2.24.2008

More Oz Pics

Okay, here are some day 2 pictures from the trip. This is the big day. This is the day that Chris proposed to Sarah! But more on that later... :)

Here is beautiful Bondi Beach. We woke up early on Sunday morning so that we could go out here and see the beach.











Chris and Sarah and real outdoor peeps and so they wanted to go running on this trail that goes along the coastline. It really was spectacular. And since Nathan and I weren't dressed for exercise, we walked the trail. This was supposed to be the big scene of the proposal, as Chris had pulled us aside the day before and told me to have my camera handy for when he was going to pop the question. So we were waiting all morning for it, but it ended up raining. A lot. So Chris had to nix the idea of proposing that morning and told us later that he would try it at Manly Beach instead. And even though it was raining, it was still really beautiful out there. Okay, enough talky, more pictures!

Here's a shot back to where we were when we first got there. This was after we had been walking along the trail for a while. It was so peaceful because it was early enough that there weren't that many people there yet. Really a cool experience to get to be there with Nathan and just enjoy each other's company without worrying that Eli is going to run out into the ocean any minute. :)


More pretty scenes of Bondi Beach. Interestingly enough, the little blue tarp thing that you can see on the rocks is someone's makeshift home. It was very strange, we walked by and could see lots of different tarps and pots (presumably to collect rainwater) and other various things. And the weird part is that it's on this enormous cliff that looked pretty precarious. But hey, if you're going to be homeless, it might as well be on the coast of the prettiest beach around, right?

Here I am, all wet and rained-on, trying to pretend I'm having the time of my life! :) The whole time I was worried that we wouldn't be there when Chris asked Sarah, in case it stopped raining enough for him to do it. But luckily it didn't and he didn't, so we were okay. :) I just really didn't want to miss the photo opportunity, to tell ya the truth!



Here you can see more of the trail where we walked. Okay, I guess it's not so much a trail as it is a path. But you get the idea.













Here's another of me pretending to be excited about being in the rain and trying not to freak out thinking that my camera's going to get ruined! I have to say, Nathan does take his fair share of good photos. :) I'm very proud of him!


After we ate breakfast at a cool little cafe by Bondi Beach, we went to do some more touring. Nathan and I found ourselves on this path that led to the Botanical Gardens (which we never actually saw) and I saw this amazing tree that I just had to photograph. I love this picture. We actually spent a long while just sitting there under the tree, enjoying the wonderful breeze that came our way. That was seriously one of my favorite moments of the trip, just sitting under a really cool tree, soaking up the peace and quiet. That's the moment I want to go back to when I'm up to my elbows in dishes and laundry. So that's another reason why I love this photo.




Another view of the Sydney Opera House. This one is from the ferry that we were on, taking us over to Manly Beach, the second beach we saw that day. This is the one where Chris actually proposed, which was cool. But more on that later. :)

I really like this view of the Opera House. You get the shape of the roof at an interesting angle but you also get a lot of the great harbor as well. Did you know that the roof itself is not a solid white material, it's made up of millions of tiny ceramic tiles? I had no idea until I saw it in person. And the tiles are not all white, they have a pattern of white and off-white so that when the sun is shining directly on the roof it doesn't blind people. :) I'm glad they thought of that.

And here's the sign that welcomed us to the Manly Wharf. If you know Nathan at all, then you know that our afternoon was filled with 'manly' jokes. Seriously, left and right, everywhere I turned, he was joking about the 'manliness' and how I wasn't 'manly' enough to be there. Funny up to a point. :) But I just couldn't resist snapping a shot of this Manly Wharf.




Ah, what do you know, it's the manly man himself! :) I actually really like this picture of him, and not just because I took it and I like to admire my own work. (hahaha, just kidding) I like how he's actually smiling in this photo! Sometimes it's hard to get him to do a real smile and not the cheestastic one he usually does. But this one turned out great.





And here's the happy couple at dinner, later that night. (Their engagement pics will be in another post.) We ate at this place called Ribs and Rumps, which was pretty good. I ordered the wrong thing, but everyone else had good ribs and Nathan had a great steak. The food all came out on wooden planks, which was kinda fun. :) I know, little pleasures make me happy.



Oh, and I forgot to tell you the most terrifying part of the day. So we walked around Manly Beach after Chris had proposed and we ended up on this path that went all the way around the coast, kind of similar to the one at Bondi Beach. So we're going through this forested part of the path and all of a sudden Chris is like, "Oh my gosh, look up!" So I look up, and this is what I see above my head. I seriously almost flipped out and ran away. There are spiders like this everywhere in the trees where we went. And not just on this trail, I mean everywhere. At the zoo where we went they were all over the place. And spiders really do freak me out, I hate the thought of having something crawling on me. Nathan can attest that I have been worried more than once about swallowing spiders in my sleep. I must just be gullible when it comes to creepy crawly things. So anyways, I had to take a picture because there were like twelve spiders in this one web, and it was right above my head. Not cool, man, not cool.

