Hawaii

We are finally in Hawaii! Can you believe that even the airport is beautiful?
First full day in Hawaii and there is a major Tsunami warning. CRAZY! Here we are in lockdown in the hotel waiting for the tsunami. That's the news on the tv and we're playing cards to pass the time. Luckily for us, there really wasn't anything to worry about, they said in some areas the tide was about 3" higher, but no damage, just a lot of places closed for the day.
As soon as the tsunami warning went out, boat owners took their boats 2 miles off the shore to wait out the waves, when they finally let us out of the hotel we went down to the nearly empty beach and took some photos while the boats were coming in to dock.
The hotel gardens were beautiful!
Eating beachside was a thrill. This is at Duke's for the breakfast buffet.
Strolling on Waikiki beach
Aloha from the Polynesian Cultural Center Dum Dum want gum, gum!
We are so lucky to have great friends,
Brian and Chantell made our trip to Hawaii even more enjoyable!
Dinner was HOT!



The best money spent on a tour! Ali'i Tour at Tropical Farms (Mac Nut Farm) was awesome. Chief Sielu and the other warriors were hilarious and showed us some really cool plants and places on the windward side, including places where Jurassic Park, Lost, Tears of the Sun, Fantasy Island, Gilligan's Island and 50 First Dates were filmed. Beautiful scenery and absolutely the best time!

Chief Sielu

Chan and I in our banana leaf and bouganvilla wreaths. Made fresh for us by the warriors.
Our canoe ride out in the Moli'i pond - so much fun, I could not stop laughing.

The good looking guys we got to spend our Hawaiian vacation with.

Turtle Bay on the North Shore. Beautiful!

We even saw turtle swimming near the shore.

I love the flowers in Hawaii, I really wish I could have gotten a good photo of a plumeria, those are my favorite, but they were all a little to high in the trees for me to get.

This hibiscus is just gorgeous.

I cannot wait to go back.

Sassy Valentine Party

Sarah and I decided that we wanted to host a Valentine Party.

We invited my Sassy girlfriends and their little girls.

I'm so lucky to have such a great group of friends.

Catrina, Emily & Sydnee

Chantell & Hannah

Ali & Kenidy

Deanna & Breeley

Trena & Samantha
Jen, Kenady & Raegan

Laura & Olivia

Happy Birthday Sarah

Sarah and I went clothes shopping a couple days before her birthday. She needed a few new things and there was a sale at Kohls, so off we went.

The night before Sarah's birthday she lost her front tooth, so the tooth fairy stopped by during the night.

Good Morning Birthday Girl.

Having breakfast Getting ready for school.
After school Sarah opened presents.
Hooray, now she can have her own Animal Crossing world on her DS.
Sarah loves to make videos, so we got her a little camcorder that can also take pictures.
Perfect for the little videos she makes.
The Cake!
I was still on a diet, so I'll just have to assume it was delicious.
Sarah liked it!

An Update on Us!

It's been a while since I've posted. Sorry, life just seems so busy and I keep thinking I want to post photos with my message, but then I'm not at the computer with the photos or I don't have any recent photos, etc. So I thought I'd post a little message just to update you on what's up with us.

We had a great Thanksgiving with Marlo and Russell and the boys in Las Vegas. It was really fun and we got almost all of our shopping done on Black Friday, which was cool - even if it was 3 am (Russ and Shane even came with Marlo and me).

The Young Women and Young Men (and the leaders, so me too) in our ward performed an EFY Medley with Sisters in Zion and Army of Helaman for Zach Nye's "farewell". It was really amazing and beautiful, what a great opportunity to learn more about music and to really enjoy performing with everyone.

Chandler had a Christmas Concert mid-December which was pretty good. I forgot my camera, so you'll just have to believe me that he was there playing his trumpet - just go back a few months of posts and pretend that picture was of this concert, they are all kinda the same :)

Shane and I got roped into being part of the ward Christmas choir. New for us, but it was good and it all sounded really beautiful during the program.

