Don's Departure Day 1

Ok so after my lovely vacation you would think that I would be all rested and rejuvenated and ready to take on my life again. Uh no,not so much. Today Don left for 1 solid week-yes folks 6 whole nights and 7 whole days. I barely made it through this day-ok I am typing this after telling my kids to go to bed for the hundrenth time and I hear the peaceful sounds of slamming doors, running feet, and screaming-whether they are fighting or laughing I don't really care at this point. Not to mention the fact that Cayden fell and scraped his knees up pretty good tonight clomping around the neighborhood in Caleb's size 17 cowboy boots so I have very large bed bug to keep me company tonight. On the bright side I only have 6 whole days to go before Don gets home. Do you ever feel like on the days that you are trying the hardest that they suck the most? I won't even go into detail about my level of frustration at my kids, myself, the wind-aaarrrggghhh, and my neck pain. I even read my scriptures AND said my prayers, AND read the Relief Society lesson-although it wasn't the right one but I get points for trying right? Plus I was ready for church before the kids got up, I made a lovely breakfast and all the while had the Mo-tabs softly serenading us the back ground. Sometimes like today I wonder why I even bother. So now that I have complained and whined to all those of you who are my dearest friends I will tell you what I am going to do about it.
1.I made 72 mini cupcakes with frosting AND sprinkles. The boys even delivered some to the neighbors-service should perk me right up right?
2. I have eaten about 10 of said mini cupcakes and will probably go sneak another one (who am I kidding here at least 3 more) before I turn out the light.
3. We had frozen pizza for dinner.
4. I am going to watch another cheesy episode of Beauty and the Beast-remember that from forever ago-Vincent my hero!
5. I am going to say my prayers.
5. I am going to take a muscle relaxer.
and last but not least probably one of the more important things I will do is I will start my 21 Days Closer to Christ book because it is exactly 21 days before Easter. I have wanted to do this for a few years but I always remember like the day before Easter and the experiment would not be very effective if I crammed 21 days into 24 hours. So for those of you who had a sucky day like me, run to Deseret Book tomorrow and grab a copy of 21 Days Closer to Christ or wait until next Sunday after seeing if you can find the 14 Day Walk With Christ that is floating around on the internet, make yourself sick on mini cupcakes-they aren't as fattening as the big ones, watch a cheesy episode of some dumb TV show, take a pill and say your prayers hoping that tomorrow will be better. Deep breath hmmm-I feel a tad bit better and to think that I was seriously considering calling my therapist tomorrow. Another bonus-by ranting to all of you I just saved myself $100. Thanks a million!

Aloha!

How Don walks on the beach-notice the flip flops tucked into his pants!

Diamond Head from Waikiki.

Flash flood warning on the news.

My super tasty pancakes!

At Pearl Harbor-the Arizona memorial is in the way back far left. Love the headsets don't ya!

One of my many Dole Whips!

The double rainbow.

Our flamingo friends.

Our turtle friend at Sea Life Park.

The Cody Canoe at the Polynesian Cultural Center. This is made of 1 tree trunk.

Very temporary tattoo

The Laie temple-under construction so it is not sparkly white.

Outside the resort.

View from our lanai. This is the private lagoon of the Hilton. The beach is to the left of the lagoon.

