Thanksgiving

David looks happy. Mmm. Food.

Can you tell that Kami is 7 months along? Amazing, isn't it?These pictures are in random order.

Here is my kitchen assistant sparing me from the lovely job of peeling potatoes.

Thanks, Ken!Everyone looks so somber. I wonder what they were looking at.

As usual, I made too much food, but what's Thanksgiving without leftovers?

Nice smiles, Tiff and Kyle!

My second daughter.

We played games after dinner, but I didn't get a picture of that.

A dog-gone good deed.

On Friday Corinne and my mom and I were driving down the street when Corinne noticed a cute dog running around in a parking lot. The dog was tiny and looked like it was about to run out into traffic. (a very busy intersection) Corinne kept driving but I made her turn around and go back so we could find out if the dog was lost. When we returned we found that the dog was obviously lost. There were no people in the parking lot and it had a very panicked demeanor. It was shaking and very nervous and ran under a car. Corinne and I were down on our knees trying to get the dog to come to us, but it wouldn't. In fact every time I grabbed for it I was bitten. So after my bloody hands were proving ineffective, Corinne remembered that she had a little blanket in her car. That was just the ticket. I threw it over the dog and was then able to grab her. She immediately stopped growling and settled down all cozy into the blanket in my arms. We drove to my vet so they could scan her for a chip, but found none. They said I should take her to the animal shelter because that's where owners check first for a missing pet. She was a Yorkshire terrier and looked very much like the one pictured above. So we took her to the animal shelter. I felt terrible about that but they said they wouldn't put her down unless no one came for her and no one adopted her and I could keep checking back with them to see if her owners came for her. It was hard but I left her there knowing that she would have food and a safe place until someone came for her. They said since she was such an expensive dog I didn't have to worry. So I went home and did my visiting teaching. When I got home I was really anxious to hear if anyone had called about the dog so I checked my messages and the animal shelter had called to say that the dog's owners had come for her and they wanted the shelter to call me and thank me for saving their dog's life. I was so happy. It really made me feel good to know that I had made a difference in a little doggy's life and in the life of her owners. It was a good feeling.

The Princess Syndrome

I don't even know if there even is such thing as a Princess Syndrome, at least officially. But I think if you can say men not wanting to grow up have the Peter Pan Syndrome, then surely girls who buy into the whole princess and Prince thing should have their own syndrome. Anyway, I don't know why I'm writing about this, except that having Kimberley here just brought this to my attention, again. I've thought about it many times before. I'm not saying that I don't want her to wear princess costumes or watch Disney princess movies...we all did it and I frankly can't imagine my childhood without it. Nothing is more fun than to imagine yourself as a princess and being beautiful and having your prince come and carry you off on his white horse. I guess what I am challenging is whether or not it is very healthy emotionally. Many girls, myself included, may think they have a good grip on reality when they get married, but somewhere deep down they do expect their husband to behave like a prince in a story. (I must include this aside: Poor guys for having to live up to those expectations.) Women's lib has done a lot to help girls to feel that they need to stand on their own two feet, which in moderation is a very good thing. But, since girls see the Disney movies at a very young age, I think it is deep in their brains way before they understand about standing on their own two feet. I remember expecting Ken to be more romantic than he was, and being disappointed when he wasn't. ( Again, poor guy.) I know that this is a normal thing for young brides. Women are probably quite an enigma to men. On one hand, we want to be treated with respect and to be considered the equal of men in intelligence and ability. Then, on the other hand we want to be treated like we are special and we want to be given the kind of attention that will make us feel beautiful and feminine. I think many girls today are a bit like Alice of Wonderland fame exclaiming,"Who in the world am I?" Anyway, that's another subject. Back to the princess thing. I guess I am asking, how can we help our young girls to look forward to loving a man and still have realistic and healthy expectations? I know I love chick flicks, even though I know that real life isn't much like that. I guess I still like a good fairy tale. I mean, even the men who star in chick flicks don't act like that in real life. I guess I don't have an answer to my question. I just want Kimberley to grow up with joy and enthusiasm about her future but at the same time not be in for a huge disappointment when the love of her life turns out to just be a man and not a prince. Any comments??

