The Blues to White to Driggs!

The Blues
Whew! So, whirlwind trip up north, a crazy day in and out of Sydney, and we end up at a hostel in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains (as mentioned at the end of the last post). Then, something happened. We both got sick of moving around like we had been, we both lost road-tripping energy, we were both grumpy, at each other, at the weather, at the road map...you name it; basically, in a lot of ways, we were just OVER IT...whatever you choose to identify IT as, we were probably over it. So, we spent a full day at the hostel and didn’t even leave to get milk; we just ate and talked and played backgammon and read and figured out what to do with the change in momentum. We decided it was time to go back to Kristin’s, even if there were a lot of cool things to see and do in the area. We were done. So we went back...and started getting ready for a wedding! (Although, we were mostly already prepared for it). The thing was, as excited as we were for the wedding, as much as the whole crazy affair, from Yogaville to Australia and onto now, has been and continues to be this wonderful adventure, we both were feeling more and more definitively that our time with Australia was over, it was time to move on to the next step, the next chapter, the next challenges. Between our energy, money, paperwork, motivation, and a whole slew of other known and unknown factors, we decided to come home early. So the Friday before our wedding we changed all our tickets around and got ready to leave on the 10th (the traveling process I am in the middle of at the time of this writing). That done time to get married!!

To White
As I wrote briefly, the day was wonderful and beautiful and really, despite everything...I guess easy. The ceremony was at 5 pm in the evening, so we woke up in the morning, had our coffee, got food ready for the afternoon (we had hummus, pita, diced tomatoes/cucumbers mixed together, greek yogurt, fresh fruit, crackers, some fancy cheeses, champagne, and most importantly my mom’s oatmeal chocolate chip cake for wedding cake). After getting everything packed up in the car since we would not be coming back to Kristin’s, Noah left with the car to go into the city, check into our hotel and get ready for the wedding. He was such a mess and so cute. I was so grateful that his friend Sarah was in the city to meet him and be there with him while he got ready! I, meantime, had lunch back at the house with Kristin, Robyn, and Peter, then started getting ready with Kristin. That took just about long enough...Peter snapped some pictures, loaded us in the car and drove down to Kirribbilli to get married!!! From there, it was easy. The ceremony was short, I hardly remember the details because I was just smiling and looking at Noah and holding onto his hand like there was nothing else! I guess I could probably post the written text on here so all you interested parties (if you are) can read it. I’ll get that worked out. Anyway, the ceremony was great, Noah surprised basically everyone, especially himself, and remained dry eyed and composed the whole time (later he said he thought the main reason he hadn’t was that he was in utter shock at how beautiful I was when he saw me walking up the path that his tear ducts didn’t know what to do, that made me cry!). After the ceremony Noah and I spent maybe a half an hour walking around with Peter doing photos. I really have no idea how long we took, mainly Noah and I were walking hand in hand talking and Peter was snapping away, occasionally telling us to stop and look or stand and pose somewhere (although never needing to ask that we smile!!). It was a really special bit of time that I will remember forever. When we came back to the park, all the food was spread out and we (all 8 of us, including noah and myself) spent the next few hours eating, drinking, visiting in the park, getting smiles from passerbys and simply enjoying the place, the company and the occasion. It was beautiful.

At about 8pm or so, we packed things up, said goodbye and many thanks to Kristin, Robyn and Peter, then caught a ride with Matt into the city where he dropped us off at our hotel. We spent two nights in the hotel and, although it was not the classiest joint in town, it was not the worst and being in our own space, that wasn’t a tent for even two nights was wonderful and fabulous. We took ourselves out for a wedding dinner to this really wonderful woodfire pizza place (we had both been craving pizza for over a week), watched TV, sat in the sauna, and enjoyed our time. Upon checking out, we moved over to Matt and Jerry’s house in Marrickville (near Newtown) for our last few days. We really did not do much other than run a few last errands, wander up and down Newtown some, enjoy Matt and Jerry’s company, and talk about how excited and glad we were to be heading home so soon—even if it is winter. Our first night, Matt and Jerry took us out for a celebration at this wonderful Indian restaurant and another night we made dinner for them, we both really enjoyed their company and conversation. I snuck in a quick hello to my friend Haakon who went to Whitman with me and is now married to an Australian. They were just returning from a 5-6 month trip to the states and we had been planning to spend some time with them later on the month. Regardless, it was another small world moment getting to see him and say hello and catch up even if for an afternoon. He and I both had a laugh over the fact that we are both married now, long before many others we went to college with—partly because we would never have guessed it ourselves!

To Driggs!
Well, that basically leads us to now...we dropped the rental car off this morning (tuesday), made it to the airport and started waiting. The last bit of this entry can be written after the travels end me and him back in driggs together!

At the moment, we are not quite back in Driggs, but are together. We both made it to LA safely, the time change is so strange. We left in the afternoon on Tuesday the 10th in Sydney and arrived in LA before the time we left Sydney...strange. Anyway, we got to Salt Lake City last night and had a room at a hotel my parents had reserved for us. That is where we are now. Noah is still asleep upstairs and I am just excited enough to be home that my jet-lag only allowed me to sleep 7 hours last night, so am killing time and trying to let hime sleep! (I slept more on my flight than him). But, we'll be in Driggs by this evening, we have a bus at noon from here to Rexburg, then a ride with mom from there to home!

It is definitely a bit of a shock to be in the cold all of a sudden again, but is almost a nice change, at least for a day or two. Already, probably the hardest thing to adjust to is going to be the hours of daylight. I hadn't even thought about that, but when we landed in SLC at 7pm and it was already dark, I was reminded of that. Oh well, it's all about trade-offs! OK, think that is all for now :)