aussie-merican momos

08 September 2009

Genesis 1:28

Gen 1:28 'And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth...'

Yes...that's right folks! Baby Parker #1 ('Sparky') is due
April 20, 2010!!!
And we are extremely excited! We will keep you posted on progress for both mommy and baby!

To celebrate Sam's birthday (August 11), I arranged a secret birthday celebration for him! We started off with a dinner of salmon and prawns and then put on the party hats to get in the mood for cake and presents. Since Sam doesn't like regular cakes I decided to open up my Betty Crocker cookbook and see what I could find. I decided to try a Boston Cream Pie (which is really a cake with custard filling and chocolate). I made everything from scratch..unfortunately I made too much custard for the middle and then insisted on trying to put it all in, so the cake ended up 'leaking' from every side! But it was still pretty tasty!!!!!! Next time I'll try and make it more visually appealing...and just as tasty! :)

Sam couldn't even wait for a fork to start trying it out! Always a good sign!

I love this picture! So, I made Sam wait to the very end to open the present I bought him and this was his reaction! He was extremely excited and surprised! And what else would he be this excited about except lights for his bike!!!! (Which is fun and usful since I always worried after he would go riding at dusk and come home bleeding from 'running' into trees!) The lights were Ay-up lights...only the best for my honey!

Still holding his lights....couldn't get them off him!
Happy birthday honey! I am glad you had a wonderful time!!!!!!

02 August 2009

Oh, the beauty....

So Sam and I have been slackers about our dates nights / days as of late and we decided we needed to start them again so we make sure to spend some good quality time together every week. Sam chose the activity this week which was a 2000 ft climb up a mountain to a sacred Aboriginal sight. The picture above is us at the base of the trail...we had to bike up a dirt road before we actually got to the forest (or bush as they call it here in OZ) :) That mountain behind us to the right is Mount Dromedary (as called by the 'white' people) but it's real, Aboriginal name is Gulaga.

The hike in Gulaga was gorgeous! It's a semi-tropical area with tree ferns and all sorts of large canopy type trees. I was having a ton of fun photographing all of the amazing plant life, which naturally slowed down the hike, but Sam held my hand and dragged me along when he felt I was going too slow! :)

Looking up at a tree fern

Sam practising for his modelling career selling exotic plants

Gulaga is sacred because of the amazing rock structures found on it. The stones are called 'tors'. This is one of the 'smaller' ones...which tells you how big the 'large' stones are... ;)

After a 1.5 hour hike we finally reached the sacred site. Because of it's significance to the Aboriginal people the trail isn't marked in any way. Lucky for us, Sam had minored in Aboriginal studies in under-grad and had been up to the site with a guide in 2007. Visiting the sacred site was an incredible, awe-inspiring experience! The site was particularly sacred for Aboriginal women and was filled with the most incredible natural stone-formation I have ever seen (and I have seen some incredible sites being from the Rockies). It is amazing because the stone formations are massive and reach to the tops of the trees, but yet, from the trail they are so well hidden, you would walk right past without even a glimpse. We didn't get any pictures of the stone-formations because, out of respect for the sacredness of the site, the Aboriginal people ask that visitors take no pictures and only talk in quiet, whispered, reverent voices. It was amazing. It was like you could hear God whispering through the trees. It is impossible to stand in that site and not feel as if you are standing in the presence of something bigger than yourself. The site is filled with these natural, massive, beautiful stones perfectly stacked in these gorgeous formations. I have never been so filled with thanks and gratitude for my Heavenly Father and for the beauty which he has orchestrated. I wish I could show you the site so you could understand the feelings we felt.....but I guess you'll just have to visit so you can see it for yourself. ;)

In addition to magnitude of the beauty of the stone formations, the site overlooks the coast and you can see the clear, blue ocean forever. You're allowed to take pictures of the view, so that's the best we could do.... :)

On the way back down the trail!

19 July 2009

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

12 July 2009

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!!!!!