My Hawaiian Adventure

Our daughter Amy and her family had the wonderful opportunity to live in Hawaii for 7-8 weeks this summer! I didn't have much time off from work...but I decided to take two days off and turn it into a 5 day weekend and thanks to frequent flyer miles...I was able to go over and stay with them for 4 nights! It was a fast and furious trip (which I almost missed because of a summer storm in SLC and my plane was diverted to Twin Falls) but things worked out and I had a great time with the kids! I didn't get to their little rental house until late Wed. night and so we just went right to bed....but bright and early Thurs. morning we were up and took a walk along their little beach and then headed to the Polynesian Cultural Center...which we could have just walked right across the street but Amy drove me up around the temple and over to some cool beach point!

Amy lived right across the street from the PCC but she and the kids had never dared venture over by themselves...so I was glad that we got to go when I was there!

We spent Friday morning at their little beach...and minus the jelly fish stings that Kenadee and Curtis experienced...we had a great morning! The kids were amazing in the ocean....everyone of them had mastered the art of watching the waves and knowing when to jump. It was so fun to watch them....especially that little Jake.....he would get knocked down and then just get right back up and head right back into the waves!

Friday afternoon, we went to some little city North of Laie and had some amazing snow cones with Ice cream hidden in the center. They were really good and just the perfect thing on a hot Hawaii day! You can tell that the 4 hour difference in time is catching up on that poor grandma above!

Can you guess which beach this is??? If you said turtle beach...your right! Turtles were all over in the water along the shore and this guy (or gal) had crawled up for a little nap in the sun!

Sat. Jon took a much needed day off and we ventured to Sea Life Park which is a very, mini like Sea World! The kids loved the big aquarium and the dolphin show! After sea life park we spent the rest of the evening on the beach watching the Sun go down.

Sunset Beach truly lived up to its name.....it was so fun to watch Jon and the kids just loving the time together and enjoying the ocean waves! Below, you can just see them having fun with the sunset behind them!

Below are a couple of cute pictures I snapped of Amy's family........

The first one was at Sea Life Park waiting for the dolphin show and trying to keep Jake entertained!

The one below...was taken at some State Park above Wakiki..you can see Diamond Head in the background! This was on the way back to the airport!

I am so GLAD that I got to go and see what Amy and her family were experiencing in Hawaii....it was alot of fun!

4th of July Weekend

For the 4th of July weekend...we pulled the 5th wheel and the jeep up to Beaver Mountain and literally camped in the parking lot by the ski hill. While the camp ground wasn't all that great....the beautiful valley of Bear Lake....jeeping...and spending time together was awesome! This was the only camping trip that Kelly got to go on this summer (she works, David plays) and we went with Leon and Janet (David's brother). We had a great time... We hiked about a half mile or so into Bloomington Lake....which is fed by a glacier....it was beautiful!

We spent usually 1/2 day jeeping the beautiful hills of the valley!

Leon and Janet Webster (David's brother and wife)

Above...you can see the glacier feeding Lake Bloomington!

Both David and Leon had gotten 22 pistols for Father's Day and so we would stop along the trail while jeeping and set out some cans and fire away! I had no idea such little guns could make such a loud BANG!

We went up to Minnetonka Cave and had a great little tour! I didn't know that Bear Lake had so much to offer other than boating! It was a fun little cave...it took about an hour or so to hike back into it!

We took our lunch and had a picnic at the entrance to the cave.

Of course....it's never a trip unless something breaks down or someone gets stuck! In the pictures below it's alittle hard to see but Leon was royally stuck. He couldn't go forward or backward. Apparently we had gone up a trail marked for 4 wheelers only and the trail just kept getting narrowier and narrowier...until finally Leon was stuck.

With the trail so narrow....we couldn't get our jeep around to even help pull him out! They had to keep winching to different trees until they could finally push some of the big boulders out of the way...and then we backed down until we could turn around! Jeeping is always an adventure!

Bear Lake is really a beautiful little valley! We had milkshake at LaBeau's...twice! and had a really great weekend!

MARTIN'S COVE STAKE TREK

David and I were asked to serve on the Martin's Cove Stake Trek Food Committee. The trek was held at Martin's Cove in Wyoming on June 10-12th. What a perfectly miserable, cold, wet, wonderful, spiritual, faith prompting adventure we had the opportunity to be a part of!