We had a really nice Christmas. We spent Christmas day with my family and a couple days later we went to Idaho to spend some time with Shane's parents. Chandler has be rockin' out on his new band set for Guitar Hero for a few weeks now and I'm getting better on the guitar (playing medium all the time now). I bought Shane the Guitar Hero Van Halen, so we've been hearing Panama quite a bit lately (mostly because it's the first song and we haven't figured out how to pass it in career play). Sarah finally got a pink DS and she loves to play her Pet Shop game on it. My favorite gift is a heated mattress pad (with dual control) so I can get into a warm bed at night and Shane can still have his side freezing cold.

New Year's Eve is one of my favorite parties of the year. We get together with our best friends and play games, eat and have a great time! Olivers hosted this year and it was a great night! I just love being with friends, they make me so happy!

Next week, I will be flying to Las Vegas for less than 2 days. I'll attend our industry tradeshow at the Mandalay Bay, it's a pretty big event, I think there are about 5000 exhibitors and in the years past, I log about 7-8 miles a day of walking. Too bad I don't have time to get out and see a show or do anything fun - I just do the show all day and then collapse at night from exhaustion.

Sarah will be having her 9th birthday in a couple weeks, it's amazing how fast time flies. Hopefully, you'll see a post at her birthday :)

Then at the end of February, Shane and I finally get the chance to go to Hawaii, we have been looking forward to this for several years now and we cannot wait! Shane's parents have been kind enough to come down to stay with the kids while we are gone, so I'm not worried about them at all, they will be in good hands.

I've been on a diet for a while now, getting into better shape for Hawaii, so I've missed out on some of the best holiday treats, but that's probably good right?! Diets really are horrible, I cannot wait until I am done with each of the phases. I'd love to have a little treat once in a while (which I will make sure is very rarely so I can maintain). Sometime I'll post a picture, I think my weight loss is finally noticeable now. It's the best when you can go to a store and buy something 2 sizes smaller.

Shane and I have both been busy with our callings, Shane is in the Elder's Quorum now and has a couple meeting each week to attend. Working in the Young Women's has been so wonderful, I love it. It does take quite a bit of time, but I know I'm blessed when I do what I need to do for my calling. So far, no one has run out of underwear, so there is some divine intervention going on in the laundry room.

HOA still takes more of my time than I would like, and there are some truly rotten people out there that are not nice, but oh well, I said I'd do it and I am.

Well, that's about it for us right now...check back in a few weeks and hopefully I'll have some pictures of Sarah's birthday.

Happy Halloween

Halloween 2009

Sarah decided that this year she would be Mulan. Isn't she a beautiful Chinese princess.

Since Chandler's a little too old to dress up, he just put on a cowboy hat

and went out with his friends to "beg for candy", I neglected to get a photo of him.

We trick-or-treated with the Talbots and the Olivers.

We visited Ganus' fabulously decorated house.

Then we had pizza and a good game of Carcasonne for the adults!

This was a really fun Halloween.

Another fun Photoshop edit

Fall Retreat

We had so much fun at our Sassy photo shot this year. Thanks to Ali for creating this cool photo for us.

New Photoshop techniques

I'm so lucky to have great friends that will teach me how to use some of the cool features of Photoshop. I'm pretty good at the technique parts of Photoshop, but Ali taught me so really cool things. This was my first practice photo.

My trip down the stairs

The day before Labor Day was not my best day. First, right before church, I stubbed my toe and broke it. Then later that night, I was going down the stairs and I didn't get to the bottom the right way. I rolled my ankle and something snapped. I figured I had sprained my ankle really bad, so I iced it and I thought I'd be better the next day. On Labor Day, we had planned to go on a bike ride as a family, but since my ankle was still hurting, I decided to stay home. When they came home, I was in so much pain, I had Shane take me to Instacare. After a few x-rays they determined that yes, I had broken my toe and fibula on my right leg. The fracture is a twisted complete fracture about 5 inches above my ankle. So I've been in a boot case for the last couple of weeks and I can't drive.

Summer Dance Recital

Sarah performed her Summer Dance Recital tonight. It was really cute. They danced to Mercy by Duffy. I videotaped it again with my wonderful friend Deanna's camera, but since I still don't know how to edit it for blogger, it will remain on my computer till I learn how. In the meantime, here are a few fun pictures of Sarah in her costume.