A little bit of everything

Australian Slang of the Day

Minga: someone who is unfortunate looking

I am currently sitting at the Sydney airport in the international terminal, awaiting my 16 hour plane ride to LA. As if the 17 hours wasn't enough torture, I also have a 7 hour layover here in Sydney, and a 4 hour layover in LA. I took a red eye flight from Perth to Sydney at 12:00am-4:00am. I feel a bit jet lag drugged already due to the lack of sleep, and it's only the beginning. I still have another 24 hours or so to go. haha oh well, what better way to pass the time then to blog.

No I haven't forgotten about my families vacation, but instead of going through the days one by one, I am now compiling them into one blog entry consisting of my favorite memories/pictures.

'Bush walking' in Kings Park and the tree top walk
Beach Bums. We spent lots of time at the beach...

My "goal" was to teach Michelle how to body surf. That didn't work out so well. Michelle has been petrified of sharks since 3rd grade. Her 3rd grade teacher was fascinated with shark attacks and Michelle has been scarred ever since.... (good thing there are no sharks in Australia wink wink) she is also slightly terrified of waves. haha So instead of body surfing I decided to take baby steps, and teach her how to swim under a wave. She was a bit timid at first, but got the hang of it. Maybe someday we'll work up to the body surfing.

*Sailing*

Rent a yacht! We took the 'cats' (mini catamarans) out for a spin around the swan river. There was zero wind, so not the best day to go sailing, but we still had a good time. I am proud to say that Michelle and I kicked Brandon and my moms butts sailing!

BBQ on the beach. Sounds amazing right. That's what we thought. Unfortunately the weather did not want to cooperate and it was practically a tornado outside. We could barely eat because our food kept trying to fly off our forks. The seagulls were of course loving this. We had quite the seagull audience circled around us. It was still fun though, and delicious. Brandon you are the King of the BBQ!

Rent a bike extravaganza.

For the last activity of the trip we rented bikes and rode around the swan river. It was a blast... that was until Michelle nearly ended my life, in order to save the life of a duck. I was riding behind Michelle, probably a little too closely, when all of a sudden without any warning, she hits her brakes to allow a duck to cross the road. I am a good foot, if that, behind her, so I slam on my front brakes (bad idea), and go flying over the handle bars. I don't know how I survived this, but I managed to land on my feet after my bike did a complete flip. Bike trail
Last night in Perth. Tear. It was my moms birthday the day they flew home (April 11th) so we celebrated a day early. We took them for a celebration dinner at The Old Swan Brewery, which is on the swan river. It was delicious! Happy Birthday Mom! :)

The Old Swan Brewery

Can't wait to see you in 20 + hours!!!!

A night to remember

I love this man! xoxoxo

Brandon spoiled me for our anniversary, and gave me a wonderful night that I will always remember. He made reservations at the C Restaurant, which is on St. Georges Terrace, in the heart of Perth city. The restaurant has huge glass windows that over look the entire city, and here's the amazing part...the restaurant does a 360. The restaurant slowly spins around, and you get to see all of Perth. It was so beautiful to see the city at night, and the food was spectacular.

This is us eating desert. I ordered honey flavoerd panna cotta with chocolate ice cream, and Brandon ordered his usual cheese plate for dessert. I enjoy teasing him repeatedly for this. Who orders a cheese plate for dessert...seriously. We also took a video inside the restaurant, but I can't get it to load for some reason....

My handsome hubby outside the restaurant

Then Brandon and I went for a romantic moonlight walk on the beach. Remember it's winter here right now, hence the reason I am pasty, and wearing a heavy duty wool coat. ( I really shouldn't complain, I think it has only gotten down to 60 degrees so far, which is nothing compared to winter in Utah).

It was a wonderful anniversary. Thanks babe! Love you :)

Happy Two Year Anniversary

Today marks the day of two years full of happiness and waking up every morning to the man I love....

It doesn't seem that long ago that I said 'yes', and was married for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake temple. Time has gone by so fast. In our short years of marriage we have shared so many adventures, life changes, accomplishments, and ups and downs together. Though we've only been married two years, I really can't picture life without Brandon, nor would I want to picture sharing experiences with anyone else by my side. Not only is he the love of my life, but he is also my best friend.

Brandon you have enriched my life in so many ways, and I am so grateful that I said 'yes' two years ago.

Happy two year anniversary. I love you with all my heart!

I can't wait to see where life will take us next.

King Carnival, and Skatt fashion show

Aussie Slang Word of the Day is..

Dog Eye: Meat Pie

Sometimes Aussies like to make slang words that rhyme... If this doesn't make sense to you, it's okay, I'm a little confused myself.

