Aloha and Maholo

Chads parent own some time shares on both Kauai and Oahu - we have been to Kauai before but this year we were invited (without kids) to the one on Oahu. As excited as I was I thought that there was no way that this island or resort could compete with the ones on Kauai - well boy was I wrong. Our trip was with Chads mom (his poor dad had to stay behind for work - thanks anyway), his aunt and uncle, his sister and Brad and Chelsea. We had such a wonderful mix of relaxation at the resort, exploring the island, hiking, eating and doing what I enjoy most - snorkeling!

Our second day we decided to do a tour of pearl harbor. Once we got there and realized how expensive it was we changed our minds and just did what was free. Then we were ready for some hiking. We hiked Diamond Head which is an actual volcanic crater.

The views at the top were great - with great views of the city of Honolulu and Waikiki.

Just relaxing by one of the 4 man made lagoons in front of the resort. The snorkeling was actually pretty good. The first day we found a family of 3 sea turtles - it was so fun to swim with them

This was one of Chad and my favorite parts of the trip. We went for a walk and were exploring, when we came upon this area - we named it the blue lagoon. It was a little slice of heaven - so beautiful, so relaxing and so many fish. We even had our own little sea turtle hanging out with us, I got to follow it for a long time - this made me very happy!


AAAH seriously does it not look like paradise - I miss it already

All the red faced girls ready for a night out in Waikiki. Our goal was to find Puka Dogs - a restaurant that had been recommmended to us.

What should we find while we are lost downtown - Leonards, the famous donut shop that Susan (Chads aunt had been searching for and dreaming about for years. This was a very happy moment let me tell you. Hot malasadas - yes they were quite enjoyable!

After an entertaining walk through downtown we finally found the restaurant - oh my gosh, I cant explain how gross this place was. We were all disgusted and wondered why we didnt realize this earlier due to its name - Puka Dogs - it definately lives up to it - BLAH!

The next morning we decided to drive to other side of the island and snorkel at the world famous Hanuema Bay. I was so excited - did I mention I love to snorkel? When we finally got there, we were met with a sign informing us that the bay just so happened to be closed on Tuesdays - what the? Seriously unbelievable! I was determined not to let this be a down on my day. We decided to go exploring - did I mention that I love to explore too? We found some of the coolest places and most unbelievable sights I have ever seen.


I mean seriously I was a complete broken record - it was look over there oh my gosh look at that - they were the most beautiful places I had seen - on both sides of the road. I was completely blown away by the beauty of this place that I had know idea about. (I thought Oahu was just the touristy island)


This place right here is like in my dreams - the only thing that could maybe improve it were dolphins. There were plenty of sea turtles, the water was crystal clear and warm, plenty of fish, it was beyond picturesque. I could have just stayed there forever, I was in complete heaven - I would totally have my kids come stay too - then it would be perfection! It was quite hard for me to move from this place even though all of our bellies were more than rumbling - if I had it my way I would have stayed until the sun went down!

We drove past the temple in laiie and had to check it out. Even though we felt completely underdressed the missionaries assured us that people came looking like us all the time and to walk around the grounds. It was beautiful. The Hawaii temple is one of the ones I grew up seeing pictures of all the time, it is so different from the others and I was so glad we got to check it out - next time we will be more prepared and go in!

AAAh the perfect way to end the day. Watching the sunset over Waimea Bay. As the sun set - we swam, played silly games, and couldnt believe how lucky we were to be there!

Pumpkin Patch

It was a crazy month - we had a really hard time fitting in a time for our annual trip to the pumpkin patch before Chad and I left for Hawaii. I decided we would have to go this year without Chad and without Brad and Chelsea :(.



I lectured the kids before we got there that they would only be allowed to go on one ride (Mama has to save her money for Hawaii). It took awhile to make their decision but they all chose the exact same ride. The perfect thing was they had multiple of them, so they all had a turn at the same time - way to kill 4 birds with one stone.

They bounced, they flipped and had a ball! The man let them go extra long and they all came off with big smiles on their faces while they complained about how much it hurt - figure that one out!
With our trip to the pumpkin patch finished I felt like we were pretty much ready to head to Hawaii (no kids) and return on the morning of Halloween. Now that takes a lot of preparation!

Go Cougars

My husband and son are pretty obsessive BYU football fans. Why we had to get season passes for the home games when we live a 10 hour drive away I do not know! When BYU came to town to play SDSU we again decided to get a group together to go to the game. It just so happened that we ended up purchasing 90 tickets! Although it was a little confusing with the money and the seating it was totally worth it being surrounded by friends and family cheering on our cougars.

