Family Time

In spite of the struggles and emotional trauma of Grandpa Young's heart emergency, once the initial crisis subsided, we had some nice time together with family who had traveled all the way from the East Coast. We did tell Grandpa that next time he wants the family to get together he can just ask, rather than put himself in the hospital.

Quality Time with Aunts and Uncle

Uncle Matt, Aunt Karrie, and Aunt Janell took Megan and Ian for one day and spoiled them--oops, we mean bonded with them. They started off by going to see the movie Enchanted, in a real movie theater, complete with eating real movie popcorn. Next they stopped and got some cookies and ice cream before dropping off Janell who had to attend to cousin Scotty. Then they visited Grandpa at the hospital. Later, Matt and Karrie took them out to eat dinner at the Training Table. Ian called in the order over the phone and apparently did an outstanding job reading the list.

Uncle Tyler's 30th Birthday

All the family except for Grandpa (who was still confined to the hospital) went to Bombay House to celebrate Tyler's birthday. The food was delicious (almost as good as Logan's Indian Oven), and we tried a variety of different dishes--the advantage of going with a large group. (Unfortunately the food didn't sit well with Karrie who lost it all around 3:00 am and was sick for the entire next day.) Here is Tyler proudly holding his new cordless drill from his wife Andrea--hmmm...what future projects does she have in mind?

Playing with Scotty

The children had a great time playing with their 20-month-old cousin. Erin taught Scotty some of her less-than-desirable behaviors (which we won't mention since we don't want to tarnish her online reputation), and in turn he encouraged her to revert to younger characteristics, like clinging to a parent and insisting on being held more. It was highly amusing how they constantly imitated each other and had to have the same things (i.e. Scotty had applesauce so Erin had to have applesauce too; Scotty saw Erin drinking juice and had to have juice too, etc.). Scotty's perfect sleeping habits may even be rubbing off on Erin because she is doing a lot better going to sleep these days. She has yet to remain in her bed all night, however. They are both 30 pounds and wear size 7 shoes even though Erin is 1 1/2 years older.

Lights on Temple Square

Another night, Matt and Karrie took Megan, Ian, and April to see the lights on Temple Square. For some reason, orange was a popular color this year, although it made us think more of Halloween than Christmas. We walked around looking at the various nativities, stopped and listened to the Christmas story at the main nativity, then rode the elevator up to the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Building to see the lights from above.

Fun in the Snow!

Salt Lake City received a good amount of snow during the time we were there. A good amount means enough to build objects--such as a snowman, fort, and donkey--and enough to go sledding.

Grandma's Christmas Tree

Grandma Young gave the children their Christmas clothes at Thanksgiving time so that they could wear them during December. Thanks, Grandma!

Back Home in Logan for Kevin's Birthday

We got this idea for a snake cake when we were planning Erin's Nemo cake way back in October. The cake is our traditional homemade applesauce cake (Kevin's favorite) decorated to resemble a California king snake or the Australian Bandy Bandy (note to our avid herp friends: we know there should be white on the head for either species--it's not meant to be a perfect rendition). After spending about 2 hours doing the frosting job and developing carpal tunnel syndrome, April decided that she's not going to repeat this feat anytime in the near future. Ian will just have to choose something else for his cake in 2 months. Kevin enjoyed the cake, however, and he received nice cards from the children and the traditional socks and underwear gifts (the problem with having a practical wife).

Miracles

"For with God nothing shall be impossible." Luke 1:37

We are most humbled by the numerous miracles we witnessed which spared the life of this great man, Randy Young. Statistically speaking, he should not be alive right now. When the diagnosis of his aortic dissection was made, his chance of survival was less than 10% (for more details, see his blog).

Miracle #1: He remained at a job site in Clinton an hour longer than planned or else he would have been in his truck driving to his next job in Park City (about 60 miles away) when this happened.

Miracle #2: Steve, one of his electricians, was in the room when he started having chest pains and insisted on calling 911.

Miracle #3: The ambulance arrived within 5 minutes, transported him to Davis Hospital within 15 minutes, and his condition was diagnosed within the hour.

Miracle #4: He survived the flight to the University of Utah Hospital although he had 2 heart attacks during the flight and was in full cardiac arrest upon arrival.

Miracle #5: The anesthesiologist was able to quickly and safely cool down his body to 45 degrees to slow down brain activity in preparation for the surgery.

Miracle #6: He had a highly skilled heart surgeon who replaced his aortic valve, 6 inches of aorta, and reattached the coronary arteries which had pulled away.

Miracle #7: He survived the 6-hour surgery. (A nurse told us the surgical team cheered when he left the operating table alive.)

