Australia -Travelling, Manly Beach and Darling Harbour

6 months ago I was on Facebook and saw a post by a former missionary from my missions in Sydney, Australia that posted flights from SLC to Sydney were super cheap.  Not really believing him I got on and round trip tickets were $580 a person on United.  I checked Delta and for the same time frame the tickets were $2100.  It was a steal.  I knew if I were ever to go back this was the time.  So Shane and I booked our trip and then my parents and Jeff and Whitney decided to come along as well.

I spent a lot of time researching and figuring out what we wanted to do while we were there.  A lot of people assumed I would go see a lot of people from my mission but most everyone I keep in contact with have moved away or I've lost touch with them.  I served my mission before email, and Facebook, etc. so a lot of people I never really kept in contact with.  So this trip was basically a tourist trip to see all the places I never got to as a missionary.  So please bear with me as I basically write our travel log of our trip to Australia for 11 days.  I only took 450 pictures myself!

I'll start with that I loved our trip so much.  It was fun to be back, and brought back a lot of memories.  I found myself on the bus one day looking at the houses and streets pass by thinking 'I can totally picture myself tracting on this street' even though it wasn't even in an area I served in.  It was just all so familiar.  I fell in love with Australia all over again.  Since being home I keep finding myself thinking 'we should move to Australia, even if it was just for a year.'  I'm pretty sure it would never really happen but besides actual downtown Sydney, it really does feel more laid back there.  Even in Sydney all the stores and malls, even most restaurants close about 6:00pm.

So we left on a Thursday evening flew from SLC to San Francisco and had a 3 hour layover.  Then we boarded an 11pm flight from San Francisco and flew 15 hours and with the time change landed in Sydney Saturday morning about 8am.  I took a sleeping pill and slept better than I thought I would.  We got through customs, got our luggage, freshened up, bought our train passes (OPAL card) and headed to our hotel.  We couldn't check in so we dropped our stuff off and headed out for the day.

Our first stop was a ferry ride across Sydney harbour to Manly beach.  This is the best ferry cuz not only does it take you to the beach but you get great views of the the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge.  Jeff kept making funny jokes about how Manly he was being at Manly beach...haha. We walked around Manly, found some lunch to eat and just enjoyed the views.  It was windy at the beach which made it pretty chilly so we didn't stay super long.  The picture of all of us was us taking a picture to send to Cameron since it was his 16th birthday that day.



We got back and were able to check into our hotel and lay down and rest.  I forced myself to stay awake so I would adjust to the time better but it was nice to lay down and rest for a while.  We stayed the first 2 nights in a hotel in downtown Sydney.  We got a great deal on a very clean, fairly new hotel room.  The rooms were pretty small but we loved the location and how clean they were.  And we got 2 free snicker bars and bottled water each day.  Bonus.  That evening we walked over to Darling Harbour where they have a lot of shops, restaurants, street performers and every Saturday night they have a fireworks shore over the harbour. I was nervous at one point because we were watching a street performing group where everyone was crowded around and this random girl came up stood so close to my mom that her chin was literally one inch from my mom's shoulder, almost resting on her shoulder.  It was pretty funny until I saw her hands moving around right by my mom's purse so I grabbed my mom and made her move over away from her.  I think she had just had too much to drink but didn't want to take any chances.



One other thing to mention before I forget.  My parents are 70 and 74.  I was a little worried I was going to age them 15 years on this trip with all the walking and things I had planned.  I fully expected them to wake up one day and say, 'we're going to rest today and do our own thing, you guys go ahead without us'  but not once did I hear that.  They never complained and did every single thing we did.  If we hiked to a look out point, so did they.  We did a lot of walking and they kept up with us every single day. I was so glad they did so they could see everything and I was amazed at their good attitude's and willingness to go along with everything.

So Australia, here we come for the next 10 days.

October 2016

October is always a busy month for us.  We do a bunch of fall/Halloween activities which are always fun.  This October we fit them all in addition to Shane and I being gone for almost half the month on a trip to Australia.  Those posts are coming, but here is what we did at home in Utah this month.

The month started out with general conference.  Each year I seem to be able to watch a little more of it.  Don't get me wrong, I have all 4 sessions on every time but the last 4 years with 3 small kids have made it a little hard to just sit and watch conference. We're making progress.  The day after general conference Jaron came up to me and asked if I had recorded general conference. When I said no he was so upset and wanted to watch it.  So I turned on a video of it from the internet and he sat and watched almost an entire talk.  It was cute.



We made our annual trip to Gardner Village to see the Witch fest.  I always like seeing the witches but my kids just like to go cuz they get to ride horses.  They actually did like looking at the witches a little more this year than in years past.




