Matt has gone back to work after taking vacation from work (Australian Language Lesson: they call vacations 'holidays' here.) For those who don't know, Matt works for the Autism Association. He stays for 2-3 days at a time with two autistic boys, and then is home for 2-3 days. He'll work 3 shifts like that, and then he gets 9 days off of work. This means that I have found myself alone on several evenings now, having to find ways to entertain myself. Lucky for me, Matt has one of the most extensive movie collections I have ever seen! Tonight is one of those evenings, so I figured I would update you all on what is going on with me down in the southern hemisphere.
Last week, Matt and I headed back to Scarborough Beach with body boards in tow. I have always been a bit afraid of the ocean. I am a decent swimmer, but it is just so much more powerful than me. I was nervous right off the bat, as the waves we were heading towards were some of the biggest I've ever seen, though Matt assured me they were small. We entered the water, and the next 20 minutes were...horrible! I kept being slammed by waves, tumbling around, and sent back to the shore. The few times I was able to get out passed the breaking waves, I was able to ride back in pretty well, only to start the battle all over again. At one point I broke the surface after tumbling around and pushed the hair back from my face. Unlucky for me, a good chunk of my hair got caught in the velcro strap around my wrist (connecting my body board to me. I knew I had to get it out before the next wave came, or I'd lose this chunk of hair. I watched this wall of water come at me, and knew I wouldn't do it in time, so I plugged my nose with that hand in the hopes of keeping it near enough to my head that I wouldn't be scalped. Unfortunately, the body board tumbled a different way than my body, and my hair was violently yanked out. So, I found myself standing in the shallow water, after the ocean abused me, forced its way up my nose, and pulled my hair, not wanting to go back! Matt hadn't realized I'd hung back, so when he was passed the waves he called out, telling me to come in. I looked like a 3-year-old, shaking my head and yelling out that I wouldn't do it because I was too scared. After he realized I was serious, he got out and we walked down the beach to the swimming area, and left the boards on the sand. I had a blast!! Matt was kind enough to finally tell me to just dive under the waves (a tip I wish he hadn't withheld) and we had a great time, swimming and riding the waves (they were slightly smaller here). We enjoyed this for another half an hour before a HUGE wave came out of know where and tumbled me all around. Between the motion sickness from that, and the amount of sea water I had accidentally swallowed, I decided that I had put in a decent go at Ocean Swimming Lesson One.
This last week, we decided to get some goldfish! Matt had a little aquarium that he hadn't used in a while, so we got it all set up and bought some fish. We started with 5. We got an all white one that we named Great White (he is the smallest, so he needed a tough name), a classic orange one we named Floyd Jr., an all black one we named Morgan Freeman, a white one with an orange/red spot on top of his head we named Mitchell (any fans of Modern Family out there?), and an orange/white/black speckled one we named Hobo. Sadly, Mitchell didn't last through the first day. The next day we went back and got a Mitchell look-a-like to replace him, and also got a fat, speckled one we named Cam (again...Modern Family).
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| Floyd meeting our new pets |
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| Hobo |
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| Great White |
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| Floyd Jr. |
And so I don't end on a sad note, here are a few shots of the beautiful sunset we had the other day! This is the view from our front yard.
Love, Kelsey
PS. I read on KSL.com today that Bruce Lindsay from channel 5 is going to be the new mission president in Perth starting in July. Utah represent!!
