Our last few days at home and then AUSTRALIA!

     So.... WE'RE IN AUSTRALIA!!! Whenever I was asked where I'd like to travel if I could go anywhere Australia was always at the top of my list and I really can't believe it's actually come true. I was beyond anxious about the long flight but we survived and it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. And because there's been little to no rain 'down under' the humidity isn't bad at all. I honestly can't even tell the difference from the heat we get in Utah, it just feels warm and wonderful.

     But before we left we got to spend a little time with cute baby Beau! She's so fun and adorable.

     Before our long flight to Australia we had a little over a day in LA so we decided to make our way to Venice beach where we saw some pretty interesting people. There was a man fishing on the pier who rides his bike 7 hours from Orange county to fish off the pier for about a week. He even sleeps on the pier, pretty crazy.

Greg drew the pigeons in with gummy bears and they were not impressed. 

   I found my stores at both Venice beach and Australia. The "It's Sugar" was Venice and "Candy Time" is at the shops in Australia.

     Our first meal out was at "Hog's Australian steak house". The food was pretty good and the photo opt was amazing. Ha ha. Cute Halle!

     We were so excited to see these cute girls. Greg is in his element with all these girls. He's ready to give them whatever they want.

     Our first beach visit was at Brighton Beach. It was so pretty and windy.

     And the fruit salad Jackie and Ben made us is spectacular! We don't get fresh fruit quite like this in Utah.

    I never get my hair combed at home, having all these girls wanting to comb my hair is a dream!

    This was my hair-do from Kirra today.

     Tonight we're helping Jackie and Ben celebrate their 12th wedding anniversary by going to the Outback Extravaganza, which sounds like a good time. We're so excited to be here and can't wait to experience a lot more fun stuff over the next week or so. Thankfully the jet lag hasn't been bad and minus the guilt of leaving the kids for so long, I'm so excited we're here and I've already started my mass stock pile of glucojel's!

Birthday and Halloween!

     We've had a fun week celebrating Isaac's 17th birthday and Halloween. And in case you haven't looked at a calendar today, it's NOVEMBER!! How are we already in November?! And what's even crazier is we're only four sleeps away from flying to LA and 5 sleeps from flying to Brisbane!! I'm kind of FREAKING OUT!! Greg and I are ready but these kids may not be.

     I am going to miss cute baby Beau! She's so fun! 

That hair bow!

Uncle Mark snuggling the baby!

    Isaac made his birthday easy on us and took a little birthday cash and bought his own gift, a new gaming monitor. And of course, he was happy to have yummy cheesecake.

    The 3 youngest had spirit week at school and loved crazy hair day especially.

I failed to get Brock's photo but they all three had some fun purply hair.

    And of course we had a successful Halloween. Parades, trick or treating and plenty of candy.

Brock's last Halloween parade!

Quite a haul!

     Well that's our week. Mark did have a little car accident swiping a pole on the side of the road. He found out today it's well over $6,000 in damage and it may be weeks before his car is repaired. Thankfully it's still drivable and thankfully he wasn't hurt and the insurance has already cut him a check so he can get it in the shop asap. For whatever reason Mark has to learn lessons the hard way. He also found out he had a few things stolen from his car recently including one of his really nice drills. It's probably not been his favorite week.
      So next week if my blogs not updated give me some slack and remember I'm in AUSTRALIA! I'm sure I'll have lots to post whether it's while we're gone or when we get back but I can't wait to see my favorite Aussie's, it's going to be EPIC!

Sweetness.

      We got to spend a few hours with baby Beau this week and she was just as sweet as ever. Greg even spent over an hour watching her on his own, so cute! Tanner had his torn ACL repaired Wednesday so we became the designated babysitters. The surgery went well and Tanner is officially on the mend.

Mitch and Beau sharing a snuggle.

Aunt Charlie and Beau.

Silly face photo.

Smiling baby!

     And if you didn't catch the news today, Isaac's school had a lockdown situation and this was his reaction, sleep! Thankfully/crazily it was a miscommunication and the call was about another school, which was a mistake as well so no schools in Utah had any real threats today, thank goodness.

    And Charlie received this sweet note and necklace from our friend and neighbor. We live amongst real angels.

