Dancing Queens

Grace went to a little dance camp last weekend, put on by the Ferris High dance team. She had a lot of fun. They performed this cute little routine at the end. She did pretty good for never having taken formal lessons!! (sorry for the shaky camera work :))

Grace and her friend Aria

SNOW!!

A tree in my backyard...taken with my sweet new camera!!

A Riddle - On Snow

From Heaven I fall, though from earth I begin.

No lady alive can show such a skin.

I'm bright as an angel, and light as a feather,

But heavy and dark, when you squeeze me together.

Though candor and truth in my aspect I bear,

Yet many poor creatures I help to insnare.

Though so much of Heaven appears in my make,

The foulest impressions I easily take.

My parent and I produce one another,

The mother the daughter, the daughter the mother.

-James Parton

New Moon...

Unfortunately, this is the only "new moon" we've gotten to see around here. Can't wait until next week to see the actual movie with mom and Abby! (you can come, too David ;))

Was It All a Dream???

We have been back from Hawaii for a couple weeks and it feels like it was all a dream! I still have not heard about our camera, so I am just assuming it is gone, and I'm moving on. The great thing about the internet is that you can find a picture of virtually anything in the world. So I searched the web to find pictures of all the places we went. In doing so, I was temporarily transported back to Maui, back to the 85 degree weather, back to the relaxation. I want to go back!!! Anyway, following will be a bunch of pictures with no one in them, but I feel like I need to do this so I can always remember our amazing trip.

Day 1: On Saturday we arrived in Maui around noon. We were so tired! We went to the hotel and hung out by the pool until our room was ready. I started reading The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, on the plane and could NOT put it down. I HIGHLY recommend these books (it is a trilogy) to everyone. It was SO GOOD!! I finished it that day.

Day 2: On Sunday we went to church at the Lahina 1st ward. It was so great. The people were so sweet. I love how when they get up to talk they say "Aloha!", and everyone in the audience says it back :) When we got back to the hotel the Boise State/Hawaii game was on TV, so of course we had to watch it. Boise killed the Warriors-Go Broncos!!. I was fine with watching the game because I had already started reading Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins-the second book in the Hunger Games Trilogy. Again, I could not put it down! Can't wait for the last book to come out! After the game we hung out on the beach for the rest of the day.

Ka'anapali Beach, where we stayed, so beautiful *sigh*

Day 3: On Monday we went on a hike to the Swinging Bridges of Maui. It was in a beautiful rain forest. I loved this hike because we only saw 1 other group of people the whole hike. It was so serene, beautiful, and relaxing. At the end of the hike their is an old spillway with a pool at the bottom. We jumped in to cool off, of course!

One of the 2 swinging bridges we crossed

Day 4: On Tuesday we drove up to the volcano, Haleakala. We drove through and above the clouds to get there. The summit is over 10,000 feet!! I think that is the highest I have ever been. One of the things that I really loved about Maui was the diverse ecosystems on the island. You have the rainforest, the beach, dry desert areas, and the high arid desert up on the volcano. It was very cool. We hiked down into the volcano about 2 miles. The windy, twisty road to the top was well worth it!

I love how you can see the clouds down below in all these pictures

This is where we got to hike down in to the volcano

After the volcano we went Hana Botanical Gardens. It was so beautiful.

Day 5: On Wednesday we drove the road to Hana. It is a twisty highway that goes all along the eastern coast of Maui. It is highly recommended in all the literature on Maui. I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, the scenery was breathtaking, we saw some really amazing things. There is so much to stop and see. On the other hand, once you are at the end of the road you have to turn around and go back...all 3 1/2 windy, twisty hours of it (we did see a wild boar in the road on the way back!). It was a very long drive, but I'm glad we did it.

Our first stop on the Road to Hana was a little hike to the Twin Falls.

We actually saw about 4 different water falls. They were beautiful!

The last stop on the road was at the Seven Sacred Pools (above).

We got to go swimming here. The pools empty into the ocean (below).

It was so beautiful.

Day 6: On Thursday we went to breakfast at a really fun place called " The Gazebo", right on the beach. We had to wait in line for a while, but it was well worth the wait! Then we just relaxed by the beach the whole day. It was so relaxing, a perfect way to end our amazing week.

The Gazebo

Above is the beach front of our hotel.

Below is the beach...**sigh**

Day 7: On Friday we got up, got ready to go and flew home! I think we were there the perfect amount of time. I didn't really miss my kids, but I was anxious to see them. It made me realize how lucky I am to be their mom and being away from them renewed my desire to raise them in a happy home. I really think it is so important to spend time alone with your spouse, but that gets so difficult in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. It was so great for Ray and I to be together in paradise, to reconnect and remember why we fell in love all those years ago.

All Grown Up...

Baby girl is getting all grown up, holding her bottle by herself. Where have the last 10 months gone? Time is flying faster than I can keep up with!

Halloween 2009

As you all know, we did not have a camera on Halloween **sniff**, but luckily my mom took some pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes when she went to their school parties that week. Sidenote-no luck on the camera front, but Ray has made me feel better about the whole thing by telling me that we can get a new SLR (most likely the cheapest of the SLR's, but that's fine!) for our family Christmas present. Sorry kids, but you will thank me when you are older, promise! Anyway, here are our Halloween shots!

This is the only shot I got of all the kids (with my phone) on Halloween, and the only shot of Naomi in her little pumpkin costume. The beer in the background is a nice touch, don't you think?!

Gracie the good witch :)

Buzz Lightyear Elliot, with his awesome teacher Miss Lisa.

Maggie Moo Cow

When we were trick or treating Halloween night we were leaving a house and I said, "come on Maggie". The lady at the door said, "Is her name really Maggie?". She thought that was really funny :)

Making the Halloween haunted house with grandma and grandpa, doesn't grandpa look thrilled?

Maggie loved the dinosaur costume, too, but it was a little small :)

Elliot with his Kindermuik class. Don't you just love that smile?

This picture in front of Albertsons will have to take the place of the pictures of our trip to the pumpkin patch!

Hi...

Well, we are back from Maui and it was amazing, wonderful, relaxing, so totally awesome. The weather could not have been more perfect and I was totally able to relax because I knew my kids were being well cared for by 2 people (thanks mom and dad!) who love them every bit as much as we do, I was even able to relax when I found out Naomi was sick and throwing up (I'm so sorry mom and dad!) I want to go back. Soon. I am trying not to be sad right now, but just can't help it because our camera got left on the plane. With all of our pictures from Hawaii. And all of our pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch at Greenbluff. We realized it was gone as we were leaving for the trunk or treat-so we got NO pictures of our kids on Halloween, I want to cry about that. Luckily my mom got pictures of Grace, Elliot and Maggie in their costumes, but I have absolutely no documentation of my baby's first Halloween (except some crappy picture on my phone). It may sound a little overly-dramatic, but I feel like I am in mourning!! Those are memories-put-to-picture that we will never be able to get back. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will find it on the plane (I submitted the form), and if someone else found it I hope that person is honest. Anyway, I'm just going to try and think about what an amazing trip we had, that makes me feel better.

Later...

I just talked to my mom and we were talking about a scare my friend Camille had with her newborn Lola, read about it here, and it made me realize that losing a camera is really not all that bad. We still have the memories and we are all healthy and happy. It makes me remember what is really important :)