Northern Queensland Museum

Last week we went on a couple little excursions that gave me a good little taste of Aussie life. 

We stopped by Tosh's convenience store for some ice cream and had to get a picture in honor of my brother Tosh. :) Who knew anyone else even knew that name all I had to do was go halfway around the world to find out. 

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Found an excellent photo of him.

 A lot of the time it is just me and this cutie hangin out though.

 On Friday the 24th Summer took Rain and I out on a bike ride to a park near by. There is a giant turtle and a Snake as well Rain and I will probably go back there some time to take some better pictures but these will do for now.

Thumbs up!

 On Saturday the 25 the Olsens and I traveled down to Townsville to pick up Daddy Olsen, Davey, from the Airport. His flight didn't come in until 7 pm so we took to checking out the shopping center (which is what they call the Mall here) and going to the Tropical Northern Queensland Museum.

Rian was being a stinker the whole ride and we kept telling her to just relax eventually  this is what we got. :)

In front of the museum across the telephone line is a giant Spider! it is pretty cool I think every nation should have their own giant spider across telephone lines. it makes for good conversation and adds amiable excitement to a street corner.

 The first floor of the museum is dedicated to a ship called the Pandora that sunk along the northern coast of Australia back in the 1800s. I didn't take as many photos as I should but just know that there is lots to read and an awesome exhibit explaining all they know about the prisoners and crew members who passed away and survived the horrific event.

Pandora's Box is where the Pirate prisoners were held.

The next level is titled The Enchanted Rain-forest. I enjoyed that the most I think. It has all kinds of info on the Rain forests of Northern Queensland. There were preserved corals of every kind and butterflies from the size of flies to trashcan lids. . . ok a little exaggeration but the Hercules Moth is like a small Bird.    

Stick bug of large proportions. Way longer than my hand.

 Sometimes Rain likes to be difficult. Also I just wanted to prove Summer was there because I didn't have any other photos of her. . . next time I will be better.

 All and all it was a super Fun time we went to hang out on the beach after that and, though it was a little chilly for swimming, we played in the sand. By the time we picked up Davey it was dark and everyone was tired from the fun.

 The drive home to Ayr is about an hour and a half. it was relatively uneventful but I just have to say that all week I have been dying to see a kangaroo anytime we dive out that way. Ayr is surrounded by sugarcane and grassy fields, perfect kangaroo habitat. Unfortunately my efforts have been in vain. It would seem that the all come out at night however because on the way home they were munching on the grass right next to the road. Thanks to the night time and speed of the car I didnt get a very good look or a picture but I will keep looking!

Kangaroo and a Cockroach

Saturday we had some delicious Kangaroo burgers for dinner! Yes you heard me right, Kangaroo burgers.

 It is a little hard to see under the cheesy deliciousness but the meat is really dark and the flavor is difficult to describe but it is definitely different than beef. Which explains a lot because it is a large, jumping, marsupial instead. I liked it though and would have it again.

Jet lag is taking its toll on me these first few days in Australia. I am about 16 hours off of what I was in Utah so it is much like daylight savings on steroids, times ten. At first my body was wondering why I was abusing it with endless flights and now it is bursting with indignation about my bed time being pushed back 5 hours. Luckily it got over it and things are feeling more normal. I was waking up pretty early over the weekend though and often time saw the sunrise!

I love it. The tropical trees and birds make for a completely different wake up call than I am used to. 

Speaking of things I am not used to, I had a visitor during lunch yesterday that nearly made me have a heart attack and curl up in a very bright open area with nothing but Hit Chalk and Raid spray!  

Yeah I Know! It was my first day babysitting my niece Rain and we were just sitting down to have lunch when this guy shows up! I basically had a cow and Rain looked at me like I was the craziest person ever! Cockroaches are next to impossible to kill, as we all know, and even though Summer warned me they had seen a few lately I was not expecting one so soon or so big. The only thing Sum told me to do if I saw one was to let her know, but if she is at work I can't exactly bring her home to kill a bug  that is probably common all over the neighborhood. 

So I just saved it under this glass bowl for her to take care of when she gets home :) hehe.

I had to play cheers with Rain a few times before she forgot about my crazy freak out over the bug and we had lunch together in good spirits.

 Good thing I have her around to keep me sane.

In other news I went to church for the first time yesterday and it was district conference (basically stake conference but the district only ha enough members to make about the size of a normal Utah ward.) so we drove into Townsville and had church there. Sum gave an awesome talk and I was introduced to some Aussie LDS. I Just love the consistency of the church so much! It is always good to feel like you are among friends. 

The church itself is so cool! You walk in and all the hallways make a rectangle porch out to a grassy part  in the center of the church that has no roof! It is real neat. Those are the kind of perks that come with constant nice weather.

Majestic Clouds, a Guilty Asian, and a Ham and Salad Sandwich with cheese

I finally made it to Townsville Australia but it was no walk in the park.

my niece Sky is awesome!

My journey Bagan at the SLC airport with my good ol Pops.

All the luggage 

 Ready to go!

BYE DAD! thanks for bringing me to the airport and helping me get going.

When my dad left and I got through security it all became real that I was actually going to fly to Australia and that it was up to me to get to my flights. 

