"Down Under"

I don't know if you noticed, but I haven't posted much in over a month. Well, that's because I was "Down Under" for two weeks. And, since I'd never been out of the country before, I had a lot to prepare before leaving. My husband and I, along with 5 others, traveled to New Zealand and Melbourne, Australia to visit dairies, and the company who makes our new Carousel Milking machine.

I have to say, New Zealand was stunning!  And the people there were super friendly!  Unfortunately, most of my pictures of New Zealand were of dairies, because frankly, that was the main purpose of the trip.  We included Melbourne in our itinerary because my husband has a cousin that lives near there, and since we were so close, we added a hop over to Australia.

Here are a few highlights of the trip.   The pictures are in no particular order:

Above are 2 of the 12 Apostles along the Great Ocean Road south of Melbourne (although there are only 9 rocks...no one knows the "true story" on how this location got it's name.

Cows grazing along the hillside in New Zealand.  We don't have views like this in the Central Valley.

A Gahla bird in Dumbalk, Australia

Apparently these birds are thought of like our pigeons....a nuisance.

I have to say, they are a lot prettier though. 

This is a Garden Orb spider that was hanging from our relatives' awning.  Remarkable in size and color, but fortunately harmless.

Our group overlooking "The Great Ocean Road".

The one thing I told my husband I wasn't leaving until I got a picture of.  I've had a dream of visiting Australia since I was 10 years old.  I received my first stuffed Koala then and named him Sydney.  This guy was just hanging around in a tree that extended over the street in a residential area.  Thankfully our tour guide spotted him.  A treasure to get this close.  Isn't he just the cutest?

Blessed to see a Kookaburra too.  Beautiful bird.

A performer at the Tamaki Maori Village in Rotorua, New Zealand.  We thouroughly enjoyed learning about their culture.

No matter where we ate in New Zealand, whether it be a small cafe, or an elegant restaurant, the food was always beautifully displayed, and rich in flavor.  These were just a couple of appetizers our first night there.  I won't bore you with all the food pictures I took...I caught a lot of flack for it.  *grin*

The water was always brought to the table in beautifully colored bottles instead of pitchers.  It was hard not to take one of them home with me.  ;)

This was the view from our motel room in Melbourne, Australia.  That city is HUGE!!

On our "Great Ocean Road Tour", we stopped at a location that had a lot of koalas and parrots.  Our tour guide "Outback Billy" brought some bird seed along to feed the birds, and they LOVED it.  We had parrots on our heads, hands, and shoulders doing their best to get the treats.

 The King Parrots LOVED Aaron...so much so they were fighting over him.  lol

This Crimson Rosella would have nothing to do with people.  He wanted his seed on a fence post.  I had to get some pictures of him though...his colors are just stunning!

The "Round-Abouts" and driving on the left side took some getting used to.  We had the cleanest windshield in the countries.  (The turn signal is on the opposite side along with the steering-wheel...so instead of hitting the turn-signal, the drivers were continually turning the windshield wipers on.)

We had fun learning the lingo, and taking in the different signs.

Forgive me, but I just had to include another koala photo.  ;)

This photo was taken at "Squeaky Beach".  The sand is so fine it actually squeaks when you walk on it.  Super fun.  This is at the Southern most tip of Australia in Wilson's Promontory.  Beautiful!!

Kangaroos...can you believe we didn't see even one until our second to last day.  Thankfully our tour guide, from Outback Billy's Great Ocean Road Tour, took us to the local golf course (not scheduled on the tour), so we could see some before leaving.  

That's it for my photo tour.  But, before you leave, let me share one more thing...

Thanks for dropping by.  I hope you enjoyed the pictures.  I took over 1500 photos, and was able to edit down to 1000....it was quite an accomplishment...I assure you.  :)

Happy Stamping!

Tournament of Roses Parade Pictures

For the Season's Giving Blog Hop, click HERE.

In an earlier blog post, I mentioned we were at the Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, and that my Father-in-law (Frank Leyendekker) and Brother-in-law (Gerben Leyendekker) were pulling the Grand Marshall (Jane Goodall), and the Valley Hunt Club President using Leyendekker Friesians and my Father-in-Law's carriages.  For a little background on how my Father-in-law brought registered Friesians to America, click HERE.

 Here are a few pictures I took while getting ready for the parade.

Keeping the horses warm while getting them ready for the parade.  We brought 9.

My Father-in-law's carriage all decorated for the Grand Marshall (Jane Goodall).  Notice the monkey topiaries?

My Father-in-law, Frank Leyendekker, and Jane Goodall

Jane was so gracious.  She took the time to introduce herself to my Father-in-law, the footmen and helpers, and even the horses.

Here she is meeting one of the horses along with the footman Jose.

This is my daughter's horse Abe (pronounced Aba).  I'm sorry, I don't know the name of the rider.

The Valley Hunt Club President and his family.  The driver is my Brother-in-law Gerben, and my nephew Frank is the footman holding one of the horses.

Here are a few of the floats up close.  

Being farmers, of course I had to include a tractor.  :)

Notice the amazing seed work.

See the mushrooms on the shell?

LOVE the spines on the puffer fish.

These military men were lowered to fit under certain areas of the parade.  They appear to be trudging forward here.  A wonderful representation of our nations heros.

I love the creative use of flowers on this float!

These are some close up shots of the flowers on my FIL's carriage.  

They even decorated the back of the carriage.

The large orange and white flower looks and feels like q-tips.  This arrangement actually made its way to my house.  :)

You can see the tufted velvet carriage seat here.

That's it for the photos.  There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes getting things ready for the parade.  It takes a lot of hands and patience.  But the result is worth it.  Hope you enjoyed some of the highlights.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope your New Year is off to a fabulous start!!

Fall Photos

Hello my friends!! It's Monday!! I LOVE Mondays. I truly feel like I get the most accomplished early in the week.

Well, I don't have any paper projects to share today. I have some in the works, just can't share them yet. :)

But I would like to share some photos that I took Thanksgiving morning. We started with a bit of fog, but the skies turned a brilliant blue by the afternoon. And our trees have put on quite a show this year. Oh, we get some color by mid November, but nothing really truly rich. Well, since our Fall was late this year, it seems to have changed things up a bit.




I actually took this picture about a week ago. I loved the fog with the angus, the green grass and changing trees. One thing we have here in central California, is green grass with our colored trees.


Next up are two pictures of the "kids" who keep me company while my other two kids are off at college. This is Bear. Sorry he looks a bit mangy. He goes to the groomer in a couple of days, so his eyes are barely visible.

This is Jack. Our protector. He's extremely loyal, and very protective. Bear's the welcoming committee, whereas Jack is the deterrent. LOL


Here are a couple of pictures that I took of our Cana Lilies this morning. I love the brilliant orange with the dew still on the leaves!!





That's it for now. Thanks for visiting. Check back later this week for some paper projects.
Have a fabulous week, and Happy Stamping!!

Camping entertainment

Aren't these guys just the cutest? I don't have a card to share with you today. It seems my mojo stayed on vacation. So not fair. I might as well as stayed on vacation too then...*grin* I just had to share these three photos of the entertainment for the few days we were camping. These guys are everywhere and boy do they make sure you know they're there too. They have LUNGS!! *grin*


Here's the final photo. I got such a kick outta that front little guy. He kept poking his head through the picnic table hole...too cute!