Down Under

 The month of August Eric happened to find himself in Australia.  He traveled to pretty much every corner of the country, observing and absorbing the mining industry that his company provides power for.  The exact definition of what he does for work, I am not sure but the gist of it is that he sells portable power - generators, chillers, etc., on a huge scale.  The mine sites rent basic power plants while they are mining which normally lasts about 5 years.    He went for work so there was very little play, but he managed to have a great time.  We briefly talked about me going but 3 weeks was a long time to turn our lives over to someone else and mine sites aren't located near anything like these two pictures.  These were taken in Sydney.  Most of the time Eric was either flying to the next city or driving the 6 hours it takes to get to the mine sites.  He said his bum ached.

He attended an Australian football game and a rugby game while he was there.

Always a teddy bear, he warms up quickly to those he meets.  Co-workers from Australia.

This looks like San Diego?

There were kangaroos everywhere!  Just like we have deer, they have kangaroos. This little guy below was in his mother's pocket when found.  It's a law that if you hit and kill a kangaroo you have to check the pouch and retrieve the baby if inside.  They have orphan centers.

These are the big generators that produce the energy to power "Man Camps" and the mine sites.  They set up man camps where the miners live for 2 weeks at a time, then the next shift comes in while those miners go home a couple weeks.  Man camp comes with all the modern conveniences.

A mining pit.  Because Eric came home and left again this week, I didn't get all the details on these pictures.  I am sure they are mining something interesting here.  I just can't remember what.

Eric was in awe of these tree's shape.  They have a name but I can't remember.  Hopefully later I will update this post once I get the details from him.

This truck driver barely survived.  "She" had to be life flighted out.  I can do a lot of thing but drive a truck in a mine site like this is not one of them.

more of Sydney

Eric went along with a co-worker (Steve Smart from Houston) and their last weekend in Sydney they took a water tour to get all these shots.  The fort below was where prisoners were sent years ago.

A seaside village carnival

Eric brought all the boys home a kangaroo scrotum.  They thought that was the funniest and grossest thing.

This was the post card Eric sent to me.  Lucky me.

He sent each of the kids a funny post card but they consisted of Aborigines or a kangaroo.

The night he finally returned home, the kids were thrilled.  They really missed their dear old dad.  Three  weeks is a long time to be gone and distance makes the heart grow fonder in this case.  School started on a Monday and Eric came home on Tuesday.  Boston was very concerned about getting his father's blessing and waited patiently for Eric to come home.  It was a blessing to have him safely home and able to use his priesthood to give each child an individual blessing.