MAY 2016

 The first thing we thought when we saw the seagulls at the Sydney Harbor Bridge area was...

MINE
MINE
MINE
MINE
("Finding Nemo" Movie reference!)








We walked out there the first time during our first day in Sydney, then back again at night for this great view!

We did the SYDNEY BRIDGE CLIMB!

Yes, we were hooked to a cable so we could not fall!  And yes, we climbed to the top and back down!  It was AWESOME!

Maybe our most favorite thing of the trip other than PEOPLE, was this hike in Australia on the Wentworth Falls/National Pass Trail.
It was stunning the whole way with changes in climate and vegetation...down steep steps cut into the sides of the cliffs and through jungle like areas with white cockatoos and red parrots.

We were excited to meet up with one of Braden's companions from Australia.  Alex made the trip into the city to meet up with us and it was a fun evening!  He works and is a semi-pro rugby player.

After our 4 full days in Australia, including a visit to the Zoo and some shopping, we flew over to New Zealand for the bulk of our trip.

A highlight was meeting Braden's second Mission President and Wife, the Ballis.
We went for Sunday dinner at the Mission Home and had the best visit with them!
I can see why he loves them so much!

We spent a lot of time with Colleen and Lova Mafi who arranged to take us out on this Jet Boat.

Colleen was taught by Braden and is very much the big sister to all the missionaries in the mission...but Braden is her favorite!!






We took them up into the Auckland Tower after the Jet Boat and this is one of the views from the top.

Here is Braden and Lova lying down on the glass pane that looks down I don't know how many stories to the ground below.  Crazy photo!!

Braden served a while as companions with Lova.









Braden is jumping for joy that he can get into the ocean now that he is not a missionary...Missionaries are not allowed to go swimming because of the danger.















We took a bus tour up to the northernmost point of New Zealand to see CAPE REINGA and where the TASMIN and PACIFIC oceans meet.

You could actually see turbulence where they come together at the point...very cool!







One of our favorite activities that we tried on this trip was DUNE BOARDING!  Essentially sledding down sand hills.

The dunes were incredibly tall and pretty steep so it was scary at first!

Braden brought his GO-PRO camera that he could wear and got good videos, and I took one of him coming down to give you all the idea of what we did.

The next day it was rainy, but we had our tour of BAY OF ISLANDS on boat.  We were wet and cold, but it was still very interesting and fun.





And very cool, we came upon a pod of DOLPHINS and got to watch them for a long time!

We loved HOBBITON!!!

Whoever scouted out where to film Lord of the Rings, hit the jackpot when they found the farm that all the Hobbit holes were created in.  They had found a dozen places in New Zealand to film these shots, and then found this farm where they could DO THEM ALL!  It was the most unique hilly and green and incredible landscape!

And the genius family who own the farm, made arrangements to keep the movie set and create tours.  And it is well done!  The detail is incredible!

Braden had heard about a river with a spot called BLUE SPRINGS.  

The Waihou River is very very clear and supplies most of the drinking water for New Zealand.  It appears blue many places along it and there is a deep pool you can see in the upper left.  

Braden dove into that pool...I did not!  The water was FREEZING!  It was all I could do to walk out to the rock and film Braden

We also loved the Rotorua area of New Zealand.
OK, there was not an area we did not love.  But this was interesting because of the thermal activity going on.  This was a Maori run park with geysers, mud pots etc.  The Maori would cook using the steam and the area still uses the power of the steam to heat all their pools etc.
We stayed for a native dinner and performance that was really great too!

This outing was called "THE SQUEEZE!

We went in a Jet Boat to the start of this stream that was heated by geothermal activity...so yes, it was completely WARM!

The entire hike was in-between these narrow rocks...thus the well-deserved name The Squeeze.  We had to turn sideways to get through several spots.

And at the end...a warm waterfall to get underneath and up above, the warm pool to just soak in and relax!

Incredible experience!!
(We did this at the recommendation from Elder Callister who served in NZ several years)














We also visited two caves that had GLOW WORMS!  Talk about crazy insects...the egg turns into these worms that are long and skinny and that put down the long skinny clear tubes you see here...that are BUG TRAPS!  Any bug that flies into the cave sees the glowing end of the worm, and gets trapped in the sticky tubes which pull in the kill to eat.  CREEPY!