On the same day we made it to the Pumpkin Patch to pick out our pumpkins.  We love the pumpkin patch with their free corn maze, tractors to sit on and free hay rides.  And their pumpkins are cheap as well.




Jaron got invited by himself to his first birthday party by Charlotte, a little girl in his preschool class.  He was so excited to be invited but a bit nervous to go to someone's house he didn't know and just get dropped off.  He was very brave and did great and had a great time.  Speaking of Jaron, I keep forgetting to document this.  Jaron calls his sisters by one name. It's DenAria.  He can't say his S's so that is how it comes out.  Their cousin Lilly called them SeeAria for the longest time and that is what Jaron is doing.  If you say, Jaron say Siena and Aria, he will say DenAria right back to you.  It's cute and I know I'll be sad one day when he stops saying it that way.



I threw a shower for one of the girl's I was her laurel advisor for a few years back.  I thought it turned out cute and we had a great turn out.  I even made the my first diaper cake for it.  I always dread hosting things at my house but then when it's done and my house is all clean, I'm so glad I did it.



Right before we left on our trip, both girls learned to ride 2 wheelers.  We've been working on it all summer off and on.  We did a lot in the spring and then the girls (and mom and dad) got tired of it and so we stopped for a while.  When I saw them balancing on their 2 wheeled scooter I knew they were ready.  Siena wanted nothing to do with it so Shane took Aria out one evening and within 20 minutes he had her riding up and down our sidewalk.  It's so cute to watch their little legs peddling around and concentrating on staying up.  Well as soon as Siena saw Aria doing it, that was all the motivation she needed.  The next day I took her out and in about the same amount of time she was off as well.  Both girls can even start and stop themselves.  The day we left on our trip I took them over to the church and let them ride around and they loved it.  Now they are constantly asking if we can go ride bikes.



VaLois watched the kids the whole time we were gone.  She did so great and we were so grateful she was willing to come out and help us for the whole time.  It made it easier that I didn't have to pack them all up and take them somewhere else and made it easier for them since they just got to stay home and stay in their routine.  I did have Brigitte come get Jaron for a play date.  And Michelle came and took all 3 kids one day when they were all out of school.  They played at her house and went to the park and rode bikes and scooters.  And Jennifer and Abbey came and took them to Thanksgiving point farm one day.  They loved having things to do and I was grateful that they came and helped out, it gave VaLois a break and my kids loved it.  These were the pictures Jennifer sent me from their day at the farm.  Jennifer said as Jaron was brushing the horse he looked underneath the horse and said 'I just saw his bottom where he poops.'  ha ha, total boy!



We took the kids to Seven Peaks Spooktacular one warm afternoon.  I'm always amazed how much time they can spend playing with corn.  They had a great time and loved the corn maze there as well.



We did our yearly trek up the Snowbird Tram.  It was pretty chilly at the top but the good news is they've opened the restaurant up there so after we snapped a few pictures we sat inside while we waited for the next tram to come up.



Aunt Margene brought the kids some Halloween crafts.  Siena especially loves doing 'projects' as she calls them.  They had a great time and they turned out so cute.



Here is how our carved pumpkins turned out.  This year they attempted to try and clean out a few seeds themselves.  Siena is the worst though cuz she doesn't even like the smell of the pumpkin and will barely look in it, it truly grosses her out...lol.



And last but not least we had another successful Halloween.  All the kids had a fun preschool Halloween party and even got to trick or treat there.  Siena got sick for the 2nd year in a row the hour before we went out trick or treating.  Last year was just a slight fever so I gave her motrin and sent her out.  This year she threw up...ugh!  I was hoping she was done but as we drove to a couple people's houses, we dumped her candy on the floor so she could throw up in the bucket...yuck! (just need to document it to remember...sorry.)  So you can tell she wasn't feeling great in the picture out on our front porch.  She did a little trick or treating and then came home and sat with mom passing out candy.

A little bit about their costumes this year.  This is the first year their costumes haven't coordinated at all.  I was a little sad about it cuz they've all been so cute in years past but it's also fun that they have their own opinions as to what they want to be.  When Aria saw this Unicorn costume there was no changing her mind, she was in love and has been wearing it all month long.  She calls herself Una the Unicorn.  I made the unicorn horn for her head last minute the night before...she was thrilled and loves it.  Siena is obsessed with Shopkins so she wanted to be a Shopkin, this is Cookie Cookie. Jaron refused to let me buy him a costume, he just wanted to wear his cape and batman shirt (aka pajamas I bought him a year ago)  ok buddy, way to save some money! :)  but he did look pretty cute and made me call him Batman all day.

