Missing you....

Mother here :)

I need to pack for the overnight trip to Yellowstone, but it just occurred to me that we probably won't have Internet use available there, so I wanted to say a quick 'Hi!!' to everyone, and to say thank you for your prayers. It was horrible not being able to breathe at all! I know I've been a bit bad at home sometimes, but this was worse and went on for a couple of days. I was so bad on Sunday night that I couldn't see how I would be able to sleep at all, except for the blessing, which helped me to sleep a few times, in between awakenings. But by the morning I was so tired and felt so bad that I asked to go to the medical centre. The doctor was great and gave me a steroid injection, a high dose steroid inhaler, antibiotics, and decongestants, enough to last until after I get home. I started feeling so much better almost straight away, came home and was able to nap for an hour at last, before we went to see the movie, 'Blind Side', which was great! A nine and a half according to Dad, Ben and me. Several times during the movie I just felt so grateful to be able to breathe at last - it made me feel how much we take so many things for granted.

I'm sorry if all that was terribly boring. Now on to something much less so - you! You are all writing that things are good, ok, etc., but no one is telling me much of what is really going on in your days. I'm starting to get suspicious! Would someone (every one would be wonderful :) please tell me what you are all doing? Nobody has mentioned what the drive-way work has been like, or if the cot has come, or what is happening with Robbie coming, or what you have been doing with your not-working-now days Abby, or if you have been bothered with rogue kangaroos, or what James has injured lately :), or what has been happening at work lately Tammy, or if the roof is leaking again, or how big Jessima is getting, or who you have had over for dinner recently, or how Bethany is spending her days, or if there have been any house fires recently, or car crashes - you know - the usual-but-I-want-details kind of things! Please. :)

I'm being asked to move along so that others can get on for emails etc.

We are missing you. We are having a great time, but we are missing you. I'm be glad to see you soon!

Love you all tonnes!
xoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxooxoxoxooxoxoxo
(That was for Jenna, now this for everyone else :)
xoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoooxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxooxoox

Museum PS..

Brecken, you reminded me - I saw just a small part of some of the modern art section too, and loved a huge stainless steel sculpture by David Smith, called 'Becca', after one of his daughters. It was wonderful! Do you know it?

Oliver removed his post, so you'll all have to wait :) (Allow yourself an hour or two of reading, it's going to be BIG :)

My breathing was even worse tonight, but I feel better after a blessing :) I hope I'll be able to sleep. There is a full and fun week planned and I don't want to let the side down. Or miss the fun. (Or get old and wrinkly too soon, .... but I'm hoping for two out of three :)

PLEASE - HOW ARE YOU ALL?? Don't you know that three weeks away is my outer limit without a solid family fix? Be kind to your Mother! And Father. And small animals... :)

xoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxo

Bethy, are you ok?
Tammy? Bec and Michael? James? ... ?
xoxoxooxoxo

WOW - A Whole Week!

HEY EVERYBODY!!!

This is Oliver again with your update on the twins!

When we last left you, we were travelling to Salt Lake City to watch the Utah Jazz play Basketball. Since that time SO much has happened. On Sunday night we stayed at the Hilton. Somehow we were able to get really cheap prices.......I think..... Don’t quote me on that, although I'm pretty sure it's true. It was pretty nice. There were only two double beds in the room for Myself, Ben, Jason and Bruce.........Jason and Ben slept on the floor. Life is great.

The next morning we woke nice and early and figured out what to do that day before the game that night. Jason wanted to show Ben and I a shop called Cabela's. It is MASSIVE!!!!!! It's basically a shop for every different hunting you can think of. This shop wasn't just a random hunting shop that hunters can get some normal bait from; this shop would give you a choice of 50 different types of bait for any one fish. There was a fishing section that was about the size of Coles at the Hyperdome. (For those who don't know, the Hyperdome is a shopping centre near our house in Australia and Coles is a big shop in it) The hunting section was even bigger. There was a mini arcade in this place where you could pay a dollar and play one of those hunting games were you get the plastic rifle and you have to hit the small targets. So much fun. Inside the shop they also had a fudge shop. We got two different types of fudge, two packets of sugared almonds and two packets of hard boiled lollies. We only did this because it added to the overall experience. The part of the shop that made me feel naughty was the gun section. It was about the size of IGA (another shop close to home that's a bit smaller then Coles.) It was so strange to see a bunch of guns just sitting on the rack for you to buy. I was tempted to buy one except that it would cost way too much and I would probably be arrested when trying to go back to Australia. The amount of stuff wasn't the only awesome thing about this shop. This place was decked out! The decorator must have had the same budget as the builders. There was a mountain in the middle of this place with running streams and everything. There were fish in a pond down the bottom as well. Covering this mountain was about 40 DIFFERENT types of animals that had been shot and stuffed. The more you looked at the trees and rocks that made up this mountain, the more animals you could find. It was crazy. There was also a tunnel that you could walk through in the fishing area that was an aquarium. There was a total of about 300 fish in there. (NOTE: the fish were alive, none of them were stuffed.) To add further to this, there was another add on to the shop that was about the size of IGA again that was devoted to presenting the biggest and best catches. There were deer, moose, bears and so many others that were MASSIVE. It was crazy. I could see Bec, Bruce and Wendy loving that shop. I think that means that Michael should start saving, right Bec?

After spending about 3 hours in that place, we headed back to the hotel to pick up Jason's dad and check out. This involved us all quickly packing up the truck with all our stuff and leaving. That was about 12 noon. The game was at 6. So we killed some more time. We drove down the road and found a park at the 'Gateway'. A mall in Salt Lake City. The first thing we did when we got there was go find the movie times in case there was a movie we could go and see. (NOTE: if you ever need to kill a bunch of time, movies are a great way to do so.) As we got there, the movie '2012' was just about to start in two minutes and so we ran. We all liked the movie. It was unbelievable in parts but Jason's dad continued to think about what he would do and what he needs to get ready in case that did happen. When we got out of the movie, Jason's dad went to go and move the truck because we had parked in a 2 hour zone while Jason, Ben and I went to go window shopping. We stopped in 5 shops to have a look. The first was the AT & T store. This was a phone store. Jason has a phone from them that just recently broke. (When I say recently broke, I mean that morning) He talked to the people who worked there about getting it fixed while Ben and I walked around looking at different phones pretending that we could be interested in buying one. We then left. The next shop we stopped at was a shop called "Fannz". This was a shop were you could get any Jersey/jumper/pants/shirt of any team you support. There were some pretty nice Jazz things but we decided to wait for mother and father to get here until we made any decisions about buying souvenirs etc. The third shop was called Lovesac. Yep, the Lovesac, and that's what it sold - Lovesacs. They were AWESOME. They use some kind of weird material and fluffing but it was amazing. They make couches, foot stools and massive cushions. Imagine the two cushions that mum made, now multiply the size by 7 and make them silent and about 10 times fluffier - You now have a Lovesac. I want one... or two... or four..... Christmas anyone? The final store we went into was the apple store. We basically just walked around in there until we needed to meet up with Jason's dad who had decided to take a nap in the truck. Jason checked his emails, Ben played with and iPhone and I just listened to the music they had put on the iPod Nano to advertise them. After hanging around in that store for a while, we met up with Jason's dad at the food court on the top level of the mall. We still weren't ready for dinner yet but Jason REALLY wanted some sushi. So off he went to get some sushi. When he got back we all shared his tiny meal during which Jason got a spot on his hoodie. I've never seen someone so desperate to get the keys to his father's truck just to change his jumper. After asking about 15 times, Jason finally got the keys off his father after much teasing. We told him where to meet us and then watched him run off in the direction of the car. (NOTE: the spot was about the size of an ant). We then all enjoyed dinner at a seafood restaurant. We all ordered the steak, the only non-seafood item on the menu.....interesting. After eating we set our path to the 'Energy Solutions Arena' to watch the Jazz.

