Sick of Travelling...???

Did you ever think I'd say that?!?! Well I am not sure that we have stayed home one full weekend since we've been married....and Im ready to not do a single thing this coming weekend. We just got home yesterday (27th May) after leaving home on Monday - 18th May 09. We travelled down to Albuquerque because Aaron had training there for work. His work allowed me to go and stay with him at the motel if we payed half the cost. I made a huge lasange and a tray of enchiladas so that we could take them down with us and save some money on food - well when we got there - there was NO FRIDGE or Microwave!!! we ended up throwing out so much food!!His training was Tues, Wed and Thurs...so I took the car during the days to visit people from my mission. On Tuesday - I headed up to Farmington which is approx. 3 hours away. I made it there by 1pm and had lunch with Jessie Owen (a girl in her 20's that was in the ward I served in that would come teaching with us alot) and then visited Nancy McClure. I was surprised that her husband recognised me (he is not a member and rarely stayed at home when we visited) but he said "Sister Dumbrell...right?" and then he took me inside to see Nancy - she looked at me for a minute and then recognised me and was stoked that I had gone to see her. Then I met-up with my very last companion who is now living in Farmington - Sister Holly Aitken - and that was heaps of fun because she reminded me of alot of experiences and funny times that I had COMPLETELY forgotten!! Together we went and visit a couple of families - the Hamptons and the Bowsers, and then we went to dinner at the "Outback Steakhouse" with the Stirlings and the Hamptons. It was SO MUCH FUN and I dont think we stopped laughing the whole night. After, we went and saw Lorenzo and Julie which was fun. By the time visiting was done - it was 10pm and I was so tired, so I decided to stay in Farmington the night. I went to stay with Holly and the lady she is living with - I met her once when i was on my mission - the sister missionaries lived in the basement of her house - THE NICEST living of any missionary I have known!! Anyways...we stayed up until about 1am talking and laughing...it was alot of fun as well. The sisters that are living there came up and talked until MIDNIGHT .... but they thought it was so weird/funny that I married an Elder from the mission....I told her - "yeah laugh it up - then you'll find yourself marrying one too". And then when they went down to bed - she said "good luck with your Elder" and I said to her "NO - good luck with yours". It was funny because Holly later told me that she is the biggest flirt ever and thinks she went on a mission for the wrong reason...haha idiot. Anyways...I woke up at 3:55am and drove back down to Albuquerque to see Aaron before he went to training again...which left me with 2 1/2 hours almost of sleep - so I slept pretty much all day in the hotel...IT WAS LOVELY haha!! After Aaron finished training we drove around the area in Albuquerque that Aaron had served and he showed me alot of places and told me stories. We then had dinner at a Mexican take-away type place....Aarons favourite place to eat on his mission....it was REALLY good. Aaron had a burrito smothered with green chili and I had a Navajo Taco...was soo good!! Thursday - Aaron went to training again and I went and met-up with Helen Conley - and we went to her friends smoothy shop (we used to go there almost every p-day and to get a Pina Colada smoothy) so that is exactly what we did. I cant believe I'd forgotten how flipping good that Pina Colada smoothy was!!! Then I went and picked Aaron up from training and it was nice because he got out about an hour early. We decided that because we were in Albuquerque we would go to the temple. We had planned on staying the night with some members in Rio Rancho.....but we couldn't get a hold of eachother...so we went to the temple and it was crazy because we were sitting in the chapel of the temple waiting for the session to start and the same members we were trying to contact walked into the temple!! So it was really cool that we got to see them - they couldn't believe it when they saw us - it was crazy that we both ended up there and got to visit a little anyways.

After, Aaron and I went to get something to eat...and then made the 5 hour drive home. We had driven about 2, and I could NOT stay awake at all....and Aaron was starting to fall asleep pretty bad. So we decided to stay in the cheapest hotel we could. We found a real cruddy one - like the type of motel you see in the movie "Phsycho" or something....WELL - it still ended up costing $70 - and we just payed it and went to sleep....the next morning when we woke up - we were so mad that we didnt have our minds all there when we payed the $70. We should have just slept in the car or whatever...because the hotel DEFINATELY wasnt worth it. We then headed straight to Rye for the long weekend. We went fishing with Steph, Cody, Jeri and the kids for a little bit, and then we went to Aarons cousins High school graduation.

