Date Nights With My Bestie!

Well we celebrated our 14 year anniversary here in Brisbane and because "date nights" are hard to come by, we hired (or persuaded) Parker to watch his little sisters one Saturday morning in June and we headed up to an awesome little cafe on the Kangaroo Cliffs for brekky!  It was so fun.  We had scones and cream and eggs and ham and look at this amazing view from our table.  What a fun way to celebrate our anniversary!  14 years?  Seriously?  How did that happen?  I still know that I'm the luckiest girl ever.  Lex is my best friend, he's hilarious, thinks I'm hilarious (super important quality!), gentle, patient and loves me more than I thought possible. I love him so much and I know I am lucky to have him!  Seriously, there is no one I'd rather spend the day with than Lex Shapp!  He is so much fun!

 We walked along the cliffs for a bit to let the scones settle.  It was great to enjoy the lorikeets, the sail boats and just the beautiful view of my husband....I mean, the river!  ;)

The next week, we got a true babysitter because we had to attend the graduation banquet for the fellows at the Princess Alexander Hospital. Graduation for Fellows? Is this really happening?  Are we really finishing this journey?  I can't believe it!  For 14 years (our whole marriage) we have been students working on this goal and now we seem to be arriving at the threshold.  I don't have any regrets.  Lex will be an awesome surgeon.  Seriously cannot believe we are finishing.  It was always-- waiting for the "next phase of our plan" and now I guess that next phase is "Being a Doctor"! Congrats babe.  And thanks for these awesome 14 years.  I don't know how you did it, but you always managed to put us first.  I know very few doctors accomplish that.  It was a fun night listening to people brag about Lex and hearing Lex talk about his year here in Brisbane and all he's learned.  We have just 2 weeks left here and now it's just pack, pack, pack-- sort things out, throw TONS of stuff away and get ready for a couple weeks seeing New Zealand and Fiji on our way home to Utah. In one month we will be back in Utah.  Can't believe it!  Such an amazing adventure we have had here and the 13 years preceding it. Wouldn't change a bit of it! It made us who we are!  Love love love this guy!

A Night of Friends and Crackin Heads!

 We went to a surprise birthday party for our one of our favorite guys here in Brisbane:  Brother Hartley! We have loved, loved, loved getting to know this family.  Julianna (Sister Hartley) is Maori and she met Jason while they were both serving missions in New Zealand.  Her boys Tukiha (Tuki) and Hoheppa (who Oaklee affectionately calls "Oh Pepper") have been good friends to Parker and Jason is our home teacher.  They are such good people.  The party was "Hats off to you, Jason" and Birdy and Oaks won the hat contest with these 2 little numbers!

Me and Julianna!  Love this lady to pieces!

After the party, it's off to a professional Rugby game.  We'd already bought tickets before we knew about the party.  So we dropped the girls off at friends (they opted out of the game) and jumped on the train to go to Suncorp Stadium to cheer on the Broncos!

When we got there, there was a little confusion with our tickets and seats, so we lucked out with much, much better seats than we paid for.  And we proceeded to watch a bunch players "crack some heads" as Park likes to call a good game of rugby.

Me and my cute boys!

Go Broncos!!!

 The stadium was quite big and before the grass was bloodied, it looked really pretty!  Ok, I suppose it wasn't that brutal, but it is a very intense game.

We had so much fun  at this game!

The boys in our cheap as (well, for Aussie anyway) seats that ended up being great!

The Broncs have had a tough go this season, not a great record and tonight....they didn't surprise.  They lost but it was a way close game so it was really fun to watch.  They lost by 2 and it was back and forth the whole time.

This is something that has been on Park's bucket list since we got here so I'm glad we got to catch a Rugby game.  Suncorp is a cool stadium and your game ticket also gets you a free train ride in, so that was awesome!




Such a fun night with my boys!!!

A Beautiful Look at Our Brissie!

Another fun Family Home Evening in Brissie.  We have had "Riding the City Ferry" on our list for awhile.  We did it this week and it was so much fun.

 In Brisbane, you can take a bus, train or ferry to get from one place to another on city transport.  They also have the City Hopper, which is a free ferry that goes up and down the river.  Public transport in Brisbane is really pricey (although still better than paying for parking :( ) So we opted for a long ride up and down the river on the city hopper--for free.  It was a great way to see our awesome city!

Once again, this city just looks amazing at night.  The river is gorgeous.  It was great to float past all our favorite buildings, parks and even see the temple with angel Moroni up on top of the cliffs.  Such a cool night!

We floated passed Southbank and saw the Wheel of Brisbane, that was last week's FHE!

Listening to Dad tell us all about his travels in Brisbane by bike.  Lex has biked all over this place from one hospital to another.  Sometimes biking for an hour and a half one way to make it to a surgery...crazy!

 We had fun talking about the things we love about Brisbane.  But also the things we are excited about having when we move to Utah.

There are 5 or 6 big bridges that cross the Brisbane River but Story Bridge is one of our faves, it's so pretty.

