Happy Friday!

So I am going to try 2 photos again and see how much closer I get today. These ones are beach photos taken at Kirra Beach, a world-famous surf beach, although there weren't surfers there that morning. We did watch some sky-divers land, and that was pretty cool. Sky diving costs $250 for a single jump, and let's say THAT is what is stopping me. ha ha.

Anyway, it looks like they both loaded, so those are my two beach flowers. Pretty, eh?

Photo of the day

This is at a place called Natural Arch (or Natural Bridge - I hear two different stories on that.) It is surrounded by a rain forest, and is absolutely fantastic. I forgot the camera the first time we went, or we would have pix of wallabies on here. As stated in an earlier post, they are very shy, and the second time we went was later in the day and there were a lot more people, so no wallaby sightings, so you will have to deal with the one pix.

Pix of Oz

Good Wednesday morning! Okay, there were 3 photos I had added at first, and the internet is somewhat sketchy, so I will add them one at a time I guess. Sorry - that will take longer. Maybe one a day for a while? But I didn't take them each day.

WE HAVE INTERNET!

Life is now closer to complete. It's about 5:30 A.M. here, and the birds are sqwaking outside. I am sitting in my sweater (it's nippy in the morning!) blogging, and happy as a clam. Today I think the plan is drive (we got a car, will blog about that in a minute) down to Kirra Beach - about a 45 minute drive, and get breakfast at an Oz-famous breakfast restaurant called Kirra-Misu. We will likely check out the resort there, and then head back up to Surfers for a beach party we were invited to. After that we all get haircuts and buy bikes, watch a session of conference, and then head to bed. In the morning we watch the rebroadcast of Sunday's sessions; I must remember to pack a picnic lunch for between sessions, as the rebroadcast is at the Stake Center a little ways from here.

So our car is a Mazda 626. And yes, for anyone wondering, it is the same kind of car I had when we first got married. It is cute. This one is red, and has LPG (liquid propane gas), aka alternate no-emissions fuel that it can run on. It had a conversion done a few years ago, and it goes 500K on one $25 filling. Nice, eh? Because we chose an older vehicle, we got to pay cash for it, so that was extra nice.

Australia is truly a most amazing place. We went to a National Park last weekend just me and Randy early in the morning, (forgot the camera-won't make that mistake again) and saw wallabies, and it was like we were the only people on earth. There was a waterfall that drops down into what used to be a cave, but now it makes an arch. It is - ahem - a dry year for the rain forest, and it feels a little dry and somewhat sparse, but still quite lush and fantasy-like when you look up at the trees that are covered with vines and think that Tarzan would have a ball there. Even I thought it would be cool to be up in the trees at certain points. In places the "vines" were as big around as a telephone pole, and they just swing back and forth - albeit minimally - from the tree. They are covered in a moss-like coating that makes them look that big. I guess they are called something like strangle-figs, and can take 100 years to choke the life out of a tree, and by the time it does, the fig has become so much a part of the tree, that it remains standing as though it were the tree - it just isn't that type of tree anymore.

Wallabies I am told are extremely shy, and don't like to be seen. This was news to me, as we saw probably 10-12 in a 45 minute walk through the park. I heard some rustling and could see one, but Randy couldn't, so I clapped my hands to startle it so Randy would see it move and then be able to pick it out, and the forest erupted in scampering sounds - apparently we were more surrounded than I realized. We couldn't see most of them. They are really the only "wildlife" we have seen. There are a lot of cows and horses off in the foothills leading up to the hinterlands (rainforests), though. Next time we will remember the camera and get some photos.

