An American Thanksgiving in Oz – the Sequel

Ben and I recognise and appreciate the fact that we live very fortunate and privileged lives.  We have had so many wonderful opportunities and are surrounded constantly by amazing and generous friends.  The past few months we have had some pretty rough events transpire and have relied on one another more than ever before for support.  I am so very lucky to have found a partner who I can trust and rely on absolutely.  I love him more with every passing day.

I think that it’s often easy to give thanks when all is well but more important to appreciate blessings when they are not.  For this very reason, we pushed forward and invited all of our friends over for another American Thanksgiving in Oz.  We were overwhelmed by the turnout – 32 people for dinner to be exact.  I’ve never cooked for that large a group before!

Our friends Ray and Annie were visiting from LA and we got to enjoy a long weekend with them as well. We put them to work chopping and peeling along with a few other helpers that we could cram into our very small apartment until we were able to access the event space and kitchen we booked in our building.

It was a great evening stuffing our faces and putting aside any worries and stress to enjoy the moment. We are thankful more than ever for the friends we have made here in Australia who have helped us through some rough waters and have ensured that we are well taken care of despite being so far from family and friends in the states.

Wedding and Whitsundays

One of our “Meet Up” group couples got married this weekend and the lot of us had the honour of attending the beautiful event. And what better reason than traveling up to Queensland for a wedding than making a holiday of it and spending the next few days hopping around the Whitsunday Islands?!

The wedding took place in Airlie Beach and was a beautiful evening. The ocean setting was almost as stunning as the bride Hannah. After the ceremony, cocktails were served on a sunset cruise followed by dinner and dancing back on dry land. We were so happy to be able to share in Hannah and Simon’s day and wish the happy couple so much love!

The rest of our holiday was spent sailing through the Whitsundays with a subset of our group. We chartered a sailboat for 3 days and I can’t imagine how it could have been any better. We filled our time with beaches, paddle boarding, snorkeling, sailing and at night, star gazing on the deck of the boat watching shooting stars fly across a stunning starlit sky.

I think it’s safe to say that Whitehaven Beach is the most beautiful beach I’ve visited and the snorkeling off the coast of Hayman Island was definitely one for the books. The endless variety of coral and fish were amazing. I was absolutely heartbroken when having to leave and return to reality and work… countdown to our next vacation begins now!