Below, is David and I standing by the monuments to the young rescuers who carried the frozen, sick, near dead pioneers over the Sweetwater River time and time again. The food committee headed up to Martin's Cove on Wed. night June 9th so that we could get the kitchen set-up and ready for when the kids would arrive the next day. Just outside of Rawlins Wyoming, about 20 minutes from Martin's Cove, David and I got caught in this amazing, scary summer storm. We watched it moving closer and closer.............

And then it hit with such fury, it was amazing.....hail so hard that I seriously thought that the truck windshield was going to break! I was screaming at David to stop, but the sound of the hail pounding on the truck and trailer was so loud, that he couldn't even hear me, and I was sitting right next to him!

We were able to take our 5th wheel up and park it in the Missionary Village Campground. We had a beautiful rainbow as we were getting the trailer set up...but once we got inside of the trailer, we realized that the hail storm had broken every single one of the trailer vents and also the big skylight over the shower!

You can tell from all these pictures, that the weather was less than perfect.....below we are trying to get lunch ready for the kids arrival on the first day! That is David on the left, stirring the pots of taco meat.

The food committee is ready to go...but the kids buses were a little behind schedule...which ended up working for the best, because we had did get our only sunshine of the weekend, long enough to serve them lunch! At each meal, the food committee prepared in the rain and cold and wind, and cleaned up in the wind, and rain and cold....but the rain always stopped just long enough to get the kids fed!

We were tasked with serving 500 people each meal! It was an amazing experience of small miracles of the mysteriously multiplying sack lunches, when after counting and counting we were 30 sacks short, but miraculously ended up with 2 to spare! Or the hot cocoa, which I had personally bought 4 servings for each person, but we just kept the hot water coming at every meal, due to the wet and cold conditions, and the hot cocoa never ran out...in fact we brought home several cases to spare! It truely was like feeding the 5000!

It is hard to imagine.....but the weather only got worse from here on.....

I kept thinking, "Oh, I will take more picture when the weather gets better!" Well, the weather never did, and sadly the camera didn't come out much after the first day!

This is our Stake youth, treking along the top of the ridge! I thought that this was a cool view!

EASTER 2010

EASTER.......Our Family Party was a great success...or so the grandkids all said! Below is a picture of all the eggs waiting to be hid...for both the scavenger hunt.....where each grandchild had their own special clues to find and a present waiting at the end......... And below are all the stuffed Easter eggs waiting to be hid for the Easter Egg Hunt!

We started the party with a great dinner of BBQ Pork Spareribs and Baked Potatoes....and lots of yummy things to go with it!

After dinner the kids all sat in the upstairs family room singing primary songs while the adults hid the scavenger hunt eggs....I had to be a bit more creative this year, because the grandkids are awfully smart!

Below is Baby Cohen...the youngest grandchild... didn't get into all the eggs...but he is sure cute!

After the scavenger hunt...the kids listened to Grandpa Dave tell the Easter Story while the adults then hid the eggs for the Easter Egg Hunt!

Although....there wasn't alot of listening to the story, but David sure tried to tell them the true meaning of Easter!

Then.....Let The Hunt Begin!! The weather held out this year and we were able to have the egg hunt outside....the adults are getting pretty tricky about hiding the eggs! Although, two days later we found a forgotten egg out on the jeep trailer!

Below is Curtis and Hunter with all their loot!

Below is Eliza with her family....looking for eggs!

Below is Kenadee....she found an egg on top of Jason's truck!

For the scavenger hunt.....each child's last clue led them to a small present and they had to bring it back to the kitchen to all open together! Below, they are tearing into the presents!

Below is Sage, Bailee and Kenadee and Aunt Stef in the background...Thanks Stefanie for helping with the Scavenger Hunt and the picture taking again this year!

This year instead of hiding the 4 grand prize eggs....I tucked alittle note into a regular egg and then 4 lucky grandkids got to pick which egg they wanted!

There is also 2 GOLDEN EGGS hidden along with the regular eggs.....below we finally had to play warm or cold for them to find one of the golden eggs.....they were literally stepping all over it!

The GOLDEN EGGS are filled with Grandpa's coins...it is very heavy and had around $6-$7 dollars in each egg! Below everyone is looking for the golden egg hidden in the front yard!

Along with EASTER we celebrated our April Birthdays! Below is Grandpa Dave, whose birthday is April 2nd....Jake who turned three on April 9th and Paxton who turned 1 on April 17th! Happy Birthday!

We celebrated with brownies and ice cream!

HAPPY, HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!! ONCE AGAIN THE BEST PART IS JUST BEING WITH OUR FAMILY......WE LOVE YOU ALL!!