Hawaii Five-O

The first of this year we received a phone call from Marriott Resorts. They had a good deal to go to Hawaii, of course the good deal had a catch of coming to a meeting for them to talk you in to buying in on a vacation time share with them. Anyway, Larry thought it would be fun for me as I had never been there, he said he had already been there and didn't really care if he went back....so this was basically for me, which was very sweet and thoughtful of him. Larry suggested that we make plans to go during the summer while I was off work, but I told him that I didn't want to go in the summer when it was warm here. I would rather go during the fall or winter. After all was said and done we planned to go over UEA in October, then I could take some of personal days and still have some extra time with the vacation that we were on from school. It just so happened that the UEA vacation was the 20th and 21st of October. That made it even better, because I could spend my 50th birthday in the 50th state. Then people started saying that I could do the Hawaii Five-O thing. Very funny, but anyway it was perfect. We had a lot of fun.










A long story made short, our eldest daughter Shan and her hubby Chris, along with their daughter Jennsen (whose birthday was the 20th) decided to go with us. Then so Jennsen wouldn't be stuck with just us adults they also invited our grandson Zac. We all had a lot of fun.









We left on the 19th of October and arrived there that evening about 6:30 Hawaii Standard Time. With the 4 hour difference that made it a long day. In fact that was the hard part, my body wanted to wake up at 4:00 in the morning, because it was 8:00 by my body clock.
The next morning we all headed off to hike Diamond Head.









I didn't think it would be that bad, it wasn't very long, but it was pretty straight up with lots of stairs, which my knee hated....but I DID IT!!!









After that we headed over to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling. Zac and Jennsen were excited to do that. Shan isn't a very good swimmer, well she doesn't have a lot of confidence, anyway she was nervous at first, but she did great! I'm proud of her. Larry and I were able to see a sea turtle swimming along.






I tried to find the kids, but I couldn't see them to wave them to come over, so we were the only ones to enjoy that. Got a little red, which is easy to do just snorkeling along and not paying attention to time that you're out there. We all had a ton of fun doing that though.
Then we went down the road a little and saw the Blow Hole. It was hard to get pictures, but Larry got a couple.












The next day we headed up toward the North Shore and over to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We made a few steps along the way to a fruit stand to try some local fruit, stopped to to see the Temple and the BYU campus there. The temple was beautiful, wish we could have fit in a session there.













We had a lot of fun at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We enjoyed all the stops at each of the island shows and the parade on the water. Shannon and Zac both got a temporary Hawaiian tattoo. We also stayed to see the main show called "Ha....breath of Life" It was a late night getting home, but so worth it.








The next day we planned on going over to the Flea Market at Aloha Stadium. We planned on picking up our gifts and souvenirs there, but unknown to us the Warriors had a game that day and so the market was not going to be open. We would have to go back the next day. Since that through a wrench in our plans for the day we tried to decide what to do. Larry and I had our meeting that day and so we would have to be back at the resort by 2:00. We figured that we had time to go up to the Dole Plantation for the morning and then we could be back and everyone else could just enjoy the resort and play around.















Later that night we went to a Luau just down from the resort called Paradise Cove.










We went down a little early and were able to make a lei bracelet and a few other things. We girls enjoyed doing that. Zac got himself a Island tattoo on his face. He thought that was great. It was a great buffet and great entertainment.





Sunday was my big "50", and since we had not been able to get our gifts the day before as we had planned, we had to go that day since that was the only day left that they would be open before we left Monday evening. Talk about a major shopping experience!!






We also decided to drive to the North Shore to see some waves. There was a high wave warning for that day and so we wanted to see some surfing.
















We also found a good place for Zac to go snorkeling again. He really loved doing that. The waves were great and we also saw some of the surfers out. Just driving up there was like rush hour. We then came back and enjoyed the rest of the day back at the the resort and then went out to eat that evening for my birthday. It was a nice day, but I missed my Sabbath feeling.

Monday was our final day. Our plane flight was that evening around 9:00pm. So we checked out of the resort that morning and left our luggage with the bell hops and headed out for something I was really looking forward to.....Pearl Harbor!!!














We spent pretty much the entire day there, taking the tour out to the USS Arizona,(Very humbling to show our respect to those who died there.) I even took pictures of the oil, which they call black tears, that is still coming up from the ship. We learned that since it is the 70th anniversary this December, that one of the men that was assigned to the Arizon, but was not on the ship at the time, has passed away and his family have plans to bury him with his shipmates on that date. I didn't realize that they did that still. Always interesting things to learn.












We also went over to tour the USS Missouri (which is the ship that the Japanese surrendered on.) and then on over to the Aviation Museum. Jennsen was excited about this because she is into the Ghost Hunter shows....the museum was on that show. One of the manikins named, Kramer, is always in a different position in the morning when the workers show up. So we had to take pictures with Kramer.







