Sterling Scholar

Today was a LONG day. I was looking forward to my last breakfast of porridge, banana bread and hot chocolate. They were out of porridge and banana bread! I survived, but wasn't pleased about it. We made it to the airport just fine. I texted Stockton good luck with his Sterling Scholar reception. It is Thursday for us, but still Wednesday for the kids. My dad went with Stockton so he wouldn't be alone. I kept looking at the time while I was on the plane thinking, Stockton is finding out now if he won. The first thing I did when we landed in California was turn to Mike and say, "Do you think Stockton won?" We hurried and turned airplane mode off and checked the slack thread. Stockton had a picture with the caption, "Surprise" Except it wouldn't load for us. But Jorja answered below, "WHAAAAAAT YOU WON" Yay! We started laughing and cheering! We were so happy for him. These are the pictures Stockton sent. I think my dad took them while the Life Touch people were taking them.

Stockton ~ Sterling Scholar ~ mathematics

 2018 Sterling Scholars

Stockton said the girl next to him was very happy about being in the middle. She was talking about that when Stockton said, "And I'm one standard deviation from the middle." Haha! Math nerd. Jeanette took this picture and sent it to me. ---Okay, Stockton corrected me on his joke. The kids were put into a line from tallest to shortest. The girl in the middle was excited about being in the middle. Stockton was right next to her and that is when he said he was one standard deviation from the middle. Hahahahahaha! That makes it even more funny in my mind. That kid cracks me up!

Stockton

My dad picked us up at the airport. We got home around lunch time. Then we slept. We were exhausted. It was so fun to see the kids when they got home. Stockton took Preston and Gavin to diving. After they left I picked up Jorja at Hailey's house and we went to Mimi's Cafe. We talked and talked and talked. That girl had had a hard week. It was fun to be back with the kids again. We gave them a few trinkets we picked up. Boomerangs for the boys. A necklace and bracelet for Jorja. Jorja and I slept in the guest room tonight. I wish I could put that girl's heart back together. I know she will be able to do it, it just really hurts right now. I'm glad I can finally hold her again. She will be okay.

Opera

I slept longer today then I have the entire trip. I woke up right at 3:00. I quickly figured out it was 9:00 in Utah. That made me laugh. It is late start at home, so Jorja was just starting school at that exact time. Mike had to work on his presentation this morning, so we stayed around the hotel until noon. Jorja texted me for a bit after school. I was really hopeful today would be great for her. Except it wasn't. Lunch is the hardest for her right now. I wish she had lunch with Stockton.

I walked Mike to his conference, then took off on my own. My first stop was the Lindt store. There was a Lindt store in Paris that was crazy big. This one doesn't even come close, but I thought Jorja would love to see all these colors.

There was also a cafe there. It just so happened that on Wednesdays the waffles were half off. That is what I decided to have for lunch. Delicious.

 The small zoo was my first stop. Mike loves these signs. Especially the kangaroo one.

 There was a cool mist thing you had to walk through to get in the zoo.

 First up . . . FROGS!

 Tazmanian Devil ~ lots of energy there

 Koala

Wombat

I was shocked with how fast these guys moved

Cassowary ~ World's deadliest bird

 Green & Golden Bell Frog

 Kangaroo

This guy moved a lot slower than the wombat!

Shingle-back ~ looks like a pinecone!

Platypus

Crocodile

I then wandered through Madame Tussauds. I have never been to one before. I enjoyed it. Most of the people had some link to Australia, so I learned a lot of new things. A couple of times someone would ask me to take their picture. When they did, I asked if they would take mine.

Einstein and Stephanie

 Madame Tussauds

I thought this was funny. John Logie Baird invented the television? What? 

 Steve Irwin

 Audrey Hepburn & Stephanie

I found a corner before the Marvel exhibit and sat down to see if I could get ahold of the kids. The museum had Wifi! It took me awhile and I had to sign my life away, but I was able to get a few messages out. Jorja sent me a message and said she was doing better. Yay! I didn't hear back from Stockton or Preston. Hopefully Preston got to scouts okay.

