Performance, Packing and Parties for the Perretts

G'day All,

This is Tom here, sitting in as your special Guest Blogger for this, our final blog from Australia! We are literally hours away from closing the front door of our lovely Sunshine Coast home here for the last time.  This afternoon we board our flight to Sydney where we will spend a short night before jetting off again early Sunday morning for Bangkok. Starting in Thailand, we expect that our one-month Asian adventure will serve as a nice buffer between our year in OZ and the return to our "other" good life back home in Arcata.

Our eyes are a bit misty as we ponder all the good times, good friends, and fond memories we will soon leave behind.  Leaving this home is so much different from leaving Arcata one year ago- we knew we were coming "back" there in one year (and we do look forward to seeing all our friends there again in one month!).... but now we are saying goodby, well, perhaps forever?......Snif!.....

I don't think any of us anticipated making so many close friends here in such a short time.

Our first six months was a time of getting our new home in order, getting the kids get into gear for their new school, exploring the area and finding our way around. The last six months found us settled into established routines, attending regular events and sheparding the kids off to their friend's homes and their various extracurricular activities. Plus: weekly poker games (for Tom and the boyz), and weekly Mah Jong games (for Steph and the gals), and Friday night potluck dinner with Gary and Julie and friends.

But all of that is about to end.  Our final few weeks here have found us in the performance, packing, and partying mode....

Performance:  Final dance performance and musical shows for Melissa's end of season events.  Grand final singing events for Stephanie's choir group.

Packing: Because it takes a month to clean and pack a house that's been fully lived in for a year!

Parties:  Because we've had many farewell gatherings- Yoga group goodbye potlucks, final blowout poker games, small dinner parties and final lunch dates with friends.

Last week Steph and I hosted a final going-back-to-America party for ourselves here at our Yaroomba manse.... we were expecting maybe

6-8 of our friends would show up, but we were greeted by over two dozen well wishers to see us off.  Hugs, tears, presents and laughs all around...

But the Big Party Bash of the year was hosted by none other than Eli, who was determined to top his 15th birthday party he had here last August, with The Going Away Party to Be Remembered.

Preparations began days in advance, as meticulous "invitation only" guest lists were drawn up, revised, rewritten, and carefully scrutinized. 

Bouncers were recruited ("Dad", plus "Dad's biggest friend", were hired to man the front entrance, to ensure no "party crashers" busted though Security...).

Premises were readied: decks swept, rooms cleared, bedrooms locked and barricaded, liquor hidden.  Strobe lights were strung and a disco ball that survived the 70's was hung in the center of the garage- cleared and scrubbed to serve as a dance floor.

And exacting sound checks were made on the IPod stereo system by two seasoned sound technicians.  It went something like this:

"DAD!!! IT'S NOT LOUD ENOUGH!!!"

"WHAT?????!!!"

"DAD!!! I SAID IT'S NOT LOUD ENOUGH!!!!".....

"WHAT??????!!!!"

The big party began at 7:30PM.  After completing my bouncing duties at the front door, I retreated upstairs where Stephanie and I proceeded to bite our lips as we tried to ignore the loud sounds of the downstaris mayhem: banging doors, breaking glasses, semi-violent screaming, and huge splashing noises coming from our pool (the next day it was revealed that the party-ers were jumping into the pool from the 2nd floor balcony).  After what seemed like hours, I checked my watch to see if it was almost midnight- the previously agreed-upon end of party time.  Dismayed to learn that it was only 8:15PM, Stephanie and I continued our negotiations with each other relating to whose turn it was for another periodic foray into the downstairs abyss for a new welfare check.  I won't tell you exactly what we saw, but, well,  it wasn't pretty....I will tell you that Stephanie got kissed by one of Eli's 15-year old pals on one of her inspections (come to think of it, that trip took her a bit longer than usual, hmm...).  But I won't tell you more.  Stephanie has a video, but don't ask to see it.  You REALLY don't want to know, do you?!....

So what will we miss about Australia?  For me, it will be the sound of the exotic Aussie birds waking me up in the a.m., riding my bike to the gym though the forest on Wednesdays, walks on the beach with Steph in the late afternoon, having SOOO much more quality time with my wonderful family, low, low stress levels, and of course, poker games with my mates almost every week!

