Quartzsite 2010

2010 Quartzsite trip

January 15 – Picked up grandpa at 12:45 and brought him back to my house so we would be ready to go as soon as Ed was ready to go – he got home about 1:2O and hooked up the trailer and we were on the road by 2 pm. Grandpa Merritt sat in the front with Ed until we stopped in Nephi and then he got in the back of the truck and took a nice hour long nap as we traveled South. We stopped in to see Grandma Bea when we got to Beaver and she looked and sounded great. We visited with her for about 30 minutes and then left her to enjoy her dinner meal. We headed on to her house and turned on the heat in her house and unhooked the trailer and then went up to Arshels for dinner. After dinner we headed back to her house and left grandpa with his pajamas and pills and toothbrush – he was tired and figured he would just go to bed. We then put on a movie for him and headed back to visit with Grandma again for a bit. We had a fun visit with her and then headed up to see Kevin but he wasn’t home yet so we drove out to his station and caught him there - Grandpa was still watching the movie - Ed finished watching it with him and I read for a while.

January 16 – Ed got up early and took the truck to Kevin’s and got four new tires put on the truck. By the time he got back Grandpa and I were up and had eaten and were ready to head out. I had told Grandma Bea that we would go back out to see her before we headed south again but Ed said NOPE – we need to get on our way. We did stop for a second at the cheese factory and bought some cheese and then we headed south. We stopped at Aunt Eleanor’s to put water in the tanks where it was warm enough to keep from freezing. It was a beautiful day in Mesquite and we enjoyed our visit with Eleanor.

We then headed on down the road, stopping for fuel at the Indian reservation about 45 minutes out of Las Vegas. Grandpa decided to take a nap so again he got the back seat – he woke up just in time to see the skyline of Vegas before we headed up to Railroad Pass. I had figured we would go as far as Needles and then get up the next morning and come the last ways into Quartzsite but Ed insisted we keep on going. Grandpa said fine – just get my pain pills out – so we did and he took a couple of pain pills and went to sleep. He woke up in Parker and I realized that he had taken too many pills – he should have just taken one – he staggered to the rest room and back to the truck. The pain pills were a generic Lortab I think – so two of them would be waaayyyy too much. I also realized then that he had been taking his Coumadin pill when he was in pain because it was a heart pain and he thought that it helped stop the pain. Scary – I have tried to explain to him that he MUST NOT take a Coumadin when he is hurting – only one Coumadin a day – I don’t think he took any extra Coumadin pills but it is a possibility!

We made it to Quartzsite by 9 pm and found our spot just waiting for us. We left grandpa in the warm truck while we unloaded our new Razor and all the stuff piled around it, got the rug laid out and the furnace turned on in the truck. The trailer warmed up quickly. Then we brought grandpa in while I blew up his air mattress and put the foam pad on top of it and got his bed made. He got into his pajamas and went to bed – we read for a while and then did likewise.

January 17 – Sunday was a beautiful day – it got up to 78 degrees. We sat outside in the sun and read for a while after we got dressed and ready for church at one. Church was good, although we only stayed for Sacrament meeting as grandpa can’t handle much more than that. When we got back from church we had some lunch and then grandpa took a nap and Ed and I went for our first ride together on the razor. It was so fun – by five pm though the air was cooling off but Ed got a jacket out for me and we kept going. By the time we got back to the trailer grandpa was back up. Ed and I read and I set a game the game of solitaire up on my computer for my grandpa – he can’t read and we don’t have TV so I was glad when I found something that would keep him entertained. It would have been a looonnnnggg four weeks if he just sat and stared at the walls all day.