Aaron pretending he caught a fish Cody fly fishing and Kaitlyn a little bored


Josh just chill'n Steph and Josh

Aaron and Josh

Saturday....hmmmm I cant even remember what we did - woops. Oh we went to a family lunch at the Rye Park for his cousins graduation. Haha aaron and I had a pinecone fight - man it hurt like hell!! Lucky I have an OK aim - otherwise I would have been owned!! It was funny nonetheless. That night we went to his same cousins Eagle Scout ceremony type thing. Its a really big deal here - and because Aaron got his Eagle scout award - he helped present his cousin with his. Sunday was church - and then that afternoon/night the rest of his extended family all seemed to be doing stuff with their immediate families for memorial day...and we werent doing anything...so then I started missing home and family and got a bit emotional - and so Aaron jumped on the phone and called a guy he grew up with and his wife (Micah and Megan) and asked them to go camping with us. So we packed up some stuff and all went looking for a place to camp. BUT because it was a long weekend and its Summer - all camping spots anywhere we looked were taken and it was packed. So we decided to just go to Micah's parents place and just have a fire there and cook our food and hang out and talk and whatever. Well we started setting up and decided just to put our tent up anyways and stay there the night...haha once we got past the fact that it was outside Micahs parents place....it was lots of fun!! Micahs parents came and hung out, and then his sister and bro-in-law who we know came hung out and just whatever, people came and went and it was fun. Aaron and I have a nice 6 man tent, so we all slept in that and Micah and Megan slept fine....but I was freeeeeezing all night and had a rock under me, and Aaron was not cold at all, but had a rock under him too. So we probably got max 1 hour sleep!! The next morning Aaron and I left early (after Micahs mum had made waffles etc for our breakfast) and we went to Billys house for Aaron and Billy to start working on Aarons jeep. Dunno if i mentioned it before, but Aaron has a jeep and the transmission went out about 1 1/2 years ago...and we found another jeep (in good condition with new parts) for sale and we bought it for $250. After researching and looking at it, Billy figured out that for $250, we got thousands of dollars worth in really good parts. He thinks that the person took it to the mechanic to get something fixed, and had a fit about the amount of money he would have to pay and so just left it and wouldn't pay the money - so the mechanic sold it. There are tonns of receipts in the glove box from recent purchases and there is alot of new stuff :) We got so lucky!! It will take a while to fix his jeep - taking parts from one and putting in the other but it will be SO nice when we go camping/shooting/fishing and when Aaron goes hunting. Save our new 08 car from being trashed. So we are excited about that - Aaron literally cant wait - but is enjoying learning about cars and working on it with Billy. So we did that all day....and the sickest thing - I had a headache and was really tired from NO sleep the night before - so I had aarons jacket on because it was cold and raining and went and layed on their couch...well....later - Billy was like "Kristel, take your jacket off" and I was like "why?" and he said "You have something on here, take it off". WELL it was DOG THROW-UP!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so mad. I had just had a shower. He said "how did you lay on that?" and I said "Its the same damn colour as the COUCH!!" and I was so tired I didnt even know!! I could smell something, but their dog just had 6 puppies and that is what it all smelt like. Arghhh so I had another shower and we left back to Aarons mums place. Because Aaron had training up in Pueblo (20 mins north of Rye) the next day, we stayed in Rye with Jeri again that night. We watched movies and went to bed. We went to Pueblo the next day - I took the car while he was at training and went and window shopped...then picked him up at 1pm - so it was nice because his training only went for 4 hours :). We went and bought Aaron some new work pants because all of his are trashed and we then went back to Rye, hung out with Jeri - oh, and we went for a drive around Rye - Aaron went up to Rye park to see if we could find a bear ...well we didnt- but the park is SCARY at night. All foggy, pitch black and its in the woods....and Jeri saw some creepy stuff there when she was younger (people doing ceremonies like with hoods and robes on - and when we went for the family lunch on saturday, there were satanic symbols written with chalk...because they do weird things there)....and Aaron rolled his and mine windows down, and turned off the car and Jeri is talking about what her and her friends saw and you KNOW i was packing it because I just get scared at anything and everything....freaky!! Yesterday morning we just drove back to Monte Vista - I was so glad to sleep in my own bed!!!!!!!! Wooohooo!!!!!! So i said to Aaron - I am not travelling anymore for a couple of weeks!! So we are going to hang around here. I get sick of living out of a bag/car and then I have to clean the car/house and sort/fold/wash/iron all clothes and unpack bathroom stuff and argh I feel like as soon as Im unpacking - Im packing again....so we are going to just hang around here this weekend at least haha. His friend Steven wants to go fishing at a Lake about an hour from here....and Aaron said "well, my wife definately refuses to go anywhere this weekend" haha so Steven told him to ask me if Aaron can go with him. What a joke. haha ASK ME??!? Anyways...Aaron was like "I probably wont go". So I think aaron and I are just going to go fishing on the river for a little bit...and maybe go to the Alligator farm here...and he is going to rotate the car tires and maybe a couple of other things around the house...just chill out. So yep yep....no travelling for a bit. We'll see how that goes!!! (The pics below are when we went fishing up at San Isabell where we got engaged - not sure what day this happened haha)

