4 New Posts (not including this one)

This is just a post to let you know about the previous 4 NEW posts I just posted. There is one on Hawaii, Nicole and I's Utah niece sleepover, my belated b-day get together, and Brooklyn. I wanted to include a picture of the shelves my bro-in-law put up for me in my home office. He did such a good job, but I didn't expect otherwise. The middle picture frame has since been filled with a cute picture of Sophia. I've included a picture of her birth announcement that Addie and I made.

Little Brook

This weekend Brook hasn't been feeling good. Friday morning April took her to instacare and they told her she had pneumonia and to take her to the hospital. Luckily they called ahead so she wouldn't have to take her to the ER. Her oxygen levels were down and so they monitored her until today, and I recently got a message that she is home and they are watching her there, but she is doing better and feeling better. My dad called the temple visitor's center and they sent some brethren over to give her a blessing soon after they arrived at the hospital. Poor girl. Bk wasn't allowed to see her because they didn't let children in under 14, but he carried around April's cell phone that had her picture on it and talked to it. We're praying for a quick recovery. I know she'll get better quick because she is strong.

Pizza G.I. Joe

Last night we had a little belated b-day get together since I was in Hawaii on my birthday. We had pizza and chocolate texas sheet cake (made by Nicole) at Nicole and Nate's and then went and saw G.I. Joe, which was not worth the money we paid to see it... maybe $1. It rated very high on the cheesy scale and the acting was not the best I've seen. It was set up for a sequel--but I don't think I will see it until it's a the dollar. Nate made himself a cake/cookie/brownie/carrot dessert. Why didn't we all think of that?

The many faces of Tom. The last one might be his oxygen tube. My camera was closest to him so he took the pictures and had fun at the same time.

I had Nicole put some hot pink in my hair before Hawaii. This is a good picture of what it looks like. I really like it. It faded a lot and so Nicole touched it up Friday night.

Niece Sleepover

The weekend after I got back from Hawaii Nicole and I had our Utah nieces over for a aunt-niece sleepover. It was super fun, but sooooooo exhausting. Once we piled them all into Nate and Nicole's car we made a couple stops. First to Honk's a dollar to get them a toy, then to Smith's to get movie treats, Hollywood video to get the made-for-tv-movie "Muppet Wizard of Oz" (which they're still quoting), and finally back to Nicole's. Nate was on a camping trip with the boys in his family in the Uinta's which is the reason we decided to do it.




The pre-movie pillow fight.

The girls finally went to bed at 12:30 p.m. and were up at 6:30 a.m. waiting for Nicole to make them pancakes. We kept telling them it was still night time but they wouldn't believe that. After breakfast, cartoons, and Disney on-line games--we got them dressed, did their hair in braided ponytails (which looked a mess 5 minutes later), and headed to the mall. The girls played at the treehouse play place and then we went to the Disney store and to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch, which is Kt's favorite place. Kt always gets the kids pizza. Then we treated them to a kids m&m sundae to share. After we took them back to their parents we heard that Izzy slept till 6 p.m. that night and Megan fell asleep in the car for the first time since she was 6 months old. That, I think, equals success.

HAWAII!!!!

This whole blog entry is backwards (I forgot to do it the right way, and now I'm too lazy) so you'll have to start reading at the bottom to go in order. Our last day in Hawaii we walked around and did some shopping and went to the beach one last

time.

Haunama Bay! It was the most beautiful beach I've ever been to. We rented snorkeling equipment and snorkled a bit. Mom couldn't get the hang of it so she didn't do it too much. Because of the hurricane they wouldn't let people go out to far, which was fine by me because I don't go out past where I can't touch anyway.

One of the highlights was hiking Diamond Head. The hike is part trail and part stairs. It was a great hike, and well worth it at the top. Amazing view.

Sunday we went to Waimea Valley and Pearl Harbor. Some of the series LOST is filmed in Waimea and we got to swim in the waterfall where they filmed some of the scenes. If you sit under the waterfall the water is really warm. The people working in the visitors center told us some other places in the park where they do some filming. After we went and ate dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp restaurant. Named after Bubba in Forest Gump.
Pearl Harbor: Visiting the USS Arizona memorial. Very cool to see. It took awhile to get there, but was well worth it. The USS Arizona is still leaking oil and you can see a little on the water (sorry, I didn't post a picture of it).

Polynesian Cultural center, BYU-Hawaii, and the Hawaii temple all in our trip out to the PCC. Also pictures of our luau. Everyone received lei's with real flowers and there was probably 400 people. They were re-modeling the temple so it wasn't open, but the temple and grounds are so beautiful.

On my birthday, August 7th, we took the bus out to Sea Life Park (similar to Sea World but smaller with the ocean in the background), and then went to Perry's Smorgy's for dinner. The birds were practically eating off mom's plate. International Marketplace. We got attacked by the bird man. I was a little nervous, but I think mom was loving it.

Outside our hotel in the pool area.

Our first night in Hawaii we went to the hotel, Aqua Bamboo and Spa, and then walked the 2 blocks down to Waikiki beach.