January 18, 2010 – It rained all night last night – I guess yesterday was the only warm day we are going to have this week. We will see, but this storm is supposed to be a big one that goes on for days. I got grandpa out for a walk – maybe a 100 feet and back – I told him when we got back to the trailer we would go for a ride on the razor. He said “don’t I get a nap first?” …and he was serious. So we went into the trailer and pretty soon he decided to lay down for a nap. Ed and I hopped in the truck and ran into town to look for some stuff that Ed needed for the trailer. It is normally a 6 or 7 minute drive into town and it took us 25 minutes to get there due to all the traffic. I don’t think we have ever seen so many people here in Quartzsite!! Lots and lots of trailers all over the place. After he had checked out the one store he had planned on going to we walked over to the big tent – that’s the big show that is going on right now – the big RV tent sale – we wandered through it for two hours. Bought some fun stuff and wished we could buy more. Wandered through a couple of gorgeous fifth wheel Toy haulers - WOW!! Pure luxury. By the time we got back out to the trailer I figured grandpa would have been worried sick but he was just busy playing solitaire. I fixed us some dinner and we decided to watch a movie. Ed went to turn on the generator and it wouldn’t go – we think it is a bad solenoid in the generator. Dang!! Guess we will go to bed early tonight! Ed will have to run into town tomorrow early in the morning and figure out what needs to be done to fix it.

January 19 – woke up to rain and it rained off and on all day. It was in the high 50’s and low 60’s but wet and rainy – much warmer than Utah but when three people are living on top of each other it needs to be high 60’s and low 70’s so we can sit outside and enjoy the weather. We read and knitted and lay around all day. When we pulled into the campground on Saturday night we noticed that there was a sign saying no water available. Their pumps were broken. They got them up and running so Ed spent an hour filling up the blue 7 gallon totes and getting our trailer filled back up. He keeps busy.

January 20 – the sun is shining today so after breakfast we got dressed warmly and headed out to go riding. Grandpa Merritt didn’t want to go – it’s going to be a long four weeks with him just sitting – he can’t read, he’s too tired to go for a ride, he plays solitaire on my computer a little bit but mostly just sits. Ed got up early today and went into town and checked out generators. It’s handy having the big RV show and tent sale going on since he can compare Honda generators to several different ones and find the best deal all in one spot. I think he is going to go buy two 2000 watt generators tomorrow and hook them together and then when we get back home we will take the trailer back to Sierra RV and get the built in generator fixed. Ed has wanted to have a backup generator available so now I guess he will have them. It will be nice when we have TV again – I hate to see my grandpa just sitting and staring.
The ride was a cool one – it was 56 degrees outside when we left the trailer. I drove my ATV and Ed drove the RAZOR – We rode about 19 miles --its amazing how many side by sides are out in the hills now – we see almost more of them than regular ATV’s! The temp was up to 59 by the time we got back to the trailer. Grandpa had stayed behind and had a nice hot shower. By the time I got back I WAS ready for a nice hot shower but the water was just lukewarm…Grandpa said he didn’t use much water but he did use all the hot water and Ed’s full tanks were down a quarter of a tank!! I think he just forgot how long he was in the shower!

I spent the afternoon with a fun group of ladies who were quilting. They put me to work with them. Fun afternoon. It was part of a group that camp out here in La Posa South. Now we are back at the trailer – the North wind has been blowing all down and the sky is mostly covered with clouds – it is supposed to rain again tomorrow.

January 21, 2010 - it rained all night last night…when we got up this morning there were streams running down the gully behind our trailer. It is raining today too - It is too wet for Ed to buy the generators to get them set up so we will be another day without electricity as far as watching movies goes. Thank heavens for our solar panels – that keeps our cell phones and computers charged …and the batteries to run the lights at night. I had a shower and fed the guys and took the truck with our laundry and headed into the LDS chapel here at Quartzsite. Thursday morning the sisters meet to work on humanitarian projects. They had three quilts on, were setting up a fourth, two sisters were on sewing machines binding them and three more sisters were on sewing machines creating the tops for even more quilts! There were two people stuffing knitted balls and one table full of ladies gluing pictures onto paper creating books!! Busy place – had a good visit with several of the ladies. I only stayed for an hour and then headed to the Laundromat in town. When I got there I thought – gee I should have stayed at the church house – it looked like EVERYONE in Quartzsite decided to come in to do laundry!! I had to WAIT for a parking place!! Once I got inside I only had to wait about five minutes for some washers to open up – I took my $20 over to the change machine and it poured out quarters!! Someone hollered “we have a winner!!” I laughed and admitted the odds were lots better here than in Vegas. I got all four washers going and then read for a while. When it was getting close to having the washers finish their cycle I went in stood in line so as to be ready for a dryer when some opened up. I got my clothes out of the first three washer s and realized the fourth one wasn’t working. So I got my other clothes in the dryer and going and then found someone to help me with the #4 washer. He got it going for me but it was still going by the time the clothes were dry so I had to take a chance on getting another dryer when they were done – no such luck. By that time people were four deep waiting for the next available dryer so I folded all my clothes including the wet ones and headed back to the trailer. It was raining even harder when by the time I got back to the trailer – don’t know why I was in such a hurry to get back home. I fixed lunch and it has rained and blown and rained and blown all afternoon. The rain and wind is shaking the trailer as I type this. The temp did get up to 57 today – its back down to 53 at 5 pm….gonna be a long cold night. I know, I know – that is lots better than whatever it is in Utah but it’s getting downright scary!!! The trailer is just rocking back and forth !! WOW!!

