Lighthouse Hike (Day 7)

On our last day in Hawaii, we decided that we had had enough laying around and soaking up sun. We got our tennis shoes and donned the backpack and took up a nearby hike that overlooked an old lighthouse on the shore.

On the way up, we had to make sure to grab a geo-cache so that we could count Hawaii as one of the states in which we have found the hidden treasures. There were a number of them along this hike, but we only took the time to find a few of them. Earlier in the week, I climbed out on a rocky ridge above a wild shore and got yelled at by Amber as I retreived the cache. I figured that we should probably do a more calm geo-cache so that the memory would be a nice one rather than a more violent one ;-), so we grabbed these together on the hike.

Once we got to the top, Amber was a bit weary about the height of it all.  We decided to snap some pictures of the two of us on the summit. We were able to see a lot of different sites from the island from this vantage point. It was a beautiful perspective and were glad that we did the hike.

After the hike, we started to head back to our apartment but decided to stop off at a beach that is informally known as "from here to eternity beach".  The beach actually has an official name, however, many of the locals call it this as a famous movie scene was filmed on this beach for the movie, "From Here to Eternity".  The mid-20th century movie involved a steamy love scene of the stars rolling around and kissing on a small sandy shore of wild beach where the surf pounds the nearby rocks with its fury.

Amber and I had the beach to ourselves. So we took about 20 to 30 minutes setting the camera on auto shoot mode and doing some fun "From Here to Eternity" poses at the beach. I guess we were not the only ones having a good time, as after a while we looked up on the rocky cliff above us and found several people at the Lookout watching us set our camera and run into position to create comically steamy shots of two lovers on a wild shore.

Sunrise, Sunset (Day 5)

We wanted to make sure that while we were in Hawaii we would catch at least one sunrise and one sunset. On one of our days, we got both ends of the spectrum.

During our stay on Oahu we rented a small apartment in a small town called Kailua. He was a quiet town that had a beautiful long sandy beach that was not overcrowded. In the morning, we got up and rode bicycles provided by the apartment to the beach. There we walked along the shore talking and waiting for the sun to rise above the ocean horizon.

It was beautiful to see the sunrise above the water and to have the two of us on the beach with few other people.

We were the only ones on the beach, however, as it had been a windy morning several man-of-war jelly-type fish had washed up on the beach. Unknowingly, as we walked with her feet in the water one of them was washed across the top of Amber's feet. He gave her a good sting and left some welts on the top of her foot. Luckily it subsided after 10 or 15 minutes. However, we decided we would walk higher on the beach for the rest of the morning.

Later that day, we were on the North Shore of Oahu.  As the day drew to a close, we parked at Sunset Beach to watch the sunset. It had been difficult throughout the week to find a good sunset because at night we had several clouds come in and it would cover the sun. This was probably the best sunset we had on the beach. We wanted to make sure that we had a picture of the two of us at Sunset on Sunset Beach. We grabbed a passerby and asked them to take her picture in the waning sunlight.

Sea Turtle Visit - (Day 5)

Before we had left for Hawaii John asked us to take a picture of a sea turtle if we encountered one while we were there. Our fifth day in Hawaii we decided it was time to search out the elusive sea turtle. We got out our tour book and found some of the best beaches for sea turtles. We hit this beach on the North Shore and we were lucky enough to have a visit by an old sea turtle within 15 minutes of our stopping the beach.

It was fun to see this turtle swam up to shore and then climb up on the beach and just rest in the sun. There were some biologists are on the beach the rope had often talked a little bit about this particular sea turtle as well as the sea turtles in general. It was fun to learn a bit about them.

Snorkeling in Oahu (Day 2)

Our second real day in Oahu and make sure that we got some snorkeling in. The apartment we stayed at had snorkeling gear there that we could use. We threw it into the convertible and headed off to the nearby Hanauma Bay that is a nature reserve dedicated for snorkeling enthusiasts. It is a nice place to snorkel. There are tons of reef and fish. The only downside to this day was the number of people that were there. The good thing about snorkeling, however, is when you're inside the water everything is peaceful and quiet. It is amazing how the fish are so used to people swimming by them. We will swim right next to you at often follow you as you go along looking for the different varieties of life under the water.

This was our first time snorkeling in many years. We are both a little nervous so we thought it would be fun to hold hands under the water. If one of us started to swallow water or otherwise need to resurface we could squeeze each other's hand and pop up out of the water. This worked for a little while, however, as we got our bearings and felt comfortable with the masks were able to do this without keeping so close to each other.

One downside to snorkeling trip is that I lost my wedding band. I wore in the water because I have never had it slip off of my finger in the almost 15 years we've been married. The only thing that I can figure, is that while Amber and I were holding hands under the water swimming that maybe one of us yanked our hands free in order to maneuver and it must've pulled the ring off. I was quite bummed about losing my wedding band.

Snorkeling ended up being one of our favorite activities while we were on the island.

Lost

At the beginning of the year, Amber let me talk her into getting started with the TV series, "Lost".  We have really gotten into it and have enjoyed the series. For those of you familiar with the TV series, it is about a group of people that are involved in a plane wreck in crash on a deserted island. Some people thought it was a little funny when they saw us watching movies on the airplane about people who crashed while in flight. But it sure helped pass the six-hour flight between LA and Oahu.

We had read that the series was filmed on Oahu and we wanted to find at least one of the sites were some of the major scenes were filmed. We did a little research and found that the beach where most scenes take place on the TV series were filmed on a secluded beach on the North Shore of the island. In order to get to the speech, we had to park a ways down at a public park and walk along a rocky beach line to get to the popular scene.

On our way Amber and I were talking and I was ahead and she was behind me. While we were chatting, Amber screamed all of a sudden. I stopped dead in my tracks wondering what the world went wrong. She then indicated to me that within a few feet before I was walking there was a large seal resting in the sand. We had originally mistaken it for a piece of large driftwood, and I probably would've walked right up to it or even stepped on it. I was glad the Amber realized what was before we found out what it feels like to run away from an angry seal but was woken up from its nap.

We found the beach and took some pictures of it and the surrounding area. We had fun messing with the time delay function on our camera and we took some shots of the two of us.