Halloween, and other scarey stuff

Michelle and Blaine went on a cruise and left the kids here for nine days. Here are lots of pictures of our time with Kimberley, Asher and Oliver.

Most days were spent making toy messes.



ON the first weekend, the weather was pretty nice, so we were able to spend some time out in the yard. Nana had two nice pumpkins growing in her yard, so we picked them.

Playing in the leaves is the best part of fall.

A good run in the yard makes the rest of the day even better.

On Monday, Corinne helped me take the kids to a near-by pumpkin farm.

There were lots of cute animals to see.

The horsey tire swings were a hit.

The pumpkin farm was fun but it really wore me out. I could never have done it without Corinne.

AT home on another day, Grandad took them outside to dig in the dirt.

But, most of our time was spent inside playing with the toys.

Uncle Grant had very little time with us because he was always at work.

Grandad likes to play "the claw".

Nothing is better than sherbet and Oreos for dessert!!

Kimberely spent nearly every minute playing dress-up. Here she is in a fairy costume I made for Michelle when she was little.

When Ellie was over to play, the girls kept changing from one costume to the next.

Princess Bims

On Halloween, I carved the pumpkins as per Kimberley's instructions.

Ollie's first Halloween.

Ready to go out trick or treating.

Ding dong. Trick or treat!!

Oliver was so tired he could hardly keep his eyes open.

Home at last.

Yum.

Michelle and Blaine got here late on Halloween and they all left the next morning. It was a great time, but now it's back to normal life. I didn't get any pictures of Nana, but she was here much of the time, enjoying the darling kids.

40th Anniversary, in Maui

Yes, we just got back from Maui. The trip was to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.The first morning, we had breakfast at our hotel, The Royal Lahaina Resort.

Then we went snorkeling on the beach near our hotel.

ON the 2nd day we went on a sail boat out to Molokini crater for a snorkel trip.

Aren't we lovely?

We love to snorkel. This day we got up really close to an eel and a small shark.

The view from the boat.

This was the nicest boat I have ever been on. It was only 6 weeks old.

One day we went for a drive and accidentally came across Honolua Bay, which we go snorkeling to in a boat later in the week.

We walked down through a thick jungle on our way down to the beach.

This tree was right out next to the beach.

That night we went to dinner at Leilani's Restaurant in Whaler's Village.

The food was so good.

For dessert we shared a hula pie.

After dinner a group of girls put on a hula show at the Whaler's Village.

The next day we decided to try and snorkel at different locations.

We started at Napili Bay. It was pretty good but it started to rain.

So, we decided to try our luck down the southern coast, but it was too windy to go in the water.

WE just sat on the beach and enjoyed the scenery.

Along the road, this lady cooked our lunch.

I ate fish every single day.

There was a big lava field. It reminded me of southern Idaho.

That evening we went back to Whaler's Village.

The sunset was beautiful while we waited for our table at the Hula Grill.

For dessert we had baked Hawaii.

My dinner was my favorite of the whole trip. The best Mahi Mahi fish taco ever made!

The next day we took another boat trip. This time we went to the neighboring island, La'nai

We snorkeled at this beach. And then, we went on a little tour of the only city on the island.

La'nai City (really a town) was built by the pineapple company for the plantation workers.

It is a darling little town. Now there are no pineapple plantations, but the residents now have jobs at the three hotels on the island.

As our boat was leaving the island, we ran across some snorkelers whose boat had capsized.

So, we towed their boat to a sand bar, and rescued them.

The next day we took another boat to Honolua Bay, the place we saw on foot earlier in the week.

Here we saw a turtle up close, but we didn't get a picture of him.

That night we ate dinner at our hotel.

The next day we took the winding road over to Hana. It was an all day trip.

The jungle was very thick and the road was narrow.

Did I mention that it took us all day?

When we got to Hana we ate hamburgers at this ranch restaurant. The town is so small. We had to laugh because this sign said it was the best stop in Hana. It was the only stop in Hana as far as we could tell.

Hana bay was very pretty.

Our last day, after we checked out of our hotel, we drove to the Ioa Valley.

There we hiked up to this rock which they call the Needle.

We really hated to have to come home. It was Paradise, after all.