February = Watermelon Fest!!

So, I finally have internet!! I never expected it to take this long, but now that i have it I can start updating my blog again. The following post is a post I created back in March but couldn't upload it because of the internet problem. I'll catch up on what's happened since March soon!

I know it's already March, but you'll just have to forgive me as i go back and dedicate a post for February. Life is starting to settle down again and so I'm able to start planning some fun activities for myself. A few weeks ago my friends and I went to a Watermelon Fest!!! Let me just explain some of the things that happen at a Watermelon Fest.

• Watermelon Skiing: The act of placing one's feet into two watermelons and holding onto a rope while being pulled down a soapy tarp covered with smashed watermelons. sounds fun huh!
• Watermelon Bungee: An activity involving 4 people who are all attached to a circular rubber band. These four people are situated on top of a square tarp with a watermelon in each corner. All four people are trying to reach and grab their assigned watermelon while at the same time trying to stop the others from reaching their watermelon (so they're all reaching for one of the corners of the tarp). Does that make sense?
• Watermelon seed spitting competition: the name says it all
• Unlimited fresh watermelon: they were passing out whole watermelons for free!! and they tasted Amazing!

It was a pretty exciting adventure. We arrived in the morning after waking up really early and driving for 4 hours to the town of Chinchilla (love it!), set up camp and then participated in the crazy watermelon activities. At dinner time we went back to camp and cooked ourselves some true Aussie burgers and then got ready for the country concert. The concert was loads of fun! The night was beautiful with clear skies and a full moon. Slept soooo good!

In the morning we packed up and then drove back to town. We were very blessed because as we drove home we were millimeters away from a deadly car accident. A truck was moving into our lane and didn't see us in their blind spot and we had a massive semi truck coming towards us in the lane on the other side of us. All four of us girls in the car screamed as we realized that we were dead meat. I don't know how we didn't end up crashing but I think the truck next to us realized that we were there just in time. SCARY!

What an adventure!

Last week I began my third (Junior) year of university. I really like my classes this semester. I'm taking Intergroup Relations and Group Processes, Psychopathology, and Research Methods. I was supposed to be taking another class as well, but I just got a job! Yay! I'm going to be working about 10 hours a week as a receptionist for a chiropractor's office. I've realized that I've spent sooo much of my life living an unbalanced life - usually so focused on School - that my health is starting to take a toll. So, I'm trying to balance my life more - hence taking only three classes and working a bit and I'll be taking some exercise classes. I'm thinking about Zumba. It seems to be the new craze.

Catch UP!

So, I made this new years resolution and I've done a really bad job of keeping it. Typical! But, I do have some good excuses. I was homeless for a month, and once I was no longer homeless I was without internet... and, at the moment I'm using the internet at my friend's house.

so, we're just going to pretend that this is a post

for January. Just before the new year began I flew back to Australia

with my awesome friend Ashlee. We has so much fun traveling around Sydney and up the coast to Brisbane. We met many awesome people along the way and even gathered a few to join us on our adventures. Here's a little taste of what we got up to.

Ashlee and I attended the National YSA Convention held in Sydney. This was the night of the Ball. We got all dressed up, ready to get out dance on!

After convention Ashlee and I sent out a few texts letting people know we were going hiking in the Blue Mountains. The word spread and over 20 people showed up for the hike. The hike was beautiful and full of fun moments... sometimes we may have thought we were lost, but we made it out alive and leech free!

For our next adventure, we packed my awesome little car Jimmy to the brim with camping gear and four crazy girls. I'm so proud of my car. He never lets me down! Ashlee and I recruited Anna and Danielle for a three night camping trip on the coast of northern NSW. We stayed in a place called Delicate Nobby. Isn't that the coolest name ever!? Reminds me of something out of Harry Potter. I won't put pictures of Delicate Nobby here. I'm afraid it will make you all jealous. Actually, I didn't take pictures - I was too relaxed to pull out a camera.

Ashlee and I had some good plans in place once we got to Brisbane, but none of them happened. Turns out we had just entered a disaster zone. Brisbane had endured a few solid months of rain and to the point where it's damns were up to 195% full. Another rain storm was forecast for the Brisbane area the weekend we arrived and it was just too much for the river systems to handle. A town about two hours away endured massive flash floods and that water slowly made it's way to Brisbane. Roads became shut down and towns were evacuated. I was sent home early from work because the business district was shut down. We were all told to avoid travel at all cost. So, instead of simply waiting at home for the floods to come and go we decided to go 'dancing in the rain.' kind of. We got some skim boards and went to a soaked field and went skim boarding! might as well enjoy it while you can.

As the floods came we spent a few hours helping people move their to the top levels of their homes. This is where the water was when we got to the homes and the water continued to rise another few meters. We later found out that it was a good thing we moved the stuff up to the top floor because the homes we helped ended up having their ground floor flooded.

Ashlee left just before the clean up efforts began, lucky her! hehe. As soon as the waters started to go down the clean up efforts began. Of course, the Morman Helping Hand vests came out. It was so inspiring to see how many people wanted to get involved and help. The LDS church in the area organized some projects for it's members to get involved in and I joined a group of about 30 YSA who went to a street with a few apartment buildings that were flooded. We worked for 8 hours straight with only a few short breaks. We all had smiles on our faces knowing we were helping people who weren't able to help themselves!

New Year's Revolution

So, over two years ago I started this blog with the purpose of keeping in touch with my friends. Unfortunately, after a few months, blogging no longer was a priority. I'm currently visiting my friends and family in Utah and have found that my friends and family in America are a huge part of my life still and I need to make more of an effort to keep them involved in my life. So, I've made a new years revolution to post on this blog at least once a month for a year. I've never thought I was very good at writing and I usually don't enjoy it. But, maybe I just need practice... so, by the end of this year I might either enjoy blogging or be in the habit... or I might just have to make another new years revolution. Only time will tell.