We got into the stadium just like we would with any other sport game and found that there were heaps of things to do outside the actual stadium. (i.e. inside the building but outside the seating and court.) We first went to a small area that had been set up with a small hoop. They had a few small balls and anyone could line up and try to get them in the hoop. Anyone who did get the ball in the hoop was able to get a small face towel with the Jazz logo on it as well as a coupon for a free jazz jacket if they signed up with some bank. So we all had a turn at shooting. After getting a towel each, we headed over to the other side of the stadium where we saw Thurl Bailey. If you don't know who Thurl Bailey is, you can Google him. We got photos with him and also got him to autograph our tickets just for funnsies. After that, it was about time that we went to our seats. Our seats were on the southern end on the stadium 16 rows back and just to the right of the hoop. They were awesome seats. We were able to see everything so clearly. The Game was AWESOME. It was one of the best games we could have possibly asked for. The Jazz were playing the Spurs. The final score ended up being only 3 points difference (104-101). It was amazing. One of my favourite parts was watching Deron Williams Dunk it over Tim Dunkin right in front of us......good times. I have never seen the last 9 seconds of a game take so long! It was so tense the whole time. After the game we had to run out to the truck to leave as soon as possible so that we could get back to Rigby as fast as we could. We then drove back to Rigby Idaho.

We arrived at about 1 o'clock at which time we all went straight to bed. The next morning was Tuesday. Yay for Tuesday! We all slept in until about 10:30-11:00. When I say 10:30-11:00, that means that everyone else woke up at 10:30 and Ben woke up at 11:00. We then sat around for about 5 minutes deciding what to do that day. We came up with the following agenda. We would go and get Jason's phone fixed (He needed to go to the store in Idaho because the store in Salt Lake City couldn't help him) we would then meet up with Chris (Jason's older brother) and have lunch with him. Following lunch, we would go and get fitted with snowboards, boots, bindings and whatever else you need to go Snowboarding. We then start packing for Wednesday and Thursday when we would be going snowboarding. By the time we finished that, we would go to a mutual activity and then we would travel up to Jill's house. (Jill is Jason's older sister who we would be staying with on Wednesday and Thursday because they lived MUCH closer to the snowboarding). We were able to stick to this plan fairly closely with a few minor adjustments. As the plan stated, we began by getting Jason's phone fixed at the AT & T store. While waiting in that store, Jason talked with the people trying to get the phone fixed while Ben and I walked around once again pretending to be interested in buying a phone. Ben did use this time to check his email on an iPhone, so it was slightly productive.

We then went on to Chris's house. We went to lunch to a place called "Mongolian Grill". It was almost identical to dad's Japanese restaurant. You would choose a bowl size and then fill it with all the different veggies and meats that you want. After you had chosen all the food and sauces that you wanted, you would take it to this small man at the back of the shop who would cook it all on this massive hot plate thing. (Imagine a circular frying pan, that is about a meter in diameter and then take the sides off it so that it is just a flat cooking pan thing. It also had a catchment area underneath to catch any food or sauces that ran off the top.) It was really good, not as good as dad's but it was still pretty good. Hanging out with Chris was pretty fun. It was funny to see them trying to beat each other all the time. For example, while leaving Chris's house, Jason started drifting around the corners. (It's REALLY easy to do because of the snow everywhere) So Chris started. It finished when Chris spun too far and ended up facing the gutter. He lost. We then went to get fitted for snowboarding gear. Unfortunately, the place we were going to rent from is not renting out snow gear yet because there isn't enough snow yet and their gear is more likely to get damaged. That was annoying but to make up for this disappointment, we went to the church parking lot and did some donuts. After this short but thrilling experience, we drove back to the Hampton's house to pack for our little trip. This took most of the afternoon but we were also pleased to receive a phone call from our older brother Jonathon. So he already knew most of that. So now we are getting to the parts of our wonderful holiday that he doesn't know about. The packing was uneventful. We then went to mutual.

It was FREEZING!!! What we did was re-enact the birth of the saviour. We started at someones house where we got prepared for the trip. There was a couple in the ward who owned a donkey and so they dressed up as Mary and Joseph with Mary riding on the donkey. We then proceeded to walk and carol to two different houses and asked if they would allow us in to which they both said no. (In their defense, they had been told before hand not to let anyone in). What I found kind of strange is that we travelled to the houses right next door to where we started. They were still fairly far apart, but the funny thing is that they were all members of the church. Three houses in a row were Mormons. It was kind of strange and cool at the same time. Anyway, after being rejected twice, we travelled a bit longer to a third house we're they sent us to their barn. We all crowded around inside and sat down on some hay bales and watched as Mary and Joseph acted out the scene with the help of some wise men and shepherds while the owner of the barn read the story from the bible. It was so cool. I've never really seen something like that. All the plays and re-enactments of the birth of the saviour stay in one place, and you just sit there watching, but actually walking around from door to door like Mary and Joseph would have done was pretty interesting. After the re-enactment was finished, we all stood around talking to different people while warming ourselves up with the heater. (NOTE: while walking around outside for about an hour, the temperature was -17 degrees) There were some donuts and hot chocolate.....but we didn't really want to leave the heater. After this all finished and people started going back to their homes, we drove back to Jason's house to grab our bags that we packed and took off to watch Jill's husband Cody play basketball.

That was funny......in a bad sort of way. According to Jason, it was the perfect game to show us exactly how most Americans play basketball. It started off pretty normal but towards the end of the game there were a tech fouls called. (Tech fouls are fouls when one of the teams is back chatting or yelling at the ref OR they are intentionally hurting the other team.) Cody's team won by 32 points which was good, but there was a guy on the other team who continued to yell at the ref for another 30 minutes after the game. It wasn't like the 4 tech fouls would have made any difference to the outcome, but they seemed pretty intent on the idea that the ref lost them the game and he should be fired. It was almost humorous to watch. Then we drove for about an hour to get Jill's house. When we got there, it was REALLY early in the morning and so we all just flopped on our beds and dreamt of snowboarding.

Wednesday morning! What a letdown.
We woke up earlier then we had all holidays with the intention of getting there as it opened. We first had to go and rent a board and boots etc. because the other shop had been closed. This shop didn't open until 8:30......the Ski runs opened at 9:00......it took 45 minutes to get to the ski runs from the shop.....DOH! We were able to rent the stuff pretty quickly and it was fun trying on all the stuff for the first time. The guy who was fitting us was pretty cool; he even gave us a discount because we were from Australia. SCORE! (It only ended up being a $6 discount, but it was the thought that counts.....right?) We then took off to go snowboarding for the first time EVER! We were so excited! Abby had said that it was the best day ever (I'm sure this has changed seeing as she got married, and for some people this would be the best day ever.....but I might be wrong, you would have to ask Abby) We got up to the place and there was some snow! BUT only the small hill was open. There wasn't enough snow for the others to be open......Let down number one. The second problem was that the snow wasn't recent. It had fallen a long time ago and now it was basically ice. The third problem was that it was -21 degrees not including wind chill. This was apparently the coldest it has ever been for Jason when he has gone snowboarding and it wasn't fun at all. The final problem was the air. It was all completely hazy. You could barely see 20 meters away and everything was just grey. Add onto all this that it was our first time and we ate it pretty hard; this first day was the biggest let down ever. We began having thoughts in our heads like "Was Abby delusional?" and "Why does anybody ever want to see snow? This is dumb". Yes, our thoughts and feelings towards snowboarding were pretty negative. As we went to lunch time at about 11:00am we had all had enough and decided to leave then instead of staying until it shut at 4:00pm. (NOTE: we did have fun, but in the end, the weather and atmosphere got to us) We left the slopes and started heading back to Jill's house. On the way there, we talked about different ideas to make tomorrow more fun. Ideas like waiting until 12 noon to go, that way it would be warmer etc.

