Australia Sunday Apr 27, 2014
Happy Birthday Dix, tomorrow. When we got off the elevator tonight a little
after 7 our door was decorated with a Happy Birthday banner and balloons. We took pictures and will try to get them
posted tomorrow. Our cute neighbor
Sister Moore did it.
We have really had a very full week, and a short one at the
office, with being off last Monday for Easter Monday, and Friday for Anzac
day. We did send in 11,500 images on
Thursday which was more than we expected for 3 days. One interesting card was for a wedding (we get
a few of those) and this was for a Bride 87 yrs old, and the Groom 83, and the
theme of the wedding was “For the Young at Heart”.
Monday morning we made the dessert for Family Home Evening,
peach cheesecake. Thanks Tina for the
graham cracker crumbs and peach jello.
We have been trying peaches, every different kind they have from several
different places, for a few weeks now and did not find one we really
liked. We are definitely missing Matt’s
from the market. Will be glad to get
good ones when we get home. After we
made the desserts we ran to the office to call home, we got Deven, Jessica and
Amberlie and had good visits. It was OK
because we had seen everyone at the Easter egg hunt on Friday night. We then went with the Williams to Parametta
hoping Vinny’s was open but it wasn't so we took them to lunch at Harry de
Wheels. Last lunch with them. We went over to Buckland House early and got
set up for the program. Dad had to make
sure the projector and computer worked.
I helped Sister Killebrew with the dinner, baked potato bar, salad bar
and fresh fruit. During opening exercises
Brother Jeff’s told about how the kidney transplant came about and how he was
doing, and how Elder Vatuvei is, He is going out with the Elders again. The Jeff’s left Saturday to go back to
Utah. The Allen’s also introduced
themselves. We then took a group picture,
will try to get it posted this week.
After dinner Dad said for the program he would like everyone to tell something
about those that are leaving. The women
were to say something about Brother Jeff’s and the men something about Sister
Jeff’s. Then the same for the
Williams. It was very interesting. Then Dad showed the pictures he had put
together, most that he has taken, and some for Sister Tanner that she sent to
us. It was a good program and I think
everyone enjoyed it.
Tuesday night we went to Mark and Melinda Kelly’s for a
farewell dinner for the Williams. Their
oldest son was there and their oldest daughter, her husband and baby. We had chicken, corn on the cob, fresh beans,
mashed potatoes, rolls, and a delicious dessert. We had a very enjoyable evening. We had fun with Trey, he is the same age as
Eli and Brielle. We love it when Megan
brings him to the office.
Wednesday night we went to the Temple as we couldn’t go
Tuesday. It was different with the
different workers there, but we really enjoyed it. On Thursday they had the Monthly Birthday
morning tea and there were quite a few April birthday’s and they all got to get
their food first. They had subway
sandwiches, little meat pies, fresh fruit cut up, cashews, chocolate covered
nuts, chips and dips, dump cake and ice cream.
We don’t have to take our lunch on those days. The legal and public affairs departments did
it. They had decorated for Anzac day and
so we all sang Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport, with Sister Feil accompany on a
guitar. There are 9 verses so she had us
all divided into groups to sing each verse, and then the chorus together. We were introduced to an intern that got here
last week from BYU Hawaii to work in Family Services. She was raised in Benson, Utah on a dairy
farm. Her name is Allen. Did you know any Allen’s Tifanie when you
lived there? She is living with a family
in Parametta. Thursday night we went to
the Williams and traded TV’s, and got a little table she had that I
wanted. I only cried for a little
while. They are really going to be
missed by everyone and especially us.
They left Friday morning.
Friday morning we left to go up North for the weekend. We went to The Ellenborough Falls and it took
us 5 hours to get there with about 10 miles on dirt roads. We had rain for a couple of hours when we
left home but it was dry the rest of the way.
We ate a freshly baked meat pie at the Kiosk at the parking lot. She was just taking them out of the oven and
they were really good. Then we walked
about a ¼ mile to an outlook for the falls, wow it was stunning. They drop 200 metre’s (218 yards) making them
the 3rd longest Single Drop Waterfall in the Country. We are really glad we were able to see this
wonder. We left the falls about 4 and
drove to Taree and found a room for the night.
We ate at a restaurant called “Fish, Fish, Fish” and had local fish and
chips.
Saturday morning we left early for Wauchope, about an hour
drive towards Port Macquarie. We knew
there was a farmers market there. We
found it and parked and walked around.
Most of the booths were vegetables and fruits, and a few crafts. We talked to the farmers of course, bought
some avacado’s, homemade chocolates, a few of the flavors we got were wild
lime, plum and coconut, lemon myrtle, hazelnut and almond. There were tons of other flavors but we just
wanted to try these. I tried the lemon
and Dad tried the hazelnut on the way home and they were creamy and good. We will see about the other flavors. We bought some fresh macadamia nuts, the
farmer is harvesting them now and Dad talked to him for a while. Then
we drove about 10 minutes to Timbertown, a recreated logging town from
1880. It has Australia’s biggest wooden
waterwheel that was working, 4 hp steam engine that was also running. Lots of old buildings, we went on a horse and
carriage ride, watched bullock’s (oxen) pull a loaded logs wagon, went on the
Heritage Steam Train, and the engineer asked me to ride in the engine with him
and be the brakeman if he needed me to.
That was really fun, I got a history lesson about the train and the
area. There was a woodworking shop, a
blacksmith shop, lots of old machinery around, some of the buildings were
barber shops, printing shop with all the equipment. Dad also panned for gold. They have an ice cream shop so we had a cup
of ice cream and then just before we left about 3 we had lunch at their
restaurant. It was a fun day. We then drove to Port Macquarie where we
checked into our motel, right on the ocean.
After taking everything to our room we walked along the beach and then
sat down and watched the water and the boats.
We saw a couple of dolphins right close to the shore, and several birds
in the water. We then walked a couple of
blocks and found something to eat and then went back to our room to study our
talks. We went to the Church early to
talk to Deven and Tyson. We are wondering
about the roof at the farm, Deven is tired of emptying buckets and Tyson is
trying to get a hold of someone to put a new roof on. The Church is on about 5 acres of grass and
trees and is beautiful. It used to be an
art gallery before the Church bought it.
Sacrament Meeting is in one building and the classes are in another
building that used to be a house. There
were about 30 people there, they normally have around 20. The Branch President was in an ambulance
uniform because he had to leave immediately after for work. The meetings were wonderful. After the block, the President’s wife said
she had fixed us something to eat, pumpkin soup and bread and butter. It was really good and she only fed the two
of us. That was so sweet of her. We left about 1:45 and should have got home
by 6 but with the traffic we didn’t get here until after 7. It also rained all the way home. It is
good to get back home. It is now after
9:30 so I am going to close and get things ready for work tomorrow.
Happy Birthday Crew on Friday here, and Saturday in
Arizona. We miss you.
All our Love and Prayers go with each of you.
Mum and Dad
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