Sanders Family Australian Adventures

Australia and New Zealand hosted the FIFA Women's World Cup over the winter in 2023. When we heard this would be here, we decided to buy tickets to one of the games being held in Sydney (which is only 3 hours away by car/bus or 4 by train). We chose a semi-final match because the tickets were cheaper than the final match tickets. Our hope when we purchased them in October 2022 was that we would be able to see the US Women's National Team (and defending champs) in action.  Unfortunately, the US was knocked out pretty early. It is ok though, because our main goal was for the girls to see women excel in their field.   Australia's Matildas team had a historic run the World Cup, advancing further than Australia (men or women's) had ever made it before. There really was Matildas fever here in Australia. So much so, that the Matildas televised matches broke viewing records.  We were lucky enough to see the most watched television show on record in Australia (with 11 million vi

 For the rest of the girls winter break (which is three weeks in length here, and usually runs from late June until mid-July), the girls elected NOT to do any camps. Mike and I were not very comfortable with them sitting home alone ALL day, so we tried to work some early days to get home to the girls and take them to do things around Canberra. First up in school break fun- The National Museum of Australia.  It is right on Lake Burley Griffin, as has a beautiful view of the lake. It took us a while to visit this museum, only getting there after living here over a year, which is too bad because it is a neat place to visit.  The museum preserves Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. We were lucky enough to sign up for a special class being taught by indigenous artists on textile block printing.  It was a lot of fun, and we got great new tote bags out of it. Lauren cutting out her design Lauren preparing to print her design