Trent and his boys!

Cute little LuLu even got into cheering with her mama Chelsea! Lucy was wearing a little BYU cheerleader outfit - it was so stinkin cute on her.

Luke and Jack thought they were so cool with no shirts on and their body paint



Hayley and her friends went a little crazy with the body paint and decorated every bit of skin that was showing

Abby, Chad and baby Beck. It was a good day - luckily BYU won - though it wasn't as easily as we had expected - a win is still a win. We ended the night with a trip to In n out to celebrate!

I'm a lucky/old woman

For my 37th birthday this year - some sweet friends took me to the Glen Ivy Day Spa in Corona. How fun is this place? Did you know that on your birthday you get in free? Once you enter the spa you have free range of all the pools and fun places that they have. The only thing the entry fee doesn't include is a treatment (which we didn't do) and lunch (which of course we did).

Our first stop was the mud baths. We started off in the water where we began to slather the mud all over, then we moved to the dry mud area where we completed the process of covering our bodies.


Then it was time for the mud to bake and dry on our bodies in this heating room. It was fun to look at how gross this process was, as well as sloughing it all off!

After we got cleaned off it was time for a little bite to eat - delicious

we relaxed in the roman tubs

sweat off a few pounds in the steam room

and soaked up some rays while floating around the pool. It was a wonderful way to spend my big day!

Opening presents with the kids - I got new towels and new bedding :)

My birthday cake - chocolate - my fave compliments of Brittany! I have a good life! Thank you family and friends!

If you give a mouse a cookie

The first graders put on a cookie night every year. They do all sorts of activities based on the book - If you give a mouse a cookie, which is a part of the core literature. We enjoyed taste testers and graphed our results of our favorites, did some cookie math, crafts, and played guessing games. The finale is a short program of the kids reciting some poetry and my Luke could not be more adorable - I am so in love! At the end of the program we were given a cookie, then a glass of milk, and of course a straw to go with it!

Our garden

We loved reaping what we sowed in our veggie garden this year. One of Chads and the kids favorite things to do was go inspect the garden, pick some fresh tomatoes and then come and feast. It is like a feeding frenzy I tell you (I am the only family member who does not LOVE tomatoes). It was this perfectly orchestrated little ritual. Bring in the tomatoes, slice them up, salt and pepper them, and then devour them, even licking the plate.



We even had success with our melons - both the watermelons and the cantaloupe were scrumptious! We only got one watermelon but what we lacked in numbers it made up for it in taste!

Labor day swim and bash

Su and I decided we needed to (and wanted too) do the oceanside pier swim on labor day. I wish I could say that we trained- I went one morning to do laps - that should count right? We were both swimmers in high shool and both in pretty good shape so we thought all would be well. We left early with a small posse of cheerleaders - Julie and Chels (you are the BEST by the way) to check in, get marked up and stretched out.

This was serious stuff - we were in different heats because of our age differences which was a bummer. Su got to swim with all the youngins. Each heat (there were 3) wore a different color cap, and in each heat were about 200 participants.

So excited and pumped to go!
So we both finished 7th in our age division (not heat) and both swam a pretty good time. Su beat me by 1 minute but I was very happy with my time. The swim is just over 1 mile. It was my first open water swim and I really enjoyed it - next year we are doing it again for sure. The swim out to the buoys seemed really long and I have to admit I thought about turning around but as soon as we rounded the buoy and was not going out any deeper I got into my groove and felt good.

We came back just in time for the 5th annual Opus One Labor Day waterslide bash. Each year this gets bigger and bigger. It was a beautiful day weather wise, with great friends, great entertainment, great food and great fun.


Trent was the first to aquire one of the many injuries. He somehow got his forehead slammed into the pavement after coming down the slide. There are always so many kids or adults (yes we have adult time and it is crazy) on the slide at one time. I was in the middle of a conversation with someone and the slide began tipping a little. I literally had just finished telling him how the slide has never tipped over once even though it looks and feels as though it would - when the whole thing, full of kids fell to one side. We all ran and starting pulling kids out as fast as we could. The first girl I pulled out was crying and hurt - I thought it was going to be a bloodbath, I was so worried. It turned out that she was the only one hurt, she caught air while it fell, and everyone else was laughing and thought it was the greatest thing. Huge relief would be an understatement!

Here are the teens after the crash - they dont look too upset do they, while the adults are tying each side down making sure this would never happen again.

Trent and his friends - I just love these boys - they are cute, smart, happy and good boys. I feel so grateful that he has such good friends to surround himself with.
Overall a good long, tiring day - just the way I like it!