OZ Day celebrations

Aussie Slang Word of the Day is...

Oldies: Parents

January 26th was Australia Day!

Australians all let us rejoice
For we are young and free
We've golden soil and wealth for toil,
Our home is girt by sea:
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare,
In history's page let every stage
Advance Australia fair,
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia fair.

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross,
We'll toil with hearts and hands,
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands,
For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share,
With courage let us all combine
To advance Australia fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia fair.

It was our first Australia day since moving to Perth. To celebrate Australia Day and show some Aussie pride (even though I'm American) Anouck and I enrolled in the Havaiana Thong Challenge.... erhm 'flip flop' challenge. Brandon wasn't too keen on the idea so he didn't come... but after hearing the exciting tales, I'm pretty sure he'll be joining us next year.

Each year on Australia day, beaches around Australia (Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia) participate in the Havaiana Thong Challenge. The thong challenge for Western Australia was held at Cottesloe beach this year. It cost $30.00 to enter, which gets you a massive inflatable thong. The challenge is to see how many people they can get out on the water. Everyone has to link together while on their tube, and a picture is taken from a helicopter up above. They count how many people are out on the water and the state with the most people wins!

Going to go pick up our thongs

Cottesloe beach

Thong th-thong thong thong

We got all decked out for the special occasion



Aussie Pride

Took some sweet jumping pics


*My favorite*




We had such a good time



Results from the challenge

BONDI - 2068
COTTESLOE - 1947 (We got second place!)
TORQUAY - 1185
MOOLOOLABA - 1167
GLENELG - 443

After the Thong Challenge I rushed home for a quick shower and Brandon and I headed off to a BBQ at the U.S Consulate General, Aleisha Woodward's, house in Kings Park. Aleisha is in our ward, and she is also my visiting teacher. :)

Aleisha's house is at the top of Kings Park and her balcony overlooks the Swan River. We had a spectacular view of the airshow and fireworks over the Swan River. Great food & great company!

Love our Aussies

View from Aleishas house

Firework show

We love Australia!!!!

Love to all my wonderful Aussie mates xx

Best of all.... Anouck and I made it in the West Australian paper the next day. I'd have to say that my first Australia day couldn't have gotten any better!

Let's get physical

Aussie Slang Word of the Day is....

Spewin: Very angry

I thought I would give you a quick update on how the marathon training is going thus far.

Running Stats:

You can click on this link to view the map of my run today and the runs I've done over the past couple of weeks.

• Furthest distance 8.03 miles (12.92 kilometers) using RunKeeper
• Average run 5.7 miles (9.17 kilometers) using RunKeeper
• Average speed is about 9 min 30 seconds per mile (10 min+ during warm up and cool down)
• Average climb 340 feet
• 39.6 miles (63.73 kilometers) ran in the month of January so far using RunKeeper (probably closer to 50 miles total)
• Average calories burned 780
• Average duration 59 minutes

Things I've learned about running:

• Do not drink 'up and go' in the morning before running (instant breakfast drink). It will make you sick. It's better to drink Gatorade/ water & go on an empty stomach before running, then eat when you get done.
• Gatorade & powerade is the bomb!
• I heart carb-loading! Mel and I take this to mean we can pig out on peanut butter cookies. Not the best carb choice, but delicious! I do find that eating lots of carbs the night before helps give me more energy on my run.
• The 1st couple of miles are the hardest for me. It sometimes takes awhile to get into 'running mode,' or for your body to wake up.
• After you hit mile 3, running becomes an automatic response and requires a lot less effort. You don't have to work as hard.
• Miles 4, 5 & 6 are a breeze! I get a total burst of energy and feel like I can run forever!
• Miles 7 and 8 today were tough, because it's a lot of stair climbing... I am able to run some of it, but need to build up my endurance.
• I still have a lot of training to do. The thought of running 26.2 miles (42.19 Kilometers) is terrifying.
• The half marathon is on March 13th. Which Mel and I will be signing up for tonight. Hopefully I can still keep up with the training when I go home to SLC... i'll be rockin the treadmill!

Here are some pictures I have taken from my iphone on my morning runs

Starting off at Kings Park

Around the swan river

My running buddy Mel. Stopped to have a water break outside the Old Swan Brewery

Running in the city


My wonderful hubby who brings me water when I run past his work in the city. Cutest water boy in the whole world might I add! ;)

Running past Brandon's work

Trail up to Kings Park. So pretty. (sorry the picture is crooked)

Stairs up to the top of Kings Park (Mile 7 & 8). Killer.

