how i spent my birthday......for 10 days.

a few weeks ago mike came home one day and said, "we might be going to hawaii." it was a great segway into my lunch. we were able to go because the army sent mike to the ada convention there, thank-you dear army for paying for my trip! needless to say the ensuing 3 weeks of preparation where a whirlwind of fun. my kids got to have grandma and grandpa come stay with them, and mike and i got our first kidless vacation in the last 3.5 years.


me and mike and the polynesian cultural center, which has a 1000000% awesome show, really good food, funny entertainers, and a very expensive price tag. but you must go. just think of it as a really fun way to give to charity. profits from the center go to scholarships for students at byu-hawaii. may i just say that La'ie is the prettiest town in all of Oahu.
samoan coconut tree climber, he was so fast.
we spent most of our time on the beach, but didn't take pictures, cause our camera would've been stolen ya know. we rented snorkel gear and hit the north shore and east shore for lots of good snorkel time. three tables, and hanauma bay where highlights. i am converted to snorkeling as my main source of vacation activities from here on out. here we are near the blow hole on the east shore. "the sea was angry that day my friends." (bonus points for whoever can tell me where that quote comes from)
one of our strategies was to eat our free breakfast at the hotel, a candy bar for lunch and for dinner we ate whatever, wherever we wanted. the best things i ate? shave ice from aoki's in hale 'iwa, ku'aina burger's roast beef sandwich with cheese and chile peppers, and kona's kaluha pork borrito, both in hale 'iwa. also there was a cheese cake factory in waikiki where we had lunch. the food was fabulous, a couple of times we skipped breakfast and ate these delicious donuts called malasadas from leonards bakery. puffy mounds of fried dough rolled in cinnamon sugar and stuffed with a creamy custard that had just a hint of coconut. heavenly. you can tell how liberally they sugar over there by mike's lips.
spent a day at pearl harbor. here is a pic of the oil that is still leaking from the sunken arizona. i used to think that was a myth. the memorial grounds were filled with old men who i was sure had returned to this place to see how it had changed, and also the things that where still the same.
mike at the memorial, they have these amazing trees that have these herculian branches that hold thier own weight and stretch for miles! we planned to collect some seeds to plant at our future home, but forgot.
aren't i a proper gun maiden.
the temple at la'ie, didn't i tell you it was gorgeous?

i just have to say thanks to the hubs, it was awesome and beautiful and relaxing and fun. and i will be dreaming about sand and sun for many months to come.

ps heather and jerrel i need you to post pictures of us so i can steal them.

pps. mom and dad, we never could've done it without you, next time it's your turn.

Termination Dust: An alaskan term indicating the end of summer by the dusting of mountain tops with the first snow of the season. yikes.

math

Jace+salsa=true love
sanjuan co. red dirt+tomato seeds= gold(and the best pkg ever recieved)
baby quinton+nine years= what the *&$%^! + one tall, toothy, awesome 4th grader.
Avery+24 cartons of playdoh purchased at target for 9$= stacks of delicious cakes

austin+ 1st day of 1st grade+didn't clean your room before school= exhaustion by 5:17 pm

it's time

ahhh.....the leaves are on their way to yellow, there's a brisk coolness to the air... and college football is kicking off this weekend. Autumn is my bestest season. here's some other good things that are floatin' 'round my brain.

- sweatshirts and jeans. i need a new one. of each. maybe a byu one. or maybe this one at ae. and does anyone know where i can find some decent jeans? that aren't dirty looking? that aren't momish? that aren't like a hundred dollars?

- these shoes from anthro. i actually hate that place 'cause like i'm ever gonna spend that much, but maybe one day i'll catch clearance on time. after all my feet deserve such luxury....right?


- punkin's the orange kind and the jace kind. the little toddler has just learned how to climb out of his crib. he's into everything, he says no a lot, he worships avery and will be her pet dog all day, and he is talking up a storm. he told me today that he needed to watch, "yardigan's quick!"
oh and about the orange kind, i scored two boxes of tiny ones on clearance last year at target. gonna fill up some hurricanes with them quick.

