Paradise Found

Well, we made it!! We are lounging our days away, in the hot sun on the Big Island of Hawai'i... a.k.a. PARADISE!!



I would love to post a few of the pictures that I have taken, but the internet here is TERRIBLE!! It's probaby just as relaxed as we are and works on Island Time -- so I can only imagine how long it would take to put just one picture on here, let alone two or more!



Our trip here was mostly uneventful: Dropping Inigo off at his friend's house the night before I left wasn't was traumatic as I imagined it. He was so excited to have a 'sleep over' that he gave me a half-hearted hug and ran off to parts unknown. (We don't do sleep overs in our family. We call them 'late nights' and everyone sleeps at their own house.) Saying goodbye to Buttercup that morning was a little harder. She didn't have someone to distract her and we both shed a few tears... :( Ah, I guess we're sentimental fools.



I met Max in SLC -- he spent the week in the Spokane area and flew down that morning -- and we made it to the plane with about 45 mins to spare. Perfect. Okay. Yes. I will admit that I did have to speed once in a while to make sure I was on time, but in the end it all worked out.



The flights were terriffic... until it was time to land on Oahu. The island has been socked in with vog -- no that's not a typo. Vog is volcanic fog created by the live volcano here on the Big Island. And it made landing our plane a little difficult. Because of it, the plane had to change its approach from how it normally lands. But then the satellites didn't read something different in the weather pattern and as we were getting ready to land, the pilot had to reconfigure something else. We were slowing down and descending, then all of a sudden we sped back up and gained more altitude. Then we started doing "S" curves and then we started going in a circle. I will admit, I got nervous!! I watch Lost. I know that planes can crash in the Pacific Ocean! :) And since we were sitting back in the "tail" portion, I wondered if we'd end up on the side of the island with the Others... kind of a scary thought! :)



Obviously, we made it and it all turned out okay, but Max's leg -- where I was gripping it -- might have some long-term damage.



I have an old highschool classmate that lives on Oahu, so I let her know ahead of time that we had 1.5 hour layover and we made arrangements to meet up at the airport. What fun that was! I haven't seen her in over 24 years, but it's like many old friends... you just reconnect instantly. She is doing great in her life and it was terriffic seeing her again and meeting her son. We only got to chat for about 30 minutes, but it was 30 minutes that was very well spent!!



We noticed right away, in the Oahu airport that the temperatures were drastically different from the temperatures we left behind. Florin was 6* when I left that morning and the town Max was at was in the low 30's. Now we were in the 70's with 90% humidity (@ 8 pm). Off came our sweaters, out came the sweat and **BOING** my normally completely flat hair started curling.



Ya gotta love it.



So our first full day was spent in Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Park, a.k.a. The Place of Refuge. There are so many wonderful, historical places here, especially on this island. Places that deserve respect and reverence because many lives were lost through battle or hardship. This was one of those places. The story is that if you had comitted an offense and someone wanted to take your life for it, you would run to The Place of Refuge and if you could get across the 10' high and 17' deep wall, you would be safe and would have sanctuary offered to you. Many of the great Hawaiian kings resided here, including King Kamehameha.



Not only did we enjoy the historical aspect of The Place of Refuge, but we were able to experience some truly Hawaiian moments here. First of all, we were able to watch a sleeping Monk Seal. They don't come on shore very often. As a matter of fact, the Park Ranger said that the last time one came on shore was over a year ago! So we were pretty excited to see this endangered creature -- then we saw our first Green Sea Turtle, which (i believe) are also on the endangered list. I got a great picture of it! I can't wait to post it!



We got off the trail a little and found some coconut trees ( can you hear me sing those last two words?) Yeah. Seriously. Coconut trees. I immediately thought of that Tom Hanks movie... where he's shipwrecked and talked to the bloody hand volleyball ... and I thought, well, I need to know how to identify and open one of these in case my plane crashes on the way home and I find myself a survivor on a deserted island. Many people in our group tried smashing the hull around the coconut to try to open it, but it was my brilliant "you should have been an engineer" husband who finally decided that - instead of putting the coconut on a log and hitting it with a rock - it would open easier if placed on the ground and a rather large rock was dropped (or hurled) on it.

Worked like a charm.

We got that coconut open and it was dry and empty inside. Do coconuts have seasons? Apparently. We opened a couple more before we hit the motherlode... a coconut that still had some flesh on the inside, although there was no milk. We broke it into parts and anxiously shared it amongst ourselves.

Yuck.

It was tough and chewy. The texture wasn't pleasant at all. But the flavor was great! It tasted just like coconut!