Miracle #8: He survived the next 24 hours and showed signs of brain activity about 6 hours post-surgery by moving all 4 limbs and by responding to family members (even though he was full of major pain medications).

Miracle #9: He continued to improve over the next several days, eventually coming fully out of the anesthetic and being coherent. Initially we had been told to expect possible extensive brain damage.

Miracle #10: He was released from the hospital 11 days after open heart surgery and returned to his home for recovery and physical therapy sessions.

Other miracles we witnessed included the outpouring of love and support from family and friends. We thank all of you who fasted and prayed for his well-being, for those who helped care for our children while we spent the first few days at the hospital, for those who brought in meals and visited, for those who helped look after our home in Logan and cover for the responsibilities we left behind, and for all your kind thoughts and concerns for us.

At this Christmas time, we are particularly aware of the blessings of family, friends, and church. For several hours we thought that we would be planning a funeral for our beloved father and grandfather, but even in the darkest moments we were full of gratitude for the life and mission of Jesus Christ and the eternal nature of families.

Updates on Randy Young's Condition

As most of you already have heard, Kevin's father Randy suffered an aortic dissection Thursday afternoon while on a job in Clinton. Tyler and Andrea have set up a family blog site to keep everyone updated. He is still hanging on, and we're still feeling hopeful about the outcome. Thank you again to everyone for your prayers--it means so much to us to have such great support from everyone at this time.

Aussie Week Adventure: Human Interest Photos

The Australian Outlet
Hotels have adapters and power converters
for your use (they just don't have free
internet access for your computer).

The Toilets
Australian toilets are much more conservation-oriented than US toilets. There is little water in the bowl, and there are two flush options: half-flush and full flush. We found that we could get by using the half-flush option all the time, except for the time we tried to flush our hotel cockroach--that little critter even clung on through the full flush (video clip available upon request).

More evidence for conservation awareness:

Don't Litter!

The "clean, green, transit machine" in downtown Sydney
called "Pedapod" -- a good job for keeping fit...

Hey, there's already a street named after us!

Highest Post Office Box, Sydney Tower

Need spices? Call C.V. Garlic. They deliver!

The concert we wished we could have attended at the Opera House,
even though John Williams himself would not be conducting.
It is scheduled for November 30th.

Artistic sinks in the restrooms at the Sydney Opera House

For our friends Dale and Ted:

What to do with a spare clay head model...

We could have taken Erin! And continued nursing!
(as a result of this trip, she is now fully weaned
although she will still ask for it on occasion)

Did you know that champagne bottles come in so many sizes?

Blue-tongued Skink Premium Lager
(don't know if it's better than the regular lager)

Eye-catching Display at the Botanical Gardens

April REALLY wanted to get this as a souvenir for her BYU professor, Hal Black.
Anyone who knows Hal would understand why. Kevin talked her out of it, saying
that Hal probably already has one. If not, sorry Hal, you can order one here.

Cigarette Warnings
We were very surprised by the graphic warnings on cigarette packages.
You can view more if you desire at this link. Apparently the TV ads
are also very graphic and depict people getting amputations.

Aussie Week Adventure: Free Choice Activities

Tourism New South Wales provided us with the See Sydney and Beyond Smartvisit Card, which gave us admission into a variety of places as well as discounts on shopping and food (which we didn't use). If you visit Sydney, we recommend getting this card. If we had had more time to plan out our free time, we could have utilized it more effectively and seen a few more sites.

Sydney Tower

After our long flight we attempted a short nap then decided to stroll through town and visit the Sydney Tower. Since we read it was the highest structure in Sydney we initially thought we could just look up and easily navigate to it. Instead, we were swallowed up by all the tall skyscrapers and found ourselves having to look at a map (but everything is clearly marked and it is easy to find your way around). Although most of the buildings were new, it was fun to see many historical buildings with elaborately-carved sandstone motifs holding their own against their towering neighbors. It seemed that most of the Sydney attractions were quite close to each other--the tower was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel, and is about as far away as we ever walked. For those who care about such things, there are extensive pedestrian malls and exclusive shopping areas.

Here is a look at the tower from the ground, and a view of the harbour from 820 feet.

Here is a sampling of other interesting sites we encountered on our walk through the city: an intricate carving of the lion and the unicorn in a sandstone building (these were frequently represented), the Il Porcellino statue by the Sydney Hospital (it was good luck to rub the boar's nose), and a smart car.