I thought I would take a quick break from my family vacation novel, to talk about what Brandon and I have been up to for the past couple weekends. A couple weeks ago Brandon and I decided to go on a random adventure, so we jumped in the car and took a road trip down to Mandurah. Mandurah is about an hour south of the city. We had never been there before so we let destiny be our guide... and destiny lead us to this little gem...

King Carnival. We bought some tickets....
Went on the small rickety Farris wheel.

Went on the tilt-a-whirl... which i'll get to later.

Drove the bumper cars. We were the only two people. It was awesome!!!!

Back to the tilt-a-whirl. This was by far the fastest ride I have ever been on in my entire life! Not joking. I wish I was...because looking at this ride, it looks pretty whimpy right? Yeah, that's what we thought.... Yet again we were the only two people on the ride. The carni man took our tickets, and then proceeded to give us a talk about holding on tight, and tucking our heads in so we don't get whip lash. I was thinking sure whatever we can definitely handle it. hahah think again. He told us to raise our hand, to signal when we had enough and wanted him to stop. Boy were we in for a surprise. It started off pretty fast, similar to the one they have at lagoon. This one however not only goes around, but you are spinning in a circle at the same time. We were loving it in the beginning. I couldn't stop laughing. I felt like a little kid again. Then it got faster, and faster, and faster, and FASTER... until I literally thought my head was going to spin off. My head was flopping all over the place, definitely had whip lash, and I was hanging out the side of the cart. At this point there was no more laughing, but pure fear. The problem was I couldn't even raise my hand to give him the secret signal to stop the ride. I finally managed to blurt out- Brandon. stop. Brandon raised his hand, and finally the ride stopped. I could barely walk I was so dizzy. That is a ride, and weekend I will never forget!

The following weekend us girls had a wild 'girls night out', and went to a fashion show at Skatt salon. My friend Jade knows the owner, Lisa. (her name is cool, so she has to be cool) It was amazing!

Bianca, Dannielle, me, Jade

Apparently I missed the memo about wearing black.

There was one down side to the evening. The runway was down the center of the salon, with a counter on the right side against the wall, where the hairdressers work their magic. Usually there would be chairs next to the counter, but they took them all out to make more room. So our bright idea, along with many other people, was to sit/lean on the counter while watching the fashion show. Bad idea. The counter went crashing down. People had champagne glasses on the counter, and those also went crashing to the floor, shattering into a million pieces. The room went silent and the entire crowd turned to glare at us. Sorry Lisa. Bad first impression....

Luckily it should be a fairly easy fix.

You can't really tell that it is broken in this picture. The counter is slanted downwards and falling off the wall. Sad sad day.

But all in all, it was a wonderful weekend!

Day 4 of vacation

Aussie slang word of the day is.....

Joey: Baby Kangaroo

On Monday I booked my flights to Salt Lake. I will be in SLC from June 21st-July 15th. That is less than a month away. I can hardly wait. I have three weeks left of the semester. This semester has really flown bye. Grad school has definetly been intense, especially these past couple weeks, with all we have due at the end of the semester. I also recently started prac on Tuesdays. The past couple weeks I have been observing a speech language pathologist at a language development school. The language development school is for children preschool- 3rd grade who have language impairments. They do the same curriculum as other primary schools (elementary schools), but with an emphasis on language. This week I was at Armadale community health centre, where I observed a speech pathologist who also works with children. It is a government owned health care centre for kids, so services are free. She works with kids for language, articulation, stuttering etc.

They are keeping us nice and busy this semester, but I have really enjoyed it so far. Sadly, this is pretty much the only break I will get inbetween semesters from here on out. So I plan on living it up!

I can't wait for the semester to end, because then it will be vacation time!!!! I can't wait to see my wonderful family (both sides of course), and friends. :) Brandon is flying out on July 3rd until July 16th. He then will be flying to Niagara Falls for a 3 day conference for work.

On with the family vacation that I have been dragging out for far too long.

On day 4, of my familys vacation, it was overcast and rainy, so we went shopping in the CBD (central business district).

We ate lunch at a place called "shmears," which is a block away from Brandons work, and one of our favorite lunch spots down town. They have amazing sandwiches and salads.
Australia is famous for fire opals. So in remembrance of Michelle and my moms visit to Perth, my mom bought us all a pair of opal earings. I love them. Whenever I wear them I think of my mum and sis!

