gladstone.

the first real adventure of australia was over easter weekend. i went up to gladstone with the family to visit both sides of the family. it was a wonderful weekend. i got to experience the small city life of calliope with tanya's parents' side of the family. the little town reminded me of my great grandparents' place up in paul, idaho and my other great grandparents' place in tyner, kentucky. the beautiful country life and the small town feeling. we spent one day visiting awoonga dam and tannum sands with john's mum. the dam was such an amazing sight to see God's blessing upon the country. 2 years ago when the catford's first came to australia, all the dams were all under 20% filled. and due to all the rain, especially since the past 2 months the dams are all over 100% filled. and the amazing thing with awoonga dam was that they built another 10m of supporting wall and it was still overflowing! wow! what a blessing that is to the country! praise God! i then got to experience a free festival that gladstone puts on every easter, the harbor festival. games, prizes, rides, slides, animals, and abba. what a great night. the last 2 days of the weekend vacation were spent up at john's dad's place. he owns 400 acres of land and it was probably my favorite place to be that weekend. got to brand a cow; ride a horse; see so many stars, the southern cross and the milky way, and a whole bunch of other stars that i don't know; go fishing; ride in a canoe; find poison toads; love the beautiful flowers and sunsets; overcome my fear of spiders; and just soak up and enjoy more of God's beautiful country.