Week 4

Week 4

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Break has been treating me very well. During it, I've been thinking of how this time next year my folks and I should be visiting the land down under. A big shout out to Cyra on her help with figuring flight patterns for stopping in Hawaii on our way over. The "multi-city" flight has proven a great idea and will more than likely be how we go about that stop. In answer to Patrick, we've always wanted to see Hawaii and my Dad is a history buff so I know he would love to tour Pearl Harbor if possible! Jacob also had a great point in asking about what we will be doing when in Australia. I've actually been meaning to give a run down on some potential plans while over there, so here it goes!

 Depending on our flights we may spend time in Melbourne or Sidney touring a bit, but probably not more for a day or so considering the size of those cities, Melbourne @ almost 5 million and Sidney @5.25 million. We are hoping to spend the majority of our time with our cousins in the more rural area that they live in. All of the Aussie cousins live close outside of a town called Wangaratta,Victoria. The population of Wangaratta is roughly 25,000 so just a bit of a difference there. Rod (who is about my dad's age) and Tim (Rod's son) compete in dog trials so we look forward to watching them do their thing! We should also get a chance to watch Sarah (Ross's wife) jump her horse. They are all excellent riders and Sarah's a beast at jumping competitions. Cara and Devin toured a couple different cattle and sheep ranches while there and said it was eye opening so we'll probably do that as well. We hope to take a couple days to visit the ocean too. They want to take us riding up in the snowy mountains while there and I'm pretty pumped for that as well as just hanging out with everyone. They are an easy bunch to be around and I'm sure we won't be bored. Rod has a ranch and his son Tim manages another ranch with huge numbers of livestock on it. We are hoping to be some help to them while there. When Rod, Ross, and Sarah visited they pitched in with whatever we were doing and were a huge help during the branding season. It would be nice to try and return the favor a bit.

I am sure plans will change but that's just a few things I've been thinking of. Weather should be warm enough too. Some of the Aussie's sent us a message saying how it was a high of 90 degrees Fahrenheit just the other day. I sent them a picture of all the snow we have and they thought it looked uninhabitable lol. 

Elsie playing in the sprinkler on Christmas!

For week 4, I will be pursuing getting my passport info through. I also need to look up regulations on driving for our trip. They drove when over here but I know there's a certain protocol. Continuing to research things we should do on our Australian Rendezvous will also be a goal!

With that, I hope everyone has a great rest of their Christmas break and a Happy New Year!