when we got to Jill's house, Jill and Cody set us up with 'Rock Band'. For all those who don't know what rock band is, here is a simple explanation. Rock Band is an X-Box game that involves four different people at a time. One to play the guitar, one to play the bass, one to play the drums and one to do vocals. The vocal player would use a microphone to sing into to hit the right notes. Meanwhile the bass player and the guitarist use controllers in the shape of a guitar/bass to play the right notes on the screen as they came down. The drummer had a little drum kit that they use to play the right beats at the right time. All in all, it is SOO much fun!!! We got on there and we played until dinner time about 3-4 hours later. I was on the guitar, Ben was on the drums, Jason was on the Bass and Cody was too shy to do the vocals, so no one sang. After dinner, we all went to see where Jill worked. We didn't go there out of interest only. Jill works at a spa. That includes steam rooms and hot tubs. SOOO NICE! The hot tubs were outside in the snow but it was set to 36 degrees. It was like having the snow all around you but without the cold temperatures. It was awesome. I sat in there for about an hour or two. Jason was there at first but then he had to hop out and got Jill to cut his hair for him. (Jill is a hairdresser). It was the most relaxing thing EVER! I was also able to make a snowball about the size of Jonny's head. Every time my hands got too cold I would just dip them back into the water to heat them back up. This was a great way to end the day. It also sent our moods way back into the positives. Tomorrow was looking up for us.

Prayers are answered.

On Thursday, we stuck to the plan. We woke up at 9:00 in the morning planning to get to the ski resort at 11:00. What a dumb idea. Thursday was PERFECT!!!!!!!! Throughout the ENTIRE day Jason repeatedly told us that this was the best day we POSSIBLY could have asked for. A lot of snow had fallen the previous night meaning that there was about 6 inches of powder on top of the snow that we had gone on the day before. The skies were the perfect colour blue. The temperature was back up to around -10 degrees (which we considered warm). It wasn't snowing which meant the Jason was able to take videos and pictures of us snowboarding without fear of damaging anything. We had gone to the rental shop to get the next boot size up which meant my toes weren't squished. It was perfect. I can EASILY see why Abby had said it was the best day ever. It was AWESOME! It was easier to turn, you sprayed up snow when you turned, if you fell over it didn't hurt, we crashed about 1/8 as much as we did the day before. It was so much fun. We have all the videos and pictures to show you all when we get home. It would be useless for me to try and explain how much fun it was in words. You are just going to have to ask us when we get back.

That day we stayed until 4:00 and we are still kicking ourselves for getting there two hours late. After we finished up for the day, we drove back to Jill's house and packed up all our things and said our goodbyes. We drove back to Jason's house. On the way he got a phone call wondering if he was going to go and see the Rigby High School basketball game. We had never seen a high school game in America before so we chose to go. Oh if only I was famous and I would be too if I played basketball in America. We had called Jason's older brother Chris to come and watch it with us. It was so weird. It looked like the entire school rocked up. They were selling merchandise with "Rigby Trojans" printed on it. My personal favourite was when they announced over the loud speaker, the names of each player as they ran onto the floor. Imagine High School Musical, but substitute 'Wildcats' with 'Trojans' and change the colours to maroon and gold. That was what it was like. They weren't exaggerating at all in the movies. IT'S REALLY LIKE THAT! Rigby actually lost in the end but we don't like to talk about it. It was so strange to see so many people at a High School Basketball game. They even made you pay $4 to get in?!?! If only Australia had been like that. Sigh. That was pretty much the end of Thursday night except that we managed to find our beds right where we left them on Tuesday.

Friday was interesting.
It began like every other Friday. We woke up. But this time we were in a foriegn land in a foriegn bed but we knew the owner so it was all good. We slept in until about 10...ish at which time we had already decided what to do. Eat breakfast! It was so nice. Sister hampton had gotten up at a normal time and made crepes. We ate them with home made rasberry jam, cream, banana and icing sugar......SO GOOD!!!.....not so healthy......but SO GOOD! after this delicious breakfast. We ventured off to the AT & T store for the third time but this was to be the last time. Jason only needed his contacts moved across. After this, we did what Tammy requested. Jason, Ben and Myself ate lunch at Cafe Rio. That's right, we ate lunch at Cafe Rio. Jason had a salady kind of thing. I had a steak burito and Ben had an echilada. Jason and I enjoyed our meals very much. Ben however did not. He had just asked for an enchilada. After realising that they only put the sauce and cheese on the enchilada he noticed that what he was suppossed to say was either a chicken enchilada, or a beef enchilada. But he did enjoy his meal anyways. We then sat around for a little while until the clock finally ticked over to 3:00pm. This meant that Go-Karting was now open for business. It was a small track but it was an awesome track. Because it was in door and the go-karts were somewhat powerful, drifting was easy to do. The trick was to drift AROUND the corner and not INTO the corner. We got the best deal ever. because no one else was there, we had the whole track to ourselves. we could have bought a single 20 lap race for $10. Instead, for $20 we got unlimited racing for an hour. In the end, we ended up doing 120 laps. that's $60 worth of laps. We think we're awesome :D Jason however, wasn't awesome. That so called friend of ours was T-boning us just to get ahead. (NOTE: T-boning is were one car runs straight into another car on there side thus making the cars look like the letter 'T' from above.) but in the end, Ben and I know that we won while playing fairly. After the Go-karting, we tried as hard as we could to get as many tickets on the arcade machines to get us each a go-karting key ring. Which we can show you when we get home :P That night at the Hamptons, we didn't really do that much, we just played with Jason's little nephews and ate dinner etc. It was fun, but after being shot for the 100th time with a foam bullet, I decided I didn't like the game we were playing.

Saturday was going to be eventful and it was but not the way we had planned it. We began by going sledding. This involves tieing the tire to the back of their quad bike. We had had some snow on Friday night and we had decided to test it out. Jason was driving and I jumped on the tube first. It was so much fun. Then it came Ben's turn........hmmm What could possibly go wrong? I'll just let you watch this and then I'll tell you the whole story.

He was knocked out for a few seconds. He doesn't remember much and he doesn't remember why he didn't jump off but I think he might be doing better off now then he was before. Now he knows to jump off things that are about to crash. That's a valuable piece of knowledge he now holds dear. The rest of the time was trying to look after Ben. We finally got him inside with Jason basically carrying him. (Ben claimed he was perfectly fine but we began to worry when he stumbled sideways when trying to walk straight and when he told us it was Thursday on Saturday morning. It's the most sense he's ever made!) Ben is perfectly fine now, nothing wrong except that the cut on his nose makes it uncomfortable to put his glasses on. We had planned to go and watch some chariot races but Ben wasn't really up to it at the time. instead we filled the rest of the day with everyone else having turns on the tube. Jason's older brother Brett came over. He had a great idea. He pulled out a little plastic saucer (Almost like a very shallow plastic bowl about 75cm in diameter.) and tied that to the back of the tire. No one else got hurt. and the rest of the day was really fun. That night, Jason had planned a small party. A sort of get to know other people party. It was pretty fun. Nope, I change my mind. It was REALLY fun. There were two other guys named Landin and Justin, and then four girls named Morgan, Esther, Natalie and Cree. At first we started playing pool. Games like Australia versus America but when they realised that no one could beat the Aussies (NOTE: this is actually true. Ben and I cleaned up with in 3 turns everygame) they all turned there attention to Wii. The game chosen to play was Wii Olympics. The ironic part about this was that Australia won again. We won the fencing, swimming, hurddles and ping pong. The Wii was short lived. Then we all ran up to have pizza that sister hampton had made. Half way through dinner Morgan had to leave but then Natalie realised that Esther had left a board game called "Curses" at her house which was right next door. This game is the BEST GAME EVER!!!!!! Here's how it goes. There are two types of cards and a bell. Challenge cards and Curse cards. On your turn, you have to pick up a challenge card and do whatever's on the card. An example of a challenge card might be: You are a werewolf. Show everyone how you morph in the moonlight. Once you have completed your challenge card, You can pick up a Curse card and give it to another player of your choice. An example of a curse card might be: You must profess you undieing Love everytime a player rings the Bell. Someone may have 6 curse cards at any one time and he must do all of them. If he forgets to do one of them, Someone can ring the bell and call him up on it. If that happens then they loose that card. Once a player has lost three cards, he is no longer in the game. It is amazing what some people can do. Ben for instance had to do the following. Bite his tounge whenever he spoke, before he spoke he had to clap twice and say "attention class!", He had to hicup while he spoke, because he was Mr T. he had to say "I pitty da fool" every time he spoke and he also had to cry like a baby every time the bell rang. I dare you to try it! Can you see why that would be such a fun game. I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard.

