I love to see the temple

Since the nearest temple to us is in either Sydney (6 hours away) or Melbourne (7 hours away), we decided that a trip to the temple would be a great way to spend a part of Sam's vacation from school. We hopped in our little car and caravaned out to Sydney with Sam's parents, Mark and Debbie. About an hour into our trip to the temple we saw a young man hitchhiking along the road. I have always been trained to pass them by without a second thought (since they could be an axe murderer you know), but Sam has a little more faith in people and felt we should pick him up. Ends up he's a law students from Brisbane who is spending his school holidays traveling as far as he can through Australia. He was great company and rode all the way to Sydney with us. I admit I was surprised to find how great it felt to help out this friendly young man. I think the Lord must have sent us his way to help out.... it was an amazing and humbling experience. I was glad Sam and I could be at the right place at the right time to help out some one in need...

After dropping our new hitchhiker friend at the Sydney bus station we headed to the temple. Since Sam and I were going back the next evening we decided to spend as much time as possible there to make the most of our trip. It was worth every painful, butt-numbing hour of driving to be in the House of the Lord!

Sam with his parents

Sam was growing out his moustache during school holidays. He got teased at the temple, but I still think he looked pretty handsome!

Even in the middle of winter the temple grounds were covered in gorgeous flowers....

On the way home from the temple (which is a 6 hour drive may I add) we had to stop to answer mother nature. In our search for bathrooms we stumbled across the coolest little park with a gorgeous lookout point. It was cold and a storm was coming in, but the view was breathtaking....my camera doesn't do it justice. It was the perfect ending to a great little vacation!

You can see the storm clouds rolling in. It was intimidating and gorgeous. Words can't even describe...

There were multiple stones along the lookout with spiritual thoughts. I liked this one a lot

Taking a break

So Sam is half-way through his 4 week break from school and I have thoroughly enjoyed having him around all-day! This most recent Friday Sam decided he was going to cook dinner and desert... I was completely thrilled until I realized that I didn't have anything to do while he was cooking... The result was me going through my make-up bag for various lipstick samples and trying them out....on Sam! (He's such a good sport!)

I think red is his color...don't you? :)

Since the break from school extends to all children in NSW, this vacation has also given us some great opportunities to have some fun activities for our church branch here. Since I am activities coordinator and Sam has experience in setting things like this up, we decided on having a talent night for the church and community. The turn-out was great and we had entertainment ranging from a Monty Python song ('I like Chinese') to poems, singing, and instrumental pieces. It was such a great success that people are already planning their pieces for the next talent night this December! I felt very blessed to work with Sam in creating such a fun, family-oriented night. Hopefully the next one will be just as fun.... :)

This isn't the best photo but it's showing Sam's brother Ben on bass and his sister Naomi on piano.

Not only have we been having adventures with make-up and music, Sam has also taken advantage of the break by rising early most mornings to fish off the rocks by the ocean. Thus far he has caught 2 fish and we have been wrapping them in foil and trying all sorts of flavoring methods. This last time we tried orange slices with oregano and basil...yummmmmm! The following pictures are from Sam's early morning trips. One morning he saw a shark and some dolphins...so cool! :)

The first fish that Sam caught...

A great picture of the beach during sunrise

The sun rising over the sand

We were totally excited to find a tiny little bat in our shed...he is awesome!!! Check it out! We have also posted pictures of Snoopy now that his hair is growing out (he's such a cutie now) plus pictures of me and Sam racing around the yard on the ride-on lawnmower and a little mini motorbike! I am learning to LOVE mini motorized vehicles! SOOOOO fun!!!!!

Look at his little piggy nose! We love it! Bats are so cool!

Our little cutie pie, Snoopy... giving you the puppy dog eyes

Curly cutie

We have a huge yard so we get to use a borrowed ride-on-mower to cut the grass...so fun! I totally can see the excitement in lawnmower racing...ha ha

Flying by on the little motorbike we are borrowing...weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

More updates sooon!!!! :)