Gotta Love Rye!

After not visiting Aaron's home town - Rye, CO - for over a month, this past weekend we decided to head up there (it being mothers day and all as well). Friday night we got there and hung out with Jeri. Saturday we took advantage of the nice weather and went to a place in the mountains called San Carlos (Im pretty sure haha) and shot some clay pidgeons...Aaron of course shot everyone I flung in the air...and although I usually wont shoot Aarons gun (because I remember it having a hard kick-back) he got me AND Jeri to shoot it. There is no way I can shoot a moving target yet haha, but he put a can on a rock pretty far away and I shot it...and the kick-back when you shoot the gun isnt as hard as I remember it so that was good. So after, Aaron and I went into Pueblo and went to the movies and shopped a little. Because we got wedding money from Dad and Mum, and good ol Rudd gave us $900, we decided to spend a little on ourselves - because we are using most of it for bills. I bought a brown/turqiouse/white skirt for $9!! Aaron got some cologne - smells SO GOOOOOODDD!!!! Then we went to the movies and saw the new X-Men, Wolverine movie which I thought was awesome. The rest of the afternoon, we had planned to go to the Lake back in Rye and fish just because it was such a nice day....but on the way home, Aaron got a call from his cousins saying they were going to attempt to climb the mountain in Rye to a HUGE rock that you can see from the highway. Sooooo Aaron decided to do that - and I was worried because it was 5pm....and it would take a lot longer to get there and back and they didnt know exactly how to get there...and there are bears and mountain lions and I guess Im just a worry wart. They didnt end up leaving until about...I think 6 or 7pm...so they only had about 1 hour of daylight left. Anyways - I went home and Jeri and I decided to go into Pueblo and go shopping some more. I bought a pair of shoes for $20...then walked out of the shop and felt bad. We went to another shop and I got Aaron a movie from the $5 rack, and some knee length kinda track-suit pants for $8....then because I felt so bad - I went back and took my shoes back for a refund haha. I told the lady "I'm an impulsive shopper, and I really shouldn't have spent this $20" - what a loser. Anyways...so we went home, and mum called for mothers day and I got to talk to Mum, Adam, April and Dad for a little while. It was annoying because the I lost reception about 3 times, so Mum had to keep calling back..woops. Aaron got home at about 10:30pm....they didnt make it to the rock, but I was just glad nothing crazy happened. Sunday, we went to church and we also went into Pueblo again to visit Steff and Cody and the kids - they are Aarons sister and brother in law. Played some Guitar Hero....Aaron is so annoying because no one can beat him...it bugs me so bad because I can be winning, and right towards the end he will beat me by so much - its so annoying. We decided to stay Sunday night and leave early in the morning back home...well...Monday morning we slept in a little and ended up leaving at about 8:30am...and went to get petrol before we left...and saw a Jeep being sold for parts. We decided to look at it because Aaron has a jeep that just needs a new transfer box or something to do with the transmission and then we will have 2 cars. Which is perfect because our car now is only a year 1/2 old, and it will be REALLY nice to have the jeep for Aaron to have it to go four-wheeling, and take it to the mountain to go shooting, and camping and fishing and just whatever. So the whole jeep for parts only cost $250, so we got the whole thing, his cousin Billy hauled it back to his place because he is going to help Aaron. So then by the time that all happened, there was no point in going back home and Aaron to work - so my wish came true and we stayed in Rye for another day. I cant even remember what we did all day - I think we watched Anacondas after we hung out at Billys for a while, and then had dinner at Max's Restaurant and hung out at aarons aunts place for a while...so it was fun. I love spending time in Rye with Aarons family - we were thinking we should move closer there so that I will have more to do during the weeks. Anyways - we'll see.