I left the museum and went and bought chocolate. They were having a special. All the chocolate I could fit into a small box for $16. I stuffed that thing so tight! The lady weighed it. It would have cost me $68. Yikes! My next mission was to find the Sydney Tower Eye. I couldn't help but take a picture of this building. Mike and I have talked about it a lot. That is the worst name for a bank I have ever seen.

It took me awhile to find the Sydney Tower. I almost gave up, but I managed to find it. The top is a lot like the Space Needle. I saw my friend Robyn there with her husband. When I said hi to them they turned around and said, "No way!" I can't believe I keep running into them. I wasn't able to go outside and do the sky walk, because I had to meet Mike really soon. I just took some photos from around the eye.

I was in the elevator by myself on the way down. That is when I noticed it was held together with duct tape. Oh no! Should I be worried? Just kidding. Most things in my life are held together with duct tape.

I was trying to get to Mike fast, but the elevator ended in a mall. I could not figure how to get out of it. Where were the 'Way Out' signs when I needed them? My worst nightmare. Trapped in a mall! I did finally manage to get out when I realized the street level was on the 2nd floor. (This mall has many floors.) I took off and ran several blocks until I made it back to Mike. I was seven minutes late. Not bad. Mike took a picture of the tower as we were walking by.

 Sydney Tower Eye

Mike and I walked to the train station and went to Circular Quay. We got some excellent gelato, I'm glad we managed to do that one more time. We went into an outdoor restaurant on a whim. Mike ordered the Kangaroo Filet. (Sorry Porge.) It had a few bites. It was actually super delicious. I don't know if it was the way they cooked it, or if kangaroo is just yummy. Mike didn't like the bed of beets though.

Look at this seagull waiting. A couple of them flew at my head, landed on the table and tried to eat my fries. One of the seagulls got their foot in my water. The waitress took that away speedy quick.

Once we finished and walked away the seagulls attacked. I mean ATTACKED! I wish Mike videoed it. It was crazy. One of the seagulls kept walking in the beets. Oh man, so funny!

Mike and I went to the Sydney Opera House and say DiviLicious and the Impresario. Mostly by Mozart. It was in a small room and Mike managed to get us front row seats.

It was awesome! It was cool to see the bay out the windows. Fun to watch the ships sail by. The only bad thing was I fell asleep twice. Just super quick. Hopefully no one noticed. My favorite part of this short opera was the beginning when a guy was singing about office supplies. He really likes his self inking stamp.

That's about all from us in Australia! Mike packed us up while I tried to finish here. It is almost midnight Australia time. We are hoping to eat at 7:00 then make our way to the airport. Watch. This will be the first time I actually am able to sleep.

Spousetivities

I woke up bright and early at 1:45 this morning. My mind screamed, "JORJA!" I counted the hours to see what time it was in Utah. Jorja was starting school right at that moment. I hopped out of bed and started praying hard for her. I know how scared she is to go to school today. How she is worried about seeing Isaac and Grace together. How she is worried she won't have any friends. I texted her last night and told her to "Go into school with her head held high. It's okay to say, "It hurts and it's hard, but I'll be okay." Be nice to Grace. Be nice to Isaac. You don't have to overdo it, but be kind. If they are together and it is hard, it is okay to remove yourself from the situation. Find someone who needs you. Make someone happy. Look around and notice who is struggling. Take a break from liking boys, they are too much drama. Your family loves you. Heavenly Father loves you and knows that you are hurting. Pray for help to lessen the pain. Have this experience make you stronger and more compassionate. You got this!" This morning I was worried. I prayed and prayed and prayed. I prayed that she would feel peace. I prayed that she would feel comfort. I prayed that she would be happy. I prayed that she would know she is important. I prayed that she would be strong. I prayed that she would be brave. I prayed that she would be kind. I prayed and prayed and prayed. I prayed until it was time for Jorja to go to lunch. Literally. I tried to send Jorja a message the second her lunch started. She is so scared because she doesn't know where to go. She doesn't think she is welcome where she used to sit with Isaac. When Isaac told her he needed a break, she started sitting with Grace. Now she can't go there either. She is feeling so lost. I sent her a message saying, "You got this Jorja. You are strong. You are brave. You are kind. You are pure. You can do this. I love you!" I sent that message the exact time her lunch would be starting, except for some reason it wouldn't go through. I sent it again and again and again. It would not work. I started sobbing. I'm half way around the world, my child's heart is shattered, she is so scared and I can't reach her. Mike woke up because I was crying so hard. He sent her my message in the Slack chat. I have no idea if she got it. I stayed on my knees and prayed and prayed and prayed. I finally got up around 5:30 and took a shower. We went down and ate breakfast as soon as it opened.