The kids started school this past Monday & Tuesday. They wear uniforms, which is great for me, as there are no more fights about what they can/can't wear to school, and it costs significantly less to buy a couple of uniforms than it does to outfit 2 kids with the latest trends. I'd recommend it to everyone! Tee hee. It's probably not feasible, but really, it would be so great. Both kids started in the grade they just "left" in the states, as the principals told them they could go into either, and then either move up with their age group (a grade up) if they felt better there, or stay with their younger peers if they felt like they weren't socially or intellectually up to it. Both stressed that the curriculum could be "made up" easier than the social or emotional aspect.
Not surprisingly, Rachel chose on Friday afternoon to move up a grade. The grade 9 kids are socially much less mature than is she, and while it will take some doing to "make up" for almost a full year of curriculum, it is certainly feasible. She will end up making up a year of Seminary "at home", and possibly a few classes to make up "credits" that colleges are going to want to see if she doesn't just take some college via correspondence (online, mostly) before she graduates.
Also not surprisingly, d'Artagnan wants to stay with the grade 6 & move up to 7 next year. He's not quite a socially advanced as Rachel, so that is actually good. We thought it was great that the principal works with the kids to help them make that decision. I am thrilled that they give the kids the opportunity to learn at their own developmental pace, and that there appears to be no social stigma, as they don't call it "being held back" or anything like that. The kids in grade 6 think he is amazing, and he is enjoying some of his new-found celebrity. He is also taking FRENCH in primary school, so that is new. The high school has a French Immersion program, and he is somewhat interested in that. All their classes are taught in french in that program. I was amazed. Both schools seem fantastic.

After our adventures today I will post pix, as we have the camera on our list of things to bring. We were going to try to get to the Brisbane Temple next week, but it is closed for cleaning until the 27th, so that will have to wait. I suppose we could fly to Sydney, but that will probably wait, too. I would like to stick close to home for the next little bit.

Love you all!

HEY!

Well, apparently I can get on the blog from work, but I am only going to do that if I am off the clock, so that won't be often - and I can't post pix yet. We have moved into the new place, and it is fantastic. The phone gets installed sometime in the next 3 or so weeks, and then internet sometime after that. In the meantime, it is tough to get to unless we want to eat at McDonalds, and then we all fight for computer time (not really, but it brings new meaning to "Big Mac Attack"!

Anyway, work is hard, but pretty cool that I am doing something outside of the house for the first time in almost 10 years. I met the CEO (I think!) today, he walked past my desk and introduced himself, so that was interesting that he would come meet the newest member of the team - on purpose, anyway.

The kids start school next week, and they are getting excited about that. d'Artagnan has a campout coming up tomorrow, so they are out getting a sleeping bag and other necessities for that tonight. (Late night shopping at the KMart!) - They only have late night shopping on Thursday nights, and late night is defined as later than 5:00- they close at 7:30 I think.

Anyway, it is quite a whirlwind of activity at the Peterson's house across the mighty Pacific. Life is good, though, and we are certainly enjoying living in Paradise. It was cute the other day, Randy said "I love waking up here in Paradise - where most people who come here are on holiday (what they call vacation here) and for me it's Saturday!" Not exactly precise in my quote, but it was fun to remember that we are here for an extended period of time.

I have been too busy to actively miss anyone, but I have my moments when I miss each of you and wish you were here. Hope you have a great weekend - and rest of the week! Hey, just so everyone knows - the end of the world doesn't come tomorrow - tomorrow has already happened here!

OZ

So we got here fine, I am impressed with the area, and we have a nice place to stay for the next 3 weeks. It is very cool. We are doing well. Internet is not so easy to get to here, though, so I won't be blogging so much at first as I had planned. This is my first opportunity, and we have been here since Friday morning! (Monday evening)

Anyway, we are on the 12th floor of a high-rise apartment complex, and look out over the ocean until we find a place.

Went to church yesterday, it was odd to recognize most of the words but not understand what was being said by several of the testimonies.

Miss you all and think of everyone often! Hope things are good there. We just started our first thunderstorm here, so am going to sign off, get some dinner, and watch the lightning!

Have a great week/month!
J~

Road Trips

I meant to post about our road trips, and when I get on MY computer, I will post photos, but before I forget, I will put some basic summer road trip info on here so that it's not forgotten.

On our first road trip of the summer, we went from Kansas to Branson, Mo. We have a resort there, so spent the night in a hotel for a couple of nights, and then the resort when it became available. We went to several shows, as well as the amusement park there. Our favorite show was the Twelve Irish Tenors. They were amazing, and started the show with "O Danny Boy", so they couldn't go wrong. We also rode on a showboat, which was fun - but using dogs as ventriloquist dummies was a little creepy.