As we started walking back to our car, Amber asked me to stop for a moment. She said that she had purchased a gift for me that she wanted to give to me on our trip to Hawaii. She had purchased it a few months ago and was waiting to give it to me while we were on the island. I open the small block house that she put into my hand and found a brand-new wedding band. She has wanted to give me a new wedding band for quite some time. 

I had lost my wedding ring a couple of days earlier when we had been snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. She thought that was quite ironic that I would lose our wedding band on the same trip that she had planned to give me a new one.  For added emphasis, or irony, she waited until we are on the beach where they filmed "lost" to give me my new wedding band to replace my lost one.

Perl Harbor

One of the things that Amber and I wanted to do while we were in Hawaii was to visit the Pearl Harbor Memorial. We've talked to several people that have done that before and they mentioned that the worst part about it was getting there early and standing in lines in order to get tickets that were at assigned for a certain time later that day. It really tied you up to be in that part of Hawaii for most of the day.

On the Saturday that we were there, we were nearby Pearl Harbor and so we decided to take a gamble. It was in the later part of the afternoon so we had no idea what to expect as far as crowds. When we went to the desk they told us that there were no more tickets for the day and that this was the last session that they were allowing through in the Memorial. They suggested that we come early the next day or go online and order tickets a couple days in advance.

We were turning around to leave when Amber suggested that we just try to make our way in with the last group regardless to see if they would let us get in. The last group had just gotten into the auditorium so we had to run to get over there. When we got there we asked the park rangers if there were any extra spaces and they said that there was. So we were able to hop right in without getting any tickets or without having to wait in line to do so.

They showed a good film about the events surrounding Pearl Harbor in the attack. And then they put you on a boat and ferry you off to the Memorial that they have erected above the sunken ship, the USS Arizona.

It was a good thing to do, and we were glad that we are able to get it for that day. We were especially glad that they were able to fit us in at the last moment.

Being a Big Helper can really Suck!

Amber had a neighbor coming over to our house today to work with her on some wood working.  The neighbor, a friend of ours, had just bought some tools and was wanting to learn how to use them.  We had the same tools, so she asked Amber if she could come over and help her with a project so that our friend could learn how to use the same tools.

In preparation for the visit, Amber was tidying up the garage so that they could have plenty of room to work.  Jace wanted to help, so he got out the ear muffs and the shop vac and went right to work.  It was funny...he took his job very seriously and did a tremendous job!

Family Home Shooting

John and I had a scout campout over Friday and Saturday. The scout master is a good friend of mine. We got to talking and decided it would be fun to have their family over for FHE on Monday night. Jared said he could bring some clay pigeons and his thrower. He only had a 12 gauge shotgun, so it was my repsonsibility to find a good shotgun for the kids.

On Saturday, Amber and I shopped for guns and found a 500 Bantam Mossberg 20 gauge shotgun that was cut for youth. It is a fun little gun.

On Monday night, their family showed up. We built a fire by the barn and roasted hotdogs and smores. We set up the thrower and shot skeet for a good portion of the time. Aylee and John really enjoyed shooting the gun.

We also had Aylee's bow and arrow in use in another section of the field for the kids. John let us borrow his BB gun and we set up targets for the smallest kids and helped them shoot as well.

We had just a little rain and wind just as we got started, but it cleared off nicely and we all had a great time.

Polynesian Cultural Center

On the same day as our trip to the temple, Amber and I spent the second part of that day at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

It was really an amazing place. We went to just about every show provided by the center. They had a number of island systems represented at the center and each one had shows and presentations as well as hands on workshops. We only were able to do a few workshops, but spent most of our time viewing the different cultural shows.

We ended the evening first with a Lu'au dinner at the center and then a big finale type presentation. At the dinner we sat next to a small family from Wisconsin. We found out they were LDS just near the end of our time together. We mentioned to them that we were planning on going to Nauvoo in this fall with the kids. They had friends that own a house in Nauvoo. For most of the year it is empty and they rent it out for free with a request that you donate a specific amount of money to Fast Offerings. Pretty interesting concept. We'll have to check it out if our Nauvoo plans involve an overnight stay.

Hukilau Cafe

Our first lunch in Hawaii was held at a place we found quite by accident.  After our temple session in La'ie, we opened up the urbanspoon app on the iphone and chose an authentic Hawaiian place called the Hukilau Cafe.  It was funny, this really was like a hole in the ground, but you could truly say it was authentic.  We ordered the "Loco Moco" meal and shared it between the two of us.  We discovered that we really probably didn't care much for authentic Hawaiian :)  

The Loco Moco is a dish of white rice with a hamburger patty and an egg on top and then smothered with brown gravy.  It wasn't terrible, but was just bland and a little greasy.

We saw a poster of the movie, "Fifty first dates".  We could tell there was some significance there.  We looked it up and found out that the Hukilau Cafe was featured in the movie, however, it was only featured in name, not actual location.  They purchased rights to use the name in their movie, but chose to have a fake set of a more glamorous restaurant than the corner, five-tabled shack of its namesake.

La'ie Temple Visit

On Thursday morning, our first day in Hawaii, Amber and I decided to get up early in the morning and head to the La'ie Temple to do a session. We wanted to hit an early session which wouldn't be a problem since our internal clocks were still set to Mountain time. So, getting up at 6:00 in Oahu, is like getting up at 10am in Idaho.

We traveled the hour drive up the east coast of Oahu to get to the temple. It was fun to do so with our convertible's top down! It was a beautiful drive.

We hit the 8am session, and knowing the Polynesian Cultural Center wouldn't be open for another 90 minutes when the session was over, we did a sealing session as well. We were the only couple on the sealing session. It was just us and the sealer and witnesses. It was cozy and nice. The Hawaii temple has small comfortable rooms that you moved to throughout the session similar to the Idaho Falls temple. It was a great experience and a wonderful way to kick off the week together.

Race Day

A few weeks ago, Amber found that there was going to be a race in Kailua where we are staying here in hawaii. She signed up for the race to say she went to hawaii to run a race :).

When we picked up her packet we saw that she was runner number one! She must have been the first person to register for the race.

I'm sitting on a park bench blogging about our trip as she runs the race. I'm looking forward to her strong hawaiian finish!

