Holidays

Well, the holidays are comming on FAST!! There is still so much to do!! I can't believe it has snuck up on me.......again!! Just a short update, I look forward to the holidays, seeing my kids and all the grandkids is the high light for me. I love it!! We won't be getting together for Thanksgiving this year Stephen and his family always go to Ivys family for Thanksgiving and this year Joe and his family go to Val's family but we will get them all for Christmas. I am so excited it is always exciting to watch the children's little faces as they open presents, and see there surprises! The older ones are always fun and this year will be especially fun for Joe and Val since Jacob understands whats going on. Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and great holiday season!! Sorry no pictures, I know my daughter hates no pictures but the one at the very top is new!!

Halloween Fun

Here is Tianna she was a hippy. She took great delight in calling me up and letting me know she was going to dress like I did when I was young. She is convinced a was a hippy when I was younger! She was so darn cute! One lady there at the trunk or treat did say " oh my gosh, I had pants just like that!" I thought Tianna would die! Even though she gives me a hard time about hippy stuff, I don't think she really believed people dressed like that! Tianna with the cutest Elmo ever!

And this is Jacob. He was Horton the elephant. And what an awesome elephant he was!! His mom and dad say he put that costume on the week before Halloween and would not take it off!!

Another picture of the cutest, sweetest elephant around!!

Randy holding our little monkey!! And he is quite the monkey! He likes his papa to hold him and doesn't ever think we should leave.

More Halloween

We all went to Joe and Val's for trick or treating. They live in Ucon and everyone goes to the church building and backs in around the church and the kids go trunk or treat. I wasn't thinking it would be that great....I always took my kids out around the different neighborhoods, however, it was a blast. The kids got lots of candy and had tons of fun. Here are - left to right - Stephen Brandon, Dallen, Tianna, Joe and Randy. The guys sat on Joes truck and gave out candy while the girls took the kids around. This was after the older ones were done.
This is Riley, our little monkey he was so tired!! But he was such a cute monkey and he can do the monkey sounds!

This is Brandon, I believe he was the grim reaper.....pretty scarry guy!

Dallen was a dead guy risen from the grave. He can put on a pretty good show too!

Here is Jordan the cutest Elmo you ever saw!! He loves Elmo and when he walked there was a little music thingy in his pocket that played the elmo song.

Cliffhanger

This is a picture of "the cliffhanger" at White Water Park in Georgia. When we took Dallen to Georgia this past summer we saw the cliffhanger while we were in line to ride the hurricane. Dallen thought htis looked awesome however he did not want to ride it. When the people came down the slide they were laying on their backs with their arms crossed over their chests and they came shooting down to the end of the slide. Anyway I forgot to add this one with the other blogs and Dallen was wondering where it was.....so here it is I found it!

Fun STuff

After dinner we were walking back to the hotel and saw this cute little pig in a grass skirt. I thought about the grandbabies and knew they would like it. So here are a couple pictures. Isn't she cute!!
This lizard was on the wall of the hotel right beside our door. I knew the boys would be impressed even on the 17th floor you have lizards here!!

Pearl Harbor

Today we went ot Pearl Harbor. It is one of the most solomn places I have been. It was good to go and see that the men who were there during the war are not forgotten. And the one thing that we were reminded several times during the tour...ouor freedom is not free...it has cost and continues to cost some the ultimate price. We were taken across the harbor on a boat to the memorial of the USS Arizona. We learned that there were 900 men that died and are entombed in that ship still under the waters there in the harbor, all in all 1,177 were killed. And there were 330 that survived and have the option to be entombed with there ship mates at the time of there death. So far they have entombed 30 men with there shipmates.

One of the things we learned today is that they have the USSR Arizona which began the war and The Missouri docked behind the Arizona which is significant because the Missouri is the ship that sailed in and ended the war. So they have the beginniong and the end or as they say a set of book ends.

A submarine they had at port for people to walk on for the price of $100 each. Need less to say we just stood on land and took pictures!

This is a japanese suicide missle. It was manned with one man to navigate it and when launched that man knew he would die. Sure am glad for modern day improvements!! At least you have a chance at survival now.