More Australia photos!

Hello all my blog readers! (Hahaha, all 2 of you...Hi Mom!)

Just thought I'd update with some more photos from Oz. I've had a chance to edit through some of the mass and have whittled them down....a little. :) So enjoy!

This one is from our first morning in Sydney. We went down to the Circular Quay (pronounced "key") and had breakfast at this little cafe. It's just like Italy in the way that they don't automatically give you water when you eat out. I always think that's such a weird thing, but I suppose that's just because I'm so used to it here in America. :) I'm a spoiled water drinker. I think it also has to do with the fact that they are in a really big drought, although it rained about 4 out of the 8 days we were there. Oh well, whatev. :)

This one is the view from the table where we were eating. You could look right out onto the harbor and see the Harbor Bridge. People actually pay a ton of money to go do the Harbor Bridge walk, where you get to climb to the top of the bridge and see Sydney. I would have done it, except they don't let you take your own camera because 'they don't want you to drop it on anyone below on the bridge'. If you ask me, it's really so that they can sell you the pictures that they have taken from up there. I think I could do better. :) But again, whatev. :) I saw the harbor enough from the ground, thank you very much.

Here is another picture from inside the Sydney Opera House, on the tour that we took. It's the symphony hall. It really was amazing to sit inside that room and just imagine the acoustics that they have set up in there for the best possible sound. Our tour guide was telling us about the other hall that we didn't get to see, which is the Opera hall, and how they are wanting to update and refurbish that one, but the cost of that would be in the $200 million dollar range. Yeah, I said two hundred million. Sounds like they need to find a cheaper contractor if you ask me, LOL! :) But then again, what do I know about acoustics and sound? Not much, that's right. What I loved about this place was the huge pipe organ behind the stage. Our tour guide was telling us about this organ, how when it was built it was the largest mechanical organ in the world. And what's even cooler is that behind the front 'show' pipes, there are actually ten thousand more that can be played. How crazy is that?! Anyway, I thought that was pretty cool. :)



Here is a shot of the cool architecture that is inside the Opera House. I was surprised to find that it had so much of an industrial feel, with lots of exposed concrete, wood and metal. The architect who designed it felt just as strong about this inside details as he did about the outside details. That's cool to me.





Here is some more of the cool architecture inside. Even just the staircase is neat. :) I get a kick out of that kind of thing.




After the Opera House, we walked over to Darling Harbor to meet up with Chris and Sarah. Sarah works with Nathan and she brought her boyfriend Chris with her on this trip. We met up with them at a museum and toured around it. Then when we went outside, at the harbor was this cool fountain that had all these kids playing in it. It's summer time there, since the seasons are opposite of us, so it wasn't cold at all, although it did rain. I thought the design of this fountain was pretty cool. And the kids were having such a great time in it too. :) Too cute.

Here are Chris and Sarah. We had a really fun time hanging out with them. I was glad to have people to talk with and do things with. Not that I don't love being with Nathan, it was just good to have a change of pace every once in a while. They actually got engaged on this trip, but I'll tell you more about that later... :) They certainly do make a cute couple!





And here's the man of my dreams! :) We were hanging out in front of this other cool fountain down by Darling Harbor. I'm sure Nathan was really sick of me taking his picture on this trip. I think by the end, if I had asked him, "How excited are you to be in Australia?" behind the camera one more time, I wouldn't have liked the response. :) Heehee, that's the best and worst part about being the one behind the camera - you're not in a lot of the pictures! That can work to my advantage when I look like crap, but it also is not so fun when I go to find photographic evidence that I was, indeed, down under. :) But I've been getting better at asking Nathan to take my picture, and he definitely likes to use my camera. I don't blame him, LOL. So that's why there are more pictures of me. Mostly because I want to show my kids in the future that I really did exist! :)

On that note, here is the photographic evidence that I was there! :) Man, I really don't have any lips. I should work on that. :)

And I'll end here, but be on the watch for more pictures to come. These were all basically from the first day! Hey, you can't blame me, I just like to take lots and lots of pictures! Just be glad that I pared them down before I posted, LOL.

