-8- 'Thank You Australia'

Oh just a little note to my Australia down under.

Tha-hank YOU for your wonderful non-sales taxed prices.

I quite enjoy being able to walk into the shops and know exactly what I am going to end up paying for...instead of calculating six percent of each dollar and adding that one.

Seriously- who came up with that system?

When a pair of shoes says $15, they should really cost $15, not $16.

I mean really, come on people!

And so to you, Australia, today I say

Thank You.

Bush Adventure

Oh I just love doing things with my husband!

With the holiday weekend this past week, Phil and I were up for an adventure.  Phil suggested that I tag along to the youth abseiling activity.  Having been a couple times before, I quickly agreed and was excited to go!

Here's me showing off my skills.  Phil actually conquered the cliff in just three solid leaps!

Yup-that's my man!

The scenery was brilliant.

I finally got a taste of the great Australian bush.

Oh just me, again...
and yes I do realize that there are no photos of Phil from our adventure.
We're still trying to figure out why we failed on that one...

Me n' the lover boy definitely enjoyed our day out together.

-7- Thank You Australia

Don't we all love to get in touch with those around us?

Well don't even fret because Australia has made it easy.

The small & slim lanes are very conducive to closeness.  I can simply roll down my window and touch the car next to me as I drive down the road.

Each morning as I make my way to work, I spend my time maneuvering around randomly parked cars in the middle of my lane on one side while there is opposing traffic in the other.

Lucky me!

Maybe Australia is using it as a unity campaign to bring the country closer together.

maybe they need to conserve space so they decided to make the lanes just large enough for a car...never a semi-truck!

I guess it makes driving exciting. Oh I'm just super stoke to go drive home from work...

Goodies

These socks are so fun and brighten up any dreary day.

...and we're working on our baby zinnias in this cute little growing kit that the American Easter Bunny brought us.

Hopefully they'll bloom someday.

All we can do is wait...

rain...rain...RAIN

I love the rain!

Here in Australia it has been raining for the past week and a half.  I am not even kidding!

And at times it's torrential rain!

Last night when Phil and I came out of the temple it was raining. Simple rain.

As soon as we left the cover of the temple it was like a timer went off, and it POURED!

We were laughing so hard as we ran to the car.  

We were so wet by the time we got there and we even had an umbrella.

Then, we still had to make the trip home.

I have honestly never driven in rain like we saw last night!

I have done my fair share of snow storms but this kind of rain is something we don't see in Utah and if we do, it lasts under 5-10 minutes.

I've been sitting here at work all morning and I can hear the rain on the roof.

It's raining so hard and it's been that way for 3 hours...and that's just today!

I wish I could describe it - it's a crazy amount of water coming from the sky...constantly.

It makes for a cozy day though- staying in, doing homework, cooking and watching Amazing Race.

Maybe I'm a nerd and it's just rain.

Maybe this is a blessing for me to help me not be homesick.

Oh well! I love love LOVE the rain!

-6- Thank You Australia

Oh wow!

I know this photo is from a while back, but it's great!

I don't know if you can tell, but we were totally freaked out by these performers when we took this photo.

They do extreme things that no normal human being should do and some made us cringe to watch.

But still, no-one can turn their head when a guy shoves a long balloon down his throat,

then pops it with a long knife,

let the popped balloon go down into his stomach,

and then uses huge pincers to pull it out.

And this was all just a stretching exercise for his throat in which he would later place 17 swords.

Impressive?...yes.

Weird?...yes.

Psycho?...yes.

...and so to you, Australia, today I say

Thank You.

My Home

A couple weekends ago I found a historical walk down in the older part of Sydney.  It was a self-guided tour and had some really cool sites.  Our friends Dan, Caylee and their daughter Georgia joined us on our adventure.  It was a lot of fun!

Phil and I got to look across the harbour to where we got engaged.  It was an amazing view.
Plus, we got some bonding time with Georgia! Ha-she was so good and was so excited to hang out with Phil & I that day.

I just love walking around and looking at historic buildings and learning about how life used to be...
so this was certainly ideal for me!

There were odd sculptures all along the way too..

It was a long day and we really learned a lot about Australia.

It was one of my favorite days here so far and I can't wait to go and explore more.

-Good night Sydney-