This was so interesting and totally worth the time. It was a very solomn place but you could totally feel the respect the people had for the place and the people there. One story the USSR Arizona had oil on it cuz it was getting ready to leave port the next afternoon anyway the oil has been leaking out of the ship all this time and is estimated that it will continue to do so for the next 49 years, the people say it is the tears of the USSR Arizona and will stop when the last shipmate is entombed with them...and in 49 years they should all be there that would make some of them in their 80's today....jusst interesting.

Circle Island

On Wednesday we went on a tour of the island. Here are a few of the pictures that we took. This one is an island on the windward side it is called the Chinamans Hat. This is a real tree, it is a eucaliptus tree that truly has different colored bark, and I have more pictures if you want to see. I thought it was cool!

AS you can see I have a few heads in this one. We were on the bus but this was a 5 million dollar house!

Just a nice picture of the waves. Today they said they were expecting 25 foot waves!

This is a blow hole. As the waves come in, the ones going out get caught and the air gets under it (somehow) and then the next wave comiong in mixed with the wave going out causes that huge spray.

The Luau

I have so much to catch up on! You would think that being on vacation I would have plenty of time to blog........not! But I will try to catch up now. On Tuesday night we went to Germaines Luau, it is said to be the best luau on the island...and we really enjoyed it!! They cooked a pig in the "emu" or oven in the ground. They started it at 5 am and took it out at a "ceremony" when we all got there to eat at 6ish. There was pig, beef, chicken, mahimahi and all different salads my favorite was the pineapple coleslaw...yum! After dinner the dancing began....here are some pictures. This was the Hawaiin wedding song and dance. Really pretty.

This was actually the beginning where they did a special ceremony to welcome the king and queen of the luau.

This girl was one of the ones that welcomed us to the luau. She was so tiny and so cute. And I think she was the best dancer there. She definately knows the dances of her culture!!

A Day in Hawaii

This is a ship that is pretty far out. But it looked so pretty and it would here if you could see it! Randy found a girl friend .... I think I am ok with this. Don't think I will get jealous!

I did however like her grass skirt!
Here is a better picture and you can see better how pretty the ocean, sky ect.. are.

I love being here I love the sun the warmth and it has even rained a couple times but it is just like a lite drizzle, don't even know if it classifies as a lite drizzle, no one goes in or gets umbrellas everyone just continues whatever they are doing. It is just so nice here I recommend it if you can come!
We alternate between the beach and the pool at the hotel. I love the beach but I wanted to find shells for Tianna and there are none. It is mostly corral so I have a few pieces of corral from the ocean for her but no shells!

My Family

I am so lucky!! I have the greatest family ever! I tried to upload the family picture so you could see the whole family but it wouldn't something is wrong...but I got the one of all the grandchildren to work so it is below. I was listening to conference Sunday and one of the talks was cultivating an attitude of graditude and I have decided that that is what I am going to try to really focus on as my goal this year. And I want all who read my blog to know what a great family I have. How blessed am I to have Adaughter and son in law, two sons and daughter in laws who love each other enough that they have made it a priority in their lives to be sealed for time and eternity. How blessed am I to have a husband who loves me enough to want me forever!! I am so grateful for these wonderful people in my life and that they allow me to be involved in their lives. And I am especially grateful that they are teaching their children about their Heavenly Father and Jesus. That they take them to church and are teaching them the importance of the Temple. I want them all to know I love them ssssssssssssoooooooooo much!!

Boys at the River

Today I had Brandon come and spend the night with me after I got off work. And then Joe and Val asked me to watch Jacob while they went to dinnerl. It was so fun. We went and picked up McDonald's, because if you know anything about kids you know that that is the favorite place to eat of every kid in America! Then we took it back to my house and we sat outside on a blanket and had a picnic. After we finished eating we played football. Then Brandon asked if we could go feed the ducks and Jacob was in! So I took a half of a loaf of bread and some old hamburger buns and we went to the river to feed the ducks. Brandon is such a good cousin. He loves to play with the younger ones and help them do things. He watches out for them and enjoys playing with them or like today breaking up bread for Hacob to throw to the ducks. Brandon has this down to an art! H loves to hold out a long strip of bread (so the duck won't bite him) and let the duck (goose) eat it right out of his hand. Jacob was pretty impressed with this trick however, he wasn't ready to try it. He just liked throwing it to them.