For our anniversary this year Don and I went to Hawaii! We went to the island of Oahu and stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki. We left early Friday morning on the 13th and flew Delta to Salt Lake and the from Salt Lake to Honolulu. We got to Honolulu about 3:00 their time and had the rest of the evening to get settled. We watched the sunset from the beach which was more of a sun going behind the rain clouds but it was still beautiful. The hotel we stayed at was a huge resort with shops and restaurants, 3 pools and its own lagoon plus it was right on the beach. We really did not even have to leave if we did not want to. We were pretty tired with the 3 hour time difference so we just ordered a pizza and took it to our room. We were asleep before 9pm-yes we are quite the partiers! Saturday we woke up to rain-I mean RAIN! There was even the flash flood watch on the weather channel for Honolulu! It rained most of the day so we did not do much. We were a little concerned about venturing out to explore the island because we did not know our way around we would have been the goofballs on TV that they had come and rescue because we did not listen to the weather report. One of the restaurants at the resort was a New York Deli and we had breakfast there our first morning. I had the most delicious pancakes ever! They were ginormous pancakes with coconut, macadamia nuts and strawberries and then there was this fabulous coconut syrup-I bought a few bottles to bring home. After our tasty breakfast we explored the resort all the while it rained and rained and rained. The resort was very nice and very huge! There were various ponds and pools with Koi and various ducks. There were also a flock of pink flamingos that I enjoyed. There were lots of families there with kids which just made me feel so much better about leaving mine home! We just smiled and laughed as they fought them at the pools, the restaurants and the beach. It was amusing to watch them pack around strollers with all sorts of bags and portable cribs. I was so glad that it was not me! Don't get me wrong-we do want to take our kids but we just want to go first and scope out the place! It was actually kind of chilly and of course all we had were shorts and swimsuits so we went and bought a sweatshirt for me and a long sleeve tee for Don. How nuts is that! We should have kept the receipt because we only needed the warm clothes that day! We went back to the room where I thought a nap was a great idea but Don actually suggested that we go to the mall! The mall was humongous and was partly outdoors so we walked under the hanging porticos that were outside the shops. This mall had everything-Versace, Burberry, Louis Vitton, Tiffany's, Cartier and many other stores that I do not frequent. Vegas has all of these stores but not all in one place and needless to say we do not shop at these stores. They did have a Sears and an Old Navy so that was good that they lowered their standards so us peons could shop there too. We were quite pathetic though because we were back to the hotel with lights out before 9 again! Ok I lied-I think it is more like 7:30pm (Hawaii time). The time change is just crazy! Of course we were waking up at 5:00 in the morning there and had to lay around until 7 before we could do anything-I know I know boo hoo-you are so sad for us! Sunday we went to Pearl Harbor. That was quite amazing. We got there before 9 but we still had to wait 1 hour and 45 minutes before we could go out on the boat to the actual memorial because only 200 people are allowed out there at a time. We rented headsets to listen to the audio tour and that was very helpful in killing time. After Pearl Harbor we drove to the Dole Plantation and I had 3 Dole Whips in 30 minutes! Yes these are the same Dole Whips that we go nuts for at Disneyland. We wandered about the pineapple plantation and did our part to help the Hawaiian economy. That night we wandered down the beach and headed to a different mall area. There just happened to be a parade going on for the Honolulu Festival. There was alot of different oriental dance groups and music groups. It was pretty interesting. Another early night for us again. Monday was a lazy day-we hung out at the pool that faced the beach and read. It was lovely! A little bit of cloud burst blew through in the early evening and we caught a double rainbow off one of our lanai's. We actually could see all of one of them from beginning to the end. It was pretty cool. We went to Bubba Gump's for dinner-it really was not as great as we thought it was when we were in Maui. It was more for the atmosphere and to say we were there. I don't think we will be frequenting that establishment again. Tuesday we drove out to Laie where the temple is and the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was a very cloudy and overcast day which was great because it did not get too hot. The PCC did not open until 12:30 and since we were up at 6:00 we had some time to kill. We took the circuitous route around the east side of the island. We stopped at a scenic view point and we saw whales out along the shore. They were pretty far out but we could see them. That was pretty amazing. I kept trying to get pictures of them but I only got the white foam from them going back in the water. A few of them actually came all the way out of the water. We continued around the coast and then we stopped at the Sea Life Park. It was a pretty old and run down much smaller attempt at Sea World and really overpriced but we still had 2 hours before the PCC opened so we wandered about their rusting and smelly exhibits but we saw turtles-my personal favorite and a few dolphins. The sea birds were not overly exciting but there were penguins and seals so it was an ok way to kill an hour. We got to the PCC pretty soon after it opened and we wandered the villages for about 4 hours. It was pretty entertaining. Don got a very temporary "tattoo" at the New Zealand village. It was done with tempera paint so it washed off as soon as he got in the shower. Don really wanted a henna tattoo but we could not find a place to do it. (You do know that those are temporary and fade in about 3 weeks right!) The guy who did the show at the Samoan village was a hoot! He kept everybody laughing especially when he pulled some regular joes up on stage and had them try and start fire with sticks and then dance the slapping Samoan dance. It was pretty funny to see 2 very white guys-one an obvious American and one from South Korea with their shirts off and the Samoan man-skirts (whatever those are actually called). We thought about going to their Luau but we went to a luau on Maui 3 years ago so we opted out of it. We then drove to the BYU Hawaii campus and then over to the temple. Did you know the temple is under construction? Well we did not either. We still went to the visitor's center and walked on the grounds so that was neat. We also got our own personal weather forecast from Mark Eubank, the one and only from KSL Channel 5 weather. He and his wife are on a mission there at the visitor's center and Don was quite star-struck! I really wanted to ask him to take a pciture with us but the signs said no pictures in the visitor's center so I felt weird asking him to come outside-so I didn't. We drove back to Honolulu the normal way and we were back in under an hour. We were wiped out! I can't believe how exhausting it is to be on vacation! Our room was right across from the top of the building where the resort holds their luau every night. They don't do it on Friday and Saturday but the rest of the week they were in full swing. We could not wait for them to wind down so that we could go to sleep! Wednesday we did NOTHING! We stayed at the pool all day after some tasty pancakes again. Don snorkeled in the lagoon and out in the ocean but the water was too cold for me. After the clouds blew through on Monday the trade winds were about non-existent and it was pretty hot. Don went to the pool bar and asked for my favorite drink-the Lava Flowbut the guy said that he could only make drinks with kind of alcohol-well we showed him-we did not want ANY alcohol. Don got some pretty strange looks from the bar flies. The hotel had a continental breakfast that was actually pretty cheap considering some of the other restaurants . It was mass produced food so it was not all that great so we only ate there twice. They did have lots of yummy fruit though which is part of the reason I love Hawaii. We took the red eye Wednesday night and got home totally exhausted Thursday. There were a couple of babies on the flight and one of them had the croup. I was pretty worried about him. Both babies were pretty fussy for the first 2 hours but then they settled down. I took a pill so I was zonked for the most part. Poor Don could not sleep at all. he watched the airplane movie and the Batman movie. I finished 1 book I had started before we left and then I read 2 others while wasting away at the pool. I brought a bunch of books with me because I am always worried that I will finish reading what I have and then be bored. I actually started 2 other books but they were trash so we went to Barnes and Noble so I could get a book for the plane.

