The Zoo

My niece Keelie turned 3 and Joe and Cassie had some connection to get us all into the Zoo to help her celebrate. Taylor and Kyley my two teenagers summed it up perfectly - I asked them if they wanted to come, it will be on a Saturday and we are leaving at 8:30am and they said, "Zoo, cousins, heck ya!" We met in the parking lot for donuts and hot chocolate and then headed into the zoo. We got there in time to see them feed the sting rays and we spent lots of time petting them. Wyatt was scared at first but after I told him that Santa wouldn't bring him any presents unless he tried. He finally touched one then loved it. Then off to the giraffes and to the African trail and the lions, and tigers and rhinos oh my. As we walked along we always look at the mountain to the right hoping to see big horn sheep - I don't think I ever seen one have or maybe only seen one. This time there was one, then two then then then entire family, probably 8-10. I wish two things, one that I had a better zoom and two that Loren could have been here to see it - he would have loved it.

Taylor and Kyley are such cool big cousins,
I always saw them playing with Hannah, Abby, Annie, Lucy, or McGregor. They gave piggy back rides, teased, played, chased and just had fun. Ty just ran off with the other big boy cousins, Durham, Jake, Jake, Raulin. Wyatt stayed with me, he is such my baby. It was fun to see the animals we even got to ride the camels but it was all about the family. I got to visit with my brothers and sisters and the cousin got to play. The weather was perfect, not to hot not too cold, I need to remind myself of these days when its 120 degrees in July.Thanks Joe and Cassie for the invite and Happy B-day to Keelie.

"Happy December 1st"

Those were the first words out of Wyatt's mouth at 5:45AM this morning. He had been waiting for the Christmas season for months. It only became worse when we put up all our decorations the day after Thanksgiving and none of the count-downs start until today. I love having a little one in the house; you have to smile as you watch their excitement. It makes Christmas so much more fun. I remember thinking Christmas would never get here, we would go into the big closet (I don't know why the closet) in the big room in the basement and work on our Christmas list starting in July. Now that I am grown up it is here in a blink of an eye.

Good thing I have Wyatt to remind me Christmas is a fun, happy time. He started working on his Christmas list at least 3 months ago, he started writing it but gave that up to type it instead. If anyone wants a copy I can e-mail you. He would have put the store where I could find the present if he had the time, but our computer broke so all I got was a list of his 47 wishes. Now Ty on the other hand doesn't even have a list while the first item on Kyley's list is socks. I love this time of year, so Happy December 1st to you all, only 24 more days until Christmas.

Thanksgiving

I have so much to be thankful for, first Thanksgiving wasn't at our house today, the first time in 3 years. I have enjoyed hosting it but it was a nice change. We got to sleep in a little, hang out, watch the parade and not have to hurry and set up tables and wipe down chairs. We even had time to do my favorite tradition. Write our thankful list while sipping sparkling cider. All the kids can now write and they include things that I sometimes forget. My favorite came from Loren when he wrote that he was thankful for me for "being a good friend and a true gift from Heavenly Father." I teared up a bit. After we read our list, we spent time adding the things we had forgotten.

We had the Goodman's at 12:30 and probably the best turkey I have ever tasted made by my brother in law John. It was good to see my sisters and all the cousins, I know we all live in the valley but we live in the "south-side" (Gilbert) while the other cousins live in the "north-side" (Mesa) and it is a long 30 minute drive so I don't see them as much as I should. I enjoyed watching Ty play football and wiffle ball with Jack, Jake and Durham, watching Wyatt climb the tree with Jay Dog, Kyley play hide the shoe with Hannah, and Taylor hugging and playing with Annie. It was a good day and it wasn't over yet.

