Our Family Weekend

This weekend was Rick's first "family weekend"- one of 5 weekends off a year. This is in addition to the vacation time that Rick receives. This is a typical benefit for a Uniting Church minister, and one that we are going to treasure- we are impressed with the acknowledgement of the need for weekend family time. Rick and I swore to each other back in the States when we were in the midst of our moving upheaval that we wouldn't go traveling for a good long time after we were settled here. Fortunately, there is so much for us to explore nearby!

On Saturday we went to Sydney's Taronga Zoo, and despite some rain in the afternoon, had one of the best zoo visits we've had in a long time. The animals were active and visible and the kids really enjoyed them. The chimps were their all time favorites and left Claire with the hiccups off and on through the evening with all of her laughing. You can see a few pictures of the zoo below. In particular, check out the view of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge behind the giraffes. Absolutely breathtaking!

On Sunday, we ended up going to our church, as the kids absolutely did not want to miss the Sunday childrens' morning program. But Rick did get to enjoy sitting with his family, and managed not to get caught up in work. After church, while much of Sydney was downtown celebrating the Sydney Harbour Bridge's 75th birthday (they actually closed the bridge from 4:30am to 11pm!), we chose to go to a local "show", which is what we would call a country fair in New England. The kids had great fun on the rides, and got to get up close and personal with lots of farm animals. They had the typical fair fare- hotdogs, corndogs, fairy floss (cotton candy), but we were intriqued to also find Turkish and Thai- not a usual find at a New England country fair. It was strange to see squash and pumpkins on display in the judging as we are nearing Easter, a time when we are usually contemplating spring things like crocuses, new white sandals and the impending warm spring weather to melt the snow.

Below are a few pics from the zoo. Click on the link below to see more pics of the weekend in a Picasa Web Album.
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/annedacey/MarchFamilyWeekend02/photo#5043187205899189650
Love, Anne