Riding in style (Day 1)

When we were planning our trip to hawaii a couple of months ago, amber convinced me to spend an extra ten dollars per day to upgrade our rental car to a convertible to give us more viewing angles of Hawaii as we drive through the island. I am not dissappointed!

Our rental car actually ended up being a brand new chrysler 200 convertible. It still had the protective stickers on the steering wheel and everything.

We have been having a lot of fun getting to our destinations in this sweet ride. There is nothing like driving a tropical island with the top down.

Oahu (Day 0)

Amber and I flew into Oahu, Hawaii today about 6pm Hawaii time (about 10pm MDT) By the time we got the rental car figured out and our bed and breakfast found, it was 8pm.  We went out to dinner and are heading to bed...hoping to get over the four hour time difference so that we can fit in with the locals!

Happy Easter 2012

Amber and I have always had our most commercial part of the Easter Holiday on Saturday since the activities and traditions fit better on a Saturday.  This meant that yesterday was a busy day!

When the kids woke up they went to find the baskets that were filled by the Easter Bunny.  They each received candy, chocolates, and sun glasses.  The kids were pretty excited about that.

We then got dressed and left the house to go out to our annual Ward Easter Breakfast and egg hunt at the church pavilion.  No worries that it was only 32 degrees at the time...the old timers said we would be fine eating our pancakes outside in freezing temperatures, and they were right, we survived :)  We had a great time seeing so many ward members.  Adee and Adam arrived at the church just in time for the easter egg hunt.  All of the kids had fun running around looking for the hundreds of eggs scattered out on the church lawn.

Later that day we held an easter party of our own.  We had Verne and Ann, Adee and Adam (and their family), and our friends the Rickabaughs.  

We started our party around 2pm.  We kicked it off with two different easter egg hunts.  The first was for the little kids down in our "orchard" lawn.  The older kids were responsible for hiding the eggs down there.  It was fun watching the youngest kids get such a kick out of hunting for the eggs.

Each egg had some pieces of candy in them.  After the younger kids hunted, the older kids had to hunt for the eggs hidden by the adults.  The Rickabaughs brought a silver egg with two dollars in it and a golden egg with five dollars in it.  The kids that found those eggs got to keep the money.  Man they were all motivated.  The oldest Rickabaugh girl found the silver egg, and Aylee found the gold egg.  The silver and gold egg ended up being the two last eggs found...thanks to the wicked hiding ability of Adam Christensen.

After the older kid egg hunt, we did the second annual adult/teen treasure hunt.  I had some booklets prepared with puzzles and codes.  People were running around with GPS units, booklets, and pencils searching for clues that led to the "treasure chest".  The teenagers (Aylee, John, and Emily Rickabaugh) were the first team to find the treasure.  They took a bold gamble and skipped a couple of puzzles to guess the final location of the treasure and it paid off!

We then enjoyed a little BBQ of hamburgers and hotdogs out on the deck.  After that, we had our pinata activity.  Kids of all ages had fun taking a whack at the easter bunny pinata.

Ann and Verne were the final batters and they scattered the sweet treasures across the grass amid kids on all fours rushing to get as at much of the sweet stuff as they could get.  After the candy was all claimed, the teens took turns shooting arrows at the remaining face of the pinata as it hung on the swingset.

After the neighbors left, Verne and Ann presented easter presents to all of the grandkids.  John received the most disturbing gift of all....a portable lighter.  Hmm...there goes the barn :-).  The kids really enjoyed the thoughtful little gifts at the end of the day.

It was a fun, and tiring day.  We were grateful to be able to share the day with part of the Reed Clan.  

Easter Egg Time

This afternoon when the kids got home from school Amber and Ann had everything prepared for easter egg dyeing. Ann sat with the younger kids and helped them decorate their eggs while the older ones worked on their own.  Some of the colors were pretty rich and amazing.  

Tomorrow (Saturday) we will do the hunt for the kids and most of all other easter festivities.  

Should I be Worried?

I am in the office right now working diligently on a presentation that I will be giving in the near future. I paused a minute to relax and realized that I can hear Jace running around the upstairs and playfully shooting, "You wanna piece of me? You wanna piece of me?"

Then I hear punching and jabbing sound effects before the feet are off again running to the next location.

I guess we'll have to pull Jace off of all of the Rambo-type movies and put him on some "Barbie Princess and the Star Fairy" ones instead.

Singing in the Bus

The other day Amber was telling me about John and Aliece and their habits of singing on the bus ride home from school every day. Amber met a woman in our neighborhood the other day. The woman had kids that are both John's age and Aliece's age. the boy was in the room first and Amber was asking him if he know John Andersen. The kid said, "Oh yeah, that is the boy that likes to sing on the bus. Man he sings loud too."

When his younger sibling walked into the room, Amber asked them if they knew Aliece. The younger sibling said nearly the same words, "oh, yes, she is the one that sings on the bus all of the time, and she sings loud too."

We have talked to the kids about it. John says that he and his friend are just doing missionary work by singing the hymns for everyone else to hear on the bus -- No convert baptisms yet though.

Aliece brags that she can sing loud enough to get the bus driver's attention (and she interprets that as a good thing, hmmmm).

Anyway, it reminded me of Dad always telling stories of when he would drive bus in his early married years. He would take the high school students on trips and he would sing the whole way to their destination.

There must definitely be a certain gene that is getting passed on here!

Look out Apple, here comes the P-Pad

Often when I am working from home and Amber has to run somewhere in the mornings without the kids, I'll just take out my iPad and hang it on one of the dresser drawers in Jace and Avary's room. They will watch a cartoon or something short while Amber is gone and I am in the office which is just the next room over.

Avary loves the to be able to use the iPad, but she has it in her head that the magical electronic device is a P-Pad instead of an iPad. It has always been so cute. Today however, Jace and Avary got into an argument because Jace was trying to tell her that it was an iPad. I think Avary believed Jace was saying it was his device (get it? I Pad). She would correct him and say, "no it is dad's p-pad".

I had to quickly get them distracted by a Movie so that they wouldn't get too mad at each other over the pronunciation of the device.

