Sara, Phoebe and Jillian came to Brisbane for 3 weeks over Christmas and New Years. We stayed in the Brisbane area with some day trips to the Gold Coast, the Australia Zoo (Thanks Gail), The Sunshine Coast and lots of sights around the city.

Our first Christmas away from the rest of our families and in the warmth of the southern hemisphere was a little different but we really enjoyed the slow pace of life. I was off work for the whole time they were here. You can see our great fake tree in the picture below. They dont

have any sort of fir trees here so they are all fake. Christmas ev, we had a nice dinner just the 4 of us, went to church were I have been attending and then went home and opened some presents and then the girls went to bed.

Christmas day we had a slow easy morning with some presents, food and then we played with all our new presents.

The picture below is of me and the girls right before church on the Good Will bridge over the Brisbane River.


One of our day trips was up the Sunshine coast to Noosa Head. The water and beaches are beautiful there. The picture below tells the story a little. We went to another beach and had a swim.
We learned here that Jillian is fearless when it comes to the water
and the ocean. She would walk right into the water and eventually

fall down with her head under water. Of course we were there to
pluck her right up but she would do it time and time again.

There are many great stories to tell
and many great moments. Mostly it

was just good to be back together as
a family. I dont think we will go for
a separation like this ever again, by
choice anyway.

On the last night before the girls left we had dinner up a restaurante in Paddington, a nice suburb in the hills north of Brisbane. We at at the Kookuburra Cafe and had a great meal. After dinner we walked around a

little and the sun was setting. we got some great shots, this one being one of my favorites of the whole trip.

I love you Sara, Phoebe and Jillian.

Glass House Mountains

On my first hike in Queensland I headed up to the Glass House Mountains about an hour north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast. The 'mountains' were Named by Captain Cook for there appearance and similarity in shape to the glass stoves used in England at the time. They are old volcanoes or hot spots were lava build up a dome underground. Then over centuries all the sandstone has erroded away to reveal what we see today. There are about 7-8 mountains of various size and shape. I chose Beerwah that you seen in the first picture below. The 'trail' heads up the light colored area in the middle of the mountian and is quite steep for the first part.

I turned into a hot day and I drank 3 liters of water in a 2.5 hour hike, mostly on the way up were I was actually driping with sweat.

View from the top was beautiful in all directions. To the west as you see in the bottom picture is another mountain and the south end of the Sunshine Coast. I lingered at the summit for 30 min or so to enjoy the pay off of the hike and then went down.

I met 3 guys from Brisbane on the way down that were suprised I was there alone and from the states. I didnt think much of it. They were nice and I asked them all sorts of questions about the area, Queensland and Brisbane.

The hike down was a bit harder than the way up
but was not to bad. you can see the guys on the way down blow me. it was steep enough that you almost wanted to turn around and head down like a ladder.

After my hike which I completed by 1 pm to get down before any storms, I headed to the bay for a kite session.