Sunday, 5 Nov 2017

Monday, 30 Oct -  Spent most of the day getting food and decorations ready for the Halloween party tomorrow.  Mike did spend a bit of time mowing the grass at one of the sisters since the men did not get that done on Saturday.  Then he mowed the grass at home before we had to have one of the farmers come in and bale it.

Tuesday, 31 Oct - HAPPY HALLOWEEN.  TRICK OR TREAT.  The Elders helped decorate the cultural centre in the morning.  We worked on food in the afternoon and then got to the meeting house around 4 pm to finish the games set up, etc.  5 pm was show time.   We did have a very good attendance by members and neighbors.  Every one seemed to have a good time and enjoyed playing the games and talking.  Sister Best did take some of the kids (20 of them) out and about the neighborhood to do some trick or treating.

Wednesday, 1 Nov - COLLAPSE DAY.  We did not have much time to rest and relax.  Since the Coffs elders were in town we held DTM at 830am. Then we worked on meals for the Elders that night and getting food prepared for one of the sons of a member who was in hospital..

Thursday, 2 Nov - JACA THURSDAY the BIG day for Grafton Jacaranda festival.  We picked up Sarah a little after 6 am and participated in the free breakfast put on in the town centre park. Then we took a walk through the vendor booths on Prince street.  Margaret had to play taxi at 9 am, so we came home for a few minutes before the taxi run.  Mike stayed home to work on the blog, fix a trolley for Sarah and hang up wash. He hopes that we can go down to the festival for lunch and get some purple ice cream and a sausage at the Army Cadet booth.  Paul, the tradie, came by to look at the broken tile in the bathroom and is scheduled to stop by tomorrow to retile them if he can get the new tile.

Friday, 3 Nov - Paul, Tradesman, came in this morning and fixed/reset the tile & towel holder. He also re-grouted the shower - looks real nice now.  We stopped by hospital to visit one of the sisters and one of the youth.  Then we headed to Coffs to pick up Rhonda Crosbie at the Coffs Harbour airport.  Later in the evening we took Rhonda to Memorial Park and watched the Jacaranda festival fireworks - They went on for a long time and we were impressed with the quality of fireworks and the duration.

Saturday, 4 Nov - We went back downtown Grafton.  We stopped by I Scream and had Jacaranda ice cream cone (purple and was either boysenberry or blue berry).  Then we watched the parade that started at 5 pm.  After the parade we went back down 2 blocks to the river and ate dinner at the "Feast".  It started to drizzle a bit, but Rhonda found a covered shelter and we sat under the shelter and ate dinner.

Sunday, 5 Nov - A normal Fast & Testimony meeting on the first Sunday of the month.  The testimonies were really moving this morning. We are having a month long Book of Mormon challenge this month and several of the testimonies focused on the Book of Mormon. More on the challenge as we go through the month.  Each day is assigned  a scripture or a talk by a general authority.  It is really quite good.

Elders Quorum service project - cutting down some limbs for one of the sisters.  This was done last week, but I forgot to include any photos.

Almost have all the limbs cut off

Christ Church where the Jacaranda ecumenical religious service was held

Ecumenical service program

cows, chute & Jacaranda

monster family portrait made by Margaret with button eyes

Watermelon jackolantern by Mike

Cupcake with body parts by Sister Jones

Turtle Ninja with ping pong ball toss

Shooting nurf bullets into little monster's mouth

Rain Best working on witch hat ring toss with Elder Rex

Skeleton veggie dip by Tabithah Best

Watermelon spewing up by Mike

Elder Mitchell & Elder Corpany with mustaches 

Pineapple jackolantern

Oreo snake by Sister Price

Rain Best with additional mouth

Willow Best & Arielle Keenes

Getting ready to go out trick or treating

Bethany Norman with Arielle & Willow

Walking away with the loot

Preparing sausages & eggs for Jaca Thursday breakfast.  Today is a city holiday

some of the line for the Jaca Thursday breakfast

Just in case you do not know that this is Jacaranda Festival time

Petting zoo for the kids, complete with Alpaca

What the festival is all about

Rhonda Crosbie with Jacaranda trees

Aussie mailman

Love this sign

Rhonda Crosbie with Jacaranda

Margaret & Rhonda

Mike

Rhonda Crosbie with green & cows in the background

The stage on the river before the fireworks

boom

More boom

and more

and more

tweaking the 'stach

getting into the spirit of Halloween

Mike & Rhonda Crosbie enjoying Jacaranda ice cream cone

The beginning of the Jacaranda Festival parade

Just the right colour of purple for the Jacaranda parade

kind of a small camping trailer

enjoy the parade

and more cars

The Jacarand Queen & court

Most of the floats were semi-trailers decorated like this one

Will you marry me??????

Navy cadets

I Scream ice cream & horse pal

Indonesian ladies

The Filipino Community serves in the farming areas around Grafton

Fire & rescue

One of 3 bagpipe groups in the parade

part of the crowd at the "Feast' after the parade.  Heaps of food stalls selling their wares.  We had wood fired pizza

Looking out on the mighty Clarence river - nice and calm after getting our pizza.  A nice quiet way to end the day