Next we headed to St. Louis. We went up into the St. Louis Arch. Talk about your CRAZINESS!! I spent the first 5-10 minutes freaked out. But then I got used to it a little, and the magnets on both Randy's wallet and Rachel's camera case were sticking to the inside, so it somehow made it feel more sturdy (like knowing that several million people have gone up into the thing didn't), and I became better - not that I enjoyed it, mind you - but I was better.

Got several pix of the Rams stadium, so will post those a little later.

About 2 hours outside St. Louis is Mexico, MO, so we stopped and spent the night with Uncle Garf. He sure works hard. We visited with him until about 11:00 and he was gone before we got up. It was raining when we left. He gave us ice cream.

Onward to Nauvoo, and a small town in Iowa called Keokuk. (River City for you Music Man fans.) We stayed in Keokuk, since there are few hotels in Nauvoo. It is across the Mississippi river from Nauvoo. Raining again, and I got a nasty cough. In Nauvoo the pageant was going on, but between the rain and my cough, we didn't brave it. We did go to the Visitor's Center and toured the Carthage Jail.

Moline, Illinois was next, with a stop at Whitey's Ice Cream and a few of my old mission haunts. What a blast that was. They still have the best ice cream I know.

Then on to Ames, where we stayed the night and got up and went to Ledges State Park. It is, as Randy put it, the most beautiful part of Iowa. I saw more of it than we did that trip, so I am not sure about that, but it is gorgeous.

Next we had hunted down some friends from Midvale who had moved to Chillicothe, Missouri (the "home" of sliced bread!) and drove there. We went out to dinner with them, and had a great time. But apparently all there is to do in the "home" of sliced bread is slice bread, we pushed on to Osage Beach, MO where we have another resort.

The resort is called Lake of the Ozarks. It is literally right on the lake, and we rented wave runners, which is great fun. We stayed for a few days, and then we were on our way back to Kansas for a few weeks.

Our second road trip was set up in stages. If we heard about the visa before a certain date, then we would not be going. If we heard between the time the first half was finalized and we left, we would just do the first half. If we heard sometime while we were on the road, it would be almost 5000 miles. The day we had in mind was a Friday, and we found out Monday, so we did the first (2 week) half.

We started by going again to Branson. We saw some shows, and were not nearly so impressed with them as the Irish Tenors. None of the Baldknobbers are nearly as cute as those tenors!! Tee hee.

Then on to Indianapolis, where we watched a Colts game. There was a mixup in the tickets we had purchased online, so when we went to pick them up we were on the 25 yard line in the 23rd row. Not that the seats we HAD purchased were terrible seats, but these were certainly at least twice as good. Anyway, the game was great fun, and the Colts won, so that was a plus. We were driving our monster truck through town on the way to the hotel, and the kids were screaming out the window, "Go Colts!" and throwing salt water taffy. That was fun.

After Indianapolis we headed to Kirtland, OH and the church history sights there. It is beautiful. Never thought I would want to live in Ohio, but it is so beautiful, we may have to make a stop on our long-term map there.

After staying a night in Kirtland, we headed to Palmyra and the Sacred Grove. We hicked (and d'Artagnan rolled down) the Hill Cumorah, and then spent time in the Sacred Grove. I took some great photos.

Palmyra is 2 hours from Niagara Falls, Canada, so we spent two nights there, and another day. We saw all the sights there, including riding on the Maid of the Mist, riding a cable car across the whirlpools, walking past the most dangerous rapids in the world (cat. 6), and walking behind the falls. It is astounding. 34 million gallons of water per minute flow over that thing, comprising 20% of the world's fresh water.

We left Canada and headed to Chicago - we thought. We crossed the border from Canada to Michigan (passing 4 of the 5 Great Lakes, I might add) and the truck broke down shortly after crossing. It was the fuel pump, and it took almost 24 hours to fix it. Thank goodness for AAA! They towed us to the repair shop, and then we took a taxi to the recommended Marriott Hotel, and they allowed us to stay for the whole time in the room (6 hours past check-out). After that we headed the rest of the way to Chicago, and got there LATE!!! We were pulling through the neighborhood in Chicago, and both Randy and I were thinking, oh, boy - what kind of hotel is going to be in this part of town? Turns out it was beautiful, and there was nothing to worry about.