One cave would not allow photos, and took us out by boat...the other did allow photos so we got a bunch there.

Beautiful caves with interesting creatures!
We opted NOT to tube in the dark in the river below the first cave!

We explored all of the North Island we could including CATHEDRAL COVE up in the Coromandel area.

We booked it to hike into this coastal wonder.

Then we booked it back up to meet our hosts, the Templetons, at a place aptly called HOT WATER BEACH.
At low tide, you can make your own little sand bathtubs which fill up with HOT WATER from the geothermal activity below the beach at that point.

What an interesting phenomenon!

The Templetons are about the most incredible missionary couple we know!  They served 2 missions to Russia before coming to serve with us in Phoenix with a YSA ward in Prescott.

Now they have been asked to serve in the Hamilton New Zealand Mission Office so they are there daily.  We got to have them for a Saturday while we were there...but they spoiled us rotten with a place to stay and a car to use.
We cooked dinner whenever we were at home to help out the best we could!

So, the BEST THING about this whole trip was truly seeing Braden with people that he loves and that love him.

I don't have photos of nearly all of the ones we spent time with here...but you get the idea!
This was a dinner with two families he helped reactivate and baptize.

They both have the most sweet families ever!

And here we are at Church with both families another day!

4 YSA friends of Braden's he brought BYU tee shirts over for.

And the Kaufana family at our hotel the night before we left with a big bag of chocolate treats!

And before we left, we got back together with Colleen and Lova Mafi again, with their son and daughter, Susie and her daughter who Braden used to teach, and with the Dad of a mission companion, Brother Peihopa.
Mongolian BBQ at its finest!

And they sent us off with the most amazing artwork called KOROWAI made like the traditional Maori feather cloaks worn by royalty.

BACK HOME AGAIN...it was great to be with our own family!

We took Bre and Elliot up with us to hike Stewart Falls along with 3 of our RM's.








Beautiful day  up at the falls.  Just a little chilly, which is perfect for hiking!

Once we got walking, it warmed right up and the jackets came off!

We hiked up to the upper part of the lower falls today too.








And the lower part of the lower falls.

And ALMOST under the falls!
I left the "actually under the falls" to Amelia who was hiking with us!














We loved celebrating Lizzie's GRADUATION!
We are so proud of her and her accomplishment!






And of course, we love getting together to celebrate MOM for Memorial Day!  We loved getting together after our Saturday hike to share memories and to go to lunch together!
WE LOVE OUR FAMILY!!

APRIL 2016

APRIL CONFERENCE brings us lots of visitors from our mission!
This time we were extra happy to have our dear friends the GUTIERREZ family come have dinner with us!  Argelia cared for the mission home and was a huge help and friend to me while we served!  Her daughter lives near Dad in his ward area; he helped Scarlett and her husband find a place to live near UVU.

As is customary for us, we host some of our great mission office friends for these weekends.  This time we had the Cherry's and Kathy Turville stay with us, and Becky King came over for "Ladies Night!"  Amanda was also there with Jimmy and the twins so we were really busy!

We made these cute stenciled bags for our craft!  Really cute!

And the twins were so happy to have new friends to hold them!

After Priesthood meeting, we had a SMORE'S NIGHT out back and thanks to Jimmy and Jim and Scott, we had a working heater out there!

We loved having Jimmy and Amanda and the boys join us!

The next week I made it up to Breanna's class to help out for a morning.  They are a handful, but she really is a fabulous teacher, they are so blessed to have HER!!

Jenna asked us to take some photos of the SLC temple for her to put in her living room so Scott and I both took a bunch of photos to choose from. It was a beautiful time of year with the blossoming trees beginning to bloom out.

I believe this is the one she chose to enlarge and frame.

Scott and I were up in SLC for the sealing of a RM Ty Pemberton to his fiance Rebecca.  They look younger all the time!

