Family Fun

Last week we had Jeff's brother Andrew and his son, our nephew Jonathan over to stay. We took them to dinner with Jeff and Andrew's cousins, and all their kids. Unfortunately, two second cousins had left by the time we thought to get some photos taken. But here's two of the best. It was very, very hard to get them all to sit still.

Then last weekend, we celebrated my Mum & Dad's 40th wedding anniversary with a family lunch including Mum, Dad, and everyone descended from them.Back row, L-R: Carla, Daryl with Stephen, Mum, Dad, me, Jeff, Michael.
Front row, L-R: Rebecca, Lisa, Abigail, Joshua, Samuel, Anna.

The group included Stephen, who was born on Friday just in time to join in the celebrations.

We had our Family Adventure one day late this weekend, with a fun time at Faulkner Park, a large playground not too far SOR.

Family Adventure #4 Whiteman Park

We had our Family Adventure early this weekend, on Friday. This weekend is a long weekend in Perth and very, very busy. But conveniently the school gave our kids the day off so the teachers could attend a Christian Teachers' Conference. So on Friday we went to Whiteman Park, with Grandma & Grandad, and Auntie Carla, Lisa and Rebecca.

Anna gave Rebecca a little bit of assistance.
The flowers were magnificent.
Jeff took this delightful photo of the cousins at Mussel Pool. Left to right, they are: Joshua, Lisa, Abigail, Samuel, Anna, Rebecca.I was very impressed - it only took four photos to get one with all six smiling!

We walked from a lookout southeast to Mussel Pool, then back northeast to Whiteman Village, where there are several playgrounds. Dad and I then walked back west along the road to the cars, and drove back to the Village car park, bringing our picnic lunches to enjoy by the playground where they children had been playing in our absence.

Guests

As of the last few days, we have a new (temporary) member of our family. Her name is Lisa, and she is my niece. We call her Lovely Lisa. You can see why from this picture:Lisa is living with us for Sunday evenings through to Friday afternoons, and going to the same away-school as Joshua and Anna during the weekdays. She will be with us for the next four months or so. The astute of you will realise that we will have a hard time looking after Lisa while we are in the US! During that time Carla will be looking after the whole family here, or Lisa will be looked after along with our four here by Grandma and Grandad. When we get back from the US, we'll take over the week-day parenting again.

Lisa is staying with us because her mother is in the later months of pregnancy with Lisa's little brother. Because Carla has been diagnosed with Lupus as well as Thalassemia, she needs greater medical care than can be provided in the rural gold-mining town of Kalgoorlie, where my brother's family normally live. So Carla has moved with their younger daughter Rebecca to her father's house near Freo, and we are looking after Lisa here. Lisa is the same age as Abigail, so we have a lot of chatting after bedtime with three girls sharing the same bedroom!

Please pray:
for Lisa, that she will not miss her mother, sister and father too much, and will feel "at home" here with us.
for Daryl my brother, that he won't be too lonely without his family back in Kal.
for Carla, that our nephew will be growing strong and healthy within her, and that the docs here will be able to treat her well.
for Rebecca, that she won't miss her Daddy and sister too much, and will love her time with Nono.
That Grandma and Grandad will be safe on the roads as they drive across Australia to look after their grandchildren for several weeks.


Last night, we had another guest in the house as well. It was Cuddly Koala, a toy from school that Anna brought home overnight.Yesterday afternoon, after one of the driest summers on record, (only one day of rain before yesterday - 0.2mm on 7 Feb), Perth experienced a marvellous thunderstorm, which resulted in many of our roads becoming temporary rivers. The evening news said that Perth metro had received at least 36mm of rain since around 3:30pm, when the storm hit the northern suburbs. Our friends the B family had about 50 holes in their pagola from hail the size of golf balls, and their garage flooded. By around 5:45pm, there were 150,000 houses or businesses in Perth without power, though ours was not among them.

The rain hit in earnest just before 5pm where we live, and we didn't get any hail. But with a Play Room that is not sealed well from the weather, we had almost as much rain inside as there was outside! God managed to keep our two couches dry, but the Play Room had to be "evacuated". The carpet and recliner are now drying out nicely (we hope), since not only is the roof permeable to strong rain, but the floor is extremely permeable as well (really, the floor is just outdoor pavers on sand, with no sealing at all - it's not exactly a "to code" extension) so we don't have any puddles. The canal next door was the highest we have ever seen it as well, but this morning it is back down. Here's how Anna described the events in Cuddly Koala's journal:I went home with Anna.
There was a big storm.
I was scared, but Anna saved me.
She kept me dry so that I
wouldn't get wet, when the
Play Room flooded with water.