A Blessed Life

Recently I went to Visalia to visit my family. We always have so much fun together and this time was no exception. My dad recently got a Wii fit and we enjoyed endless hours of fun from that one game. I was so pleased with myself for keeping the high score on the hula hoop game until my 10 year old niece figured out how to play the game and blew my score out of the water. I still can’t figure out how she got so many spins in 60 seconds because my sister dad and I stayed up till midnight one night trying to beat the score. I came within three spins and had to call it quits.

One morning my grandparents took me out to a wonderful breakfast. It was so nice to relax and visit with my grandparents. I thought it was funny when I ordered and my grandma was still looking at the menu then she ordered the same exact thing I did. Good taste must run in the family.

On Sunday, we had a family party and I was able to visit with a lot of my family that I don’t get to see that often. It was nice to visit and enjoy some good food. My sister helped me make a fruit tray and a vegetable platter . . . she did an absolutely amazing job.

We also had lots of fun swimming in the pool. Believe it or not it was almost too cold some days to swim. On the last day I was there my mom and I took my two nieces and my cousin’s son swimming and we had tons of fun.

On Friday, my sister, her family, her in-laws, and I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We had a spectacular a time!  At one of the touch pools an aquarium employee told us how a decorated crab cuts plants with his claws, then throw them on his back where they proceed to grow onto his shell and the crab becomes covered in plants. The crab obviously does this to hide from predators and I can tell you that it works because we were looking right at one and didn’t even see it until it was pointed it out. The crab was very hard to spot when surrounded by seaweed and other ocean creatures. My favorite exhibit was the seahorse house, followed closely by the otter exhibit.

While I was in California I hung out with my brother a couple of days. First we went miniature golfing. We had lots of fun until I added up the scores and I found out he beat me by 2 strokes. Some of the holes were crazy difficult so I was pleased at how well I did overall. After we were done we met up with our dad and had a fun lunch together.

Another day we went bowling with one of my brother’s friends. I have no idea where I picked it up but when I bowl I do this strange lung move before I throw the ball down the lane. Well, last time I went bowling it helped me tremendously because I beat everyone and that hardly ever happens. This time the move failed me because I barely broke 100 on the first game, and I got 90 something the second game.  We all did pretty horribly, but had tons of fun.

My brother’s friend owns a doughnut shop . . . when I found this out and heard that the doughnuts are actually good I had to try one. I had been telling him to take me in to the shop since the day I arrived but we never found the time to go in. So, on Saturday morning I woke up to a box of doughnuts. My brother stayed up until 4:00 AM making me doughnuts at his friend’s shop. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened the box and saw 12 different delicious looking doughnuts. I had two right then and they were super delicious. Yes I did say I ate two, and yes I did have a huge tummy ache a little while later, but I felt so pleased that my brother made the doughnuts just for me! Thank Bruce for the doughnuts; I won’t ever forget your kindness, or my tummy ache. Next time I will only eat one.

Bryan and I recently celebrated our 5 year anniversary. Since Bryan had the day off we went to the beach near our house and hung out. There isn’t much else to say about the beach except that we enjoyed our time together!

Bryan and I just got back from a two week stay in Australia. We had many adventures and thoroughly enjoyed our time there. I will slowly be posting pictures from our trip and adding our pictures from the Great Barrier Reef once they get developed. On the map below, I highlighted all the places we went with the colored stars. *A special thanks to all of our friends in Australia for giving us the time of our life and all the wonderful adventures that we will never forget!

We started our day off in the Italian section of Sydney. We went to a little Italian cafe called Bar Italia. Bryan had an affogato, Zeph had a flat white, and I stuck with my usual mocha. It was so delicious. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better I bought a ricotta cannoli that was to die for.

We met up with Nick in Double bay and while the men worked I went to the beach and wrote in my journal.

After that we had snacks then walked around a bit. For dinner we ate at Maya Da Dhaba. It was the most fabulous Indian restaurant. We all shared chooza chicken, saag paneer, chicken tikka masala, naan, and rice. It was the best tasting Indian food that Bryan and I have ever had.

The next day was our travel day. Zeph picked us up and we had a farewell coffee along the water. When we got to the airport we didn’t say goodbye, but rather, until next time. We had an amazing time in Australia. We met amazing people, created life-long friendships, and made memories that will last a lifetime. Thank you to all the people who made our time in Australia so wonderful, we cannot wait until we see you again.  

We started off our day by walking to Hyde Park. Next to the park is the beautiful St. Marys Cathedral. We looked around the inside and watched some old lady yell at all the tourist for taking pictures inside the cathedral. We then met up with Zephyr at the pool of reflection in Hyde Park. We then quickly made our way down to Chinatown for some Yum Cha with Dietmar and Liz. (Yum Cha is the same as Dim Sum in the states.) That was a fun experience but we ate way too much so it was a good thing that Zeph had a lot of walking planned for that afternoon.

