Sunday, January 27, 2008

Aloha!

Well, lucky us, we're in Hawaii. Without children!
So, this is like a second honeymoon, except that it's for Tyler's work so we only had to pay for my ticket and we have to attend a bunch of trainings--perhaps a bit less romantical than paying for it all ourselves, but certainly cheaper!
We got in Friday--flew out of COLD, snow-covered Utah and landed in 80 degree, sunny Honolulu.We stayed by Waikiki beach for the first two nights and though we were subjected to the fine dining of a traditional Hawaiian mall food court our first evening, we found a great swap meet and Subway sandwich shop to improve the overall quality of the dining. Saturday was a ton of fun as we caravaned around Oahu with some friends, visiting the swap meet at Aloha Stadium, hiking to the top of Diamondhead to enjoy the amazing views, and then polishing the adventure off with a good old fashioned dip in the Pacific at Sandy Beach just north of Hanauma Bay. Of course the waves were big and thick and seemed to thrive on picking up grown men and slamming them into the sandy ocean floor. Needless to say, Ali opted to sit on the beach and watch all the fun things the ocean could do with Tyler's little body! A fun time was had by all! A brief and refreshing visit to the hotel was followed by the culminating Hawaiian experience for the day when we ate more mediocre and not-so-good-for-you food at a local Hawaiian restaurant where they also put on a variety show of Polynesian songs and dances. The entertainment was far better than the food and was topped off when the final number involved audience participation! None other than Tyler himself was selected by the head dancing girl to be escorted to the stage and do a little ditty that Elvis would be proud of--shake those hips honey!! They even dressed him up in a grass skirt and gave him a hat, and he got to get "bumped" by all the cute hula girls!
Stay tuned for posts on BYU Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center!

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Sugar and Spice and Snowmen are nice


Ok, she really is super sweet...she has a powerful set of lungs and thinks she's a diva, but she's great. She now has enough hair to style. Perhaps now people won't think she's a boy! (we call them "boo" and "samurai")
Jack has to have a project to do daily. It keeps him occupied for 2-5 minutes. I am running out of ideas (Grammy, we need your help!). On Monday I was struck with the brilliant idea of turning marshmallows into snowmen for our Family Home Evening Treat. Jack was in love with the idea, because he loves to eat marshmallows. For the rest of the day, though (we made them at 10 am), he tried to start FHE with a song and a prayer and a lesson (this is Jesus. He loves us) so he could have the snowmen (Ok, we had FHE, let's eat the snowmen!). It was very funny. The snowmen look hideous, but he likes them, so there you go!
And finally, Sheridan has started signing...a very little. She got this ball popper from Grandude and Mahnah and now occasionally signs "ball". Later that day, she and Jack decided to build something together. It was precious until Jack decided he was done sharing and started a fight. Most things end that way these days!

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Up and Running

Well, I suppose "up and walking" is a more accurate title. That's right, our little Miss Wonderpants has started WALKING! Just before Christmas she took her first few steps (she really wanted Mommy) and she has worked up to 7 steps as of this evening. Man, do we have amazing kids or what? This was the day she took her first steps...in fact, it was right after Ali took this picture. She is so proud of herself! The cat is very, very afraid!

We got a lot of snow yesterday. 6 whole inches. Jack was in heaven. Ali was cold. (this isn't a picture of yesterday, this was the day Jack beheaded his snowman. Since I didn't have a picture of yesterday, you'll have to make do.


Our other exciting point of the last few weeks is Strep Throat. I thought it was just a cold, but it turns out that we all had strep. Tyler and I watched a lot of movies and tried to not neglect our poor children (Jack didn't have strep, and Sheridan was acting pretty normally as well). We both got our first booty shots in years as a fast treatment. If you've gotten sick from us, you can blame it on me, Tyler.