R & R

I can't believe it's almost time to go home. We have just loved it here. Hands down, this is the most beautiful place I have been too. The beaches are unbeatable. So many.....and a lot of variety of beaches. We went whale watching today and went around the west and south part of the island taking 'family' pictures. We took about 400 pictures of our family and I think....just maybe.....we found one. It was a test of patience, and bribing the kids with toys. It paid off though. Anyway with the whale watching, this time it was fun. We say about 8 whales, with many blows, one tail dive and one breach. Unfortunately I was the only one in our family to see the breach and I was not ready to take pictures. It was on the way back to the harbor. I don't know why but I have taken an interest to these whales. As you can probably tell by my last post. They are so amazing. Anyway I will post pictures when we get to Betsy's house. Right now I haven't downloaded anything. Have fun and take care!

A Whale of a Time!

We got up early this morning and took a boat out onto the ocean to go whale watching. Needless to say I learned a lot of interesting facts that just amazed Jake and I. I thought I would share them.

I'll start to say that the humpback whales live up in Alaska to eat. That is their eating grounds. In the winter they swim down to Hawaii to birth and breed. It's at least a month's swim. Anyway here comes the facts. A female whale weighs about 90,000 - 100,000 pounds. When the whales come down to Hawaii they don't or hardly eat for four months. There is nothing for them in their 'food chain'. Their tongue is 2000 pounds. They have 3000 pound babies. After the baby whale is born and it nurses off the mother, it gets 40 pounds of milk that is the consistancy of cottage cheese (everytime). A baby gains 5 - 7 pounds per hour. By the time that the female makes it back to Alaska roughly 4 - 5 months later, she will have lost 30,000 pounds! They say that the bond between mother and calf is one of the strongest in nature.

Anyway we saw one whale. It wasn't a good day, although he did give us a free pass and told us when a good time to come back. We will go back later this week. This morning we were the only ones on the boat (really early). Infact I better tell the story before Jake beats me to it. This morning when I left I put on my sandals and headed out. We drove 40 minutes and started walking to the port. We had walked about 1 1/2 blocks when Jake turned around and asked what is taking you so long? Then he noticed I had two different shoes on. Not anything close alike. One was a high heeled white flowered sandal and the other a brown flat sandal. I was tired and had 4 hours of sleep and gotton up at 5am. I didn't even notice. McKay looked at me and said, "Mom, aren't you smart enough to wear the same shoes?" Aaaah! I went into a small store and bought a pair of sandals immediately! I felt like an idiot, and I can't even say I am a blonde! (just kidding).

Aloha!

We made it to Maui yesterday after a VERY LONG plane ride. We left Salt Lake at 7:30, flew to Texas, and then to Hawaii. Just from Texas to Hawaii was 8 hours. Needless to say we survived. We are now relaxing and getting ready to go to the beach for the first of MANY trips.

All the rumors are true. Hawaii is gorgeous. That is just from what we have seen from the air and the ride to our hotel. I am also impressed with where we are staying. They have A/C in every room. All the accomedies such as DVD, dishwasher, washer and dryer, high speed internet, a nice pool and all that stuff.

Needless to say the time zone has thrown me off. My kids survived it just fine. We are three hours behind Idaho. Kirsten went to bed yesterday at 8 pm and didn't wake up today until 9 am. WOW. I am not used to it yet. That and McKay's school calls everyday to tell me she's is absent no matter how many times I tell the secretary we won't be back 'til after Christmas.

Finally, we will post pics as we go along on our vacation. I am looking forward to eating fresh pineapple as I have heard it is delicious! We are also looking forward to seeing Betsy in a week! Enjoy your holidays!

Rockin' around the Christmas tree

.......This could be true with Cruz around. Anyway we are in the Christmas mood. We had between 6-8 inches of snow until last night when it rained. Now we have ice. Anyway we decided to put our tree up, although we will only be home to enjoy it for a week. We have a small tradition with our tree. If you notice we don't have a lot of decorations yet. Every year we take a family picture and put it in a frame ornament. Also then we put a decoration on the tree that symbolizes something unique or special that happened that year. For example our first year we have a family picture and then an ornament of the Salt Lake Temple because of our marriage and sealing to McKay. The second year a baby carriage because Kirsten was born, third an ornament of Idaho due to a moving. Anyway you get the idea. This year we will take a picture in Hawaii and an ornament of some sort to do with Hawaii. Anyway we are all excited and full of Christmas cheer. Merry Christmas to everyone and we love and miss you all.

The kids infront of the Christmas tree. 

Our Christmas tree. 

Cruz playing with hats. 

Cruz 'undecorating' the Christmas tree. 

McKay decorating the Christmas tree. 

Kirsten decorating the Christmas tree. 

It's official!

It's official! After 2 days of testing and meeting with practically everybody on the school board (such as physicologist, counselors, teachers, principal, gifted & talented teachers, etc) McKay is going to second grade! Their was no doubt that she should stay in first. We are really proud of her and she is so smart! She will start after the Christmas break. She is very excited as well! Yeah McKay!