ANZAC Day...

With their hair a little whiter, their step not quite so sure
Still they march on proudly as they did the year before.
Theirs were the hands that saved us, their courage showed the way
Their lives they laid down for us, that we may live today.

To the men & women who fought so hard for our country... Thank you

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
We will remember them ♥
LEST WE FORGET


So, this morning we were up before 6am (dang it! Pepper didnt sleep the whole night through *unhappy face*) but Dad was kind enough to start the alternator for us so that we didnt have to get dressed in the dark :)

At 6:30am we started our journey down to Nambour for the ANZAC day parade. EVERY year for the last 30 something years, my Mum has marched in the parade (bar one year when we were flooded in). She insists that we also join her - but its not such a drama as we're quite willing to partake of this tradition. We even left our honeymoon early so that we could assist her with her Brownies in the parade :) LOL!

This year, Nambour council had relegated the parade to a side street, which I personally find quite abhorrent! How dare they hide our honoured ANZACs down a side street!! Shame on you Nambour Council! *Grrr*

Anyway, it was a fabulous turn-out with nearly all of Mum's regular Brownies participating in the march (she ususally loses a few who would like to walk with their school, band, etc)

This year Michael was the 'bag-lady' and I was the photographer (we tend to swap duties every year) but I suspect that Michael wanted this particular job as it also involved keeping Pepper too! Yes, that's right! Pepper came with us to Nambour just to watch the parade! :) She LOVED it!! :)

She woo-ed the crowd like the star she is! :) Right up until the band started to play :( The poor darling freaked out (more than just a little bit) and kind of went beserk! She started barking (nope, I didnt know she knew how to do that yet either!) and growling (another new trick she learnt today!) so Michael stepped far away from the parade and held her tightly, but she had the shakes up for AGES afterwards :( It wasnt until (about 20 minutes later) that he started distracting her by introducing her to strangers again that she started to come good, but she wasnt herself even when I met back up with them another 15 minutes later (to get the snacks for the kids that Michael had in his bag. Poor little thing! She definately didnt like the sound of the service through the loudspeakers, so Michael and I went well away and sat with her on some steps. Although she seemed happy enough, she certainly wasnt herself, and preferred to stay sitting on our laps instead of exploring.

Here's her and Michael having a snuggle:



(Note: Michael's poppy and Rosemary)

Then, we unfortunately had the big jet fly overhead AND a smaller (also noisy) plane go over (several times)...so the poor little darling really had a rough time of it! :(

After the service, and after cleaning up the spot where our Brownies were, we met up with Chris and Tammy (who came to our wedding) and later on we also saw Andrea and Ryan! :) It was the first time that they'd met Pepper and it may have been a good thing because Andrea was a little nervous about dropping her if she held her. But today was a good day as Pepper was still quite subdued.

Although I didnt get a photo of Ryan with Pepper (probably a good thing as he's quite photogenic he may have outshone our Pep-Pep) LOL, but I did manage to snap one of Andrea :)

Here she is with our timid little muffin:



Andrea LOVED her! :)

After spending AGES catching up with Andrea and Ryan we went back to the car, grabbed some lunch, then headed home. Pepper slept the whole way - like the wonderful travel dog she is.

Upon arriving at home, her attitude was like the traumatic morning had never happened! She enthusiastically greeted Pa, and Sarah and her little tail was wagging once again. :D When we finally got her home to our house, she decided that she wanted to run around and play for a little while in the long grass/ wilderness. She would quite literally THROW herself down, so I guess its quite lucky that she was playing in soft grass! :)

Here's a photo of her with Michael's shoe in the photo to show how much she's grown (doubled her size in the 4 short weeks we've had her!):



They then proceeded to RUN around the house/car/yard several times and she was STILL full of energy when they came inside! HA! And here I was hoping for a nap! :)

Im really glad she didnt have a lasting negative effect from the loud noises today...I think we're going to have to get a recording of loud noises and start playing them on the stereo at night-time, gradually increasing the volume until it doesnt bother her anymore. Mum thinks its too quite around our house, so that's why she isnt used to it. It wasnt until AFTER we arrived home that we realised that we should have said a prayer for her when it happened, but we made up for it with one when we got home :)

I also thought I should take a photo of Emily and Patrick as they havent featured on here for quite a while:



Although this post didnt start out to be a running commentary on Pepper, I would like to just go back and bring our attention to the men and women who fought valiantly to keep our country free...LEST WE FORGET