It’s nearly 10:30 and we should be sleeping, but I’ve got a few good stories that we need to get out before heading into the coming week (not to mention catching up on the NFL playoffs :). Kevin and Stacy Hutchinson are coming tomorrow morning with their kids Madi, Cooper and Rylee for a vacation! We are heading over to Kangaroo Island for a couple days and then back here to Adelaide to do some things around the city. Savannah and Collin are SO excited for them to come we can hardly get them to sleep. It’s like Christmas again, again!
So here are some fun stories and happenings from the past little bit. Hunter has been talking up a storm. It’s been so fun to just watch him listen to words, process them in his little nogger and then put them into sounds – well, at least sort of into the correct sounds. Of course, his favorite phrase right now is ‘no’ and he does that pretty good. He’s also picked up ‘meanie!’ which he uses whenever he doesn’t get something he wants. He and Collin fight over pretty much whatever the other one has and ‘meanie’ comes out quite often. I got it today while trying to get him back into the house from the garage. Later this evening our fire alarm went off because the battery is getting low and it scared Hunter pretty good. After settling down he told Kelli, “I kared!” -- scared. He proceeded to repeat at least 100x before finally taking some milk and falling asleep.
Collin is the usual goof. He and Savannah have had some pretty random thoughts of late. I don’t know where it came from, but Collin has a very keen memory. The other day out of nowhere he just told me, “Dad, that gun was loud that you and Grandpa were shooting” – in connection with our trip to the mountains up by Logan where we shot a ‘22’ at some pumpkins and cans with Nathan and Jacob. He was a trooper even though it was pretty loud. He also had a random thought back to the Hill AFB airshow we went to before coming over to Australia. He and Kelli were looking at some pictures of the Blue Angels and he commented on how he liked the Thunderbirds at Hill. He also got a compliment from a lady at the store. Kelli said the lady came up to her and said she’d never heard such a small boy talk so much. He was going on and on about what kind of ice cream to get and what fruits and bananas we just HAD to have, etc etc. On to his goofy side, the other morning we were having breakfast. We just got a shipment in from the Japan commissary and so we had some of the treats like genuine Canadian maple syrup --- in addition, we broke into our food storage and found the Tang. That combined with his favorite pancake breakfast made for a little happy camper. So we’re eating and then from the other side of the table we see Collin with his hands behind his head as he’s leaning back in his chair --- and then he says, “Ahhh, refreshing!”
As mentioned, Savannah has had her random moment as well. We were talking to her about going on the ferry with the Hutchinsons and she said, “Remember when we went on the ferry and you wouldn’t let me have dessert if I slept on the top bunk?” I didn’t even remember that, but last year when we went to Tasmania and slept on the ferry we didn’t want her to sleep on the top bunk afraid she would fall off. She was more than just a little upset, to which we responded that if she didn’t settle down then she wouldn’t get dessert. Collin’s little memories focus on guns and airplanes … while Savannah’s focus on dessert. She also had a comment about how the Tang looked similar to the sand color at Uluru. Not a bad observation for a little munchkin. She’s also ganging up on her Dad. Kelli put a rule in force recently that any burps at the table results in going to your room, to which Savannah has already been subjected on several occasions. Well, Dad let one fly the other day and oh boy did Savannah jump on that one. So, like an obedient ‘child’ I went to my room. Apparently after I’d been up there a little bit Kelli asked Savannah if I should come down, to which she responded “No, not now, he needs a little longer.” Nice ---
So things are going well and we are excited for the next week. We need a break from the anxiety of looking for a job. We’ve got a lot of feelers out there and it should be interesting to see what comes of it. One quick note on the trip to the Murray River. It was a blast with the youth and water sports (minus of course the loss of my wedding ring – thanks for all the stories of sympathy from other poor husbands in my same shoes ---.) If you’ve ever been to the Green River in eastern Utah, it reminded me a lot of that. The water is very murky and brown, but it has a beauty all its own. I didn’t have my camera, but a lot of pictures were taken that I’m trying to get a hold of. One morning I we slept outside under the stars and they were amazing! I woke up early the next morning while the other youth were sleeping and went down to the river. It was as still as glass (the width of the river was probably around 100 yards) and fish were surfacing after flies everywhere. There were birds making their voices heard. While I was sitting there a huge flock of cockatoos came swooping from up river flying just about 10 feet above it. It was awesome to hear the flapping of all their wings and their familiar ‘kaw’ as they flew past. Then there were the pelicans who came lazily swimming by and I could have sworn that I actually saw one of them yawn as he ‘strolled’ up the river. One of them was in the air and just flying high enough that with his massive wingspan the ‘wingtips’ would just touch the surface of the water as he glided along. When he had to flap his wings he would move up just a little bit above the water and then flap … and gradually descend back towards the surface. So it was a nice, relaxing time for everyone. We all came back with plenty of sun and quite tired, but good memories of Australian nature.
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