International Fleet Review Part 1

 What is a fleet review?

A fleet review is simply a gathering of ships for a monarch to observe.  It has been done during wartime, but today in Sydney, the Fleet Review was a major celebration of Australia's Navy that turned 100  years old. The Fleet Review today was in commemoration of the first fleet review in Sydney on Oct. 4, 1913 when Aussie warships sailed into Sydney Harbour for the first time, a great moment of patriotism for the young country.  We heard it was going to be huge so we had to be there.  We really didn't know what we were doing, and found a spot in Campbell's Cove to watch the parade of ships.  You can see that it wasn't very comfortable sitting on concrete steps in the hot sun.  A lady next to me said she used to live in the apartment building behind us and the best spot for fireworks was close by, Dawe's Point.  So we got the kids loaded up again and found a better spot in the shade at the foot of the Harbour Bridge.

 We camped out here for seven hours to get a good spot for the fireworks and the parade of ships.

 All day ships from all over the world were in the harbor.  Around 40 ships from navies all over the world came to show their support for the Australian Navy's 100th birthday.

 Heaps of fly-bys by all kinds of airplanes.

 More helicopters than we had ever seen in one place.

 The Navy's flag.

 Prince Harry came for the big event.  If we had stayed at our first spot on the concrete steps, Harry would have walked right in front of us.  He is one of the men on that boat.  What a great picture :)

 We played lots of games and watched lots of Barbie movies.

 They said 1.5 million people were gathered around the harbor tonight for the fireworks.  It was supposed to be better than the fireworks at New Year's Eve or the Sydney Olympics.

 The fireworks were lit off from the warships in the water.

 Images were projected onto the Harbor Bridge and Opera House all night.

 This is the big screen near us showing all the fireworks going off in the harbor.  

 It really was awesome and totally worth it.

 There were so many people walking out that they closed down streets for everyone to walk in.  It was a few more than Disneyland's Main Street after their fireworks :)

 Everyone (mostly Asians) was taking pictures of themselves in the streets of Sydney with no cars so we did too. 

It really was a great day, and we're so glad we came.

More Floriade

 We met up with some mums from our ward to have one more visit to Floriade this morning.

 We rode the ferris wheel for the great views.  The theme of Floriade this year was about Canberra since it is Canberra's 100th Birthday.  I'm not sure what all the designs are, but they all have something to do with Canberra.

 James wouldn't ride the ferris wheel with us.  He wanted to go down the slide again instead.

 The Netball people had activities in the Kids Zone.  

 See the basketball hoop without a backboard?  That is net ball.  I think it's just like basket ball.

 The Reptile People were in the kid zone too.

Our very last visit to Floriade.  We will be gone when Floriade rolls around again next year.  Kind of sad that everything this year is our very last. 

School Holidays Week 1

 We are on school holidays right now for two weeks.  The first week was kind of cold and rainy so went to the movies.

 I wish we had seen Planes, but the girls wanted to see the Smurfs instead. Please tell me they are not going to make any more Smurfs movies.  The boys saw the new Percy Jackson movie.

 We also went to the Build-a-Bear that was temporarily in our mall for the week.  The girls picked pink unicorns of course.  The boys said they wanted nothing to do with this.

 Putting in the stuffing.

 Picking out a heart.

 Making birth certificates.

 The finished products.  Faith named her unicorn Genevieve.  I couldn't quite understand what Hope wanted to name her unicorn :).