Home for a quick nap then to the Chesley's at Loren's sister Jody's house. It was close by and I was ready for a little dinner. I see these people even less than my family so it was good to visit and catch up. My niece Lacy, the one that watches our kids when Loren and I go out of town announced that she was pregnant. That now makes all of Jody's daughters prego. Her only son Kendall leaves for his mission on Tuesday the 30th so we had fun taking pictures with all his family of his last Thanksgiving home for 2 years. When Loren and I were first married I babysit those kids, Brye, Lacy, Heather and Kendall and have always felt close to them, they are now all grown up - it is crazy - time marches on.

I am so thankful for all my family but especially for my immediate family for Loren and his love and humor, his listening ear and his awesome advice. For Taylor, Kyley,Ty and Wyatt I love my little family and the closeness I feel on days like this.

Happy Birthday to Me.

I am now forty I don't feel that old but apparently I am. It was a good day - I try to make my birthday last about a week. I succeed again this year. It started on Thursday when Loren and I met for dinner and he gave me a beautiful bracelet. Then the next morning I walk into my classroom to find every square inch of wall space covered with black paper (I am over the hill now) and the desk arranged in the number 40. Through out the day I got 40...
*pennies * rubber bands shot at me * laffy taffy's * math tiles * kleenex (to dry my tears) * kit kats* diet cokes*cookies

Fun fun fun day - not a lot of teaching or learning but my students had fun signing their name in chalk. I left as quick as I could and Loren took us all out to BJ's Pizza and Brewery, my favorite pizza! What a good day, I guess I will have to live with being 40.

Hawaii - Day 3-4

Saturday we woke up early to see Pearl Harbor, I think we were second in line. The movie they showed was of footage that I had never seen anywhere, it brought a tear to my eye to think of all those that gave their life for my freedom. As I was walking around I saw this quote that Eleanor Roosevelt carried with her in her wallet during WWII.

Dear Lord, lest I continue in my complacent ways, help me to remember that someone died for me today. And if there be war, help me to remember to ask and to answer "am I worth dying for?"

Pretty powerful...

We then headed up to Waimea to see the water fall. On our way we saw the coolest rainbow so of course we had to pull over. It was the brightest rainbow I have ever seen, then it dimmed like it was going out and all of the sudden it was like someone switched on the light and it was so bright and then there was a double. We probably saw three more rainbows that day, I understood why they have rainbows on their licenses plates.

We got to the falls a little early and were waiting in line for what we thought was the park. The line started to move and they said, go pick out a tree. It was Arbor Day and the Park was giving a way a free tree, we didn't think we could bring one home so we gave it to a person standing in line with us - she was excited as she went home with 2 free trees not just one. We found the entrance and again I felt like we were the only ones at the park. There were so many different kinds of flowers and trees, stuff that we never see in Az. It rained on us and the river was roaring, we heard a tree branch crack and fall off into the river. The falls which are usually mild and you can swim by them were raging from all the rain. I love this land so dang beautiful.

The car was due back and we had the Cox dinner so we headed back into Waikiki, we hung out at the beach and snorkeled in the ocean by our hotel. The sun had come out and the weather was awesome!. Dinner that night was good, they had hula dancers and fire dancers, they picked Loren to go up on stage and dance he busted the move - he did great, the hit of the party. I love Loren's sense of humor - I laughed so hard on this trip. I can honestly say that this has been the best vacation of my life.

Sunday we woke up ate breakfast at a little cafe around the corner of our hotel, Loren says this was the best meal of the of the trip. I spent one last hour at the beach then time to hurry up and wait for the trip home. We are so blessed! I hope to go back one day and if we ever hit it big I am taking all our children.

Hawaii - Day 2

Since we were still on AZ time we woke at 5:00Am and were quickly out the door looking for a breakfast place. It was still dark and parking sucks in Waikiki so we decided to head to Pali Lookout, a tip from our niece Brye. We saw the turn out but decided to continue north to Kailua to try to find breakfast, still too early. I know we are nerds. So we turned around to watch the sun come up over Pali Lookout and came in from the opposite direction which was so cool. The turn off was a road with big big trees on either side so it looked like a tunnel. The lookout was amazing, there was a view of the valley below, the ocean and the mountains. The wind was blowing like crazy but we were the only ones there and the beauty of this island confirms that there is a God. I loved it.

