Australia Twenty Eleven!

Sydney Bridge

Wow! By far thee best spring break I've ever had! Visiting Australia is something I have wanted to do for a long time and I finally got the opportunity to do so. I am extremely grateful for the Williams family because without them we wouldn't have been able to make this trip happen. They offered to room 13 girls in their house for a week. It was quite the experience. We made some great memories that I won't ever forget. It was a chance of a lifetime. I am so blessed. 

Lisa had warned us about the giant spiders there so of course I was paranoid. The first night I woke up in the middle of the night and had a rat pounce right on the floor next to my bed. I told Krista Sam and Kiara "Oh my gosh there's a mouse!" and in two seconds flat we were all up out of our beds and on top of the pool table in two seconds flat!

A little big haggard and frightened :)

We went to mona vale beach, it was beautiful. It had down poured the first few days we were there which was very out of the ordinary I was told. All the Aussies couldn't believe how much it was raining. Because of that the beaches were closed so we couldn't swim in the ocean at those times. Each beach had their own pool so we swam in there. When the waves would come and crash into the pool it was like it was a big wave pool. It was fun. What we didn't get on video is Courtney being taken up by the wave over the four foot cement wall and onto the ocean rock on the other side. It was the most hilarious thing I have ever watched. She looked like a penguin with her arms out and all. Every time I think about it I just start laughing. 

Mona Vale Beach

The pool and the walk way Court soared over.

We rode the bus and the ferry to get us to where we wanted to go. It was a fun experience. Especially in the rain. It allowed us to see a lot of the views of australia and it also allowed us to sleep on the late night ride home.

On the ferry trying to keep dry.

On the ferry not trying to keep dry :)

Ferry nap time.

We went to Sydney and saw the city. Admired the architecture and loved all of the shopping stores. They had the best malls ever. Too bad I'm not a millionaire and couldn't just buy everything. Australia is a lot more expensive than America.. granted they have much cuter things which makes resisting the temptation even harder. :)

Opera House

The city buildings.

Tallest building in Sydney built to withstand the greatest wind Australia expects to have once every 100 years. 

Famous.

Four story Mac store? Yes Ma'am!

The Victorian Mall. Very fancy.

We went to the Taronga Zoo. It was the best zoo I've ever gone to. The had all kinds of animals. They had a baby elephant that was sooo cute. The Sea lion was posing for the camera. The tigers were beautiful. Oh and the view from the zoo was excellent.

The view of the city from the zoo.

                                    

Baby elephant.

Super star sea lion.

The tiger.

We went to the Koala park and got to pet Shawn the Koala. We also got to feed the kangaroos. They just roamed around freely. They could possibly be my new favorite animal. I love them. I was feeding one and usually the just ate the food out of your hand like a horse but one decided to jump right on my arm! I almost had a panic attack!! I didn't want to freak out and scare it so I just kept it all inside ha the facial expression tells all... :)

Shawn

Hungry Jack

Cute Kanga

Everyone with the Kolas.

Surfing was one of the highlights of the trip. It's one thing I finally got to check off of my bucket list! :) I loved it. It's hard to balance but it is one thing I will definitely do again until I become pro ;) and not only just for the surfer hair! :) 

Watching and learning.

Lessons one.

Lessons two

Almost Up.

Closer...

I did it!! :)

The wildlife there is WAY cooler than it is here. They have cockatoos just flying around all over. Kinda like our seagulls do in Utah. They have these GORGEOUS birds that just show up on the back porch in mornings. At the Botanical Gardens they have trees FULL of bats. It's absolutely insane! The spiders though.. I could be okay with out seeing all the time! :)

Pretty Birds

Cockatoos in the tree!

Coackatoo eating the wood.

Huge spider!

The Bats in the tree.

Hundreds!

And more!

We played two games at the Olympic park. It was really cool! We also had an aboriginal come over to Lisa's house. She taught us how to make these baskets out of palm tree leaves. Very neat. We were all legal to gamble so we went to the casino. I think I lost 30 bucks. It was fun though! Luna park was fun. It was like a fair theme park. We rode on a ride the spun around as we stood up. We laughed hysterically the whole ride. After we did what everyone does at the fair... got ice cream of course! :) I even got bubble gum to make it feel more like I was a little kid! It was perfect!

Luna Park

Olympic Field

Team Pic :)

Aboriginal baskets.

My basket.

Gambling (money)  away

It took us 24 hours to get there. It was the longest time I've ever spent on a plane.. and I did it twice! We had a double decker bus.. the top for business class of course!  We had a great time playing fun little games like "The Green Glass Door" "Johnny Whoop" "She died she died she died did she die?" We played Nertz... I'm not very good at it lol me and Nirana are going to become champs and beat EVERYONE! haha I tried kangaroo... it tastes okay I think, but I think I let the idea of it freak me out a little bit so I didn't like it that much! Instead of watching football and baseball on TV, it was rugby and cricket. Both pretty entertaining. We played beach cricket... it was fun! All the food was very expensive so we lived off of fast food.. primarily McDonalds which doesn't have the Dollar menu by the way so even that was a little bit pricey haha. They call Buger King Hungry Jacks... has the same logo and everything haha. We made the funniest music video everr.. it's on facebook! They drive on the wrong side of the road there. It freaked me out a little bit but began to get use to it. It was stressful crossing the road cause you never knew which way to look.  I can't say enough how lucky I am and how happy I am that I got to go visit Australia for a whole week! The time of my life! :)