Scrapes and bruises on our favorite day so far...:]

Wow... My favorite day in Australia so far! When Daddy Gary told me that I was going to see a rain forest, I didn't really think anything more about it besides that I was excited. Something I found out? They are my FAVORITE! God was definitely showing off when he created waterfalls and rain forests! Our friend Josh picked us up at 6:00 in the AM! We drove to Springbrook National Forest and started our hike! ...THE most beautiful sight! Huge trees, a 300 foot waterfall, wildlife, moss everywhere, and vines!

One of the best parts of the hike?! Pretending I was Tarzan.. which, by the way, is heaps harder than I thought it would be! Member climbing the rope in PE in school?! Imagine something similar! Allyson and I were laughing so hard! And then she climbed down and let me go! I swung out and screamed...oops! :/

My new hero: Tarzan! He's a stud! hahaha

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NOW... Everyone ready to laugh?! You might just snicker, giggle, or completely laugh out loud! It's okay, I will understand! My dad wasn't very pleased with me...he did teach me better, but...

Okay, so we took a detour on our way to the amazing waterfall to a waterhole! We were thinking about swimming in it, but decided against it. It was a little chilly and we didn't want to change yet. Mistake. Josh told us to pose for a picture and he'd get on the other side.. it was really beautiful! And then he told us to go to the other side and he'd take some from that angle. Allyson decided I could go first, so thoughtful! It was a little scary, so I asked for her to help... Below is what happened next. 

I would love for everyone to notice Ally's reaction in this picture please...!

 What are true best friends for, right?!

The end: All soaking wet, scraped up, and bruised! Best part? We aren't even half way done with our hike! Which means? After this point, the rest had to be done in wet clothes. And we hadn't even made it to the waterfall! 

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Three.Hundred.Foot.High.Waterfall!

Breathtaking, completely breathtaking! 

If you look closely to the next two pictures, we are BEHIND the waterfall! <3

Just viewing the beauty that we were witnessing! <3 

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Wildlife?

This would be the scary poisonous snake that was in the middle of the path!!!

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Natural Bridge. Gorgeous!

Ah everything about the rain forest was magical! This was no exception, beautiful right?!

I guess at night there are lighting bugs that lite up the whole cave! If only...:]

Hm... Lesson of this post: Listen to your dad when he teaches you to go upstream to cross a river, not by the mouth of the ledge! If not, prepare for his laughter, which isn't bad either! ;]

Date Night with the Bestie! [:

DATE NIGHT!

I have been craving date nights... And so, Ally and I went on a romantic date! First? It started on the river! We were under the stars, trying to find the Southern Cross... Definitely harder than I thought it would be! I wanted to ask someone, but no one looked very interested in helping me! But it was so clear and you could see all the stars, no moon though. We then turned the corner of the river and the lights from the city lite up the sky. It was soooo beautiful! This is the part where Ally and I both agreed that it is crazy that we are actually living here in Brisbane, Australia! After a short trip, we reached our destination: the Ferris Wheel!

Gorgeous right?! We had a blast, after I had a mini freak out! Everyone should know that I HATE crickets!!! (With all caps!) Well, just as we hop in, so does a little dumb cricket... thinking that it can just steal a free ride? Yep..and it did, because I moved completely to the other side and lifted my legs so it had all the room it needed! Dumb.

On our way home we encountered something kinda scary. After our walk down the sidewalk and Allyson revealing her secret to me.. "I'm a Ninja" so no one could attack us, we looked up to notice something was crawling across the power line. I swear it's a rat. A very huge, ugly looking thing! So, if anyone would care to explain what these are so we might not believe that they are rats for the rest of our life...or confirm it, I would be greatly appreciative!

Count Downs:

• Nineteen days until I go on my mission trip to Cambodia to help out the girls from Rapha House! I cant wait to see some of my Vernal family! :] I won't want to let them go home!! 
• Nineteen days until Allyson moves to Sydney!
• Nineteen days until Scott goes to Chicago! 