All in all, it has been a tremendous year that has far surpassed all my own wildest expectations.  We are all so very grateful to have had the ability to take this "year off" from our busy lives and I'm sure that the benefits of this experience will unfold in presently unknown was for years to come in the lives of our children.

Steph says: look for her next blog posts coming soon from Asia!

Bye for now!

Tom

The thanks we are giving

Australian

American

Happy Thanksgiving Week! The Perrett clan skipped the traditional feed because I couldn't find any cranberries in these parts, and  I for one don't see the point in eating roast turkey if there isn't any tangy sauce to go with it. Instead we marked the day by pausing to reflect on our gratitude for our phenomenal good fortune. Here is a sampling of what we are thankful for:

daughter/sister says: " I'm grateful we are fortunate enough to be able to come to Australia for a year"

dad/husband says: "our healthy family"

mom/wife says: "my family, my family of friends, and that the teenage years don't last forever"

son/brother says: "I'm thankful we live 2 minutes from the beach and I can go surfing whenever I want, and I'm thankful we have been in Australia for a year"

In the last handful of years,we have spent thanksgiving in many places. At home with a crowd or a few, at Chery'ls house to bring joy following tragedy, in Denver with our cousins, in an airport in Kauai, at Abruzzi's restaurant just with Tom's mom, singing and then serving at the Arcata Veteran's hall.  When I was young we had all the family at my Aunt Evelyn's house (the kids always got our own table....we loved that)

Tom's uncle Mike and his wife Vivian from Ojai  have had a love affair with Australia longer than we have, and regularly come to this area. They arrived while I was in the outback, and came over for dinner the day after I got home. Guests also were Tom's cousin Ellen who hails from La Jolla and her friend Rob, a Sydneysider. After dinner we gathered 'round the television and I showed off all my outback photos. My camera has not been far from my hand all year.  I've taken thousands of snaps. I'm in the process of making a hardbound photo book of the entire year, which has been a huge project. Our broadband data usage is metered at our house, so thanks to the Coolum public library free wi-fi I'm able to complete my album! Soon I'll be donating most of our bookshelf to them. Tom and I have plowed through many volumes this year, but the pages the kids are staring at have been overwhelmingly online. Sigh. They do know how to read books however, as Eli recently demonstrated by starting and finishing Harry Potter 7 (again) within a week.

For some time now I have been attempting to spew gratitude whenever and wherever I can. I am brimming with it! It's filling up all my wicker baskets, cootie catchers, rain gutters, pencil cups and ant traps.  Twenty ten has been truly remarkable for our family and will be a cherished memory forever.  We have been so fortunate to reap the rewards of Tom's many years of working 60 hour  plus weeks building his business, and now being able to leave it (sort of) for a year to be run by capable managers. If not for Chris Albright in particular, we couldn't have made this happen. He has been steadfastly minding the ship as we cavort on the other side of the world. And as I have reported, we have done a fair bit of gallivanting around!

Speaking of gallivanting, we have adventures in store when we depart Oz in a few short weeks. We are Asia bound! We've known since we started planning this year we were going to be traveling during this time between continents, mostly  due to Eli's school schedule. He starts the second semester of his sophomore year at Arcata High on Jan 18, and Mel will go back to the last 6 months of  middle school at Pacific Union. How strange will that be, as she is in high school here!  For a month we'll be  in transition,  living neither on Wunnunga Crescent or on 11th street.

We fly away on Dec 11 and our first stop is Bangkok. Tom can't count how many times he's traveled the SFO-BKK route for Tomas business, but the rest of us have not had the pleasure. (OK, I did make a  brief stop on my way to India in 1993, a lifetime ago) We'll meet the folks he works with and see the haunts where he prowls for new jewelry designs, meets with suppliers, networks and problem solves for his ever growing company. After spending a few days being tourists and marveling at the wonders of this city of 10 million plus, we are off to Cambodia on Dec 15.

Following many many hours of pursuing ideas, we are booked to volunteer as a family in a school/orphanage in Siem Reap. Volunteer vacations are the latest craze and I have done extensive research to make sure we will to spending time with a reputable organization, not taking jobs away from locals,  and contributing in a meaningful way. Type 'volunteer Cambodia' and thousands of websites pop up,  promising "exciting, life changing, flexible and worthwhile" experiences. After heading down some avenues which began to look sus, (Australian for suspicious) I ramped up the research again,  talked and read and pondered for several more hours, and we have signed up with an NGO called vMAD.org (Volunteer and Make a Difference for good). While I'm not attached to the experience being described with ALL four of the above adjectives, I do think it will be interesting and certainly different from our previous travels!