Given the number of iPads used in the bathroom, however, the name P-Pad might not be so far off.

Concert Take 2: Aliece

This evening we had another concert to attend at the Shelley High School.  This time it was the 4th grade concert.  Aliece's grade did a medley of classic Rock and Roll with Country music favorites in between.  They had the whole crowd clapping their hands and stomping their feet.  Although no square dances broke out on the gym floor during the concert, one of the teacher musicians did play the fiddle behind her back to the tune of "Play me some mountain music".

Aliece did a superb job with the various songs.  She had a smile on her face the whole time and looked like she was enjoying herself.

It was fun to have her grandma and grandpa Reed there as their visit coincided with the event.

Aylee's first track meet

Aylee had her first track meet today. It was a windy afternoon which made the meet a bit more challenging, but it wasn't anything we couldn't handle. Lucky for the us the temperature was warmer so the wind wasn't as biting as it could have been.

Aylee competed in the Shot Put, the Discus, the 100m dash, and the 200m dash. She did awesome at all of her events.

We didn't really get any pictures, but we do have a youtube video link of her throwing the shot:

http://youtu.be/L74YCFK0wa8

Alayna's Choir Concert

It was a busy night trying to coordinate attending Aylee's first track meet today with a back-to-back performance from Alayna's school concert.

Alayna's grade performed for about 30 minutes tonight on a number of songs that represented holidays throughout the year.

Alayna looked adorable in her colorful skirt and blue shirt with matching flower head band.  It was fun to see Alayna really getting into the music.  Her grade did an awesome job at performing.  

Alayna and Dad's Dictums

Over the past couple of months I have been putting a business card sized thought in the kids' lunches before they leave for school.  I typically go into the fridge in the morning and put the thoughts in all of the lunches before the kids take them to school.  

Lately, Alayna has taken on the challenge to take her lunch out of the refrigerator and put it in her bag in the morning before I do my refrigerator rounds.  She likes to make me go through her school bag to get the thought into her lunch.

This morning I almost beat her.  I was bringing a pile of the thoughts to the fridge when she swept in front of me and snuck her lunch out to put in her bag. 

The little stinker is way too quick for me!

Alayna - Easter and Scriptures

Alayna taught our FHE lesson on Monday. For her lesson, she prepared 12 plastic easter eggs. She put a picture or object in each egg along with a scripture. We have been opening two eggs each day this week for our scripture study. We have been talking about those Easter-based scriptures. It has been a good little exercise. Alayna loves teaching and does a very good with it.

She is very excited to have her Grandma Reed coming tomorrow. Grandma and Grandpa Reed will be staying with us through Sunday. Alayna has been reading the Book of Mormon on her own as she has been preparing to be baptized in September. Grandma Reed has challenged her to try to get done with the Book of Mormon before Grandma does. This has given Alayna a lot of motivation. She is really excited to see where Grandma Reed is currently at in the Book of Mormon when she gets here.

Heirlooms and Age

Well, another "heirloom" has been passed on today.

Before I go into it, I recall a couple other recent heirlooms that have gone from me to one of my kids. Jace has just finished wearing his cowboy shirt that I used to wear when I was his age. He has loved that shirt and has worn it nearly to shreds. Amber has had to perform a number of minor surgeries on it to keep it in tact.

Both Aylee and John have finished up the Harry Potter series and Aliece is now near the end as well. I remember writing a note to John in the cover of one of the Harry Potter books that came out the day (or day before) he was born. I read a lot of that book while Amber was in the hospital with him. With Aliece working on finishing up the series, half of my kids will have passed each book along.

This brings me to the heirloom used today. Aylee approached me to ask if I had a good graphing calculator that she could use at school. I have been saving my old blue TI-81 graphic calculator since high school for the express purpose of giving it to my kids to use through their high school years. This model was one of the first graphing calculators on the market at the time. It was a big deal when our teach required us to have a graphic calculator. I put that calculator to good use in highschool. It was programmable, and I had programmed formula solves and even games on it. It was a lot of fun for its time.

I had kept the calculator knowing that it would be handy some day. I had to search through all of our boxes both in the shop and downstairs. I knew I had packed it when we moved. After a long search I was happy to find it and even happier to see that it still worked. Aylee spent the evening finishing up her math with the calculator.

It is always touching to pass something on to your kids that you used to use years earlier. I guess it is just a sign of age, but it is fun nonetheless.

Bush-Be-Gone

We have been stewing over what to do with our enormous evergreen bushes that have lined our driveway and haunted our house.  Over the past year we have used bumpers, chains, chainsaws, and pick axes to remove bushes here and there.  However, I was beginning to see those bushes as an endless summer project at the rate we were going. 

We decided to hire the removal out.  We got a few bids, and one guy came in much lower than the rest so we hired him.  He loaded his dump truck up with about five loads of bushes over yesterday afternoon and this morning.

It is a lot of fun now to look from our house and be able to see our lower lawn and trees.  We're really excited to have the bushes gone, but now we have to figure out what to replace them with!

Our first furry pet

On our way home from Arbon tonight, we stopped by a lady's house outside of Pocatello and picked up our long awaited bunny rabbit.  The kids chose a velvety black standard rex rabbit.  As we drove home, the kids worked on a name for the little female.  They chose the name of "Dot" since she appeared to be a black dot on a canvas of white bunnies that surrounded her when we picked her out.

When we got home, we set up her water bottle and feed tray in her new hutch.  We placed the hutch in one of our stalls in the barn to keep her out of the weather.

The kids are giddy to finally have a pet that they can actually hold and pet!

Its Wabbit Time

After Amber's race, she and I ran to home depot today and purchased some wood for a rabbit hutch. We have been contemplating getting a rabbit for some time.  Last year, in fact, we took Joe's old rabbit cage from Arbon and brought it to our place.  However, so much of the wood was rotten that after we looked at it for a bit, we decided it would be better if we built our own.

Amber and I took some pencil to paper and came up with a simple plan for the hutch.  We then spent three or four hours cutting the wood from Amber's new table saw to get more familiar with it

We were able to get it all set up and it is ready for a rabbit.  We just have to but some food, get a water bottle, and then pick up the rabbit.  The kids are really excited with the prospect of being rabbit owners.

