Preference 2012

Wow! Is all I can say about Brittany on the night of Preference.  I was a proud momma that night when I saw her all dressed up and looking so beautiful, from the inside out! Brittany is an amazing girl! She is smart, beautiul and happy! And that is saying a lot for a teenage girl! I'm so happy for her that she is back at Lone Peak and especially that she is back with her best friend Addy!

 This was the group of kids that went with Brittany and her date Blake to Preference. Addy is the girl right below Brittany.

Something that I forgot to post about was Brittany's new car.  We came back to Utah and decided that Brittany was in need of some wheeles to get her and Savannah around town.  So, for Christmas we gave Brittany this....

Brittany doing her "Oh what a feeling, Toyota" jump for joy!

Elvis Baby!

In Parkes, one of the most higly anticipated events in that small town is the Elvis festival! It happens every year in January and the locals plan and prepare for it all year long! In fact, it's all you hear about if you are new in town! Sadly, only Clay was in town for it this year, but that didn't stop him from getting all into it and having a great time! Now he didn't have as much fun as the rest of his coworker and that is cause they were all loaded up with alcohol and Clay was the only sober one there!  Get ready to laugh cause here is the proof in pictures of that day!

 In case you can't tell which one is Clay, he is on the left!

Catching Up!

Wow! Where has the time gone? So much has changed since I last posted, I just don't even know where to begin!

I think I'll start with the week before Christmas.  We planned a trip back to Utah to celebrate Christmas with friends and family.  Clay and I had already made plans to have the girls stay here in Utah where they would go back to their high school after the winter break.  There were many reasons for this but the main one was because the school they were attending in Australia just wasn't a very good one. It was a few years behind what the girls had already learned in Math and science. Plus,  most of their friends were not coming back for the new school year because in year 10 the kids can graduate and most kids at their school would not be going on to year 11.  Crazy I know, but very true! We first planned on having the girls stay with Clay's mother, but after arriving we realized that her health was not very good, due to a recent surgery and it would also just be too far for the girls to drive everyday. So it was decided that I would have to stay with the kids in Utah while Clay would return to Australia.  We still had six month left on our lease with our renter of our house in Highland, so we found an apartment in Pleasant Grove, which is only about  a 15 mins drive away.  We will be here until June and then the plan is to move back into our home! I can't wait until June!

So that pretty much explains our situation and why we are back in Utah. 

Just after our return back to Utah, we were able to sneak in a visit with Mason. 

Boy has this kid packed on the weight! He is a little mini Luke in the making!

 Cody couldn't get enough time holding his little nephew.

. He has always had a soft spot for babies!

 Jessica and Mason

He was in such a good mood while we were visiting. What am I saying, this kid is always in a good mood! He has got the best and most laid back personality! It's only when he is tired or hungry that he gets a little cranky!

My heart just melts every time I see this picture!

The funny thing was I got to visit with him again a few weeks later and I swear he had gained another 5 pounds.  Like I said earlier he is a little mini Luke!

JDD Dance

Tonight was the big JDD dance at the girls school. It's for the 10th and 9th grades only. The 11th and 12th have their own dance.  The girls have been working so hard to loose some weight for the big night! I think they look amazing! The girls would come home from school all this week and tell us how all the other girls at school spent  so much money on their dresses, were going to the salon to get their hair and make up done and have been getting spray on tans.  Well, Jessica and I did the girls hair, Jess did their make up for them and I think we found some pretty cute dresses, and we didn't break the bank!!

And I can report that the girls had an amazing night!

This was a picture from later that evening. I love when there is a full moon. There is something spooky and cool about it!

Happy Birthday Jessica!

It's really hard for me to believe that I have a daughter that is 19! Where in the world did the time go? I remember when I was 19 and it doesn't seem like it was too long ago! I'm always nervous when a birthday approaches since we have been in Parkes cause lets face it, this town is BORING!! But, with a positive attitude and some imagination, we made it a pretty fun day!

 I know you have to ask yourself, "how is that girl so creative to think of placing the cupcakes in the shape of a 19?" What can I say, I'm pretty dang creative! I hope you can all hear the sarcasm in my writing, cause I'm the least creative person on the planet, and I could only laugh at this!

 But, I can brag about one thing I'm good at and that is baking! I love baking, it's my one weakness cause I love to bake very bad stuff! Case in point, the picture about, Snickers cupcakes! And man oh man were they Delicious!!