How our time will be spent with vMAD is somewhat unknown, but we might be helping in the classrooms, with community building projects, in afterschool care, or who knows what. Eli has had a fabulous computer class this year, and has come away with a boatload of tech savvy, especially in terms software applications. He's hoping to contribute to the IT program, and also make a movie while we're there.  Melissa is a natural with young ones, and will easily contribute to any childcare situation. Tom and I have strong backs, the cumulative wisdom of 106 years of life, and are keen to help or at least not get in the way. Our time there is short so we plan to hit the ground running.

Following our week or so in Cambodia, we'd like to travel overland to a bordering country, either Laos or the southern end of Thailand. We might get as far a Vietnam. Unplanned. Definitely a style of travel to which we are unaccustomed! We're not wingin' it for long, as we have a flight booked  from Bangkok to Bali on New Year's Eve. We have about 10 days on the beautiful island of Bali before we head back to Oz to collect our belongings which will have been stored in Brisbane and then transferred to Sydney. Thank you Quantas Courier service.  Then, off to America. If you're in town, please come to our welcome home party at the Arcata airport on Thursday Jan 13 at 3:45!!

Dispatch from the Bush

Emus!

 I’ve just returned from a two week sojourn to the outback. Traveling over 3000 kilometers in 10 days ……you could say I saw a lot of country! I was volunteering with Outback Links, an organization that matches intrepid souls in placements helping remote families dealing with the realities of living in the back of beyond. The program is a branch of Frontier Services. I traveled with the early education RAFS (Remote Area Family Service) field service coordinator. Flick (week one) and Emma (week 2) are dedicated educators undeterred by the isolation and extensive travel requirements of their job: providing play based enrichment for children up to age 5.

Charleville races

Davida, Flick and yours truly

fancy fascinators

Before heading off to begin the scheduled loop for 7 playgroups around southwest Queensland, I arrived in Charleville (12 hours west of Brisbane by car, but I flew) the day before the Melbourne Cup. Country races have been held in Charleville for 50 years on the same day as the Melbourne Cup, and for the 3300 residents it’s a public holiday and a very big day out. Over a thousand folks turned up to watch each other, five local races, and the big one on TV. After getting some instructions from Davida and Flick, I approached one of the bookmakers to bet on my first horse race. Thinking it was entirely possible I was perhaps the only American in attendance, seems I should bet on the horse called Americain. At exactly 2 pm all two thousand eyes were glued to one of the many televisions around the place and, behold and lo, I picked a winner! Had I wagered more than 10 dollars, this would have been even more exciting. The ‘fashions on the field’ were no doubt a bit less fabulous than in Melbourne, but Charleville’s ladies frocked up with fascinators, hats, plenty of jewelry, and tottered around in the dirt and grass in fancy high heels, many of them looking tremendously uncomfortable.

Also on the agenda for my time in the bush was tagging along while my RAFS compatriots attended an early education conference in the thriving town of Goondiwindi on the border of New South Wales. Although it wasn’t large enough to boast a stoplight, the town did have a large hotel, more than one gas station, Domino's pizza …the population was in the thousands! This was by FAR the largest town I visited. On arrival we were served a camp oven dinner (chili cooked over a campfire) with billy tea, but I was told it wasn’t the real deal, as authentic bush tea is meant to be strong enough to stand up your spoon. The conference lasted a day and a half, with interesting presenters and good information…..I hadn’t been to a professional conference in many a year.

mess o' bees

So we’re off to do the playgroups, with our 4WD vehicle packed up to and including the roof rack with blocks and dress up clothes, paint and glitter, soap bubbles, a train set, a water slide and a wading pool. We’d set up at the town park/hall on the grass, and the mums and tots poured in from the surrounding properties, which may have been up to two hours away. On several occasions I was able to lend suggestions and a listening ear to mum’s who voiced speech and language concerns about their little ones. Three hours later when everyone was thoroughly soaked and inevitably someone was crying, we packed up. The temperature was usually near 100 by now. We grabbed a cold drink and sandwich at the pub/grocery store/gas station/ restaurant/post office/bank….all of these housed in either one or two nearby buildings. Off we roared down the one lane road to the next town. Sometimes we encountered a vehicle or two and sometimes not. Once, for about a kilometer,  there was a dotted white line down the middle of the road: it was there in case the road needed to be used as an emergency landing strip.

