Having looked at my phone, I found some more photos taken at Lock.  The early starts make for lovely sunrises!

I realised that I've been 'living in the moment' and not really getting the camera out so most of the photos in this post are from the phone.

Once at home, Bun decided that the cherry tree needed to be netted if we were to rescue anything from the birds.  Having chatted to Tom who was home for a few days, they set about 'creating' the ultimate bird net!

Below shows the preparation....

......and the finished project!!

Kasiah LOVES cherries!!

We had a weekend catchup at Port Noarlunga, it was lovely to be at the beach for the afternoon.

Before Ben moved in at Callie and Steven's, the spare bed was a mattress on the floor, which made it easy for Boof to take my spot!!

While Ben was staying, I took the opportunity to persuade him to make homemade crumpets using the Thermomix.   They tasted great!  So I'm thinking about making them again when we host a family brunch in a couple of weeks.  The mixture kept rising while we were using it, so it seemed almost like a never-ending jug of mixture!

I'm trying to refind the sewing mojo and I think it's gradually returning.  I made this little soft toy for one of Callie's workmates who just had a little boy before Christmas.  There is another done for another of her friends, along with a couple of other baby presents on the go for other friends.  I just need to finish all the half-done things!!

These guys went to a Carol's night, not sure whether Steven was really enjoying it LOL

I helped Callie make gingerbread for a Christmas party they were going to and then when I was home again, I made the gingerbread house.  It didn't last long before the lollies started to disappear haha

I made bread rolls to take to Callie's and Bun didn't even stop to think that I may have wanted it to look like a Christmas tree before he helped himself to one.....Ben told him off before I even saw it LOL

We had Mum and Dad around for breakfast Christmas morning and so we all got to see Kasiah open presents which was lovely.   

Kara, Josh and Kasiah headed to Paringa to her family and we headed down to Adelaide with Ben to Callie and Steven.  Keeping with our theme this year to keep things simple, lunch was a BBQ followed by hours playing a card game with lots of laughs!!

How could you not love that face??

Bun and I had a very quiet New Year's Eve. We spent the afternoon out on the verandah enjoying the view and a couple of drinks.  Bun was true to form and in bed reasonably early.  I watched tv for a while and texted back and forth with Callie for a couple of hours.  As you can see below, fireworks had freaked the dogs out and their New Year's Eve ended up with both dogs hiding in their bedroom.

Callie said Boof might like a little visit to Winkie so he came home with us for a few days.  It was going to be for a couple of weeks but apparently Storm was fretting without him after a few days!

Stevie is a little character, often found upside down!

Last weekend was another trip to Adelaide for Steven's buckshow.  Apparently a good time was had by all attendees LOL

Callie and I spent a few hours in Rundle Mall looking for a dress for me for their wedding.  It was a successful trip with us finding a dress and shoes.  After that, we went back to Callie's, and with her friend Ami, we watched movies and tried to eat our way through all these 'nibbles'!  We certainly didn't eat all of this and still managed to feel like we were in a 'food coma'.  

We have so many social events coming up over the next few weeks with only 6!! weeks to go for Josh and Kara's wedding!!

Then 6 weeks later it will be Callie and Steven's turn!

Life is certainly going to keep us busy but I love that it's all for such happy occasions!!

As always, plans are made to be changed......we ended up only staying at Lock for just over 3 weeks.  Given the choice between a job and family that were needing a helping hand, of course family wins every time!

We have been home in Winkie for the last 5 weeks now so not a lot earlier than first planned.  We also have housemates for now,  Josh, Kara and Kasiah are living with us for a while.  Josh has had trouble with his back and was off work for a number of weeks. It's working out well and we are loving the extra time with Kasiah after spending most of the year away.

We've also had a few weekends in Adelaide with Callie and Steven, visiting the beach with the dogs and just spending time with the kids.

Ben has also moved from Canberra now and is living with Callie and Steven.

So the last few weeks have seen us spending most of our times with the kids, to make up for deserting them this year haha

Bun and I enjoyed the pageant and fireworks in Barmera last Friday night, we missed watching them the last two years!  I think I need to see more fireworks haha so that I can practice photographing them!

Always a pleasure to walk the dogs :)

We did have one intense shower of rain and hail, we said that was our white Christmas.

On one of our weekends in Adelaide, I helped Callie, Ashlee and Renae with 'crafty stuff' for the wedding...Bun got the job of washing Callie's car haha

We visited Bunnings as well and Bun got busy decorating.  We actually bought coloured lights as well for the top of the windmill but that is yet to happen.  It will only happen if the weather calms down a bit.