To the finish line

This morning, Amber and I headed off to a park in Idaho Falls. Amber had signed up for a 10k (6.2mile) race. I was the camera man and cheerleader, and Amber was the runner. She did an awesome job. This was her first 10k race ever. She ran it in 57min13sec. This equates to about one mile every 9 minutes and 13 seconds, which was a personal best for her.

She was surprised how fast her time was. She did a great job and hardly looked winded when she crossed that finish line. After she was done I put on her headphones to see what she had listened to for part of the race...wouldn't you know it...the power driver for Amber was the October General Conference. To each their own when it comes to running ambiance, ha ha.

Dad's Truck Stop

I had to make a "Spitz" run today during work. I haven't had sunflower seeds for quite some time, but today I had a bunch of boring documents to create and I just was having a hard time motivating myself to get them done.

I went down stairs and said that I was going for some seeds. Jace wanted to come along so I took him to Dad's Truck Stop at the freeway exit near our house.

I guess the name of the truck stop confuses Jace because he keeps calling it "John's Truck Stop". I guess I have my very own truck stop now.

The end of an era

A couple of years ago, Jace was big into appending "toosie" to the end of certain names...I think it came from "Tootsie Rolls", but I am not sure. He would call me "Daddy Toosie" He liked to be called "Cowboy Toosie" as well. It later evolved into his nick name being "Jacer Toosie". He has let me call him that for quite some time. Today however, was the end of the "Toosie" title. He asked me not to call him "Jacer Toosie" any more.

I asked him what he would like me to call him. He responded that I could just call him "Jace". He paused for few seconds and then followed up with, "Or you can call me Jedi Jace".

I guess the whole star wars thing is now replacing my little toosie man. Oh well, it was cute while it lasted. Now I have to address Jedi Jace with the respect his new title demands.

Deep Cuts

I don't think our apple trees have been pruned in years.  In addition to the mounting needs for pruning, we have also had a large number of limbs and branches come down over the fall and winter.  We decided to buy a little chainsaw since we were always borrowing Dad's.  We got a 14 inch Husquavarna chainsaw at lowes and put it to work on Saturday.

Janae made the mistake of hanging out with us on Saturday, so she got put to work as well.  We chopped up fallen branches and limbs.  I started cutting out more evergreen bushes.  And we got one of our two apple trees pruned.  

It was fun to have all of the kids out working with us.  It is so much fun to work together...and around here, there are plenty of opportunities for that!

Carnival Fun

Last night, Alayna and Aliece's schools hosted a carnival for the family.  It was geared mostly for kids under 10 years old.  Aliece is still sick, so unfortunately she had to stay home and miss the carnival.

I took Alayna, Jace, and Avary to the Shelley High School for the big event.  Of course the first thing the girls wanted to do was get their face painted, which was the longest and slowest line in the gym.  They sure enjoyed the butterfly and flower that they had painted on their cheeks.  

We stayed for about 30 minutes until all of our spending money was gone. The little ones had a great time, but we sure missed having Aliece there with us. :(

HapPi Day

While I was exercising this afternoon, Amber was busy in the kitchen making dinner.  At dinner time, the kids asked what it was that we were having and Amber said it was chicken pot pie.  There were some funny looking lines in the top crust of the pie.  Amber asked John what those lines were and he thought she was accusing him of messing with the pie crust.  He got all defensive until Aylee calmed him down and told him that Mom was not making an accusation, but rather asking a question.  All the sudden a light came on in his head and he said, 'Ah, yeah, it's a Pi!"  

I was thoroughly confused.  After dinner, Amber asked when I wanted to have dessert.  I asked her what was dessert and she said, well, guess.  I was clueless until she asked, "What day is it today".  I then realized that I was behind the times compared to Amber, Aylee, and John.  Today is 3/14 - otherwise known as "Pi Day" in honor of the mathematical term for 3.14....  So, since it is 3/14, that makes it Pi day.

It was then that I realized what Amber was trying to get John to understand during dinner.  The odd markings on top of the shepard's pie was the Pi symbol that Amber cut into the crust before baking it.  So, after having a "Pi" labeled shepard's pie for dinner, we had some apple pie for dessert.  Um...it was a great way to celebrate 3/14.

Happy Pi Day everyone!

A birthday buddy for Aliece

It is funny how many of our kids have birthday buddies. We were counting it up and a good number of them have someone who has a birthday in the family on the same day or right next to the same day.

On today, Aliece entered into the birthday buddy club with the birth of her newest cousin - Reed & Michelle's new boy, born this afternoon.

We're excited to meet this little guy. Aliece is excited to be able to share her birthday with one of her cousins.

Happy Birthday Aliece

It is funny how things go for Aliece.  9 years ago she celebrated her 1st birthday.  She was sick and her birthday was probably not the happiest for her.  Today, on her tenth birthday, she was sick again.  However, I think this birthday went much better than her first.

She has only really had a fever, which has effected her, but still enables her to be up and around as long as she has some tylenol or other medication down her.  Amber was dedicated to making this day nice for Aliece due to her sickness.  She got to stay home from school and sleep in.  We brought her coffee cake into her bedroom with the candles ablaze.  Aylee had made the coffee cake for Aliece the night before for a special breakfast.  The school kids sang happy birthday to Aliece and let her blow out the candles.  They then went downstairs and had some for breakfast while Aliece went back to sleep.  After the kids left on the bus, Amber went in and laid next to Aliece for an hour or two.  

Amber and Aliece spent the day doing things together.  They spent several hours on sewing projects.  Aliece stiched a CTR emblem. It was cool.

For lunch, the non-schoolers went to Subway with Aliece for hoagie sandwiches.

When the kids got home it was an afternoon of gifts, treats, and phone calls from friends and relatives. 

By evening, Aliece was worn out!

Happy birthday Aliece!

An Idaho Swimmer

We have been going swimming on Friday evenings lately as a family.  The Idaho Falls Aquatics Center offers family swimming at $9 for the family for two hours.  The kids have really been enjoying it.  We often go with our neighbors that are heavily into swimming.  Our neighbor will often take some of our kids to the swim lane and provide one on one swimming lessons.  It has been a great experience for our family.

