Friday was a school holiday to attend the Royal Adelaide Show which is Adelaide's equivalent of the Calgary Stampede without a rodeo. Clare High School had some goats and steers in the show so I wanted to head down and visit with the kids to see how they placed, unfortunately they all went home on Thursday. We got to the show at about noon and were immediately surrounded by the sights, smells and sounds of a carnival. We took an hour or so to take in all of the...

Today was Father's Day in Australia so we packed up the car and headed out to Moonta for a day in the sun after a very long and grey winter. It was great to see the ocean again and to throw a line out and try to catch something. We took all the bait we had and decided we wouldn't leave until it was gone. It didn't take too long to use it all up. The only one to catch anything was Leanne who got a little Tommy Ruff on her first cast. After the fishing we went for ...

Today was Layla's last netball practice. It all started when I was sitting at squash and a lady mentioned how Layla should come down to the courts after school on Tuesdays and meet some of the girls and give it a go. Well, the next Tuesday we got her down there and she loved it from the start. She met some really great friends and got to play against not only girls from Clare but girls from all over the Clare Valley area. She had a really good time and was sad th...

This week we found ourselves on the year 9 ski trip to Mount Hotham in Victoria. We left Clare on Sunday night and slept at Chance's house in Adelaide. We got up very early and were at the airport at 7:00 ready to meet kids to fly out at 10:00 to Melbourne where we would catch our bus to Mount Hotham or to "the snow" as the Aussies say. After a very windy road with a sheer drop off the side we finally made it to Jalanga Lodge where we would be staying on Mount H...

Thursday, July 17, 2014: We awoke to chilly morning in the desert of Coober Pedy and got ready for a busy day touring around Coober Pedy and seeing all of its odd and unusual sights. We packed up the tent (for the last time!) and headed into town to meet some of the people we had been told about. Our first stop was the Underground Hotel where Michael Murphy was expecting us. We were too early to check in but our brief visit got us very excited about sleeping ...