Jeri shooting for the first time in a long time

Lake Powell

So this past weekend we went to Lake Powell with Aarons cousins, Jake and Kyle. Friday after Aaron finished work, we made the 2 1/2 hour drive to Bayfield, CO to pick up his cousin Kyle, and then we went from there to Jake and Kelly's place to stay the night. We got there at about 9:30pm. We stayed up talking for a while and then Kyle and Aaron stayed up playing X-Box. So they got to bed at about 2:30/3am. We then woke up at 4am to make the drive to Lake Powell in Utah. After 2 1/2 hours we made it to the Lake....but Im telling you - the part of the lake we drove to - we had to drive around twists and turns and bumpy dirt roads - and you KNOW how car sick I get. I just felt like puke the whole day after that..and I definately wasnt looking forward to driving out of there back to the highway. With every bump I thought I was going to puke (probably the closest I've ever come to throwing up). Sooooo it was overcast - but the views out there are AMAZING!!! Aaron and Jake caught 5 fish each, Kyle caught 1 and I caught a big fat NOTHING. I had one fish on up to the shore and then it got off...yep I officially suck at fishing haha. We stopped off at a couple of places on the way home to see some sites...totally amazing peice of country. Aaron kept getting TOO close the edge and I was getting annoyed because I was scared he was going to fall off haha. Anyways...by the time we dropped Kyle off home and drove back to Monte Vista - we got to bed at about midnight. I could not stay up at all on the drive home, and Aaron was struggling, but we made it safe :).

One of Aarons fish

Jake, Aaron and Kyle

Aaron and I at Lake Powell haha pretty sick pic of me but whatever

Lake Powell again

This past weekend - 24 April - 26 April 09

Friday night, Aaron and I wanted to do something -but since there isnt a WHOLE lot to do in Monte Vista/Alamosa - we decided to go to Walmart and split up - have $5-$10 to spend on eachother. At first I thought it would be a really cool idea...but after 10 minutes of looking for stuff for Aaron....it wasnt as easy as I thought it was going to be. I knew he wanted a new movie..so I went and picked 4 movies 9from the $5 section (so that he could choose the one he wanted out of the 4) and I also got him a fillet knife because he has been fishing a tonn lately. WELL...we decided to meet up after about half an hour before we bought the stuff we had chosen for eachother because I wanted him to choose one of the 4 movies. Well - he showed me the stuff he had chosen for me and I already had 2 of the 4 things, and the fillet knife I had chosen is one that we had bought previously and sucked haha. So it didnt turn out as good as we thought - anyways, Aaron ended up getting one of the movies, and then he showed me a bunch of other things that he had thought about buying me - one of which was a really cool manicure system for only $8!!! So I got that and some lip balm for my rediculously dry lips haha. I was really happy with what he got me and the movie he got was really good too. We decided that we probably wont do that again...but hey - it was good to do once.

Ok so then on Saturday we had the awesome opportunity to drive 4 hours to Albuquerque, New Mexico Temple for Julie and Lorenzo's endowement and temple sealing. It was the coolest experience for me!! To be able to be there when they went through was such an awesome feeling. They are so amazing and still so strong in the gospel and so many members of the ward are so supportive of them and have helped them and I know that has made all the difference. I was so excited to see some of the families I became really good friends with - and Im looking forward to next month when aaron has to go down there for work and I'll go with him but go and visit these people during the day. A few of them said "I didnt even recognise you when you walked in" haha - Im probably not as fat as when I ended my mission haha. So after the temple, Aaron and I went to a shopping center and just looked around and got something to eat. We got some food and it was unexpectingly SPICY...so i didnt eat much and my mouth was on fire haha, so aaron went and got me a fruit smoothy to help simmer my mouth down...and then I had blisters on my feet and they were killing, so he stopped and bought me a pair of thongs for $3!! What a sweet husband huh!!?? Then we made the 4 hour drive back home. We always love being back in NM - brings back alot of awesome memories for us both - lucky we live close enough to visit often.

