My Birthday

My birthday was sooo very fun and will be one that I will always fondly remember! Duane’s birthday treat to me was to take me to swim / snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef!

Elder Nelson made all the arrangements, booked a resort to stay at about four and a half hours north of Brisbane in a darling resort town called Bargara, on the edge of a town called Bundaberg. Bundaberg is home to a bottler of ginger beer and other soft drinks. Elder Nelson chose to take me to that area because right off the coast is the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef! We spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday having a great time. Our resort was right on the beach and our room had an ocean view. Sooo cool!

We arrived around 3:00 pm on Saturday, checked in and once we were settled, we decided to walk along the beach and watched the sunset.

As we walked along, we noticed hundreds of intricate, unique patterns in the sand, which we thought had to be made from crabs. Elder Nelson actually googled it and found that these very cool patterns were made by crabs called “Sand Bubbler Crabs.” (It said these crabs create intricate, radiating patterns on the beach by feeding on microscopic organisms in the sand. They sift through the sand, eat the nutrients and then discard the waste sand in the form of tiny balls, arranging them in distinctive patterns around their burrows. These patterns are a testament to the crab’s feeding activity and can be quite fascinating to observe.) And yes, it was very intriguing to walk along and see hundreds of these sand ball designs everywhere covering the beach! I don’t recall ever seeing anything like these sand ball designs before our walk that night. On Sunday afternoon, when we spent the afternoon on the beach in lounge chairs, we saw more sand ball designs. No two designs are ever the same! These designs are amazing to walk along the beach and look at!

As we walked along, we also came upon these words that someone had spelled in the sand, “Jesus Loves You.”

Sunday, we went to church, and I got to meet a wonderful lady named Sister Greville. She has a granddaughter the same age as my granddaughter Elouise, and as we talked with each other, we started thinking of how much fun it would be for our two granddaughters to be pen pals! We exchanged pictures, addresses and information about our granddaughters and we are now hoping these two cute girls will have a fun time receiving letters from each other!

On Monday, July 28th, we had to be up early and out the door by 6:00 a.m. so we could be at the marina at 6:30 a.m. to catch our 7:00 a.m. chartered boat tour to “Lady Musgrave Island.” The boat tour also included snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. That morning, right as we left our room, the sun was rising and it was very beautiful, full of red, orange, pink and purple colors. The sun rise followed us along the coastal highway that we were on, lit our car up with colors and oh, my, it took our breath away! As we drove along, Duane and I kept commenting on how gorgeous the sunrise was and what amazing things the Lord has given us to thrill us and bring us joy…especially when we take the time to notice, appreciate and accept His gift of daily miraculous creation and joy!

Through that day on our boat and on the Great Barrier Reef, both Duane and I were just amazed we were actually there having that experience! Everything about that day was awesome and so very pleasant! The chartered boat was huge and very comfortable! The seats were soft and reclining. The tour provided lunch and several snacks for us. They told us that during the summer months, their boat takes around 200 people out to Lady Musgrave Island to snorkel. On our tour we had about 30 people.

The day out to Lady Musgrave Island was sunny, clear blue skies and just perfect! It was a two-hour boat ride to get to the island. The ocean was calm. The people who worked on the boat mentioned several times that it was a great day to snorkel and look at coral, fish, and turtles. On our way out to the island, we saw whales breaching…sooo amazing… and dolphins leaping in the air. So very cool!

When we got to the island, we secured our tour boat to a pontoon boat. Once we were on the pontoon boat, they then loaded all of us onto a glass bottom boat and we sailed around the small coral island looking at turtles, coral and fish. It was so much fun!

The glass bottom boat anchored off Lady Musgrave Island and we waded in the ocean to walk onto the island. Our island guide was Bella, a Marine Biologist, who was very nice. She took us on a 45 minute walk around the entire island, telling us all kinds of fun facts like how the huge tree roots have grown down and hooked themselves onto the coral below and over thousands of years, created this little island we were on! Wow! The island was beautiful but the color of the ocean water was a spectacular light turquoise blue! I kept saying to Duane that I couldn’t believe that we were there having a great time on the Great Barrier Reef!

After our walk around the island, we got back in the glass bottom boat and went back to the pontoon boat. We got in our swimsuits, got on our snorkel gear and flippers, for it was now time to snorkel! The water was very cold, but Elder Nelson didn’t seem to mind it as much. I had my flippers, mask, and snorkel tube on and stepped on the first step down in the water and stopped. To me, it was freezing, since it was July, which is wintertime for this time of year. Duane kept signalling me to get all the way in the water, but I kept shaking my head no. I stood in the water up to my knees and was shivering. I finally took another step down onto the next step and stood there. Again, he waved me to come in. With my snorkel in my mouth, I shook my head no again. I went to step down on the next step down, and somehow in the process, my flipper somewhat slipped and suddenly I was all the way in! Yes! Oh yes, it was freezing, but after a few shocking moments of swimming around, it felt a tad bit warmer to me. It was amazing and peaceful swimming and snorkelling around and just enjoying the moment. It was very fun and relaxing. Both Duane and I loved it! So beautiful out there!