We took Tanner and Cody hiking with us up Rock Canyon this month and it was really a beautiful day for most of the time...a bit chilly and then rainy at the end.
Tanner was a MOUNTAIN GOAT!

Up higher we ran into some SNOW!

We went to a reception at WHEELER FARMS that was so pretty! (Nolan Blackhurst)

And to a reception at GRAND AMERICA HOTEL that was so FANCY!! (Sarah Jenson)

This was the view out my front door this week!  The photo does not do it justice at all!  The rainbow just popped out!










And it is fun having Ty Atkinson from our ward in the MTC right now.  His Mom is so excited she brings packages almost every day for Braden to take up to the MTC!

We hosted two APM Dinner Groups this month.
This one was more recent RMs that signed up from the reunion...










And this one for some of our older RMs since one was in town from way back east!

We really do love these kids and are grateful they stop in to check in with us and each other!

Finishing up PRE-K early this year for our trip to Australia and New Zealand so we have been SO BUSY trying to get ready to go!

I think these photos of the twins sum up how we feel about graduation day!!
It has been amazing watching these two grow this year!

MARCH 2016

We just got this cute picture of Carter from Jenna for his Kindergarten photo!  He wins for most handsome in the class, I'm sure of it!

 We had a fun winter hike with Lori, Bre and Elliot in March as well.  We had loved Donut Falls in the summer, and wanted to try it again, not realizing it would be under 3 feet of snowpack.

But that did not stop us.  It did mean some sliding on our behinds though.

After a slippery hike up the river to the top of the falls, you can go inside to see the "Donut Hole" where the water comes through.

Our fearless crew inside the hole.

Bre and Elliot

It's  hard to see Lori in this photo, but she was there!!

My March was also busy visiting family and teaching a lot.
I was really looking forward to my trip with Dad back to see Susan in MO...so it was a big blessing that after her heart problem we were set to fly out the day after she got home from the hospital.

Clair and Bernice met us at the airport to drive us to her place. We had a stop at McDonalds for lunch where these 'staches served a purpose other than Monopoly advertising.

I love the birds in Susan's neighborhood, so colorful and noisy!

 Here we are all together using a timer shot.  We had such a good time visiting and helping Susan out.

My morning run a few times was out along the perimeter of the country frontage road by Susan's place...I am so not used to hills!  Some of them were pretty steep and I had to walk at points.  But it was chilly the whole time we were there and great for jogging.

We loved celebrating Purim with Bernice by her teaching us to make Hamentashen, a yummy cookie called "Hamen's hat" in translation.

The celebration centers on Esther and her helping save the Jewish people.  We did not bring our costumes to wear or we really would have been in the spirit of things!

For the first time in my visits to Susan's, I was there over a Sunday to go to Church.
We met a family that used to live in Jenna's ward in New Jersey so this photo was to send to Jenna.

I got to see the St Louis temple a couple times.  One coming in, and the other when Susan and I went on a day trip to St Louis for her shot and lab tests for the month.  Very pretty temple!

This is hard to see, but it is an Amish buggy.  We drove to Amish country one day to go to a small Amish store for spices and such.  I was careful not to take photos of the people since the religion forbids photos of people...even though the kids were SO CUTE walking home from school and the farming was so beautiful.

So...our visits to Susan's are WORK VACATIONS!
Dad and I lost no time in installing runners up the stairs from the basement.  Here is where they meet going up to the kitchen...nice job Dad!!

Here was another project, finishing the raw edges of this part of the kitchen in the basement.  We stained and then polyurethaned the edges and it was a good fix.

Another of my projects was to repaint the windowsills and some baseboards just to upgrade some thin, not high quality work of the original house.

Susan had got this bench at a yard sale...it was originally white, painted one coat in splotchy red.  We coated it to make it look really good!

Dad was able to build up the sagging deck stairs and reattach the side railings to make her stairs sturdy again!

And our last project was to sand and then paint her front porch railing so it looks brand new!

Here we are right before we left for the Kansas City airport.  We had such a good time and are already looking forward to next year!

The rest of our month was also busy with about 5 visits from RMs and our monthly APM dinner with this great crew!