Sunday, we went to church...well - aaron went to sacrament and I was sick...but had to teach...so i stayed home and took time to get ready and have hot shower etc and then he came and got me so that I could go and teach my Sunday school lesson. Sometimes I get nervous to teach the youth - sounds crazy .... but its because its 12-17 yr olds - such a big age gap and you know kids that age...just arent that interested all the time haha...So the lesson was on spiritual gifts and only half the kids were there, but it turned out ok...after class I talked to them about how much school they have left and what they are going to do during summer break, and they all seemed to liven up and talk and laugh - so Im glad for that. When i went to relief society one of the ladies said "i have to tell you, one of the youth told me "I love our new sunday school teacher", so that gave me a boost of hope haha. After church we kinda just hung out and rested, and then we wanted to go down the road for a walk around the lake...well - when we got out it was WAY too cold and windy so decided just to drive around it and then come home haha. Sunday night we watched some wildlife channel for a little bit and then watched the movie Aaron chose on Friday night...while we watched it I gave Aaron a manicure and pedicure hahaha - its HEAPS easier to do someone elses hands and feet then your own - so I was having fun. He now has nicer toenails and finger nails then me haha. Oh - and Aaron said to me "if you can guess where my trousers are made, I'll give you a half an hour back rub" (THINKING that I wouldn't guess right) well...much to his surprise I guessed it - and he owed me a 1/2 hr back rub haha. So when I called Breanna for her birthday (or rather - spoke to Peta for an hour) Aaron rubbed my back :) bhahaha - Im sure he wont ever do the "if you guess _______ then I'll rub your back/feet" trick again.

Manicure Set Aaron got me


Aaron testing it out

Lorenzo, Julie, Sister Holly Aitken and I

Members of the ward

Julie and Lorenzo bought Aaron and I this native wedding pot - the groom drinks from one side and the bride drinks from the other - Julie also made me some awesome Native Jewellery

Aaron and I at the Lake - quick photo before we got back in the car

Gunnison

Soooo its been forever since we put a post on here....and Kylie and Peta keep telling me to update - so now that I finally have some photos from things we did - I will put them on :) (cause blogs can be boring with no photos). Last weekend, we headed up to a small town called Gunnison about 2 hours north of us here in Monte Vista, CO. We went for a wedding - Aaron's mate from high school - and he was asked to be a groomsman. So we headed up Friday night and stayed until Sunday afternoon after church. Aarons friend Steven came with. The wedding was nice - I couldn't believe the bride had a dress for the ceremony and then another dress for the reception!!! CRAZY!!! I cant imagine spending money on TWO dresses - would have cost alot! haha sorry - just thinking about my ONE wedding dress cost!! Anyways - alot of people didnt make it to the reception because it had snowed alot and I think a highway was closed...but there were still a good amount of people. It was kind of weird going to a wedding where you dont know anyone and your husband is a groomsman - but none-the-less I sat at a table with some of Aarons old school friends and it worked out fine - they were nice and we had fun. When most of everyone went home (and just the young people left) they started the drinking alot more and techno music :S. I think some of them were on drugs to be dancing all weird to the music. They tried to get us to dance....buuuuut I did not attempt it - we did however, get to dance together to a few slow songs - which was nice, considering we didnt even do that at our own wedding haha. Aaron and I went home at about 9:30 to go swimming (I have been wanting to swim for AGES) but the pool shut at 10pm and there were a bunch of guys in there and in the hot tub so we didnt. We got changed into jeans and went back to the reception. People were just getting more and more drunk and so Aaron and I just hung out and watched people haha - you know I love to watch....so then ended up going home at 11:30pm - Steven stayed on and someone else dropped him home - I think at like 3am. I guess I had a bad dream not long after he got home - I started FLIPPING OUT because I felt someone grabbing at my feet under the blankets. I felt like I was awake and yelling "SOMEONE GRABBED MY FEET" and screaming and Aaron jumped on me to hold me down and I was yelling "LET ME UP!! JUST LET ME GET MY FEET UP!!!" anyways - soon enough I woke up and was scarred to go back to sleep. Aaron and Steven told me the next day that I went absolutely NUTS and my whole body flew off the bed and I was talking crazy jumbled - did not make a bit of sense...and scared both of them so aaron got on me to hold me down cause I was going crazy, and he said I hit him so hard and in the ribs and stuff and the next day his ribs were sore - he couldn't believe how crazy I was - then he thought I was having a seizure (spelling??) and really scared him. Then he yelled at me so loud in my face to wake up and I guess I did. So it was really crazy - havnt had that happen before haha. Anyways, we also went fishing and didnt get a bite - I think its STILL too cold...hopefully it will get warm soon because Aaron wants to go to Lake Powell in a fortnight to go fishing with his cousin - I hear its WAY warmer there though already. Aaron and I found out where the church was, and went thinking it started at 9am....welllll....it didnt start until 10am!!! We were kind of annoyed haha but stayed for Sacrament and then had to get home quick to get out of the hotel before check-out time. They told us that they changed church till 10am because pepole complained about it starting at 9am and that is was too early and too many got to church late....well, no surprise it now starts at 10 and people are still late haha. Anyways here are some pics from the wedding weekend!!

