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!

Happy Valentine's Day

Cody and his friend Megan went around and did Singing Valentine's for a fundraiser for their Encore choir class. This one is just for YOU!!

And The Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down

Disneyland in February is quite rainy and cold! We decided to go down for Cayden's birthday shich was Friday the 6. He got in for free that day so that was a good way to save $60 and soend $300 more! We left for California on Thursday February 5 in the afternoon about 12:30. We stopped at Wendy's on the far side of town and then headed out. We did our customary stop in Barstow and shopped for about an hour. When we left Barstow it was 5:30. We did not get to Anaheim until 8:00. Cajon Pass was fogged in and it took a long time to get down it. Then it rained and rained and rained all the way into Anaheim. The kids were quite nervous-Connor especially-but Don did a marvelous job not looking nervous about that scary drive in the fog. It was so late that we headed right to Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney and still had to wait 20 minutes for a table. Pretty pricey place but I guess it's more for the atmosphere than the food. After dinner we went to our hotel. We have stayed at the Anaheim Hilton the last 3 times we have gone to Disneyland-Don's bosses niece hooks us up with a sweet deal on the rooms. The kids were pretty wound up but settled down by about midnight. Disneyland opened at 9:00 Friday morning so we got up at 7:30, went upstairs for the complimentary continental breakfast and then caught the shuttle around 8:45. While we were waiting for the shuttle it started to rain. We put on our ponchos and got out the umbrellas and that was the way it was the rest of the day. We always take the shuttle from the hotel and it drops us off close to the gates and you don't have to pay for parking. We went to the ticket booth to get Cayden's free pass-I had to take his birth certificate and a coupon from the Disney website for him to get in for free but he got a nifty Birthday button with his name on it. The first ride we went on was Pirate's of the Caribbean. We had been to Disneyland since the ride was redone so that was a must do! Connor and Cayden were not thrilled about it but the rest of us loved it. Then we traisped across the park to do Pooh Bear which was not that big of a hit the first time around. Cayden just cannot grasp the fact that none of it was real and so kept asking if all the characters were robots or in costumes. It made it easy though because there was no chasing down the man in the pooh bear costume to get his autograph and a picture. After Pooh Bear Don and Cody went to Splash Mountain and that was about the time that we decided to split up. Connor and Caleb hung out with Cayden and me and we went to Fantasyland. Don and Cody went off to do all the big rides like Indianna Jones and Space Mountain-the ones that I hate and Connor and Caleb refuse to do. We met up for lunch at our favorite place-The Hungry Bear and then after much pleading and begging Connor and Caleb took off on their own. Now normally there is no way I would have allowed that but Connor had his cell phone, they promised to stay together and there was hardly anyone there. We practically walked onto everything and I think the most that we waited was for Peter Pan-15 minutes and the new Nemo ride maybe 15 minutes. The kids had a great time and after doing Winnie the Pooh the first time and then a few others Cayden was convinced that all was well and so he and I went on Winnie the Pooh and Small World over and over. It rained almst all day but it kept the crowds down and the lines short. Even though it was wet and cold, we had our ponchos and umbrellas and we are thinking that we will never go to Disneyland in the summer again.

We all ran around the park until 5 when Cody took Cayden to Small World for the billionth time and Don and I went and had a $17 Monte Cristo-yeah $17! After that Cayden, Caleb and I went back to the hotel for a bit to dry out-literally-I stuck blow dryers in our shoes to dry them out. By 9:30 Cody, Connor and Don were pretty water logged so they headed back for the room to do our traditional room service pizza order and hang up our pants and ponchos to dry out for day 2!

Day 2 started out partly sunny but we were soon puddle jumping again. But we forged ahead and went straight to California Adventure. <



After riding Monsters Inc we split up again and Cayden and I went to the Playhouse Disney show while the others went to ride rides again. California Adventure was practically empty but it was fun riding the new Toy Story ride-once Cayden got the hang of it we went on it 3 times. We did everything we wanted before noon, had lunch at the usual place next to Soarin-our favorite ride- and then went back to Disneyland. Cayden and I rode Winnie the Pooh 5 times and Small World 5 times then Cayden went on Winnie the Pooh with Don another 4 times and Small World another 4 times. We weriously just walked on everytime. Cody Caleb and I rode Pirates 4 times in a row and 3 times just stayed on the boat-they did not even make us get off. We had dinner and then Cayden and I went back to the room to dry off before heading back to see the Fantasmic Show-the only issue about rain at Disneyland is the really awesome Fantasmic Show could be cancelled and some of the rides shut down. Cayden and I barely made it on Alice and Wonderland before they closed it for the rain and we were in a total downpour on the Storybook Boats. Fantasmic was cancelled on Friday night but was a go for Saturday. That is an amazing show and totally worth standing in one place for an hour. We could have paid $60 a piece for a nice comfy chair to sit on down front but we spent all our money on Churros and Dole Whips! After the show we all did Pirates and Small World one more time just for the heck of it and then headed back to the room at about 10:30. It was a fun trip but I learned a few things about Disneyland in the winter-