Go figure.



The rest of the day was spent lounging around. Max forgot to transfer his bathroom gear from his WA travel bag into his Hawai'i travel bag, so we had to find a drug store to buy him a toothbrush and some deoderant. We also went to a wonderful farmer's market. The prices were amazingly affordable and I was able to buy some pretty wonderful souviners. The fresh fruit was very affordable too. I bought a sweet Maui pineapple for only $3. Can't wait to eat it. It's less acidic, so I might be able to eat more of it than I normally do -- before my mouth bleeds. (It was my goal to come eat pineapple until my mouth bleeds.)



Oh! Lunch was spent at a very tasty 'Mom & Pop' diner overlooking the coastline. (For those of you who know what I'm talking about, it reminded me of Izzy's in Newport... only better.) We were joined by 3 curious gecco's who were very interested in our food. They were cute, but I was unwilling to let them get very close to me.



Tomorrow, Sunday, we're walking to a church that's near here for a 9:30 am service. I don't know what the denomination the church is, but I figure it will be a great experience. The people that invited us on this trip belong to Assembly of God and are very religious. It has been very refreshing being able to pray before eating and not feel awkward. Even though we don't share the same religion, we share the same love for God. It was their idea to go to church and I invited myself along. I'm really looking forward to it.



Then we'll practice snorkeling at a cute beach nearby and then (drumroll please....) THE LUAU!!! I'm pretty darned excited for this!

I know this has just been a travelogue and if you've read this far, you're a great friend and worth keeping!! I hope you don't mind if I keep updating and posting, I must keep track of the things we're doing and how this hair of mine is curling! It's a Hawaiian Miracle!!

Theories vs. Reality

Here's the theory:

Going on a tropical vacation with your husband

in the middle of winter

(sans children)

= (equals)

A week of paradise, with no worries

and 7 days of pure bliss.

To be truthful, I don't know if that is true or not. I haven't tested this particular theory out yet. But I can tell you that in the days/weeks that have led up to performing the experiment haven't been restful, paradisaical or peaceful.

Maybe it's because I'm a worrier. Maybe I'm a control freak. Maybe I'm too much of a homebody. But I'm totally freaked out about the part of the hypothesis where it says:

"sans children"

I have to ask: How do people who still have children at home, travel frequently without worrying themselves into an ulcer?

Maybe it gets easier with practice? I'm sure that's it. In the 17.5 years we've been parents, we can count on one hand (less actually) the amount of times we've both left them. And each time was difficult.

I've got all my bases covered. I've got great people who will watch them and take care of them: (Inigo more than Buttercup. She's old enough now that she just needs a warm body around to keep her company.... )

• Inigo is lucky enough to go to a friend's house every day after school. Talk about paradise!! It's a dream come true for him to play with a friend every single day!!!
• I have asked a very nice young lady to spend the night at our house and help get him to bed and get him ready to catch the bus in the morning.
• We've worked out a sweet deal with Shack and Stinky for the weekends.
• I have lists of people who offered help if needed (grandparents, aunts, friends....)

Seriously, things couldn't be aligned better. And yet, I'm worried and stressed about leaving them behind.

Woe is me, huh? And I'm really not complaining. I just find that the theory of leaving is much easier than the reality of leaving.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

(And I really need to learn html coding because when I wrote this, I had lots of spaces and paragraph breaks, but when it publishes, they all go away. Sorry if you find this difficult to read!)

Idol Delight

For the past several months, Buttercup and I have enjoyed going to concerts of finalists/winners from Season 7 of American Idol.


The first concert was David Cook, who was -- of course -- the winner that year. As I said before, his concert was louder, edgier, and (dare I say it?) more fun than any of the other concerts. But that's because it was a real concert. Loud, rock music, standing up the entire time, etc. etc.


Next came David Archuleta. That was a wonderful evening as he sang some of his pop songs and then delighted us with Christmas music. The first half of the show was screaming girls, cell phones lit up and swaying and "MARRY ME DAVID!!!!" being screamed from all the female fans. The second half of the show was sitting back and being entertained with Christmas melodies.


Last weekend we participated in the third -- and probably final -- Season 7 Idol concert. Brooke White.


Who is Brooke White? Some of you may not remember her. She finished #5 that year. She is the blond who was a nanny in So. CA when she auditioned for the show. And most memorably, she is the one who -- in competition -- started a song, stopped and asked if she could restart... and didn't get voted off because of it!!


This third concert was just as different as the first two. First of all, she only filled 1/2 the auditorium. That made me a little sad in the beginning, but as the show started, I really liked the smaller, more intimate feel that the smaller audience creates.