river near Thagomindah

Between two and six hours later, we arrived in the next spot, spent the night, and got up the next day to do it all again. In between towns was…….nothing. Well, not nothing: rocks, red dirt, brush, trees, occasional small hills, more red dirt, cattle, sheep, goats, emus, snakes, lizards and goannas, kangaroos, wallaroos. The farther west we drove the more barren the landscape. Bird life was abundant; we saw apostle birds, budgies,butcher birds pelicans, one pair of brolgas and one pair of major mitchell's cockatoos, gallahs, among others. On the last day we saw wedge tailed eagles, which are one of the largest birds of prey: they can carry off lambs!I didn’t see any dingos as they usually don’t come near the road, but we did see a few wild pigs and foxes that were road kill. Happily the three venomous snakes I saw were dead, but I heard stories of very alive deadly snakes that almost everyone has encountered in one way or another.We crossed several streams ,which when flooded (as often happened this year) makes the road inaccessible. The streams/waterholes were all the same color: mocha. Due to all the rain recently, we saw  heaps of wildflowers and much more brush and plant life than is normally present.

wearing my fly veil

one of my companions in the loo

Outback folks were welcoming and friendly, always hospitable and happy to see us. The towns with schools (only primary, older kids were sent to boarding school) had enrollments of between 5 and 20. ‘Town’ is relative term, two of the ‘towns’ we came through had a population of less than 5. There was a pub/hotel/restaurant, and gas pump. One such place we stayed was Naccunda, and our accommodations were decidedly one star… Emma and I each had our own room, which thankfully boasted air-con unit, a 4 by 7 inch mirror, a disassembled smoke alarm, two twin beds with 15 inches between them, and a Gideon bible. The amenities across the cement step featured cute little frogs gripping the helicopter and airplane themed shower curtain, as well as emerging from the sink drain. Non-potable river water ran in the taps; identifiable by the brown tinge. Unfortunately the next morning after we unloaded and set up for playgroup, no one showed up. So we spent the morning flicking off the three inch grasshoppers that landed on us, shooing flies, hoping for a breeze, and applying DEET.

emu track

In Eromanga (pop.40), a town with a petroleum refinery, and the point in Australia that is furthest from the sea, I had an unusual experience. I went for my usual evening walk, enjoying the quiet and admiring the wing span of the kite hawks circling above. Soon there were more, now about 7 or 8 of them. They seemed to be following me……they came a little lower if I stopped walking, which I couldn’t do for long as the flies were fierce. It was evident the birds were keyed into my status as slow moving solitary mammal. If there was any chance I was going to die soon, they were ready to make a meal of me.

Chris and the blue tongue

Only four more weeks in Oz!!! We plan to enjoy every minute of it, swimming in the pool, catching waves, and glorying in the warm but not too hot time of year. While I was away, the fam managed just dandy of course....Chris from Tomas was over, and he and Tom encountered a blue tongue lizard  in the foyer.... Eli finishes up school in two weeks with a trip to dreamworld theme park with his school mates, and Melissa's dance concert is the following day. We're going to start packing any minute now.......

A fascinating fascinator tale

So many of me........our choir, Cool Harmonies, is making a calendar this year. No one else in my section was available the day we did the photo shoot, "stepping out with the sopranos" so I volunteered to do all the costume changes. I have a harder time singing all the parts however. One of these lovelies actually IS me, can you tell which one? Hint: I am not the one in the lower right corner letting a bit much of her middle aged upper body hang out.

Friends and Fam

A few nights ago was Tom's birthday dinner. We gathered at an Indian restaurant to toast the big 55.Tom noted the significance of this year, as he was born in 55. All his previous birthdays have been celebrated at a time of year when the nights are getting longer and colder, but here it's warming up daily. I can see the advantages for Halloween; those little ones dressed as princesses can skip the thick tights and coats over the costume. Our Aussie friends tell us Halloween is gaining momentum  every year.......a sign in front of the chemist attested to this,  "Save $ on Halloween fragrances." The other day I saw a nipper dressed in a jaws costume.  Mel and her friends are planning to dress up Sunday night and hit the streets, but she has been cautioned that it is entirely possible when they knock on doors they will receive quizzical looks and not candy.

