Weather is cheering up!

Hello Amigos!

During the APEC weekend, we were planning to get out of the city but Avery had a tough time with a cold and we did not want to chance it in such cool weather. We ended up staying in Sydney, watching heaps of videos and visiting the Taranga zoo. The zoo was fabulous! It did not feel like the over commercialized places that we often have in North America.

Forget weightlifting, Tom has turned to croc restling as a past time in Australia. Grrrrr!

Mom... don't look... Avery and an olive python.

The highlight for the kids was the seal show!

But the highlight for Ginette was the talk about the Giraffe and the acadia tree. Ginette teaches about Evolutionary Spirals in the grade 12 Bio. In this evolutionary arms race, the acadia tree develops taller branches and longer thorns, but the Giraffe only develops longer necks and tongues. Then, the tree is able to do some interesting things with the chemical tannin to make it toxic to the Giraffe. To see this up close was cool, as she had only read about it. Wish Tom could have caught the Giraffe's tongue though, boy was it long.

The last few weekends we have been doing some Sydney parks. Martyn, an exchange friend organized a canoe/kayak along the river system. We finished it off with a barbie.

This past weekend we headed to Palm beach for a hike up to the lighthouse. Spectacular weather and good company!

Avery has completed his apron sewing project and is now wearing it to cooking class!

And the boy finally got a haircut!

Ta for now!

Ginette, Tom, Avery and Jocelyn

Keeping busy until next term break

Hello everyone!

We are counting the days til our next term break, trying to keep ourselves busy.

We are missing home lately as the weather is rather drippy this week, and we are thinking of how beautiful it is during the Autumn months at home.

Jocelyn finished up her soccer season. She learned a great deal of foot control this year. We enjoyed all of the families that we were able to meet at these early Sunday morning games but we are looking forward to our weekends being free. They have a lot of early morning weekend sport here... yeash...

Jocelyn also has had two band concerts the last few weeks. One at a competition and the other at the school fun fair. The band is sounding better every day!



Jocelyn got a nice shinner...slipped into a trampoline while practicing soccer. Of course I had to put this one on the blog. She is looking good now but, it got worse before it got better.

We got to see the eclipse really well from the back yard. Tom got this great shot!

There are a number of coastal hiking trails in the area. Last weekend the exchange group organized a walk from the Manly Wharf to spit bridge. We are enjoying these weekend hikes lead by Wilma and Nick. The hike had some spectacular views!

We stopped off at the beach for a little food, sun and sand.

Nick's keen eye spotted a pod of dophins in the harbour. Lovely!

This weekend was a long weekend due to the APEC summit. We had planned to go camping but with Avery and Jocelyn with colds we decided to stay close to Sydney.

Hope your fall is going well! We look forward to the colours next year!

Sayonara,

Ginette, Tom, Avery and Jocelyn