The view from the rooftop lounge at the Waikiki Sheraton.
With Noel's platinum upgrade and his Father's discount, we were able to stay here with an ocean view. Made us feel spoiled and rich!
Tori celebrated her 9th birthday while we were visiting. She does cartwheels all day and loves to giggle. I hope she never changes. We love their house. Great neighborhood, great location near the ocean.
Watching the waves at Sunset Beach and afterwards getting an Acai bowl. Bryn and Isa are very independent and fun. We watched the kids while Natalie and Noel went to The Big Island.
On our morning walks, while still on Utah time, we had some beautiful sights. Love this Japanese burial ground near their house.
Sunsets are always gorgeous. Every morning Tom and I did walk Castles beach. Our favorite exercise each day! It will be hard to go back to sagebrush scenery in Utah!
Natalie loves to hike. This is 'Crouching Lion' and it is practically straight uphill. More like scrambling than hiking. Can you see Natalie and me on the rocky outcropping? She always has new adventures for us. Besides this hike, we also kayaked to the 'sand bar' near Kaneohe, we snorkeled at 3 Tables, we biked so many trails at Turtle Bay and swam at Keike Beach. We leave tomorrow to go back to Utah. We will miss Hawaii and the PortuGALS! (dreading the overnight flight with horrible seats. Miss our Delta status as well!)
The Kneiss' and the Fenn's stayed at our house for 2 nights during our missionary reunion held in September. We hiked behind our house one evening and enjoyed reliving our mission days together!
The Senior Missionaries had a luncheon together at an Italian Restaurant in American Fork. The couple in the middle (the owners) are friends of Emanuela DeMatais and came from Geneva and opened up this restaurant. Sadly the food was just Ok.
Easter Sunday in Heber. Colie came up with the girls for a couple of nights. Jules really loves the hot tub and I think Cora loves being with Pop. Fun to hang out with those characters!
We had a super quick babysitting Gig for Steve's kids. It was just an overnighter. Steve had training in Boise and Felecia was able to tag along. Kent loved the truck we had rented. I couldn't get enough of Isaac. Good boys. We really had fun. Sad for us, but great for Steve's family: they are moving to Virginia!!! He starts work there on June 1st. And Dan just informed us that he signed on with his new company and starts July 1st. Those boys moved to IF about the same week-end, and now they are taking new jobs just one month apart. It's like they coordinated these big changes or something!
Tom and I are here in Yardley PA watching the kids while Jake and Mel are off to Vail to ski. It's an easy gig and fun for us. The kids are currently doing 2 days of virtual school, and 2 days of physically going to school. We have been having fun. We bike, walk, yoga, eat out (Spontino and Charcoal) went to Tommy's basketball game, walked around Philly and Doylestown, and even helped a member move out of his house. We have planned to visit Joe Jensen in NYC and hopefully visit Tom's brother Mike in Morgantown. Below are photos catching up from Christmas until now.
After Natalie and Noel's family went back to Hawaii, Tom and I took Mom back to Farmington. I think she was thrilled to be back in her own bed in her own home. She was in Utah from before Thanksgiving and it was a bit too long for her to be away I think, but we sure all loved hosting her. As soon as we got home, she devoured her mail and I just had to take this photo: she reads every word, even her junk mail! Steve was able to get her new hearing aids and when the battery is in and they are in her ear properly, she can actually hear. It's a miracle! We made arrangements for a health care provider to come in each day but so far that hasn't worked, so Alyssa and Travis take the bulk of visiting her and making sure she is taking her medications, has her hearing aids in, eating and staying clean, etc.
On our way back to Heber we decided to spend a few days in the Moab area. We visited 2 areas in Canyonlands, Needles and Island in the Sky. Needles gets you into the Canyons looking up and Island has you on top of the bluffs looking down. Quite beautiful. We like to get rental cars when possible since Steve works for Enterprise and we get some great deals.
Island in the Sky...looking down. Great hikes in this area.
Last stop was at Dead Horse State Park. I loved the snow on the rocks, great contrast.
We were home in Heber for a few days and then we had a trip planned to Sun Valley Idaho to ski for 2 days. Originally we were going with the Waltons, but Ric hurt his back. So we tacked on Idaho Falls for a day and had a nice evening/dinner at Dan's and invited over Steve's family. Great to connect, even just for that short time. Sun Valley was a very intimate, high class resort. Skiing was great. Restaurants were good. We had to cut our stay short however because of a severe winter storm heading that direction.
We scheduled doctor visits for the first part of February because by mid February we were off again on another adventure. This time with Seth's family to Colorado to ski. We booked a house in Frisco and skied at Keystone, Breckinridge, Vail, Copper, and Beaver Creek. Our favorite was Vail. Loved the back bowls and Blue Sky Basin ski areas. There was tons of snow. This video of Luke and Jonah jumping and 'stick-it' shows how deep it was in our front yard!
While Seth and Heidi went to Vail, Tom went skiing with the boys and I took Penny to the bunny hill to teach her to ski. She loved it! No fear whatsoever. She was ready to go on the chair. One problem is she didn't like to do 'pizza'. She is very athletic!
As I said, our favorite place was Vail. With lots of fresh snow, it was beautiful. I'm so glad we got to try it. It has been on my bucket list since high school!
Uh, yeah. Tom did have a 'dance' with a tree in Park City, so this sign at Breckinridge was perfect. It was the last run of the day. We said to each other, 'meet you at the car'...and Tom took off. He was way ahead of me, so when I got to the bottom I was surprised he wasn't there. I waited and waited and waited. Checked the car in the parking lot, checked with the clinic. Then Tom showed up with the ski patrol. Turns out he got turned backwards (did he catch an edge or maybe someone hit him?) and he skied backwards into a tree. Knocked him out, and the next thing he knew, the ski patrol was looking down at him and talking softly. He did get a concussion, but later looking at the dent in his helmet, he would have died without that helmet! Headache for several days but otherwise okay. Luckily.
As soon as we got home from Colorado (having stopped in Glenwood Springs for a night at the hot springs, what a perfect way to end a week of skiing!) We drove into SLC to celebrate Kent's 6th birthday at a sushi restaurant. Such a cute family. Isaac is growing SO fast!
Two days later we flew to Philly and are here for almost 3 weeks. The very first day Jake took us into Philly and we went to the 'Rocky' steps, down by the river and to a great taco place.
Yep, Tom is Rocky personified!
We have had great weather so far, but we also get some rainy days, which is expected. Doesn't stop these kids from having fun. I heard Lily say, 'my feet are not happy with me right now' when she came into the house. They each have a chicken and those chickens are LOVED. No need to buy eggs at the store, their chickens provide plenty.
Kate in a pensive mood. It's a rainy Sunday, but still a lovely scene from the window. I was talking to Lorrie Fedysyn on the phone and Kate was waiting for me to play a game with her.