1. Purchase good thick ponchos before you go-we had the cheap $1 ones but they were mostly tore up by the end of the first day. We even had 2 extra ponchos but we used them too. You can totally purchase the extra special extra thick Disneyland ponchos for $7-which we did buy 2 of mind you. I stronly recommend getting some good ones before hand. Having experienced the joy of tromping through puddles, sitting on wet rides and carrying umbrellas all day going up down up down up down-I decidedly will be purchasing some better ponchos for the emergency kits as well as some tarps. I so do not want to be sitting on the sopping wet ground with only my fabulous non-dragging on the ground designer jeans trying to survive whatever emergency includes lots of rain.

2. Each person really should have 2 pair of gloves as your hands get soaking wet and then cold and then your gloves are wet and they just won't dry.

3. Do not wear long pants that drag on the ground as you will be soaked up to your knees by noon.

4. Definitely have a hat handy for the the lovely rainy wet very bad hair day!

5. Take 2 pairs of shoes for everyone and if possible go back to the room and change socks and shoes halfway through the day. Flip flops are a no no in Anaheim rain-I did not experience this just saw others in abject misery flipping and flopping in their normally-very-comfortable-for- June flip flops.

6. If you pass the Dole Whip stand, purchase the Dole Whip or 2-because of the weather they are quite unpredictable as to whether or not they will be open or not.

7. Don't bother taking a handtowel from the hotel to dry off the seats of the rides because it won't dry and then you will be hauling a mostly wet hand towel around in your back pack all day because if the hotel notices it missing they will charge you $30 for said hand towel.

8. Take lots of Ziploc bags. 1 smaller one for your park passes and shuttle tickets and one larger one for the birth certificate of your 7 year old so that you can make sure that it stays dry in the bottom of your soggy backpack.

9. Leave the video camera in the room as it just adds extra weight to the already soggy backpack and you don't want to pull it out just to have it slip out of your cold, wet hands.

10. Take your other pictures early and just put the other camera in one of the other Ziploc bags you brought along. Too much effort to keep snapping fun family memories while juggling an umbrella in one hand and holding the very wet hand of the birthday boy with the other.

11. If you not in the charcter hunting mood or if your kids are deathly afraid of costumed Tiggers Disney in the rain is quite nice as the characters stay in their warm and dry dressing rooms making it completely impossible to chase them down or wait in line to get a picture or autograph.

12. Pirates of the Caribean is the greatest ride ever for a damp and dreary Disney day. You get to stay inside for a good 10 minutes and as you descend into the cavernous realms of Jack Sparrow you realize that you are toasty warm and dry despite the slighly mildewy yet hint of clorox boatride in the darkness.

Things We Lost In the Fire

The Logandale Chapel burned to the ground yesterday. It started at 4:00 in the morning in the Relief Society room they think. There were 18 firetrucks here. Our little valley has 2. Trucks and firemen came from Mesquite, Vegas and North Las Vegas. They had 2 ladder trucks here too-we don't have any of those out here. They were able to save the missionary plaques and some stuff out of the Bishop's offices. Our Bishop was trying to get to stuff in the Young Women's room. He saved the little piano and a hauled out a bunch of cabinets. The Primary Room is completely under water and the chapel and the Relief Society wing are just gone. There were lots of dead worms on the sidewalk that were probably trying to escape from the hea. The road was blocked off all morning so we could not get very close to look at it. I had to go to St. George after I took the kids to school so I took the pics when I came home about 4:15. It was just devastating. I have never seen anything like it. It looked like a warzone. People were lining both sides of the street just staring and taking pictures. They already had the fencing up and around the whole perimeter when I got there so I had to stick my hand and my camera through the fence to take a picture. The news was here all day too. They interviewed a few people from here-our Stake President and a lady who remembered making the bricks for the chapel when she was 8. The news also said that the valley raised and sent $10000 to Salt Lake City to build the church. Dena's husband, Chris, was on filmed taking some bags out or something-he did not say anything. He helped move the couches and some chairs from the foyer over to Dottie's house in the hopes that with their janitorial company they can salvage the furniture. The couches were wet and smelled like smoke but he thinks that he can save them. When I cam home I could still smell the fire. I felt like the acrid smoke was just clinging to me and was in my hair. I flet like i needed a shower. Thank you family for calling and checking on us-we appreciate your condolences. Good news is maybe the air conditioning will work in the new church!