The Portland Temple

Today I had the chance to escort my sister Brittney through the temple for her first time. It was a sweet experience. I am so glad that I was able to come over from Australia for the occasion. I hadn't been to the Portland Temple since its open house 10 years ago. As all temples are, it is extremely beautiful, especially the granite on the outside. For all of you who wanted to see my growing belly, check out the pictures below; not only will you see the huge belly, but you'll get a good look at my chubby cheeks!

Brittney and me inside the temple atrium:

Brittney and her fiance Jesse in the temple gardens:

The temple spires:

The lovebirds!

Wallaman Falls

For John's 28th birthday, we decided to hike Wallaman Falls (after a birthday breakfast at C'est Si Bon and John's massage at Tropical North Day Spa). It is the highest sheer drop waterfall in Australia at 268 metres. It's about a 2 hour drive from our house. You start at the lookout at the top and then hike down to the bottom. It was listed as a short, but moderate hike. Let me tell you, for us, it was strenuous (and not because we're out of shape). It took us about an hour and a half to hike down to the bottom. After a picnic lunch, we started back up. I expected some leg burn since we would have to walk up hill the whole time, but instead my lower back was the problem. I assume due to the baby. We were not expecting this. Thanks to my genius husband who made some makeshift walking sticks out of branches he found about halfway up, I survived. And what's so amazing is that even with all of the breaks I had to take, it only took us an hour to hike back up! We finished off the afternoon with a stop at the Frosty Mango, our favourite ice cream shop.

Wallaman Falls from the lookout.

John at the bottom of the waterfall. There were several great rainbows.

At the end of the hike, there were butterflies everywhere. It was so cool! For once, John couldn't rattle off their scientific name, in fact he wasn't even sure what kind they were, but they were beautiful. My camera isn't great; this is as close as I could get without it turning out totally blurry.

On a portion of the drive, after the we passed the farmland, but before we started up the steep incline, there were a ton of cows just roaming around. There was nothing to keep them off the road. In fact, the road was covered with a ton of cow pies. We took this picture on the way back. (You can see the poop on the road too.)

Go Cards!

While I was in the U.S., I had the chance to see my brother Brandon compete at the National Cheer Association Collegiate Cheer Championship. He is on the cheer team at the University of Louisville. The competition was held in Daytona Beach, Florida and felt like something straight out of the movie "Bring It On." It was awesome! His team won the competition for the seventh straight year!! Way to go Cards!

Practising before the finals:

Competing in the finals (Brandon is stunting the girl second from the left):

Brandon and his stunt partner Dana competing in the individual stunt competition:



Brandon and Dana with the team trophy (Isn't she tiny!):

The Sweetest

Not only was the house totally clean, but this is what greeted me when I got home from my trip overseas. I have the sweetest husband in the world!

La vie en rose . . .

Paris was a whirlwind of amazing sights, great food, and good company. My mom and I had a great time. You would think that there wouldn't be as many tourists during the winter/February, at least I did, but everything was packed! I couldn't believe it. Everything was a lot busier than I remember it being. We still had a lot of fun. The trip started off a little rough - I had a major sinus infection; we slept 16 hours the first night there; the second night we thought we wouldn't set an alarm (we were on vacation!) only to wake up at 1:00pm the next day! From then on we set an alarm everyday and things started to look up. We were able to see more than I thought we would in 8 days, but as always, there's still so more to experience. I can't wait to go back! One thing we learned from traveling in winter - it doesn't matter what clothes you bring, it matters what coats you bring! Trying to be economical about packing, we only brought one coat each. We soon realised that almost all of our pictures are outside, so you can never see the cute outfits we have, only the same coats. A good travel lesson learned. I couldn't possibly post all of the pictures that I wanted to, but here are some of the highlights:

The Eiffel Tower at night.

You wouldn't really know it from this picture, but we're on top of the Eiffel Tower.

Inside the glass pyramid at the Louvre.

Looking out from inside the Louvre.

Monet's famous "Waterlilies" at Musee de l'Orangerie.

Versailles - Castle and Gardens

Sacre Coeur & Montmartre

Pont Neuf or "New Bridge" - it's the oldest bridge in Paris

Inside Sainte-Chapelle

At Theatre Mogador to see "The Lion King"

Under Construction

So, in response to countless requests to join Facebook (which I adamantly refuse to do), I've finally created a blog instead. I hope that this will be an alternative place for John and I to keep our friends and family updated. I am currently in Paris (yeah!!!) with my mom, so this blog will be considered "under construction" for the moment. I look forward to posting pictures from my trip in the next few weeks.