Crazy Life at The Warner's

During the 2nd week of our trip we spent the week walking all around Sydney and taking in the sites. We went to the Blue Mountains with Kevin, Stacy and Rylee. It was a great time. I tried to walk down the stairs to the sister rock, but I only made it half way down before I started panicking. The huge drop-off of course had nothing to do with it. Sometimes it's not fun to be scared of heights.

The Three Sisters

Still smiling.

Start of the panic.

The weather was beautiful and the sky had a blue haze to it. The heat of the day heats of the Gum Trees and puts eucalyptus oils in the air and makes the blue haze on the mountains. Some of the people in Stacy's ward asked if we were going to the Blue Mountains and I laughed to myself when I saw them because they are so small compared to the mountains around here. It was more fun to go there because of all the cute little towns and shops on the way there.

The Chocolate Store. Awesome hot chocolate.

Poor Mark.
The next day we went to the Taronga Zoo. We took the train into the city and then caught a ferry across Circular Quay to the zoo entrance. You take a sky ride all the way to the top and then work your way back down to the bottom. We saw a lot of really pretty birds, koalas, kangaroos, otters and all kinds of other animals. We were a little disappointed because we never saw the platypus.

Next on the list of things to see while in Australia was the beach and seashell hunting. I brought home 4 boxes of seashells. Stacy didn't think I could get them into the country, but they didn't even ask about them on our customs papers. So we headed off to Avalon Beach hunting for shells.


The next day we were waiting for the arrival of the next visitors at Stacy's house, Brandon, Julie and Claire. Madi and Cooper were so excited because they didn't have to go to school. After Brandon and Julie got a little settled we headed out for our next adventure to Darling Harbour. We went to Paddy's Market, Maritime Museum and the Aquarium.

Maritime Museum

I'm really glad I don't have to live on a submarine. I would get so claustrophobic.

Aquarium. It was soooo cool. They had walkways surrounded by the water and the fish, sharks, sting rays and turtles just swam around you.

The last day of our vacation we went to the Koala Park. It is close to Kevin and Stacy's and they had never been there before. I think it was one of the most fun places we went. It's among the top three anyway.




I love koalas and they are so soft. It was awesome to be that close to them.

We fed the Kangaroos. That was really fun.

Then we went to a Korean place for dinner. It was called Ben's .... I can't remember the rest, maybe Stacy can help me out.

The food was delicious and I loved the atmosphere. We cooked our own food at the table and I tried lots of new things.

No, I didn't try the octopus like Mark did, I am not that adventurous.
After dinner we headed off the the Sydney Temple to do a session.

What a great way to end our vacation serving in the House of the Lord.

Some of the things that I love about Sydney are the beautiful flowers, the colorful birds, the kookaburras and the cockatoos singing to us every morning, all the green space they preserve and spending time with family.

A beautiful kookaburra.

We decided that while we were visiting Stacy and Kevin that Mark needed to scuba dive in the ocean. He has been certified for 20 years and has never been in the ocean before and what a better place than the Great Barrier Reef. We left on Wednesday and went to the night market on a hunt for souvenirs and found lots of fun stuff. Mark found him a new hat made out of Kangaroo and I found me an opal necklace to name a few things.

The next morning we woke up bright and early, the earliest this whole vacation so far, and headed for the marina and some awesome scuba diving and snorkeling.

This is before we started the hour and a half trip out to the reef on a very bumpy ride, by the time we got there I was sick, but it was worth it. Mark hired out a camera and took lots of pictures while scuba diving and I learned how to snorkel.


He is so excited, he could hardly sleep the night before. He asked me about 20 times if I knew for sure the alarm was set because he didn't want to miss the boat.

I even survived snorkeling. When I tried it in Bear Lake I started to have a panic attack and I was worried what would happen here, but as soon as I stuck my head in the water and saw all of the fish and the coral I didn't even remember that my head was under water. It was sooooooo cool.

Mark found Nemo and his family,

A huge clam,

a lion fish and

a sea turtle just to name a few.
I was just happy to stay on the top of the water with my tour guide, Ana. She was very nice and helped my get around the reef.

The next day we decided to take a tour to a different part of the country and very different from the ocean and went to the rainforest. We went on a boat down the Daintree River keeping a sharp look-out for crocs, as they call them in Australia. Towards the end of our journey, low and behold we finally found two of them. One with his beady little eyes looking at you out of the water and the other one sunning himself on the bank.

The rainforest has beautiful trees and bushes and the most gorgeous flowers.

We stopped at a look out on Four Mile Beach.

We ate bananas that were from a tree and not the store. They taste different than the ones we buy at WalMart in Utah. They are have a sweeter taste to them and are really yummy.


One of the last things we did was hunt for seashells on the beach. We found lots of seashells and brought them to Stacy's house. Stacy told me that she boils them to get rid of germs and so I put them in the pot of boiling water. Guess what was inside one of them?!?! You guessed it a little crab, Stacy says I am a murderer. I feel so bad I didn't even know he was inside his house.


We had a great time in Cairns (Cans) and loved seeing a different part of Australia. Next week with Stacy we will see more of the sites here is Sydney. Stay tuned for more adventures from Australia.

We headed off for the Botanical Gardens this morning. We packed a picnic lunch and headed off to catch the train. Stacy says it's easier to get around the city on public transportation and she is right. There are cars and people everywhere. We went to the gardens and walked around for a bit and then found the best spot for a picnic lunch.


We started heading off for another trail where the Flying Foxes hang around and ran into a bunch of cockatoos, they where everywhere. We spent some time feeding them and watching them. It was so cool. Every morning the Kookaburas and the Cockatoos sing to us outside our window so I wanted to see one, well we saw quite a few of them.

Cooper and I feeding the Cockatoos.


Maddie giving a Cockatoo a drink.

The Rainbow Lorkeets came over to see what they were missing out on. They are really pretty birds. They kept landing on Mark and Stacy's heads.

Then we went to find the Flying Foxes. They just sleep in the trees all day. There were tons of them.

So far we are having a great time. We have seen lots of fun things and had a great time with Stacy, Kevin and the kids.

So after all the airport hassels we finally got to Sydney. We meet up with Kevin and went home with him. I thought we should do some walking to keep us awake for the rest of the day so we set off for some sight seeing. We went to Manley Beach and played on the beach and then took a ferry across the harbor to the Opera House and The Rocks where we had yummy pizza.

Me and Madi hunting for seashells. She is an awesome seashell hunter. She has been practicing for a long time.

Mark

Cooper

Rylee loves the water.

Rylee.

The Opera House from our ferry ride across the Harbor.

Stacy, Madi and I sitting on the stairs of the Opera House.