the dome above the shot factory

Mel embracing modern art

Recently we spent a weekend in Melbourne visiting a couple of Tom's friends from his sailing days. The second largest city in Oz is  fantastically unique, with heaps of ultra sleek modern architecture often nestled next to quaint and well preserved historic buildings. Like Brisbane, there's a free city loop bus/tram for tourists,which is a great way to see the lay of the land, and  also nifty when your  feet are worn out from walking. Melbourne is truly a city that loves to shop. This 165 foot tall lead shot factory was one of five in the city and built in 1899. Inconveniently located in what became prime real estate, it has been preserved by being enclosed in a large glass dome, and  is now surrounded by numerous retail therapy opportunities. 

Nov 2 looms.....election day at home, and Melbourne cup day here. In California they'll be deciding which multimillionaire has had the most effective negative campaign for Governor, and whether some Humboldt county folks will be moving forward with plans to open bud n' breakfast establishments, if Prop. 19 passes decriminalizing marijuana. It seems this particular midterm election is fairly, uh, spicy. I admit I'm not sorry to be missing out on all the P.R. (promises and rants.) Australia gets points all around for gentler, much shorter, and less ridiculous campaign seasons.  If only the millions spent on campaigns could somehow instead used for improving education and paying down the debt....... for starters.

frocked up teddy

Melbourne Cup Day isn't actually a holiday, but apparently no work gets done as anyone and everyone is at the races and/or gathering with friends and family to watch it on TV. Friends here are having a party, but I'll be in the outback. Yup, I'm Charleville bound on Monday. Claiming 3500 residents, Charleville is the hugest thing around for many a mile.  I hear they have a dirt race track, so I'll be eating dust and  hanging out with folks I just met watching my first horse race. I'll be frocked up in my new fascinator and heels. A what? A fascinator is not one who fascinates, but the name of the hair doodly-bob that is part of going to the races. Watch this space for forthcoming photos......... I'm excited about my adventure but will be missing my family!  I've never been away from my kidlets for two whole weeks before. Tom will be in charge of continuing to seek solutions for Mel's ongoing foot/heel pain, which has her sidelined from dance for a couple of weeks. Also he'll be continuing to encourage/demand that  Eli spend at least a little time at home when he isn't eating or sleeping, as those are seemingly his primary reasons for being around lately.

Here are some shots of my new favorite tree, the jacaranda. The fluffy purple blooms are SO gorgeous, and they are gracefully punctuating the countryside everywhere! It's possible my previous swoon inducing botanical purple, the wisteria, has been usurped. 

Spoiler Alert: This is where I'm going to brag about our kids. Yesterday Eli brought home his grade for his Shakespeare test, and his teacher told him it was the best essay in all three English classes! We're chuffed, as this has not been standard behavior for our oldest this year, or any year actually. The Australian  public school system, from our perspective, requires quite a bit less homework than they're used to, but, when a project/assignment/test is graded, A's are not so easy to come by......
And for the daughter, she and her dance teacher were over the moon as she received a 'merit'  score for her Royal Academy of Dance exam in August. This score is above a 'pass', which is what she was hoping for. Yeah Melissa!

Countdown! We are both eagerly and sadly preparing to depart. Now that we are coming to the end of our year, we finally know our way around, have friends and find plenty to occupy ourselves. In addition we know where to get the best yogurt,  and have found new cool bike trails. All good things must end. Tom reminds me daily that even if we wanted to stay, our visas won't allow it and we wouldn't exactly look forward to a run in with immigration officials. So we ARE coming home, and we'll get that day back we lost when we came over: We'll be back January 13 at 3:45pm, which is an hour before we leave Sydney!!

shocks in oz

Not electrical, not traumatic, not even happy ones like a child of ours volunteering to clean up a mess they only partially contributed to....no I mean the tiger, great white, and the bull shock or shark as they say elsewhere. These three are the only shark species known to attack humans. Nonetheless, in Queensland as well as New South Wales, many popular beaches including the one close to our house, a shark net or a drum line offers a modicum of protection for swimmers/surfers/surfboards.  We have a drum line here, which is a large single baited hook suspended from anchored yellow buoys. These are detractors of this practice of course,  as the hooks and nets sometimes also catch dolphins, rays, turtles, and whales.  A few months ago it was decided they will be equipped with "pingers" to alert the whales to stay clear.  Good to know whales understand Ping.


