Weekend.

Thanksgiving was fabulous.  The food was divine.  We ate to our heart’s content.  We had so much pie that we’re still eating it.

Tanya was a great hostess as always. 

It’s kinda fun to have your birthday on Thanksgiving once in a while.  especially your 30th birthday.

Thank you for all the presents, cards, notes on Facebook, and text messages.

I felt very loved! 

I finally decided I wanted this from Darrin.  I’m excited to get it and tame my ever growing jewelry collection.

On Friday Darrin was the only brave one to shop.  I think he bought everything in Fred Meyer. 

Last year we went to Wal-Mart at midnight, and we vowed NEVER to do that again.  lol.

Later in the day we took the kids along with Aunt Kristin and Natalie to see Arthur Christmas and then to eat at the Outback Steakhouse.

It was a cute movie!

On Saturday afternoon we went to the Jon Schmidt concert.  It was fantastic, and I was a little surprised at how much the kids enjoyed it.

I felt like a good mom giving my kids a taste of the arts.

We came home and had pizza for dinner and then Kristin, Darrin, and I watched Limitless.  It’s the first non-kid movie that I’ve seen in a very long time.  It was really good!

Well that was our weekend.  3 more weeks of school until Christmas break.  Yay!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving.  I have lots to be thankful for. 

It’s also my 30th b-day.  My sisters are here.  We’re going to Darrin’s brother’s house for dinner.  And I’m having candles in my pumpkin pie.

It’s going to be a great day.

More on all that later.

To celebrate the holiday I will post a story Josh wrote about his turkey he had to decorate for 2nd grade.

One day there was a turkey.  His name was Bob and he had some friends.  And they laughed at him because Bob was not like other turkeys and this is how…He had pom-poms and a big googly eye.  Two more days had gone by and both of those days his friends were laughing at him, so he walked some place in Florida.  He walked 10,000 miles to get there.  But suddenly a turkey hunter came out of no where.  Bob ran as fast as he could all the way back home.  He learned his lesson which is: Never run or walk or slow motion walk or speed walk from home.  The End.

Very good advice Josh!!

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Halloween

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I’d better hurry and recap Halloween. lol.

On Halloween Day Darrin came home early so we could carve our pumpkins.

Each kid designed what they wanted their pumpkin to look like. 

Luke wanted a happy pumpkin.

Costumes:

Luke was a policeman, Andrew was a skeleton, Josh was a ninja.

Darrin took the kids out to get candy, while I stayed home to answer the door.  We had so many kids come, I could hardly sit down!

Luke with the loot!

Yay for Halloween!

Primary Program 2011

On October 30, our ward had it’s primary program.  The boys did very well to speak their parts slowly and clearly.

Josh said, “I’m trying to be like Jesus by obeying the commandments.”

Andrew said, “I can follow God’s plan by saying my prayers.”

Next year all 3 of them will participate!

Fall Soccer 2011

Josh

Team: Ninjas

Coach: Dad

Team mates: Keegan, Tyler S, Tyler B, Wiley, Liam

Record: Won one game

End of the season party: doughnuts and hot chocolate after the last game

Andrew

Team: Tiny Timbers

Coach: Dad

Team mates: Nolan, Danny, Aidan, Jett

Record: Won all games except the last one.

End of the season party: Round Table Pizza

Final Summer Flashback—Visit from the Bywaters Sept. 10-15

Even though school had already started, the Bywater’s visit to Oregon was the last party of our summer.

We were delighted they came to visit.  We packed in as much fun as we could while they were here.

Picnic at the park, girl’s night, boy’s night, pedicures, games, golf and Frisbee golf for the guys, and just hangin’ out were all apart of the fun.

We miss them tons and hope we can get together again soon

I know there’s lots of pictures of Kenzie and Luke…but I’m just preparing for their wedding slide show in 20 years

Saturday Summer Flashback—Labor Day Weekend

Over Labor Day Weekend Darrin’s parents came to Oregon for one last visit before they left on their mission to England. 

The first night they were here we had an English tea party in their honor.

We ate little sandwiches, finger food, and lots of yummy desserts.

On Labor Day we had a picnic at the park.

The kids had a great time playing with these cat tails.  We discovered how messy they can be!

A couple days later we said good-bye!  We had a great time during their visit and can’t wait to see them when they get home!

