First Adventures

WEDNESDAY
Woke up Wednesday morning and we decided to go up to Tamborine Mountain. It's a very beautiful place about 45 minutes away from the Munro's house. Ben and I and 'Mum' we went to Cedar Creek falls (on the Mountain), where there are four or five tiers of waterfalls and ponds. In one of the ponds, you can swim and slide down the waterfall and jump of the cliff into the pond. Oliver couldn't go because he was in a Chemistry exam at school. He was very disappointed, but the rest of us had fun :)





Then we had to walk all the way back to the car barefooted because my feet were too wet to put my shoes back on, and it hurt!













Then we went to a rainforest section on the same mountain, where we did a rainforest walk. At one point, we took a detour of the lookout tower and sprinted directly down the mountain. It wasn't one of the smartest things we've done, but it was fun. It was all muddy and fully of slippery leaves, and we had to grab onto vines and trees to steady ourselves. (Ben says 'we didn't grab onto the trees, we just ran into them!').

Then we got to another waterfall that is in the waterfall. We didn't go swimming there because there was a sign there saying no swimming, and because there were leaches and crocodiles ... okay, just joking about the crocodiles. But it was a Platypus conservation area, so we couldn't swim there.

Then we started walking back up and there was a vine that we started to play on.


It was great fun. We got out of the rainforest and we got an icecream - I got boysenberry and mango. I liked boysenberry the best.

We went home and picked up the boogey boards which was more important that picking up Oliver, but since he was home from his exam, we took him along as well :) Then we went down to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, and started boogeyboarding in the surf. The sand was way better than Cabo. Then we went into the shops and stuff and had some gelato (that's for you Celeste!) and then we went home.

In the evening I had a new experience and went to Institute with Micky and Bethany. It was a fun experience I guess. It was kind of weird, because we don't have institute in our home stake. Then we came home and went to bed.

THURSDAY

I woke up on Thursday and we were all going to the funeral of Neil's mother Margaret who died on Monday. There was a couple of things different about the gravesite service part (The coffin shapes are different, they lower the coffin directly into the ground while everyone is there, and they don't put the coffin into an airtight container first). But everything else was similar. Then we went back to Neil's Sister's house and we all hung out.

Then on Thursday night after we'd driven back (it was a few hours away), most of us (Neil, Jonny, Micky, Ben, Oliver, Bethany and I) all went up to the chapel for a ward activity night. We played basketball and volleyball. Then me Beth and Micky went up to Cold Rock (It's exactly the same as Cold Stone, but it's called Cold Rock). Then we went home.

FRIDAY
I woke up (like usual) and Sandy already had my dan planned out :) I hung out with a guy who just got home off his mission. His name was steve, and it turns out that he was mission roommates with a guy from Rigby named Zan. We hooked up iwth his brother Ryan and went to the beach again. This time we went to Burley Beach, which is pretty close to Surfers Paradise (it's also on the Gold Coast). For lunch I had my first taste of real Aussie food - Kababs. They were so good - I could have had three! (Tammy just told me that Kababs are actually Turkish!). Then we went home and me, Oliver, Ben and 'Mum' went to Southbank to the night markets. I was involved in a magic show, but I left because they took forever to do it. At Southbank there's a man made beach, and there was a guy who was building sand sculptures on the beach. He was building a car that was pulling a trailer - completely out of sand. He had headlights and tail-lights and everything.
Then we went back to our parking spot (which was up on the cliffs at the temple) and we drove to Jonny and Jessima's house, and we watched football there. I fell asleep in the most exciting part. Neil lead the others in throwing pillows at me, but I didn't wake up. At the end of the game we went home and went to sleep.

SATURDAY (TODAY)
I got woken up by Ben and then we had a big pancake breakfast. Everyone was there. Then we went to see a movie 'Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian' and that was an alright show. Then all the boys in the family went to go get a football tee so they could teach me to kick the 'Footy' (Football). Last night as we watched Footy (football) on TV, I was making fun of the players because none of them could make a sidekick, so they got the ball and we went to the park so that I could show them all :) I did pretty good. We played horse, and I was 3rd. Then we went home, had dinner, and that's it.