The Commonwealth games are going on in New Delhi at the moment, as they have been every four years since 1930. Originally called the British Empire games, the Aussies are dominating in the medal department. Around 70 countries  participate, and the competitions include many Olympic sports and also games more typically played in commonwealth countries,  like lawn bowls, which is a close cousin to  Bocce ball. We have a lawn bowls club here in Coolum, but I don't see many Olympic types hanging out there. Other records recently noted: In Brisbane, at the local version of Starbucks,  a team of employees trained for months, and last week set a new world record: 5,164 espressos poured in one hour. That's a lotta cuppa!

Random ramblings: we spotted two pairs of yellow tailed black cockatoos on our bike ride home from the gym today....Kmart etc has no need  to wait until after Halloween to start stocking the shelves with Christmas bling (as there is no orange and black closet clutter for sale here)......massive amounts of foam on the beach, due to the recent storms........I'll be sewing my way through October as I just hauled reams of fabric destined to become skirts for Melissa's studio's concert Nov 27.......enjoying frequent but not daily early morning walks......overheard at the post office today: a young mum and her small child, who had began to whine for a bag of plastic dinosaurs: "Now, let's not have a tanti"  and, at this late age in life I can finally do a headstand, but my kids made me promise I wouldn't post a photo.


In other breaking news, a 100% Australian owned business has launched a free software/app called itakeaway. Now it is possible to order and pay for food from a handheld. Have you noticed this word has ceased being an adjective and is now a noun?  Then, courtesy of Google maps you're directed to the participating restaurant. hmm...how long until the food will be ready for pickup carside via an ATM type machine? I don't like this trend.

Just when we thought summer was here and we started looking longingly at our pool that we haven't been in since the early days of April, we're having ourselves a fierce little deluge. The rains in the last 24 hours have already exceeded the average for the month, and there is more to come. Oh joy. I'm just glad I wasn't one of the 8 thousand or so who paid a significant sum to attend the Caloundra music festival on for this last weekend. The performers were under cover but the fans had themselves a big mudfest.

So onward though the next 7 weeks or so of the final term of school. Melissa will finish her year of high school so she can go back home to middle school....... For reasons unknown to me, Eli finishes the year two weeks earlier than Mel.  He'll be surfing with his mates, waiting for sis to finish up, and we'll start packing our bulging suitcases in preparation for departure.....SIGH.  As of tonight, Tom has worked his airline magic and procured tickets to fly to Bangkok Dec 12.  From there we are still a bit open but for New Years we'll be in Bali, and I suspect we will not be alone. Jan 12 we're flying to to Sydney to reconnoiter with heaps o' stuff we needed for our year here (or thought we needed) but don't need for travel, and assuming all goes well, we'll be stepping off that plane in Arcata January 13 at 3:47 pm!!!

Coolum Beach

Meantime, we're headed off to  'Melbun', also know as Melbourne, for a long weekend. Tom is going to stay a couple of extra days and re-connect with old friends from his sailing days. Shortly thereafter I have signed up for a two week volunteer project in the outback through an organization called frontierservices.org. I'll be dusting off my cobwebby speech pathology synapses and lending what I can to an early education team who travel to visit both Caucasian and Aboriginal families with young children.  I'm looking forward to the adventure. I'm flying to  east to Charleville from Brisbane November first (a two hour flight) then traveling upwards of 1900 kilometers by car...even in miles that's a loooong way!

photoblogging

because they could, they did

It's a boy! new resident at 1875 11th street
Silas Morrie Issac, 7lbs 11 oz, born on Sept 18

Team California wins the race on the Margaret river back from the Bushtucker tour,
but only because Eli and Melissa cooperated so well in paddling

Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse, which the kids agreed was one of the
most boring places we went, but the parent Perretts disagreed

Camera priorites for this trip: family (1) wildflowers (2) and birds (3)
Splendid fairy wren, near Smith's beach, WA

Those waves will be here any minute now

Lurking in the wildflowers

He would have preferred it if there hadn't been
a safety wire around the ladder

future refrigerator repair man

My three favorite people

walking in the canopy of the giant Karri trees...
we're over 100 feet in the air!

Reliving his time at sea oh so many years ago,
Tom takes the helm of a whaling ship....

Testosterone driven teenager

geez it's a long way down there

rock/tummy bonding

One of the 482 flower photos my camera forced me to to take