The storm finally settled down about 5:30 – what a relief – all of us just sat in the trailer and stared at each other wondering if we were going to be washed away.

The generator in our trailer went out the first Monday we were here. Finally on Friday we went into town to the big RV show and Ed bought two 2000 watt generators that he can work them together in a parallel format – so he gets 4000 watts…but they are small enough that I can lift them and start them which was necessary with Ed leaving for a week and a half.
So we have power again to run the TV and the microwave. We have been recharging phones and computers with the inverter hooked up to the batteries recharging on solar power which has been nice!

Grandpa went with us Friday when we headed to the big tent. Ed had already picked out the generators he wanted to buy so grandpa and I wandered for a short while through the tent. Grandpa bought a little chair cane – it has an umbrella handle and then a small seat that folds up when not in use as a chair. It’s a handy thing and helped grandpa walk over the uneven ground – and then when we headed back to the truck he was able to stop = open up the chair and rest for a few minutes before going on. Friday was a cool day with lots and lots and lots of clouds but no rain thank heavens. The wind was from the north so it felt good to be inside the tent. We headed back to the trailer for lunch and a nap and reading. I pulled out the DVD that Dirk and Da gave grandpa for Christmas. We thoroughly enjoyed watching their cute video clips throughout the year of Ben and Simon. For some reason the sound would cut out at the middle of the clip but we still enjoyed it.
Saturday was a pretty day although still cool with the winds blowing. Grandpa and I drove into town in the truck and found the medical clinic and I went in and asked them about a protime test for dad on Tuesday. The nurse said we needed an order from his doctor – so after we got back to the trailer we called the doctor’s office and left a message asking that the order be faxed to the clinic. While in town we went to the library – grandpa found a book in large print to see if that would help his reading. We hit the grocery store for a few things and then headed back to the trailer.
Sunday we woke up to ice on the windshield but it got up to 61 degrees and the wind was very mild. Dad didn’t feel good so he stayed home from church – when we got back he seemed fine. Come to find out, he woke up with a pain in his back and it scared him because he didn’t know what it was. After we had left for church he rolled over and the pain moved to another part of his body. When he investigated he found that the big link in the floor that we tie our ATV’s down with that usually lay flat was sticking up and that was what was causing the pain. He is really frightened of anything different with his body right now and so he panicked. He was kind of shame faced about it when he told us what had happened, but I told him I understood his fear. He doesn’t know what to expect after this stroke and anything different is frightening. After church we sat out in the sun and soaked up some rays – it felt sooooo good finally. Then we headed into town to refill the propane tanks ( Ed wanted to make sure we were full up on water and propane and that the black and grey holding tanks were empty before he headed to Phoenix on Monday to catch his plane to Chicago) and had lunch at Carl’s Jr and then came back to the trailer when grandpa took a nap and Ed and I hopped on our razor to go for a cool but fun ride. For dinner we had the Omaha Steaks and twice baked potatoes and apple pie deserts that Ed’s boss gave us for Christmas – the steaks were so tender and delicious. Grandpa was even able to eat the steaks without any problem! So Yummy!
We watched “The return of Zorro” last night and that was fun. Ed got everything together so he could get up early to head out and then we all went to bed. Edward left this morning about 7 am – he called about 10:30 from the airport – he said he thought he was going to make it to the airport with plenty of time to spare but then got caught up in traffic – an accident had happened and it took him 45 minutes longer than he had planned to get there. Then as he went through the screening he set the beepers off. He emptied his pockets wondering what in the world would have set it off and low an behold he still had his clip from his pistol in his pocket. The gun was left back at the trailer but without thinking he had picked up the magazine and put it in his pocket. Needless to say, he got the royal pat down and luggage search. He said they were really nice about it though and he has left it there in their storage to pick up when he comes back through next week. – he still made it to the gate with 15 minutes to spare!