I also took pictures in Hanger 79 of the actual broken window panes from bullets from the bombing of Pearl Harbor. What a excellent day. We finished in time to head back to the resort and eat and get our bags and then off to the airport.
I loved my Hawaii Five-O adventure!! We loved having the family along too!! I would love to do it again, if I can only talk Larry into going again (I think he had more fun that he will admit.)....maybe to another island!

A Little Catching Up To Do!

It seems that once school gets close to starting and for the 1st month I just don't find time to sit down here and type. Because I was moving to a room inside the building this year, I had a ton to do to get my new room ready, so I was out to the school some in July and quite a bit in Aug. We started back to work on the 16th or was it the 17th? Anyway, I was very involved trying to get things going there. However there are a few things that have happened since I wrote the last part of July that I want to be part of my blog, so I'll do a little catching up here.
I'll start with how Larry and I celebrated the Days of '47 (24th of July). We did go to the cabin that weekend, but the 24th was on a Sunday, so we decided to go to the Days of '47 rodeo. It had been a long time since either of us had been to it. With our grand daughter, Jennsen, now enjoying her horse and us being a little more involved with her and her horse events, it was a little more in our thinking. So Monday the 25th we headed off to the rodeo, which in now being held at the Maverick Center on the West side of Salt Lake City. I didn't take my camera, but after getting there decided to take a few pics with my phone. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed the events. Although the bull riders couldn't seem to stay on for anywhere near the 8 seconds, however we enjoyed the clowns. So I thought I'd share a few pictures.








As I said before we've been enjoying Jennsen's new love of horses and her beautiful thoroughbred, Sue. She's had her up to the cabin a few times, enjoying riding the horse over the 4 wheelers. She just come along with us if we aren't going too far. I think Sue loves it up there. A couple of weekends ago, Jennsen and Chris got up and put Sue out on her Zip Line and then came in to eat breakfast. About 5 minutes later Jennsen got up to check on her and announced that she was gone. We weren't too worried. We told her to just go out and get her back on the line. We all thought that she would just be close around eating, but she was truly missing. So the hunt was on. We got on the 4 wheelers and started hunting...went through the trees to see if she was just out there and we couldn't see her. Still no Sue! Finally Chris had talked to some kids that were out on their 4 wheelers if they had seen her and they hadn't but he asked them to keep an eye out. They soon came yelling that she was up the road. Sue had actually broken the clip that was holding her to the rope and just decided to take herself on a walk I guess. She had stayed on the road, even on the right side of the road and taken herself on the path that Jennsen had often taken her. Jennsen had been in tears, I'm so happy that she was found. Chris has decided he needs a bit heavier clip than the cheap one he had. :)







We had our 1st Walker Family Reunion this year. I was talking with Larry's sister, Jean, about how it would be nice if She and her brothers could get together. Jean thought that was a great idea, so we made plans to hold a reunion the 1st weekend in August this year. We offered to have the reunion at the cabin. Larry's brother and sister had not yet been up to see the cabin. Jean lives just outside Sacramento in Elk Grove, CA and Steve lives in Roy, UT. Jean said she wanted to plan it as she loved to do that and wanted it to have a bit of a genealogy flair to it. She wanted to spend some time helping the nieces and nephews getting to know their great grandparents a little better. She really did a ton of work and had pictures for each grandchild and for her brothers. She also put together a 4 generation folder for each child so they could actually have the genealogy. I thought it was great, especially since some of the family are not active in the church. She also videoed the evening with her and Larry and Steve talking about their memories. She wanted to get the information written down, so she was going pull it from the tape. We had a lot of fun together also. They went down to the gun range several times, they went on a few 4 wheeler rides. Of course, we went looking for some Geo Caches. (That seems to be the only thing I had my camera out for.) I took Diana, Steve's wife, Jean on a little ride also. Jean was a bit nervous, because she had never driven the ATV and she did great. Each family took a breakfast and a dinner and we had some great meals. I hope they don't wait too long to do it again.








Larry went ahead and took Monday as a vacation day also. Jean was going to stay with us through the next week and wanted to go to a few of the gravesites where relatives were buried. So Monday we got up early and began our trek towards Ogden. We had already stopped Sunday evening on our way home in Coalville and Hoytsville to see who we could find in those areas. We went to West Weber and also Brigham City looking for ancestors of the Walker line. Jean had really done her homework and wanted pictures of certain gravestones. There really is something to be said of being where your ancestors actually walked and lived. A surprise for me is that I didn't know that Lorenzo Snow was buried in the Brigham City Cemetary. I thought that was cool and had to get a couple of pictures of that.








We of course had to make a little pit stop at Smith and Edwards and do a little shopping. We got home about 5:00 and it was such an enjoyable day together. I love doing things like that.