On the drive up to Gunnison

Steven and Aaron on the drive up

Umm getting up to take a photo

The photo

Dont ask about the glasses?????

Dunno what Aaron is doing

So we were bored..!!????!! And took lots of photos...

They let me drive because I get car sick

FISHING!!! Too bad we didnt catch anything

Stop taking photos already Steven!!

BEAUTIFUL COLORADO!!!

Down Under - 2008!!

24 May 2008 - Aaron arrived in Australia, we went to the Gold Coast beaches. I guess he was pretty excited to see the ocean because he just ran in with his jeans and shirt on. I sat up on the beach and started to feel worried - but after he got smashed around in the rough waves for about 15 minutes he made it back in to shore. After spending some time on the beach, we walked to the shops to buy Aaron some new shorts (there was no way his jeans were going to dry quick enough) - here he saw his first "meter maids" - he couldn't believe that it was legal for woman to walk about like that for their jobs ha ha. We then went and had Tepenyaki for lunch. Kylie and Tomo had taken me there before and I LOVED it, so I wanted Aaron to try it…..sadly - Aaron's meal mustn't have been fully cooked (I think he had fish) and he got pretty sick. We went to Kylie and Tomos house - Aaron had a shower and then had to take a nap cause he felt so ill. That night, Kylie, Tomo and Aaron and I went to the "Outback Spectacular" to show him some Aussie stuff. He was still not 100%, and of course the jet-lag was setting in pretty bad - we had fun though non-the-less. I think I tried to jam too much into the first day he was here - sorry hun!!!

25 May 2008 - was Sunday, so we went to church. After church hmmmm I believe we had lunch and then went to visit Sherri and James Thompson. Quite the awkward experience - mainly because their home teachers were there - but I'll leave those details out. Then we went and picked my Oma (Grandma) up from her house because the whole family was coming over to meet Aaron - not an intimidating thought at all!! The whole way home, Oma had a tingle in her throat and I thought she was going to cough up a lung - literally. She seemed to do OK by the time we got back to our house, but man!! After all the family left that night, we took Oma home, and then went to a nearby beach for a little while - who would have thought that Redcliffe would have nice beaches/parks. We were there for a while, but then started to hear some crazy guy yelling and someone scream so we left pretty quick.

26 May 2008 - Monday - what the heck did we do Monday?!? Aaron - you might have to update this part, because I cant remember for the life of me….wow - like blog sucks.
27 May 2008 - Tuesday - Kylie and Tomo came over because we all headed up to Harvey Bay to stay in a nice hotel the night before we went over to Fraser Island the next morning. After picking up our licence for the Island and Barge - We found our hotel and then went out and ate a fancy restaurant (well it seemed fancy to me) along the water at Harvey Bay. Kylie had swordfish and I think the rest of us had salmon. Man - I'm only 24 and I cant remember what happened 4 months ago!! Anyways - I do remember the meal was sooo good!! Oh, also, Aaron drove that night for the first time in Australia. First time on the left hand side, sitting on the right side of the car. Hahaha, everyone who has travelled overseas in a country where you drive on the other side of the road, knows how off-putting that can be - looking left instead of right when you intend to turn left out of a drive-way. It was pretty funny, but worked out - he did a dang good job actually!! Parallel parked the beast and all!! It rained most of the night and we just hoped that it would clear up for the next day we were heading to Fraser.

