It's Only Been 30 Years

Today marked our 30th Wedding Anniversary - a date that seems quite incredible to us but the calendar doesn't lie! In some ways, we seem so very different from the young people who said "I Do" back in 1978 but in other ways, we haven't changed that much. Anyone who has been married for a while certainly understands what I'm saying. I will say that we count the years together as a real blessing and are thankful to God for all of the good things He has given us in our time together - not the least of which are our children, our extended family and our wonderful friends!

Celebrating this milestone so far from family and friends seems odd but we've decided to try and make this as special as possible and have had a great weekend together. On Saturday, Nancy went on a 10K walk with some of the women from church in the AM (while I went to the gym) and then we had a bit of "hang time" while we waited for our weekly "cruise boat buddy" to leave our front door. The big event of the day was a nice dinner with Pierre and Leslie Goulet on "their side of the river" in the up-and-coming suburb of Bulimba. For us, it's just a short walk to the City Cat pier and then a brief ride to the dock at Bulimba where the Tonic restaurant sits at the water's edge. The weather on Saturday was a bit rainy (hence the picture of the rainbow taken from the back of the City Cat) but the food was great as was the conversation. Pierre and Leslie have "only" been together for 20 years so we were able to offer them the benefit of our marital wisdom!

We wanted to do something special for our friends at Cornerstone Church so we had bought a couple of really good cakes at Michel's Pattisserie (in the Toombul Shopping Centre) and Nancy put them out for the morning tea after the service. They were really great - not a crumb was left! We followed up with an elegant meal at the local McDonald's to head home and prepare for a bit of vacation we're taking - starting tomorrow. We're heading up into the Granite Belt region of Queensland and have booked a room at the Azure Studio Retreat through Wednesday. This looks like a great place and in a really neat region and we're looking forward to doing a bit of exploration. From there, we're planning to head down to Melbourne and a bit more exploring...and then we're not sure. We'll keep you all posted as things unfold.

The weather here in Brisbane has been fine but to our north, they have been getting hammered with rain. I'm not sure of the news goes through back home but the town of Mackay received over 625 millimeters of rain in a 6 hour period (that's a little more than 24 inches!) I've given you a bit of video below - it's pretty wild!