Last Friday, I asked the kids to get into the car to go swimming.  I found Avary in her swimsuit and cowboy boots.  She was ready to go to the pool!  We had a good laugh about it before having her switch to sandals.

It's a barn!

Yesterday morning Amber took the girls into town to do some much needed grocery shopping. While they were away, the boys and I worked around the place. The weather was awesome, so we were in the spring cleaning mood. It wont be long before we will be getting calves back in our pastures. I taught John how to drive the four wheeler He drove around while we examined the fence situation in a neighbor's field that may let us pasture there for free. Looks like we would need a mile of electric fence to take advantage of that, so we'll have to decide whether it will be worth it.

We then worked on the barn. Until now, the barn has been a huge storage unit for all of our extra stuff that we didn't know what to do with. We gutted it and set up six stalls for baby calves. We are thinking of getting a small handful of newborn calves to bottle feed and raise up. However, they recommend having a pen for each calf to prevent the spread of disease. Our barn has tracks in the walls and posts that allow us to slide 2x8 boards in them to set up walls. We how have six pens ready to go.

John and Jace set up the swings and the trampoline as well. When the girls got home we had a picnic lunch and the kids played on the trampoline and swings. Oh, it really got us in the mood for Spring and Summer.

Dangerous Dancing

Yesterday I came downstairs and had lunch with Amber, Jace, and Avary.  As we were cleaning up, Avary was dancing in the middle of the kitchen floor.  I asked her if I could dance with her.  She obliged and we took a few turns around the hardwood floor.  

Jace saw all of the fun and he soon cut in and I was without my two year old partner.  I took it as my cue to head back upstairs to the office to work.  I just sat down at the computer when Amber called my cell phone and told me I needed to come downstairs right away.  I hurried down to find Amber washing Avary's head in the sink. Her ear was bleeding.  Once we got it cleaned up, we saw a big gash in her ear.

I guess Avary and Jace were dancing in circles and lost their balance together and Avary fell, catching her ear on a drawer handle on one of the cabinet drawers.

Amber took Avary to the doctor's office where they examined her and determined that the piercing went all the way through the top and side of her ear.  She had a couple of stitches inside the ear and about three behind the ear, with a remaining stitch somewhere on the side of the ear.

Avary was brave during the whole ordeal.  However, we had to pump her with ibuprofen throughout the night due to the pain that would wake her.  

She should get her stitches out by the weekend, and it will be several more years before we give her permission to pierce her ears again.

Two year old songs

Avary is walking around the house right now singing some of our favorite songs:

Pizza power! Keeps me safe from Fin (scripture power)

And....

Tinkerbell, tinkerbell, tinker all the way! (jingle bells)

Color Coordination

Amber texted this picture to me this morning from home.  Here we have the ultimate color coordination:  Pajamas, cups, plates, and utensils.  I sure miss being part of their morning routine while I am here in San Diego.  One more day!

Business Trip Boosters

I am in San Diego this week for a training event. When I arrived late last night to my hotel room and started to unpack my bags, I found an envelope in my shaving kit bag that told me to open and select one thought every day. It took all of my will power to wait until today to open the envelope and pick out my first quote.

From the looks of it, each kid chose a quote for me for each day. They called the cards, "Business Trip Boosters". They even had six little avatars on the card that must represent each one of them. After talking to Amber it sounds like Aylee drove the project, designed the cards, and worked with the kids to get these all together for my trip.

Over the past few months I have been giving the kids a card in their school lunch with a different thought each day. So, it was fun to have them turn around and send me thoughts for each day of the week that I would be away from home.

No Internet? No Problem!

Yesterday we had a big wind storm come through for most of the day.  It was really whipping outside.  It took down our neighbor's flagpole and started blowing our grill off of the deck before we moved it.

Due to the high winds, the base tower to our wireless internet was damaged.  From about 2pm we were without Internet access within the house.  That put a kink in things somewhat with work, but luckily I have a mini-internet within my computers in our house and I had all of the stuff I needed to continue working.  I just had to answer emails via my phone.

It is funny how much of our house is dependent on the Internet.  We get our TV that way, we listen to our music via the internet, etc.  There are so many distractions in our lives through the Internet that it was somewhat relaxing to have it gone.

While we were making dinner, I suggested that we spend the evening powering down the electricity in the house and sitting by the fire to read books.  The kids were really excited about that idea.  We popped some popcorn, brought up some candles and lanterns, and then powered off our circuit breaker.  It was interesting how quiet the house got immediately.  I guess we get used to all of the white noise and hums by all of our electrical appliances and gadgets.

We had a great time sitting in the candle lit darkness curled up near the fireplace reading our books.  It is good to have a modern day electricity/internet detox occasionally.

Undies Confusion Part II

I mentioned just last week how Avary has been confused with how to handle her underwear.  She has been putting both pull-ups and underwear in the garbage can.  Well, we have been working with her to understand the different.  However, today, when Amber pulled the laundry out of the washing machine she noticed a bunch of white, tissue like stuff all over the clothes.  She figured someone had a tissue in their pocket and proceeded to move the clothes to the dryer.    When  it came time for Aylee to unload the dryer and put all of the clothes in their various piles, she was surprised to find a nearly disintegrated pullup that had gone through the wash.  

I guess that Avary now just sticks undies and pullups directly into the front loading washing machine so that they will be reusable the next day.  

A Stretch of Fun

On the day that we were getting ready to go to Arbon we received just over an inch of snow here in Shelley. It was Sunday, and so we had church in the morning and we were supposed to go to Arbon right after. I looked at the weather forecast and Arbon was supposed to receive more snow than us. So, in faith, I packed up the kids' snow gear to take with us. Once we got to Arbon the kids were a little disappointed in the weather. There was very little snow I mostly bare ground. We had a great time and Arbon playing with cousins and visiting with grandparents. So the kids really didn't miss going outside and play in the snow. However, when we got home, the kids saw all of the snow and remember that they didn't get to play it yet. It was just getting dark but we hooked up an old stretcher that Dad and I bought at an auction and tied it to the hitch of the four wheeler. The kids had a great time sitting in our makeshift sled while we pulled them around the field in the back of the house. This was our first chance at using the stretcher that I bought. It works pretty well! We were able to fit every single one of our kids in the stretcher while I pulled them behind the four wheeler.