We had a wonderful day shopping, and walking around the city. Later that evening we decided to go out for some Chinese food. We are still learning the area, so unsure of where to go, we picked a random Chinese restraint online, and boy was it spectacular. This was probably one of the most memorable experiences from my families visit. We pull into the parking lot, and not taking into account that we are the only cars there, we walk in and are seated. Not a single soul is in the entire restaurant. I will now paint a picture of what it looked like inside.... The tables had plastic coverings on them, with little paper napkins folded into a fancy triangles (like you would see at a nice restaurant, except they would use cloth napkins, not paper ones). The wallpaper was peeling off the walls, due to either a leak or the mold growing on the ceiling. Our waiter was a very short, very buff Asian man with a strong Australian accent. It just didn't fit, no matter how you looked at it. The most classic part of the dining experience, was when 'home on the range' began playing in the background, but Chinese style. (you know the type of music I'm talking about that plays in Chinese restaurants). By this time we were starving, slightly on the delirious side, so once the music started we all burst out laughing. I'm talking about the laughing where tears are pouring down your face, your side aches, and you can't breath, type of laughing, and no matter how hard you try you can't gain your composure. Everyone, but Brandon is laughing hysterically and a sweet Asian woman walks over to take our order. She was a bit concerned when she saw my mom was crying, little did she know it was out of laughter due to the music/ ambiance of the whole place. She didn't speak much English. We explained not to be worried, that we were only laughing and hadn't had a chance to look over the menu yet. She left looking a bit concerned and had her son take our orders instead, because his English was a little better. So then this short, buff, Asian man somewhere in his mid twenties comes to take our orders, and before doing so he proceeds to ask us what personal training is like in the US. Very bizarre. We finally gained our composure enough to order. I'll admit, we were slightly worried about getting food poisoning, but we survived, and had a night we will always remember. It doesn't look nearly as hilarious in this picture as it actually was, so you'll just have to take my word on it.

Day 3: of the Amussen, Taggart, Reese Adventure

Hello Hello,
and the "Aussie Slang Word of the Day" is......

Brekkie: Breakfast

So I am going to make a conscious effort not to ramble on too much during this post, and to strictly get to the point, because my families vacation is going to turn into a month long project if I don't.

As always, a quick update on our end. School is going great for me. I had a 4 day weekend, because of ANZAC day, which I will explain below. The break was amazing! It was a well deserved, and needed break after the week I had. Saturday afternoon my mate Jade, took me OP shopping. For those of you who don't know what OP shops are, they are thrift shops, or for all you Utahans better known as the D.I. Don't get me wrong OP shops can have some pretty growdy stuff, but if you are dedicated in your search efforts, you are bound to find some amazing treasures. I spent $50.00 and bought, hold your breath... 3 blouses, a sweater, 2 dresses, 2 t-shirts, a jacket, and a pair of shoes (the shoes were bran-spankin new, originally $110, and I got them for a whopping $7.00). I think Brandon was slightly worried at first when I walked in the door with my large bag of purchases, but his concern quickly turned to disbelief and amazment; $50.00 can't beat that. Brandon had 2 sailboat races last week, and one this week. Saturday he was gone for a good 5 and 1/2 hours! I was beginning to wonder if he fell overboard or something was wrong, but turns out there was no wind so they got stuck in the middle of the swan river. His crew members took advantage of the time to relax, had one too many glasses of wine, and ended up missing half of the course. Luckily Brandon, with his glass of water, was able to get them safely back to the yaht club. Leave it to the Mormons to be your designated driver, or navigator in this case. Brandon is becoming a great sailor, and is currently learning how to be a wave jocky... don't know what that is, neither do I... so you'll have to ask him. :)

Sunday was ANZA day, Australia's memorial day where everyone commemorates the brave soldiers that served in the war.

See I've already rambled on farrrrr tooooo long! Let's get to the important stuff now. On the third day of my family's visit, we went to the Perth Zoo, and then took a tour of Curtin University.

Perth Zoo

Crickey it's a croc!

and a rather large one at that.. This mean killing machine has to be in solitary confinement, because he killed his other fellow cros. Don't mess with this guy!

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, eating all the gum drops he can see

Stop Kookaburra! Stop Kookaburra!

Leave some there for me

Ever wonder what a Kookaburra is... now ya know!

Meet Trisha the elephant. They take Trisha for walks around the park, to give her some exercise. Michelle was super excited about this, as you can see. Elephants just so happen to be her favorite animal, so this made her day!

They give their elephants art classes. Too bad it cost $200.00 for an elephant painting or I would totally buy one!

Brandon riding a numbat. yeee haaaa

Curtin University

I wanted to show Michelle and my mom around the Curtin campus, so they can see where I spend most hours of my day. They really enjoyed the campus.

