In a trip filled with joy, beauty, and wonderful things, today was the absolute best and MOST wonderful day. This afternoon during a waterfall hike on Tamborine Mountain, Connor proposed to our daughter Jenna, and she said “Yes!”! We could not be more thrilled and delighted to officially welcome Connor into our family. Connor and Jenna have been dating for almost two years, and they moved in to a house together this summer, so we can’t say this was a total surprise, but it certainly was an enthusiastic four thumbs up event from Rob and me. He did also ask us for our blessing ahead of time, so we’ve been biting our tongues and biding our time waiting to see when the asking event would take place. 😍😁 He selected a perfectly “Jenna” amethyst ring that suits her beautifully. They have much planning to do, but tentatively they think they will marry in October of 2026 or 2027.

Pancakes AT Church

We started off our morning today with a trip to Pancake Manor, an all-day breakfast place that is housed inside a former church in downtown Brisbane. It is such a cool venue, and they even left some of the original pews in place for use as booths. Good food, too!

Tamborine Mountain- Glow Worms!

After breakfast, we drove about 45 minutes from Brisbane up to Tamborine Mountain. Tamborine Mountain includes several national parks and lots of fun activities. We could feel the area cooling down as we drove up, and we ended with highs in the 70s today, which made for perfect outdoor and hiking weather.

Our first stop was the Glow Worm Cave! We took a guided tour of the cave where conservationists are working to restore the population of insect-eating glow worms that help control the local insect population. They are kept in the cave because other predators consider glow worms to be “a tasty lollie.” It was a really interesting tour and pretty grounds and gardens around the caves with roaming lizards and birds and other critters.

Here is a fine poem told to us by our glow worm guide 😂:

I wish I was a glow worm

A glow worm’s never glum

I wish I was a glow worm

Cuz sun shines out his bum 

Afternoon- Falls and Fiancées

After a snack, we dropped off Jenna and Connor at the lovely Cedar Creek Falls so they could take their “waterfall hike.” Of course, while on that hike Connor proposed, Jenna said “Yes!”, and we gained a son, just like that! Woo hoo! They got engaged at what was about 11:30 pm or midnight back home, so we had to make ourselves wait to share the news with most of our fam and friends who were already asleep! Lucky for us my mom and her night-owl ways meant she got a late night “Good news for Grammy” call. 😍

Waiting for the News

We knew that Connor had the ring with him when they left on their hike, so Rob and I wanted to give them some space so we headed off on a hike of our own to Curtis Falls. We were a bundle of excitement waiting to hear back from Jenna and Connor with news, but we had a really great hike, too.

Gallery Walk

After we picked up the newly engaged couple 😍, we headed to the Gallery Walk area at Mount Tamborine to do some shopping so Jenna and Connor could bring home some souvenirs and gifts for friends.

Sunset

After our shopping outing, we changed clothes and stopped at the Rotary Lookout to watch the sunset and take some sunset photos 😍. It was so windy and actually cold- a refreshing change from Hamilton Island!

Dinner

After sunset we enjoyed a good celebratory dinner at the Rainforest Restaurant on Tamborine Mountain. The staff surprised Jenna and Connor with a special dessert. 😍

It was a wonderful ending to a perfect day. So grateful for this day and these blessings. Thanks for adventuring wihh the us!