So Brandon thought it would be funny if I posted this picture and tricked you all into thinking he has put on some weight since moving to Perth.

haha this pic is complimentary via an iphone app I downloaded. The app lets you distort your face...

I thought I would post a few pictures of Brandon on his new road bike. :)

Speedy Gonzales


What a stud!

** Anyone who would like to share tips on running a marathon... it would be greatly appreciated. :)

Surprise

Aussie Slang word of the day #2

Prezzie: present

Surprise! I will be flying home to Salt Lake City to visit in 4 weeks. Feb. 18th-March 3rd to be exact. :)

I still can't believe I will be seeing my family in less than a month! It was a complete spontaneous decision. Last night around this time Brandon and I sat down to talk about our plans for 2011 and when we wanted to fly home to visit. I had every intention of flying home at the end of June, however was slightly hesitant because of my schedule for uni. I don't have my schedule yet for semester 2 and do not know when I will be on my placements for prac... Our advisor had warned us not to book any vacations during our final year, because we are almost constantly on placement. But we decided just to look into flights anyways to get an idea of prices etc. We were running into the same problems as over Christmas, not as extreme, but flights were still quite pricey, since it's yet again 'peak season'. Bahumbug. Just for giggles we looked at flights in Feb. because we had heard that Feb-march had the best prices for traveling. Turns out flights were 1,000 dollars cheaper. I'll have to miss the first day of uni but other than that I was open for 2 weeks. So we booked the flights! I am so so so excited. Words cannot say how thrilled I am to see my wonderful family (The Amussens and Reeses). It makes me a bit teary eyed just thinking about it....

Some things I'm looking forward to doing in Utah:

• Spending LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of quality time with my family (both sides) is definitely the top of my list!!!
• Seeing my nephew Beckham. I can't believe he is one years old!
• Having play dates with my favorite Aguirre girls
• Hanging out with my best girlies
• Playing in the snow: sledding, snowmobiling, snow shoeing, ice skating, whatever! (hopefully there is still good snow)
• Going skiing with my Dad and Chell
• Drinking my moms homemade hot chocolate (and hopefully she'll throw in some raspberry cream cheese french toast- my favorite mmmm).
• Going shopping and buying cheap clothes
• Going to the Salt Lake Temple
• Eating lots and lots of cheap, delicious food. (I'm especially craving Mexican food, because there isn't much over here).
• Taking my nephew dog Saywer on runs (he needs to keep me fit for my marathon in June)
• Visiting USU
• Getting a facial from Mrs. Paigey
• Going to the dollar movies
• Going to Park City

and the list goes on.... I keep getting more and more excited just thinking about it. Hopefully I can sleep tonight!

Can't wait to see you in February!!!!!

Salt Lake City here I come!

Cairns: White Water Rafting & Sky diving

G'day family and friends! My Aussie friends may have noticed (as one of them so kindly pointed out to me) that I made an error on one of Aussie slang words last week. I'm sorry to lead you astray. There was a typo... Sticky beat should have been Sticky beak. Sorry I didn't catch that one... hopefully all of my American readers haven't been going around calling people Sticky beats. That could be embarrassing. haha This error however did help me think of today's "Aussie Slang Word of the Day," which is:

Beet Root: Beets

Capsicum: Bell Peppers

When we first went to Oz I went to subway and ordered my usual Italian BMT and asked for peppers and they started putting jalapenos on... so I quickly said "no, I just want bell peppers." They still looked a bit confused so I pointed. Later I found out that bell peppers are called capsicum here. Oh one of the many joys of being a foreigner.

So I thought I would finish my recap of our trip to Cairns. One of the adventurous things we signed up to do, was go white water rafting... Little did Brandon know that I secretly had a fear of falling off rafts. Some of my friends that attended USU with, may recall a time at Jackson hole (I think that's where it was), where we went floating down rapids on tubes.. well it didn't end pretty. My friend Krissy who I was sharing a tube with ended up breaking her nose (probably on my shoulder) and I ended up getting badly bruised and scrapped up after going off a small waterfall. So I was slightly hesitant about white water rafting, but figured it MUST be safe since thousands of people go on these excursions ever year. I would like to add that we booked in for the "extreme tour," which we later discovered entailed going down level 3 & 4 rapids (5 is the largest rapid)being tipped off the raft, swimming down rapids and cliff jumping. Before we got into the raft we had to pretty much sign every liability release form available just in case we were to get injured or possibly die?!? As we started down the river our tour guide was gracious enough to tell us that the river had claimed two peoples lives alone this year. It didn't stop there after the tour he admitted that in his 11 years of working there he has had to resuscitate people and seen people die. But in his words "that's just mother nature taking it's course." We got a full rundown of the different maneuvers and what to do in case of emergency. Let me just say I was praying the whole way down....