 Here are my three connected flights in order. It was fun to have them all with me because every time I got to a destination I was one boarding pass down! :)

My first flight from Salt Lake to LA was One of My favorites!!! I had a window seat and the plane wasn't very big so take off as an adventure of its own. Some light turbulence and the ground shrinking below me, I could not wipe the ridiculous smile from my face as I soaked in my first flight all by myself. The clouds looked so cool reflecting the sunset and creating a line between the orange glowing mountains below and the night sky above it was probably one of the most majestic looking things ever! our flight attendant was like the epitome of Flight attendant, tall, blond, and a high voice that spoke at about 1 zillion miles an hour! ha I swear when we were taking off and she was giving the usual instructions of seat belts and emergency exits over the intercom I thought I was on a Lagoon ride with the constant high pitch stream of words she had gone over about a 101 times. she must be a swimmer or something because she has excellent air control.

 I made it to LA! 

One flight down and I am feeling great! They took excellent care of me in LA so I got to me terminal faster than I expected to. I had a 2 1/2 hours to kill before my flight left so I settled down by a chair and put my stuff on the chair and I stretched my legs on the floor. Then I made an attempt to get on Wi-fi and though it was a little temperamental I got on and was able to talk to my mom and some friends! Thanks for talking to me mom, you have no idea how nice it is to talk to someone I knew when in an unfamiliar landscape. During the middle of my stay there was this Asian guy who was leaning up against a door and it accidentally opened and a bunch of alarms went off. Well he was obviously embarrassed and when security showed up everyone around pointed to him and sold him out haha it was both amusing and sad. Then when security finally turned the alarms off a couple old ladies in the back started applauding. Hahaha, I was the only one who thought that was funny. 

When I boarded, with about a million and one others, I found myself sitting in the middle section with a lucky empty seat to my left and a Boy named Arthur on my right. Everyone had their own screen in front of them. After having a light dinner and settling in I fell asleep and was in and out for the next 8 hours. When I couldn't pretend to even try and sleep anymore I watched an entire season of The BIG Bang Theory, had a small breakfast, and landed in Brisbane AUSTRALIA!!!!   

I made it to Brisbane Australia! Don't think I am wearing those Sunnies because I look like I have been half asleep for 14 hours, sitting around on a plane. Because that's not it! Obviously I had to where sunglasses because I was in Australia. . . .and if I didn't this picture would look the same as when I got to LA.

  Alcohol must be a hot commodity !

Rum is the first thing I saw when arriving in Bisbane, even before going through customs.

Here in Brisbane I had a Five hour layover and it was so flippen Long! At this point all I wanted was to be in Ayr with my Sister and her Fam. I tried to make the best of things and, long layover short, I checked out the Shops. Basically everyone has an accent . . . or I guess I am the one with an accent now, anyways along with their accent come aussy slang (aussy slang is one of my favorite things ever) and I stopped for a subway sandwich and the guy dishing things up for me got to the veggies and asked me if I wanted any salads on my sandwich. SALADS, yeah some macaroni salad maybe some Cesar, ha JK he was just talking about the veggies but it was still a little strange and I had my first Ham and salad sandwich. I read for an hour or two and then boarded the plane!

and hour and a half later and some awesome clouds and scenery I was flying into Townsville.  

Townsville from my window over the wing. So close I can taste it!

Right when I got there I saw Davey and Summer and almost Cried with joy that I was not getting onto another plane and that I was going home to play with them!

They took me to the beach right when I got there because Davey was taking a flight out to see some of his family this week in Pirth and it didn't leave for another couple of hours. sky and I looked around for seashells and on a walk we saw this huge black cockatoo just having his dinner in a tree. It is so cool that these kinds of things are just hanging out here where we would pay lots of money to go see them in the states.

Rain is still getting use to me.

But Sky loves me :)

withholding my tears

so good to see Them!

Me, Sum, Sky

Rain and her apple

lookin for seashells

our cockatoo friend 

 If I could make the Mickey Mouse noise "Ah ha" I would

My Aussy welcome home Crew from my nieces :)

Already we have had lots of Fun and by 8 I was sure that I was going to fall asleep walking to my bed. I made it though and over all it was a smooth trip I cant wait to see more of Australia!

until next time.

Let the Adventures Begin

In the fall of 2012 my oldest sister Summer moved with her Aussie husband and two girls to Australia. Summer LOVES to travel to the max and has been all over the world. Ever sense I was a wee tot I dreamed of the day I could be an adventurer like her. Summer must have seen the venturous spirit within me (or she could just hear my incessant pleas to take me with her everywhere!) because she planned a trip for me and some siblings to go to Guatemala when I was about 10. Summer is awesome and helped us raise the money and the amount I couldn't raise she covered for me.

The 5 of us siblings trekking through the rain-forest.
(I am the small fri in the front) 

 SO. . . . after being blessed with that Super Awesome Experience in Guatemala, I have been itching to get out there again. It wasn't til this last December that something similar came up.
Some close friends, Jacob Cazier and Bebz (Josue Arredando), had been on a service project down in Mexico and were planning another one down in Tijuana, during the last week of Christmas break. They asked me to come and, of coarse, I couldn't decline.

The Orphanage 

Drenched after a hard days work in the pouring rain! 

Once again I was blessed with a wonderful opportunity to visit different cultures and serve!

 This blog is coming a bit late because it is not going to explain either of those spectacular ventures. It is my privilege to have Summer as a Sister once again, let me explain why, apart from the obvious reasons. Since Summer and her Fam have departed from the US and into the Ausie realm, she invited me to come nanny for her over my summer holiday! Can I get a Woot, Woot!?  

In order to remain in contact with everyone my sister Kaleena has been trying to convince me to start a blog. Despite my blatant dislike for both English and writing . . . . . she has succeeded, Kaleena Can be very persuasive. I guess it is a necessity if you are going to marry a debater like Couper . I am giving it a shot so bare with me as I try to figure this blogging stuff out.