The concert was scheduled to start at 7:30. I took a picture of the clock so I could show that two minutes before the concert started...

...this is how full the auditorium was. Don't let the number of people in front of us fool you. The entire row directly in front of us was completely empty and there were only 4 people on our row. Also, we had the same seats for this concert that we had for the Archie concert.

Her show was acoustic. On the stage with her there was only a percussionist and a guitar player. Brooke moved between the piano and the guitar. The acoustic part was a plus and helped with the intimate "coffee house" style feel of the concert.

She was wonderful! Time and time again she reminded me of why I voted for her each week. She is down to earth, humble and has a quirky sense of humor that made me giggle and laugh all through the show. Before the show, I was very concerned that she would sound a little "country-ish" and -- I'm not afraid to admit -- I HATE COUNTRY MUSIC!!! It literally makes me feel nauseas. I put the barf bag away when she started singing. It was great. She has a "folksy" feel to her music, and that's okay with me!

And just like her days on Idol, there were times in her concert when she was unsure how to start a song. She frequently looked to her guitarist to get a reminder of what note to play first. For her second song, she was sitting at the piano and she had finished talking to us and she said to her guitarist, "Oh wait! How does this song go again?" Then she admitted she was nervous and her hands were shaking. But she pulled through and performed beautifully.

One moment really cracked me up: she had been at the front of the stage playing the guitar and singing and she moved back to the piano. She sat down on the bench and started talking again. Then she had to move her face away from the microphone, covered her mouth AND BURPED!!! Her comment was, "I am always paranoid that sometime I'll be singing and I'll get the hiccups or I'll have to burp." At that moment I turned to Buttercup and said, "I love this woman!" Then Brooke grabbed her water bottle, chugged the rest of the water, went to the front of the stage and threw the bottle out into the audience. It was silly, but that's the way she rolls. (Interestingly enough, no burps after that chug!)

Right after taking these photos, I was tapped on the shoulder and told that no photography was allowed. Interestingly enough, there were no announcements or notices anywhere that said that.

Another moment that endeared her to me was at the end of the concert. She came out for the encore and she and her "band" played Let It Be. Who doesn't love that? Then the guys left and she was alone on the stage... It was a little odd. I thought to myself, "Maybe she doesn't know that the concert is over....?" But she had one little gem under her sleeve. She actually bore her testimony to us and played and sang a song that she had written based on a Primary song (Every Star is Different). She wrote it for a friend who was having a hard time in her life. The song was titled You're Divine -- or something like that. I then turned to Buttercup and said, "I really love this woman!" What a great role model!!

After the show, she announced that she would be in the foyer for a meet and greet. WOW! That was pretty cool. So Buttercup and I stood in line -- for 1.5 hours -- and waited. She is extremely chatty and very warm. Everyone she met felt like they had met their best friend.

She is a teeny little thing. I had my pic taken with her as well, but a woman my size does NOT look good standing next to a woman of her size! Believe me......

Again, Buttercup and I spent a wonderful evening together. These are the moments that I will will look back on and remember with a smile on my face!

Just Playin'

I have spent a couple hours tonight, scouring the web on how to make my blog look a little better. I'm fairly comfortable with computers, but there is still a lot I need to learn. At least I know where the "tab" button is.... which is better than someone I know! (Bossy Lady, I'm talking about YOU!!) :-)

So, first of all, let me apologize. I don't use Google Reader, and I know several of you do. I don't know if all the times I clicked "save" -- which were probably around 50 -- you were sent an update on your reader. SO... if you were, I'm sorry!!!

Second: This is a test post. I have seen lots of blogs out there that have BIG pictures and I hate that mine are small. So, again, after hours of scouring tutorials, I think I may have found my answer. I have a photo that my sister, Red, took of me at Christmas. Let's see if I can post it here, bigger than my other photos:



And there you have it!! Yup, it's a scary picture for sure!

Thanks for being patient with me!

A Snapshot of Year In Our Life

January

Skiing in a State Park

February 09

Yellowstone Park

March 09

Draper Temple Open House

April 09

Playing Disc Golf in Guilder
May 09

After Buttercup and Inigo's last Dance Recital
June 09

Our Backyard
July 09

Oquirrh Mt. Temple Open House

August 09

Our Boat "Makin' Memories"

September 09

Before Homecoming DanceOctober 09

Splash Mountain: Disneyland

(Pay no attention to the stranger in the background!)

