A year of fun and celebration
Any time is a good time for champagne but especially 2016 with so many things to celebrate
Favourite moment for 2016? Really, is it possible to pick just one amongst so many? Where do I start? Well, the highlights reel for our family in 2016 is long and spectacular but there’s been a few standouts. We had multiple family weddings, a couple of graduations, milestone birthdays, fantastic holidays, stunning weekends under the stars and much more. But its pretty hard to beat watching one of your children marry his long term partner in a beautiful garden amongst family and friends. And that’s what Julie and I were able to do a couple of months ago. But wait, there’s more, much more and here’s a quick summary of a fabulous 2016.
Zach’s team wins the grand final and sings the team song
The first few months of the year were busy with baseball (of course) and a lot of exploratory bushwalks with family and friends from a couple different bush walking clubs. These walks were all off-track, dependent on GPS and self-sufficiency, full of discovery, adventure and fabulous memories.
Straddling a deep crevasse overlooking Capertee Valley
One of the groups I led from the Upper Blue Mountains Bushwalking Club, this time out to Constance Point on the Wolgan-Capertee Divide
Not lost, just looking, in a deep gully above the Wolgan Valley
With the family on a challenging Easter weekend adventure walk
The family team enjoying the views down into Capertee Valley from high above
One of my favourite shots for the year – Julie and I enjoying a beautiful place
We also had two important milestones for our sons – Zach and Will’s graduation from Uni.
Proud parents and Janelle joins Zach as he graduates in Mechanical Engineering from University of NSW
Mum and Will celebrate his amazing achievement of a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Uni NSW
In May Julie, Zach and I were in California for our beautiful niece Bryn’s wedding. Zach and Bryn are two-thirds of the cousin triplets who were all born at the same time 25 years ago. Bryn’s big day was on our family ranch in central California.
Bryn and Bryan marrying country style under a huge oak tree on the family ranch
My brothers and sisters all unite for a rare weekend together
And then there was the epic family group trip of crossing the Simpson Desert. We led six vehicles and 17 people almost 4,000 klms from Adelaide up the Oodnadatta Track (where it wasn’t closed to flooding), six days across 1,100 sand dunes, into the iconic outback town of Birdsville for a well deserved beer (or two) in their pub, then down the Birdsville Track and a final fantastic detour through Gammon Ranges NP and Flinders Rangers NP. What a trip!
We went for a warm-up session on nearby beaches and sand dunes in preparation for crossing the Simpson Desert. This shot was taken by Will’s drone.
There had been a lot of heavy rain in the desert in 2016 which made for many muddy sections of the track
Fantastic sunsets and sunrises, great nights around the fire, many unforgettable experiences for everyone
Team photo with our Simpson Desert shirts – a great family adventure
We made it! The entire group standing on top of the 40M high sand dune called Big Red which marks the end of the Simpson Desert
Many other events took place during the year and here’s a few shots from those special moments.
We had the rare opportunity of seeing a US college football game in Sydney which gave my old mate Len and I a good excuse to catch up – and a special treat was his youngest son Stephen joined us
In September we had a few laughs with close family and friends during celebrations for a milestone birthday of mine…
…and my PSR running mates gave me a flight in a Tiger Moth as a fitting way to mark the occasion
The highlight of the year was unquestionably our oldest son Will’s marriage to beautiful Gemma
Which also meant an extended and very special visit from California by my parents
The Monday before Christmas marked the first day of my first retirement – and I was hard at work on the property
There’s always things to be done on our property but somewhat perversely Julie and I love playing land barons
Zach and I did get a great bushwalk in before the festive season – and it got a little tricky at times
A huge cave-like overhang high up on the escarpment wall was worth the huge climb to get there
Christmas saw the annual highlight of making Christmas cookies – the quality is definitely improving
The annual team photo of the eight of us before the backyard games began
And the year ended with a combined birthday celebration of Anna and Julie