i am down unda!!

i haven't been able to blog about visiting australia because i was so afraid of having james' sister, cathy find out!! for those not in the know, james and i are in australia for two weeks. horray!! we had planned on surprising his sister, cathy, for her 21st birthday!! james had this planned since january, and i can't believe that she never found out that we were coming to visit!!

the plane ride over was direct from sfo to sydney which was great!! yes, a 15 hour flight sort of sucks, but it's great not having to change planes partially in the flight. luckily i woke up really early the day of our flight, and we left sfo at about 11 pm. we had a small dinner about 45 minutes in the flight, and then i started tiring myself out by reading and then taking small naps. it's hard to sleep for 8 hours total, but was able to sleep, walk around, sleep, walk around, and sleep.

the flight wasn't totally full, so james and i were able to sit in a little aisle of 3 seats instead of 2. after some sleep, we had a small breakfast 2 hours before we landed, and then it was like, "omgomgomgomg, pleeeease land this plane soon!!" you get a fun case of cabin fever after being in a plane for so long!!

we flew from sydney to canberra (pronounced: can-bra) thanks to james's daddy!! horray!! customs in sydney was incredibly easy, too!! i just handed them my landing card, and the lady told me to have a fun trip. horray again!! the flight to canberra was incredibly quick, too!! we were literally getting up in the air, handed a juice and snack, they grabbed our trash before my juice was done, and we landed!!

it was great to land and have james' mommy, daddy, and sister elizabeth there to greet us!! it was a fun surprise to have his mommy and elizabeth there. after that, we came back to their house, and they had a huge bouquet of flowers for me!! i couldn't believe it...there are yellow gerber daisies, irises, and birds of paradise!! i'm taking lots of beautiful pics that i'll have to figure out how to save to james' photo blog. :)

after we arrived at the house, we went out to eat, and then to surprise cathy. she was at school, and we were going to pick her up after her last class, even though she didn't know we were there. when we arrived, elizabeth was planning on getting her from the hall she was just at, and walking her back to the car where their dad was to take them home...not knowing that james and i were there instead!! we all walked up to the hall, and saw cathy right there!! james had planned on possibly popping out of nowhere to surprise her while i took pictures of them. elizabeth ran straight up to cathy while james and i just stood there, not knowing if we should try to walk away, but elizabeth pointed to us, and she ran straight towards me!! james had the camera, so she didn't see him, but she saw me and FREAKED OUT!!

i got a great big hug, and then james was attacked as well!! i can't believe that she wasn't aware of us visiting, and it was the best surprise/freak-out i've ever seen. i'm so happy that i got to play a part!! after this point, my brain was still on sf time, and i don't remember a whole lot. we came back here, got to hang out and james and i fell asleep for a bit. after that, the fam got some yummy chinese food to go and james and i were struggling to stay awake and eat anything. can you believe it...me...struggling to eat dinner?? hahahahaaah!! but we got to sleep around 10 pm and slept till about 3, went back to bed after about 30 minutes, and woke up again around 7 today.

so thanks to everyone who was thinking good thoughts for my flight over!! it was really easy and i didn't need to watch tv to distract me or anything. hopefully the flight back will be the same!! now it's time for me to go to the zoo with cathy and elizabeth, and i'll be sure to write again tomorrow!!

hugs and kisses to all from down unda!! xoxoxo!! :)