Emily and Grandkids Return to Armidale

I'm getting far behind in reporting on the visit to Australia of our family living in Seattle. That's what happens when one leads are very busy life. I, for example, play in 3 bridge games a week at our local club and each lasts c. 4 ours! Then I work oncommunity projects with the New England Visions 2030 (NEV2030) group and that takes up a fair amount of time. Financially Dot and I run a self-managed superannuation fund and playing the stock-market is also time intensive. Then I still undertake academic research and, in the last month aline, I have presented at conferences in Armidale and in Paris. Finally, I also belong to something like 14 organisations and they often take a while. For example, I have just been invited to a banquet in NSW's Parliament House at which a top USA government official will make a prsentation. These dimensions are all before undetaking various tasks at home. 

Anyway I now have a little while to explore a recent family get-together. Emily, Ella and Flynn stayed with us for 4 days or so. Flynn had three sessions in the University of New England's swimming pool learning how to swim with a crawl rather than a breast-stroke. I think he really enjoyed this opportunity in our heated pool accompanied by a specialist teacher.

Durinf their stay, Armidale had some heavy downpours of rain leading to the flooding of our Dumaresq Creek as shown here. Both Ella and Flynn enjoyed the event. After their creeklands experience, they enjoyed playing for a while in new kid's play area. - and especially the covered slides seen in the background.

Their stay with us was also an opportunity for Emily to meet up with old friends - and especially Kassandra and Michelle who lived next door to us for many years, attended the same schools and had similar ages. Here we are for morning teas ... also attended by Kassandra's own kids.

Here's everyone together for a group photo, all looking excited.

And the kids got to know a little about each, while playing or in conversation.

Let's just say the few days they spent in Armidale were interesting and enjoyable. That especially applies to their session at Les Miserables mentioned in an earlier post of mine.

AS