-Craziness!!!!-

Plan for today? Going to a really REALLY cool looking cemetery! Photos will be uploaded later!

Squat jumps, fish and chips, and "Mermaid!!"

Squat Jumps=dangerous!!! We have been doing Nike workouts and squat jumps was part of the particular one that we had chosen. So... I got down into squat position and then jumped as high as I could to get the full effect! Something I hadn't thought about? The ceiling fans.... Yes, OUCH! I had always wondered how it would feel to stick your finger into a fan while it was on...well, I got my answer: it doesn't feel all too well! In fact, it hurts really really bad! I now have a bruise on my finger to prove it! ha:)

FISH and CHIPS! My first experience... ever! We went to this super fresh restaurant in which they serve the catch of the day! My fish-- grilled Snapper fish! I also tried Calamarie and fresh shrimp, along with heaps of yummy chips!:) I was excited that I enjoyed it!

Oh man, so Ally and I decided that we are going to start a quote wall of the funny things that we have said! One from yesterday? "I feel like a Mermaid!" Yes, that would definitely come out of my mouth right?! We were being taught what to do with the high waves which entails either jumping or diving through them! Ally and I got pretty good at telling which was which! Most everyone should know how much I do NOT like salt water in my mouth! Well, I had to get over this pretty quickly. Anyways, back to the story: I dove under the wave perfectly and came out with that idea in my head! I really did feel like a mermaid and before I could censor anything coming out of my mouth... I shouted about how I felt like a mermaid! Everyone around me of course died laughing! It was super fun! Ally and I couldn't quit laughing, we had a good beach day!! Expect for the waves that took us crashing with them! Rolling around the bottom, getting sand in every possible area (mouth, nose, ears?) and not being able to breathe.. not super ideal! But all part of the experience!

Two of the best parts? 1) Rode in a truck...Finally! and 2) Didn't have to take public transportation! We are really getting good at trying to figure it out, getting lost, and then getting unlost! :] almost pros!

We also came up with a majorly good, well-thought out plan for what we should do! So... keep tuned for a while!

Much love! <3

Skinny jeans and ice cream

A few nights ago Kassidi and I decided we needed some ice cream. We wanted to get out and do something and walking around by the park and eating ice cream sounded really really good. (When does ice cream ever not sound really really good? ha) It was a little chilly-ish outside (and by chilly-ish maybe 60 degrees ha) but we were looking for an excuse to wear jeans. We haven't worn jeans in almost three weeks! I had gotten two new pairs of skinny jeans for Christmas and hadn't gotten to wear them yet. So I put on my orange pair and looked at Kassidi and said "You HAVE to wear the blue ones!" She took a little convincing but once she got them on she looooooved them. Best friends + matching skinny jeans + ice cream = an awesome night. And yes we did take a picture just for your blogging enjoyment.  :)

P.S. For anyone who has never tried to set up the camera on a timer setting to take a photo of your butt, not as easy as it sounds! Just fyi haha ;)

Day trip to the Sunshine Coast

Here's a photo blog post of our trip to the Sunshine Coast (which is a little bit north of Brisbane) with my friend Sophia who I met at BYU last spring, her boyfriend Josh, and his friend Josh. It was a great day :D Our internet isn't really working, and when it does it works in spurts ha so we decided to upload the photos while it's working and then do separate blog posts later tonight or tomorrow morning. Enjoy!!!

View of Sunshine Coast

 Pretty boats in the Marina

 My friend Sophia was trying to stop me from taking her picture by hiding behind an umbrella. And Kassidi was laughing at my attempts to take her picture anyway ha.

 Eating fish and chips, probably the freshest fish and chips you can get. Delicious!

Shrimp have EYES?!!!! Reminded me of Juno when she found out that baby's have fingernails. Not sure why ha. I guess it's just that you learn a little extra detail about something and all of a sudden it felt so wrong to want to eat it! Everyone thought it was funny, so I had to blog about it. Here's Josh holding them up (as he was moving them around in a little shrimp show for my benefit ha).

