Saying Good-Bye is Never Easy

This has been a bittersweet week filled with good-byes, exchanging email addresses and taking that one last picture to remember each other by. We have made some great friends here who have taken us in and treated us like family. That's the true Aussie way and it has meant so much to us and our experience here! OK, enough being sappy. But seriously, we will miss the people, community and fun times we have had. So, here's a recap of the last couple weeks and the fun we have had...

STATE OF ORIGIN GAME - Basically this is the Super Bowl of Australia. The sport is Rugby League and the teams are Queensland vs. New South Wales....and the fans are die-hard! We got the full Queensland Maroon experience at our friend Mick's house. When we arrived, Zach was tossed a jersey and told he couldn't be there without wearing it! Luckily, I had already been informed to wear the color maroon and was safe. After a great BBQ, we rooted our team onto victory! It was a fun night and a great experience!

POSTIE JOB - Zach wrapped up his postie job this week. We had one rainy morning and he donned the cool postie rainsuit. It was pretty cute. And he started delivering to the other half of Tannum this week that included our house, so we setup a horn signal system so we could communicate throughout the morning. As he was driving by, 1 honk meant he was just saying "hi". 2 honks meant that he was home for good and needed the garage door opened. And 3 meant that he needed a snack and morning tea. It was pretty funny.

Video - Chasing the Postie!

GOOD-BYE FRIENDS - We had a BBQ with our church friends and I was in heaven when I got to hold little Ava who was born about 2 weeks ago.

And we had one last social tennis night down at the courts. They presented us with 2 bottles of Bundaberg Rum which is crafted locally and a favorite among everyone. Sorry Kev - we probably won't have any left for you and Aaron in September!

PIANO RECITAL - I had my last lesson with Kayla and we had a family recital at her house. She did such a great job and we had a lot of fun planning it! I will definitely miss her!

Playing a duet together

Playing a song she composed

ROCKY TENNIS TOURNAMENT - The Rockhampton Club put on a free tournament for all the local clubs, so we couldn't pass this one up! Zach played doubles with Mick on Saturday and did really well. The tournament grouped the teams by divisions, but not by age group. So, when I played mixed doubles on Sunday, my partner Steve and I got beat by two 13 year olds! But mind you, they were apart of the Australia national team and probably train 6 hours a day!

We finally finished our Aboriginal art that will go up somewhere in our apartment back home. Zach did most of it!

So...now we're packing and turning over the house to the next house-sitter. He arrived last night and we'll quickly get him up to speed before we board the train tomorrow for Brisbane!