Easter Holiday

We recently found out our time in Australia is officially coming to a close at the beginning of June.  Our heart aches to leave this wonderful country, but we knew it was coming.  So to take advantage of this gorgeous Australian Autumn weather and enjoy some wilderness we went camping again at Cania Gorge!  However, we learned that the week before Easter is an extremely popular time to go to Cania Gorge as it was packed, but we've always found camping neighbors are very friendly and we had a great time.  We only stayed for two nights, which is long enough for me, but short compared to most of our neighbors who were there for the whole week!  

We had fun feeding the birds the first night on Thursday.

We got the closest we've ever gotten to a kookaburra near our tent.  He was eating something.

We were also hungry and ate our beef stew and rolls quite heartily.

Then we roasted marshmallows over our fire.  Yippee!

Yum yum!

The nights and mornings were beautifully cool.  Here's Alice all "rugged up" on Friday morning.  What a cutie!  

We took a small hike up to an old gold mine and ate lunch at the lake.  We stopped at a beautiful gully on our way back to camp.  

The kids then took advantage of the pools and waterslide while Alice and I took a nap.  We all enjoyed ice cream afterwards.

We ate chili and Dutch oven cornbread for dinner.  Well, the cornbread was more like a charred brick, so really we just ate chili.  I wish I'd gotten a picture of that cornbread, it was pretty impressive!  Luckily the Dutch oven served us well for our peach cobbler.  Yum!  Among other things we didn't get pictures of was the kids getting to hold yabbies that our neighbors caught at the lake.  Yabbies are like giant crawfish or small lobsters.  We also got no pictures of night visitors called betongs.  They are like a crazy mix between a possum and a small kangaroo.  

Cuddling in a warm sleeping bag Saturday morning.  The kids all slept well and I actually slept decently for once on a camping trip.  Ear plugs were my friends.  

Our camp site.  Mike making pancakes and the kids watching the fire on Saturday morning.  Lydia and Isaac slept in the small green pop up tent.  Such big kids.

It was a wonderful trip.  The hardest part was following the wandering 15 month old around.  She was on my hip more often than she would have liked.  And covered in dirt when she wasn't.  But camping is fun and we had a great time.  The 3 hour drive back was such a treat!  We drove a scenic route through two state parks; the first being a pine forest up in the hills that looked like it could have been in Wyoming and the second being a eucalyptus forest with lush gulleys that looked like it belonged in a fairy tale!  And I didn't take one single picture (shameful).  Australia is so beautiful!  

Easter Sunday was lovely and simple.  After church, which was wonderful, the kids had their Easter egg hunt where they found chocolate eggs, new toothbrushes, and their last Easter bilbies.

The lamb cake! (This year I obviously failed as a photographer by not even clearing off the table to provide a proper background.  Yes, we do often serve our green beans straight out of the steamer basket.  At least the roasted sweet potatoes got their own serving dish.)

I am so grateful for Jesus Christ's victory over death and the promise it brings to each of us.  We are so blessed.  And so loved.  Happy Easter!