Mike signed me up for a tour with Spousetivities. This lady had an excellent idea for a business. She goes to different conferences and plans events for the spouses for the conference goers. Mike kept checking when he could sign me up. It went live while we were in Lake Powell. By the time we had gotten back yesterdays event was sold out. That is the one I really wanted to go to. They got to pet koalas and kangaroos. Later I found out that the lady always keeps a few extra tickets to give out later. Next time email her. I thought that was pretty lame. I could have gone. They had extra seats. Oh well, I had fun at the zoo by myself. Mike walked me to the pick up location before he took off. It's kind of fun because everyone interacted with each other quite a lot. Lots of these people have been doing these events for several years, so they know people pretty well. This was a tour of Sydney. I thought it would be a walking tour, but it was pretty much driving around Sydney, seeing the opera house from different angles and getting out of the bus for ten minute stretches. If I could only do one tour, I wish it was yesterdays!

Five dollar bill

 The view from Mike's conference

 Random things I saw today.

 Stephanie

 Queens garden

We stopped for lunch at this outdoor cafe. There was a library right next to it. I don't know why, but I thought it was cool. I took a picture of the library and then turned around and took a picture of where we ate. What a fun library that would be to visit all the time.

The tour guide wanted us to walk to the top of the hill before we got back in the bus. The Pacific Ocean was at the top. It was beautiful. At this point I was feeling so anxious to stretch my legs. There were stairs to go up higher on the left and on the right. Some people went up to the right where it was just a bit higher. I looked at the two Hawaii sisters that were with me and asked if they wanted to run to the top of the left stairs. That was a lot higher than the right. We did. We ran and ran. It was awesome.

Stephanie ~ 1st top

View from the steps on the left.

 Weird picture of Stephanie, but whatever.

 Beautiful!

 I tried taking a selfie, my face got in the way of the view.

The Hawaii girls and I ran down the stairs to the bus. Someone was coming up to get us and they were mad. They said we were told not to go up that high. The Hawaii girls felt really bad. I was annoyed. I'd been trapped on a bus all day, and it's not like I'm ever coming back here. I told the lady that no one told us we couldn't go up there. Most of the group went up the other steps, so why were we wrong to go up these ones? We came down the steps and the lady started whispering to the person in charge. Things like, "They said they weren't told they couldn't go up there." Something like that. It was obvious we were being told on and the person didn't believe us. I just interrupted them and said, "No one said we couldn't go up there. We were told to go to the top of the hill. We literally went to the top of the hill, so technically we were the only ones who followed the directions." They were not amused. The Hawaii girls and I were speedy quick and still beat people to the bus, so I don't know what the problem was.

Our next stop was Bondi beach. Mike and I wanted to go here on Sunday, but it would have been hard to get to. They had this cool sculpture festival. Sculpture by the Sea. It ended Sunday. We would have tried but it was raining like crazy. The beach was beautiful. There were lots of school kids playing rugby. Glenda took a panorama of the ocean. She was showing it to us later. It was so pretty, then right at the end there is an old guy walking in a speedo that is just grinning at the camera. I want to ask her to send that picture to me. It is so funny!

Stephanie at Bondi Beach

I sat in the very back of the bus by myself. They handed back tickets for a drawing. I got the last ticket. My ticket was the winner. I won a lock. Mike is thinking he can put it on his workshop door when we finally get the mess of the basement cleaned up.

