it is official....

yep...here it is...i truly have fallen in love...with Australia that is. Not just in love with the country, in love with the lifestyle, the people-both locals and my international friends , where I live, the ocean, and the list goes on and on. I wake up every day and realize how blessed I am to be living such a fantasy life! I still cannot get over how much I love it here. I feel so at home, so happy, so free...cheesy I know but so true. It is so hard to explain things though...no one can understand what it feels like unless they experience it! I really cannot speak highly enough of my experience here and I am getting super sad that my days here are limited...

Skype has been a lifesaver. Without it my feelings about my experience might be slightly different...i love getting to talk to my family and friends at home! It makes things easier when I can see them and talk to them. Don't get me wrong-I miss everyone at home but still love it here SO SO SO much.

I am bouncing off the walls with excitement and happiness-about what you may ask. Well the answer-I have no idea. I feel like I am just on a constant high on life, it is super crazy. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it here!

The worst part about falling in love is that eventually your heart might get broken...my heart is going to shatter when I leave here...and unfortunately that time is coming sooner than I would like to admit. The next two months are going to fly by WAY too fast! Because of that I will continue to enjoy each and every minute I spend here!

No worries-I am living life to the fullest every day!

God Bless :)

XOXOXO
Stac

Playing Catch Up...

So I know I mentioned I was going to try and explain my vacation, but I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that a.) I don't have time to blog about it b.) nothing i can say will do justice to how amazing it was and c.) pictures speak 1000 words, so you can kind-of grasp how amazing the trip was just by looking at some of the posted pictures. Plus, I am sure no one would have time to read that novel of a blog-it would be tremendously long!

Long story short-it was by far the best 10 days of my life. I would not trade that trip for anything. Our group was beyond amazing-had zero problems and the boys were HILARIOUS!!!! There are heaps of inside jokes from that trip that will stick around for awhile I am sure...

Last weekend I went to Wollongong, 1 hour S of Sydney or 5 hour train ride, to visit my friend from home, Marissa. It was her 21st birthday so I decided to come down and help her celebrate. Wollongong was pretty neat, but I am heaps glad I came to Newcastle!

I am still loving it down here way more than I ever could have imagined I would!!!! I am SO happy living down here and know it will be tough leaving this place....

My flight home is finalized-I will be home July 2. I am leaving Australia on the 26th of June but am stopping in Honolulu for a few days to stay with my brother Nic's friends from high school. I am super excited for that-I think Adriana is going to do a stop-over there as well, I am sure it will be a good time!

Well I better scoot, but miss everyone heaps and cannot wait to see you all again soon!

XOXO
Stac

Sleeping on the Beach with Ads

Our view in the morning-how gorgeous?! And get this-just as the sun was rising we saw a bunch of dolphins swim by! Heaps cool!

We were SO excited when the sun finally came out!

Adriana and I trying to stay warm-it was surprisingly heaps cold out!

So we thought for the longest time (well I guess I thought) that this was somebody creeping on us, little did we know it was just a garbage bin. Haha

Ads and I jamming out to Disney songs (Hakuna Matata, A Whole New World, etc.) before all of our evening visitors came by. A bunch of our guy friends stopped by throughout the night to make sure we were ok, to see if we really were going to sleep on the beach, and to try to talk us out of staying out in the cold alone. Two of our guy friends, Sam and Thor, even surprised us around midnight with cookies :)


So in case you haven't noticed-all of my pictures are totally backwards in order on here but oh well! haha...anyways so I got back from Wollongong last night and had this HUGE urge to sleep on the beach. So I called up Ads and of course she was game!!! Everyone doubted that we would actually do and survive the night along but we had NO problems whatsoever-and ended up with SEVERAL laughs! David, Jerod, Chase, and Pat stopped by and played football with us for a bit-they even brought us TimTams. Our friends Drew and Charlie stopped by later to see how we were doing and to hang out for a bit. Then after midnight our 2 favorite Australians, Sam and Thor, stopped by with cookies, water and extra blankets for us. Yeh I know-we are spoiled. Needless to say Ads and I are pretty tired today, oh well-it was worth every single second being in the extremely cold weather!!!!! I have a hunch we might be trying it again sometime soon...I will keep you posted! And no worries-we were safe and alert the whole time :)

Whitehaven Beach- rated 2nd most beautiful beach in the world by National Geographics

They told us the sand on the beach was 98% pure silica, aka the softest and smallest grains of sand around. It was heaps of fun to play with!

