Scuba Diving in Langkawi

The day after Thanksgiving Aaron took the kiddos to Langkawi to do some diving. He wanted to get some practice in before our trip to Bali in a few weeks. I stayed home to get ready for a Relief Society activity that I was helping with. 

Langkawi is only a two hour ferry ride away!

Thanksgiving 2016

All the missionaries from our branch were invited. However, two were missing due to them being in Singapore temporarily and we had an extra elder visit from Butterworth.

From left to right- Elder Massey (Sydney, Australia), Elder Gould (Nashville, TN), 

Elder Hunt (Rexburg, ID), Elder Fogth (Provo, UT), Sister Vraines (Bountiful, UT), 

and Sister Durham (Logan, UT)

On the menu was the traditional meal of Turkey, Stuffing, Potatoes, Gravy, Green Bean Casserole, Yams, Cranberry Salad, Strawberry Jello Salad, Homemade Rolls, Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Cheesecake and Apple Crisp. Bob from Grumpiez also made us a roasted turkey (which we hired him to do) but when he found out that we were feeding the missionaries then he also said he would throw in a pan of stuffing.  

I gave him some homemade rolls in exchange:)

Malacca, Malaysia

Melynn went on a school trip to Malacca, Malaysia with her South East Asian Studies class. 

Malacca is about a 6 hour drive south, closer to Singapore.

Melynn and her friend Julia got a watermelon drink on Jonker Street in Malacca. 

The seller drilled a hole in the melon and then blended the insides with a hand mixer. 

Jonker Street is a busy market area.

The view from the top of the hotel the kids were staying at. 

A replica of the Sultan's (King) home. There is no Sultan in modern times.

A picture of the SEAS class just leaving a museum.

The girls taking a boat ride on the Straits.

Senior Dinner at our house

Darby's friend, Aaron Chand, wanted to organize a Senior Dinner. All of their friends dressed up but then the meal was very basic. On the menu this particular evening was happy meals from McDonalds! Aaron had also invited Melynn so that she could carry on the tradition the following year:) Supposedly, Aaron was the junior invited last year to a similar gathering and he is now passing the torch. Afterwards they played games and mingled. Everyone looked to be having a great time.

Senior Buddies

One of the many things that they have at Dalat are Senior Buddies. This is where a Senior class member will choose an 8th grader to become a mentor for. The school hosts a few activities within the year for them. This particular activity was held after Halloween and the senior and their 8th grade buddy would pair up in a costume theme. Jaxon and his buddy were lumberjacks. Darby was a Dum Dum and her buddy was Smarty Pants.

Perth, Australia

Our family took a trip to Perth, Australia. Aaron has always wanted to go to Australia 

so he was very excited.  With only 5 days to spare, we decided on Perth because it 

was a closer flight for us.We hope to visit Sydney sometime in the near future :)

Picture above was taken at the Penang Airport. 

It is an advertisement for the 3D museum in Penang.

Just a couple blocks away from our hotel was Target! 

Of coarse, we found out that it is actually not the same company as the one in the U.S.  

Statues of businessman that had made Perth successful.

One of the first things we did on our trip was visit the Temple. We love to 

visit the many temples around the world. We helped a family with

their family file names in performing baptisms.

There is a small walking street in Perth that is designed like a medieval village. This is the entrance to that street. It reminded us of Diagon Alley from Harry Potter.

We visited the Perth Mint and watched how gold ore is

 melted down and turned into gold bars.

This coin weighs 2 tons and is worth 50 million U.S. dollars.

On Sunday morning of our trip, Melynn had an appointment with the local Stake Patriarch.

We came to his home and visited with him and his lovely wife before he gave 

Melynn her Patriarchal Blessing. It was a very special event in her life 

and I am so glad we could participate in it with her. 

The Patriarch's name is Davidson Joseph of the Daniella Stake. 

Afterwards we attended sacrament meeting at the local church house.

We found this great Mexican place across the street from our hotel and ended up eating there twice! We don't get good Mexican in Malaysia so we always take advantage when we can. On other days we had some great barbecue, hamburgers and some big breakfasts. We ate a lot! I miss western food!

Sunday afternoon we switched gears and headed south to the Fremantle Prison. This prison was part of the convict era in Australia. This is when criminals from England were given the opportunity for shorter sentences if they would serve their time in Australia. While in Australia, they would work for the government building roads, water systems etc... After this era, it was used as a normal prison up until 1991. There was very little change to it from its beginning. Up until it closed there was no indoor plumbing in the cells. The prisoners had to use buckets for their waste.

We found a Krispy Kreme on our way back from the prison! Had to go inside!!!

This was our dinner...Oh Well :)

We found this esplanade area across from the city and we strolled around a bit.

Then we drove up to Kings Park for an even better view of the city! It is a beautiful park.

We always like to try the local treats.

We did not eat all these in one day!

Monday was our big day out. We drove over two hours north to the Pinnacles. On our way we found many dead Kangaroo on the sides of the road. So sad! 

There were many warning signs.

We spotted these Emu's on the side of the road. 

I didn't take any photos of the dead kangaroos though.

The Pinnacles are a natural phenomenon in the desert of western Australia.
No one is quite sure exactly how they formed but there are several theories.
Some people think they are ancient forest of trees that have petrified.
Others believe they are the remnants of an ancient reef. 

Either way, they are pretty cool!

The Pinnacles are very close to the ocean as you can see in the photo above.

Found this creature walking along the sidewalk.

There were lots of flies out and it was quite annoying! 

They seemed to like to land on you if you had a dark shirt on for some weird reason.

After the Pinnacles we drove south about 30 minutes to the sand dunes in Lancelin. It is a very small town near the ocean. We stopped at a nice little pizza place before coming here and found the people in town very friendly. On our way to the dunes, the car behind us could tell we were not sure where we were going so he pulled up along side us to ask us if we needed help with directions. 

We sand boarded on the dunes. It was a fun experience for everyone. 

Climbing up was a bit harder than going down :)

The sand is really soft and felt good on the feet but I found it everywhere in our 

laundry when we got home.

After the dunes we stuck our feet in the nice water.

Tuesday we headed out to Caversham Park. It is an outdoor wildlife park.

We took a photo with a wombat. 

Then later we got to visit with this cute little dude.

Feeding and petting the Kangaroos was a big highlight for the kids.

You can see the baby's feet sticking out of the momma's pouch.

After returning to our hotel, we strolled down to the waterfront on 

our last evening before flying home the next day. 

Photo below is the famous bell tower.
We didn't get to go inside because it was already closed.

Overall, we LOVED our visit to Perth! It was such a clean and friendly city and we loved the food! We definitely want to go back to Australia.