Rainforest Love!

 We really struck gold with this weekend's hike in the Lamington National park.  We hiked to Picnic Rock and Elebana Falls.  Not too arduous (about 8 km round trip) but the destination was amazing!!!  It was a true rainforest.  We had read that the Green Mountain off the Gold Coast (which is where Lamington is) is one of the best hidden hiking spots on the coast.  We took a very windy road switch backing down a mountain to get there.  Several people refer to this place as "a fairy forest".  And that's exactly what it looked like.  My girls were so excited.  It looked like a place you'd see in the movies with fairies meeting under mushrooms and pixies sleeping in lily flowers.  It was incredible.

The hike down was actually pretty dark because the vegetation is so dense, it's really, really shady.  We loved playing on the falls and climbing the rocks to reach the different pools.  Of course pictures never do it justice but the falls are actually quite tall.  The main one, I mean.

Our efforts to take self-timer pictures were tricky with no flat rocks to set the camera on...but better than nothing I guess.

I know there are millions of pix in this post, but I couldn't help it.  There were so many cool things on this adventure.  When we got to Lamington, we started our hike at a local resort there called "O'Reilly's".  It's kind of like checking out Ruby's Inn when you visit Bryce Canyon in Utah.  They have a couple little cafes and we had our first taste of Australian meat pie.  Meat pies are HUGE here.  All the bakeries and cafes sell meat pies of all varieties.  They were good. Of course we ordered chips (remember that's fat fries here) to go with them in case we didn't love the pies.  :)  This was the first plane to land at O'Reilly's.

 The trees in these rainforests are so crazy.  They are huge and the roots grow above ground as well as below.  What happens is that an older tree gets wrapped by vines and those vines grow into and around the tree until they virtually take over the older tree.  The older tree eventually dies inside and the wrap continues to thrive and this process repeats over and over so you get huge hollow trees with peek-a-boo holes, automatic tree houses with perfect bases for a tea party (Oaklee's first thought), hide-n-seek (Birdy's idea), a fort for nerf gun wars with all kinds of shooting openings and high guards (Park's wish...and let's be honest, Lex's too!)  Ok boys, next time we come you can bring your nerf guns.

At O'Reilly's they have a tree top walk you take before venturing deeper into the forest.  The walk is all on rope bridges about 30 meters (roughly 90 ft.) above the ground.  You are pretty much among the tree tops!  There are signs all over stating no more than 6 people at a time on each section of bridge...interesting and a little frightening that they have weight limits.  Our boys thought it would be fun to bounce and shake the rope bridges as the 5 of us journeyed across.  Why are boys so weird?  I couldn't help but think how grateful I was to not be taking a scouting den of 8 or 10 boys across these bridges.  Too much boy enregy! We had our fill of testosterone with just our 2.

The tree top walk was incredible.   It is awesome and very Swiss Family Robinson-esque.  There was one point where you could climb a ladder that took you an additional 90 meters up so you could see the very very top of the forest.  You were above everything.  I had to stay down with Oaks but Lex and the kids loved it.  I can't believe they let people do it.  The ladders are kind of in cage tunnels...to provide safety?  :)  

 The animals are very used to tourists so they don't scare easily.  We loved the birds.  They were always looking to be fed.  They are so stinkin bright you can't miss them.

I had to put this picture in because it gives a little perspective as to just how huge these old trees really are.  They are massive.  My kids were sitting at the base and the tree still just looms over them.  They are awesome.  Really mossy and great for climbing...ok and nerf gun wars too!

 More views from the highest climb of the tree top walk.  Gorgeous!!!

To Market To Market To Buy a Fat Pig...Then Off to the Beach Jiggedy-Jig!

 The markets here are quite amazing.  We live within about 5 miles of a really good one called Rocklea Market.  It's a lot of fruit and veg, baked goods, and lifestyle stuff.  There's a huge food court with all kinds of international fares.  I wanted to try everything...and pretty much did.  Saturday morning we all just rolled out of bed and headed for the market--jammies and all.  We picked up our weekly fruit and veg, bought a bunch of yummy Lebanese bread and dips, enjoyed some funky Peruvian tunes (live entertainment) and ate some yummy Spanish omelettes and pofferties!!!!  Ok who is the genius chef who came up with these tasty little devils?  They are like mini, puffy, Dutch pancakes--served with maple syrup and icecream....SERIOUSLY? One of those dishes you wish you would've never tasted because now you'll be craving them every Saturday morning!  Oh Pofferties how I love your light, puffy, yumminess!  And how I hate that I can eat millions of you in one sitting!!! Our cute boys (Park and Lex) picked up a bunch of beautiful daisies for us at a flower stall to surprise us.  They were all different colors.  It was a perfect morning!
 

