jstk2008

We have been busy for the last couple of days doing a great deal of sight seeing...we saw the Opera House, went up in the Sydney Tower (and walked around outside), Aquarium, Wildlife World, Blue Mountain Tour, Whale Watching, Dolphin Watching, 4X4 on the sand dunes, and sand boarding on the Sand dunes. Whew. Flight leaves at 2:45PM Friday afternoon....it's going to be a long day. Oh, today I had Kangaroo for dinner :) It was good, much like beef, but very lean. I do have more photos from today at the Dolphin watching and sand boarding, but I will probably wait to post those until we are home. Bye for now. EDIT: Sorry, forgot to publish this one :) ... read more

We had a couple of slow days leading up to the competition. First day of competition was good. The group performed well and is seeded 1st going into the final round on Saturday. Taelyr did her freestyle today and came up 0.1 point short of moving on...we all thought she deserved better scores, but that's how it goes. Kendall, Sacha and I went to the Manly Oceanworld to see the aquarium. They had lots of fish and a big shark tank with a tube you can walk through. Tomorrow will be a very long day as they are doing Solo, 2 baton, 3 baton, and group finals all on the same day. They say we might not be done until 9PM or so. The venue is freezing cold in the morning...like many commercial buildings around here ... read more

Went to see Taronga Zoo today. Pretty much a 'typical' zoo although it was neat to see koalas and kangaroos here. There was even a place where you could walk amongst the kangaroos and they would hop right up to you. I got some good pictures of that. I will post them tomorrow. The ferry ride took us right under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and right along side of the famous Sydney Opera House. Starting to adjust to the time a bit better already. We didn't wake up until nearly 6AM today. Training is going well. Today they have a 4 hour session. The parents are going to go down to "The Rocks" which is a historical district in Sydney, the original settlement location for the city.... read more

Left Calgary at 6:20PM today. To San Fransisco at 8PM local time then on to Sydney at around 11PM.... read more

Just a quick update. I'm on the computer that belongs to the B&B, so I can't upload any pictures. It was quite an exciting few days. Taelyr placed 3rd (Bronze Medal) in her Solo event!!! I thought Sacha was going to pass out. She also received a Silver Medal in the 3 Baton event. Rumor has it that she placed 4th in the 2 Baton event. The Group (Music In Me) won the Gold Medal!!! ALl the Mom's cried. It has been 15 months of hard work by the girls, and hundreds of hours of volunteer and fundraising by the parents....well worth it after that performance, it was incredible. I'm getting emotional even now when remembering it. We did purchase videos of the opening ceremonies, solo event, medal ceremonies, and the group performance in case anyone ... read more