Almost 10....wow.

In a little over a week, James will be 10.

These 10 years have flown by.  It seems like yesterday that he came into this world kicking and screaming after a long complex labour and an early morning dash to the operating theatre.

Wow.  10.

The scary thing is that based on Sydney averages, he will not leave home for another 17 years!

Scarier still....Olivia is not that far away from teenage years.

They are great kids though....and both continue to make us very proud.

Swimming Carnival
Having demolished the field in his school swimming carnival, James went to the District Competition on Friday.  Cheered on by Emma, Jack plus David & Ruth and Amie, he was full of confidence.  He did great.

Go to the final of the Butterfly and Breaststroke - coming 4th and 6th.
Swam really well in his 50m freestyle heat - narrowly missing out on a spot in the finals.
In the relay he swam the final leg and came 3rd...only to then get disqualified for one of his team making a false start.

Everyone was very proud of him.  Photos and videos to follow next week.

Weekend

On Friday night Emma tried to sail...but no wind meant they finally gave up and came home for a drink instead.

The rest of the weekend passed in a blur.  It has stopped raining finally so we could get out a bit.  For those who think I am complaining too much about the weather - last week was OFFICIALLY the wettest week EVER in Sydney.  EVER= since records were kept, so wettest for at least 125 years.


The photos tell the story better than I can.

On Sunday Olivia and James both had 4 hours of Band rehersals.  At the end of the session Olivia's band had their first performance - they played 3 brief pieces and got a huge round of applause.  Jack almost liked it.  Olivia is really practicing her flute a lot and was really excited to get a chance to play for everyone.

The photo above was actually a week or so ago - during a rain break, walking near Manly.

 The next few are on the Bondi to Cooge walk - enjoyed on a glorious but breezy day.

 Jack still loves his back pack....

 On Saturday afternoon we hit the beach and James did some excellent surfing - the best session I have seen him have so far.  He was up on most waves and starting to turn along them.  We had everyone in the ocean and David even tried some body boarding.

On Sunday after a lot of gardening, we had a dip in the pool.  Jack had a great time with his Grandparents and Cousin.


Ken

It's all about the view

Sydney is suffering it's wettest Summer in 125 years.  The main dam that supplies Sydney's water is over-flowing for the first time in 14 years.  It's raining ALL THE TIME.

So, Saturday morning, Emma decides we are going walking in the Blue Mountains - despite the rain, forecast of more rain, many roads were closed due to flooding etc.  I asked Emma "Have you checked the website to make sure the walks have not been closed?"  Her reply "Yes, I will."

Well, she did not.

We had a two hour drive to Wentworth Falls, in the rain. Got out the car, in the rain.  Ran to the cafe, in the rain.  Looked at the view....oops, there was no view.  Having told Amie all about the views from Wentworth Falls - all we could see was white.  Clouds were down, rain was falling and view was GONE. The kids agreed they would give their teacher a blank A4 sheet of paper on Monday morning and say "This was the view from our mountain walk at the weekend."

Having seen the non-view, we thought about a walk, in the rain.  Guess what....yes....all the walks were closed...due to the rain/flooding/danger/falling trees etc.

So we did a 20 minute walk to a view point...to see the clouds.  Then headed to Leura for lunch and shopping, in the rain.

Eventually we did the two hour drive home, in the rain.

Not the best Saturday.

Sunday...saw sunshine....lots of it.

So we did a great walk around Manly, a bit of gardening and played golf.  All good.  It's raining again now...

Jack insisted on walking in the Mountains yesterday - he enjoyed splashing in the puddles and getting as wet as he could.

 The sun shone today and we did a great walk.  This was Little Collins Beach at 10am today - glorious.

The walking group on top of North Head.  Amie was happy, really, despite the photo no-smile

Jack got carried all the way round and had a great time.

Ken