Me and my shrimp, or I guess I should call them prawns since I'm in Australia. 

Sophia and Josh in the kayak.

Kas and I on the beach. (I feel like pictures of Kas and I on the beach are going to happen a lot on this trip ha so if you get bored of the beach pictures sooooooooorry, you should probably find a blog about Alaska or something instead of Australia if you don't like beach pictures. ;)

South Bank, Hillsong Church, and an adventure on an Island!

Saturday morning... the perfect day for market shopping! Ally and I decided to make our way down to South Bank, which is this pretty part of Brisbane that has a man-made free beach and lots of different shops!

But before we got there, of course we girls have to have photo-opts! We found this awesome staircase and a secret garden enterance by our house!

Then on the City Cat we took some fun pictures!:] Wind blown hair. Sunglasses. Sailboats. Sailors.

Okay, So... I found something that you can ONLY find in Australia... a Kangaroo leather bracelet! We had the lady explain more about it and how it's kind of a lost art that she picked up! Best part? The one that I purchased was turquoise!...It was meant to be:)

 

HILLSONG CHURCH!

Hillsong Church was amazing! It reminded me of a mini CIY! (Christ in Youth Conference) Music, Message, and People? Amazing! To answer your questions Mr. Marty: The songs do indeed start with the end, they give you money instead of offerings, the congregation gives the message to the Pastor, they hand out empty water bottles, instead of the children leaving, the adults leave... I think I about covered it! ;] 

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Stadbroke Island: Gorgeous!!!

Our family invited us to go with them to Stadbroke Island and we could NOT say no! Lisa was going on about it being beautiful and hello...it's the ocean! So, we woke up..put on our Australian swimsuits, and waited! BUT... one of their little girls felt sick, so they called it off! Lucky for us, they still decided to give us a life to the ferry! :] Little did we know that our Island trip would soon take us on a crazy adventure! 

We got off the bus at Pointe Lookout and found a beach all to ourselves! Photoshoot! If you couldn't tell yet, we are kinda obsessed with pictures! But then, what would a blog be without photos to go with our stories?! We head down to the beach...on this walkway: 

to find THIS:  

Ahhh it was SO beautiful! After we got to the bottom and found that we were the only ones, our photoshoot began! If there was anyone watching, they sure would have gotten a kick out of it! We decided that it reminded of us the Bahamas, we LOVED it! <3

Okay, so after our photoshoot (more pictures on facebook) we were famished! We found this cute little bakery and ordered sandwiches, went to a picnic table that looked out at the ocean, and enjoyed each delicious bite! Funny fact: They always put funny veggies on their sandwiches--like carrots and beats! 

After that I had my first taste of Gelato! :] And now for the punch line.... WE LOST ALLY'S CAMERA! Frantically, we searched every where! We asked everyone and headed to the police station! We took this AMAZING walkway around a cliff and it was so breath taking! We ended up at the main beach where we finally watched surfers and played in the clear blue waters! My new prayer while over here: God, instead of making the ocean taste like salt.. Is there any way it could taste like pepper? AMEN!

When we reached the ferry to get back, we finally got a call... some amazing person had turned in her camera to the station! Bad thing? We are vehicle unit-less and no more buses. So, we had to wait two hours for them to bring it to us...making us catch the last ferry, missing dinner, and taking a train! But lesson learned...NEVER take your eye off the camera and that there are bigger things in life that you could lose! 

Another blessing? God gave us the most gorgeous sunset to watch while we were waiting! Although the pictures don't capture the true picture, it's close! We were watching the sunset through a smoky-hazy lense, which made the reds, oranges, pinks, and purples highlight the sun! Enjoy:]

Big lessons: 1) A cute old man told us "The world is too big to travel all at once, spend your life traveling!"
2) If Heaven is supposed to be more beautiful than anything here on earth...I can't wait to see! The deepest turquoise water, the luscious green trees, the gorgeous swirl of colors in the sunset! All looks like finger paint to him! He definitely is THE best artist!!!