Getting it together

For Amber's birthday last Sunday, the kids and I gave her a new Table Saw.  She has been doing a lot more wood working that I had ever dreamed she would do in the past eighteen months.  I decided that we should graduate her to a dedicated, full blown table saw.

Aylee and I spend a couple of hours today in the garage next to a propane heater putting together the beast.  It was a lot of work, but luckily the instructions were very good.  In the end Amber was able to flip on the switch and hear the powerful hum of a blade ready to do some work. 

We just need to install the safety equipment and fine tune the controls and this puppy will be ready to roll.

The Dryer is acting Batty

The other day Amber had started a load of laundry in the dryer. After running a little while it started to make loud noises and it would shake abnormally. She had me come downstairs. She told me that the dryer sounded like it was broken. We were both pretty bummed about it because we had just had a fixed several months ago.

She turned on the dryer for me to see. Sure enough there were lots of odd sounds and occasional shakes from the appliance. This sounded just like a bearing or some other moving part was going bad.

I put my head inside the dryer to look around and to turn the unit. That's when I noticed something abnormal between the drum in the frame of the unit. It looked like a little piece of black plastic. I got a screwdriver and pried it out. It turns out that it was one of John's little Lego pieces -- -- a small toy bat. It was amazing to me that seeing the size of my thumbnail could cause a big dryer to behave so abnormally.

I'm sure there is an object lesson in here somewhere about little things wreaking havoc in our lives if they are left unchecked. However, I'll let you use your imagination rather than pontificate at this time.

Happy Valentines Day

Amber and I stopped trying to go out together on Valentine's day years ago. It was always very crowded at restaurants and other dating venues on Valentines day, so we just settled into having parties with the kids on the day of the lovers.

I gave flowers to Amber this morning. We had planned on not getting each other anything for valentines day, so she was saying that she felt bad that I gave her flowers. I told her that flowers don't count as a gift as they just die within a few days anyway. Amber decided to do the "Man" equivalent to flowers and so she baked me a special sugar cookie as you can see in the picture. I would take cookies over flowers any day!

The kids had a great time opening cards and eating treats from their grandparents, friends, and from each other.

The girls got together and made us a fancy dinner of delicious bread sticks and pizza. The boys bought the girls a game.

Everyone had a great time eating too much sugar and staying up way past their bedtime.

A car like Kitt

Tonight for a family home evening activity Jace chose to have our family
watched an episode of Knight Rider. While we were watching the show, one
of the kids teased Amber and said "Mom, do you love Kitt?" Amber
replied, "who wouldn't love a car like that?" John piped up within the
second and said, "well, not the Amish!"

Happy Birthday Amber

It is always a bit of a challenge to celebrate a birthday on a Sunday, especially if you are married to that person and you have to come up with Sabbath-appropriate ideas! :) Despite the fact that it was a busy Ward Conference today and that Amber pretty much ran the entire show at Primary, she still managed to have a good birthday.

Amber really didn't open too many gifts before church, so most of the festivities were after our block of meetings. We took it easy and opened the gifts. We then had a present finding activity that involved puzzles and the car GPS to find clues around the Woodville area. It was fun to do that as a family. Luckily all of the clues could be found while sitting comfortably in the car rather than braving the rain that was falling.

Once we got done with present we cooked a fun steak dinner that we all enjoyed. I like my steaks medium rare. I was teasing the kids near the end of the meal, I had a really juicy (aka: bloody) piece of meet left on my plate. So I said, "Hey kids, look!" and I put the meat in my mouth and let the red juices drizzle out my mouth and down my chin. They all moaned in disgust, but Jace looked like he was going to lose his dinner. He sure had a funny reaction to my immature display of grossness. He wouldn't get close to me for a while after that.

We topped dinner off with some Chocolate cheesecake that Amber and I made on Friday. It was definitely a rich treat.

Amber finished her evening off by visiting on skype and the phone with well wishers for her special day.

Undie Confusion

Avary has been confused lately between how to handle disposable pull ups versus underwear. Every day we find her last change of underwear tossed in the garbage rather than thrown in the laundry pile. We have to monitor out garbage can each night when she changes from undies to pull ups for the evening.

Breaking my Heart

The other day Jace and Avary were in their bedroom supposedly going to sleep. As I was walking up the stairs I heard Jace just sobbing. As I got closer to the door I could make out the words that he was saying underneath his tears.

He was saying, "dad! Avary is breaking my heart!"

I walked into the room wondering what in the world at Avary was doing to break the Jace's heart. As I entered the room I had a good chuckle when I saw that Avary had pulled a plastic heart decoration from off the wall on Jace's side of the room and in doing so the heart had started to tear in the middle.

I comforted Jace the best that I could and I fixed the heart decoration and reapplied it to the wall. The sobs soon subsided and all was well between brother and sister again.

Book Boxes

Earlier this week I went to through out a big box that was in the garage from our new sink. Amber suggested that we hang on to it for a week so that the kids could play with it.

Later that day she introduced the box to Jace and Avary. They spent a good portion of the day playing inside of their half of the box. They brought pillows and books and they almost looked cozy as they snuggled into their own box to read their board books.

I love how the simplest of things can be entertaining to little kids.

We've got it taken care of!

Amber and I were visiting tonight and she brought up something that happened the other day that sure describes how we are as a people today.

The other day, Amber was on the main floor painting the family room. The younger kids were in the basement watching a movie. Shortly after the movie had started, something went wrong with it. The kids came upstairs to complain to Amber and solicit her help.

Since the TV is hooked up to the computer, Amber thought it would be something that I should take a look at. She told the kids that she would call Dad and see if he could fix it for them. She called me on the phone and I quickly connected remotely from my office computer to the basement computer and fixed the problem.

Meanwhile, the kids made their way downstairs before Amber even got off the phone with me. After the kids got down there and saw the TV working again, they called up, "Never mind Mom, we've got it taken care of."

How often do we complain, or petition the Lord for help on an issue. Then when he solves it for us, we don't notice his hand in things and we go about our way, believing that we took care of it ourselves.

