharp storm hit our house with howling winds and rain resulting in uprooted hedge plants, a smashed bird house, rainwater coming underneath the roof tiles and into the house via light fittings, a blown in garage roller door, and a 40kg pool cover reel picked up and tossed like it weighed nothing.  I know it's nothing compared to the devastation that has hit the whole of Australia in the last month with bushfires and now flooding, but we thought we must have "kicked a Chinaman" or something for so many things to go wrong in the space of 7 days!!

Anyway, here is what's been happening since my last post!

Christmas Day was at our house with Farmer Phil's family.  My brother in law's 5 children had a great time utilising the pool for the afternoon!

Christmas lunch was outside on the deck

New Year's Eve Farmer Phil and I went to the most beautiful beach wedding ever!!  It was at Moonta Bay in SA.  Congratulations Murray and Nicki!!

Farmer Phil and I in our NYE Glam - minus stilettos on the beach!!

We then had our annual 2 week waterskiing/camping holiday at Renmark, SA where not a single photo was taken but a great time was had by all!  First week the weather was all over 40 degrees with a top of 46!!

Last April I booked tickets for Farmer Phil and I to see Cirque Du Soleil's OVO in Melbourne during January.  Everytime we go to Melbourne and walk past The Hotel Windsor I always comment how I'd love to stay there sometime.  Well we did this time!  It was only for 1 night but sooooo worth it!

The dining room where breakfast was served.

A Superior Room very similar to the one we stayed in complete with huge dressing room, marble bathroom and old world class!! 

The 3 clowns of OVO - "Ladybug, the Foreigner and Master Flipo"!

"Ant" acrobats were absolutely perfect in their synchronisation of kiwifruit!

The "Firefly" diabolo juggler was amazing!

"Spider" Contortionists were unbelievable!

Love duet of the "Butterflies" rope adagio!

The "Flea" acrobatic troupe were amazing!

And now we're back to the reality of getting Emma organised and back to school this week for her very last year of school ever!!!!!  Year 12 and the Higher School Certificate here we come!

Emma has also been busy rehearsing since early November for a show she is performing in during February/March in Wagga Wagga.  It's called "Life in the Spotlight" and is an all singing, all dancing show featuring songs from Glee, Hairspray, The Jersey Boys, Rock of Ages etc with all proceeds going to Telstra Childflight.  She started out having 3 Solo's as well as being the Lead Backing Vocalist, but now she has been given 3 more Solo's to do.  So she's been a very busy girl trying to learn all the songs as well as the choreography and staging!

The upside for the start of 2013 is that we've had no Summer rain here so that means no spraying of weeds over the 5,000ac for Farmer Phil.  Ryan has been busy with his tournament waterskiing events and doing lots of training.  Farmer Phil is happy to have some spare time to go along and help out at the tournaments and do lots of boat driving!

It's been back to our little shop "Kindrawares" for me over the past 2 weeks.  After a very busy Christmas period, it's very quiet at the moment with lots of people still away on holidays.  Hopefully once the kids are all settled back into school routine, then the shop will be buzzing again!!



RIP Jack!!

He was bitten by a snake while visiting Farmer Phil's parents house.  Everyone is devastated!