Apparently there is a huge horse race called the Melbourne Cup that was happening today. The entire country stopped to watch it. Mike's conference stopped. Everyone was walking around in those hats that people wear to the races. It was crazy. We had a drawing on the bus to pick a horse. Mine was Marmelo. They told me he was the favorite. Everyone groaned when they found out I had the favorite since I had won the last prize. Marmelo ended up 9th out of 23 horses. Rekindling won. The driver had Rekindling. Also the last ticket handed out. I thought that was funny.

Mike watching the Melbourne Cup at work

 One of the many, many hats

We were dropped off in front of a hotel by where Mike's conference is going on. Most of the people were going inside to drink. I passed on that. I sat down outside and texted Jorja. I had been dying to know if she was okay. How her first day of school with this new normal was. I sent her a 'how was your day' text and then read my scriptures while I waited for her to reply. I didn't want to leave where I was because I had Wifi at the moment. Pretty soon a security guard came up to me and asked if I was okay. I told her I was just waiting for my daughter to reply and needed their Wifi. I hadn't heard from Jorja by the time I finished my scriptures, so I just walked to the aquarium. There was this cool penguin ride I wanted to do. I paid my ticket and asked about it as soon as I got in. I missed the last ride by fifteen minutes. It will be closed for the next few days. Whoops. I guess it wasn't the right time to read my scriptures. Oh well. I think it would have been just like the It's a Small World ride with penguins running around. The aquarium was cool though and it gave me something to do while I waited for Mike to finish for the day. His first presentation was immediately after the horse race.

Random aquarium pictures ~ I think this is called a Dugong

 Feeding

 The little tiny black fish is called a vampire fish, I guess he's responsible for biting the most people at the Great Barrier Reef.

 That's a large stuffed penguin.

I walked to Mike's building when I finished. There were still lots of crazy horse people and lots of crazy hats. There were also a lot of stuffed horses grown people were playing with. It was pretty funny.

 Slyly taking a picture of a guy wearing his girls hat for unknown reason.

Mike said his lab presentation was successful. He also won a prize. A bluetooth speaker. We walked 25 minutes or so back to our hotel to drop off our prizes. We picked up our laptops and went back to where we were to go on a night cruise. We weren't sure what to expect. We didn't know if it would be all drinking and we would be terribly bored. We brought stuff that we could do. When we arrived, the first person I saw was Robin. I sat by her at lunch earlier today. We also found Glenda. We hung out together the rest of the time. That was really nice. I was so glad they were there. I'm glad I went to the Spousetivities event. It was nice to feel like I belonged, and it helped me feel way more comfortable tonight. What a great idea that was.

Robyn & Stephanie

Mike

 Stephanie & Mike

We had a nice dinner. It was getting late and everyone was anxious to get back. Someone called a water taxi. Ha! Mike pulled out his laptop and started working on his presentation for tomorrow. He said, "Slide one done." The people at the table busted up laughing. They asked, "Did you just put the title and your name?" Yep. Mike's not too worried about this presentation. He said it is only 45 minutes instead of an hour and a half. He said he just couldn't concentrate on it until the other one was out of the way.

 The bird sculpture was even prettier at night.

We got back home close to midnight. There was a message from Jorja saying her day was alright. That is all the information I have. I'm going crazy with worry over here! Preston sent video on the slack chat of him playing on the silks at Gavin's house. That was pretty cool. Stockton has taken such good care of Preston this week. I have been super impressed. I have been so worried about Jorja while I've been gone, I am thankful that Stockton has made it so I don't need to worry about him or Preston. I hope they had a great day at diving. I wonder if Stockton went to the National Honor Society induction meeting or not. I don't think he did. I did get an email earlier today saying Preston's reflections entry has made it to the regional level. I never even saw what he turned in. I only know he programed a computer game to work with the Wii remotes. I think he videoed the game and had a voice over saying what he did. He entered it into the video competition, because there is no computer programing competition. That kid is crazy smart.