Skiing - Day 3

On our final day, the kids had their 2nd lesson lesson in the morning, while Josh and I did some skiing on our own again.  We then stayed at Smiggen Hole to be a little closer to the house, since I was in charge of food that day (you can see it with the blue roof in the first picture).  We ate lunch and all skied together again in the afternoon.  Grace had mastered the lifts, j-bar, t-bar, and was going down Blues with Brielle by this time!!!!  I was blown away!!  She couldn't even hardly stand up on skies the day before - amazing!!  Lance did a couple of Green runs by the end of the day - all in all, a success!!  We would love to make skiing a yearly event for our family.  As Josh puts it, an investment! ;)  We drove home early the next morning back to Sydney.

 Grace using the j-bar to get back up the hill

 This was one of the hills Grace went down.

 Lance ready to go down a Green run!

At the cabin, every night they would give out funny "awards" to the kids.  Grace and Lance each won the last night with most improved skiers!!  WELL DONE, MATES! ;)

Skiing - day 2

Somehow I didn't really get any pictures with our friends! :( This is the one I could find of Brielle, with Grace and Lance.  She's a GREAT skier and was so patient with Grace and helped her a lot!  So sweet!  This is right before our kid's first lessons and first time on skies.....EVER!!  They did amazing and we were shocked how quickly they both picked it up - especially Grace!  Kids are so amazing that way!  They took ski lesson in the morning, while Josh and I did some skiing on our own.  Then, we all took a break for lunch, then took the kids in the tram up to Blue Cow to have a family ski in the afternoon.

 riding the quick bus ride to the tram to Blue Cow

 At Blue Cow - what a beautiful view!

 We thought it was fun to see gum trees on a snowy mountain.  Never thought I would see that!

 showing us their mad skills! ;)

That night, we went with our friends night skiing.  What a treat!

Ski Trip

Last year, in September, we drove to the Snowy Mountains for a quick little ski trip!  We have some friends here that asked us to join them for a little holiday!  We are so glad we said yes!!  What fun!  We actually didn't even know you could ski in Australia when we first moved here!!  They have friends with a house right on the ski resort, so a bunch of us shared it.  It was amazing!!  Can't ask for anything better than to be able to basically walk out your door and practically jump right onto the ski lifts - Ha! We arrived the first day later in the afternoon and got settled - rented our ski gear, unloaded the car, and with a little extra time to spare we did some sledding just before dinner!

 Our first glimpse of the snow in Australia as we drove to the mountains

 Smiggin Holes in Perisher is where we stayed

 someone made a little igloo, so we decided to take a picture in it!

 standing just outside the house we stayed in

 Josh and the kids with the house in the background

 ready for some sledding!

Our room - the kids each had a top bunk, and yes, Josh and I slept in the double bottom bunk under Grace - nice and cozy! ;)

Raindrop

So in Prep, Lance's class had a pet bird.  Every weekend and holiday, families would sign up to take Raindrop home and take care of him so he wasn't alone over the weekend, etc!  I was a bit nervous, as I've never had a pet bird before and certainly didn't want anything to happen to him on MY watch!!  Lance had been wanting us to do it, so August 31st was our weekend to take Raindrop home!  The kids enjoyed "putting him to bed" each night with the cover over the cage and waking him up the next morning.  They always checked his food and payed careful attention to him.  All went well and he was returned safely to the Prep classroom on Monday morning!

 We thought it was hilarious how we had to strap him in the car with the seat belt - safety first!

Reptile Park

One of our weekends in August we went and checked out the Australia Reptile Park.  It's about a 45 min. drive north of our house.  It's very similar to Featherdale, only not as much "animal petting" goes on here - ha!  We had a beautiful winter day and enjoyed exploring something new!

 Lance was a bit nervous standing next to the giant spider - it surprised us and moved sometimes!! eek!!  Actually that whole exhibit freaked ME out!!  So many killer ones live here!!

 got to pet a wombat

 the guy was feeding the Tasmanian Devils - gross!

 snapping turtle

 we enjoyed some ice cream and their little park before heading home.  Fun was had by all!

Book Week at School

Every year in August they celebrate Book Week here and do a lot of fun activities throughout the week.  They only dress up as a favorite book character every other year, though, so this year there won't be any dressing up.  Last year, Grace dressed up as the Queen of Hearts from the book Alice in Wonderland and Lance dressed up as Prince Caspian from the book series Chronicles of Narnia (previous Halloween costumes sure came in handy for us!)  They had a blast that day and it was fun seeing every body else's costumes as well!

 Grace with some of her friends: Tayla was EJ 12 and Tavania was Little Red Riding Hood

 Lance with some of his friends: Peter was Tin Tin, Oregon was from Cars, and Jesse was Batman

 The head of Junior School, Mrs. Cadwallader, was Fancy Nancy!  Fun to see the staff dressing up, too!

 Mr. Cousins was the Cat in the Hat (her Year 4 teacher this year!)

 Her teacher from last year, Mrs. Stewart, was Little Red Riding Hoods grandma (paired up with one of the kids in Grace's class!)

 Snow White (Year 3 teacher) called out Grace's costume on stage!  Check out the White Witch from the Chronicles of Narnia! (Lilli)

All the Prep kids showing off their costumes.  Cute!