November 09

Red's House/ThanksgivingDecember 09

Temple Square

Traditionally Wonderful

In spite of the fact that my heart was 3 sizes too small this past Christmas, there were some wonderful traditional moments during the season that, while my heart stayed small, kept it alive and whole and helped it grow 1.5 - 2 sizes bigger. Some traditions were old and some were new, but whatever they were, they were pretty terrific.


The first thing we did was make gingerbread houses. This is not something we do every year... as a matter of fact, I can't remember the last time I made one, but I have friends and relatives that do this every year and I thought, why not? The month was young... I had lots of time... (ha! I was also delusional at the beginning of the month!) The experience didn't turn out exactly the way I thought... we actually made each one at separate times, but the end result was pretty fun. The kids were excited with their individual houses and I loved that we all kind of did something together.


The next tradition was travelling to SLC to watch Buttercup sing with her school choir on Temple Square. The added bonuses were hanging out with Red, riding the train through the city and experiencing the beautiful lights and displays that the church puts together each and every year. We chose this location as the place for our last "monthly family picture." YES!!! I was able to get a family picture every month during 2009!! (Will I keep it going in 2010? Stay tuned to find out!)
It's definitely NOT a tradition, but Max and I LOVED going to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Concert. If I knew I could make this a yearly tradition, you can bet your sweet bippy that we will. Alas, if I only knew how to request tickets.... (remember, it was Buttercup that got us the tickets via her request for her choir.)

Another non-tradition that could turn into a great yearly event is a party with my Primary class. I promised my kids (age 7) that if they filled the jar with beads by singing well in Sharing Time, participating in class and sitting reverently and quietly that we would have a pizza slash rootbeer float party. Obviously they did exactly what they were supposed to do! We had a fabulous time, playing Christmas games and gorging ourselves on unhealthy party food. You can see that we got a little goofy too!

Sadly, our tradition of going to Buttercup's school choir's Christmas concert has ended. Since she is a senior, and graduating (we hope) we won't have this opportunity again for about 8 years... that is if Inigo decides to sing in choir. We went out with a bang - literally - this year. As the first group was singing their first song, the power went out. The only light we had was from the emergency lights over the exits. The choir director decided to push on anyway by borrowing flashlights from members of the audience for the pianist and wearing his white shirt sleeves so the kids could see him. It was a unique, but fun, experience! (This picture is the choir concert! Even though you can't see a thing, I had to take a picture to remind us what the night was like!)


In my house, Christmas Eve is the big night with the fablous meal. I choose to take Christmas Day off from all work and that includes cooking (well... I still cook a nice breakfast. But my day off starts after that!) so I try to cook enough that we can munch on left-overs throughout the day. Our traditional C.E. meal has a wonderful menu of Prime Rib, fancy schmancy glazed carrots, a fablously prepared pan of potatoes (sometimes mashed with amazing gravy, -or-sometimes I make party potatoes a.k.a. Funeral potatoes. This year I chose the latter.) Of course, we fix cheesy beans (don't know 'em? Believe me when I say you wish you did!) and my Gramma Millie's strawberry/blueberry jello salad. We get out the fancy china dishes and the elegant silverware. Goblets are what we drink our Martinelli's in.

Of course, we want to share the night with family and good friends. We have my parents, Red, Shackie, Stinky and Little Miss DooLittle over. Each brings food to share... good food that is traditional C.E. fare for them.


This year we had to eat early because our family was in charge of lighting the yearly luminaries in our neighborhood. Jillwanna and her family are celebrating Christmas in Chile (where they aren't chilly), so we put their luminaries out and lit them, in addition to ours. PLUS the local hospital -- which occupies the other side of our road -- asked us if we would line their side of the street for them. The total amount we were asked to do was around 150. (Luminaries is a yearly tradition, however, we usually only light 30 for our house.) Since we had so many, we ate dinner early, and ran outside in 15* weather and set it up. We had so much help with everyone that we got the whole street done in about an hour! It was wonderful! And, believe it or not, FUN!


All three kids are currently in music lessons and two take from the same teacher. (Inigo takes piano lessons from me.) Our instructor doesn't have a Christmas recital, so I thought it would be fun for them to have a mini-recital with the Christmas music they have been learning. This is only the second year we have done this, but I think it was a hit! And I think we'll continue with it for as long as we can! (Buttercup isn't taking piano lessons, she's taking vocal lessons. But since I was accompanying her while she was performing, I couldn't take her picture. The picture of her is when she was playing for our Christmas sing-a-long....)


For me, Christmas isn't Christmas unless there is music playing. You can't have an appropriate Christmas Eve party without singing Christmas carols.... right? So we got out the hymn books and sang just about every Christmas song in them!


