Girls' Week (or two)

Lucky Me!

I got to go visit my favorite sister again, at her home down under.

I barely recognized my niece, Aubrye,

who has turned 12 since I've last seen her & grown about a foot!!

My sister-in-law, Heather, came too, this time!  

I must be getting more 'skilled' at making the trip (if that's possible) 

because I managed to sleep for 8 hours straight

and was shocked to wake up and only have 4 hours left of the 15-hour flight!  

It was awesome!

We left at about midnight Friday night & arrived in Sydney on Sunday morning.  

Our first item of business was to attend Zachary's baptism. 

(which we did almost immediately!) 

Zach is such a sweet, joyful, kind & loving 8-yr-old, who always has a twinkle in his eye.

He loves his siblings and shares a special bond with his little brother, Taylor, 

who he has always protected & looked out for. 

He doesn't even mind...in fact, he genuinely enjoys,

when Taylor grabs the spotlight (which he often does!)

For instance - watch this:

I love you Zachy :-) 

and I'm so glad Grammie Ann sent me to be at your baptism!  

I am proud of the young man you are becoming, 

and the choice you made to be baptized -- to always remember your Savior, Jesus Christ, 

keep His commandments & serve your fellow men.  

I have no doubt that you will do just that.


Monday morning, we sent the kiddies off to school --
don't you just LOVE uniforms?

(And...don't you just LOVE Matt's Mercedes 'speck' as it is affectionately called by the Hall family!)

I digress...anyways, we dropped the kids at school 

and the 3 mommies headed into the city to see the sights! 

Sydney is just a beautiful place - no matter the weather!

Here's a little clip of the Harbour - such a gorgeous skyline from pretty much any vantage point.

And this is my hair's tribute to the Sydney Opera House. 

Pretty fitting, huh?

(guess I should credit my sis for this fab photo - thanks alot, dood)

You wanna know what I was saying thru my teeth in this photo??

I'll tell you.

"Hurry up and take the dang picture, will ya?  Seriously uncomfortable here 

with the loosley diaper-clad FAKE aboriginal guy totally in my personal space.  

Not kidding."

And I know Carrie could hear me in her head, 

but she only giggled & enjoyed watching me silently squirm, which only slowed her down.

Hee Hee - The entrance to Luna Park is still just as scary as it has always been.

But I seem to always need a pic of it anyway.

A view of the Opera House from under the Bridge

Note to self:  Have Carrie teach me how to elongate my legs like that

the next time we are together :-)

Can you tell we had fun?  What a great day!

Before we headed back to relieve Matt of his super-mom duties at home (thanks Matt!),
we had to stop & show Heather the infamous Bondi Beach.

We had averted the rain all day by keeping our umbrellas with us,
but, unfortunately, we left them in the car on this stop
and kinda jinxed ourselves :-/

Bondi was just as beautiful (and apparently surf-able) in the rain!

Soaked to the skin - we headed back to Castle Hill

For a well-written & completely complete (!) account of these first two days of our trip,
see my traveling companion & sis-in-law, Heather's blog.
She's an awesome writer/historian/blogger & I love that she doesn't miss a thing!
Day 1 and Day 2 posts
Thanks Heather :-)

Spring Formal

It's "Mormal" time again!

 (i.e. mormon formal)

Abbie went with a group of friends & had a great time!

Abbie's date, Jared, with all the girls :-)

Do you notice a theme?

After the pre-dance photo shoot, 

the kids headed over to a dinner hosted by 

some (very creative) parents

Abbie opted to travel with her date

in his (dad's) sweet ride :-)

Dave, Mike, Porter & I traveled alone (together) to do some more photography!

Porter showed up in quite a good mood!?!

The theme of the dance this year was:

"An Evening at Sea"

(and the family who offered to host a pre-dance dinner

really out-did themselves)

The couples were welcomed 

by well-wishers (parents & friends) 

showering them with confetti.

I may be biased, but ... that's a couple of cute kids, doncha think?

The home was completely transformed into an old fashioned cruise liner

 (think titanic, without the iceberg :-)

There were even life-sized red smokestacks on the roof -
sure wish I'd taken a picture of that - quite amazing!

Abbie's group opted for a table in the backyard.

Porter had a hard time saying goodbye,

but it was time for the big kids to start their 

Evening at Sea!

Since I had to head straight to the airport at this point in the evening...

(Australia, here I come!)

there are no pictures of the actual dance, held at Soka University . . .

but I am told it was lots of fun!

Can my baby girl really be so grown up?? Time is flying...

Marathon (post-edit)

Ok, so for a mere $30 we can order a 5x7 'professional' photo of Porter's OC Kidsrun.

Here's one of the choices.

Seriously.

Apparently they had him looking directly into the sun.

(Or punched him before taking the picture.)

Either way - I'm cracking up.

and so is Porter.