That night ended soon after, we all talked for a while and then people left just like every other gathering but what made this one special is........get ready...... MUM AND DAD ARRIVED AT LAST!!!!!!!! Dad had pretty white knukles from driving in the snow but they both made it here nice and safely. The unfortunate thing is that I got kicked out of my own room. Sigh. Now I have to move into a messy room again with Ben. BUT I did have a clean room for a week, and for that I am grateful.

I have just realised that I forgot to put photos throughout and because I am lazy, I'm just going to put them all here at the bottom. Have fun!! - For some reason it won't let me load any more then 5 pics. If there are any stories that you would like to see photos for, say which ones they are and I'll make another entry with those photos. :D

Cya
Oliver

This is Ben and I just at the front door of Cabelas

Notice the mountain in the middle of the floor

This is Me with a massice Moose Teddy thing. ben has one too, but he's kind of just sitting there really awekwardly and he went to bed so I don't know if he wants it up on the blog. But if you want to see it just request it!!

This is Jason Ben and I with the free towel at the entrance to the inner stadium.

This is in the final seconds of the Jazz game

(NOTE: He missed both shots)

This is the Snowball that we made

Wish you were here - to see the Museum! :)

That was me who just posted Oliver's 'Volume 111' - and I hope he won't mind... I know that he hasn't finished it yet, and after Jonny's recent criticism, Oliver planned to make his next entry a book, but I thought that if I posted mine, then he came home and posted his, you might never get around to reading the little entry of mine that would be at the end :)

And he should be nice to me, because I feel dreadful. Not from guilt or anything, for publishing his personal entry (well maybe, just a little), but sick dreadful. Can't breathe, and I really kind of mean that, dreadful. Am struggling for breath, and hoping that Dad will know if I brought a 'puffer' along. (I'll ask for a blessing when they get home too. One must be able to breathe :) And what do I do with my remaining perhaps few moments in time here on earth? I stay home from church, where I really wanted to go, (but didn't want to inflict myself on everyone), mind Dad's lamb pot-roast on the stove, and write to you :)

But enough of the chit-chat... It seems days since I really filled you in on the details of our recent jaunts. I'm not sure how far I'll get before I peeter out, but here goes...

Meeting Brecken and Justin, and Reuben and Simeon was great. We wanted to get together with them again before we left, but I messed it up by getting sick. They are lovely :)

I shopped. Dad held parcels. And practiced patience. (As if he needed the practice! :)

Things here are so cheap! Many things are about half the price. A few items are, inexplicably, about twice the price or more what we have at home. - Christmas decorations, for one. I planned to get each of you one tree ornament from Macy's, in NYC, (remembering several lovely old Christmas movies), but bombed out, I'm sorry. The selection wasn't great, and the prices were horrible! I can't tell you why this exception to the general rule, but there you go...

(You don't suppose Dad willed me sick, to escape from all the shopping, do you? It just occurred to me... No. .. He wouldn't do that... Would he?)

Dad told you that I stayed in bed on Friday morning, feeling yuck, and that we decided that he should carry the sight-seeing torch for both of us that day. Which he did very bravely, considering there was a little chill in the air. (I finally 'get' why people like to visit NYC in Spring, Summer or Autumn :)

I arose at lunchtime, cleaned myself up, and caught a cab to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
(As a side note, I have really enjoyed chatting with our various cab drivers. My favourite was.. I don't remember his name, but he's from Jamaica, and we chatted about reggae and universities and all sorts of things. Other drivers were from: Korea (he and his three brothers have seven sons and no daughters between them. !! He goes back to visit twice a year); from the Carribean; from India... Some are more chatty than others. But all of them want to retire back to where they came from! Interesting :)

Dad had told me that the museum would close at 4.30pm, so I didn't have very long, I thought. Actually, it closed at 9pm, and I managed to stay until almost the end. It was stupendous. Splendiferous. I loved it, it was just amazing. I was rushing past one door, (towards the end, in the last couple of hours, I was just trying to see as much as possible), when I suddenly saw one of my favourite portraits by John Singer Sargent, 'The Wyndam Sisters'. It's a large painting, more than two by three metres in size, and when I saw it my jaw just dropped open and I stood there in the doorway like a stunned galah, thinking, 'you need to close your mouth Sandra', and then I burst into tears. I hope nobody was watching! It was overwhelming to see so many originals of what I only have in books at home. I saw the original of Van Gogh's 'Vase of Roses', that we have on the lounge room wall at home! I saw wonderful originals by Mary Cassat, Memling, Renoir, Monet, Rembrandt, Reubens, Gainsborough... so many. I even saw a Picasso that I really like, (unlike some of his). I was near tears several times. I also managed three separate guided one-hour tours - European Masters, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and Museum Highlights. I also loved the statuary, and the French Period 'Rooms', and everything :) Loved it all!

'They' are home now from church, so I'll try to catch up a bit more later, or Dad will. Tonight the entire Hampton family are coming over for dinner - sixteen adults and four kiddies, plus two babes - for a lamb pot-roast dinner, starring DAD as the cook, and AUSTRALIAN LAMB as the (less willing! ) meal. Supporting roles by chocolate mousse for dessert, by me, and fresh breadrolls and a beautifully set table, by Renae!

HOW ARE YOU ALL?????

LOVE YOU!!
xoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Goodbye NYC!

Leaving NYC! It's just after 7am and heading for airport. Will blog later :)

Love to all!!
xoxoxoxoxoxooxoxooxooxoxoxo

Update on the Twins: Volume I

hey It's Oliver again!!! and Ben :P

It may seem like we haven't been writing....that's because we haven't been.

I could tell you the whole range of excuses that I came up with to tell you but then I realised that none of them really stopped us from writing to you lovely people except that we had other things to do.

The last time you heard from us was the night before we left for Idaho. That was a while ago. Since then, much has happened but I will start on Saturday morning when our parents abandoned us :D

Tears were shed as mum and dad slowly left our view. The moment they left our view we went to a small shop to get some breakfast. Our breakfast (of which I had no input) consisted of two large cookies each and a power aid. we then ran out the door to find our transport. We found it right outside the door. It was pretty convenient if you ask me. Our bus/car/thing was called the 'Salt Lake Express'! Including the driver and ourselves, there was a total of five people on the bus/car/thing. We did not however get any photos. (NOTE: this is not un-common - Sorry mum :S) Our bus/car/thing was scheduled to drop off the other two passengers a bit before us and then continue onto Rigby, Idaho and arrive at 12:15 in the afternoon. At 11:20, we were kicked out of our bus/car/thing into the 10 degree weather at a random petrol station. Doh! (NOTE: the temperature stated is in Fahrenheit. In Celsius, it is about -12 degrees.) We bunkered down for the ice age...........we waited..........and waited........and froze..........and waited.........and froze.......and waited.......BUT as luck would have it. After only a few minutes of waiting, Jason drove into the station to pick us up!! In his own words he said: "My mum told me to go and pick some stuff up and then go and pick you guys up but as I drove past the station I saw two twins standing there frozen. I was like WHOA what are they doing there so early.You guys are lucky I drove past when I did!" And we agree :D

We then went shopping in an American supermarket!!! which wasn't that exciting.....but we can say we did anyway :)

Then Jason took us to a place called "Bambinos" It's a fast food place that is apparently unique to Rigby. They are SO good. the only problem was that they were small with each of us easily eating three. which was about $3 worth of food - that's right, the food is CHEAP! everywhere we go, everything is so cheap. Jason likes to rub this in all the time, so we mention our longing for MILO, Tim-Tams and Just Right. That's silences him fairly quickly :)

We then arrived at the Hampton's house. We saw snow in their front yard. We met the parents. We settled in downstairs. We commented on their use of a basement. We took a tour. We answered a few questions and went outside....to ride the quad-bike and do a few doughies! SO much fun but we were only able to do this for about 15 minutes until we froze and went back inside. This worked out fine because their nephew's third birthday party was about to start. So we all jumped into the truck and took off to wish him a happy birthday. It seemed like Jason was their favourite uncle. (He was the only one their but they did seem to like him a lot) They were so funny and we all had a great time.