Grandpa and I are sitting in the trailer watching the temperature go up – as soon as I finish with this we are going to go on a walk – hopefully he will be able to go farther than the 100 feet he has done before – with his cane and little chair – I am hoping we can make it over to the dumpsters so I can dump our sack of garbage. We will see. After lunch he will have his nap and I will head back into town with the rest of our laundry and then I am going to find a spot that sells findings for my necklaces as I need just a couple of different things. Hopefully I can down load this onto my blog –though it will make a LONG blog but at least everyone will know what is going on.
Oh – the large print really helps – grandpa is now able to read for about an hour at a time – even longer when he puts the 4x4 gauze pad over his left eye so it doesn’t jump all over. I think he is enjoying the time – sometimes I feel like more of a babysitter but he is doing better every day. The stroke has done more damage than we thought – but there is improvement and that is all we can ask for.

Christmas 2009

We had a fun Christmas Eve with all of the family last Thursday evening. Jamie and Kelly came late because of other family parties and Melinda didn't get to come at all because she had bronchitis - we missed her. We tried our hand at fondue and decided we need a lot more practice - I over heated the chocolate and the cheese was stringy ... so they didn't look very pretty but they tasted good - and I MISSED the yummy artichoke dip that Da was going to bring. It was an interesting Christmas Eve - every year I work hard to find just the right story or program for our family Christmas Eve and then every year we have the Christmas Story done by the grandkids. Well this year I just plain couldn't think of anything to do program wise, so we decided that we would just get together and eat and visit and then do the reinactment of the nativity.

We waited for Jamie and Kelly to bring their babies so we would have a baby Jesus and then we decided not to do the nativity at all - we had a fun time visiting and eating and thought that would be sufficient. But we missed the nativity --- it isn't what you call spiritual because the kids don't practice it in advance or anything - but it is definitely one of our family traditions... and it was missed. It also is a break in the talking and eating and I missed the chance to stop and take a moment and appreciate the reason for the Season -- the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The evening felt incomplete because we didn't 'do' the spiritual part of it!

Another reason that the evening was incomplete was because we were missing Makae. We did get to see her though - a bunch of the family all headed down to North Salt Lake for a 2 pm visit with her. It was a wonderful chance to hug her and talk to her and watch her get excited over seeing many of the family that she hadn't seen for two months.

We also got to see Makae on the Tuesday before Christmas - her whole group put on a very fun musical program for us - This is Makae singing with the girls at Lifeline. She seems to enjoy the staff and the students and has adjusted to their routine very well. She is learning to make some good decisions with her life right now and she is in our every prayer.

It was so fun watching Shawn and Kristanne's boys lovingly hold their new little cousins. All three of them were so excited to be holding a baby. Of course the babies were the hit of the party with everyone - here we have Ethan and Cade holding Taylie and Brayden. Taylie even looks a little bit like Ethan!
Here's Cade - in his fancy new jammies which he LOVED!! With a sweet Brayden
Taylie and Brayden were held and held and held that whole Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - they had to be exhausted after having to entertain all their aunts and uncles and cousins and gramma's and granpas!!
Jace was really excited to try and hold Brayden. At first I held Jace as he held Brayden but it didn't take me long to realize he did a good job holding the babies. So we sat him on the floor and let him go solo. We had a fun evening with everyone - there is nothing I love more than spending time with my family. It gets a bit BUSY in my little house when all of us are there but there is no cure for that problem - its only going to get worse as the families get bigger. I am still waiting for my kids to buy me a bigger house!! ;-D


But we had a lovely evening and then the next day Ed and I got up early and were on the road to Lehi by 6:45 am so we could be there when Ben and Simon came down the stairs to see what Santa had brought.

