Djerriwarrh Festival

This past weekend was the 30th Djerriwarrh Festival in town. Paul's sister and her husband were also in town visiting. We got down to the parade a little late, but were still able to see the kid's schools float! We also went to the carnival where I won a giant stuffed Husky for the kids! I had never won anything that big before! The kid's named him Fred and he sits in the living room while creeping Paul out.

My First Melbourne Cup And It Was Shocking!

The first Tuesday of November is Melbourne Cup Day! It is considered a holiday so Paul and the kids had off of work and school. Who knew you could have the day off for horse races? Monday night Paul and I went to a TAB to put some bets on for the next day. He also put some money in his phone account so he could bet from home on the computer. Paul won some races early in the day. One particular race he backed a horse named Strawberry. If you've ever met Paul, you know how loud he can be. Well Strawberry was winning, so Paul was yelling out 'GO STRAWBERRY! GO STRAWBERRY!!' and so Andrew, who was in the other room and had no idea what was going on, starts yelling out in the other room 'GO STRAWBERRY!!!'. We had bought a party pack of meat pies and sausage rolls, as well as mini dim sims, money bags, and spring rolls. We had those for lunch and brownies for dessert that Chelsea and I made. The big race started at 3, so we all made sure we were paying attention. The horse that won was named Shocking and second place was Crime Scene. I had backed Crime Scene each way so I won a little bit a money because he placed! When I say a little bit of money, I mean a little bit of money. I won $15! All in all it was a good day. We made back our money that we spent on the bets and then some. I can't wait until next year!

Echuca

Paul and I went away by ourselves for the weekend! It's about time! On Friday after Paul got out of work, we packed our bag and headed off to Ballarat. We stopped for dinner at The Hog's Breath Cafe and drove around the city for a while. We didn't want to go to Sovereign Hill without the kids, so we decided to go back home. We got up early Saturday morning and went to Echuca. I had been there once before in February 2008 when I first came to meet Paul with my mom. We only spent a few hours there that time.

It took us a while to get there this time (4 1/2 hours) and was extremely hot (about 35 Celsius which equals 95 Fahrenheit). We stopped in Bendigo along the way, as well as Rochester. On the way there, we passed a farm where a Shetland Pony had gotten itself to the top of a dirt pile. He was just standing there, looking down as if he didn't know how to get himself back to the ground!



We passed this house with plastic animals all
over! There was also an orangutan hanging from
a tree, a rhino, and some cows!


Sunday morning we stopped for breakfast and
went to the river to eat it. This little guy wanted
some breakfast too!


Paul was kind and fed the duck.


The Murray River.










The bridge to Moama, New South Wales from
Victoria.




An American Hotel in Australia!







The Canberra.


Markers marking how high the water
level used to be.





Wine barrels.


The Log Buggy.




The blacksmith area after he moved out of the
way. It was cool to see him work.