-Q&A are back in school which actually kinda makes me sad, believe it or not. i made it through the entire summer without saying, "i can't wait until you go back to school!" so the day before school starts, I take 'em all for a bike ride. the bike ride is full of whining so we stopped at a park. Q was full of, shall we say...spice that day and he was trying to push me down the slide and spit on people from up on the bridge and just generally bothering everyone. but i'm handling it patiently just like i have all summer. and all of the sudden little girl starts screaming like bats are attacking her, she's writhing in pain and i think it has somthing to do with her fingers but she will not stop screeching so i can find out.
so the park is covered in these little tiny pebbles, which is fun when you are bored and you can look for pretty ones, but not fun when your toddler decides to pelt you and screaming sister with them. after a few handfulls of this, Q decides to twirl A around like a rag doll until A falls down crying in frustration. this is when mom becomes unglued. to put it nicely. all the frustrations of a long summer complicated by surgeries and recoveries and 4 crazy kids to keep entertained and away from the wii and the tv, just sort of... exploded forth from my brain. and the whole nieghborhood got a really entertaining and colorfully verbalized display. so much for keeping my cool.
it was really quite a fun and adventorous summer, if i just could've survived that last day......

deep thoughts by maggie

halloween candy is already waiting, lurking at my local grocery store.
it's that time of year again.
so my thought is: when did halloween turn from "ultimate kid fantasy holiday" into
"dress like a skanky......anything" day?
let's take back halloween people.

before september even starts.

grandma and grandpa's visit.....in random order

austin really believed he could hold back the tide


sow and cub eating blueberries, they have to eat 200,000 blueberries a day or 3 5 gallon buckets full.
see the moose in the background?
beautiful vista
teknilika river
walking along the touristy path
sand=fun
it was freezing and they all insisted on getting in the water.
isn't this a great picture?

top of artic valley area, near our home
jace was "hiding"


the payoff
the hard work dipnetting at fish creek. alaskan residents can fish for salmon with a big net, but it's not easy. mike spent a good 12 hours in this creek, he got 11 salmon!
mike looks good in neoprene waders.
austin tagged along on the dipnetting trip. he got a double cheeseburger that was the special of the day. he put the stickers on his jacket so it would say, "double special" oh and he sure is.

i heart dramamine

only 30% of visitors actually see denali because of it's insistence of being shrouded in clouds. but the cloud line parted for a bit and offered us a little glimpse of the top of mt. mckinley (largest peak in n. america) this pic is awesome, but just doesn't do the scene justice, you just can't imagine how big it is.
wonder lake, 85 miles into denali ntl. park (read below) and the end of the road.
jace, grandma and the sand, beach at kenai
granpa took lots of amazing pics, i will post them when i get my hands on 'em
our first blueberry picking! and probably our last.....sniff.
the kids on some windswept pines near the trailhead for flat top. windy there.

we've been carousing around alaska with grandma and grandpa judi! we've been to the kenai penisula, the beach and all the way up to denali national park where we took an 11 hour bus ride into the park. crazy i know, but with one kid per adult, it worked out splendidly and was the best most awesome thing we've done in alaska so far. we saw 11 grizzly bears (grizzlies live in the interior, brown bears live by the coast, same bear different name) several caribou, two foxes fighting over dinner, ptarmigan's (the kids called them chickens) a wolf that mike spotted, two bull moose, and lots of rabbits, grounds squirrels and golden eagles. one of the grizzlies was chasing and trying to eat ground squirrels, but they got away. denali is so wild, it is unlike any place i've ever been. thanks to dramamine, jace was able to bear the 11 hours in a moving vehicle, and he did awesome! we also hiked artic valley with grandma and grandpa, and hiked flat top, (this mountain IN anchorage that has a flat top, and picked blueberries a few days before they got here. we've been playin, and trying not to think about the inevitable end to this awesome summer. more denali pics to come.