Some other things that have happend are a couple of the grandchildren have had birthdays. Kylee, Devin and Charity's girl, just had her special birthday when she turned 9 on the 9th of September. We went into be with her at Chuck E. Cheese. I've never been there before and now I know why? You can almost hold a conversation there. Kylee, I think, was excited that we had come and we enjoyed showing her our love by being there. She is growing up to be a beautiful young lady. The first thing she said when we got there was how she was going to be able to be in this tube and try to catch as many tickets as she could. She had a lot of fun and came up with about 300 points with her tickets.







Then on Sept. 12th was Dallin's, Jamie and Bruce's youngest, 8th birthday. His birthday was on a Tuesday, so we actually celebrated the Saturday before. He wanted a camping birthday, so Jamie and Bruce had their 5th wheel up in a Old, little mining town just south of Tooele, called Ophir. There's still a small little town up there, although the mining is non existent. It's up a canyon once you turn on to the highway leading towards Lehi. We enjoyed some hamburgers and hotdogs (just what Dallin wanted.) and then we had cake and ice cream and a little tour of the town led by Bruce. It was an enjoyable evening. Dallin will be getting baptized on October 8th and is excited, but a little nervous about going under the water. We are proud of him.














The only other thing we've been up to is working on the cabin and getting the deck and the side of the cabin that takes most of the beating from the snow and weather weatherproofed and ready for the winter. Seems as life is always moving at a very fast pace. I hope to stay a little more current as the months keep coming. I can't believe that it is almost October and next week I already have my first parent teacher conference. Time sure flies!

Enjoying the Lake

Our two lab girls really needed a bath. Larry thought that before he washed them they would really enjoy some time out in the lake. They really do love the lake and we don't give them enough time to just go out and play. It is a lot of work, because then they are wet etc...etc...etc...
Anyway, I went out to get a few shots with my phone. I just love watching them enjoy the lake, they ARE labs. However, they both have a few quirks that I just have to laugh about. Sadie, the chocolate lab, just loves to swim, however she doesn't really know how to swim. You would think a lab would just come knowing how to do this.


It's not as if their mother could give them swimming lessons. When you watch most dogs swim their legs stay under the water with their head above the water. Not Sadie, she swims with her front feet coming out of the water, which makes her back end sink in the water, which I know that makes it harder. But, she is such a trooper and will do it over and over again. Brandie,the black lab, on the other hand is a good swimmer, but a little lazy. She is a bit bigger and a little over weight, which I'm sure makes it a little harder, but she likes to have Sadie go out to get the orange bird and then try to take over as Sadie reaches closer to shore. Sometimes I think she is going to drown Sadie.


Brandie does go and get the bird, but when she gets tired she lets Sadie do the main work. Also because Sadie is a little sleeker she is a little faster and often will beat Brandie to the bird. We have two, but they tend to go after the same one. They just made my day and I got some good laughs watching them and seeing their excitement in playing out in the lake. Anyway, they both had a great time, and got a bath to boot, now I can let them back into the house. :)

Snow On Top

This year for the 4th of July Larry and I made our way up to the Cabin in the Uinta's. We had a good weekend even though we spent a lot of time doing some work. We cut down a few trees that needed to be cut down, brought the snowmobile trailer from the parking lot back up to the property. We also worked on the basement doing a bit more with the drywall. All this takes a lot more time when it is just Larry and me doing the work. We're not getting younger and I for sure do not have a lot of strength, so it takes a little more time to accomplish the tasks. We were also able to get a few heating vents put into the basement, so this winter it won't be quite as cold down there in the basement. Sunday we went to church and after took a little ride over to the other cabin where Devin and Charity were staying. We had hoped to find them there and maybe plan a little ride for sometime maybe Monday morning. However, they were not there so we never made a connection with them which I thought was too bad. We did take a little ride on Monday and did a bit more work, so it was kind of a working weekend. Finally, we decided to head home even though we still hadn't finished all that needed to be done.
Since Hwy. 150 or Mirror Lake Hwy. had been closed because of snow late into June, we thought it would be fun to go home over the top over Bald Mountain Pass. (about 10,000 feet) We had no snow at the cabin, but the days were very pleasant, never getting over about 80 degrees. As we made our way up the highway, at first everything seemed very green and beautiful. Several little waterfalls were cascading down the hill sides from the higher level snow pack melting. When we got to about 9,000 feet all that began to change. The snow all of the sudden took us back to winter. If you didn't know better you would have never thought it was the first of July. As we reached the road to take you down to Mirror Lake there was a big pile of snow in front of it and there was still ice floating on top of the lake.



I had to get out and take some pictures when we neared the top as well as take a few more driving along in the car. When I got out, in my capris and flip flops, it was about 45 degrees outside. As we headed down the other side of the summit I asked Larry to stop at the Upper Provo River Falls.

What a massive amount of water was coming over the top. I'm sure by now since it is the end of July a lot of that has now melted, but we were just up there a week ago again, but we didn't come back home that way, however there is still quite a bit of snow in they higher elevations still.
I'm betting that the snow up there will not entirely melt before the snow begins to fly again.