That night was fun. After a small debate, We decided to go bowling. Jason's friend Karlee, had discounted tickets and so we played three games (which I might add was still cheaper then $20 - see what I mean - everything is cheaper). We had three games. The first was a proper game. Jason won. He's still talking about it. He got 122. The second game was more for funnsies. We weren't all trying very hard but Jason won again. He doesn't like talking about his score in that game. The third game was interesting. each ball, we had to bowl it in a different way. The first bowl, we bowled backwards, the second bowl we had to spin twice before bowling straight away etc. The interesting part about this game is the final score. Ben and I came a tie for first place. Hmmm.... Interesting. After this, we went to a take-away place called "Five-Guys". It was a burger place. but the Fry's were really good! They were made from Idaho grown potatoes, but instead of processing the potatoes, they just cut them into strips and fried them like that. It's better then I make them sound. The final food for the night came from another place called "Sub-Zero". It was an ice-cream place but not like any other. You made the ice-cream. It was a bit confusing at first BUT by utilising the wonderful brains provided to us by our parents, (THANKS!), we were able to make sense of the process. You began by choosing a cream. This was either custard, premium, something and no fat. Custard gave a smoother ice-cream (remember Nielsen's Frozen Custard? Same thing... sort of). The Premium gave a richer flavour. Something was never explained to me and No Fat wouldn't taste very nice simply because all the good parts must have been taken out to make it No Fat. After choosing the cream, you chose the flavour. they had heaps of different flavours. For the purpose of saving time, I will forgo telling you what others had and use my own chooses as an example. I chose the custard cream. and the flavours I chose were: Cherry, coconut and chocolate. (If you haven't realised, I was testing them the same way I tested Nielsen's Frozen Custard. Get them to make Cherry Ripe.) You were then able to choose a mix-in, similar to Cold Rock. I chose Mini M&M's. Here comes that cool part. All the stuff that you have requested is still liquid, not ice-cream. They then use N2 to freeze it instantly. THEY MAKE IT INTO ICE-CREAM IN FRONT OF YOU!!! I had already done this in chemistry and so it wasn't as exciting for me, however, Ben thought it was pretty awesome and so I decided to sound excited for his sake :D I must say this - they beat Nielsen's Frozen Custard in the flavour. Nielsen's Frozen Custard was probably smoother but Sub-Zero did get the Cherry Ripe flavour perfect. While we all ate our ice-cream, Jason and Karlee tried to convince us to ask for the number of the girl who served us. Apparently she was checking us out. We didn't but I just thought I'd throw that in there to let you all know just how lucky you all are to know such amazing people. I would elaborate further, however my humility is holding me back. Sigh. The night ended with the drive dropping off Karlee and getting back to the Hampton's house. This was pleasant but uneventful.

That was our first night in Rigby, Idaho.

Tonight is our fourth night since we separated and right now I am sitting in front of Jill and Cody's computer. It is 1:23 in the morning and I am about to go Snowboarding in less then eight hours. I am wasted. I am going to bed. I will write to you all hopefully tomorrow night/tonight with the other three nights including our first snowboarding feats. I bid you all a wonderful Afternoon/evening/morning/whatever time you read this

This is Oliver Munro on Jill's computer.

Farewell

Maths professors.

I'm sitting in a tiny room that is devoted to internet use, here in our hotel in NYC, catching up on emails, etc. Sitting beside me is a man who was muttering under his breath and trying to work out on paper what 40 times 3,000 was? He looked at me and so I answered, "120,000". He still looked worried.
"Is that a mathematical equation or something?" he said. "I need to know how much 40 times by $3,000 would be?"
I directed him to Neil, a couple of computers away, (in case he hadn't trusted me). Neil looked up and said, "$120,000".
"Are you guys both Maths professors or something?" he asked, incredulously.
I smiled and said, "no".
"Well, you sure are smart!" he said.

Who knew? :)

xoxo

Without a camera.

We went out tonight in NYC without our camera and have been regretting it all evening! So you'll need to just take our word for all that we saw...

We headed first to Time Square from our hotel, with a pit-stop for dinner at Sbarros (pizza and salad, etc). Brecken had told us to go to Rockafella Centre if we went nowhere else, so we headed there next, and saw the fabulous Christmas tree, plus a long row of beautiful Christmas angels in lights, as well as the outdoor skating rink there. Before reaching there though, we walked past some piles of GIANT Christmas balls in a mound in front of one of the buildings. Each ball was taller than us I think. (It was about now that we regretted the absence of our cameras... )

After spending some time at the Rockafella centre, we entered the fabulous St Patrick's Cathedral that was nearby. It was so strange to us that the tourists were welcome - to gawk, take photos or video, light candles or not, buy something at one of the two gift shops, or just idle about. We toured up one side aisle and down the other, noting at least a dozen artists making sketches of the various naves etc. along the way, as well as several people who appeared to be homeless - surrounded by some luggage or belongings - and asleep while sitting on the benches. I could try to describe it all to you, but if you visit here you will see some photos for yourself. (Since we didn't have our camera with us.) It was impressive. I would love to go back during the daytime if we can, to see the effect of the daylight streaming through all of the beautiful stain glass windows.

Not far further along the road was a building decorated all over its facing for several stories up, with giant, lighted snow-flakes. In its windows was also an animated Christmas story, with people moving along in line, reading the story and enjoying the display. When I realized that the store was Saks on Fifth Avenue (!!) we went in for a quick peek. Things were expensive, but very elegant, and the Christmas decorations inside were so elegant! You can see on the photos how lovely it was..... oh wait.. maybe not, sorry :P

We wandered along, looking at some of the other stores on The Avenue, and then all of the ENORMOUS billboards on Time Square - although, Dad would probably describe our progress more as galloping :) - I was cold :) After that, we met Will Smith, saw a spaceship land on top Macys, and were invited onto the Fox News Station, to give our views about politics in the USA. (I knew that it was a good idea to be ready for that :) If only we'd had a camera!

Tomorrow we'll take one out with us :)

I haven't even told you yet about our wonderful day yesterday with Brecken and Justin and Reuben and Simeon. Or that the Bishop and his wife where they go to church, are the two main (with dark hair) characters in the temple film. Or that we saw Justin's film, went to church in the building where the NYC temple is located, had a wonderful evening at a pot-luck dinner and choir practice for 30 at the home of one of the ward members, listened to some wonderful singers there - at least one from the NYC Met Opera, travelled by bus and on the subway, and stayed up until after 1 am, talking about all sorts of things with our wonderful hosts. But I'll have to tell you about all of that tomorrow. because right now I need to head to bed. Big day :)

I hope this makes sense. I'm really rather tired.

I love you all!

