Thanksgiving Reflections

I made it through the first big Holiday without my mom and it was super hard. I thought I had a pretty good handle on things emotionally and the day my sister Sherri and I tried to make 6 pies just like my mom I lost it. I was stressed out all day and up and down. I can't believe how much it hurts that she is gone. We ran into so many little problems that we wouldn't have had if mom were there. Only 2 good pie pans for 6 pies, no clove for the pumpkin pie, old flour and sugar. My mom always kept the cupboards overstocked, if you ran out of something, right behind it was another one or the next trip to the store she would replace it. Dad doesn't do things the same way.
Wednesday was the first day in my life I have ever made a pie crust from scratch all by myself. Pretty pathetic if you know my moms baking legacy huh? Well, whenever she would have me help, she couldn't stand to watch you mess it up so she would take it away to show you how to do it right but you never really got to practice. Sherri and I were hoping that the crusts would come out at least edible. One time, I got distracted and couldn't remember how much flour I had measured. I kind of made it up and what do you know? I think it turned out better than the other ones I made. Sherri made the rolls Thanksgiving morning and Carson and I cut them out and baked them. The rest of the pictures are from after dinner, Sharon and Dad's picture came out cute.

Today I tried to think of all the good memories I had from Hawaii so I decided to post some pictures of the things I liked or enjoyed. The waterfall we hiked to. Chris and his 30 piece Sushi platter. The awesome sunset I snapped the last night in Oahu at Waikiki Beach. Morning walk on the beach, Going to the Flea Market swap wearing my cool new Hawaii shirt and holding a bird, eating a snow cone from the famous Matsumoto and my little prego belly.

DISASTER VACATION

Okay... for all of you who were jealous that I was having a glorious vacation in Hawaii soaking up the sun and thinking I was brave for going with 6 boys.... I have news for you. I DID NOT HAVE A GLORIOUS TIME AND I WASN'T BRAVE, I WAS STUPID!!!!!!!! I don't want to go off for the next hour because it would take too much energy and it wouldn't be enough to describe my feelings. Here is a brief summary.... We put 1300 miles on a rental car.... ON AN ISLAND! Where you can only go so far. Its because no one communicated, we got lost all the time and boys are incapable of making plans and actually following through with them. Do you know how much sand 6 boys can track into a condo and a rental car in 9 days and how bad rash guards stink when they aren't washed for several days. That's just the little annoying things. We had free tickets to the Polynesian culture center and night show and they didn't want to go to a "GAY" Luau and wanted to go to some local little place that a band was playing instead. Those are like $60 dollar tickets... and we ended up staying home and not doing anything. One day we got lost and drove around beach to beach to find a "good surf" and were in the car for 4 hours. Not to mention we listened to horrible hip hop rap crap music and listened to the retarded boys in the back seat make raps up and sing the chorus to inappropriate songs the whole time we drove around. We would drive down the road looking for a place to eat, okay guys where do you want to go? Silence.... no one even said anything. If I were to put a red dot everywhere we went in the 9 days we were there on a map of the island I bet you I would end up coloring it in with a marker. I almost slit my wrists I swear and I cried like a baby more than once in my room out of frustration!!!!! I did get a tan and the good news is the baby starting moving in the middle of the week so I had something to be happy about. I brought a book with me, "At First Sight," by Nicolas Sparks which saved my bacon. Lessons learned: Go on vacation with women, have a plan before you leave, don't book a red eye flight home just because its cheaper because its not worth the money saved and bring 2 books if you stay over a week, not one.

Aloha!

Aloha Friends! I can't believe I was crazy enough to go on a week long vacation with 6 guys! It has been an adventure to say the least. I think we have drove everywhere on the island of Oahu that you can. We have made 3 round trips from the airport to the North Shore (2 hours each) to downtown Honolulu and around Waikiki several times and too many other places to remember. We even tried finding the perfect beach on the other side of the island today and ended up staying at Waikiki after 4 HOURS IN THE CAR! GGRRRR! I was so ready to get out. So here is what we have done the last couple days not including today because I am too lazy to get the pictures off my camera right now. It is currently 9:30pm here and the boys walked down to the Turtle Bay Resort to try and sneak into the hot tub!!!
These pictures are completely out of order but I'll explain.

Before we rented surf boards, the boys with their boggie boards

Dan & Trent Paddling out to catch some big waves!

Turtle Bay Resort- on the way to the public beach where we snorkled and spear fished

The surf board rental guy helping the boys put the board on the Van.

The first attempt to ride the big boy waves

Chris and I somewhere on the beach

Left side of Turtle Beach Resort- Where the boys went the first day of surfing

Chris got the first fish with the spear. (on the public beach)

Here is the close up of the little guy!














Other things we have done:
Eaten Acai Bowls which is like this yogert and cold stuff from acai berries and granola and banana and strawberry or whatever topping you want. We have gone to FoodLand, Costco and Walmart so far. Boys eat a lot of food and snackies. We saw big fat sea turtles yesterday and Michael and I both touched them, even though you are not suppose to. Chris and Dan climbed a coconut tree after pulling over on the side of the road to find one, cut them open or hammered I guess with a hammer and a screwdriver and drank the juice. We have eaten 2 fresh pineapples, made spaghetti and Hawaiian haystacks for dinners, pizza and sandwiches. Caught some little lizards, Drove around the BYU campus and LDS Temple and hung out with Trent's sister Lauren.

SO LONG PASCO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAWAII HERE WE COME

3 Days Before HAWAII!!!!!!!

We are going to Hawaii in 3 days. We drive to Portland on Saturday(the 8th) and fly out in the afternoon, arriving in Honolulu around 5 p.m. We fly home on the 16th which is a Sunday red eye flight. There are 6 of us going and we are staying in a condo on the north shore. I will be the only girl, YES, the ONLY GIRL. It should be interesting, hanging out with a bunch of energetic youngsters including my husband. Vans Triple Crown of Surfing is a pro surfing competition going on while we are there. The boys are excited to try surfing. I might get a massage on the beach and spend some time doing my own thing since Chris will have other people to keep him busy. Maybe I will even get a tan to bronze up this scary white body of mine. I am hoping to feel better by next week. I made it through the first 12 weeks of pregnancy without throwing up and after this weekend I guess my "Mind Over Matter," technique expired because I puked Sunday night after our drive home from Seattle and this morning again. Evidently, the car sickness that I usually get when I am NOT pregnant is exacerbated when I am. UUUUGGGG! I hate throwing up. Maybe going to Hawaii will magically solve all my problems and I can float away in a happy blissful wave with no cares.