Saturday Summer Flashback-Hawaii August 23-27

Thanks to my mom, Darrin and I were able to go to Hawaii this summer ALONE!

She was a trooper to watch the kids 24/7 for 4 nights and 5 days.  And they didn’t just stay home and play.

She took them all over the place: movies, bowling, store, pump it up…she was C.R.A.Z.Y!!  But we are super grateful she was up for the challenge.

Cause we had a blast!

August 23rd

Darrin and I left at 7:30am for the airport.  We were giddy as we drove away!

We got all checked in and sat back and enjoyed flying Hawaiian Airlines.

So fun!  To me the flight was one of the best parts.  I was a little nervous as we flew over the coast and all we could see was the ocean, but as we started to see land again we could hardly contain ourselves!

The flight consisted of an in-flight movie, lunch, pineapple juice, Hawaiian water and informational movies on what to expect in Hawaii.

We got off the plane in Honolulu which felt like a foreign country.  We found the rental car place, and then started the drive to Waikiki Beach and our hotel: Hilton Hawaiian Village.

We survived the drive and all the traffic.  We found our room and walked around a bit to find a place to eat dinner.  This restaurant was right on the beach.  It’s so weird there, everything is outside!

We also bought postcards to send to the kids…they got them about 12 hours before we got home…oh well.  We tried!

We did venture to Wal-Mart in downtown Honolulu.  It was a little scary, and it even had a parking garage which I thought was funny!  But we were able to buy some food and souvenirs for the kids.

We went to bed pretty early because we tired from traveling, and we had to get up the next morning for a “city tour” at 5am.

August 24

We got up and found our tour bus which took us to Pearl Harbor and then all over Honolulu.

It was sobering to learn more about Pearl Harbor and all that went on there.  It truly is a sacred place.

This is how the memorial fits on top of USS Arizona.

Next our tour took us to downtown Honolulu.

We made it back to the hotel for lunch and to rest up for our dinner cruise later that night.

Around 5pm we got on another tour bus, and they took us to the dock where we got on a boat to eat dinner and enjoy the scenery.

It was a lot of fun with a beautiful sunset at the end of the night.

I was glad to prove that I could be on a boat and not get seasick!

As part of the entertainment Darrin was selected to dance in front of everyone.

Unfortunately…but probably on purpose…the camera was in his pocket.  So the pics I took were with my phone and not too good.

It was hilarious anyway!

August 25

After an early morning swim in the ocean, we spent the rest of the day on the north side of the Island. 

We stopped at the Dole Pineapple Farm on the way there.

Who knew pineapple grew this way!?

The North Shore

Our final destination that day was the Polynesian Cultural Center.

We had a blast seeing all the demos and eating the food.  The show after dinner was great!  We especially loved the fire dancer.

We took a tour bus to see BYU-Hawaii and the Hawaii Temple. 

We went into the visitors center and ran into Mark Eubank…you know the weatherman in Utah that wears the white coat when it’s going to snow?

Darrin’s loved the guy since he was a kid and was in awe to meet him.  lol! 

Apparently him and his wife are serving a mission at the Hawaii Temple visitor’s center.

It was definitely a highlight!

August 26

On Friday we planned to go to Hanauma Bay to snorkel.  Darrin’s whole vacation revolved around this point in the trip.

He had practiced snorkeling in every pool at the hotel, in the ocean, and even in the bathtub.  He was stoked!

To preserve the reef, they only let so many people in the park at once.  We got there at 9:30am, and it was already closed.  Darrin was soooo sad

We just kept driving by several times and on our last attempt the parking lot opened up, and we were able to continue on with our plans!

We spent the rest of the day snorkeling.  Darrin loved it, and I just liked it.  Darrin was braver than me and went out a lot further and was able to see more fish and even a shark.

After we got back and cleaned up, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for some familiar food.

On Friday nights just after dark the hotel does fireworks on the beach.  It was a great show!

It was an awesome end to our trip and quite romantic I might add!

August 27

We said good bye to our hotel and Hawaii and got on the plane to come home.

Unfortunately our plane had some problems, so we all had to de-plane and wait a couple hours for them to fix it.

Luckily they were able to, but we didn’t get home until 3am in the morning!

What a great trip!  Next time we will take the kids.  They will love it