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.