I know most families read the story of Christ's birth in Luke. We are no different. But that's not the only story we read!! We also read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. We let a Dad (Max, Stinky or my dad) read the story out of the Bible and the kids get to take turns on who read the other stories. Buttercup has claimed Night Before Christmas as her own. You can see the little kids really enjoyed it!


The final event of Christmas Eve... after the guests have left... is the opening of one, JUST ONE, present. It is specially designated as THE CHRISTMAS EVE GIFT. Everyone knows what it is, but the kids are so excited they start asking about it two days before. YES, it's the traditional CHRISTMAS EVE PAJAMMIES!!!
This tradition almost didn't happen this year. My small heart made it extremely difficult to go out and find cute jammies, but with the support and help of Max, I got them bought and wrapped on Dec. 23. Whew. Just in the nick of time!

This is the first year Inigo was too excited to go to sleep. Usually he's so exhausted by the end of the night that he crashes the minute his head hits the pillow. I really wasn't sure when he fell asleep this year. I kept walking past his room and looking at him. I finally realized he was O.U.T. when I stopped and took this picture and he didn't blink. (One day he's going to be really mad at me for taking pictures of his open sleeping eyes!)

Christmas morning. This year I had to wake the kids up. Even after a healthy debate the night before about what time was an appropriate time to get up. (We decided on 7:30. But I got everyone up at 7:45. I should have let them sleep, eh?)
When we open gifts, we take turns -- youngest to oldest. That way we can all enjoy watching what each other gets. I like it that way.
(Inigo is extremely excited to open his new Michael Jackson 2010 calendar and Buttercup is thrilled with her new pink Snuggie.... and yes, I am admitting that I bought a Snuggie!)

The rest of the day is pretty basic. We lounge around for a while. Take a nap or two (or more if needed), watch the new DVD or play the new video game. Eventually we make our way south to Guilder to visit my parents and play some more games with them.

Oh... and don't forget about the FOOD. We are like the Who's in the Grinch Who Stole Christmas... on Christmas day all we did was, "EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT"!!! Again, with my small heart getting in the way, I didn't do as much Christmas baking as I normally do, but there was enough that, combined with the left-overs and the good food at my mom's house, you can bet that we will practically roll to the gym on Monday.

Those are some of our traditions. What about you? How was your Christmas? What are some of your traditions?

Christmas

Kribistibi tagged me on this one, so here goes!

The Christmas Edition of getting to know your friends.Okay, here's what you're supposed to do: Just copy this entire post and paste into a new post that you can put up on your blog. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then tag...


1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper... a little effort never hurt nobody when it comes to Christmas time! Unless the gift is too big and you don't have a box, then a bag is okay.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real. Believe it or not, my kids are begging for fake, but I just tell them, "When you have your own house...."
3. When do you put it up? I try to get it up Thanksgiving weekend or the weekend after.
4. Favorite Christmas theme? Nativities. At least that's what I collect. I have so many that I can barely put out other Christmas decorations. I'm okay with that.
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes. I. Do. But I like it mixed with milk or 7up. It's a little too thick and strong when you drink it straight.
6. Favorite gift received? In recent memory, I'd say my Nikon SLR. Love that camera!
7. Hardest person to buy for? This year, everybody!
8. Easiest person to buy for? Inigo or Buttercup
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Many (at last count 26)
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? MAIL!!! There's nothing like going to a mailbox and seeing a bunch of cards in it!
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Something that I already had and it worked perfectly. I couldn't understand why I needed a new one!?!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? This year's A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey. It's beautiful.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Apparently not soon enough!
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yup. Especially when a White Elephant Gift is required.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? What's not to love? Oh, my mom's tomato aspic. But that's the only thing that doesn't cross my lips during this season. (Sorry, Mom!)
16. Lights on the tree? Yes. Multi-colored.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Josh Groban's O Holy Night. I have only heard it once this whole season and it makes me very sad. that it's not being played more.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? I like staying home.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? I can if I sing the song. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen,
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? After almost 22 years of marriage I'm still looking for the perfect tree topper. I'll probably go with a star.
21. Open the presents? Of course! And open the new pajammies on Christmas Eve. The kids really look forward to that!
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Stress. I'm done with it!
23. Favorite ornament or color? We have been collecting Hallmark ornaments since I was a wee child at home. So many of them have special memories. I can't pick just one.
24. Favorite for Christmas Dinner? Beef Wellington. But since the price of Tenderloin Roast is out of the world, we'll settle for Prime Rib.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Tangible things: A new lens for my camera. Intangible: A new client for Max and peace and happiness.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!