Saturday, September 18, 2010

Disneyland- Summer 2010


This summer some of my family met in southern California for a few days of vacation. We went to Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and the beach. Here are a few pictures from that weekend. Here is us at the start of the day.

This is my niece making sure that her Elmo doll is well fed. So cute!
We were having so much fun there was just no time for naps so Olivia would put her blanket on the ground and lay on it for a few seconds before getting up, moving the blanket around and laying down again. It was hilarious although she never ended up falling asleep.
We kept telling Olivia that this was a vacation for the adults as well as the kids so she would have to push her own stuff around. She didn't seem to mind.


Sunday, May 16, 2010

Toto, we're not in Hawaii anymore...

Back at home. Need I say more?

Hawaii!

I know you have all been waiting a long time to see pictures and hear of our travels to the exotic paradise known as Hawaii. I am much obliged. Let me start off by apologizing for the poor picture quality. We forgot to bring a memory card for the camera but wanted to be able to take lots of pictures so we had to put them on low quality. Also just wanted to mention that we really didn't take as many pictures as we would have liked because we didn't want the camera to be at risk of either being stolen (which we hear is a big problem) or get wet. But here are a few pictures we did get.

Jim and I on our last day in Oahu. Outside is the beautiful view that greeted us each morning. We would leave the balcony door open all night long so that we could listen to the waves. So relaxing.

This picture is also from the balcony of our room. The beach you are looking at is Wakiki which is probably the most popular beach on Oahu. On one of the days we went snorkeling in the water and I was able to see some fish. For all those that have not been to Oahu, I would like to mention that the water in Hawaii is not nearly as warm as I thought it would be. Not quite as cold as Southern California water but not even close to how glorious the water temperature was in Mazatlan, Mexico.
Although it did rain often, the rain in Hawaii is not bad at all because it is warm. It kinda feels good. Up in the mountains of Oahu it rains like 300 inches of rain each year. There is less and less rain the closer you get to the coast. I thought the mountains looked beautiful when they were covered by the clouds.
On the Monday after we arrived, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was really interesting and we were able to see some pretty hilarious things, such as a Japanese man (chosen to come on stage for a show) flicking the nipple of this very large Tongan man that was leading the show. Maybe you had to be there but take my word, it was hilarious.

Anyway, while we were at the PCC they have this little tram that goes off of the site and takes you to the Temple and the BYU-Hawaii campus. The temple is closed for renovations but we were able to go to the visitors center and take a picture. It's very beautiful.
We were able to make it to Turtle Beach where we found this guy! Well we didn't actually find him but we did find the crowd that was surrounding him. Since they are protected by law you can't touch them or go close to them and anytime one lays on the beach there is a person there to put a red rope radius around which looky-loos aren't supposed to cross. It really takes the fun out of nature. But Jim was able to go into the water at this beach and was able to watch a HUGE turtle just eat away at the seaweed or algae or whatever water veggies he was eating. Jim was really excited to witness it.
I think we took this picture while driving. You can see the island that they call 'China-mans Hat'. It's a mystery as to why they named it this.

All in all it was a wonderful vacation that I was not excited to return from and look forward to going again sometime in the future.





Monday, April 12, 2010

Happy Birthday to Me!

As many of you may know last Wednesday was my birthday. Yes, I turned 28. Aggh. 30 is just around the corner. Boo. Anyway my favorite part of the day was coming home to find a big wrapped box. I went to open it and found myself with sticky hands. Jim had not been able to find any tape so he used a glue stick. Haha. I thought it was hilarious.

Anyway, I got through the wrapping paper and found that Jim had bought me a belgian waffle maker. The best part of the gift (after the glued wrapping paper) was Jim getting up early on Sunday morning to make us belgian waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. Mmmmm. So good.

It was a pretty good birthday.



Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Valentine's Weekend



For Valentine's Day Jim prepared a special surprise... a trip to Laughlin, NV. Okay, so Laughlin is really not very fancy but it was actually really fun. My favorite part of the trip was the side trip to Oatman, Arizona. Oatman is an old mining town whose only reason for still being alive is the wild burros that come into town every day. The tourists come to the town to feed them carrots. Apparently they are the descendants of the mining donkeys earlier in the 1900's. Here is a picture of what greeted me when we arrived.

The baby burros get sticker on their heads so that they don't get fed the carrots (it gives them diarrhea).


Here's Jim with the baby burro. So cute!