The City Hopper was so much fun.  It took about an hour to float up and down the Brisbane River and make all the stops.  It was fun to watch the flying foxes at dusk then see the lights reflecting off the river.  Just beautiful!

Grand Finals--Rugby Champs!

 Moving is always so tough emotionally.  It's hard to avoid that feeling of..."it's the laaasttt time we will..." You know that feeling?  Last day of school, last choir concert, last party with friends, last time on our favorite beech etc. etc.  It makes the sadness go on and on.  Well, this was Park's laaaasssstt day of Yeronga State School Rugby.  But boy-- if you gotta go, talk about going out with a bang!

Oaks and I love packing a lunch and heading out to watch Gala Day.  That is the day about once every 2 months where the sports teams are bused out of school and taken to their respective fields, pitches, etc. to play 3 or more games of their sport against other primary schools.  Well, since it was the final gala day for Rugby, it was also the Rugby tournament.  And....yes!  Yeronga State School won their tournament!  It was a great way to finish off the rugby experience here in Australia!  It was such an exciting day of sport!

I took heaps of fun pix of Park playing and of course, they all look about the same:  a bunch of boys NOT WEARING PADS OR HELMETS chasing and tackling each other!  I swear this game gives me a sick stomach every time I watch it!  But oh how Park loved it!  Here he is with his mouth guard looking all tough, and pretty cute I might add (although that does take away from the "tough" description a bit, doesn't it?)

Mouth guards...well, at least they protect some part of their bodies in this crazy game!

 Oaklee is once again-- his biggest fan and cheerleader!  Here she is her favorite fedora.  She is such a fashionista.  If it's not one great accessory it's another.  When she bought this hat at the market, we thought she would choose a pink or purple one but she said this one looked more "like an adventurer spy girl" -- can't argue with that!  Either way it's very cute!

Here is the team right before the grand finals!  They were getting all pumped up and ready to go!

This is Park with one of his coaches, Mr. Harton.  He is also Park's year 5 history and math teacher.  I think it's amazing that teachers volunteer to coach these teams; running practices at recess and spending the day coaching at gala day.  Mr. Harton has been awesome!

Cutest Adventurer/Spy Girl Ever!

 
 Here's some shots in the grand finals game.  Park is going for a big tackle here.  Parker's team wears yellow and blue jerzees, but it's tricky because the opposing team has blue jerzees this game.

In Rugby, rather than "hiking" the ball between your legs like in gridiron football, they stand and do this little toe kick back thing where they roll the footy backward to their team with their toes.  Here is Park having a go at it.

Time out with the coach!

I love watching Parker make his big runs.  I swear one day he will bite his tongue off in sports.  Notice in every pic it is out!  Parker may not be the fastest kid on the team but he is definitely one of the hardest to take down.

 Yeronga got awarded a penalty in the second half, which meant they got to have a chance on about the 20 yard line to score.  Funny story about scoring in rugby.  When Park first started, he came home after school and told me he had rugby practice during break.  He said it was so fun and then I asked how he did and he said, "Well I had two tries."  I patted his back and said, "Well, hey-- that's great; don't give up just keep trying!"  Then he laughed and said, "Mom, a "try" means a score like a goal in rugby.  I had two tries...that means I didn't just "try" to score, I actually succeeded in scoring!"

Ok, so I had a lot to learn to be a good rugby mom!

 Anyway, back to the penalty attempt.  Parker's coach told the team, "Get the ball to Parker and no one else touches it!"  I felt nervous for him.  That's so much pressure.  I know there are faster kids with heaps more experience than Parker on his team, but a dad next to me on the sidelines explained you have to give it to your player that can just mow people over on a penalty run because it's like trying to push through a wall since the other team knows you are simply trying to break through and touch the ball down across the line (thus scoring a try).  So he told me, "Parker is our best choice, he's the hardest to take down and he can keep pushing even with defense hanging off him."

Well, the run started; they got Park the ball and yah...he had to deal with a lot of "hanging defense".  I was screaming my head off and snapping pix at the same time.  He looked so awesome, seriously "plowing" through kids.  And he just wouldn't stop, it was like he was just determined to cross that line no matter what or who or how many were trying to pull him to the ground.  Here are some cool shots of Park's big run!

There's the line and look at the defense hanging, hanging, hanging on Park to try and stop this try...but they don't!!!!

Yahoo!!!  He scores a try!  He slammed that ball down across the line and the ref yelled "Try!" and I was an obnoxious mom.  It was such a cool moment.  He had scored several tries before and even some this game and this tournament, but this one was just especially awesome.  I do not know how he got that ball across the line!!  His team was all cheering around him and hugging him and patting his back, it was so great!

 The coach was thrilled with the run.  It was such an awesome way for Park to end his "laaaasst rugby day with his Yeronga team"!

And I was a proud mama!  What a great experience for Parker to be a part of a true Aussie sports team, he got to play AFL and Rugby at Yeronga, that's pretty awesome.  We are going to miss this school so much!

Here's the grand final champs!  Go Yeronga!!!