Does anyone have any news of our missing boys? Last seen heading to Idaho? (Please feel free to hassle/harass them into writing something!

xoxooxxoxoxoxoxoxooxo

(Tomorrow I am going to find a Book Store!! :)

We're here in NYC! aka 'Where are those Idaho Boys?

We're here in NYC!

It's lovely - Brecken is delightful, and even prettier than you said Tammy, or than her photos show. Dad is sitting on the lounge, reading a series of books to Reuben, and struggling so valiantly not to go to sleep instead! Every now and then Reuben says for him to 'wake up', and Dad apologizes and says that he is silly to be going to sleep, isn't he? But he's not so very silly, since we each had about an hour's sleep last night, getting to bed at about 4am after packing, then getting up again at just after 5am, to leave for the airport at 6am (or a bit after, as it happened :)

We had the opportunity to go to a Stake music evening with Brecken tonight, (Justin is out late, working on a shoot), which sounded lovely, but we opted to stay and mind Reuben at home instead. Reuben is a lot of fun to talk to and be with. We are just so tired!

But very happy to be here :) It began to snow just as the airport taxi we were in pulled up to Justin and Brecken's apartment block. It was so pretty that I laughed to see it and paused for a few moments to watch it before we came inside.

The boys made it safely to Idaho, though stood outside in the cold there for an hour before being picked up, as their shuttle bus ran very early. Bruce told Dad when we rang that the boys looked like frozen popsicles when they picked them up :) But by the time we rang when we landed, they had been fed, thawed out and warmed up, and were outside again with Jason on the four-wheelers.

Dad's awake now - or I hope he is, since he and Reuben are playing 'catch-the-running, bouncing-boy-while-he-launches-himself-into-the-air-onto-the-visitor-from-Oz' game.

I'd write more, but ... I don't want to!

lol - Movie!! - Jonny!? You guys are getting slower...... It's not actually a movie...

I would like to! But I can hardly string enough words together in order to pretend that I still enjoy a level of coherent thought. I'll write more tomorrow, or Dad will. I keep going to sleep too....
Justin and Brecken will come home to find that Reuben is babysitting ussssssssssssssssszzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........

Love you allllllllllllll :)
xoxooxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoox

WE LIVE!!!!!!! You pessimistic people

hey everbody!!!!!


IT'S BEN AND OLIVER AGAIN!!!!


(lucky)



We can tell by all of your comments that you may be a little worried about the state of our health and well being. We are here to inform you that you we are doing well. That will be all. Goodbye.



Ok, we lied and we are sorry :(

This week has been awesome!
We began as you know by staying with the Smoot's and going to their school etc. (It was SO weird! they had a running track INSIDE!! maybe it's just us who thinks that's weird)
Anyway, after we left the Smoot's house early on Tuesday afternoon, we went to visit Sister Arbuckle. We must admit that at first we thought this would be slightly awkward with looong pauses while Sister Arbuckle gathered her strength. (In our defense - We had never met her AND mum and dad kept talking about how "we weren't going to stay with her because she's older and it would be too much of a strain on her") We arrived shortly after leaving the Smoot's to find her and her daughter cleaning out the basement. Hmm....interesting.
Sister Arbuckle was awesome!!!

I've never heard of a grandmother who has made blankets for every single one of her 40 - 50 grandchildren

and lived to tell the tale! Mum was flabbergasted in every way about how healthy Sister Arbuckle is. (as she said about 50 times) repeating phrases such as "You look younger than the last time I saw you" and "You look so alive and energetic". Mum and Dad and Sister Arbuckle had a wonderful old chat but we would have to say that the highlight for us would have to be the lunch. Frozen Custard. We'll let you ponder that for a second........Mmmm Yummy. (NOTE FROM OLIVER: I don't even like custard but this was more ice-cream from heaven)

The best part about this lunch was that it cost NOTHING. Sister Arbuckles grandson owns and works there and was working when we came in. SCORE! Mum and Dad and Sister Arbuckle all had sandwiches. Myself and Ben were smarter then this. We saved the space for the other things :D

Dad even said that this ice-cream gave new meaning to the word 'smooth'. I (Oliver) even challenged them as never before and tried to get them to replicate a 'Cherry Ripe' flavour after giving a small description of a 'Cherry Ripe'.

Oliver: Ummm... it's like cherry mixed with some coconut covered in chocolate....

Dad: Yeah, that sounds like it

Server: ......um...ok

Six minutes later, that came out with Cherry Ripe Ice-Cream. It was Amazing.

We then took our journey towards Salt Lake city again.

The Toones were not expecting us until later on in the evening because they would not be home SO we went and took a tour of the conference center! IT'S HUGE!!! We all thought it was awesome. From the paintings, to the sculptures, to the floor (Yes the floor is pretty amazing), to the Christmas trees, to the decorations and to the conference hall itself. It was breath taking. These were a few of my favourite things - Stop singing and keep reading - The picture of Jesus visiting the Americas after his death (That painting is MASSIVE) The Hall with the balconies that aren't supported by any pillars so that EVERY seat has a clear view of the pulpit. (the guy who was taking us through on this tour mentioned that the upper balcony actually sinks about 15 - 25 inches when it's full ....... Proverbs 3:5-6)

This tour sadly ended without being able to see the roof of the conference centre (to all those who didn't know, like myself, the roof is four acres of park lands)

Our direction following skills were then put to the test as we ventured off to find the Toone's House. We blame Google directions. We arrived at their house later then we had planned but were warmly welcomed into their home. We inhabited their basement as we still do until tomorrow morning. They are both so wonderful. Claire had even made up more beds then were needed just to give us the option of where to sleep. Elder Toone (hehehe) was exactly the way we remembered him. Helping wherever and always smiling. After talking with them for a little while they fed us and allowed us to go to bed. We woke up in the morning to find Claire cooking German pancakes along with one of the BEST sauces we've ever tasted. We then took of for a day of fun :D

Park City.

The city renowned for it's snow of which it had almost none... D:

BUT we did continue to drive up the mountains as far as possible until we found the small patch of snow. It was there that we realised just how dirty Ben is when it comes to snowball fights (NOTE: I should mention now that neither of us could really make a snowball. I came close, but it took ages!)

NOTE: The trucks that drove over the snow compressed the snow making them blocks of ice. Ben uses them numerous times throughout the video. If he picks something up and throws it straight away, that is a block of ice the size of a snowball.

After this short play in the snow, we all jumped back into the car and tried to regain movement in our fingers while driving down to the main street of Park City.

The Main street in Park City is like a frozen version of the cute street up in Caloundra. We began at a small restaurant called "The Establishment" We had a wonderful meal after which dad gave a lesson on the current economic trends. (HAHAHAHA ask someone later). We then continued to RUN up and down this street entering any shop that had a heater on. (It was -8 degrees). This was so much fun. We ended in the Family Tree, A small family history centre that was built while the winter Olympics where in Park City. We then drove to the outlet area. Imagine DFO, but make it outside (the front of each store led out into the cold) make the shops twice as large, the prices half as much and put a red moose out the front holding a shopping bag. That's the Ranger Shopping outlet! We got there at 2:30ish and had to DRAG mum away before the shops shut to be back at the Toone's house for dinner. Mum still had the opportunity to buy one bag of stuff..... Dad, Ben and I managed 3 bags....don't ask.

Once again we blame Google Directions.

Although this one is a bit of a stretch since we weren't actually following directions but as Dad saw the big signs leading to the Toone's house pass by on the off ramp that we weren't friends with... we wish we had.

Once again, the Toone's gave us a lovely meal after which we all headed to bed.

