Melbourne!

A few weeks ago Farmer Phil and I took a trip to Melbourne to catch up with Emma for a couple of days and see The Rocky Horror Show.  Wow - what a great production and the cast were fantastic!  Craig McLachlan was so good as Frank n Furter!  Farmer Phil had no idea what the storyline was, so we had to explain it to him!

We also did a tour of the MCG which is really interesting - an iconic Melbourne spot.  Farmer Phil and I had done the tour years ago before they pulled down the original members stand and did the latest redevelopment.  It's well worth a look if you're in Melbourne.

Entry into the National Sports Museum is included in the MCG tour and it has some fantastic exhibits of all sorts of sports.  They had a special exhibition on medals this time which was fascinating.

So much to do and see and eat and drink in Melbourne!!

Grease!

While in Melbourne we saw Grease the Musical.  Grease is my favourite movie of all time - I remember seeing it at the Wagga Drive-In with dad and my sister Lisa in our mum's car - a mini!!  I was only about 7 or 8 and I think most of it must've went over my head but we just loved Olivia Newton-John!!

Rob Mills as Danny and Gretel Scarlett as Sandy. 

Greased Lightning!

Summer Nights!

We had fantastic seats!  Todd McKenney was the Teen Angel, Bert Newton was Vince Fontaine and Anthony Callea played Johnny Casino.  It was a fantastic production - go and see it if it's in a theatre near you!

Emma is off to Univertsity!

As soon as we returned from New Zealand, Emma and I were off to Melbourne for a day of orientation and filling out forms!  Then a week later it was pack the car with all her stuff and get her set up ready to start uni.

Emma is doing a Diploma of Specialist Make-up Services.  Which means she wants to be a movie/special effects make-up artist!

We found some fantastic student accommodation for her in Footscray which is about a 15 minute bus/train ride into her King Street campus in Melbourne's CBD.  It's called Victoria Place and they are all individual studio apartments with their own kitchen and bathroom/laundry.  Perfect!

Getting settled in!  Emma loves her course, has met the other residents, is looking for a part time job and is generally loving Melbourne!

Finished with School!!

Emma is our youngest child and 2013 was her final year of school!  She sat her Higher School Certificate (HSC) exams during October and November - Advanced English, Senior Science, Music, Visual Art, Modern History and Geography.

She performed very well in all her exams and is now off to Melbourne in 2014 to attend Victoria University doing a 12 month Diploma course in Specialist Make-up Services - she wants to be a movie/tv/special effects make-up artist!

Emma did a short course in make-up during and after her HSC - these are 2 of the looks she created!

So no more trips to Yanco Ag for this family!

"As you sow, so shall you reap" is the school's motto.

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!!

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!

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! 

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!