 

After the markets we decided it was time to venture North.  We were ready for another Beach Day!  I'm turning into true Brisby here...complaining like a local that we have to drive an hour for a good beach!  An hour???  (Puh-Leaze!)  We had heard that most locals prefer the Sunshine Coast to the Gold Coast because it's less touristy.  We ended up at a great spot called King's Beach.  We had a blast.  The waves were awesome.  Got some good boogy boarding in, sand castles built, frisby thrown and may I just say...I love sitting on my beach chair and watching my kids play?  I know it sounds cheesy, but there is just nothing better.  I love our beach days.  I don't know that I will try surfing (although I'm not opposed to giving it a go) but boogy boarding is so much fun and my kids are entertained for hours with the waves, the sand and the shells.  WE LOVE THE BEACH!

Come to Zion, Come to Zion!

We had a really fun weekend, low key--lots of pajamas, lots of vegging around. Lex was on-call and didn't get called in once!  We LOVED it!  I wanted to post today about our stake conference on Sunday.  May I just say, "The church is true no matter where you go!"  It is such a comfort to have that consistency.   Because there is not a stake center here, the conference was being held at Brisbane City Hall.  We were so excited because this would be something very new for us...who could miss stake conference at City Hall?  :)  We plugged it in to the GPS and found out that the church had arranged parking in a downtown structure and would have tickets validated for no charge (which is huge because parking downtown has been known to break the bank.  Our first day here we parked in a structure for 2.5 hours while we were in the bank and picking up a few things for Lex's work.  We wondered how much it would cost upon leaving.  But we were not prepared when the machine at the exit read, $53.00!!!  Yikes!)  Anyway, we got parked and entered the beautiful building.  Parker said it looked like ancient Rome in the 21st century.  It was amazing.  The building was incredible and when we entered the meeting room I was overwhelmed.  It was awesome.  The speakers were great.  The mission president and his wife spoke.  We have run into them a few times, including the day we got off the plane (he was picking up missionaries).  They've only been here a few weeks longer than we have.  They are from St. George so that's fun.  Really cool family.  Anyway, I wanted to share an experience that was special that day.  There was a youth choir singing the intermediate hymns.  It was small by Utah or Albuquerque youth choir standards.  The stake itself isn't huge.  The song they sung was gorgeous...it wasn't that they had amazing voices or volume but the words were so beautiful.  They sang about Coming to Zion and what it was to be in Zion.  It reminded me of a sweet sister in Albuquerque who used to greet every new member or visitor to our ward by saying, "Welcome to Zion".  As I sat and listened to these young saints singing about Zion, I was so touched.  The spirit confirmed to me in an overwhelming way that Zion can be anywhere.  One heart and one mind....as I looked around the beautiful, domed city hall assembly room filled with the latter day saints in Brisbane, Australia, I knew in that moment that this room was a piece of Zion.  We were all united in the spirit.  I felt overwhelmed with the feeling that my family and I were EXACTLY where we were supposed to be.  This adventure is something we needed-- to enjoy, to learn from, to change us and help us create Zion within the walls of our own home--or more specifically within the bounds of our own family. I realize this is a lifelong mission, but I am committed.  As I listened to the youth singing with tears streaming down my cheeks, I felt so honored to be a member of this true church.  The gospel is wonderful and it's teachings are powerful instruments in bringing truth and righteousness to a dark world.  But all principles aside, the organization is an incredible one.  I'm so honored to be a part of such a classy, well-organized, service-minded, do-gooding structure.  On our way out of the parking garage heading into the conference when we were on the lift,  a girl got on and asked what was happening down town with all the people coming dressed up?  We explained we were LDS (Mormons) and we were having a conference today at City Hall.  She smiled and said, "Oh...I'm Mormon.  I mean I kind of am.  I didn't even know about this meeting,

because I haven't been in years.  It's pretty cool to see all these people flooding into the city wearing their Sunday best."  I thought of her during the musical number and wished she would've accepted our invitation to come inside with us, so that she too could feel that one-heartedness with all those people gathered together for the same reason in such a beautiful setting.  Maybe she would realize the doors are never closed and Zion is waiting for her too.  Maybe she would remember how proud she is to be a Mormon, a member of an organization that works so hard to make the world better and to bring people happiness through the Gospel message.  We are here to be Christ's disciples on the Earth and in the process we are creating Zion in places all around the world!  Welcome to Zion, Welcome to Zion!