I'm trying to get my sewing mojo back now that I can use a sewing machine again but it seems to be eluding me....maybe I just need to forget about cleaning up the sewing room and just do it!  I seem to get distracted by other things at the moment. 

Anyway that's it for now, just wanted to catch up on the fact that we are home now.  We hope that everyone has a lovely Christmas and that the New Year is full of great things!

Cheers

Anne and Bun

We had our medicals at Katherine and it took nearly ALL day!  We left town at 3pm and drove for about 3 hours before stopping for the night.  Of course as we were heading towards home, it meant for early starts!! So the next day we were on the road just before daylight and drove a LONG way before stopping for the night.  You know how things can get a little silly towards the end of a long day?  This was only a little taste of it :)

The sun was setting on the driver's side that meant we were heading south!

After two really long days of driving, we came through Pt Augusta at tea time the night of the eclipse.  I was keen to get some photos so Bun decided that if we pulled up for the night too early, we would simply go to sleep and miss it.  So we ended up driving to Burra and stopping at about 9.30pm.  I set up the tripod and quickly grabbed some shots before we crashed into bed.  

Next morning we drove home, stopping briefly in Barmera to see Josh and this darling little munchkin!!

Luckily we got to take her home with us for the day!!!

Considering that Kasiah had only seen us on Skype since late April, she was so relaxed with us so that was lovely for us :))

We got to see Josh and Kara and feed them tea for a couple of nights so it was just lovely to see them all after so long!

Playtime on the floor!!

She just loves to snuggle in!

We even got to have her sleepover on the Friday night and this was her the next morning.

'What are you doing?'

'I think you've got the camera out.'

'Yay, I love photos!'

Saturday morning we dropped Kasiah home and went to Adelaide to see Callie and Steven.  After some text messages saying 'where are you?', 'are you nearly here?' and 'HURRY UP!'  we got there and left practically straight away to walk the dogs in the hills.  

The afternoon was spent on the seafront at the Largs Pier Hotel, enjoying a couple of relaxed drinks and then it turned into 'let's just order tea early'.  Such a chilled afternoon in the sun and we can't wait to be back there again in March for Josh and Kara's wedding!!

Sunday morning was walking on the beach, it was pretty cool and breezy and the sand was freezing on our feet! As usual, Boof loved it :)

We headed home Monday morning when Callie and Steven were ready for work.  We spent some more time with Josh and Kasiah before heading to Mum and Dad's for tea.  Kara met us there after work and we celebrated Dad's birthday a day early.

Tuesday meant a day trip to Mildura to get the truck serviced so we were there at 8.30am and used the motorbike to get around.  We visited Bun's mate Datesy for a couple of hours which was great, not just to catch up but also because we could sit somewhere warm!  It was so cold that day.  After getting a few things and having lunch, we ended up back waiting for the truck to be finished.  I got a call about 4.3pm from Viterra to say 'can you be here for induction on Friday morning?'   That meant that we only had the following day to get organised.....because we had to travel over to Lock on Thursday!  

We arrived here about 3pm Thursday having left at 6am.  At that point it was only going to be me doing the induction, as Bun's paperwork hadn't come through.  He was fine with that, as he said I could work and he would go surfing!!

Unlucky for him that I checked the emails at 5pm and his paperwork was through hahaha

He started work on Monday last week and I wasn't able to start until Tuesday as they didn't have steel cap boots to fit me.  I'm still wearing some that are too big for me!  We woke up one morning to this thick fog...below shows how close we are to work, literally right across the road.

Above you can see the weighbridge where I spend most of my days.

Sylvana really wanted to see a photo of the high-vis fashion!!

And the view from my window back towards the caravan park.

Trevor lives at the caravan park too!  What a face??

I've received a couple of chocolate bars from truckies and heard 'Hello Smiley' so I think that my customer service skills are pretty good!

It's interesting watching what happens around the site.

Josh and Kara visited Adelaide last weekend and Kasiah adores Uncle Steven!!  Callie said that as soon as she sits on his lap, she snuggles in :))

I love the above sentiment, it reminds me of the trip to the US with Callie and Steven and brought back memories of sitting on the beach at Santa Monica.

We are finding the work can be tedious and some of the people have obviously been here way too long however the money will come in handy and it really isn't hard work, just long hours.

I'm sure that having spent those few days home that the kids will be really happy when we are back after this job, especially with Ben moving to Adelaide in early December....and we are really keen to be home with all the exciting events that 2015 brings!!

There you go Kate, it's updated!!  Kate emailed me yesterday, there was nothing in the email, just the subject line reading   Blog Up-Date Please!

That's it for now

Cheers

Anne