The Lunar Eclipse by Emma

I woke up on December 11 2011, I didn't open my eyes. Instead I was pulled out of bed and carried along. I felt a cold rush of air as we past the front door. Someone wrapped me in rugs and put me on a couch outside. It was Dad.

The lunar eclipse started at 12:45 AM. A lunar eclipse is when the earth's shadow hits the moon so that it blocks the sun. I struggled to keep my eyes open, the moon was cloudy and bright yellow. I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. So I closed them and dropped of to sleep almost instantly.

By Emma.



This was sort of like what I saw.

[BB - Unfortunately, it was cloudy most of the night so we only saw the eclipse in glimpses. Waking Emma was hard! I had to shake her for about 5 minutes and she was as floppy as a rag doll! At this point the clouds were clearing and the eclipse was finishing so she didn't see it at it's reddest.]


- Posted using BlogPress from Mum's iPad

Bruce rides in an ambulance!

No flashing lights, no siren but it was the only way for me to leave the gym after putting my back out at the weekly work indoor football game yesterday.

I've had trouble with my back since I was a teenager. Mostly I keep on top of it with just enough exercise but occasionally if I over do something and twist it the wrong way I'm left pretty sore and not very bendy for a few days. Last year I had a bit of a problem that kept me away from football for a few weeks but it didn't stop me from riding or working. This is worse...

After a few minutes of play I noted that I didn't feel as flexible as usual and then as I was just moving around on the court following the play something happened and I found it necessary to get all the weight off my back ASAP... I crawled off the court and spent about 15 minutes on the floor before I managed to stand. That didn't last though and I soon realized that I wasn't going back to work so called Cathy. Before she arrived it had gotten to the point where I just could not stand at all so an ambulance was called to deliver me to A&E.

After chatting with nurses and doctors, getting an X-ray, dosing up on painkillers, napping for 90 minutes, more painkillers and muscle relaxants, I was issued crutches and sent home.

I'm a lot better today, using the crutches to take some of my weight off my back when required but not able to bend much or sit up for more than a few minutes at a time. Hopefully, I'll be OK to sit by Monday but I guess I'll be missing football for a few more weeks...

BB.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Lego

For the last few days I have been looking for two Ninjago lego sets in the shops. These are the last two sets I need so I have the whole series.
Usually this would be simple and it would only take half an hour but this time it took a whole day and we went to about 10 shops. The reason for this that Lego launched a new series of sets and the shops had sold out of most of the old sets in store. In all ten shops we only found one of the sets I wanted but all of the trading cards and bricks had been stolen except one brick.
We got a Ninjago carry case like mine for my friend Matthew because it was really cheap and the spinjitsu dojo to keep for my birthday.
That night Mum spent hours looking for the to sets on the computer and found both! Unfortunately one was at a ridiculously high price so we only brought one. I really want some of the more expensive Ninjago sets because then I will be able to beat matthew in spinjitsu and I am going to buy some as soon as I can get to the shops again.

Zak

Go Stars! Dallas Stars Ice Hockey, by Zak

For the last three nights we have been staying with Shane, Tonya and their daughter Erica in Texas. Last night we went to watch an ice hockey game where Shane and Tonya's home team, The Dallas Stars played against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

An ice hockey game has 3 periods and up to 6 players per team at a time. But sometimes players get sent into the penalty box. When there are an uneven number of players in each team, the team with the most players has what is called a power play.

Ice hockey is a very physically game because the players are allowed to barge into each other. Sometimes this makes them mad and they start fighting. Most fights happen in the third period when the players are tired and determined to win.

By the end of the second period the score was 2-2 and two of the sponsors promised that they would give free food to all the people in the stadium if the stars scored a goal in the third period. One gave chicken strips (which we ate today for lunch) and the other gave crispy beef tacos (tomorrow's lunch). Luckily The Stars finished with 4 goals and the opposition were still on 2.

It is a very fast paced game. The players were very accurate with hitting and trapping the puck and they skated nimbly across the ice. The thing I liked most was the fights, and the chicken strips (if they count).

Looking forward to the tacos tomorrow.

Zak



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Joshua Tree

We had a really great weekend camping in Joshua Tree National Park and captured a few thoughts....

Adventures by Emma.
1. Rock climbing
For my first time, I was going to do real rock climbing. I was the first child in the camp site to go rock climbing that day. I wore a harness and rock climbing shoes.
"On belay", I said.
"Belay on" was the reply.
I started climbing by gripping onto the rock ledges. Pushing my feet up after my hands. Up, up , up went. Not once did I glance down except for a photo. I didn't glance down because I was quite determined to reach the top. I kept going and going. Suddenly I looked up. I was at the top. I hadn't realized it before as I had just kept climbing.
"Do you want to climb the overhang?" he asked.
"Yes", I replied.
I climbed up a bit further to where the overhang stuck out and two cracks split the rock. I looked around to try and see what I could do.
" I can't see anything to hold", I called down to Ben.
"Do you want to come down"
He started feeding the rope and I started to slowly walk down.


Adventures by Bruce.
I got stuck on a rock face. I had climbed as far as I was able, and was being belayed back down when the rope stuck fast. Just pull harder the guy said. No I said it's really stuck I and hung from the rope waving my feet and arms in the air. As places to be stuck go, it wasn't bad. I was able to sit on a ledge quite comfortably. It wasn't too hot or cold, there was no wind, and it was hours until dark.

To get me down, Steve climbing up by a different route, and climbed up above me to pull the rope out of the crack it had got stuck in. All of which took about half an hour. I did the same climb the next day and everything went smoothly.

Adventures by Zak
I bled. One of the most interesting moments was when I fell off a rock about a meter high and scraped my leg along the side of it. I have a big graze all along my right shin.
Another of my interesting things there was when I went rock climbing on the huge rock and made it to the overhead that was near the top of the climb. Unfortunately I couldn't get past that,but I tried.
Probably one of the best things was when Dads friends Will found a furry brown tarantula on the road. He quickly captured in a bag and dropped it into a plastic box for all of us to see.

We met lots of people, and had a great time staying up late around the camp fire toasting marshmallows.

Zak

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The missing episodes...

A disadvantage of using an iPad is that software updates all have to be OK'd by Apple. When IOS5 came out it broke the app we use for blogging so some incomplete blogs from our trip were stuck on the iPad for the last few months until Apple finally OK'd the fixed version...

Now it is going again I'm posting a couple of posts we had been working on way back in October.

BB.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad