About BB's

You know how little kids like to, let's say, explore their worlds? Test their limits? Test your limits? Especially when you're about to leave on a trip? Well, the night before we left for Hawaii Justin had a small carton of air soft pellets... I'll call them BB's. Anyway, his friend left them here a few days prior,so we told J to put them in his backpack so they don't get spilled or added to Natalie and Drew's collection.
I'm trying to pack and get things ready for my mom, and Kent's trying to fix the computer so she can actually use it while we're gone. In the meantime, Natalie and Trevor are upstairs playing and staying out of the way while we clean and pack. Justin is in the kitchen reloading the dishwasher, Kent's in my office, and I'm going between my office and the family room doing laundry. During this time I notice that Drew has taken out the BB's. I told Justin to stop what he's doing and put them away. He "didn't hear" me. I went to the laundry room to get the dry clothes out of the dryer. At this point, Drew is looking a little worried. I ask him if he's done something that he shouldn't have done. He says he hasn't so I go to my office and tell Kent that Drew is looking a little worried and he's got the BB's in front of him. I strongly suspect that there is one up his nose, but he's denying it at this point. I was gone for 20-30 seconds. I am on my way to the laundry room, but then I notice that Drew's jumping up and running to the box of Kleenex. I ask him again if he stuck anything up his nose. He says no, but then he blows his nose and there's blood. Oh great.
I ask him again, and he says no, and when he notices the blood he says, "Mom, I sink somefin's wong wif my nose." I ask, "Is there a BB up your nose, Drew?" He looks like he's about to cry, and says, "Yes. But somebody made me."
Obviously we had to go get it removed before we left. While it was being pulled out Drew was coughing, and I'm trying to decide if this situation is really funny or really gross. As I'm watching the stick thing up his nose I'm thinking gross. Seriously. Yuck. It was nice and bloody, and it fell down and rolled across the floor. Drew still maintains that "Somebody made me" when I ask him why he did it. He also says that he's not going to do that again because it was nasty.

My mini-makeover (and how it came about)

Apparently shortly after we returned home from Hawaii earlier this week Justin totally conned Kent into letting him invite about a million boys to come to our house, and then be driven to a local park for an air soft war. I lost count, but there were at least 8-10 boys that came. They started arriving before 11:00. After everyone arrived Kent piled everyone into my new car (imagine me hyperventilating here because, hello! these are 10-12 year old boys! And it's been raining here! A LOT!! This means mud! I'm a little sick even thinking about it... Oh my gosh.)

I digress... Kent took them to the park, all loaded up with their safety gear, guns and air soft pellets (which I call BB's- a lot faster!) and I figured they'd be out for only an hour or so because it was hot and muggy here. Who would want to stay in that heat with long sleeves and/or jackets on, jeans and protective eye wear??? It's a little insane! In the meantime, Trevor invited the brother of one of the boys going to the war over to hang out with him while that was going on. I didn't really want to be home when they came back all dirty so I decided to take Trevor, Elias (his friend), Natalie and Drew to lunch and a movie. We ate at Someburro's, then saw Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3-D. After we were done, it was almost 3:30. I called Kent to see how close they were to having my car cleaned up. He said that he was picking up pizza for everyone, and that they just got home a few minutes before. Holy cow! Boys are insane! Seriously, ladies, does this appeal to any of you- being dressed up in long sleeves and pants in the afternoon, in August, in Arizona, for hours while running and dodging BB's? I don't get it!

So I took the kids home, where they also ate pizza. I don't know how they had room because of lunch and popcorn at the movies, but they did. After about 30 minutes of seeing mud and dirt all over my tile floor, pizza all over my kitchen and eating area, I had to get out. I went to my car to get something out. BIG MISTAKE! It was worse than I expected. So, so bad. I opened up the passenger door in the front to get something out of my center console. Not a good idea. There was mud on the door. How do you get mud on the door?! It wasn't just a little either. Then I looked back and saw all of the other stuff still in my car. Oh my. So, so bad. I couldn't find what I was looking for so I came back into the house. That didn't help either. I finally found what I was looking for and got to go have some "me time."

I have lost 11 pounds in the last 2 months (yea!) so I decided that I could justify get a few new clothes. I was able to look at and try on clothes without my typical audience made up of Natalie and Drew- who enjoy trying to sneak a peek and making any number of somewhat embarrassing comments as I change. (Ask Jenn and Bailey DeTemple. They will totally back me up!) When I finished there I went to Dillard's to replenish my makeup supply. (Some of my favorite shadow mysteriously vanished while we were in HI...) I saw this cool new eye shadow quad on TV the other day, and since it was similar to the one that disappeared I decided to get it. The MAC girl had some time so she gave me a mini makeover. It was only going to be the eyes, but then she did my lips and then the rest of my face. So when I finally came home my face was all made up, but with my hair and clothes in moderate disarray from the earlier adventures with the kids. (I mean, seriously, who wouldn't want refried beans smeared on their pant leg or shirt?)

Here I am with my "dramatic" eyes. Natalie gave them her stamp of approval. Now, to do something about those braces... November 3 can't be here soon enough!

Miss Innocent herself. I am allowed to post this picture of her. She did silly shots for the other ones, and didn't want anyone else to see them. She was quite upset when I dared suggest it.

Drew didn't mind me sharing a silly shot of him. In fact, he wanted me to share the other one, but I nixed that. He was in a silly mood when I got home so he only wanted silly pictures. And no, I don't know what he's doing here...

Denver Broncos Game

Yippee! Kent and I got to go to the Broncos' game last night. It was so cool. My Broncos played the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. And as if it wasn't good enough to get to see them in person, we killed them! It was awesome!

I sat next to two devoted Cardinals fans. I don't think they liked it when I came walking up in my Broncos t-shirt and cap. LOL! They loved the first half because the Broncos, using their 3rd string QB Hackney, were losing. And the Cards were using 1st or 2nd string (depending on the day) QB Leinart. However, starting late in the 3rd quarter the Broncos rallied and we got our game back on track. I had to smack talk those 2 Cardinal fans a little after listening to them for a majority of the first half. Then me and all of the other Denver Broncos' fans (and we were there in high numbers!!!) had to stand up and cheer as we came back with 3 more TDs to win the game. :-)~

Anyway, it was fun, and my Broncos won!

Here we are in our seats, right behind my team! Great seats, Kent!!!

Here are the Broncos in the 4th quarter, at the beginning of the play where we went for a (successful) 2 point conversion.

Edward and Bella

I am getting really excited about the movie! I just read that it's now being released on November 21 instead of December 12. Yea! Anyone else want to go that night?

Home

Fun things about home:
1. Seeing the kids!
2. Spending time together as a family!
3. Sleeping in my own bed.
4. Having a dishwasher.
5. Having a washer and dryer.
6. Being able to get together with friends and family.

Not so fun things about home:
1. No maid to make my bed every morning.
2. No maid to vacuum my carpets.
3. Laundry. Did I mention laundry? I have already done 10 loads, and I still have 2 more. Yikes! I'd take a picture, but I'm embarrassed to let anyone see it.
4. Kids not wanting to do their jobs.
5. Running errands.

Aloha Day 11- Home at Last!

We had our last day in Hawaii yesterday. We spent the morning doing some last minute shopping and then packing our bags. Then we dropped the car off then went to the airport. We had to all adjust our checked luggage because they were all too heavy. I had to throw a few things away to make the weight. We ate our lunch, then boarded the plane. The plane was supposed to take off at 3:15, but we didn't pull away from the gate until almost 3:35. Consequently we were late coming in. We landed at 12:10, and because of where we were sitting didn't get off the plane until about 12:30. We got our bags, grabbed a taxi, and finally got home at around 1:15 or 1:30 a.m. We unpacked a bit so that we could get our toothbrushes and toothpaste out of the bags, and got to bed around 2.

This morning the kids were excited to see that we got home. Trevor came up to make sure that we were actually here, and that's when I woke up. My alarm didn't go off so I'm glad he woke me up, and I drove them because I drove them to school. A major thunderstorm hit just before school let out, and by the time I got to the school (1/2 mile away) the storm was so bad that even with my windshield wipers going at top speed I couldn't see past my windshield for a few minutes. The greenbelts were filled with water, and my shoes got soaked when I got out at the front of the school and to find my kiddos.

I had better stop typing. Natalie has decided that she doesn't want to go to bed so we're having issues right now... I guess she doesn't believe that I'm home now! More later...

Aloha Day 10

This morning we went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. We had heard great things from our friends and family members so we were really excited to go. We got picked up at 7:30 in front of our hotel by a native Hawaiian man named Jerry. He has 12 children, ranging in age from 8 - 35! Wow, he's busy! On the way up he told us the do's and don'ts of snorkeling there. He told us a lot of stories about the land and other points of interest while we were coming home.
The staff at the preserve made everyone watch a video before they would allow anyone in the water, and they said that there were a lot of moray eels and urchins within the coral so I was afraid to touch anything. They also stressed that if we stepped on the coral we could break it, and if enough people did it then it would contribute to the reef dying... no stress, really!
The fish were few and far between. There was even more coral here than at the City of Refuge, so it was really hard to get out into open water. The waves were a lot bigger, and the current was a lot stronger. It wouldn't have been a big deal except that the waves kept pushing us into the coral- ouch! We tried snorkeling in several different areas, but we just couldn't find many fish. There was a lot of sand near the beach so we couldn't really see much closer to shore either. When we got out of the water we got A LOT of sand in our swimming suits... A lot...

Aloha Day 9

We went to a heiau in Manoa. The definition of heiau is found here: http://www.kaleoaloha.com/heiau.html. We went to one owned by the Cooke family. You can view their website here: http://punahou55.org/Downloads/07Duane%20Choy.pdf

Here is one of the flowers we saw.

Here's a picture of the back of the house and part of the garden.

Here's a picture of a pond on the property.

This is a picture of the actual heiau. No one is allowed to enter it.

We took a lot of pictures of the beautiful plants and land. We ate lunch at the Wai'oli Tea Room & Bakery. After lunch we stopped so Julie and Lenny could shop at a couple of Asian furniture stores. Kent and I found a nail salon. I got a manicure and pedicure. Natalie was impressed with the flowers. I got plumerias with little green jewels in the middle of the flower.

After that we picked them up from the store we dropped them off in Waikiki, dropped the car off at the hotel. Then we walked to the International Market Place to go shopping. When we were done shopping we walked back to the hotel, taking the scenic route through Little Saigon.

Aloha Day 8

Day 8 was a busy day. We started out by going to the Punch Bowl, then Valley of the Temples (there is a Buddhist temple and cemetery there), Pali Pass, and finally the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Here are some pictures from the Valley of the Temples.

Here are pictures from Pali Pass.

Here are pictures from the Polynesian Cultural Center. This is from the Long Canoe Pageant. They had several boats with dancers representing several different countries. This is from the Tonga group.
Here's Kent trying his hand at spear throwing. I guess it's only fair to get a picture of me doing something a little funny too. This was at the Hawaiian exhibit. They were teaching us how to dance the hula. Notice my new tattoo on my lower right ankle. Don't worry, Mom. It's already gone!This is from the show at the end of the night. No flash photography was allowed so it was harder to get a clear picture. I thought the fire looked pretty cool even in slow motion.

Aloha Day 7

Day 7... No pictures to post yet. We returned to the City of Refuge to snorkel again because we had so much fun before. We took several more pictures, which I'll post after we get home. After snorkeling we came back, got ready, packed and flew to Oahu (Honolulu). After arriving we went grocery shopping because we're staying in another place with a refrigerator.

Aloha Day 6

On Tuesday we went back to Captain Cook's monument to go snorkeling. We did this for the first time last April, and last year I was not able to get out of the boat until the end, and even then I had to hold on to the ladder because I couldn't get my breathing right. This time I was able to get right in, and we snorkeled for almost 2 hours. We had a different tour guide this time. His name was Carl, and he called himself a pirate. He was hilarious. Here's his picture.

I'll upload pictures from the actual snorkel after we get home. Here are some pictures from our ride on the boat. Kent managed to avoid getting his picture taken, but he got the rest of us. (I apologize that they're blurry. I wasn't the photographer; I'm married to him!)

Here are some pictures from the ride back, including a picture of the dolphin we saw.

Aloha Day 5

We started the day off by So today we went to see Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain in the world, measured from bottom (under the ocean) to summit. We started in Kona, boarded a passenger van, and drove up to the visitor's center. Our guide, whose name I don't remember because he looked so much like a guy I went to junior and high school with, told us about the different land formations the volcanoes made, the story behind Parker Ranch, and a lot of the history of the area. We ate dinner at the visitor's center, then donned our parkas and gloves that our guide gave us. It was very cold at the summit! During the winter there is snow at the summit.

Here is a view of some of the land that shows the lava flow from one of the last eruptions.

Here are a few of the observatories near the top of the summit. They are used and operated by different countries and universities.

Wow, don't I look lovely? I wore a long sleeve t-shirt, a sweat shirt, the parka and the gloves they provided, and it was still cold! The wind was so strong up at the summit that you couldn't walk straight up. You leaned at about a 15 - 20 degree angle. It was pretty funny to watch other people walk that way!

Here's Kent all bundled up. He had on a long sleeve shirt, parka, gloves and hat. Oh, we had to wear our sunglasses too because we were so high up that the sun would have burned our eyes without them.

This is a picture of the sunset above the clouds from the summit of Mauna Kea. After sunset we drove down the mountain a bit to set up a telescope and look at stars, constellations, Jupiter, nebulas and the moon. Our guide was very knowledgeable, and I saw a lot of things that I have never seen before. We also saw the moon rise above the clouds. It lit up the sky so much from our vantage point. We were unable to see some of the things afterwards because it was so bright. After we saw everything we drank hot chocolate, then went back to Kona. I would highly recommend this for anyone who hasn't done it before. It's very interesting, and you learn a lot!

Aloha Day 4

Hello again!
This morning we had our breakfast, then got our swimsuits on and snorkel gear. We drove to the City of Refuge, and then we got into the ocean. It is the first time I have snorkeled from the beach. There was a ton of coral, and we had to be careful when we got in because the lava leading up to the beach had a ton of holes in it, many of which had small urchins. I managed to avoid them, as did Julie, Lenny and Kent.
The water was a lot deeper than anything I've gone swimming in (except for snorkeling with the manta rays he other night). Some parts near the shore were only about 10-15' deep, but then most of it was at least 20-30'. As we swam our further it got so deep that we couldn't see the bottom very well because it was so deep. Lenny, who is certified in scuba diving, said that he thought it was right around 50' deep. I'll admit that I was initially a little freaked out seeing how deep the water was, but I said a little prayer for courage and safety, and felt fine after that. Although I must admit that I still hate swimming over the coral in shallow areas. There are urchins in several of the holes, the coral is sharp, and they told us to beware of eels that hide in there because they would defend their territory if we got too close! Yikes! We went for almost 2 hours. It went by so quickly!
Here are pictures of all of us, and then one that I took from the beach. I'll post more pictures from underwater when we get home! Keep in mind that these are from AFTER we went snorkeling so our hair and make up (mine and Julie's) don't look as nice as they did when we left!

We came back to the condo, cleaned ourselves up, had lunch, and went around the area some more. We're back at the hotel now watching the women in the Olympics dive. It's pretty cool to see how talented these people are.
It still looks like it's really overcast. It isn't, but because of the fumes coming from the volcano it looks as though it could have a downpour at any time. It was so different the last time we were here on the Big Island. Driving around today reminded me of the beauty of the plants, the earth and the ocean. Seeing the fish in the ocean up close showed the various beautiful animals. The Lord has truly blessed us to give us so much beauty. All we need to do is look for it; it's all around us.

Aloha Day 3

Okay. So today was a little rough for me in the morning. I was still suffering from the effects of food poisoning until the afternoon. Boy, was I glad when that passed! We had breakfast out on the veranda again, overlooking the ocean. It is so beautiful. I don't think I would ever tire of that view.
Then we drove up to Waimea to go to the farmer's market and do a bit of shopping. We got to see the beautiful mountains up there. And on the way up we got to see what almost looked like a desert landscape. The trees and plants all leaned to one side because of the wind that blows down from the volcano and mountains. The plants were all yellowish, not the green that I'm used to seeing here in Hawaii.
We ate lunch at Parker Ranch restaurant, and then drove back to Kona. We rested a while, then went down to the main drag to go shopping. We didn't get much, but we walked and walked. It was really pretty. When we were done Kent and I went to the black sand beach and took pictures of the ocean and tide. I will post pictures tomorrow. Everyone else is sleeping so I don't want to wake them up to find my cables.
We came back after that and made tacos, then watched Dara Torres and Michael Phelps medal in their relays in the Olympics. Fun stuff!
Tomorrow morning we're off to the City of Refuge. We're going to snorkel there. I think it will be fun. By the way, JUSTIN, I am not a wuss, and I did go swimming in the open ocean (bay) to swim with the manta rays. Your mother is tougher than you think!!!

Aloha Day 2

So yesterday was even busier than the day before. In the morning we made our breakfast, and ate out on the veranda, which overlooks the ocean. It was so nice. After that we got in the car to go shopping. There is this fabric store that Julie has gone to several times. They had such a wonderful selection of fabric. She was looking for material to make curtains for her cabin, and I wanted to find some material to make myself a new blanket.


(Story behind the blanket... I promised that I would make all of the kids their very own blanket for their birthdays. Trevor is the only child who has one so far because I can't get the other kids to tell me which ones they want. Then I made myself one last year just before my back surgery, and Natalie immediately fell in love with it. So in June when it was Natalie's birthday she decided she did not want a blanket. She wanted Hannah Montana stuff. A week after her birthday she decided that she did want a blanket... mine. So I'm buying stuff to make myself a new one.)


Here's a picture of the material I selected. The colors won't show up as brightly as I want, but it gives a decent representation of them.