I Love to See the Temple

Connor and Abby

Cayden wanted to wear a tie so Grandaddy Larry got one out of his closet and put it on him. Caleb wanted one to but I forgot to get a picture of it.

Cute boy!

Waiting at the stake center.

On Saturday March 7, we went to the Draper Temple open house. It was quite a chilly morning but it was beautiful. We had to start at a stake center close to the temple where we watched a short movie on the purpose of temples and a bit of history of the Draper area. Funny moment-while we were watching the video, Connor was sitting up front by Abby and Suzanna. They showed a picture of a round sofa type thing that was part of the furniture in the waiting area of the temple and Connor says "Is that a hot tub?" really loud so the whole room could hear him. Suzanna assured him that it was not a hot tub but it was still pretty funny. After the video we boarded a shuttle bus that took us up to the temple. I have not been to an open house before I don't think so it was very cool. The boys were just in awe. The temple was gorgeous inside with very modern furnishings. There is a beautiful sego lilly theme through out the temple. Don was carrying Abby a lot of the time and she just jabbered and jabbered. It was so cute to see them together. It took about 2 hours to do the whole temple tour and movie and then they drove us back down to the stake center to our cars. I got to hold Owen part of the time and some of the muscles in my arms had forgotten they were used to holding a baby. The only thing that could have made it better was if the protesters were not there. I mean seriously-don't you have something better to do with your time? I appreciate the fact that we have free speech but for pete's sake get a life! After our temple tour we went to Mimi's Cafe for a lovely lunch. Suzanna, Ryan, Abby and Owen and Ryan's parents and his sister and her husband were there as well as our family, mom and Larry, Anne, and Calley. I'm glad that we got to do this as a family and I hope that we can go to the other open house in the summer.

O Baby

My darling sweet nephew Owen Ryan Pitts was blessed on Sunday March 8, 2009. My sister ordered a cake from the Lehi Bakery and it so was not what she wanted. She ordered all white frosting with all white lettering and all white flowers. She got the all white frosting, all white lettering-which was terrible and white and GREEN supposed-to-look-like flower-esque blobs of frosting. Well my other sister who just happens to be an amazing cake maker fixed the whole thing. She scraped the top layer of junk off and redid the whole top. From now on she will be the official family cake maker. We had a yummy lunch after church at my mom's house. As usual we had tons of yummy food-strawberry pretzel salad one of my personal favorites-and I found a bundt cake store in Sandy after we went to the Draper Temple open house on Saturday so I had to purchase the ever tasty and delightful lemon bundt cake with gobs and gobs of cream cheese frosting. It was a lovely day!