2.21.2008

Jetlag, Pictures and the Missionaries

Well, we're home safe and sound. I know this is a little late to be posting that statement, as we got back on Sunday night, but I still feel like I'm recovering from flying half-way around the world. :) The jetlag is honestly not that bad, except for the fact that I really don't want to get out of bed in the morning. Not just an "I'm tired and want 5 more minutes" type of thing. Nuh-uh. This is an "I cannot physically open my eyes" kind of a thing. I'm just hoping that that goes away soon. I'm sure it doesn't help that I stay up until midnight catching up on the episodes of Lost that I missed, but hey, I can blame it all on the jetlag, right? :)

I was happy to see when we got home from the trip that in our tower of mail that was left, there were the Busath photos on CD for me. Yippee! For those of you who don't know, we got our whole extended family pictures taken while we were in Utah for Christmas. It was a rare event when all the kids and spouses and grandkids were in attendance. So I'm excited to get to start playing with those, moving heads and slimming people down. :) Dontcha just love Photoshop??

And tonight we had the missionaries from our church over for dinner. I swear, these boys that go on missions just have the Spirit with them, it's just so easy for them to be focused on sharing the Gospel. I have a really hard time with that myself, because of a lot of different reasons. One is that I'm worried that whoever I approach will be offended and never talk to me again. Another is that I'm worried that I won't know how to answer all the questions someone may have, since I'm not the most learned Gospel scholar. Another reason is that I automatically assume that everyone is comfortable where they're at and they wouldn't be interested in hearing anything different.

I think it's different for me because I grew up in this church, and I have always just known what is expected of me. I of course had to go through my own experiences and gain my own testimony of the Gospel, but I've never been without it, so it's hard for me to imagine what it's like not knowing the truth. I know I just need to break out of my comfort zone and try to be more vocal about my faith. Or maybe just more comfortable in sharing that sacred, personal part of my life. Well, I'm working on it. :)

Okay, after that heavy subject ::smile:: I'll leave you with some fun new layouts. One is from Manly Beach in Australia, and one is of Angela and Eli that I just love. TTFN!


This layout uses Lifted Photos: Weathered and Worn Embellishment Biggie by Melissa Renfro, SS Paper Templates: Ratty Tatty by Durin Eberhart, SS Embellishment Templates: Rivet Up Biggie by Brandy Murry, Fanciful Frames Brush set by Amanda Sok, Luxe Borders Brush set by Thao Cosgrove, Endearing You Alpha and Word Art by Thao Cosgrove, Textured Cardstock Mega Pack 1 by Amanda Sok, Digital Stickers: Folded Flowers by Amanda Sok, SS Paper Templates: Coffee Stains by Mandy Steward, SS Digital Layout Templates: Layered - Tattered and Stitched by Cheryl Barber, and SS Layer Your Own Brushes: Worn Seals by Brandie Valenzuela.

Layout uses: Destinations Embellishments 1 by Erica Hite, SS Tools - Shapes: Vintage Labels 6301 by Syndee Nuckles, SS Paper Templates: Photocopy Biggie by Thao Cosgrove, Hula Sue Collection Biggie by Valerie Randall, SS Paper Templates: Stenciled Ornaments by Amanda Sok, SS Paper Templates: Persian Breeze by Brandy Hackman, and Affection Collection by Thao Cosgrove.

Thanks for stopping by! :)

2.11.2008

G'day from Down Under!

I'm here in Australia where Nathan is on a business trip this week. I was lucky enough to get to come with him, while Eli is spending some quality time with Nana at home. It's been such a fun trip so far, and we've gotten to see the Sydney Opera House, Darling Harbor, the Rocks area of Sydney, and we've gotten to eat at some really good restaurants as well. Here are some pictures, and I'm going to post more when I can.

This is at Darling Harbor, where we went to a Maritime Museum. We also got to eat at a good Spanish restaurant that had yummy fajitas.

Here is the famed Sydney Opera House. The first day we were here, it rained all day long! So the picture isn't that great, but it's true to life. I was amazed at the details in the roof of this place. Did you know it's made up of millions of small ceramic tiles? And here I was, thinking it was all one big piece of something. :) It was really cool to see in person!


This is a shot from the Sydney Opera House tour that we took. Since it was raining outside, we got to go in through the actors' entrance, where they had tons of storage of props from different plays and such that had gone on. It was pretty cool. We also got to take pictures in the Opera Theatre, which our guide said we had the first permission to take pictures in that room for months. That was pretty cool.

This is a miniature model of Sydney that is on display in a building down in Circular Quay. The coolest part about this is that it's situated underneath the glass floor that you walk on. It was pretty fun to point out our hotel and places of interest while standing a foot above them.