hillsong, ice age 3, treetop.

one of the best things i have done in australia is found a temporary church home. i attend hillsong. the first time i went, i just cried i was so happy to finally feel a place where i can feel God moving and working in the hearts of the people there. i was excited to feel the passion of people. and ever since i found out that hillsong existed in australia, it made me want to visit australia even more. and then when i found out that there was a church in brisbane, my heart leapt with joy. and when i finally went to hillsong, my heart was just bursting with joy and i wanted to shout to the world how excited i was to feel passion again in worship!

another adventure i had here was watching ice age 3 in rocks riverside park. i finally got to see the movie that my good friend andy helped create! and in australia! what a great night. out under the stars, too! beautiful!

another adventure was spent at the green mountains at lamington national park at the treetop walk. i got to see some more countryside (lovely! cows, kangaroos, horses, alpacas, llamas, goats all over!) and the mountains of australia. and the beautiful view from 30m up above the ground. it was so great, just adventure.

hamilton island.

the next adventure was spent at hamilton island. oh my goodness how i fell in love with the island life so quickly! golf buggies are the main type of transportation...so laid back and how wonderful! a beautiful view over the ocean. and the family and i spent one day out at the great barrier reef through a fantasea day cruise. it was so amazing. i wore a super sexy stinger suit and got to see some more of God's beautiful creation underwater! i would just stay in one spot for a couple of minutes just looking at the little details of the coral and the fish and the underwater life. it was so amazing and mysterious. there was one point where i couldn't see anything around me and that's when i realized how small i was. i knew i was close to the boat and if i just went to my right i would find the coral and "life" again. but it was fun finding myself "alone" for a few moments. the rest of the vacation was spent loving the beach life. and friends, cockatoos are really loud and like to squawk all the time. oh my goodness. my favorite part of the trip was spent on the last day, i woke up early and went and watched the sunrise. it was so beautiful. all the colors and just watching the sky change throughout the minutes. sunrises are beautiful to me because i usually don't wake up and get out to see them often enough. but since i have been in australia and wake up early, i have seen more sunrises than i have in my whole life. and i love them. they are just so full of color.

gladstone.

the first real adventure of australia was over easter weekend. i went up to gladstone with the family to visit both sides of the family. it was a wonderful weekend. i got to experience the small city life of calliope with tanya's parents' side of the family. the little town reminded me of my great grandparents' place up in paul, idaho and my other great grandparents' place in tyner, kentucky. the beautiful country life and the small town feeling. we spent one day visiting awoonga dam and tannum sands with john's mum. the dam was such an amazing sight to see God's blessing upon the country. 2 years ago when the catford's first came to australia, all the dams were all under 20% filled. and due to all the rain, especially since the past 2 months the dams are all over 100% filled. and the amazing thing with awoonga dam was that they built another 10m of supporting wall and it was still overflowing! wow! what a blessing that is to the country! praise God! i then got to experience a free festival that gladstone puts on every easter, the harbor festival. games, prizes, rides, slides, animals, and abba. what a great night. the last 2 days of the weekend vacation were spent up at john's dad's place. he owns 400 acres of land and it was probably my favorite place to be that weekend. got to brand a cow; ride a horse; see so many stars, the southern cross and the milky way, and a whole bunch of other stars that i don't know; go fishing; ride in a canoe; find poison toads; love the beautiful flowers and sunsets; overcome my fear of spiders; and just soak up and enjoy more of God's beautiful country.

animals and driving.

i got to hold a koala and feed some kangaroos at lone pine sanctuary one weekend. fitting in with the australian wildlife. it was pretty exciting! koalas stink really bad. and kangaroos have coarse feeling hair. emus are big and scary. and mean..."eye of the tiger" runs through my head when i see them.

driving. oh how fun that is. driving on the left side only seems natural! you can't turn left on a red light (like how we can turn right on a red light, just with caution...nope!). and the fastest you can go is 110kph (68mph).

downtown.

a couple of weeks after being in brisbane, i went downtown. let me tell you. i hated every minute of it when i was alone. i was not used to being in a new environment, and i have never been much for doing things on my own. i could have spent all day down there, i think i spent an hour. i met john for lunch and then went and looked at some souvenir shops to compare prices. but after that, i made my way to the bus station to find a way home. that was kind of fun, i got lost. but quickly found a map and found my way to the bus station and found a bus that would take me home. but i will be returning to downtown this week and after being here for almost 2 months, i think i will enjoy it a lot more and will take advantage of downtown brisbane. they have a mormon temple and it is even the same size of salt lake. a friend told me that brisbane was referred to as the "utah" of australia. mmm, don't doubt it. i would say that there is more to do in utah compared to brisbane. i have had more adventures outside of brisbane, but not to say that there is not a lot to do here. you just have to search for it and look for fun. which is always fun to do.

australia!

hey blogging friends! i finally joined in. this is to document my adventure in australia.

let's see. wow! i am in australia! who would have thought my dream finally came true!? i sure didn't think this would ever happen. counting down from 190 days from when i bought my tickets and now i am finally here! let's start off with some of the adventures that i have been on. i left for australia from salt lake city, utah on friday, march 5, 2010 at 3:05 pm. i want to thank you friends for all your support and for those that came to the airport to see me depart: dad, mom, karissa, kellie, kristopher, sean, andy, andrew, natalie, zak, jonathon, josiah, miss kristi, dakota, and chase. and thank you to those that called me or had lunch with me before i left: jenna, aunt quita, uncle rob, miss trina, jenni, and all my other dear friends [i love you all!] i flew to los angeles and had a six hour layover before i flew out on the 14 hour plane flight. i arrived to brisbane, australia sunday at 6 in the morning. it was 1pm saturday back home in salt lake.

i met john at the airport and drove home to meet up with the rest of the family. we went to church, good news lutheran, and i spent the afternoon settling in and enjoying the beauty of God's creation in beautiful australia. we then went to rocks riverside park and it was great. i saw my first australian animal! a kookaburra! just sitting on the side of the path. it was a point of realization, i am in australia! i then went to bed at 8pm that night (3am sunday) and after little sleep, jet lag, excitement, and all these wonderful feelings of finally reaching a dream from childhood: i had never been so excited to crawl into that bed and sleep.

the first week of being in australia was spent adjusting to the australian life and the family life. john left for brazil and i got to stay home with tanya and the kids (riley, xavier, and olivia). the kids went to school and tanya and i would spend the mornings together. we would go grocery shopping and run errands. it was wonderful, spending time with my new friend. we bought kangaroo and had it one of the first nights i was there, it was beautiful and delicious. i loved it and the rest of the family were good sports (they had never eaten kangaroo before. and you all call yourselves australians!).

i must say that the sunsets here are beautiful. God, Your beautiful artwork every night is just beautiful. and the sunsets are beautiful anywhere, but with the australian adventure, it just adds to the beauty even more.