Roma Street Parklands

December 11, 2011. The McDougald family visits the Roma Street Parklands. Brandon and Angielee came here in April of 2011, and were excited to share this beautiful place with the kids.



Cool mist on a hot day



 

 

When Diesel died, our fellow bulldog owner sent a plant. 
We call it "Diesel's Plant" and found some in the garden today.



 

I can never keep these house plants alive in Utah.  Apparently they like to be in the Brisbane soil better.



 

Big A** jug of SPF.  The Hanson family would appreciate this.



There were a lot of Water Dragons out today, which the kids really liked.  The following are some pics from April inside the garden.  It was Fall at that time.



Water Dragon - a close relative to the Iguana

More Randomness - August

A couple of days after we moved into our home, Lucy had her 7th birthday.  Since we didn't know anybody yet, we went over to the neighbors and introduced ourselves then invited them over for cake.

There are a lot of botanical gardens around Brisbane city. This is a pic of a fuzzy fern getting ready to open.

Monitor lizard by the pond

The "Spiky Tree" used thorns for self defence against monkeys

There was a marathon going on and a plane wrote the name of the newspaper putting on the event.  Picture was taken from our back porch.

Random Australia Pictures July and August

When we arrived in Australia, Brandon's company put us up in a beautiful apartment building right on Kangaroo Point.  It was close to church and work, easy to jump onto a ferry to go into the city, and the scenery was beautiful.  These are just a few pics of the apartment.  The pic looks much better on my monitor.

This is the hallway to the kids rooms and their bathroom.  There were 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

The Story Bridge seen out our window

 

Then we moved into our home (see older posts) and the kids went to school. See how happy they are with their uniforms?

"The Hire Engine".  A lot of people have birthday parties at the park across the street from the house.  They are usually on Sunday and this Fire Engine played loud music and sprayed the kids with the hose. Picture was taken from the master bedroom balcony

Our first Cane Toad sighting.  These toads are a real pest in Queensland.

Halloween 2011

Party at the McDougald's

Halloween in Australia is not that big of a deal.  It's starting to catch on, but not a lot of people celebrate this holiday.  So one of my American friends and I put together a great celebration.

Then we show the Aussie's how to Halloween.

Things needed for a successful Halloween party:

1. Spooky bouncy house - - CHECK
2. Awesome face painter - - CHECK
3. Lots of food provided by the guests - - CHECK
4. Pictures that don't turn sideways when you download them - - What the Hell??!!! Seriously, this is making me way to upset. I'm going to post the pics anyway and you all can turn your head sideways.
   
   
   
   
      

The really cute tiger and kitty cat are the first set of twins of Lindi

Hope (red cape) is helping Lindi (Mum in the middle) hold her new set of twin boys. Angela is holding her beautiful daughter.

What I don't have pictures of are the great "pumpkin" carving contest entries.  I have to do the "" marks, because there were only a few pumpkins.  We also had carved cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon.  That is because American pumpkins are freakishly expensive here. $20 and up for a small one.  Zach carved our watermelon like it was throwing up. Cool thing about melons is they glow red when you put a candle inside.

I also don't have pictures of families or adults in their costumes.  We had two Guess-How-Many jar's.  One was filled with ear shaped gummies, and the other with chocolate skulls. Prizes were given for best adult costume and best carved "pumpkin".  The winner was actually a cantaloupe.

There were roughly 50 kids there that we took trick-or-treating. We set up 8 houses on one street that were expecting the huge group. I also think that all 50 kids may have been in the bouncy house at one time.

Madison was a medieval princess.   Zach was a creature from "The Village".  Lucy was a dead school girl, then a princess, then a dead princess, and finally settled on a dog.  Angielee was a devil.  She was actually nothing at first because there was no time to put a costume together, but then Jeanney (before mentioned American friend) showed up as an angel.  A quick wardrobe change and some face paint and Walllllaaaaa! Instant devil. Brandon was a big stick in the mud.  Not actually. He just wouldn't dress up

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.