THE END

Well, the trip came to an end on Friday. We took a flight to Kauai Friday morning. Since the one and only flight out is at night we spent the day driving around. Last time we were here we hurriedly looked at Waimea Canyon. So this time we were able to spend a little more time to see the beautiful sights.
The canyon was foggy and overcast but you could still see some beautiful sights, water and colors.
We got on the plane that night and flew until we landed the next morning at 10:00 am. It was a great time, but are sure happy to be home.
Thank you so much to all the family that helped us out.

Thursday

Today was nice to sleep in til almost 8 am. We decided to go for a walk along the beach and as we were this lady very excitedly asked if we snorkeled. She was heading out with her camera because of how wonderful it was and how many fish she saw just by our resort. We decided to try it out and get our snorkel stuff too. We saw so many more fish. They say the further out you go the more you can see but I didn't have a noodle to hold onto and got a little too nervous for that. It was very cool though.
Afterward a swim in the pool and hot tub. I went and stood in the ocean a little reminiscing about when I was a kid and dad and mom would take us to Myrtle Beach each summer. I loved remembering playing in the waves, pool and sand. Great memories! Can't wait someday to take ours and do the same.
Now off to shop! Hope everyone is doing well.

Wednesday

Today we went snorkeling at Molokini Crater and Turtle Town. Unfortunately my camera wasn't working so I have no pictures. The underwater camera was fine and we took pictures of fish and turtles and are excited to get them developed.
Molokini is a half moon shaped island. We got up at 5:30 and met at the harbor at 6:15 and gone by 7:00. This picture I just got off the internet. We were the only large boat out there, only 2 other little dive boats were to the side of us. It was beautiful calm water and sunny. We saw the reef and fish.
Next we went to a place they call Turtle Town or Turtle Arches for the sea turtles seen there. The water was rougher and you had to swim out further. I only made it 1/2 way and got too tired. I decided to turn back and hang out on the boat. Neal said he saw a turtle or two and that the water was definitely harder to swim in this time. I'm so glad that I turned back. We had a nice BBQ lunch - burgers and chicken and hot dogs. At noon we headed back and ended up seeing a bunch of sea turtles swimming in front of us - it was so cool. They were so big. So we took pics with the underwater camera. Can't wait to see how it turned out. Next we drove south to Kihei to see what was down there since that was the only coastline we hadn't seen yet. We found the other Worldmark while there and it was just like we anticipated. Thank goodness.
I was so tired after all this that we headed to the room so I could nap, again. I feel like I sleep a lot, but the sun and activities is just so draining on me. Neal went swimming or something while I rested and then we went to dinner. Good day.

Tuesday

Today we woke up to go on the famous "Drive to Hana," a city on the east side of Maui. We left at 8 am and got breakfast at Charley's in Pai'a. Check out this blueberry pancake. (yes it had blueberries inside too and no he didn't finish it.) I had biscuits and gravy.
We headed out and saw some wonderful sights. I love seeing the beach and water. I was surprised though about how much of the drive was in the greenery. I was expecting to be on the edge of the water - we weren't. There were though, a lot of pull outs. There are just too many pics to put on so I will choose a couple.




At the end we had lunch at Maui Ranch Restaurant. After lunch we saw things falling out of the palm trees and realized that they were actually trimming the trees. Who would have thought. I'm just glad we moved our car. The stuff falling was really heavy and they didn't seem to care. The first video is a guy climbing up and stopped 1/2 way to fix his belt and just sat there so I moved onto the other guy chopping with his machete. That is the 2nd clip.