September 2016

We had another birthday besides Siena and Aria's....mine!  It was the girls first day of school so it was kind of a busy morning but Shane got up and got donuts and we opened presents before taking the girls to school.  We then had Tagg come over and play and Brigitte and Holland showed up later with lunch and cookies.  That afternoon was spent just hanging out at home.  I made sure I did no cleaning and no work...which was a nice treat for me.  At one point I thought I would close my eyes for a few minutes and about 20 seconds later all 3 kids came over to snuggle.  That's always how it goes right?  I didn't mind though cuz I loved spending my birthday at home with these 3.  It was just one of those good afternoons where everyone is happy.  Shane and I celebrated the night before with dinner and a movie.



I got these little drawers for each of the kids to keep all their small toys in.  Jaron is obsessed with matchbox cars right now and the girls have all their shopkins, nom noms and tsum tsums.  It's been so nice to have them organized and now they don't lose them.  And they play with them non-stop which is nice.



Eliza came up with her high school cross country team and we got to go see her race.  That sounds so weird that Eliza is in High School!!!  It was so fun and exciting to see her run.  I kept texting videos to Christy so she could keep up on the race.



We went on a hike to Ghost falls.  The leaves were so pretty.  The kids thought it was cool we were going on a 'halloween hike' although at first they were nervous they were going to see ghosts.  Afterwards we went to a new park in Draper that opened up this summer. It's all farm themed and the kids were in heaven.  They have a tire swing and all 3 were squealing as their dad pushed them around so fast I thought they would throw up.




We had FHE at the temple.  We haven't been to the temple to walk around in a while so it was a perfect night for it.



And just about every chance we got we headed over to Classic to ride scooters, do the bounce houses and jungle.  Our summer passes expire the end of September so we had to make sure we made good use of them.



We headed up to Odgen this week so take a drive around Pineview reservoir and then headed over to a trout farm.  We had the kids fish twice this year both places with not a lot of fish.  So we wanted them to actually be able to catch a fish.  So a trout farm is just the place.  It was fun and so easy to catch the fish.  Siena was a little squeamish as the fish flopped around on the hook.  Aria thought the fish was the cutest thing she's ever seen and I then realized that I don't think she knows the fish is not coming home alive.  Luckily she took the news really well.  Jaron loved catching the fish but loved feeding the fish more.  I thought Siena would like the fish the most to eat since she loves when Shane makes Salmon and Shrimp but she did not like the trout.  Aria however, loved the trout.  She is my pickiest meat eater and ate quite a bit of fish.  Jaron would barely put it in his mouth but finally took one bite.  It was a fun afternoon and the kids faces were so cute as they caught their fish.

All the kids start preschool

Jaron started preschool earlier this month.  Jaron has been asking to go to preschool since about last October.  Every time I would drop the girls off he would ask 'when I go to preschool mom?'  I would always tell him he had to be 3.  I debated sending him this year since I'm not sure if I'll have him start kindergarten when he turns 5 or hold him back a year so he's older when he starts school instead of being the youngest in his class.  But he was so excited to start so I did it.



He was so excited his first day.  I dropped him off and had to ask him for a hug before he just turned and walked in without even turning around to say bye.  After I picked him up that day he was a little quiet but I didn't think a thing about it.  Thursday came along and I got him out of the car and he had a death grip on my hand and started crying.  I was so thrown off by this, I was totally not prepared.  Luckily Ms. Tammy just scooped him up and walked in while he cried 'Mooooommmm'  It was sooo sad!!!  After preschool he declared to me 'Mom, I don't want to go to preschool anymore!'  And all weekend long he kept telling me that.  I kept asking him why he didn't want to go and he wouldn't tell me. Finally one night while putting him to bed he said 'cuz I miss you so much Mom'  oh my gosh...heart breaking, cute, and so sad all at the same time.  I just wanted to scoop him up and never let him go.

Well he cried the next 2 times after that and now he's going just fine and is happy and is excited when he tells me what he's done in class that day.  He even got to celebrate his birthday this week and bring treats for his class.

The girls started Pre-K preschool as well.  They love it and are happy to go each time.  They go 3 days a week.  They have Ms. Tara and Ms. Beverly as their teachers and are doing great.  The first day we took Jaron to school, I took the girls shopping to get stuff for their birthday party.  We went to Zurchers which I was laughing at how excited they were walking up and down the aisles looking at all their party stuff.  Then we went to walmart for a few things and as we were leaving Siena turned to me a said 'I didn't realize how much fun Jaron has been having while we've been at school last year.'  haha...little does she know we played at the aquarium almost weekly!



This week they came home with their alphabet crowns.  Before they can start their reading program they have, they have to pass off knowing all their letters and the sounds each letter makes.



I think it's going to be a great school year and I'm excited to see all that they will learn.  Which is good since paying for 3 kids in preschool isn't the cheapest thing I've done.