Thanksgiving

Its always hard not to be around family for the holidays, so luckily we have the best of friends to celebrate Thanksgiving with instead. We spent the morning at the park watching the boys play soccer and football. Kenny was ecstatic to have his two buddies from his high school soccer "glory days", Kyle and Erik Dunn here to play with. He even dug out his old soccer jersey to get him psyched for the game. All the Banning boys came out to play too and by the looks from the sidelines they all had a good time.



For dinner Shawn and Darcy invited us out to the Wilson's home for Thanksgiving dinner. The food was fabulous and the company was superb! The boys had a great time riding around on a train that Pat and Hershel ordered in for the kids to play on. After dinner we went to play games and have a second helping of dessert at the Dunn's home. We had fun playing the Newlywed game even though Kenny and I took last place. Way to go Steph and Erik on the big win!

We love our dear friends and are so thankful for their love and friendship. Thank you to all that included us in on your Thanksgiving Holiday.

Twilight

So do you remember when I neglected my family for two weeks to read the Stephenie Meyer, "Twilight" series? Well I went last night with several girl friends to the movie of the first book and fell even more in love with the vampires. Edward was definitely a hottie but so was Jasper! I knew Edward was going to be good looking, but that is not what I was anticipating Jasper to look like. I loved the movie and can't wait for it to come out on DVD. I hope I don't have to wait several years to see the other books made into movies because that is all I can think about right now. If you haven't seen the movie, go see it! If you haven't read the books, go watch the movie, and then read them so you too can have lovely day dreams about the steamy vampires!

Would you like a snack?

Today Drew participated in his first Primary program. Since we had missed several Sundays in a row from traveling, we never received a slip of paper informing us of what Drew was supposed to say during the program. The Sunday before he was able to practice in the chapel, but he wanted nothing to do with saying anything into the microphone and I decided not to push him. I knew we would be lucky to even get him to sit up in the stand on the actual day of the program.

As they called the children up Drew sunk into the pew and said he didn't want to go sit up front. I started in on the bribes, candy, toy, popsicle, nothing was working. Kenny then asked him if he wanted to take a snack up to the stand with him?! Drew of course said Yes and Kenny proceeded to pour goldfish into a tupperware container. I quickly told him that I didn't think snacks up on the stand during a primary program was a good idea, but he only said, "He's going up there." So off Drew went, snacks in hand to sit on the stand in front of all the congregation. He did a great job singing the songs and kept his snack well hidden. When it was his classes turn to say why they were thankful for their families he rose and stood in line, snacks in hand. I figured he would not want to speak into the microphone because of the stage fright from his practice, but he came to the step stool climbed up and said, "Oh wait." He jumped off the step stool and walked his tupperware bowl of goldfish back to his chair. He then went and stood back in line behind the other children in his class. As he came back to the front of the line he climbed back up on the step stool, leaned into the mic., and before his teacher could whisper something in his ear to say, he blurted out, "If you don't have a snack, you can go home now!" He jumped down and went back to his snack that sat nicely waiting for him on his chair. Everyone was laughing and Tommy, who sat behind me, started to stand up and said I'm going home to get my snack!

So he didn't stand up and say why he was thankful for us, but Kenny and I were both very proud of him for sitting up on the stand, for singing, and for speaking about what was on his mind. I figure we won't have to worry about a bigger speaking part next year!

The Letter "Pp"

Friday Night we celebrated the letter "Pp"! Drew has been learning about the letter "P" in school, so we figured why not have a party around the letter. Kenny wanted to make home made pizza and Drew wanted to have a picnic, which he didn't inform us of until it was already dark, so we had a pizza, picnic, movie night in the living room while we watched Kung Fu Panda. It was a fun, stay at home evening!

ALOOOHA!!!

We just returned from a week long vacation to Hawaii!!! It was our first time to go to Hawaii and we loved every minute of it. We were lucky to have Kenny's mom and sister, Connie, come with us. They were both a huge help, mahalo to both of them for all that they did. We wanted to take the boys with us so they could have a fun and educational experience. They learned all about what an Island is and about the wonderful Polynesian culture. I can only hope that they will remember some of these amazing experiences we had while in Hawaii. If not, I guess we will just have to take them back!

We spent a lot of time just playing at the beach. Kenny's highlight was all the snorkeling, especially Hanauma Bay, I loved the Polynesian Culture Center & parasailing, Drew loved the interesting trees, Ian loved burying Connie in the sand, and Owen loved being in the arms of his grandmother & the birds, until one actually stole his cracker right out of his hands! Here are some highlights from our trip:

Hanauma Bay
The snorkeling at Hanauma Bay was amazing. We spent hours at this beach. I was a little more timid of snorkeling and seeing what was all around me, so luckily Connie was there to go with Kenny. They swam through caves and saw several huge sea turtles and some very interesting looking fish. At one point Connie and I went out snorkeling and followed around a sea turtle for quite awhile. She decided to try and touch it, which made me very nervous because I just knew that the turtle would turn around and snap her finger off, but she did touch it and I was in awe! She told me it was my turn, so of course we went looking for another sea turtle. I had to swim/chase my sea turtle around, but in the end I did prevail and can now say that I touched a sea turtle in the Pacific Ocean.....very cool!

Polynesian Culture Center

I can't lie, after spending a day at the Polynesian Culture Center I was jealous and wishing I too could by Polynesian! At the PCC we toured around to several different
islands to see the lifestyles, habitats, and entertainment of several Polynesian cultures. Our favorite was definitely the island of Samoa. There we watched a boy climb to the top of a huge palm tree, learned how to open a coconut with our bare hands and turn it into to milk, and how to make fire come alive from a stick. The boys also enjoyed the island of Tonga where they got to drum on some big drums. Clarissa, Connie, and I stayed around for the evening show and the Luau. As we entered the Luau, we received a real orchid lei. The food was delicious. We dined on a pig that had been buried underground, rolls made from taro root (that are purple), salmon, jerky, and fresh pineapple. The only less desirable food at the Luau was the poi, which I think tastes like paste. The dancing was indescribable, something that everyone should experience for themselves. All in all it was one of the coolest places I have ever gone and can't wait to go back again someday.