This picture of Benjamin is priceless - the look on his face is exactly what Christmas morning is all about. The excitement and thrill of a new train set! One that he could make go all by himself!

this is our own version of Godzilla - as soon as Simon realized he could make his train go foward and back, he had to get in the middle of things - literally!
Here's Ben watching Da as she sets the train back on the track again - I bet Dirk and Da wish they had a nickle for every time they have had to do that in the last week!
Benji got a normal looking train and Simon got the 'front-runner'....it didn't take him long to figure out how to get the little person in the train out and then he discovered he could make the train go on the carpet as well as the track...the rest of the time we were there he was driving his train all over the carpet. We tried to get Ben and Simon interested in their gifts but nothing doing...all they could see was TRAIN!!

After we had spent 45 minutes at Dirk and Da's house we got back in the car and headed to Provo where Kecia had been waiting patiently (???) for us to arrive. She woke up Glenn when we pulled up (he was glad to get to sleep in an extra hour!)
this picture should be very last --- I had been taking pictures of Emma and her trucks - there she was running back and forth in her jammies and her high heels and watching the trucks go = she was sooooo excited. Then I looked over at her mommie... sitting there with her hat and scarf on, her stack of presents in front of her and holding up her new saute pan in HER jammies and with her new high heels on too! Like mother , like daughter!
Note princess Emma's glass slippers - she didn't want to have anything to do with her new princess dresses and jewelry and crowns but she put on her new high heels as she chased back and forth watching the trucks going.
She didn't touch the trucks or the tracks - she just ran back and forth and back and forth saying truck truck truck
Like Ben and Simon - Emma was so excited about her tracks and trucks she was not the least bit interested in the presents we brought or any of the other presents under the tree - she would look for a second and then back to the 'truck, truck, truck'.
This was what was waiting for Emma when she first came into the living room - a whole box full of princess dresses and high heels and crowns and jewelry ... NO THANK YOU, NOT INTERESTED.....TRUCK ......TRUCK.....TRUCK!


Thank you Kecia and Glenn and Dirk and Da for sharing Christmas morning with us. Ed just decided on Christmas eve that he wanted to watch the little ones and see and feel the excitement of Christmas morning. I wasn't too sure about it (after all, I didn't get to open my presents until 11 am when we got back home!!)

Christmas Day was a fantastic day as we got to spend it with the people we love, watching the excitement on their faces as they opened the gifts that we had lovingly picked out to give them. Christmas is such a special time - as we drove down South that morning we saw a cross walk above the freeway where someone had taken cups and created the message in the fence that said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS"

Mauri and Ira and their sweet kids got to our house about 12:30. Grandpa was anxious to give them all rides on the RZR but it was sooooo cold and his hopes of pulling them on their sleighs over behind the church house on the lawn there were dashed because of the ice mountain between the lawn and the parking lot. After they left I got a half an hour nap (which is a good nap for me) and then Shawn and Kristanne came with the three boys. While they were still here Jamie and Kelly and the twinners showed up. We had lots of good food all day long and again, lots of love and laughter. About five pm we followed Shawn and Kris down to Kelly and Terrie's house to see grandpa Merritt - All of Kelly's family were there plus Jeff and Teresa and Skye and Katie Jo - so again, we enjoyed the love and laughter of our wonderful family. Teresa and Jeff added so much fun to the group.

Ed and I were getting ready to leave when the phone rang and it was Chase calling from North Carolina. Kelly put the phone on speaker mode and we all sat around the table for an hour chatting with Elder Nielson. It was great - and it was a marvelous ending to a marvelous day. As he bore his testimony of Jesus and all that Christ did for us I couldn't help but feel an even closer tie to my Savior.

People complain about how commercialized Christmas is but I love it because it gives me a reason to put smiles on the faces of the people I love the very most. Christ is the reason - we ARE celebrating his birth day - Thank you Jesus for inviting us to such a wonderful birthday party!

