September 12, 2024
Meet the newest family member - Emilia Florence!
Soooo sweet and precious! Little Emilia made here entry into the World in the early morning hours of the same day as her cousin's wedding. September 7th, is a such special day for the whole Patrick clan! Another niece celebrated her 5th Wedding Anniversary, and the happy Wedding couple actually had their first date, on September 7th too! Below are proud parents of Emilia, Laura and Chris!
And below is proud Grandparents - my brother Pappa John and Nonna Joan! Such a blessing to be home for this special moment!
Another great day exploring the South Pacific ! Today as soon as our ship docked in Honiara , and we were cleared by customs, I was off with 9 other residents, to get in 2 small speed boats and head out to Simon's Nature Reserve in the Solomon Islands . It was about an hour long ride across the Iron Bottom Sound but so worth it to experience this special place!
Fun fact - Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse country in the World! It is estimated that there are at least 826 Papuan languages. Some are spoken by just a handful of people, while others by 100,000. (Thanks - Basia & Wikipedia for sharing this information).
Tully is a small sugar mill town about 2 hours south of Cairns and we traveled here with a group of about 20 other residents to go white water rafting in the Tully River at the Gorge in the National Park. It is the beginning of the wet season and the river was running at a high level, so the rapids were class 4 out of 5. We had some trepidation, but were excited for the adventure! OMG so much FUN!!