Today we went in to Adelaide in the afternoon. It was very rainy; they haven't had this much rain in one day in 45 years! We were worried the Fringe Parade would be cancelled but luckily the skies cleared and it was a beautiful night sitting along King William Street to watch the parade in Downtown Adelaide. There were many 'interesting' floats and people around all night and the pre-parade show was probably the biggest hit with Layla as she got to run through t...

Today was the annual Clare High School Swimming Carnival. They decided to make the event start at 4:00 pm and run until 9:00 pm as the forecasted high was 42 degrees that day. Layla had swimming lessons at 12:00 and when we were at the pool it was already 40! It was a very hot day and it was my first day as a roadie for the high school, setting up the PA system. The kids all showed up dressed in their House colors and sporting some very non-uniform attire! I belo...

On Friday night we drove to Adelaide right after school and went to Ikea. After Ikea we went to Chance Seely's house. He is a teacher that is on exchange. He happens to be from Olds...who would've guessed! We stayed the night at Chance's and awoke early to get to the wildlife park as it was going to be 41 degrees today!! We got to the park and immediately saw a koala and many colorful birds. We bought some animal snacks to feed to the animals and Darren was acos...

Today was Layla's birthday (8 years old!) and also her first day of school. She got to wear her first school uniform and had a great day with her new teacher, Ms. Rose and all of her Australian classmates. It was special for Ms. Rose to have Layla in her class because she had just recently returned from an exchange to Manitoba in Canada and was missing the Canadians a great deal. Leanne drove Layla to school but she rode the bus home all by herself and was droppe...

At 10:40 a.m. the plane touched down and brought the girls home...finally!! It was great to be reunited after a very long 3 and a half weeks apart. It was 43 degrees celsius so they got a taste of Aussie heat straight away. It was off to Clare after a quick stop in Auburn at the hotel restaurant for our first Australian meal as a family. It was a very long, hot day!