28 May 2008 - Wednesday - woke up nice and early to travel to the barge. The whole day ended up being pretty overcast, but the weather was good to us and the rain held off majority of the day. It was a pretty cold day considering that July was the beginning of winter here in Australia. We only got to hit 2 spots on the Island, it seemed like we did a lot of driving - but it was fun all the same. Huge props to Kylz for being pregnant with only 2 weeks to go until she was due - and riding all day in the sand, mud, puddles - and not to mention Tomo getting a bit excited and choosing to drive up the sides of the road etc for some extra fun. Oh, also - she managed to walk at least 1/2 hour straight up the side of a huge hill - was not easy, cant imagine being almost due and doing that too!! Lake MacKenzie was beautiful - crystal clear water!! Was freezing as, but we couldn't resist swimming in it. You can see in the pictures how clean the fresh lake is, and how deep it gets. Aaron decided to brave it and try swim out as far as he could. I was way too scared - it was too dark and deep for my liking. Tourists came to the Lake and left it pretty quick - I'm sure they thought we were a bunch of crazies swimming in the freezing lake with the wind blowing and the clouds blocking out every bit of sun! We then went to Lake Wobbie - this was not as exciting. It was very cool looking from the look-out at the top, but then after conning Kylie to walk all the way down, I felt bad because there wasn’t much to do down there. That night we travelled back home and slept pretty damn good!!

29 May 2008 - Sooooo Aaron got a choice out of "Underwater World" or "Australia Zoo" (basically - sharks or crocs). He wanted to go to see the sharks, so we went up the Sunshine Coast to Underwater World. It really is a cool place, and we spent a lot of time just watching the sharks. We went and had lunch - and because Aaron wanted some real fresh seafood (being from Colorado and all) we drove all along the beach, and NOWHERE was open. It was pouring rain and we honestly could not find anywhere - then there was a small place - and the food was disappointing :( We kept looking at the time and figuring that we had plenty of time before we had to head back to Brisbane to go hang out and have dinner with Peta and Jason that night. We left with plenty of time to get back - that was until I missed the exit - had to drive further half hour down the highway, turn around and drive back!! We arrived at Peta's house almost 1/2 hour late - to only find out that the watch/time we had been watching the whole day was OFF, and we were like an hour and a half late!! They had to feed the kids and put them to bed before we even showed up. We felt SO HORRIBLE!! I don’t think I've ever felt so lame in my entire life. Of course they thought our story was a bit suss (who wouldn't) but in all honesty - that is what happened, and we just felt horrible!! The meal was awesome - then we played some WII and Guitar Hero.

30 May 2008 - This was our last day before Aaron went home. We decided to head into the city and see the Temple, and do a session together. It was really awesome to go to the temple together. We took photos around the grounds, Aaron saw a spider which he thought was MASSIVE….it definitely wasn’t as big as a huntsman or anything, but he thought it was grotty non-the-less. Then a couple of Scottish woman who were in the session with us asked us to take photos of them, and then they took a photo of us right outside the doors, they asked Aaron "is this your fiance?" and he said "nooo, but we're heading that way hopefully"…ha ha we talked about it afterwards and were kinda upset that we didn’t make a scene of it and play it up a bit. Then we got Subway for lunch and sat at the top of the cliffs to eat. We hurried home and that night went out to dinner with Mum and Dad. This was a bunch of fun!! We went to a Thai restaurant at Carseldine. The place was packed, it was another rainy day/night - but they managed to squeeze us in (literally) at a small table out the back with almost no covering or heating. We ordered our meal and waited a LONG time to get it. Dad and Aaron provided plenty of entertainment though while we waited - and I'm sure that we cleared out a few tables because it was so ridiculous. After, Aaron and I went up to Mt Cootha - it’s a look-out in Brisbane that overlooks the whole Brisbane City and surrounding suburbs - very pretty from the top!!

31 May 2008 - Woke up and went to the airport for Aaron's flight at 11am. The week was awesome - and tiring trying to fit so much in, but I wanted him to see as much as the country as he could in those days. Was sad for him to go, but kept in our minds that I would go visit him for a month in 6 weeks.

Here we are...

Ok so, this being our first blog post - I will tell you our journey so far.

Aaron and I were both called to serve in the Albuquerque, New Mexico Mission. Aaron had been serving for over a year when I arrived in New Mexico. We served around eachother alot as he was my District leader for 3 months and then my Zone Leader for the remaining of his mission. Aaron finished his mission and went home in January 2007, and I finished my mission and returned to Australia in August 2007. In December that same year, I received an email from another missionary Aaron and I had both served with, and I noticed Aaron's email address in the "CC" section. "I wonder how Stewart is doing" was my instant thought - so I emailed him to see what he was up to - it was always fun catching up with missionaries and we handnt spoken since he went home at the start of that year. From that first email we continued to email eachother everyday, soon we were talking everyday and then pretty soon about 2-3 times a day. So from there....to cut a long story short - Aaron came and visited me and met my family here in Australia in May 2008, and I went to visit him and meet his family for a month in July 2008.