They gave us two hours to swim and snorkel, which was awesome! The two hours passed quickly and soon it was 3:00 pm and was time to leave, get back on our tour boat and make our way the two hours back to the Bargara shore. It was sad to have this beautiful, perfect day end! If the water had been about 15 or maybe 20 degrees warmer, that would have made it truly a perfect day! Duane and I purchased T-shirts on our tour boat to remind us of this great experience!

Tuesday, we got up, packed, and drove the four and half hours back home to Brisbane. As we drove we passed a hill that had about 13 kangaroo’s sitting on the hill. How fun to take these incredible memories home with us!

Thank you so very much Duane for an amazing birthday gift!

I REALLY LOVED MY WEEKEND SO MUCH!

WEDNESDAY…

Wednesday was my actual birthday.

I received so many birthday wishes from my children, grandchildren and other family members. It was so sweet for me to read their kind expressions of love! My mom called and that was so fun to visit with her!

When Amy Facetimed, she had Olive and Elsie show me the birthday cards they made for me…absolutely adorable! Love how they made my cards special just for me! Elsie’s card made me cry my heart out! I will post it here…so very tender and from her heart!

I am so incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful, amazing family! So grateful that they are mine forever! LOVE my children, grandchildren, parents, siblings, Duane’s wonderful family, and all our extended family! I also received a lot of texts and Facebook posts from dear friends and our sweet, wonderful missionaries! How did I ever get to be so blessed and so loved?!

Right after I Facetimed with Amy and her kiddos, President and Sister Gomez called me and sang the “Birthday Song” to me over the phone and then spent several minutes wishing me a wonderful day! I thanked them several times and told them how much that meant to me! It really did mean so much to me that they would take the time to call me…let alone even remember that today was my birthday! They are so very awesome and Duane and I LOVE them so very much! How very grateful we are that we get to serve with them for the next sixteen months! I know without a doubt that we are supposed to have our mission journey together with them! Love, Love the Gomez’s!!

Duane and I had a flat inspection of the house we are living in. The lady came at 10:15 am and was very nice. We talked about the gas stove top that needs to be replaced. She said the owners were aware that the stove / burners is not working. We always keep the gas turned off until we want to use the stove, then Duane reaches down under it and turns the gas back on. After we are finished cooking, he turns that gas back off. We also showed her the bathroom in the hallway and how it has a really bad smell in it. We told her how Duane had purchased a drain / pipe cleaner from Bunnings, and it helped for about four days and then the stink returned. When she opened the door, she grimaced and quickly closed the door and said they would try to get someone out to help us with that smell problem. We had a nice visit and then she left.

Elder Nelson had some emails to return and paperwork to complete and also phone calls to make. He finished all his work around 2:00 p.m. and then surprised me with more birthday surprises. He said he wanted to take me out to dinner for my birthday and had made reservations at a water front French restaurant called “La Vue” which is in downtown Brisbane, right on the Brisbane River. The restaurant has an amazing view of the Brisbane River, the Story Bridge and of pedestrians walking along the riverside sidewalk. I was so excited to go to dinner downtown along the Brisbane river! We changed our clothes and then drove over to the Guyatt Park station where we caught the City Cat. As I have mentioned before, it is only .50 cents for each person to ride the City Cat in one direction and then another .50 cents to ride it back. It was so much fun floating down the river and taking in the beautiful downtown Brisbane scene once again!

We got off the City Cat at the Riverside stop and walked the short distance to the “La Vue” restaurant. They opened their doors at 5:00 pm, so we sat on a park bench and waited for about ten minutes. Our reservation was for 5:00 p.m. Anything later was already reserved for that night.

The restaurant was wonderful! They seated us at a large window location with a view of the Story Bridge right in front of us with nothing blocking our view! On our table was a card wishing me a happy birthday!

Not long after we were seated, the sun set and it was stunning to sit and watch the sun go down and watch the gorgeous lights of the city come on in bright whites and colors, bringing the city to life! The Story Bridge was so very pretty! We held hands…so romantic…as we sat and watched cars drive across the Story Bridge and families and pedestrians walk on the sidewalk in front of us.

I ordered Beef Filet and Duane ordered Pork Medallions. Both entrees were excellent. When they brought my dessert out to me, it had a lit sparkler, which brought a LOT of smiles and joy to me! So very sweet of them! There was also a rectangle piece of chocolate with gold lettering on the chocolate that said “Happy Birthday!” I looked at Duane and told him how much I love him…and how much tonight and the past weekend meant to me! He is such a gift to me! LOVE my handsome guy!

Wow! Oh wow!

We walked back to the City Cat holding hands and continued to hold hands as we floated down the river.

We had only been home about ten minutes when four of our wonderful young Elders came to our house with a birthday cake and “Double Coat Chocolate Tim Tam’s”…my favorite!

I LOVE those Elders! They are awesome! So fun and thoughtful of them to come by!

Thank you so much to everyone who made my birthday incredible! I will never forget it…ever!

Such. a. wonderful. night!

Such. a. wonderful. day!

Such. a. wonderful. weekend!