St. Mary's Cathedral

We also stopped for a visit at St. Mary's Cathedral. It was April's first "real" cathedral and rivaled some of the French cathedrals (according to Kevin). When we first walked in the organ was playing, and the acoustics were just amazing! The architecture, the carvings, and the elaborate stained glass windows were all very beautiful. This is the largest church in Australia and although it looks like something out of the Renaissance it was only completed in 1928 (and, unlike cathedrals of earlier times this one took "only" 60 years to build). Perhaps we should say it was mostly completed in 1928, as the spires were not added until 1998-2000. There was a large electronic marquee outside of it, counting down the days until the 23rd World Youth Day 2008, when Pope Benedict XVI and Catholic youth from all over the world will come to Sydney.

Sydney Aquarium

Our photographs of the Sydney Aquarium didn't turn out well because it was too dark inside. Instead you will have to wait for the upcoming video which we keep promising to edit and post one of these days.

The Royal Botanical Gardens

The gardens turned out to be our favorite place over the next few days. We were appreciating some of the giant fig and pine trees when April looked down and noticed a large number of owl pellets lying all over the ground. Being biologists, we both got very excited with finding animal sign so quickly in such a large city (and to our delight, other tourists had left the owl pellets alone so we could dissect as many was we wanted to). We excitedly pulled apart several pellets, trying to figure out what animal the bones came from. We are used to finding mouse and vole bones, but here we found large claws, long ulnas, and short femurs...hmm...due to jet lag and lack of sleep, we were unable to figure out the mystery prey animal and decided we would ponder the question again the next day. It was an odd sensation going from picking through owl pellets one moment to walking into our five-star hotel the next.

The following morning (thanks to jet lag), April was wide awake at 5:00 am and went out on the balcony to see Sydney awakening. She was thrilled to see dozens of fruit bats flying south over the hotel! There was the answer to the mystery bones. She woke Kevin up and insisted we go looking for a roost in the gardens as soon as possible. The irony is that we spent time carefully looking into the tops of every tree hoping to see a fruit bat or two, but when we finally reached the middle of the gardens the trees were absolutely covered in fruit bats!

We returned several times to the royal gardens, both to photograph bats and to enjoy the plants and landscapes. There is a lovely herb garden, which we were enjoying until the sprinkling of rain turned into a torrential downpour. We again had an odd sensation as we walked, sopping wet, into the lobby of our 5-star hotel.

Hike in Blue Mountains/Scenic World

It was cloudy and rainy the entire time we were in the Blue Mountains, but we didn't let that stop us from hiking down the Giant Stairway (that's its real name), more than 800 steps, to the canyon bottom. The rain apparently stopped others from doing the same, as we saw very few tourists. When we first received our itinerary (the day before we left), we were excited at the wildlife prospects of the Blue Mountains, but our five-hour walk in the rain only yielded distant cockatoos and one kookaburra. If you have the chance to visit this area yourself, be sure to listen for a lyre bird foraging in the leafs or singing to his mate--this bird is perhaps the world's best mimic, as demonstrated in this David Attenborough clip.

We hiked to Katoomba Falls, which were flowing at their utmost thanks to all the rain. Then we entered Scenic World and walked part of the boardwalk. We were really impressed with the information signs about the plants, animals, and mining activities of the area. We rode the Scenic Railway back up which is the steepest passenger train in the world (52° incline for 450 m), caught the Blue Explorer Bus and rode around Katoomba and Leura before returning to our hotel.

Observatory Hill

Our final day in Sydney was bright, sunny, and warm--warm enough for the skinks to come out! April caught this one while walking up Observatory Hill to visit the Sydney Observatory.

The Observatory had several interesting telescopes and other equipment. We did not coordinate our visit with one of the planetarium shows, unfortunately, so we mainly looked through the museum and then got to watch the exciting yellow ball descend, marking the 1:00 p.m. time (again, see future video post).

Grocery Shopping at Coles

We bought some fruit, golden syrup (for making Anzac biscuits), and too many goodies for the children. We should have gotten 3 more Tim Tam packages--they are too delicious! Why can't Americans make decent chocolate??? For anyone interested in traveling to Sydney, we recommend shopping here rather than at the little convenience stores surrounding the hotel areas. The prices are much more affordable (don't ask us about our $12.00 sunscreen...).

Libraries

Missing our weekly trip to the Logan Library, we instead found two libraries, one in downtown Sydney and one in Katoomba. We read up on some of the native wildlife. The libraries offered free internet access so we were able to email the children. One day we were even able to "chat" with Megan and Ian over the internet, which was very exciting! (Remember, this was the first time April had been away from the children for an extended time.) Kevin eventually had to drag April away from the computer to do more sightseeing.