Monday

Early! We got up at 1:45 a.m. to get ready for the Haleakala Crater sunrise experience. We left the room at 2:30 and drove 2 hours to the Haleakala Crater summit. 10,023 ft. That was another winding road that lasted a long time, not sure if there were cliffs or what. We got to the top summit and got a parking spot and found out that sunrise wasn't even until 6:18 am - 2 hours?! What?! We were told that if we left by 3:00 we would probably miss it and didn't understand that until about 5:00 am when all of a sudden a flood of people start coming to park at the summit. Well, after awhile they were being turned away for no parking. They had to go back down about 1/3 mile at the visitor center.
At the summit was an enclosure that you could see it from. Thank goodness, because it was freezing and very windy and we didn't bring our warm clothes (I don't remember why). It was probably in the 30s and we were in shorts and t-shirts. N took off the bed sheet and brought 2 beach towels. Thank you!
At about 5:15 we saw light and thought it was city lights but when it got brighter we figured, SUN. We went up to the building and hung out and watched it slowly come up. The clouds made it so beautiful to peek over. It finally peeked out over the clouds at about 6:18 am. I was in and out a bunch of times taking pics of the different stages. Funny how fast people cleared out afterward. I'm putting a slideshow of the sunrise, hope it works.



After that we drove down and in the light could see how beautiful the scenery and the hills were to our left and right - no cliffs. One of the package deals was to be driven to the top and bike down. Glad we didn't do that. Here is a pic of others that did it.

After we came down we went for another drive. This time we stopped at the Kula Lodge for breakfast. Steak and eggs for me (yes, I was hungry) and N had a belgian waffle with strawberries and coconut syrup - yum.
After breakfast off to Tedeschi Winery down south. We thought, we've never been to one, let's see some grapes. Saw no grapes. The little building had wine tasting (yeah, don't worry) and then a tour. Then we headed home for a nap before our dinner cruise.

The dinner cruise was beautiful, wonderful sunset, yummy food, good company :) It lasted about 2 hours. We drove out, ate, listened to some music, looked at the city lights on the way back, and finally lost my dinner.

Sunday

***Sunday morning we went to sacrament. The ward building reminded us of something we saw in our missions. Small and no air- just ceiling fans. A small and intimate ward. Funny though, after sacrament how quickly it cleared out - the back half must have been visitors. We sat in the back. ***After that we listened to a thing at the Marriott to get free tickets for a show. Interesting, but a little too long. ***Then we ran around trying to plan things for the week. A dinner cruise - but was full for the night, so put that for Monday night. ***Had lunch at Pioneer Inn - pretty good. Filling. ***After lunch we decided to go for a nice Sunday drive. We went to go find the Worldmark property and see what we were missing - NOTHING!! It was ugly! We were so glad that we were not staying there. So Neal had heard that the drive north was nice so we took it. We weren't sure how far we were going to go but happened to come upon a place on the map that talks about people stacking stones but it not meaning anything. Well, we found it. Picture below. It was hilarious, like some sort of rock cemetery. These pics don't do it justice.
So we stacked our own and kept driving and kept driving. We read something on the map about a one lane road but hadn't found it so thought it didn't exist anymore. WRONG!! We found it and drove it. 8 miles. Not that long right? WRONG. 8 miles at 5-15 miles an hour is NOT cool. It took forever. And it started getting dark, even worse. I was getting freaked out, cuz I couldn't see what was over the edge - a cliff or grass and flat - don't know and don't want to go back and find out. This road was literally only wide enough to fit our car. Aaack!

So we're finally back into town and think we need dinner we were still full, but needed to eat and we were in the mood for something light. We looked for salads but ended up getting individual pizzas from Safeway. Yuck! Went to bed since we were doing the Sunrise at the crater the next morning. I was asleep by 8:30 :)

Saturday

Today we went to Front Street in Lahaina to have lunch at Moose McGillycuddys. It was good. We just had burgers. Thanks to Ralph and Chandra for the tip.
As we were looking at the shops on the little street we ran into this fair thing. people were selling photos and jewelry and stuff. N was cute and bought me a lei. While there we figured out that we were actually beneath the Banyan Tree that mom suggested to see. From one area comes like 12 trunks and spreads out all over.

Maui

We arrived in Maui last night about 7:30. (First Class is the only way to fly!) It was dark so as we drove along the coast line we knew the ocean was there but couldn't see how beautiful it was. We arrived at our resort and were very excited about how wonderful it was. You can see this view off our balcony. It has this pretty Koi pond. (Drew I figured you'd appreciate that :)

Hey Kids! Here is the kids' pool. The pirate ship has slides and fun things for you to play on. (Boys, the plane ride might be worth it to play in the fun place.)