Thursday morning was just as wonderful as Wednesday morning. We emerged from the depths of the house to find about 8 different cereals lined up on the table with bowls and spoons placed neatly on the table. The milk was off to the side. We all some cereal and talked for a while with Claire (Matthew was already at work). Today's plan was to split. Mum was going over to visit her e-buddy while the rest of us were going back to the Smoot's house to pick up a power board that we had left there. We drove south for about half an hour to drop off mother. We then drove an hour and a half north to the Smoot's house followed by another hour and a half south to pick up mum (We also had a good time talking to mum's e-buddy and her daughter and her daughter's friend for a while :P). This was then followed by three quarters of an hour north east back to Tanger Outlet. Yes, we went back but this time mum stayed until 9. Dad, Ben and I ran to different places for mother, slept in the car etc. Once again mum came out with many shopping bags. Dad, Ben and Myself had improved since the night before and were able to limit it to 4 bags.... it's not what it seems. (did anyone else start thinking about the swan princess just then or was that just me???)

Everyone was dead by the time we got back to the Toone's house. So we all fell into bed.. after talking for a while and eating a few toasties that Claire made to counter act every one's hunger.

This morning was once again awesome. This morning was yogurt with chopped oranges and banana followed by a potato, bacon casserole thing. It tasted better then it sounds :D

Today was different to the others. Today Mum drove to whatever shops she could find. Meanwhile Dad, Ben and myself caught a ride into Salt Lake City with Matthew as he drove to work. It's not like mum just wanted to shop instead on being with us, She DID have good reasons to shop. Back on temple square, we began the day with baptisms at the Salt Lake City Temple. It was wonderful. Very different from Brisbane temple but was just as good :D This was followed by visiting the South and North visitors centres on temple square, the assembly hall, the church office building, the Brigham Young Memorial Park, the conference centre (we wanted to see the roof), the church history museum and finally the Family History Centre. We just fit as much as we could into our final day in Salt Lake. It was SO fun. We also had lunch at the Lion House. We then ran back to the north west corner of the conference centre to catch a ride back to the Toone's house with Matthew. We had to run because we had spent our last hour in the Family History centre looking up family members :D (This was really interesting and fun - well at least for me and i guess dad and Ben to ..... so interesting and fun for everyone!)

When we got back to the Toone's house, we were relieved to see that mum was back safely (she hadn't finished shopping. She was waiting for dad and dinner so that she could return to the shops to pick up...

*PARTS OF THIS TEXT HAVE BEEN LOST/STOLEN BY CHRISTMAS SPIRIT DUE TO THE CONTENT IT MAY CONTAIN AND THE DAMAGE THIS COULD HAVE ON CHRISTMAS SPIRIT*

...After/during/now we are writing to comfort you all and letting you know that we are safe. I should also note that Ben and I played electronic Monopoly with Matthew

This is a photo I have titled: I can walk on water too.

It was taken on top of the Conference Centre which we went back to today to go on the roof. All the little pools of water had ice on them!

You may be disappointed that we only uploaded one photo, HOWEVER. It took ages, you already have a video and it's midnight here.

We are all having SOOO much fun. America is so different. We are all smiling every day and having a great time. (There you go Tammy!)

Goodbye and Goodnight

From Oliver ... and Ben

P.S. When uploading the photo, we might have chosen the wrong one ... but at least it's a photo :D

P.P.S. We apologise if this post seemed to get more and more boring as the post went on. This is due to our fatigue and time restrictions.

P.P.P.S. You better appreciate the picture, my feet were freezing while I waited for that picture to be taken!

The day we almost died.

Well, I am here, bowing to public pressure to write a blog entry. I should just go and write it on my own blog but I do not know how to get into it. Anyway, it is Tuesday 1st December here, about 10am. We are at the home of Steve and Kathy Smoot. Yesterday we left thr Armstrong Mansion around 11am and head down to temple sqaure. After find ing a place to park we walked there stopping at a little souvenior (spelling) shop. There were a lot of T Shirts with all sorts of writing on them. The boys really enjoyed reading them all. We went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building just in time to see the movie, 'Joseph Smith - The Prophet of the Restoration'. It is still a tear jerker. Ben and oliver trying to man up and head back a dry tissue, but we know they were touched by the spirit. It is hard not be with such a story.



After that Ben, Oliver and I went to the Lion House and Beehive House for a tour while Chickybabe went to ... see if you can guess .....no not the visitors centre, ...... no, not to the cinnabon shop, .... no, not to the welfare centre, ..... no, not to the Church History Museum.. OK I'll tell you because you'll never guess. She went to the Deseret Bookshop. I know, I know, that came out of left field. Who could have guessed that?? Now here is something that will really knock your socks off. Sandy came out WITHOUT a single book. Let me give you a moment to recover.

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Feeling better? Need a little longer? Take all the time you need.



We ate at the Lion House Pantry Reataurant, which was nice and homely. We left Salt Lake then and travelled north to Centerville where we went to a Walmart to get a couple of things and then came further north to Kaysville to the Smoots home. We experienced another little "woopie daisy" moment. This time we didn't 'nearly' turn into the left side, we actually did. I use the term 'we' to help share the burden. I have to admit that the three passengers in the car were extremly quick to notify the driver that he needed to go RIGHT!!!! RIGHT !!!! RIGHT !!!. I am thinking that I don't have to turn right for three miles. Oncoming traffic helped me to realise what they were talking about and the situation was expertly and instantly rectified without any harm done (unless you think soaring blood pressure is harmful).



We had a lovely night with the Smoots. They only have Jenny and Ashleigh at home, but Ryan dropped by with a mate and Matt and his wife and baby dropped by as well. The Smoots asked after all of you and wanted to know all that was happening in your lives and send their love. W e had a nice dinner and talked a lot and caught up with their lives. We played UNO. The only reason I did not regain my world UNO champion title is that I never had it in the first place. The other reason is that I didn't come anywhere near first place. I could have if I wanted too but I was worried about the sensitive feelings of the younger players.

We have had a lazy morning so far and the twins are about to go up to Jenny's high school to have a look around and the we will be on our way to see more stuff.

So that's it for this entry. Check us out tomorrow. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.

Love to you all

Dad

PS

Two things more:

One: I'll get Dad to write tomorrow, hopefully. (For all those fans who have been requesting him.)

Two: Jessima has been keeping a travel blog of their time at Hamilton island. You might like to check it out, as it's wonderful, with fabulous photographs (unlike this one so far!) and Jenna is shown being adorable, as usual. You'll find it here:

http://jonnyandjessima.blogspot.com/

"Woopsadaisy!"...

It's what Dad says all the time! ... when he almost drove off the road, .. when he almost drove into oncoming traffic (momentary mind block on the right-hand drive thing)... :)! He didn't even realize he was saying it until we all started laughing!

You need to try to imagine where I am right now. I'm sitting up to a beautiful dark wood antique desk, facing a corner of the room. Next to the computer screen is a large and heavy glass and marble table lamp, fringed with dangling crystals. On my right is a large, elaborately carved fireplace surround, overhung with a mirror under which a bronze bust of Brigham Young sits upon the mantle. Ben is reading his scriptures on the huge, comfy, (Ben says it is comfy!), leather-upholstered, cushion-covered lounge right next to my other side. Opposite him is a matching lounge, and at the end of the room, behind me, is an eight foot tall, beautifully decorated Christmas tree flanked by matching upholstered armchairs. The tree stands before a trio of lace curtained windows set into a curved wall. The woodwork in the room is oak coloured, and all the doors, the window and door frames, and the wooden dado wall are extensively carved. The ceiling is at least eleven feet tall, and the gilded and painted cornice is about three feet wide and is amazingly elaborate.

We are at the Armstrong Mansion, in Salt Lake City, having arrived here a few hours ago, from St George, where we stayed last night at the Days Inn (no internet to use there, sorry :) Fortunately, this net use is complimentary, which means that I will be able to quickly check my emails too - although I can't be too long, because I have a line of politely-not-wanting-to-be-too-pushy-people (hi Ben and Oli :) behind me.

We were to have stayed tonight with the Smoot family, just north of SLC, but Steve and Cathy had to be out at a special church function tonight, and Steve suggested that he book a complimentary room for us here for tonight instead. (Steve is one of the owners of the Armstrong Mansion.) It's a lovely bed and breakfast just a few blocks from Temple Square, so it is lovely to be here, and we will head over to spend a night with them tomorrow instead.