"Dear Charlie, Thanks so much for being my friend. I also loved hearing you sing Gethsemane in the primary program. It was beautiful. I know Heavenly Father loves you.
Love, Sis. W"

       I also have to say this week was an emotional roller coaster and I'm so grateful for the power of prayer, modern medicine and for miracles. My youngest niece was burned quite badly and there were many tearful moments thinking of her, praying for her and her family and putting her name on the prayer roll at the temple. The outlook is even better then I would have guessed and she's home and healing quite nicely for the most part. I'm so grateful for my family and for the blessing of the gospel in my life, it makes all the difference when there's hard times and trials that don't seem fair. God really is good and so aware of us!

Just a lot of fun

    We've had some fun this week. Charlie scored this awesome electric scooter from our great friends down the street. We had baby Beau's ears pierced, visited the 'witches' at Gardner Village, and went camping for part of our fall break. We live in a great place with some great people!

After church scootering is the best!

Snuggles with Beau are also a great Sunday activity.

    Our luggage arrived for our trip 'down under'! Just big enough for our necessities.

Babysitting baby girl!

Pierced ears are the cutest!! (She was only sad for 30 seconds.)

Witches and unicorn balloons.

Sister witches.

So much fun!

Trying on the fun witch hats.

See, she likes her cute new earrings.

    The camping trip was out west at a place called "White Rocks" and the kids had a blast. Only the four youngest got to go and the two youngest are always big fans of adventures and posing for photos.

Charlie and McClane had so much fun climbing all over this mountain of rock with Greg.

Charlie is always photo ready.

Charlie playing "Go Fish" with home made playing cards.

Brock trying shotgun shooting for the first time. (He wasn't the biggest fan.)

   We really had a great week! We still have a couple more days before school is back in session and I'm sure we're all going to enjoy the rest of the break. It's hard to believe we're only 17 days away from leaving for our big trip! I'm mildly nervous but mostly excited! I really hope the kids are good for Kayli and Tanner while we're gone. Life is good!

Conference, babies and fall

     Our conference weekend was different but good. I tried to make it a little more inviting for the kids and although that meant a little less listening it did keep them home and happy while conference was on and hopefully they heard something and I'll be sure to read the talks when my November Ensign arrives. Part of conference I got to spend tending baby Beau, so I got some peace and quiet for at least one session.

Puzzles, coloring, candy and pumpkin pie were all a hit.

She's the sweetest!

    My friend has been taking me along with her as she hikes Timp cave a couple days a week and Wednesday she got me up and down twice in a row and so we decided to stop and take a couple photos as a way of a break. This hike is, pretty much, a little over a mile straight up the mountain and is a great workout and the scenery is amazing. The sharp drop offs are a little disconcerting but I manage to avoid looking down for the most part. I sure love where I live!

     This weekend should be a little less exciting. It's going to be weird attending our 'new' ward Sunday but I'm looking forward to my new calling! Greg and I are both going to be working with the youth and I'm so excited! It's been a lot of years since I've been in Young Women and I'm excited for the change. It's going to be fun finding out where people have been called to serve as the whole ward gets a complete over haul. I'm also looking forward to a short week of school this coming week and a few days break from the kids as Greg plans to take them camping for a few days.

I changed my mind and McClane turned 9!

     I know I said I wasn't going to bother with decorating for fall but Greg took some time cleaning out the garage last Saturday and when I saw my little amount of fall decor I figured I could put forth a little effort and, even without pumpkins and straw bales, it still looks cute in front of the house with what I did have to decorate with.

    We had a great time Sunday being a part of cute baby Luke's baby blessing.

Charlie and baby Luke (His initials are LTD so he's a limited edition!)

     Monday was McClane's 9th birthday!

     He didn't ask for much but I added to his list with some clothing, which he wasn't sure about at first but he quickly found a few clothing items he thought were pretty cool. He was especially excited about his Cozmo robot accessories and new backpack.

    And of course we/I found a couple opportunities to see baby Beau this week. She's just the cutest!

She's such a pretty sleeping angel!

   We had our ward boundaries change last week and we're super excited to be reunited with several families we use to be with in our ward when we first moved here in '99 so we're looking forward to what the future brings but we're also very excited to watch General Conference this weekend. I had someone suggest this weekend should feel like Christmas and even though that's not a "budget-friendly" idea I found a few things I thought I'd try or reintroduce this weekend to hopefully get the kids a little more involved in the listening process. Here's hoping everyone gets a little something out of the weekends inspiration.