Did I mention that Curtin has an amazing Occupational Therapy program here... hint hint Michelle :)

Can't wait for you to come back for my graduation. :)

We finished the day off with pizza from Little Cesars! No, not the Little Cesars that sells cardboard tasting pizza in the US. This is gourmet pizza I'm talking about... it was ranked the best pizza place in perth, and boy is it delicious!

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Family Vacation Day 2, Sunday

G'day Sheilas, blokes, friends and family. Which brings us to our "Aussie Slang of the Day!"

Sheila: Girl

Bloke: Boy

I forgot to inform you on a few things when I gave you the updates. Brandon has joined a sailing team at the Royal Perth Yacht Club. Royal Perth Yacht Club, is considered one of the most prestige yacht clubs in Perth. Back in 1983, they won the America's cup, which is the biggest sailboat race in the world. He has been asked to race with two different teams. He has a race today (Wednesday) and then one on Saturday with a different team. This week is the beginning of the Regatta (sailboat) races. He is really excited about it. :) He is going to do a great job. In order to be a true "sea man", or sailor if you will, he has to dress the part. Last week he bought new sailing shoes, gloves, white shorts, and a t-shirt with the Royal Perth Yacht Club emblem.

What a stud! :)

The only other small update on my end... Is I am proud to announce, that I had to have my blood drawn yet again today, for a tuberculosis test, and I didn't pass out! Wahoo victory is mine! I made sure to eat a candy bar before and to take Gatorade. ha They had to take 3 viles of blood this time, instead of the 1, they took last time when I fainted. So I was pretty proud of myself. Now if I can just figure out how to solve my hitting stationary objects dilemma...... (if you are confused as to why I am writing about getting my blood drawn and hitting stationary objects please refer to the blog after last, for further explanation.)

Wow, this is probably why I don't blog very often, because I blab too much, and what should take me 20 minutes to do, ends up being a 2 hours project. I hope you people reading this appreciate my efforts... you can show your appreciation through comments, thank you!

Moving on... So Sunday April 4, 2010, yet another glorious day with the family. This was when the LDS General Conference was taking place in SLC, but since we are a day ahead, we have to wait until the following weekend to watch it. Brandon and I took my mom and Michelle to our ward, and introduced them to our ward family. We truly love our ward. They have been so warm and welcoming, and have been like another family to us while we've been away. Michelle got some strange looks at church, I think people were alarmed that two of us appeared out of no where. :) After church we decided to pack a picnic and go to Kings Park, overlooking the city. Well the weather didn't corporate, so we ended up eating our picnic in the car. This is a picture right before the rain started. Don't we look over joyed to be there, or some what drunk? One of the two. hahah Maybe we had one too many bundys. My mom is probably going to kill me for posting this, but it brightens my day each time I see it. Everyone needs a good laugh now and again. It's good to laugh at yourself and to not take life too seriously. :)

After our non existent picnic we went for a drive around the coast. Here is a picture of us at Scarborough beach.

Michelle was dying to see a live kangaroo. You come to Australia, you expect wild kangaroos to be jumping everywhere right? Well not necessarily unless you are in the bush, but we managed to find a cemetery that had some wild kangaroos.

This picture is so cute. It's of a mom and her baby! Below you will get to see a video of Brandon chasing a kangaroo. Pretty exciting!

My wonderful family... missing one important person. Dad?!?!? You still owe me a visit don't forget!

My cute sis. I miss you! If you look really closely, you can actually see me in the shadow taking the picture. Ha

Michelle and I decided to have a photography contest, to see who could take the best photos, and really "capture the moment." Here are some pictures we took, and when I say we, I mostly mean Michelle. She by far won the contest.... Take this picture below for example. It might be slightly off center, but pretty impressive none the less.

This picture below I think Brandon actually took... I WISH I could claim this one. Pretty awesome in my opinion. Michelle's good, real good. She even got an action shot of Brandon and I walking.

Awww so cute I love this picture. :)

This is me, TRYING to model and failing miserably... This was suppose to be some what of a serious, looking off into the horizon, glamourious type pose... In my opinion this pictures looks like, hmmm what's in my bag? Let's see, there's lip gloss, wallet, camera, cell phone. Yep it's all there. haha

Guess I won't be holding out for a modeling position anytime soon....

Yes, I actually took this picture below. I know, it looks like a sacred grove portrait right...

not even close. I probably shouldn't hold out for a photography position any time soon either.

I know you've all been waiting for it, so here it is, a video of Brandon chasing a kangaroo.

wen