Jacob had been throwing bread to the ducks, however in this one it was so sweet! He looked up and realized where he was and that the Temple was across the river. He pointed at it and just kept saying "gramma, a temple and the water". It was so sweet to see how his mom and dad have taught him about the temple and that he is familiar enough that he does recognize it!!
Good job Joe and Val!!

He loved sitting on the rock and feeding all the ducks. He was a little concerned about the ducks that weren't getting any bread. Even the birds on the bank that didn't get bread he wanted to get more to give them.

Here he has a hand full of bread to trhow to the ducks! But he took a moment to look at me and say "cheese" so I could get a good picture....look at those blue eyse!!

The boys had a good time feeding the ducks. I had a good time watching them and getting a few pictures to help me remember the afternoon I got to spend with them...I had fun...I think they did too!

Groceries and Jordan

I went grocery shopping with Mandy last week and Jordan showed up in this way cute hat.. here are a couple of picture I got of him. Isn't this soooo cute! This is what he did most of the time I was trying to take his picture...looking aroung, throwing his head back looking away...just being a tease! I was glad I got one good one.

Planes and Trips

I am the luckiest nana/gramma in the world! Since I work for the airline I have gotten to take my grandchildren onto planes. I mean they get to go on the plane and sit in the pilots chair and the pilot even lets them hold the wheel and turn it and move it up and down. They love it. The first ones I did this with were Tianna and Dallen. I was working in the Jackson station and they have the big Delta jets there. One day Mandy and Ernesto brought the kids over for a visit and the pilot said I could bring them out and let them board the plane. He asked Tianna if she wanted to sit in his chair and of course she did...Dallen not so much he started crying and wouldn't have anything to do with the pilot.(He was still quite young maybe 2) Anyway, after that Tianna was hooked. She has loved to fly, she has loved planes ever since. Mandy's three kids have all gotten to go on trips. There first trip is to Salt Lake City to temple square and spending the night at a hotel swimming. As they trun eight they get a big trip, Tianna's was to Sanabel Island and Sea World in Florida. Dallen's was just this past summer to Atlanta the Braves, White Water ect. Jacob is still to young to go on a trip but he loves planes. So when I got an opportunity to let him go on a plane and he actually wanted to I was thrilled. Here he is sitting in the pilots chair. He loved it. The one thing he didn't like was that the pilot sat down in the co-pilots chair and Jacob wanted him to move. You can tell from his little face he isn't happy about the pilot sitting there. But he was excited to get to "drive" the plane. He got to hold the wheel, turn it and pull it up and down. This one is so cute. I love the sunglasses! He was lovin sitting in that seat. I just wish I had gotten pictures of the other kids the first time they got to go in the cockpit and sit in the pilots chair. Can't wait for the younger ones to get interested so I can hopefully take them on the planes. Can't wait to see where Brandon.....and the others as they get older choose to take their "big" trip to.

Time with Jordan

I have posted some pictures of all the grandbabies except Jordan. Jordan is such a sweet shy little guy. He loves to sweep and use the dustpan. Here he is sweeping a little further down he has the dustpan. Here is the dustpan. I love spending time at Mandys. I get to play with Jordan and watch the new things he is doing. I told Mandy that Heavenly Father has a sense of humor. Proof "kids love to sweep and use the dustpan now at his age, but you can't get them to touch them when they are older!"

Joran with his big blue eyes I love to watch his sweet little face while he plays.

my bestest dauughter! I so enjoy the time we spend together. The kids are so much fun. I love my time with them. I hope they can enjoy me half as much I enjoy spending my time with them! Luv you all!!

Riley Time

On Tuesdays babysit Riley. It is my time to spend with him. I love it! Here are some pictures I took to share some of our time. Riley loves to play peek-a-boo in the tub. Playing peek-a-boo is about the funniest thing to Riley. He loves to see me pull the curtain back and say "peek-a-boo", he just giggles. Then after that game he likes to splash me and hear me yell in a squeeky coice. This has become our routine. I think he enjoys it as much as I do.

After the peek-a-boo and splashing I dry him off and take him downstairs and lotion him and dress him for bed. Then I get to snuggle and sing to him while he falls asleep. It is such a nice evening!! One I look forward to spending with Riley.