Australia Day

This was another short week, as Monday 21st of January was Martin Luther King Day, so it was a public holiday. We went for a drive, and did some Bison spotting, but I think the only thing we saw were cows! We did stumble across some hiking and mountain bike tracks though, which we will go back to once the weather is warmer. We also found some good vantage points for photos. This one has a pretty good view of the Rocky Mountains behind us, as taken by Ryan! They really are beautiful mountains, and it is hard to do them justice in photos. Like the beautiful beaches of Port Macquarie though, you have to remember to actually look at them each day, and not just drive past without seeing them.

On our drive into the mall last week, we got a stonechip in the windscreen, which apparently, is quite common. Our insurance here is the reverse of Australia, so it was free to get the stonechip repaired, but we would have had to pay the excess if we required a new windscreen. So, I called up and had a guy come out to our place, and filled the chip while the car was in the driveway - very efficient service!

This week, Luke was the star of the week. Each person in the class gets a turn throughout the year. It means that for that week, you get to go at the front of the line each day, organise the lunch orders for the class each day, everyone writes something about the 'star', and Ms Morgan compiles a book for you to take home, about yourself.  You also get to take home Jack the Bear, and write in a book each day about your adventures with Jack, as well as put a photo in the book. This was Luke's photo for the book, as Jack had a sweater on that someone had knitted for him, which was the American flag, he was covering it up with something more appropriate for Luke. As star of the week, you also get to bring in a guest speaker, and I was the guest speaker, on Friday.  Luke and I spoke about Australia, which was pretty appropriate given that it was Australia Day on Saturday. We had a little presentation showing everyone the flags of Australia, a map of Australia, Australian animals and icons. We took in some soft toys of the platypus, kangaroo, and koala, and some Australian coins so that everyone could see and touch them. We also went to Ms Jacobs 2nd class next door, as they had just finished a week studying Australia. They had some good questions for Luke and I, the best coming from an inquisitive little boy who gave me the double barrelled - "Why have you only got 8 fingers, and doesn't Australia have really deadly animals?"  If I was quicker on my feet I could have given him some tall tale about a poisonous spider or snake!  It was lots of fun telling them about Australia, and Port Macquarie, and Ryan and I are going to do it for his class in a few weeks as well.  Luke's class all wrote thank you notes for me and drew pictures, which were very cute!  The platypus was the star of the day, but I think that is because they have a cartoon here, which has 'Perry the Platypus' in it, so they all knew a little bit about them.

Phil took the didgeridoo in, for the kids to try and play for Australia Day.  He also had vegemite sandwiches for all his classes to try, which is no mean feat, given the number of kids he has each day.  I made heaps of sandwiches, and just put the littlest bit of vegemite on, and cut each sandwich into about 16 little squares, so they just had a tiny taste.  He said a surprising number of them liked it.  I also made lamingtons for him to take in for his colleagues.  However, they were a pretty poor excuse, as shredded coconut is the main type of coconut that is sold at the supermarket, so they tasted OK, but looked a bit odd.  I have since found dessicated coconut at Sprouts, which is marketed as a health food store, so it is all good now.

Friends of ours, Jo and Stewart had been holidaying for a few weeks in California, and organised to come across to Colorado for the weekend, before flying home to Australia.  Quinn and I drove over to the airport on Friday to pick them up, and eventually made it!  There is lots of road works going on over there, which I think is mandatory for any airport, and we got to the arrivals area fine, but missed the short term carpark and ended up at the valet parking. I spoke to the guy there, who would have been happy to park my car for me for $30, but I opted for the 10 minute circuit I had to take to exit the airport, and come back to the arrivals section, where, fortunately, Jo and Stewart were waiting, so we could just pick them up and take them home. We went for dinner to the Rockyard, which was a nice family bar/restaurant. Most places to eat over here seem to be franchises, and Phil is convinced that the burger is their national dish. Both burgers and pizza feature on almost all of the menus of places we have been out to eat. It was an early night though, as last week's skiing must have still been taking it's toll, and Luke was falling asleep at the table.  On Saturday, I took Jo and Stewart to check out the outlets at Castle Rock.  It is one of the things that Castle Rock is renowned for, and has stores such as Osh Kosh, Gap, Columbia, Timberland, Guess and Nike, all with stock at reduced prices.  We had a great time!   

  In the evening, Phil and I had an Australia Day function which was organised by the exchange people. Phil had an information session in the afternoon, then I joined him for the party where most of the people who are here on exchange from Australia, as well as people from Colorado who have been on exchange to Australia, came along. It was really nice to catch up with some of the people we had met in September last year at the information session in Sydney, and see how there first few weeks on exchange had been going. The boys school had a fundraiser, whereby there were subsidised tickets to go and see the Denver Nuggets basketball team, who are in the NBA, play the Sacremento Kings at the Pepsi Centre in Denver.  Jo and Stewart bravely volunteered to take them, so I was the taxi service for the afternoon (which was good practice for city driving, anyway). I dropped Phil into Parker for the

afternoon, came home and picked everyone up and dropped them into the basketball in Denver, then drove to meet Phil back at the function in Parker. Then we got a call when the basketball had finished, and drove in to pick them up and got home about 11pm. The boys loved the basketball, and apparently the Nuggets scored there highest points in a game this season. I felt a bit negligent as I dropped them off to the basketball though, as I had envisaged a crowd similar to the Sydney Kings, and when they got out, there were people everywhere - as you can see from the crowd in the photo Stewart took above! Luckily Jo and Stewart were more than capable, and apparently the boys were very well behaved, with someone who was sitting behind them commenting to this effect. It is nice to know they do know how to behave well, sometimes.

On Sunday, we went for a walk on 'Plum Creek Walk'. It is a trail on the way into Castle Rock, and we have been wanting to do it since we moved here, so it seemed like a good thing to do while Jo and Stewart were here. The boys took their bikes, and had a great time racing through the trail on their bikes, while we had a leisurely stroll behind them. Phil rode in from our house to the trail, as it was too much hassle to get his bike in any other way.