Many of you may remember this session with Bri from last year. Well, I got to hang out with her again last month while we were both in Pennsylvania and had a great time. Bri is three now and she can’t wait to be a big sister in a few months (and I can’t wait to see how beautiful that baby will be!). We had a fun time getting some shots one morning in PA and I loved reconnecting with my friend (her mom) once again. Enjoy these photos!
Hello there!
The return to teaching has put photo posting on hold for a bit, but I did want to check in and say hello. While I was in Australia last month, I kept a list of words and phrases that I noticed as being different from the way we talk in the U.S. I’ve already forgotten what a few of them mean. I thought it might be fun to share the list here. Feel free to correct any mistakes or add to the list in the comments section!
And here are some words they use more often than we do:
UPDATE:
After posting this the first time, my sister filled in some of the holes I left.
And because no post is complete without a photo- here’s a throw-back photo that I rediscovered from my trip to Australia three years ago. It was taken at a park in Toowoomba.
I have lots of amazing photos to post in the next few weeks. Stop by again soon!
On Wednesday the whole crew (my sister and brother-in-law, their kids, my brother and sister-in-law, and I) went to the Blue Mountains, located west of Sydney. It was a gorgeous day and the kids did great! We had a morning tea picnic before hiking down for a view of Wentworth Falls. Then we had a delicious lunch, play in a park in Leura, and we made it to Echo Point just in time to see the sunset on The Three Sisters formation. Enjoy the photos!
Wentworth Falls
Wentworth Falls
Wentworth Falls
The quaint little town of Leura where we stopped for lunch.
The Three Sisters at Echo Point
The Three Sisters at Echo Point- proof that we weren’t the only ones there.
Echo Point
Not sure what kind of bird those are…
Echo Point
Loved seeing The Three Sisters at sunset!
Three Sisters with the Three Sisters! 🙂
Three siblings with the Three Sisters
And finally, the whole crew at Echo Point
On Monday, my brother, sister-in-law and I took three of our nephews down to Circular Quay to explore the Sydney Harbour Bridge/Opera House/Botanic Gardens area. We dealt with the bright midday sun for photos of these iconic sights, but I thought I’d share them anyway. The highlight of the day for my nephews happened during our picnic lunch. The six of us were sitting eating our food on a hillside when all of a sudden a kookaburra swooped down right beside us and landed in front of us with a piece of ham in its mouth. My seven-year-old nephew, John, called out, “Ouch!” and held his sandwich up to us. The kookaburra had taken the piece of ham out of his sandwich that John was holding up beside him between bites! It was unbelievable! Thankfully John wasn’t hurt badly and now he has a good story to tell. 🙂
In the afternoon, my brother Lee and I did the Bridge Climb on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was a once-in-a-lifetime memorable experience. The only bad part was that I couldn’t take a camera with me, but at the same time I was forced to just take it all in and not worry about camera settings. 🙂 We had perfect weather for the trek- the sun lit up the opera house and city skyline perfectly. It’s hard to describe how beautiful it was up there with a 360 degree view. They gave us lots of time to drink it all in. It was great to see the bridge construction from so many angles by climbing through it and above it. At one point we were climbing a ladder with cars driving past on both sides of us. The view was honestly breathtaking- the harbor out to the coast, the opera house, the city buildings and suburbs sprawling all the way out to the blue mountains.
Here are some photo highlights from the day.
Sydney Harbour Bridge
A close-up of the opera house roof tiles.
View from the Botanic Gardens
With my nephews by the opera house
My brother and sister-in-law with our nephews.
The kookaburra that stole John’s ham in the tree.
My brother Lee and I on our bridge climb.
Walking back to the train after the climb- this was a great walkway off of Cumberland St.
View from Circular Quay
Sydney at night
Just in case you haven’t seen enough pics of the opera house, here’s one more. 🙂
G’day!
I’m finding it challenging to post much in the midst of these busy days here, but I did want to check in here on the blog. I got my Australian animal fix last week when I went to the Koala Park with my friend Jen and her family. Here are a few of my favorites from the day.
There was a koala escaping from its home… I, of course, turned into paparazzi when I saw it coming our way.
Ready to make a break for it.
The American’s turn to pat the koala.
Kangaroo time!
My turn to feed the kangaroo.
An emu
And a couple wildlife shots- A Rainbow Lorikeet at my nephews’ school.
This is why I can’t be a wildlife photographer- getting moving animals in focus is a challenge! Here’s one of many cockatoos that have visited the backyard.