Tonya, Brandy, Bobette

Here you go Brandy - your very own blog!! Cute pictures I think. Ed took these pictures at Jill's funeral in July. It is a fun grouping of some precious women. This is MY favorite of the three of you. You can simply right click and save it onto your computer. Then you can save them on a disk and take them to walmart - or you can download them right to wal mart and just go pick up the pictures when you are done ...or you can have ME send them to wal mart in your name. Let me know if I can help you/

Making Wreaths!! What Fun!

Kecia and I and Jen all showed up at Jamie's house about 11 on Thursday morning with gobs of red and green ornaments (don't say balls around Jamie!) , red poinsettias, red and green ribbon, plain wreaths of various sizes and also a garland or two. We had four glue guns, and lots of wire too. Mauri and Melinda and Kris we missed all of you.

Of course first of all we got to ooh and aahhhh over the babies - they were sound asleep though - and certainly not the least bit interested in all the craft goings on!


this is a very poor picture of Taylie but I wanted everyone to see the pretty sparklies she has in her ears! so sweet!


Brayden was sawing logs too!



I thought she was going to wake up after the first flash went off - she stretched and opened an eyeball and then promptly went back to sleep.


Kecia found a wreath online at Lowe's that she fell in love with - green wreath with red and lime green ornaments. She put out the suggestion that maybe we could make it for less than it would cost ready made - I don't know if any of us 'saved' much money but we sure had fun copying it.

Okay - this is a the stuff I brought - now four times that with ornaments and ribbons and wreaths from each of us. The table was almost too small and Jamie had the leaf in it!!


My finished product was totally different than what was online - but it is ME - lots sof sparklies!


This is Jen's but of course she hasn't pulled the ribbons up tight yet - so we don't really get to see the finished product here,



This is Jamie's and it turned out really nice - their ribbon was a metallic red and added a whole different look than

Kecia's whose wreath has sparkly green ribbon in it. I apologize for the sideways picture - my new camera has a pretty good program to download the pictures with but the program decided that this was the correct way to 'show' the picture and I didn't realize it until I got it downloaded. Now if I were really a good mom I would delete this picture and put in another picture that was sitting the right direction and pull it down into place....forget that!! turn your computer sideways!
Here is another shot of my wreath. I have it hanging on my front door - and its not even the middle of November!! My poor Thanksgiving wreath is feeling really put out right now!



To finish off this blog I put in the video I took of Emma and her reaction to the babies.
So - we had a great time - I left before Kecia got her garland all decorated but I am sure it is gorgeous too - all of us can give ourselves a good pat on the back!

Halloween 2009

Jamie told me to steal the picture off of her blog so I could show off Taylie and Brayden's costumes. When Jamie first mentioned what she wanted her babies to be on Halloween and mentioned maybe dying their hair blue (!!!) I offered to knit some hats for them. I found a bright blue eyelash yarn with a sparkle in it and the hats turned out perfect. Then about a week before Halloween Jamie said she had searched everywhere for red jammies (and they don't make them in size 3 months sizes - maybe for Christmas but they weren't out YET) and so I told her what kind of fabric and how much to buy and I already had an old pattern and I went to work on the outfits. So here they are - THING ! (Taylie) and THING II (Brayden!)



Saturday evening we had a terrific Trunk or Treat at our WARD - lots and lots of cars and candy and kids - it was great fun and the weather was simply perfect. This is a picture of Rachel Hatch and her husband and daughter Tailee - Fred Flinstone, Wilma and Pebbles at your service!!!



This last year of school is getting a little bit too stressful for Tucker Hatch - our 17 year old next door neighbor.
This is a picture of Moore's JAWS car = with the shark tail and fins and big teeth, the music drumming in the background and the kids had to put there hand into the jaws of the shark to get their candy. What a hoot.
I took a bunch of pictures at our family Halloween party but lost my camera half way through it so I didn't get a good picture of Adrie Anna or Ben or Cade Darn it all. all three of their costumes were fantastic.
Mr Simon Clown without the hat -mama's littlest baby for six more months - hurrah!


