First Day of School!!!

I was so excited to get them out the door, I forgot that they don't yet know who their teachers are or what rooms they're in. I hope someone helped them out once they got inside and realized they had no idea where to go.

Now, I've got time to begin the important work of going with Sarah to her tumbling class two times a week. We are getting ahead of the curve for BYU Cheerleading tryouts in 2025!!

Good news and bad news.

The bad news is that GI Joe has horrible language and a little too much sexy stuff for my pre-teen. Which is tragic, because he would love the gadgets and weapons and karate fighting and cool characters. By the cheesy dialogue it is clearly made for kids about 10-15, but they made me mad with the language and cleavage. He will have to wait for the clean-play version. I sat up and told him all about it when we got home.

The good news is that there was a preview before the movie that got me so excited for summer 2010!

YES! Can you get a combination than Avatar and M. Night Shyamalan? Guaranteed to be cool.

Going to preveiw GI Joe tonight

to see if it's okay for Ryan to see. I've only seen a trailer and I'm already thinking no.


Okay, and I have another reason for wanting to see the movie. You probably don't remember the movie "Step Up." I saw it and BOUGHT it. I'm a little dance-obsessed. Channing Tatum plays GI Joe.I don't think he's going to break dance in GI Joe though.

PS There was also a "Step Up 2" for those of you that just got excited about seeing the first one. Laugh at the acting and script. Respect the sport.

Mobile uploads of Hawaii trip

View from our back patio on a rainy morning, overlooking Hanalei Bay.

Napali Coast hike with Sarah.Sarah slept on the way up Napali, but screamed the whole way down because she was so terrified.

Ryan
My view while I was laying out at the Hilton in Vegas the night before leaving for Hawaii.


This is the best ice cream I or anyone in my family has ever eaten. The owner was also very excited about the ice cream, as he had a different "favorite flavor" for everyone that walked in the store. In case you are planning a trip to Kauai, this place is down the road to the lighthouse near Hanalei.
You can't tell how good this was from the picture. Macadamia nut, banana, coconut ice creams with oreo crust from Hanalei Dolphin restaurant.
Hanalei Dolphin sushi. The sushimi wasn't dolphin, obviously. That's just the name of the restaurant. The sashimi was the best I've ever had. We told the owner that it's even better than the best we've had in Vagas, where we have eaten really great sushi, and he just laughed and said, "Yeah, Vegas sushi... bleh." I guess it does sound comical to compare sushi in vegas to that in Hawaii where it is caught a few minutes before a few hundred yards away.

It should be said here that while Hanalei Dolphin had the best sushi we ate while we were there, Postcards (also in Hanalei) had the best entree and desert. I think I didn't remember to take pictures of it because I had been Kayaking for 7 hours that day and just wanted the food to get in my tummy.

Back from Hawaii

We were on Kauai, North Shore. Princeville to be exact. We did a lot of fun stuff this time. As the kids are getting older, we are able to do more than just sit on a beach all day.

These first pictures are of Tunnels Beach. It is so gorgeous with the cliffs of Napali behind it. (and Sarah in front of it.)


Ron holding Sarah in the water at Tunnels.


These next ones are of a waterfall, I want to say Keepu... but I'm sure that's not spelled right. This was so much fun. We got there and Josh went and jumped off the cliff into the water and then did the rope swing, totally shocking us. I was holding my breath it scared me so bad to see his little body flinging out like that! It was a highlight for sure.

This is my niece, Heather looking back, and Noah walking behind her through the sugar cane fields on the way to the waterfall.
Me and Sarah at the falls. She was really scared of waves or noisy water, like the waterfall. So I had to hold her facing me so she couldn't see them or she would scream.
Joshy on the rope swing. The local Hawaians were doing tricks on the rope that were pretty amazing. I would love to write a commentary on the Hawaiian hospitality (none) but I'll save it. Lets just say they are not exactly good Samaritans when it comes to tourists.
Joshy going off the falls! What a stud.


The picture below is Josh and my sister's son, Grayson. I love this photo because it's hard to believe they are biological cousins. My sister is fairly dark and her husband is even more so. Me and Ron are... not so much! Ok, not at all. The are in a truck on the way to do a zip line/kayak/hike thing on the same day that I kayaked the Napali Coast with some of the other adults. (Which was the highlight of the trip for me.) It was so nice of Ron to keep the kids that day and let me do that. It made up for the Costa Rica trip being canceled. Photos are being developed and will be back Tuesday next week.



My sister, Michele, her husband, Taylor, their kids and Ron with my boys on the right.

Gearing up for school, already/trip to Hawaii...

All the back-to-school rigamaroll is starting already. Endless emails from the school with things to print off and sign and take back and visits to the school to meet teachers and get schedules and supply lists. I swear summer just started, but eveyone is always ready for it to end too. This year they are going to be rotating the kids through different teachers for different subjects for grades 4 and up. I think it's a great idea, especially for Noah, to keep things changing throughout the day. We've got a new plan for his diet to try and get a grip on the ADD for this year. It's going to be so hard to control what he puts in his mouth. We go to Hawaii next Tuesday, get back the 6th of August and school starts three days later.

The A/C in my car is broken. It's been 110 degrees lately.

I'm already planning Sarah's birthday on August 25th. Balloons, pink cupcakes, I'm not sure if I'm going to get her dress-ups or a doll house. Stay tuned.

Catching up on MJ videos

Sarah enjoying a MJ video.

I was at costco yesterday and found a video called MJ Number Ones. It's the videos of all his number one hits. I was excited to show my kids "Thriller." They were unimpressed and just mostly thought it was weird. Compared to what they see done with computer animation, it just isn't that cool. Of course they are really missing the point that all of it was done without computer animation and those are actual people making their bodies move like that. ~sigh.
Then I watched the rest of it and realized that Thriller wasn't even his best. "Smooth Criminal" is about the best dancing I've ever seen, ever. I could watch it over and over, it's so amazing. I forgot how much I love the song "Man in the Mirror." It gave me chills. The last two were songs that he put out after he was a total weirdo in my mind, so I hadn't even heard them before and they're actually pretty good stuff. It's so sad that he was such a good looking kid to begin with and made himself into such a freakazoid! Tragic.



I can remember having the MJ poster above my bed of him in the yellow sweater vest. I bought it at The Keyhole. Hahha. Keri is the only one that read this that's going to know about that place, and that's sad : (. RIP Cottonwood Mall.