It stopped raining!

Yes - can you believe it!? We had a day without any rain! I was actually really muggy today. It would have been a good day to go to the zoo but we had already planned to go to the temple today, because we had tickets to be a part of the audience of Gladiators, which is currently being filmed, so we couldn't fit the zoo in as well.

Aaron and Chrish didn't go to bed until after 1am as they both stayed up to watch the replay of the Superbowl. At 6am Noah was awake with a tummy ache and Aaron was snoring his head off, so I decided to just get up as there was no way I could go back to sleep again. Everyone else surfaced about 8am so we went to the second session at the temple.

Chrish was brave enough to look after the boys for us for two hours, so Aaron and I could go together. I gave him strict instructions to take some photos for me, which he did a great job with! He also went over to the shopping centre across the road and bought them lunch and he said they spent ages in the pet shop looking at all the animals.



When we got into the temple the guy at the desk asked us the usual questions (are you related to Des and June King, and is Bishop Prebble your bishop?). The guy then told us that there were 'some Triffitt's' from Tassie, who had just come in as well and I told him that I was a Triffitt! Of course he asked me which Triffitt and said that his Dad and Pop grew up together. It was great as in our session was Filipa and Chris, and Auntie Ann and Uncle Tom. Fil was going through for the first time. It was nice to have some familiar faces with us, and also nice to meet Chris, before they get married on Friday.

After taking more photos, we headed to the distribution centre and stocked up on DVDs etc.




We had a couple of hours to fill in before Gladiators was starting, so we headed to Westfield at Parramatta for some lunch and a quick shop. Chrish has been looking for a Nintendo Wii for a while, and it has been sold out everywhere, so he was very excited that they had one in stock at Toys R Us. Jalen was so excited (and jealous!) as he has also wanted one for a long time. I think they were both keen to get home to have a play of it.

It's great how easily kids are excited. It made Harri's day to have a $2 ride on a Wiggles ride in the shopping centre.

After a quick shop we headed to Olympic Park for Gladiators. All the episodes they are filming at the moment are going to be shown later in the year on channel 7. I was VERY upset that I wasn't able to take my camera in, but Aaron and Chrish were very naughty and snuck a few photos with their mobile phones. The stadium looked awesome - with smoke machine's and pyrotechnics going off as the Gladiators came out. Tom Williams (from The Great Outdoors) was one of the hosts of the show and also some woman named Zoe someone, who looked familiar, but we couldn't work out what she had been on before. Anthony Koutafedes and Tatiana Gregoriava were both Gladiators, along with a lot of other blonde, big chested women and huge guys.
At first it was all very exciting, but it is nothing like watching a one hour show on TV. Over and over again we were asked to clap and cheer. They had to keep retaking different interviews and introductions and would then set up different shots which meant there was a lot of waiting around for things to happen. They even made the crowd move to different parts of the stadium to fill in chairs behind where each game was going on, to make it look like it was packed out.

We were really lucky as the security ladies came over to us and told us where the best place was to sit, because of different games going on in different areas. They even let us move the wheelchair up to a higher place so we could see better, rather than sitting right down low where the boys couldn't really see. Chrish is quickly learning that most of the time you are treated very well when you have a child in a wheelchair. It is nice when people are so willing to help you. One of the Gladiators came over close to where we were, so Aaron ran Noah down to say hi and the host - Zoe, even stopped the Gladiator ('Scar') to say hi to Noah as he didn't see Aaron coming. The boys (and myself!!) were also excited when Tom Williams came right up to us and waved and saluted the boys. Zoe also came up to us and asked the boys if they were having fun. She commented on how long it gets and said that we were allowed to go if we needed to.

After two games (there were four) we decided to head off as it was getting very long and Harri was very overtired and had enough. Even though it started to drag on it was lots of fun, and exciting to see how it was all done.

Chrish and Aaron are probably going to have another late night as they are playing each other on the Wii and having a great time. It is hilarious watching them jump around the room. You can tell Aaron is getting old as he keeps saying it is time for a 'drink break'!

Tomorrow we are hoping that the weather continues to hold out, so we can finally go to the zoo.