What One does when One waits for the Queen of England

Monday, 24 October, 2011: The kids ditch school and we stake out the Queen.

8:30 AM - Arrive at the Kangaroo Point Cliffs to reserve our spot to see the Queen float down the river.
9:00 AM  - Take pictures of our selves waiting for the Queen.

 

 9:14 AM - Play two games of Sequence waiting for the Queen

10:02 AM - Kids go for a walk looking for the bubbler (a.k.a. drinking fountain)
10: 04 AM - Kids are back with confirmation that a bubbler has been located.
10:05 AM - Wait for the Queen
10:32 AM - Watch more police issued jet skis and motor boats go up and down the river. They are also waiting for the Queen.

10:50 AM - Talk to a friendly Australian Bloke about his travels around the world.
11:00 AM - Moan and whine about how hot it is (30 degrees Celsius) and why is the Queen taking so long.......
11:09 AM - The kids spot the Missionaries coming down the stairs and run to see them. They are not waiting for the queen, but heading to the train station. 
11:30 AM - Fight off some English ladies that have taken our spot while we talked to the Missionaries.
11:31 AM - Angielee is PISSED and very politely lets them know that they will have to move.
12:04 PM - Here comes the Queen!!  Here comes the Queen!!

 

12:04 PM - Her Majesty finally graces us with her backside. All that waiting and she decides she needs a break from her royal wave. She's not even facing us!  We are seriously put out, but have decided to chalk it up to a once in a lifetime experience.

Sometime after the fact PM - the Queen visits the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.  The same sanctuary we have a yearly pass to.  We have decided that we should have waited 4 hours there and played with the kangaroos while waiting.

(Photo courtesy of Courier Mail)

This is Madison posting...I have taken over!

Girls Camp!!

We went to Barney Mt. and camped there for 3 days. It was a stake girls camp and there were at least 60 people!!!The camp had a river/creek!!! We had to use a porta-potties (ewwww!). Some boys/girls  from other camps would come to use to porta-potties which made them even grosser!! When we arrived at the camp, it was pouring rain. We were lucky that when we started putting up or tent it lightened up. The stake decided that we sould all go to a certain area when we heard the song "We Believe". We would grab our chairs and start walking. When we got there we did some activities and then they told us that after dinner we are going to have a Master Chef competition. Me and one of the beehives from our ward cooked the meal, Our ward won the "Best Flipped Out" meal. We chopped up celery leaves and put them in the soup. After that we had smores and went to bed. We woke up in the morning early because we were going on a 5 hour hike!! It hurt but the hike was all about endurance. After the hike me and a lot of the other girls from the camp went to the river so we could get on the ROPE SWINGS!! The water was freezing cold but i got used to it. On the 3rd day we went home. I got the nicest welcoming home from Mom..."Get off the furniture and go take a shower!"

This is our YW President, Gemma Bricknell

Random Pictures

Our church house is right next to the Brisbane Temple, so after class we went and took some pictures.

My mom let me dye my hair!!  It's just a 28 day rinse.

Riverfire

Brisbane felt like celebrating. We're not exactly sure what they were having this special party for, but the fireworks are for the opening night. The celebration actually goes on for 3 weeks. They had fireworks on top of buildings, bridges, on barges in the middle of the river. Huge spotlights and lasers added to the show.

The Story Bridge on the tip of Kangaroo Point. This is the bridge that we lived next to in our apartment when we first got to Australia.

Multiple firework spots all along the river.

This is Victoria Bridge raining fireworks.

  Another shot of the river on fire.  These large, personally owned boats had to get special permits to view the show from this prime spot.

 An F-18 Super Hornet did a fly by. Actually, it did 8 fly by's including tricks.

Blackhawk helicopters

                                                                   

The mirror ball is part of a laser show that went on every night for the duration of the festival. For more great pics of the laser show and the mirror ball click here.