After Pali we finally had breakfast at a little shop Kimos and Boot's, bought some snorkeling gear and headed to Hanauma Bay. This was my favorite part of the trip. I have never understood snorkeling, probably because I had never been. Hanauma Bay is a nature preserve so we had to watch a movie about it and protecting it and as I am watching I am thinking, I hope we get lucky to see a few fish. We jumped in and not more than one minute there were fish everywhere. So neat, rainbow ones, black ones with an orange stripe, a school of white and yellow ones, sea anemones, big fish little fish, red fish blue fish he he. I loved it, the sun even came out for a bit so I could warm up. Loren and I had a blast I wish my children were there, although Wyatt used the snorkeling gear in the bath tub when we got home.

After snorkeling we headed to the North Shore again and found a spot and sat and watched the surfers for a long time. The waves were pretty big, not 30 feet but probably 15 feet or so. I wish I had learned to surf a long time ago, but the water in California was always so cold when we went in the summer. We saw a sea turtle pop it head up to get air (although at the time we did not know it was sea turtle). On our way home we drove by the temple it is beautiful, there is so much to see off the beaten path. I loved our rental car, I feel like it really gave us a feel of the island.

On our way home we stopped at another cool looking beach. I am amazed how few people were on the beaches we went to. This beach, I don't remember its name had a river that ran out to the sea. We started walking along and we found a coconut, after looking around we found the tree where it came from. It was off the river probably fell off floated down the river then the ocean washed it up to shore. We brought it home and all the kids had a taste of pure coconut milk and fresh coconut, so cool.

We headed home and our GPS took us through the mountains so cool, the tunnels were huge and they went through the entire mountain. I am glad we saw those in the light but hit rush hour traffic. We ditched the freeway and drove through China town and down town Honolulu - I guess even Paradise has to have its ghettos.

Hawaii - Day 1

Wow I love that state, I never thought I would get the opportunity to got there and then Loren started working at Cox Communications. He won his first trip a couple years ago to Laguna Beach CA. and after that trip I said, "Win me a trip to Hawaii will ya." He listened to me and in July after the contest had been going on for 5 months he said, "there is a trip to Hawaii contest and right now I am leading" He then teased me for the next 2 months, "my numbers have dropped, another person is now kicking butt, anything could happen don't get your hopes up" It wasn't' until October and we had our confirmation that I believed we were going. So here goes, our Hawaii trip.

Thurday 11/4 - We stayed in Waikiki on the island of Oahu in the Sheraton, we were greeted with a flower lei and a pineapple drink on our way to check in. Our room wasn't ready, and we didn't want to wait around wasting a day so we rented a car and were off. We took the long route to the North Shore stopping at any beach along the way snapped pictures. There were beaches that were all lava rocky and then there were beaches that had the softest sand, and then there were beaches that had the coconut trees growing right there. The water was so clear and turquoise. It was a little rainy but I didn't' care. We stopped and Loren bought a cold coconut off the side of the road from a big goofy Hawaiian missing teeth. He asked us where we were from and we said AZ. He said that he used to live in Florence. Loren and I looked at each other sure he was in the prison there but didn't' want to say anything. So Loren asked how did you like it a little different from Hawaii. The Hawaiian said "I didn't get to see much I was behind bars, that is why I am now selling coconuts off the side of the road." Loren and I laughed and continues on our way. We hit Pipeline and Off the Wall just as the sun was setting, so dang beautiful. We met a surfer there that knew his stuff and recommended a restaurant in Haleiwa. We weren't super hungry as we had bought shrimp from a little van off the side of the road, but the surfer said they had the best ma-hi burgers. Loren said he was right. We headed back to the hotel got checked in and crashed as it was midnight our time.