It started out really steady and beautiful and for a split second you forgot what you had gotten yourself into....

We did some cliff jumping, which was a blast!

We were enjoying ourselves as you can see. All smiles!

Then things got a little rocky....

And then things got just down right frightening! *make sure to click on the picture to get the full affect*

But we survived and through the terror, many prayers to let me live to see one more day, it ended up being a blast and I conquered my fear!

Go extreme team!

As if white water rafting wasn't enough to get your heart pumping and turn your anxiety into over drive... we decided on New years eve to jump out of an airplane from 14,000 feet!

Surprisingly it was WAY less scary than white water rafting.. but that's just me. I absolutely loved it and can't wait to do it again!

wahooo!

I can flyyyyyy!

Brandons pictures is my absolute favorite! haha Brandon loved it as well. Verdict out: Skydiving will rock your socks off!

about to land!

Cairns= amazing holiday spot! I highly recommend it. :)

New years resolution

Happy 2011!

We are nearly half way into January and I decided it's time to make my new years resolution. I've decided to go against the typical 'eat healthy, cut out junk food' nonsense... like that's ever going to happen. I love sweets WAY too much! Better put, I will moderate junk food with the hopes of completing my ultimate goal, which is....... to run a marathon! Call me crazy, but it is something I have wanted to do for a few years now. I have put it aside each year thinking eventually I'll get around to it. Well my friends, that day has come and it's happening in 2011. Thank you random woman on google images for this pictures (This is not me).

I love running, exercising and just working up a sweat. It is a great way to cut stress and increase your energy. There is something about hitting the pavement with your own two feet that is so invigorating. I can be having the worst day and somehow just going on a run can turn it all around.

I tend to get a bit obsessive about things. Once I have my mind set on something there is no turning back. So since I have plenty of free time on my hands at the moment with school holidays, I've spent the whole day researching tips on running a marathon. In doing so I have learned all about carbohydrate loading before and after races, how to make homemade Gatorade (which I did... however it tastes nothing like Gatorade), what running gear to wear, how to create the perfect running schedule/ work out regimen, how to conquer running fatigue 'hitting the wall', and most importantly how to work up to a whopping 26.2 miles. There is a lot to learn and a lot of training in store.

I have recruited a friend to take on the challenge with me. My friend Mel and I started training last week. It's not much, but so far we have ran 5 miles and tomorrow I will attempt 7 miles. I have downloaded an app for my iphone called runkeeper, which I highly recommend. It is free through January (to help people get motivated about their new years resolution) and after that it will be $10.00 a month. It is awesome! It is ran by GPS, so it gives you your speed, distance, time, calories burned, elevation etc. It also tracks other physical activity besides running, such as hiking, biking, skiing/snowboarding, rowing and swimming (not sure how that works). So for all my blogging friends who are looking to get trim and slim in 2011 you should totally download this app. If you want to track my progress you can log onto Runkeeper.com and my profile name is LReese. You can also track my progress through facebook if you are interested. It will show you a map of where i've ran etc. pretty cool!

So when's the big day you ask? Well there is a marathon on June 19th that goes around Perth and one on October 23rd that is at Rottnest. We'll see how training goes, but I should be up and ready for the Perth one if I play my cards right. First off though, I am planning on running a 1/2 marathon so I know what i'm getting myself into. There is one on March 13th. So we'll see how things go. Well that's all for now! Wish me luck!

"Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go. It helps us to find out what we are made of. This is what we do. This is what it's all about."
-PattiSue Plumer, U.S. Olympian

“Every morning in Africa, an antelope wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion, or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest antelope, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or an antelope – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” – African Proverb

"Your toughness is made up of equal parts persistence and experience. You don't so much outrun your opponents as outlast and outsmart them, and the toughest opponent of all is the one inside your head." - Joe Henderson