Dear Grandpa

My Grandpa, Stanley Owen Gray, died two weeks ago tomorrow. We knew it was coming and we were even praying for it. He had been going down hill for a while so it's been a peacefull time. Yes, we all miss him, but he's left a beautiful legacy behind him of dedication to serving the lord. Because my grandpa died, my parents came over for the funeral and has decided to stay for a month. It's soooo nice to have them here!

Sunshine Coast!

A few weeks ago I drove up the coast 12 hours to visit family that I hadn't seen for over 12 years. It was so much fun!! I spent most of my time on a beatiful farm on the Sunshine coast. They had horses, turkeys, homing pigeons, chickens, three dogs, two parrots, and cows. It was like I was in a dream with all these beautiful animals around me on this beautiful property surrounded by rolling green hills. I was in heaven! We also spent a day at the beach which is what these pictures are. The whole trip was simply wonderful. :)

I'm going back to Uni!!

Hey y'all,

I found out yesterday that I've been accepted into the Bach of Psychology program at the University of Sydney! I was so surprised. I didn't think I would get in because it's a difficult program to get into. Last year you needed to be in the top 96.95% to get in. CRAZY!! I'm so excited!!

Bruises!

For some weird reason I find bruises fascinating! I hadn’t had one for a long time, but I got a nice looking bruise this past weekend. For a YSA activity we went up to my uncle and aunt’s beautiful house out in the country. They have a nice piece of land in which there is a large sloping field surrounded by the bush (forest). We set up a 30 meter long waterslide and smothered it with dish soap. It was almost impossible to not get some good speed as you go down. Well, I got this really nice bruise on my knee the second time I went down. I don’t even know how I got it; I just remember getting up at the end of the slide to find it difficult to walk back up the slope and found this lovely bruise growing on my knee, haha. It was really fun.

Day 1

Day 2, colorful!

Highlights in my hair!

I know this sounds crazy and so conservative, but I've never had a professional put color in my hair before. My sister Kate has a close friend who is a really good hair dresser. I needed a hair-cut and she needed to try out some new colors, so we did both. She put some ammonia free ashy-blond highlights in my hair and then gave me a great hair cut, and I love both.

The Beach!!

Aaron, Erin, Me and Tanner on the way there

It's been four long years since I've been able to feel the gold sand between my toes and smell the salty water of an Australian beach. Even though it was in the middle of the night and I couldn't see a lot, it was still wonderful. My cousin invited me to a beach bonfire from 10 pm to 10 am for her birthday last weekend and I accepted happily. I found out a little later that it was a three hour drive away. Thank goodness the drive turned out to be the best part of the whole trip. Six of us YSA got together with two cars and set out at about 6:30. Because of all the stops we made picking up people and getting food and also not being able to find the right beach, we ended up taking six hours to get there. We did a good job of keeping ourselves entertained in the car so it didn't feel that long. We were the last people to arrive at the beach bonfire and 30 min later it started to rain so we all left to our various sleeping arraignments. My group had planned to sleep out on the beach on a tap with sleeping bags, but because of the rain, we needed to come up with another plan. We got an invitation to stay with another group of three and we followed them to David's house. David had set up mattresses for all of us by the time we got there. As we all lounged around talking and unconsciously trying not to go to bed, David made us hot Milo and hung out with us.

We found out that David has a whole train car in his back yard that had been made into another bedroom with two bunk beds. I also found out that David knows my family really well and had grown up with my two oldest sisters. I couldn't believe it! Everywhere I go members of the church either know my family personally or have heard of them. It's a little freaky.

Aaron, Long Neck (Wade) , Me, and Tanner on the way home

The trip home was a lot faster and conversation was a little less lively because we only had about three hours sleep under our belt. We got home in pretty good time and I battled with myself to keep away from my bed for the rest of the day. All in all, it was a lot of fun and I met a lot of great people.

Cousins

It's really great being so close to extended family

The Blue Mountains

My sister and I finally got out to do some site seeing. It was just me and her as we drove up the mountains for about thirty minutes. (They're not really mountains, real mountains are found in Utah). The drive itself was beautiful. It was a gloomy day with thick fog everywhere. It's was mystical and magical with all the trees. We were really lucky as we got to the look out points when the fog disappeared so we were able to see for miles and miles over these valleys covered in trees. It was breathtaking to realized that these valleys go on for hundreds of miles beyond what we could see and that there were areas in those valleys that no man had ever seen before. I was aching to get down there and explore. We took a scenic drive along the cliffs and then came back to Leura, a little old town with some fun little old stores. We ate gourmet Aussie meat pies for lunch, yum yum! and then we made our way back home. It was wonderful! We've got a list of good hikes and activities we can do the next time we go see the Blue Mountains so there will be more pictures to come.

I'm Here!

I'm finally a resident of Australia. I haven't done anything really exciting yet. I've just been going around trying to get all that adult stuff like a bank account, tax file number, insurance, medicare number and a job. It looks like I'm going to have to wait a little while for the job. I hurt my back over the weekend and I've been stuck in bed for the past few days. It's gradually getting better. I got myself a really nice new digital camera so as soon as my back is better I'll get out and get some proof of how beautiful this place is. It shouldn't be too much longer.

Home

The Three Sisters

Local Kanganroos

Sydney Harbor Bridge and Opera House

Can you believe it!? I'll be living within an hour from all of these places. I'm so excited!

Pre-Journey

My plane leaves Oct 27th from Utah to Australia. It's a 18 hour journey all together which gives me plenty of time to think about how crazy this is, haha. My friends are putting a farewell party on for me the weekend before I leave. Wish me luck!