St. George was a little out of our way on the way up from the Grand Canyon, but we are glad that we made the visit there. We arrived in the early evening, and really enjoyed a (chilly) walk around the beautiful St. George Temple grounds soon after we were able to get settled at our hotel and get something to eat. The grounds were lit with wonderful Christmas lights in all of the trees and all through the gardens. Out the front of the temple was a life-size nativity, with a recording of the Christmas story playing over speakers. We could immediately recognize that it was the voice of President Hinckley that was speaking, and Neil and I both got choked up. Like Neil said, it was like meeting an old friend again there.

This morning we attended church at the Stake centre opposite the temple. The first talk was by a sister whose great-grandfather was the author of the Christmas hymn, 'Far, Far Away on Judea's Plain'! She told us the story of how he came to write it, in St. George, all those years ago, for a church Christmas choral program, never guessing that it would gain the world-wide recognition that it has. This sister told us that she is ninety eight years old! The other two talks were also wonderful - one on the importance of the messages in the Conference edition of the Ensign, and another on the importance of forgiveness. The brother who gave this talk told us of a heart-breaking, true story of some of his friends, who had had a division in their family for many years, until finally, spirits were humbled and hearts softened and family members were reunited in love. But oh - what a tragedy that so much time had passed meanwhile! It was very poignant and I wished you could all have been here with us to hear what was shared.

On the way up from St. George we stopped in at Cove Fort for a tour with the missionaries there. Ben says: "It was so cold! It was cool. I didn't know that it would be so busy - not just today, but in the past. I thought that it would be a random fort in the middle of nowhere. While going through it, it was a lot easier to count your blessings! Life is much easier today."

It was so cold in fact, that there was snow on the way up here!!! There's even snow here in patches on the ground, although it's almost more ice. But still very exciting!! :)

Well done! - to anyone who is still reading :) You must really love us. Or... nope, I'm going to go with the much loving us :)

But now it is time for bed. We have just come in from a night-time visit to Temple Square. It was beautiful! We listened for a time to a choir singing Christmas carols in the Visitor's Centre, then rambled for a while among the gorgeous Christmas lights, until Dad was too cold to continue. (He hadn't come rugged up enough.) I think that the boys were freezing too, but less inclined to admit it :)

We love you all so much!
Sweet dreams!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

ps : PHOTOS. We are taking a LOT of them, but are not easily able to load any just yet. We should be able to post some next week. Or the week after. Or will have a 'come up and see my holiday slides' night when we get home :)
xo

Friday at the Grand Canyon

Tammy:

Ben thinks: it's a hole
(Best big hole he's ever going to see!)
Ben feels: Miniscule.

Oliver thinks: We should build a flying fox over the canyon. He's almost got it worked out.
Oliver feels: He says he feels small next to it.

Dad thinks: He told you last time. Breathtaking!
Feels: Relaxed.

Mother thinks: I wonder if I turned off the iron before I left home?
Mother feels: Aahh. Happy smile! (I think I did :)

Today, Friday, at the Grand Canyon:

Woke up a bit better (jet lag has been a problem. That, or we are all just very lazy :)

Did some washing.

All went to see the Grand Canyon movie at the Imax theatre. Fun. Almost hit our feet on an outcrop of rock. Made it to the end of the movie safely.

Caught a bus to the Eastern end of the Canyon walks. Enjoyed hiking back to the main area, a few miles away, along the eastern rim. Took some great photos. Dad went and sat away a bit so that he would not have to watch through some of the more daring ones!

Hiking down the Angel trail into the canyon a little way.

Have had a nice dinner and are happily now heading back to our cosy cabin to get into pj's, snuggle into bed, drink hot chocolate and watch something on tv together. (I've also got a book to read and Oli and Ben are SuDoku-ing it in a big way.

We're having fun :) Bonding. Eating :) Walking/hiking. Saw deer, goats, squirrels and a huge black bear so far. Kidding about the bear :)

(This costs us a fortune whenever we log on - it's actually the way the rangers at the GCanyon finance all the programs and conservation at the park, so please forgive us if we are brief, don't currently have time to check emails, and are really boring - can I blame that on it too? Please? :)

Love you all tonnes :)
xoxoxoxoxo

It's a Giant Hole!!!

This is Oliver and Ben.



Mum said it was our turn to write on this blog (bahahahaha).

We have been instructed to write about our day at the Great Hole.

It all began last night with ambitious dreams about waking up early. This morning at 11 o'clock we achieved this dream. We arrived at the foxhole just after 11:15. After Mum, Ben and myself had been walking around finding food and places to fill up our water bottles we finally found dad who had gone to park the car. Excitedly we jumped on the red route bus that took us to the very western end of the walkable trails. Once more we stopped for food and drinks; after which we started the long trek back to the cabin. 10m down the bitumen path mum happened to spot a small winding goat trail much closer to the rim. Dad sighed. Mum jumped over the powerless barrier designed for her safety and took off down the path. Ben let about 1 second pass before he also jumped, unfortunately a little far..... R.I.P Ben ... photos to come.... jokes! he just took off after mum. Oliver being the angel that he is, felt sorry for his father being abandoned by his wife and child and stayed by his side and gave him a shoulder to lean on. Well they had an awesome time walking down the BUILT path playing kick the rock and hit the cheesecake (the cheesecake was a very large rock at the bottom of the hole shaped like a piece of cheesecake) Meanwhile mum and Ben enjoyed living life on the edge taking HEAPS of photos (NOTE: Dad and myself were unable to take any photos of our fun because mum and Ben took all three cameras) some of which are rather impressive. They may tell you that their journey was much funner and more exciting, however, dad and I were able to spend a large amount of our time bonding and having fun without living in fear of the falling from the edge. After walking 3.7 miles (7.7km) from Hermits Rest to Mohave Point Dad couldn't take it any longer. We needed to catch the bus to get to Hopi Point to watch the sunset in time. To our surprise, Ben and Mum were already on the bus having caught after walking 2.7 miles (4.5 km) but they assure us that they had more fun and got to see just as much as us (we don't actually understand how that works) After watching the sunset, we drove back down to our cabin and ate at the same place we did last night. This is all we have time for because our money is running out.

Goodbye until we meet again (or until you read this again - either or) :)

Written by Oliver
Supported by Ben

Arrival at the Grand Canyon

This is now officially a travel blog!


We are at the Grand Canyon, having arrived yesterday at the LA airport at 6.45am on Tuesday, (the day we left home at 12.30pm), then travelled to Las Vegas by plane, then on to the Hoover Dam by hire car. By the time we finally hit the pillows last night at about 7.30pm, we were so tired that we slept through until fairly late this morning. Dad was up at 7am; I dragged myself up at 8am, and we beat the boys up until they finally rose at about 10am.

Boarding the Qantas Jumbo from Brisbane we passed the business class seats on the way in (I overheard Oliver behind me saying, "sweet!" before he realized those weren't our seats :) before heading to almost the back seats of the plane. We had forgotten how cramped it could be! I managed about 2 -3 hours all up, and I don't think that Neil or the boys did much better. It was a long trip, but would have been much longer if we were swimming, so... :)


The Dam would have been really good if we weren't still so tired. All any of us secretly wanted to do was to snuggle into a comfy bed! It was interesting though.


Leaving our hotel this morning so late, we have arrived here in the dark, so we'll push the boys out the door to see the 'big hole in the ground' first thing in the morning. The nights come early here, and dawn is not until about 7am, so we don't want to waste too much time.


I only have a moment left before my time runs out! So I'd better tell you the important things:


We are fine. We love you. :) Write soon!!
xoxoxo

Have seen lots of cars riding along with no-one in the driver's seat.... strange and a little frightening! :)