We have all been on a great routine of exercising every day and watching what we eat, except this day! We all gave in to the cupcakes except Savannah! She has got some will power cause she actually did eat that carrot instead of the cupcake!!

Earlier that day while the boys were at school (the girls stayed home to play with Jess and I), I took the girls to the Elvis museum. This small town doesn't have a movie theater but they do have an Elvis museum.  Now like a said before, with a good attitude you can actually have fun and fun is what we had!

 The king of rock himself! He has turned a little yellow over the years though!



The girls striking their favorite Elvis dancing pose!

 Now included in your $10 a person ticket you also get to see three other museums.  The old car museum, a scary old doll museum and this old school. It's actually they first one built in Parkes!

 Brittany was being very naughty so teacher Savannah had to get the ruler out to punish her!

We wondered if this was the way they gave out their birthday spankings back then??



Jessica enjoying her afternoon reading of the Australian Bush Verses!

Happy Birthday Jessica! I love you and am so proud of you! I can't believe next year you want be a teenager anymore! 

Summer, snakes and India

I haven't posted for a while cause things have been pretty boring! I'm not complaining mind you, cause I'll take boring any day over drama! Our days consist of the kids going to school, Jess and I do our P90X work out, laundry, cleaning and running errands. The kids come home from school and do homework after which the boys quickly head out to the pool and will spend the rest of the afternoon swimming! The girls usually go on a afternoon walk, then we have dinner, always homemade and sitting at the table cause we don't eat fast food only because we don't have fast food! That part Clay and I have really enjoyed! Then Clay and I go on our evening walk, kids will shower and get ready for bed, we do scriptures and prayers and then it's lights out for everyone, including the grown ups! It really is like ground hogs day over and over again!  But, like I said, it's normal and I'll take it!

With the warm weather we have been nervous about snakes! According to most of the people we know (from Clay's work), it's not normal to run into snakes. In fact, most of the people we have talked to have only run into a snake once or twice in their entire life! So we figured we would be pretty safe. Well, last week Brittany was out on her daily afternoon walk and saw a snake basking in the warm sun on the side of the road. She quickly turned around and ran home! This weekend our neighbors called informing and warning us that they had just seen a snake in their front yard! And then Clay sends me this email from work because there was a snake caught in front of his office. In fact, it was spotted in the morning as everyone was arriving to work. As you walk into the office at the mine you have to pass through a guard shack, you check in and once you are approved you walk through a turnstile which locks as you walk through it so you can't go backwards. The guy who saw it had just walked into the turnstile and the snake was on the ground right in front of him! He couldn't go backwards so he had to jump up out of the turnstile in order to get away from the snake that was now sitting up in attack mode ready to bite him! Wouldn't that your worst nightmare! These have all been brown snakes too, which in case you don't know are one of the most deadly in Australia! So now every time I set foot outside I'm watching where I'm walking, checking to make sure I don't run into our new slimy friends!
On a happier note, Clay left a few days ago for a work trip to India! In order to go he was required to get many vaccines, and his worked supplied him with a medicine kit filled with prescriptions and over the counter medicines in case he gets sick while he is there. You should of seen how many bottles of medicine he took with him, crazy!!
Clay sent this picture of his arrival at the airport in India. He was given a Indian blessing followed by the dot on his head and a lei! Pretty sweet if you ask me! But Clay's isn't feeling the love so much by the look on his face in this picture!

This is a picture from his window in his hotel room.

I have to admit, the pool is looking pretty sweet.

This is a CFO seminar that he is attending for Rio Tinto.  It's his first one cause he has only been CFO for five months now. Clay was really excited about going because he will be able to see many of his friends there from Rio that he hasn't seen since our move and because they asked him to do a presentation on one of the days. This is a big deal cause like I said he has only been CFO for a short while, so this is really putting him in the spot light! Which always makes me nervous cause when Clay does well at work it always means another move is in store for us! Then again, maybe it's a good thing cause then maybe it will be a move back to Utah!

The Dish

Our town of Parkes is known for two things, the Elvis Festival held every January. It is the 2nd largest Elvis Festival in the world, Vegas being number one, and The Dish! This dish was used to telecast the first walk on the moon to the world! There is even a pretty good movie made about this historic event, called The Dish, go figure!