The stunning seven enjoying the beach

More jumping pictures...this is probably one of my favorites!

Whitehaven Beach-the picture does not do it justice as to how gorgeous it was!

Our boat group at Whitehaven-there were 18 of us, some from the States, some from Norway, Canada, UK, Mexico, and Sweden

More sailing....

Alex, David, Me, and Adriana hanging out near our boat

One of the sea turtles...

We saw like 3-4 sea turtles and they got super close to us!! We also saw Lemon sharks, sting rays, fish at least 3 ft long, and tons of coral! The fish completely surrounded us while we were snorkeling and we were even able to tough a bunch of them...so cool!

We saw Nemo and several of his relatives while snorkeling!

Our view at night when the sun went down-no this is not a picture I found online, it truly is what we saw at night! Stunning!

Sailing Over Around the Whitsundays

Our super sweet boat-22 of us slept on it for 2 nights, was equipt with a hot tub in the front, and served the most amazing meals ever!

Our group snorkeling with our fun noodles...

Getting ready to hop in- I absolutely loved snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. Truly one of the most amazing things ever!

Our traveling crew-Pat, Jason, David, Me, Adriana, Kelsey, and Alex (aka some of the most chill and hilarious people ever!) We were just getting ready to go snorkeling but had to wear stinger suits because there was literally THOUSANDS of jelly fish in the water! It was really cool-we touched them and played with them and they really feel like jelly, who woulda thought...hahha

The skipper let me take control of the wheel-crazy i know!!! It was actually heaps easy to steer it!

Skydiving-Jumped out of a plane from 8000 ft over Whitsundays

Enjoying the view once I knew I was not going to die....hahha

Jumping out of the plane! Easily the biggest adrenaline rush I have ever felt! So much fun...

The view from our plane as we were flying up-SO gorgeous!!!!

I was SO nervous going up in the plane, the instructor had a good laugh I am sure...

Practicing our landing skills- I went skydiving with my 2 favorite people here-Adriana and David

These are the best days of my life....

Ok so I just got back from the vacation from heaven-easily the best 10 days of my life!!!!

I will blog about each place I went later (hopefully later today) but wanted to get pictures up ASAP so you guys have a glimpse at all the amazing things I just experienced!

Enjoy :)

Life is too short...

A curve ball was thrown our way today...a really good friend of mom and dad's passed away this morning. He had a massive heart attack. It is heart breaking to hear about, he was truly a one-of-a kind man. He was SO amazing and one of the most giving/caring people I know. He would always take the time to listen to hear how you were after he asked how you are. It just sucks that such an amazing friend/father/grandfather had to be taken away so early. I just don't get it, it does not seem fair at all. It really puts things into perspective and reminds me how precious our time on Earth is...

Please be sure to keep the Dobratz family and all who are mourning in your prayers!!!

XOXO
Stac

Jump for Joy-We're in Sydney

Two of Sydney's most famous attractions-both are stunning in real life!

Jumping near the Botanical Gardens

Taking it all in...

Jumping by the bridge....

Wahoo for the Opera House

Sydney!

Nemo and his dad :)

The cute dugong was smiling at us!!

Amazed by the aquarium...

We had heaps fun there!!!

We found some delicious looking Easter Candy

Just Dance...

David, Adriana, and I doing what we do best-dancing our hearts out

David and I hitting up the dance floor until the wee hours of the morning

My pal David and me

My favs-Adriana and Jess

Dinner with the boys-they cook us delicious meals!!!

Hammocks. Mates. Surfing.

The occasional wipeouts...

Working the surf board as best I can!

Freezing our rears off in our wet wetsuits in the wee hours of the morning!

The dolphins we got to see jumping in the ocean-heaps cool!!!

Kira and I chilling/napping in the hammocks-heaps comfortable!

peace.love.surf.

Walking on the beach to our surf spot....

The name of our surf camp was called Mojo Surf...pretty cool eh?? I am the one standing up in the first "o"

peace. love. surf.

my pal Kira and I enjoying the gorgeous day!

Recuperated on the beach after a long afternoon of surfing....