Homesickness

Well, I have officially experienced a measure of homesickness.  Please don't get me wrong; I'm not melting down or hulling up in a depression.  I just think it's interesting how small twitches turn into stronger feelings because of a simple incident.  Let me explain. It's so funny, I have lived away from family for 6 years now and during those 5 years in New Mex there were some pretty substantial visitor droughts, well I suppose "substantial" is relative because we had lots of company and tried to get back to Utah a couple times a year. But coming from a very tight knit family, you feel distances particularly on holidays, celebrations or during trials.  I even went a year and a half not seeing 2 of my darling sisters...and that was really awful for me.  The reason this homesickness is strange is that I saw all of my family just about 6 or 7 weeks ago (hardly a stretch coming off months and months of absence).  This feeling is different though, this is a more true "home"--sickness.  Not so much for family, although, heaven knows I'd love to have all the J's together and Ev and Nik to see this place and experience all the exciting things we have done.  The ache is more for "home", familiar, "normal".  Ya know, people driving the right way, finding all the food I need in the grocery store, not having to experiment with cooking--(what's with all the lamb and veal???), watching sports on TV that I actually understand and paying for things with dollar bills rather than dollar coins.  I know these things seem silly and simple and the adjustments are extremely minimal but it's so interesting how they become accentuated at unexpected moments.

It all started the other day at Mum's group.  We were just sitting around enjoying the winter sunshine watching our kids at another AMAZING Brisbane park (the parks here are incredible).  And here comes one of the American mums with her "shared treat".  She sits down and I gasp a little..."Are those Rice Krispy treats?" I could barely get the words out while keeping my emotions from oozing through each syllable.  I thought I was going to burst with excitement.  I wanted to jump up and down and dance my way around the play structures. Instead I grabbed her and hugged her and thanked her a million times!  I know...ridiculous right? There were 2 other American mums there and we just all huddled over the confectionery, laughing as the long gooey strings of marshmallows were pulled and stretched from the pan.  We dangled them over our faces and enjoyed every sweet moment it entered our mouths.  Savoring each crunchy krispy!  The American mum that brought the treats told us she had unexpectedly found some "american marshmallows" at a specialty shop a couple months ago and she bought a bunch of bags and has tried to make them last, because she hasn't seen any since.  I probably haven't mentioned that you can't get marshmallows here.  They have their own version of mallows and they're not really made for baking.  They are found in the candy aisles in small bags like gummy bears or circus peanuts.  They aren't the same and won't melt like American mallows.  Anyway, I felt so thankful that she had used up a bag of precious, treasured American marshmallows on us at mum's group.  The Aussie mums with us were so surprised at our reaction.  They all tasted the treats and agreed they were pretty good.  They asked how we got the mallows to melt like that.  We had to explain that in the states marshmallows aren't necessarily considered treatsies.  They're mostly for roasting or baking really.  They surmised that I must've REALLY loved rice krispy treats in the states to evoke such a reaction.  I admitted, I liked the treats but no true love or obsession-- and I wasn't sure why I was so excited about eating them today.  We explained it isn't that you miss the marshmallows--it's that it is something you couldn't have here.  Once you realize you can't have marshmallows...you suddenly have never wanted the puffy, fluffy, squishy sweet more than you do right now!  It brings up an ache for things you miss and for things that are familiar.  We sat around talking about what we miss most.  I found out that whenever someone comes or goes to the states they pretty much take orders for what things people want brought over.  (Rootbeer comes up a lot, marshmallows, even Pampered Chef products)  People bring an empty suitcase so they can fill it in the states and bring it back.  I was so glad I wasn't the only crazy, marshmallow missin' mama!  I guess it's normal to get homesick over silly things...and things--not even people!  Strange!

Anyway, I went home that day with a dull ache that literally just kinda stayed with me.  Everything seemed to remind me of home.  I was determined to bring something comfy to my kids that night.  I made a very noble attempt at my family's favorite treat: Cake Mix Cookies.  They don't have yellow cake mix here so I mixed up the vanilla mix and used their version of chocolate chips called chocolate buttons and we made do.  Not exactly the same but we had a cookie toast anyway to celebrate-- "A toast, to making it work and remembering that home is where your family is."  We can live without marshmallows and yellow cake mix.  It would be a thousand times worse if we didn't have each other!  Laying in bed that night I confessed to Lex that I had actually felt the sting of homesickness, but told him not to worry.  I wasn't wishing to go home or hating it here...just had a moment.  He surprised me when he laughed and said, "Really?  Just today?  I have those moments probably 5 times a day in the hospital!"  Working in a socialized medical world has been tough for Lex.  Seeing patients waiting up to 6 or 7 years for a surgery on a waiting list and then by the time it's their turn it's too late and the surgery is futile at that point. The damage that could've been fixed so easily had it been done in a timely fashion is irreparable. The patient simply no longer has use of their hand or limb.  It's been a real eye opener.

Interesting how little things like marshmallows and waiting lists make you feel the distance.  It's a lot of miles between me and American soil.  I love being here and refuse to wish even a single second away, but it is good to have those moments when you remember where home is!