Surfing Pics!

Flip flop float

Kate and Karen participated in the Havaianas thong challenge, which aimed to break the world record for most people on floats in the water at one time by having multiple events in multiple states at the same time - (didn't make it - but nice try) - it was held on Australia Day (which celebrates the arrival of the First Fleet of convicts in 1788 to Botany Bay on Jan. 26th) - and yes, we still have the flip flops (though not sure if we'll get them home)...

Kangaroo valley and etc.

Last weekend we headed south to Kangaroo Valley - no kangaroos spotted, but some wallabies, a wombat, and the farm had llamas, goats, cows (holsteins - made us feel right at home), and lots of birds - kookaburras, another bird I refer to as the 'car alarm bird', etc. On the way, along a twisting country road we ran across a fudge shop which is basically a refrigerator sitting on the end of the driveway with a cashbox in it (see picture) - we got some fudge, rocky road (which is different over here - has 'jellies' and lots of marshmallow in it), turkish delight (which is really big as well), and some other treats. Suitably fortified (especially John) we continued our journey. The girls spent Saturday on the farmstay and went to the Kangaroo Valley 'show' which is basically the county fair - saw the animals being judged, went on some rides, had some fair food (which, predictably, was fair), etc. Kate and Tess had fun playing with some other kids that were staying on the farm, particularly going on the rope swing down at the creek. John spent 24h in Wollongong on the helicopter and got two flights in, both of which went along the coast at relatively low altitude - which was incredible, waterfalls, beautiful beaches and water, hangliders, the sort of flight you'd pay a lot of money to go on if you weren't taking care of a patient... We intubated a patient at night on a golf course a few days ago, which was good experience - learning the differences between in-hospital and helicopter medicine - also finding you run out of pockets on your flight suit fast, and have to keep everything as packaged as possible during the job, as nothing can be loose in flight - makes things interesting!

John had the past three days off, which was novel - so took a surfing lesson each day - Day 1 things went very well and he was really feeling good about the sport and 'ripping it', then came Day 2 and Day 3 with a smaller board and a larger amount of humility - though still catching some waves well and having a lot of fun. Tess is really enjoying surfing and Kate wants to learn. Our neighbor Adam has offered us his old (and large) board to use while we are here, which is awesome, so we'll be trying that out this weekend hopefully. Note there are no pictures thus far of John surfing - likely to stay that way for awhile...

The weather has become more sunny the past week, so we've been out and around more - went to a playpark on Darling Harbor and had dinner at 'Pancakes on the Rocks' which purports to serve dinner, but dinner consisted (for John, as an example) of chocolate pancakes served with orange slices soaked in Grand Marnier, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce. Tess wants to go back and try every menu item....I don't believe they have a dessert menu, if there was, we didn't see it - even bypassed the fudge store on the way home, which is remarkable...

kangaroo valley

School+Surfing!

I have been having fun at school. No wait, that's not true. Fact is, I am bored out of my mind. For Harry Potter fans, my teacher is comparable to Professor Bin's boringness  combined with Filch's discipline obsession. Like military camp. :) Plus, I already know everything so now am as much of an "insufferable know-it-all" as Hermione Granger! Surfing is fun though. I have caught quite a few waves and even stood up on a good number of them! I always look forward to it.

School and such

Kate and Tess have started school, both of them will be trying out choir and Kate is taking drama (not that she needs the practice) after school. Tess started surfing class last Friday as part of her school physical education and liked it. Both of them have made some friends and had some playdates already. Karen and the girls went with some of their friends to Luna Park, a small amusement park across the harbor which was judged to be 'fun, but not as fun as Valleyfair'. Hopefully they will add some additional blog thoughts soon.

We are settling into our new place, still waiting for the internet to be hooked up, but making do, Karen has been getting to yoga frequently which is great, John goes to work frequently which is interesting but he would like to be home a little more, which should happen next week. Last week was quite intense with long hours of helicopter winch and other training including night winchs/flights. In the last few days, the crews have winched two lightning strike victims from a canyon, done a night winch of a patient off a cruise ship 30 miles offshore (and also rescued a woman who a cow fell on, and motor vehicle accidents and the like) - I have thus far been a white cloud and have not had a call aside from one hospital-to-hospital transfer and several runs we were called off of. Over time, I should catch up with the average though ;)

Next weekend we're going to Kangaroo Valley, south of here, with a 24h shift at Wollogong of mine sandwiched in the middle...wombats in the wild!