In Chicago it was raining again, so we opted for inside stuff. We went to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, which had a Harry Potter exhibit. We hung out all day there, and then headed to the Blue Man Group, which is a great show. The kids hadn't been told about that, so they were completely in the dark until about an hour before it started, and we had a blast.

After the show we went to Galena, IL, where we have another resort. Stayed there a day and 2 nights, and drove to Omaha, where my old college roommate is. She cut all of our hair (has been working at the JCPenney Salon for 15 years!) It was so cool to see her after 20 years! We went out to dinner, and then back to Kansas, where after spending Saturday boating with Jon's family, we packed our bags and got on a plane to CA! It was tough to say goodbye to them. We have become really close with Jon and Amanda and their 3 kids. Emily (3) and Taylor(5) both were in tears when we left, and that brought it to me, as well.

We figured out that during this summer, we will have been (as of Friday, Australia time) to 21 states, the District of Columbia, and 4 countries, all in 14 weeks. Quite an adventure, and it has only just begun!

Love you all!
Jill

Kansas

So everyone knows, we are staying in Kansas for the next (who knows how long?) little while. I don't like waiting, but wait we must, until the visa comes through. Jon & Amanda have been very kind and generous to allow us to stay in their basement for as long as we need to, and while it is nice and fun to be around family for a while, we really want to get on our way to Australia.

Things are good on my end. We are heading down to Oklahoma City this morning. Randy's cousin lives there, and they have a recording studio he wants to get a feel for. As well we will check out the memorial, something I have been wanting to see since hearing about all the symbolism involved.

Plan to post pix, so will see if that happens.

Jill

NYC

Hey, I am in New York until Sunday morning! It is cleaned up a lot since my last trip to this amazing city. Rachel and I are going shopping this morning while the boys go to the Empire State Building. Things are good. Love everyone!

Jill

Washington, D.C.

So I am here staying with Brian and Jennifer and their 4 kids. They have Jared, Michael, Sydney, and Abby. They are fun kids to have around us. We leave tomorrow morning and we will miss them! We spend a week in NYC and then we go on to OK.

Hope all is well with everyone! I will post pics another time, as I have to whittle them down before I do - have taken almost 1000 since I got here on Monday.

Jill

Slacker

I have been such a slacker! I am going to do better starting now. I have to get into a better habit of blogging, because while it is MUCH cheaper than it used to be to call Australia, it is still much cheaper to check a blog than it is to call, and it is so much nicer for everyone to be able to see pics of everything/everyone all at once rather than via e-mail.

We were discussing how the timeline was going to work yesterday, and hammered out that it just isn't going to work for me to go early, so here is the "final answer" on that - We will plan to leave here on or about May 21. We drive the red truck and the black truck to Wichita and spend the night there with Jon & Amanda. Then we will drive from there to Denver, where we will get a hotel (or the resort in Estes Park) and visit with the brothers. After that we plan to drive to SLC and drop off Rachel to EFY on Monday, the 25th and head up to Boise, where we would spend approximately 1 week, and d'Artagnan would be ordained in Mom's ward (he would be interviewed here by our bishop, and Randy can carry the recommend wherever, the bishop there would just have to be notified of the ordination). Anyway, after that we are planning to fly over to NYC and spend a few days there, see Amy Loree and possibly Ethan & Laura as well as DC, then go to Lila's Family Reunion in Oklahoma mid-June. After that we would fly to Australia out of Wichita. This all is contingent on our getting the Visa to work there.

Anyway, things are good, and I am recovering nicely from my surgery. I go in this Friday for my 6 week check-up (just a couple of days early) to make sure I am "clear" to do stuff like harder exercise and heavy lifting. Don't worry, I won't over-do anything. Yet. ;-)

Love you all, and hope all is well with you!

Jill