These pictures don't do it justice as to just how big this dish is, so I had Jessica go stand next to it so you can see it in comparison!

At the dish you can take a tour of the gift shop, which will take you about 15 minutes, not too big! But, it is interesting and they even have a deli you can have lunch in! We skipped eating since they only served meat pies!

Outside the gift shop Jess and I found this sign..

After a good laugh we realized what it meant! There are two smaller dishes about 150 meters away from each other, Jess stood by one, I stood by the other and you can literally whisper into them and hear each other. We had fun telling each other our deep dark secrets! Yes, we were a little bored today!

You can see one of the whispering dishes behind me in this picture!

Lately I've been feeling a little overwhelmed with some things that have been going on in my life, so I had Jess take this picture of me with the weight of the world on my shoulders! Yes, once again we were a little bored!

 I am enjoying my time with Jess! It's been a lot of fun having her home with me all day! So, if your ever bored, rent the Dish and enjoy watching how our little town of Parkes got their 15 minutes of fame!

Summer has officially begun!

Our big move to Australia started in June of this year.  The weather in Utah when we left wasn't cold enough for snow, but it definitely wasn't warm! We get to Australia and it's the dead of winter, which means we haven't seen or felt the hot sun in over a year! You wouldn't think this would be a big deal, but let me tell you, when your body expects summer and then it doesn't get it, it goes into a depression! Our family struggled all winter in Parkes with endless rain and cold days! And Face book didn't help it at all! Watching all our friends enjoying summer was torture! Thankfully it was a mild winter, but it was winter non the less!

For the last week the weather has become increasing warmer and warmer and today the boys couldn't take it any more! They had to go swimming!

It's been raining so much this winter our pool is too full of water! But, the water was warm and the sun was out! The boys were in heaven!

On a different note, Luke a few weeks ago asked if he could turn our hall closet into his bedroom. I thought it was a funny request, but knew it was something he just needed to get out of his system, so I let him. Three weeks later, Luke is still sleeping in the closet!

He just piled a bunch of blankets on the floor and uses that as his bed.  He also brought in his stuff animals, lamp, fan (Luke has to sleep with a fan blowing on his face all night),  pictures, deodorant and clock. I thought it was cute he brought in his picture of Jesus and his missionary savings bank too! I don't know how long he will keep this up, but I'll keep you updated!

Summer Term

Summer term officially began on Monday for the boys, Tuesday for the girls.  The girls love that they go to a boarding school, even though they are not boarders themselves, because the first day back of a new term at their school is set aside for the boarders to move back into their dorms.  This means no school for them! Because it's summer term it also means out with the old winter uniforms and in with the new summer ones!

If you look back of the first day of school in their winter uniforms the girls were not smiling this big! In fact, they were not smiling at all, I had to force them to for the picture!

 The boys uniforms didn't change very much, instead of long pants they wear shorts and their long shirts and replaced by short shirts.  The biggest change is that they no longer have to wear their ties. This was something they were both SO happy to give up!

Luke told me that this was going to be his new smile! I think if he keeps this up through high school I'll be in big trouble! How can the girls resist that face?

Surfers Paridise

Downtown Surfer Paradise is filled with only hotels, restaurants and shops! This is the downtown area you saw in my earlier post. If you stood on our beach back by our condo and looked to the North you could see all the high rises from surfers paradise.  All the high rises are hotels, below its bustling with shops, food and tons and tons of people!

One of the many ways to entertain yourself while downtown is to take a tour on the aquaduck! This amazing bus takes you on a tour of the downtown area, but then gets into the water and floats around the marina! At $40 a person, we decided we would just walk!

Walking around all the shops we found it a struggle to hide our children's eyes from the many adult shops that offered many interesting things! This was the only one I could take a picture of to show you what I'm talking about, the other ones where just to disgusting! And if your wondering, yes, they had people in the shops!

The greatest part about this place was the fact that the beach was so close, it's right behind us in the upper picture!



The beach at surfers paradise was a lot more crowded than our beach by the condo. My girls also decided they liked the beach in Sydney better, it's Bondi beach, because the life guards there are hot and famous, thanks to the show Bondi Rescue (find it on the Internet it your in the US)! The life guards here in surfers are old and well, look at the picture and it will explain itself!



Which one to buy?

Savannah wasn't feeling much love in this store!