Easter In Brissie

The day before Easter we took a break after the exhilarating Gold Coast adventure. The girls stayed home and decorated Easter cookies out on our veranda with a pleasant 80 degree day. To the left is a picture of the girls working hard to make the cookie dough.





It's a low-key Easter morning for Marina and I as we sit and watch Winnie the Pooh, a big favorite of hers. I think we're at the tail-end of her chicken pox and hopefully will be able to accompany the rest of the gang tomorrow up to O'Reilly's Rainforest, about an hour's drive away. I'm sure it will be one of the big highlights for the girls since O'Reilly's has a great treetop walk and breathtaking mountain views. Marc and the girls are at church and will be home shortly. Marina is getting antsy and asks every five minutes when they'll be home. She even went outside to wait for them and discovered a special treat for us. On our door knob hung a bag filled to the brim with all sorts of Easter goodies that you can't find here--Marshmallow Peeps of every color, Reese's peanut butter cups, York peppermint patties, and pastel-colored candy corn. Even though there was no note inside the bag, I knew immediately that our lovely neighbor, Leigh, had dropped it off for us. She is a Qantas flight attendant who often works the Brisbane to LA flight. She has kindly left us other holiday bags at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine's Day, always filled with candy and other fun things from America. Her husband, Steve, works for Marc and was instrumental in Marc accepting the job in Australia due to his positive attitude and fun-loving spirit. They are such a great couple who we have come to dearly love.

This evening we enjoyed a spontaneous Easter dinner with Michael and Angela Brannan, along with 3 of their 7 children. Michael is over from the US to work in Marc's group on an Unmanned Air Vehicle surveillance program. They're Americans but had worked in Australia for 8 years up until 2 years ago when they returned to Colorado Springs. Missing Australia, they jumped at the chance to return and arrived in Brisbane only 3 days ago. We had a pleasurable dinner on our veranda along with their 11 year old triplets, Adelaide (named after Adelaide, South Australia, where they were born), Caleb and Zach. The boys succumbed to jet-lag around 8PM and were fast asleep, but the rest of us enjoyed talking about their previous experiences living in Australia. Because they have all had chicken pox, they felt safe coming over even though Marina might still be contagious.

Well, I didn't get this posted until 10:30PM. What I thought would be a quiet Easter due to Marina ended up being a delightful evening with new friends. We hope that you all have a Happy Easter in the States!

Love,

Marce

The girls on Mt. Cootha overlooking Brisbane after church with Marc.