After lunch we went to Paddy’s market where we bought some souvenirs. Then we made our way down to the QVB (Queen Victoria Building) and bought some tasty chocolate that we enjoyed later on in the park. After that we walked down to the Australian Museum and enjoyed looking at a lot of art.

Next, we made our way down to the Royal Botanical Gardens. There were tons of bats in many of the trees in the gardens. Bryan really liked looking at the bats. We came across two cockatoos and stopped to get some pictures, when all of a sudden Bryan and Zeph were surrounded by like 5 or 6 more birds. It was like they all of a sudden became bird charmers and attracted them all to us. So, we had some fun seeing how close we could get to the birds without them flying away. Then we went and rested near the water and enjoyed a few pieces of the chocolate we had bought earlier.

Finally, we walked along the water to the Sydney Opera House and took some pictures in front of the Harbour Bridge. On the walk back to the hotel we stopped at the Lindt Cafe and had a mocha, hot chocolate and chocolate cake. It was absolutely sinful but was worth every calorie. Bryan just told me that there are only two Lindt cafe’s in the world; and both are in Sydney. A small tear was just shed.

This was the big day of hotel changing. Bryan and I didn’t like the hotel we were staying in so we walked into town, found another hotel, checked out, and then dragged our bags to the new hotel. We ended up at the hotel Zeph originally recommended to us so I should have listened to him in the first place. Yes Zeph, you were right.

We met Zeph down at the harbour and took a short ferry ride to Manly. When we got there we walked through town and stumbled upon a beautiful Aboriginal art gallery. The woman in the gallery explained to us that Aboriginal art is very practical. They have a few different uses for their style of art. For one type they use shapes and patterns to map an area or region.

We walked closer to the beach and bought fish and chips for lunch then walked down and ate lunch at the beach. When we were sitting there a seagull swooped down and stole a “chip” right out of Zypher’s hand. At first I thought he was quite a cheeky little guy until another one stole a “chip” from my hand and came so close that he brushed my hair! (Cheeky is a word the Australians use. It has a couple meanings but it can be used to mean being bold.) After lunch we walked along the beach and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

Zeph secured a ride to Sydney with Dietmar and Elizabeth. Unfortunately, he forgot to mention to Dietmar how much luggage Bryan and I had.  When they pulled up at the house in the car with the trunk already half full I had little hope that all of our stuff was going to make it to Sydney. Oh me of little faith. We managed to fit most of the stuff in the trunk except . . . Liz had a box of wine at her feet and a canvas bag on her lap, Bryan had a computer bag at his feet and a backpack on his lap, Zephyr had a [heavy] carryon suitcase on his lap, and I had a backpack on my lap. It doesn’t sound like much but it was quite the sight to see. I really wish I would have gotten a picture of the whole thing but we were in the car just perfectly so I didn’t want to upset the balance and ask someone to take a picture. I was glad that it only took us around 2 hours to get to Sydney, but I will be forever grateful to Liz and Dietmar for giving us a ride to Sydney.

Before dinner we met up with Jeremy at the Sheaf. We talked for a bit and then went to the FW dinner party. A wonderful woman, named Voula, hosted the FW team for a wonderful dinner.  We each had a turn to give a speech; some people took a more heartfelt approach and some of the speeches were funny. We all had a very good time and had a lot of laughs. Bryan and I had an absolutely wonderful time getting to know the team as well as getting to know Voula. (Thank you Voula for the delicious food and wonderful company. I will never forget the fun we all had!)

I woke up early and decided to read so that I wouldn’t disturb the boy’s beauty sleep. All of a sudden I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and noticed a wallaby sitting at the base of a tree near the house. Not caring who I woke at this point I ran down the hall and woke Bryan to see the Wallaby. I think the wallaby spotted me through the window when I tore down the hall to get Bryan because it didn’t stop watching us for the longest time. Fortunately, I was able to get a pretty good picture of it before it hopped away.

After breakfast we drove across Kangaroo Valley to Dietmar and Elizabeth’s house. We had coffee and tea on their back patio before we left for our hike. We also spotted a wedge tail eagle.

Dietmar took us on a 1.8 km trail through the bush, that lead to a high point on some rocks, overlooking a dam. The sites were absolutely beautiful.

Since we missed seeing Fitzroy Falls on our first go around Zeph took us back there to view the magnificent falls. The waterfall is 81m (266 ft) high. They have many platforms along a path where you can view the falls. The first platform we went to was about 30 feet from the falls and at the very top. This made me very nervous so I only went out on the platform long enough to take a picture then went back to the safety of solid ground. Then we walked along the path to two other platforms to get different views of the falls. Along the way they had informational native animal signs. We learned about a Lyre bird. It’s a sort of Australian mocking bird that is amazing at mocking different animals and sounds. They are known to make a loud chainsaw noise.

After dinner we went looking for wombats. We were very lucky and saw several. Zephyr even got us so close to one we could almost touch it. They were so cute I wanted to take one home with me but I couldn’t figure out how to get it through customs if I was actually able to catch one.