Fancy transformer - I think it is Bumblebee
Emma Lynn - I don't know what she is asking grandma for her but its about the only full face picture I got of her.
Chico the vampire dog - he looked so cute - he wasn't too sure he liked the cape but he totally dispised the hat. He is such a sweet baby - and he adores mama mauri although adrie can talk him into sitting on her lap too.
This is a softy picture of missy Emma - or should I say Tinkerbell - she looked like a dolly and as it was her birthday celebration too (going to be two on the 13th of this month) she received a stroller and a stool from grandma of which she loved both.
Scary Ira - we told him he should keep the black hair and the eyeliner - it looks pretty cool.
Here's our 'Cop Caleb - we better behave or he'll drag us off to the station - today is his birthday - 7 years old
Here is Jerod looking pretty scary - I told his mom she needed to feed the poor kid more!
Ethan (also 12 years old) was Toad from Nintendo - he looked pretty cute!
One of our birthday boys - Joshua also turned 7 on November 1 - he is a transformer and has a gun that he got for his birthday that shoots nerf bullets but is also a transformer!
=

Cute picture of 12 year old Jared in his skeleton costume. I like this face much better! It has a sween smile!



One of the birthday boys - Caleb was seven years old on that day - last year we started the tradition of celebrating halloween and birthdays on their birthday November 1 - that way they all get to go trick or treating the night before and then the next day we get to see them in their cute fun outfits.

Simon - age 18 months - Here we have a darling clown that wasn't too sure he wanted to be in costume and really didn't want to wear the cute top hat. Mom didn't even have to paint his cheeks - they are always that rosy!



Fun Halloween this year - Kecia and Melinda and I went to Garnder Village to the Witches Night Out and it was so much fun!!! We were more enthralled with looking at all the gorgeous outfits and hats that we didn't even buy anything!! I immediately came home and started looking for stuff to upgrade my hat...which I did - and this is it. By next year I want to have a sparkly purple and black dress with a long cape, striped socks and comfy witches shoes. (that's gonna be the hard part!)

Hawaii - part two

I've been putting off updating about Hawaii because I have SOOOOO many pictures to choose from - sometimes I think longingly (!!) of the olden days when every picture you took was carefully monitored because film got expensive and then you had to pay to have it developed. Today we just snap snap snap - one afternoon at the beach I took 150 pictures of the clouds and sun and sunset!!! Now I get to pick out one or two of them to put on the blog...OUCH!

















here I am playing Shawn - but of course my little camera doesn't do nearly as well as his nice one and my little brain just put it on auto and shot the picture - but it is still a beautiful water lily















The whole road to Hana isn't this lush but a lot of it is!! Gorgeous drive even if it took 4 hours to drive 52 miles! We came home the back way so it only took about 2 hours -



We stopped at a Botanical Garden on the Road to Hana - it was gorgeous. It was a very hot and humid day because the trade winds were not blowing. But still it was worth our time to wander up and down all the paths - I liked this picture because it incorporated part of the water lily pond and yet you could still see the ocean.





























Another view from the botanical gardens with the road in the middle of the picture and the blue ocean beyond.











I didn't realize I picked out so many pictures from the botanical gardens - the pathway on the left took us up and down all sorts of trails with plants and trees from all over the world.












Just a soft pretty flower on a tree - I must be partial to soft petals - thus petal soft jewelry!













We were amazed at the pine trees growing right next to palm trees - but once we stopped at the gardens we realized that the pine needles on the tree were very short - this is a branch on the pine tree and if you look at it up close you can see the little pine needles on the long skinny branches. They were very soft to the touch













This picture is for Cheryl - everyday we walk at the Layton Park and feed the black swan. At the Westin Hotel in Lahaina there was a beautiful black swan - very friendly, always ready to eat out of your hand. There was a white swan with a black neck too! The flamingos you see at the far right are real - I was standing right in front of the check in desk when I took this picture - I had a roof over my head but the pond itself was open to the sky, with gorgeous plants all around - the koi in the pond loved to be fed too - they had certain times posted so the children could come and feed the birds and the fish. There were also gorgeous parrots and two cockatiels (sp?)- one was white and the other birds were all very colorful.












This is another view of the same pond - I just moved back farther under the roofed area and so the picture is more shaded. So the black swan is in the shade and the flamingos are still eating. You can actually see one of the parrots on its perch at the far right of this picture. They loved 'talking' to the people.



More beauty to come...