After we were done there we went to a tepanyaki restaurant that was right next to a Buddhist temple. I shouldn't have eaten there, though, because just as we were leaving to go on our trip I got a bad case of food poisoning. Yuck!

We came back to the hotel and ate dinner. After dinner we changed and went to snorkel with the manta rays. They had a lady there who recorded the whole excursion. She has done almost all of the photography of rays for Discovery Channel. She is named Martina, and she did a fantastic job. We were able to get a copy of the DVD she's making. We only had 2 rays come join us for the swim, but it was pretty cool. One was about 6' across, and one that was about 9' across. Yikes. It was kind of trippy. We were all attached to the boat originally, but the rays decided to go closer to the shore so we all left the ship and swam over closer to the shore. I got kicked in the face, stomach and arm with all of the fins, but I think everyone did. We also took some pictures with underwater cameras. We are going to drop them off to be developed. If they turned out I'll post those pictures here too.

Well we're off to Waimea (I think) so I'll post more later! Should be fun!

Aloha!

Sorry I couldn't update sooner. We couldn't get the Internet to work until today. Julie, Lenny, Kent and I landed in Honolulu yesterday around 11, ate a quick lunch, then got on a "puddle jumper" to fly to Kona. We are literally right on the beach. We got "lei'd" when we landed in Kona... beautiful flowers. Then we stopped to get groceries, then came to our hotel. It's so beautiful. As I sit here typing these I'm looking at the Pacific Ocean roll in. This is the view from our room.


These are the pictures from the Kona airport. It's teeny, tiny. I have never seen an airport so small!

Julie and Lenny (Kent's mom and stepdad)

Kent and Maryann (Can you believe he's almost smiling?!)

These are the pictures from our dinner last night. Julie missed Kent's birthday so we went to Huggo's for dinner. Kent was embarrassed because they came and sang to him, but he got a yummy coconut cake with strawberry sauce drizzled on the plate.

We couldn't get a late reservation, which is what we wanted because they turn the lights on, and tons of fish come swimming up to see the lights. But we did get to sit right next to the ocean so it was still beautiful. When we'd throw bread to the water fish would come up and eat it. I took some pictures, and if any of the fish are visible I'll post them later! Now we're going snorkeling with the manta ray. I hope I'm not too chicken to get in the water!

Drew's First Day of Preschool

Here's Drew on his first day of school. I had trouble getting him to get going in the morning, but once we had dropped the kids off at school he was pretty excited. He had so much fun. He got to play and color.

Today was his second time, and he got to cut paper with scissors. I banned him from scissors a while ago because he was cutting holes in the middle of his shirts, other people's clothing, important papers and whatever else he could find. Oh, and he and Natalie cutting their own hair- or allowing it to be cut by the other one. (See posts from earlier in the year...)

Twilight Series

Okay Amy... I reread Twilight yesterday, New Moon today, and I'll read Eclipse tomorrow, and then Breaking Dawn by this weekend. I promise! Then we'll talk about it. I'm getting mixed reviews on Breaking Dawn so I'm a bit apprehensive to read it. I remember now why I loved this series so much. I can't wait to read the last 2 books. Then only 4 months until I can go see the Twilight movie.

Wipeout

When we were up in Utah visiting my grandparents they watched this show called Wipeout. I was reading one of the books I brought with me, but after hearing everyone in the room erupt in laughter several times I went to see what was so funny. I sat down and watched it with them. It starts out with 24 people on an obstacle course, and ends up with 4 people in the finals. The course is pretty challenging. What makes it funny is when the people fall down they show the hosts laughing. You never see that on TV. I have always wondered how the hosts can keep straight faces when someone falls down... because sometimes it's funny. And now it's even funnier when you see the hosts laughing. It's on Tuesday nights on ABC.

Mamma Mia!

I have wanted to see the stage production of Mamma Mia! for a while. It's never worked out, but now that the movie is in the theater I managed to see it. So fun! I loved the music and everyone did great (except Pierce Brosnan... he has trouble starting out, but does better as he gets into the song... still not great, though). We went out with another couple to see the movie, and that's how I got Kent to go along with me. About 20 minutes in I looked over at him with a big smile on my face, and realized that he looked like he wanted to die. He did manage to sit through the rest of the movie, but he wasn't exactly happy about having seen it. LOL!
When we got home I was going to download the entire CD from iTunes, but it was cheaper to buy the CD so I did. He's been lucky enough to hear the soundtrack blasting from my iPod dock or my computer several times since I got it.
Anyway, I want to go see it again now that I know the songs better. He will not go with me again so I'm taking Natalie to see it. She loves all the ABBA music so she should enjoy it.