Cousins

I am so delighted that there are "cousins" in the family! Not my cousins but my Grand kids have cousins and it is so fun to watch them get to know each other. Just before Jessica had her baby Cydney came to spend a little time with us! We spent as much time together as we could. On this day we went to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point. Caleb is so good with the little ones, they just love him and respond to him.

Best buds, these two brothers.

" "Aunt Natty"

Just so cute!

Say "cheese"

Not sure what to think about these "things"

Sheriff Nora watching her prisoners.

I love these moments!

A picture is worth a thousand words.

I loved watching Caleb cleaning the shoes of this pony, I wasn't sure he would do it when she asked but he really did well.

This video was taken at the house, Caleb got Tanner laughing and we all started, I'm not sure you can hear how much he laughed because of us.

New office-again

During the three years that Kerry has been working in Honolulu his office has been relocated three different times. This is the latest so we decided to personalize this one a little bit since it seems to feel like he may be in this one close to his group for awhile.

I went and bought a bunch of frames for family pictures. The wall was really long and bare so it was easy to find ways to fill it.
He has a pretty great view of Bishop Square and on out to the Ocean from this window.
One Saturday afternoon we hung pictures all around his desk.
And a calendar.
There was still a lot of room on the wall so we started hanging pictures of some of the shots he has taken during some of his dives. Those pictures created quite an interest for a little while as people came in to see them. He has some pretty great pictures on his travel blog.

Punchbowl

Punchbowl National Cemetery caught my attention many years ago as a scene from Hawaii Five O. On my first trip to Honolulu I saw the top of the monument from our hotel room and knew I wanted to find out how to get there. After being there and falling in love with the history of it and the history that I have learned from it we have taken each of our kids who have been there to see it. From the rim of the old volcano there is a lookout that takes in the beautiful panorama of the city and the ocean. I later learned that Kerry's great uncle was buried there. He had been killed in World War II and was buried there with all of the other men who were killed at Wake Island as civilians with him. We finally looked his grave site up at the registry and set about to find it.

It took us quite awhile but we finally located it.
Kerry even took time to pull some of the weeds growing by the marker.

These men were over taken by the Japanese and didn't even stand a chance. They aren't even sure who really is in the grave it is more of just a marker, it is a sobering experience to say the least.. I can't believe how many times we had been by this marker and didn't realize what it was.

Punchbowl and Pearl Harbor are still part of the Island that I love most.

Turning One-Surpirse!

Our family seems to love surprises! When Cydney learned we were going to Zion's for Memorial Day weekend she was sad because she had hoped we would be in Kansas for that weekend to celebrate Nora's first birthday. What she didn't know was that Kerry and I were planning a small three day trip before to surprise them and be there for the birthday. I had all of the details worked out and that morning Cyd called to tell us that they were going to see a free concert and greet and meet at a local bookstore with one of their favorite bands. I knew that by the time we landed, got the rental car and got to their house they would not be there. I also knew that they could possibly run errands and a bunch of stuff after and who knew how long we would be in the car waiting for them to get there. So I made up a story! I told them that there would be a package delivered for her birthday and I really didn't want to have it sitting on the porch unattended for very long.... So after the concert they grabbed lunch and headed back to their apartment.

We waited in the car down the street, seriously I thought that we were going to be reported as stalkers because we were parked right across from where some young kids were playing outside and the mom was watching us.
"What the heck? Was her response when she opened the door, even though Ken spied me through the peep hole with my camera ready.

"Look Nora, it's Grandma and Grandpa."

The birthday girl.

Lovin' time together!

Outside and loving every minute of it.

Timid about the cake!?

Such a cute cake, for a cute birthday girl.

Checking out the wagon we gave her. Even Charlie seems to approve! And with that the trip came to a rapid close and it was time to head home.

It was a fun surprise for all of us!

Official First Grader

Just looking at my grown children I am acutely aware how quickly time passes but this day just kind of snuck up on me. I can't believe he is officially in the first grade. I am lucky to have these guys close by so that I can go participate in these activities.

Here he is marching in for the Kindergarten graduation assembly.

Getting ready to say his line.

Saying his line about art projects.

And of course it's official, graduation mortar board and all, he is now a first grader. If I am this emotional about this what will I be like when he graduates from High School or even College. Hopefully I will get to see those too! So proud of our little (big) Caleb.

ZIONS

Say "Zions" to my family and many wonderful memories and stories come from each one of us.

Like Mountain Lion tracks and "hoo doos" and Quate running on the rocks and hardly being able to walk for days afterward (probably not a wonderful memory but a memory just the same.) Hikes, climbing in trees, the tent trailer, the big blue pot, camping pancakes, hamburger helper cheeseburger style,... and so many more. It had been awhile since we had been there, this year a part of the family was able to schedule time to go. But this year we wimped out and stayed in a hotel room instead of the tent trailer, after our last experience hauling the tent trailer none of us were very trusting of it, but that is another blog story!

I am not exactly sure why the "Hoo Doos" are one of the highlights for our family but we enjoy climbing and sitting on them, of course Rachel was the first one up as usual.
Each day after hiking around and playing we would go back to the hotel and head to the swimming pool to cool down it was a lot of fun. The strange thing is that often Rebecca and I were the last ones out of the pool, go figure.

This was on the Hidden canyon hike, aren't they cute? This is my favorite hike in the park, turns out it is one of the steepest and most difficult of the groomed trails. For some reason the height doesn't seem to bother me as much as it does in other places. I will always remember the first time we hiked this and we found lots of little side trails that we could climb into the rocks and rest in the cool and take great pictures.

Rachel and Cameron couldn't resist posing beneath the lower water fall. Just after the picture was snapped the wind changed direction and blew the falls towards us, we all got soaked and a little cold. I love hiking to the falls.

These are one of the little nooks that we love to hide in, they are a cute couple aren't they?

Tanner had by far the best view and easiest part of the hike. His dad was a little tired by the end of the day. I walked behind him most of the time just watching him laugh and have fun.

Just past the hardest part of the hike we stopped for lunch and Tanner crashed. It was nice and cool and we just had a good time talking and laughing.

And maybe a little silliness.

Just one of the views from the toughest part of the hike.

Our first night we went to the over look and watched the sunset, I thought this was a great picture. Rebecca loves to scare me by getting a close the edge as she can, just for a reaction. Darn kids anyway.
It was a lot of fun to be together and at the same time it was sad. You just can't relive old memories, Kerry and I were able to hike around beyond the Hoo doos and find some new things to see. There were a lot of catus in bloom and even some tracks to follow, maybe it was that old mountain lion afterall.

Kerry Dive Training

To say that Kerry is enjoying his time in Hawaii is an understatement! He has absolutely fallen in love with scuba diving. During some of my visits there I have watched him doing different levels of training, this day he was working on a Dive Master internship. I was just above on a cliff taking pictures of what I could.

Here they are just going into the water, which was not an easy task because the waves coming in at Electric Beach were pretty strong. Watching how long it took all of them to go through was interesting.

After some time and different tasks they all started to come in and once again battle the surf.

Kerry looked exhausted as he brought up the remaining equipment at the end of the dive. He still had to do some pool training in order to finish this level. Then on to instructor- IDC. I don't think he intended to go so far when he first got started but like I said he has fallen in love with the critters under the sea! He has taken some pretty amazing photos and they are on his travel blog. Check them out at kerryjstravels.blogspot.com