As you may remember, I received a Lilly Endowment Teacher Creativity Grant last year to study photography and go to Cambodia to capture a story through photos. I had a wonderful experience in Cambodia, capturing pieces of its history and projects of hope for its future (scroll through these posts to see more)! As a result of my experience there, where I had my own chance to view the world from a different perspective, I wanted to start a photography club at the school where I teach. With the help of a fellow teacher and friend, Mrs. Tsu, we worked with a group of ten fifth and sixth grade ESL students to help them view the world differently through photography.
We were really thankful to all the people who contributed cameras, batteries, and memory cards to help supply our crew. We had a great time getting to know these kids from the U.S., Burma, Mexico, and Iran. We challenged them to look around their school and home for things that represented beautiful, ugly, shapes, shadows, reflections, candids, and portraits. It was really fun that I was able to use some of my photos and stories from my experience in Cambodia to guide their photography. At the end-of-the-school-year program, Mrs. Tsu put together a great slideshow of pictures the students took, as well as some of them in action as photographers. The students also chose their favorite photo to have framed and displayed at the program. Below are some highlights from our club and display.
It was really fun to share some of my photos from my trip to Cambodia with the students to help guide their photo-taking.
It was great to share some of my Cambodia photos with the students!
Here is part of the display of students’ (plus a couple from my trip) photos at the school program.
Here is part of the display of students’ (plus a couple from my trip) photos at the school program.
Some of our photography club students enjoying the slideshow of their photos.
They had a great time showing their photos to family and friends after the program!
Hello all! Greetings from chilly, rainy Sydney! I arrived safely on Friday after a relatively uneventful trip… 36 hours door to door (and an extra 24 hours for my suitcase), save the two extra hours it took to take off from LAX due to an incident that removed two people from our flight. The delayed arrival in Auckland allowed me the chance to watch the sunrise in New Zealand before I headed to Sydney.
I was greeted at the airport by my brother-in-law and a running hug from my two-year-old nephew that lasted until we arrived at the car. Since then, I’ve been busy catching up with my sister, brother-in-law, and nephews and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed meeting and subsequently snuggling with my newest nieces who are almost three months old now. I would forget that I’m in Australia if it wasn’t for the Opera House sighting on the drive from the airport and the kookaburras who’ve enjoyed laughing outside my window in the morning (they sound like monkeys, so I wake up thinking I’m in the jungle). I’ve also had some great treats including lots and lots of tea, sticky fig pudding, and the chance to chat with my sister’s friends, allowing me the fun of noticing differences in pronunciation and word usage. I’m keeping busy holding babies and playing with nephews, which is just what I’ve been wanting to do as I anticipated this trip. I’m sure there are many more adventures to come, but I did want to check in and share a few pics from my time so far in the southern hemisphere. Plus I have no idea when I’ll have time again to post some photos, though I’ll do my best. 🙂
The sunrise over Auckland, New Zealand
My adorable nephews and nieces… all six of them!
A present left outside my door from my nephews.
First attempt (and probably the last) at a pic of the girls and me.
How I spend much of my day… it’s pretty great. 🙂
Something to prove I’m in Australia- kookaburras hanging out by the house.
Now that school is out for summer, I have a second to sit down and post these pictures from last month. These photos are of my great brother and sister-in-law and their really adorable and fun children. We had a beautiful evening walking around a park the night of their wedding anniversary. Can’t wait to meet #4 in July!
He wanted a closer look.
I think they’re representing themselves pretty accurately here. 🙂
He’s just too much sometimes.
Sisters… there’s nothing else like it.
As mentioned in previous posts about my time in Cambodia last year, I had the chance to see some really great projects in action. One such project is Daughters, a project for young women located just outside of Phnom Penh and run by the Center for Global Impact. They are doing some great things in providing training and opportunity for work and personal growth for women who may not otherwise have the opportunity. Here is what the CGI website has to say about the project:
CGIDaughters is a division of Center For Global Impact, a U.S. faith-based relief and development organization. It is a two-year residential program. We offer life-skills training, education, health care, money management and professional seamstress training all through the lens of Jesus Christ. Our product line is handmade with fair-trade principles.
I had a great time visiting the project on a few different days. My friends are involved in it on many levels, so I was able to experience the project in a variety of ways. From running errands for fabric and picking up labels for purses to playing a role in English classes and seeing my friend, Katy, lead them in Bible study. I also saw them meet their goal of making 100 clutch purses to receive a reward of Dairy Queen ice cream. It was great motivation for them! CGI is doing some great things to help women succeed in Cambodia!
The daughters’ workshop
The women at work
One of the many purses made during my time there.
Katy leading English class
They reached their goal!
Katy and I with some of the Daughters after English class.
I also had the chance to visit the home where the Daughters live on another side of the city.
jenni mansell photography 