Fall Break

I spent part of my Fall Break in Palm Springs with Mom and Dad. The condo was beautiful. We spent time playing games, watching movies, swimming, reading, and seeing what Palm Springs had to offer. It was a very relaxing time - totally enjoyable. Here is the kitchen in Mom and Dad's condo -- Christian and I had a connecting condo -- that made up the two bedroom condo.

One day we went swimming. Dad found this big turtle floaty and tried to get on it. It was hilarious to watch him jump and try to get on and then fall off again. After Dad got tired of trying, Christian tried his hand at it.

Check out the wings on Christian and Dad. They BOTH need a haircut :)

Thursday night we went to the street fair. It was amazing. This guy is spray painting pictures. It was so cool to watch. He could do a complete picture in about 10-15 minutes. I ended up getting one picture that is going in my living room. Christian really enjoyed seeing the different techniques the guy used.

Here are some of his pictures.

On Saturday Maria and family came out to spend the day with us. We went swimming where Stan came up with a game for us to play in the pool -- Wimp Ball. It is like volleyball except the ball is out if it goes beyond the farthest player or to the side of the farthest player. So we all bunched up close to the ball would go out. Also we could hit the ball as many times as we wanted - we even caught it and threw it back. It was a blast!

Callie and Sierra liked Mom and Dad's bathtub -- it was huge and it had a waterfall faucet. They had to get in and try it out. (I liked it too, but I didn't get to try it :()

A lot of the rest of my break was spent fixing up my yard (it REALLY needed to be mowed), making thank you cards and working on Christian's graduation quilt. Mom helped me finish up the top and get it on frames. Then she showed me how to quilt it. It hasn't been bad - I've actually enjoyed quilting it. Now I just have to keep it up once I go back to school tomorrow :) (That is why I gave myself a lot of time to finish it.)

This is what his quilt looks like. I think it is going to be a great quilt for him to have for college.

Weekend with Maria

Okay -- I'm going back in time. A few weeks ago Christian and I went to spend the weekend with Maria and family. We had a lot of fun playing Nerts, getting pedicures, and going ice blocking.
Christian and Callie loved playing together - whether it was on the computer or the Playstation. Sierra joined them from time to time.

The dishwasher had problems. Water kept running out the bottom of it. Poor Stan got soaked:-( I got a lot of interesting pictures of the situation - unfortunately Maria deleted some of them since she didn't want me to hold them over her at a later date. (I just said I wouldn't post them, not talk about them, Maria.)

Sierra had her hands full. Way to use your brain - or rather your feet!

I got a lot of fun pictures ice blocking. Christian was the dare devil of the group and kept trying different ways to go down the hill. Most of the time I spent it on the ground, not the ice :)

What an interesting picture Stan.

With Christian's example, Callie did a little experimenting as well.

I love this picture of Sierra. She looks so beautiful in it. She was right below me when I took the picture.

Safford Trip

I sure felt weird to go back to Safford. So many things had changed, but a lot had stayed the same. We drove by our old house to see it.

This is Christian standing next to the tree he planted at the court house just a couple of weeks before we moved to California. That was when he was in the fourth grade. My how things have changed.

When I went to Safford last weekend, Christian and I took pictures of the new temple being built. I can't wait for it to be built so I can take Christian to the open house. They just put up the angel the week before.

20th High School Reunion

Last weekend I went to my 20th high school reunion in Safford. It was great to see everyone again. I just wish that I had looked at my yearbook before I went to I recognized them better. Here are a few pictures from the reunion. You can see all of them on my facebook page.

Kerry and I Saturday night. Kerry helped put together the whole reunion.

Melissa and Kerry getting down.

Everyone dancing Saturday night.

Roxann, Melissa, and I at Branding Iron Saturday night.

Chistian and I. Christian hated me taking these pictures. Of course, he hates any picture being taken of him.

Christian is leaning against a locker in Senior hall. It's interesting to see lockers still in a high school. They aren't in many anymore.

Roxann, Melissa, and I Saturday morning at the high school.

Everyone on Saturday morning at the high school. We watched a slide show of our class. By did we think we were hot back then - big hair and everything.

The reunion was a lot fun. Can't wait for another one.

Back at Work

I am back at work now. Actually I've been back for a week. It has actually been a light week since most I have been waiting for most of my textbook adoption to come in.

One more week until the kids come and Christian starts school. A Senior -- it is going to be a big year for him.

Leaving Hawaii

We were sad to leave Hawaii. We wondered around the World Marketplace and surrounding area Monday morning. Then we went back to the hotel for about a half hour before we left for the airport.

Christian relaxing away the time.
We took a limo ride back to the airport. It wasn't much more than another ride so why not?

We were finally at the airport and ready to go back home :( We had had a vacation to remember.

Driving Around Hawaii

On Sunday we rented a car and drove around the island. First we planned on going to church. Unfortunately, it took over an hour to get the car so we only got to 20 minutes of church.

This is the church we attended. It was beautiful. It is called a tabernacle. It had a courtyard full of flowers. The chapel had four doors on each side and one more in the back.

We stopped at the Dole Plantation.

Here are baby pineapples. They were tiny.

I never knew that pineapples were different colors -- here are some red ones.

The Dole Plantation boasts of the world's largest maze in 2001 (don't know if one has beat it yet). Christian wanted to go in. There were eight booths that you find and copy the design in the booth on your paper. It was difficult, even with the map showing where the booths were. We were in there an hour. Unfortunately, we were having so much fun we forgot to take pictures of it :)

We took the train ride at the plantation. At the turn around point they had a garden with the plants in the shape of a pineapple.

These are chocolate pods. I that it was interesting. Didn't know they got so big.

After the Dole Plantation we continued driving around the island. We stopped at Waimea Valley where they was suppose to be a waterfall. It was about a half hour gentle hike up to the waterfall. Here are some pictures from the hike.

There was a peacock just sitting on the fence by the enterance.

I had to take a picture of the river -- it reminded me of Arizona rivers. No water!

Check out the roots growing down from the tree. The bigger one has reached the ground and grown into the ground.

I've heard of vines growing in trees, but not plants. I can't tell how these plants grow in the tree without the roots being in the ground. Any suggestions on how it does it?

Look closely at the picture above. Do you see the brown rocks all over the grass? They aren't rocks - they are tiny birds. We saw them all over the place. I didn't realize that they were birds until a couple of them flew to another part of the grass.

Here is the waterfall. The lifeguards said that it wasn't very big right now - they hadn't had any rain in three months. I guess that is their defination of a drought. They said that the waterfall is generally a lot bigger.

Christian was getting tired of posing for pictures by this time.

There were a lot of beautiful flowers all over the place. I just had to take pictures of some of them.

Look at these vines! I couldn't believe the curtain of vines hanging down from the tree branch.

Right before we finished our hike back down, we saw this mother peacock with her three baby peacocks. The mother kept digging at the ground. She was finding food for her babies.

These balls of something on the tree were very weird. I wish I knew what they were.

After Waimea Valley we went to the temple. I was surprised to find the Visitor Center open.

There were beautiful flowers planted along the pond in front of the temple.

This is the Christus in the Visitor's Center.

Look under the tree and you will see a strip of beach. It is only about 5 feet of beach. That is normal for most of the beaches in Hawaii.

This is Turtle Island. Gillian's Island was filmed on it. It is also the place where one of the bases is located that was bombed along with Pearl Harbor.

I know this picture is a little blurry - Christian took it from the moving car. Look at the deep ridges in the mountains. During the rainy season those ridges are waterfalls -- all of them. I would love to see that!