AUSTRALIA

We are back from our trip to Australia! It was such an amazing adventure that I have actually been dreading this post. How do you put into pictures and words such an incredible experience!? We filled our days full of so much fun and took over 1,000 pictures! This post, though long, is such a small part of our amazing experience. I will forever be grateful that we had this adventure of a lifetime!!

To start... this is where Phillip worked for the month of May. He was in the large AMP tower right next to Sydney Harbor:

His office was on the 28th floor and it overlooked the beautiful harbor. Here are some pictures from his office window:

Phillip stayed with the most amazing family while he was there. They were so sweet and gave us both such a great taste of Australia! Phillip loved his externship and the experience he had there.

I arrived out there on May 30th- Phillip's 26th birthday! We were so excited to be together after 3 long weeks of living apart. We immedietly began filling our days with tons of fun. Here we are on the train- our main way of getting around while we were in Sydney:

We were amazed how much there was to see just walking around the city of Sydney. This was one of the many cool buildings that we visited- the Queen Victoria Building. It had a shopping mall inside that was way cooler than any mall I have ever been to:

The Sydney tower is the tallest point in Sydney. It towered over the other giant buildings. We were able to go to the top and see the beautiful upper view of Sydney:

Beaches are a main attraction in Sydney. We were able to visit two famous beaches- Manly Beach (1st picture) and Bondi beach (other 3 pictures). They were so breathtaking. It was fun to see all of the amazing surfers that were determined to ride the waves, even though it is winter out there:

The sweet Murrin Family took us on an all-day drive down the southern coast of Australia. We saw so many beautiful sights that day. Here are a few:

Visiting the Sydney Temple was one of my favorite things that we did. Being so far away from home, it was nice to see a structure that looked so familiar. It did, however, have a blue roof!:

The rain was a constant companion to us on our trip. We were only able to escape it for about 2 of the days that we were there. Our dollar store umbrella did not hold up very long:

We visited the largest IMAX theatre in the world while we were there! It was fun and a great way to get out of the rain. We watched a fun surfer movie in 3D:

Of course we had to see the many animals of Australia while we were there. We visited both the Wild Life Park and the Aquarium. We saw so many cool animals- dingos, kangaroos, wombats, snakes, spiders, crocks, turtles, koalas, bandicoots, kookaburas, emus, echindas, lizards, tons of fish, and a giant shark tank!- just to name a few:

And we can't forget the food! We ate so many new and interesting things! Among our favorites were fish and chips, meat pies, and kebabs!:

And in case you haven't had enough, here are a few more photos of our adventures:

This trip couldn't have come at a better time of our lives. It was so nice to leave every care and worry behind and be able to spend time togeher as husband and wife, enjoying the beautiful earth that has been created just for us to enjoy! We know trips like this only come once in a life time and we will never forget how blessed we are to have had this amazing adventure.

(don't forget to check out my other new post about my cute family!)

Seth Benjamin Risenmay

My adorable new nephew, Seth Benjamin Risenmay, was born on May 21st, 2010. He came the day before his daddy's graduation day. What a great graduation present!


I seriously couldn't love this little boy more. I could just stare at him all day. He makes the cutest facial expressions while he sleeps. I couldn't be happier to be an aunt to so many adorable babies!

Here he is in his adorable blessing outfit. He was blessed on June 13th. It was such a special day for our family. Especially since all of my siblings were able to be there.

My happy siblings with their newest additions...

The new cousins- 12 weeks, 3 weeks, and 14 weeks- Could they be any cuter!?!?!?

Here are all of the grandchildren now. The family is growing and growing! (Don't you love how Peter is totally squishing Andrew? Ha ha. Classic.)

Ben, Maryn, and Seth just moved to Arizona for a year so that Ben can start his residency for medical school. I miss them already!!

Phillip vs Australia

I sure hope that Australia enjoys my husband as much as I do (I soooo doubt that)

See you in a month sweetie! I love you!

Date Night at the Sumpter's

And you wonder why I am going to miss him when he's gone :-)

Learning to Sew

Remember my post awhile ago when I said that I wanted to learn to create? Well, I haven't created something every day, but I have been doing some fun projects lately. First, since I am soon going to be the aunt of three little ones, I have been busy making baby stuff for the growing fam. I made some onesie dresses for future little girls and burp clothes for future little boys:

First I made this little onesie dress for my niece Elisabeth out of a plain white onesie:

Here are all the onesie dresses that I ended up making:

For Ben and Maryn's little boy on the way I made these burp clothes:

I am now going to make something for my little nephew Peter.

In addition to baby stuff I decided that I wanted to make my front room lighter. Since we have no overhead light in our front room, I have always felt like we are living in a dungeon. So I put away the dark pillows and dark curtain and made some new lighter pillows and sheer curtains to replace them. Yay! It was a lot of fun and now I feel more ready for summer.

Before:

After:

Now if only the weather would be ready for summer as well. Current condition: snowing

Introducing...

So since I am bursting with pride (and because my brother and sister don't ever blog) I am going to happily introduce two of the cutest children on the planet....

My new nephew...

Peter David Risenmay born March 10, 2010



and my new niece...

Elisabeth Hunzeker born March 26 2010


These 2 angels could not have come to our family at a better time. Our family has been aching for babies for way too long. Exactly one year ago we were so sad and wondering when our family would once again be blessed with the gift of children. Who would have thought that one year later we would have these 2 perfect angels... and 1 more nephew is on the way!! Besides being a mother to my beautiful Benjamin, nothing brings me more joy than being an aunt!

Congrats Jon, Ysolina, Dan, and Rachie!

Guess what I'm doing this week?

I'll give you a hint...