Good Day Mates!

I want to hear all about your spring break adventures, even if you stayed in MN, what did you do? I also thought I'd tell you a little bit about my trip since I only got to see you for two days this week. Below you'll find a slideshow of some of my pictures that I thought you might enjoy, mostly of animals. I also thought I could teach you a little bit about the animals I saw in Australia.

First off, do you know where Australia is? It is not close to Minnesota, we had a LONG flight.  We left Minnesota and took a four hour flight to Los Angeles, California. From LA, we took a 14 hour flight to Sydney, Australia. Do want to know what was the craziest thing? We left on Saturday, but didn't get there until it was Monday! We landed at 7:40 a.m. Monday morning, which was 3:40 p.m. on Sunday at home for you! When your day was winding down, mine was just starting. It took a few days to get used to this BIG change, but once I got on the right time, it seemed like it was already time to come home.

Look on this map, do you see where the United States of America is? Now look and find Australia on the right side in pink, they aren't close are they?

When we were there, we climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge, it was so much fun! We climbed on top of the arches, but had to wear a ton of safety gear to make sure that we were safe that high up and wouldn't drop anything on the cars driving below. The Sydney Harbor Bridge is the world's largest steel arch bridge. It took eight years to build and was very fun to walk! We walked along the arch to the top and came back down. Here is a picture after the big climb, there were no cameras allowed on the bridge so this was the only picture I could get.

We also went to the Taronga Zoo and saw a lot of amazing Australian animals.There was a red panda, meerkats, koalas, kangaroos, and the elephants. There was a baby elephant nicknamed "Mr. Shuffles" that was born on March 8th and the zookeepers were very sad that he was dead when he was born. However, two days later, he started moving and surprised everyone at the zoo! They first named him Mr. Shuffles because he had a hard time walking and shuffled around when he would move. They eventually named him "Pathi Harn" which in Thai means "miracle". He was so cute and was still trying to figure out how to walk and move around.

We also saw the koalas up close, did you know they sleep for up to 20 hours a day? When they are awake, they are usually just eating eucalyptus leaves. They are cute, but when you see their claws that help them hold onto the trees when they sleep, you wonder how cuddly they really are.   

Now, onto your spring break adventures. What did you do over spring break? Write at least five sentences to answer the following questions about your break:

1. What did you do over the break? Did you go anywhere or do anything out of the ordinary. If so what? Where did you go?

2. What was your favorite part of the break? Why?

3. What did you do for Easter? Did you go anywhere or hang out with your family?

4.    Did you enjoy the spring weather over the break? What did you do to take advantage of the nice weather? (play outside? ride your bike?)

5. Were you excited to come back to school again after such a long break?