It's all in how you say it

Just before lunch time, Jace was talking to Amber. He wanted to know how much money he had in the bank. Amber helped him check it out and saw that he had several dollars to his name. He got excited and told her that next time they went to the store, he wanted to buy a "Light Saber". Amber wanted to teach him the concept of how much things cost vs. how much you have. She said, "Ok, let's look at some on the Internet and see if you have enough money."

They got online and started looking at a wide variety of the toy swords. Jace patiently watched Amber click through the pages and talk about the basic features and prices.

Finally, after a few minutes, Jace responded, "Mom, I really just want a light saber." Amber was confused as they had just spent time looking several models.

Then Jace said, "I just want to eat some." Then Amber remembered that she was talking to a four year old, so she asked him what it looks like. He explained that it was candy and looked like a circle. She then realized that he was saying that he wanted to buy some "life savers".

She chuckled and told him that the next time they were at the store, he could buy some.

Several hours later, I was in the kitchen with Amber and Jace started talking about money again and said, "Mom, I don't think I want life savers now, can I buy a light saber?"

Testimony Meeting Applause

I love how our kids have typically enjoyed bearing their testimonies in church. When we lived in Provo we spaced them out so that they could bear their testimonies once every other month or so, and we were careful when we let them go up. However, since we moved to Idaho, our ward here has often had large bouts of "dead air" so to speak with a void of testimonies being shared over the pulpit. Due to this fact, we have slackened on our child restraints for testimony meeting and we let the baptized kids go up whenever they want to share their testimony.

Recently, however, we have felt like it would be good to strategically wait unto giving our kids permission to bear their testimony so that the first five minutes of testimony meeting each month wouldn't begin with the Andersen crew taking over the microphone.

As soon as the meeting started we asked the kids not to go up quite yet. Then as the meeting progressed, I decided that if there were any long gaps in testimonies that the kids could go up and bear their testimony. So, I whispered to the kids, "wait for a pause before going up to bear your testimony."

John got a confused look on his face and responded, "Wait for APPLAUSE before going up?"

Groundhog Fest

After Aylee and John's swim meet today, Amber had planned that we
could go home, do some chores, and then have a Groundhog Fest in honor
of Thursday's Groundhog's Day.  It turned out to be a fun adventure
where nothing really went according to plan.

It all started when the swim meet took longer than usual.  It was 2:30
before we were actually ready to start, and by then we still hadn't
fed the kids lunch.

Our first event was going to be starting a fire in the fire pit I got
for Christmas.  We were going build the fire and then roast hot dogs
on them.  Well, since it was already 2:30 and kids were starving, we
decided to forego the fire and just grill the hotdogs.

After lunch, we had planned on the kids doing their chores while Amber
and I would get things ready for our next event.  However, I got a
call from a friend in India that was in Boise for the month.  I ended
up talking to him for a while which messed up everything.  Due to that
call, we didn't get our cupcakes with almond joy groundhogs mixed up
and baked.   It was 4:30 and we knew we didn't have time to bake.

Amber decided we should run to Daylight Doughnuts in Idaho Falls.  The
kids had coupons for a free doughnut.  We thought that would be a fun
substitute treat.  We piled everyone into the car and headed off to
IF.  We pulled up to a dark Daylight Donuts bakery.  Amber went up to
the door and found out that they close at Noon every day.

We chatted in the parking lot and decided that since the donut shop
was closed, we would just eat out for dinner.  We had a number of gift
certificates that Amber purchased a year ago.  We have been trying to
get to Smitty's Steak and Pancakes for ages, so we decided to head
there.  As we unloaded the kids and were heading into the restaurant,
Amber reviewed the gift certificates only to find out they are not
good on weekends.  We piled the kids into the car and when to the next
restaurant where we had a gift certificate.  We got there and were
relieved to see their neon Open sign on.  We pulled up to an empty
parking lot and laughed that we wouldn't have a long wait. As we tried
to enter the restaurant we found the doors to be locked.  They were
supposed to be open...but they were not.

Exhausted, we decided to just go to a nearby McDonalds.  We loaded the
kids back up and headed off to the golden arches. As we walked into Mc
D's, Jace said in a relieved tone, "Oh good, their doors are not
locked!"

We had a good time eating and letting the little kids play at the play
place.  While they played, Aylee, Amber, and I played scrabble against
each other on our electronic devices.

We were supposed to go home and shoot the BB gun at some fake
groundhogs, but we returned too late and the sun was already going
down.  We scratched that activity altogether.

Our final activity planned was to watch "Groundhog's Day" -- the movie
from the 90's.  However, given the time we got home, we decided that
Avary and Jace would be going to bed.  Amber put them to bed while I
started the movie with the older kids.

We all had a great time and it was a fun adventure.  It was nice of
Amber and decide to hold the festivities.  It was funny how nothing
really worked out as planned, but we still had a great time.

Happy belated Groundhog's Day everyone!

A visit from Adee & some Remodel

On Monday of this week Adee brought her kids over to our house and
stayed for the past three days while Adam has been on a business trip.

Of course the kids have loved having Adee's family over. They really
enjoy playing with each other. While the kids played, Amber and Adee
divided their time out between relaxation and watching chick flicks
along with doing some remodel work in our main family room.

We have had Nathan Blackburn (our handyman), over during the weekend to
prepare the room and add board and batten trim to the room. We also had
him do a Santa Fe style texture on the walls. Amber and Adee worked on
the paint job throughout this project.

I'll try to post some pictures once everything is done and the furniture
is back in.

John Receives his Tenderfoot

Today was our ward's court of honor. During the meeting, John was
presented with his Tenderfoot badge along with the "Artist" and
"Gardening" merit badge. He is making good progress and should be done
with is Second Class rank easily by the next court of honor.

Way to go John!

One Man's Skeletons...

Jace was getting ready for church yesterday. He had stripped himself
down to his birthday suit and was admiring his body before putting on
his church clothes. He was standing in front of the full length mirror
in our closet and was arching backwards and sucking in his gut. I was
trying to figure out what he was doing. He then got all excited and
pointed to his skin stretched rib cage and exclaimed to Amber and I,
"Hey look, my skeletons are showing!"