I will bring some sand home from our beach. Isn't it beautiful. It is at the edge of the property so we can almost see it from our room!!!!

I'm still surprised at how small the sand area is to the water. I'm used to the eastern beaches from growing up.
Can you hear the waves?

Steamboat

Went to a neat falls today - Fish Creek Falls
Woke to snow - beautiful in the mountains!
Look towards the back and can see the falls- took these pics with N's cell phone. Great pics!


view the other way

When Life Gives you Lemons...

Or mom and dad do.

N was getting lemons and cucumbers mixed up so dad bought a lemon at the store to have the boys try it and taste the difference and this is the result.
We're so mean sometimes. hee hee!
(I forgot to turn the camera the right way for the first half - oops. but the 2nd half is fine)

Back to School!

It's that time again.

Yesterday was preschool orientation and today was 1st grade orientation. School starts tomorrow!

Temple Day

Today was the dedication of the Oquirrh Temple. We went to the 9 a.m. session while the in-laws watched the kids.
The kids were wondering why they didn't have to go to church so we had a mini FHE lesson on temples, and we decided we wanted to take pictures of ourselves in front of temples. So we drove to the SLC temple downtown and took pictures of us and them in front of it.
Here is a family pic and some I took. It was a great day!
Idaho Falls temple, here we come!

Exer saucer

O is loving her exersaucer. She's starting to jump in it more and more.

I'm a pretty, pretty princess!

Well, that's what Joe's Crab Shack said anyway. We went there with my sister and her family, and Nettie and Mary. Good food AND a play place!
N was kind enough to tell them so I had to dress up and when they sang Happy Birthday to You, every time they said "you" I had to yell, "I'm a pretty, pretty princess." And they said that if I didn't do it loud enough they would start over.

I couldn't stop laughing.

Capon vacation!

We had a great time at Capon this week. Here are some pictures to show what we did. I decided to just sit and relax this year and enjoy watching what was going on instead of taking millions of pictures. So there weren't tons to choose from.



O and I hanging out at the pool watching N play in the freezing water. Below she's sporting her new swim suit.

L participated in the kids' shuffleboard tournament. L, Dylan (his partner), Benjamin (front), Owen (Benj. partner in back). Unfortunately L and his partner lost. But he and Benjamin sure did show the big boys how to play. They scored a lot of the points.


We visited "Hog Heaven" and got to feed the pigs rolls and pancakes.

L went to Kids' Kamp 3 times during the week - a picture of him and some of the kids in group that he played with this week. They went on a hike, hunted fossils, did a treasure hunt, made crafts and tried yoga.


Neal and L did the mile race on Tuesday. L wanted Neal with him for awhile but then finished the race on his own.

Here's Neal coming around with L trailing. This is about where they separated.

Here they finished 40 and 41.

Below, Logan is excited to do the kids hay ride again.

It's for 5-12 yr. olds. Guess who snuck on?!

"Livin' My Dream"

"Livin' My Dream" - This is what L is singing as he takes off on his bike all by himself now.
Day 2 and he starts, stops, goes up driveways and on lawns. He's loving life.

Guess What?

Neal took L for a practice ride and guess what? Watch the video and see!

Family Reunion Fun!

We went to Island Park, outside West Yellowstone for the Summers' Family Reunion. Check out all the fun things we did.

Uncle Kelly brought a great game for young and old. You put whipped cream on your wrist, hit your arm right before your elbow and it flips the cream up. You try to catch it in your mouth.

Here we are trying to catch the whipped cream.

On July 4th we went to the Zoo and saw the bird show.
Guess who has their first try of ice cream? And yes, liked it.
Here we try Grandma's curlers again while she's here - the before and after.


Here, my first taste of rice cereal - not too bad!


L lost his first tooth this morning.

He thought it would just fall out on its own. I told him he would have to tug on it and he wasn't very excited about that. So this morning he went to wiggle it and it just fell out in his hand. Go figure! And thank goodness I didn't have to take it out. Not a big fan of that.

(and his face looks like this because he thought the flash was going to go off and he is sensitive to light - so, no, he is not angry, he is just shutting his eyes.)