Trying to Find Normal

These last few weeks have been trying to all, but none more so than those who lost family and all their belongings in the fires. It truly makes one appreciate what you have and to not take anything for granted because tomorrow may never come. Speaking of tomorrow, it is yet again another total fire ban day with extreme temps and winds expected. Bodie is back from Melbourne and will be with the CFA tomorrow on standby at the fire station. To put a finer point on this, most of the schools outside of Melbourne are closed tomorrow due to the bushfire potential. Maddy, Bren and Cam are happy to have the day off, but you can feel the tension in the air around the state and in our community. Victorians want to get through this fire season and forget (as much as one can) and try and move on. We hope that this is it in terms of extreme fire days and that rain will come soon.

With that being said, we've also done a lot of non-fire things over the past month that have lost blog space due to the fires. So here are some photos to make you laugh and catch you up since Tasmania.

For those keeping score, we fly back to the US 2 weeks from today. We are all a bit melancholy; we are ready to head back home (at least we keep telling each other that), but we have made some best mates (adult and kid alike) and will truly miss the people and the country. This last month has tended to bond us more with friends due to the fires hitting so close to home. Heather has already applied for Australian citizenship......and we are fairly sure she will let the rest of the family do the same.

Cheers all!