The Atlantis Submarine

Ok, it's the second to last memory of Hawaii today.

We got to go on a submarine that has windows in it so you can see what's out there. When Brent's mom was there, she and I went on one, but Brent had to work. So, this time he said he really wanted to go on it, so we did. I have to say, the first time I was a little disappointed with the ride, but this time was better. We saw a lot more marine life and I knew what to expect.

Here we are getting off the sub, but you get on the same way. You take a boat out a little way into the ocean, then the submarine comes up and you get on. It's a good way to do it. I wondered how they brought the subs up to the dock.

This is what we looked like in the submarine when it was the deepest. I think it was 135 feet, but if I'm wrong, Brent will fix it. I thought this was a cool picture. I didn't even mean to do it, I just forgot to turn the flash back on. Happy accidents.

As I said before, the first time I went on the sub I was a little disappointed. I was expecting to see reefs and fish like that. When in actuality they've sunk boats, planes and "replacement reefs". This is one of the plane's wings and under it is a shark. It's a white tip reef shark. I hate sharks, but it's not too bad to see them when you're in a sub. We saw about 5 sharks. One swam along the other side of the sub for a little bit and another one swam underneath us. This is a spotted eagle ray. It was fun to see this one. It was just swimming along minding it's own business.

And, now the best, a sea turtle. (Hawaiians call them honu) We saw a bunch of turtles. I think it was like 7, but I could be exaggerating a little bit. They are cool to watch swim around.

That's it. It was a fun outing. And, I got pressed pennies!

:)

Happy Belated Birthday Rylee

Our little niece Rylee turned 2 on the 3rd! Happy Happy Birthday little one! Here she is from her blessing so long ago.

And here she is now. Love the pig tails. Thanks for the picture Jess!

Blogs are so wonderful because even though we're far away, we can all keep up with what's going on. I'm glad we can do that!

Happy Birthday Rylee, we love you!

The Laie Temple

Hello and welcome back to the Hawaii recap. I will eventually get to the Christmas and New Year's recap, but I want to finish Hawaii first.

So, today I was going to talk about the day we went to the Laie Temple. We went on a Monday so we couldn't do a session, but we did have a really great Family Home Evening in the visitor center.

When you go to the Laie Temple, all the Sister missionaries are in muumuus. It would be kind of nice to be able to know what you're wearing everyday. They always offer to take your picture in front of the Temple. It's cute. (Yes, John is 6'8" and Laura is 6' so we look like little tiny shrimps.)

I think this is the coolest place to take a picture of people at the Temple. So, what does Brent do, try to lick me. And what does John do, take a picture of it. Silly Brent!

Ahh, here's a better one. Isn't it a pretty setting?

Come on, this is an awesome picture, even if it looks a little tilty right now. Weird. It's a pretty place. Every Temple has it's own beauty. This one is no exception!!

Well, that's it for today! See ya!

Great News

Hello all!

I just wanted to let everyone know that my Grandma's surgery went well. She is back in her room and doing good....a little groggy, but that's how you are after surgery. I mean, I sang Super Trooper after my surgery. :)

:)

Happy Birthday Grandma Cherryl

I had to start a new post because the last one was very sad, at least for me.

Today is my Grandma Cherryl Zina Morris Lund Rose's 77th birthday. That's right, she is turning 77 in 2007. It must be her lucky year! Happy Birthday Grandma! I love you!

I wanted to put in some pictures of her, but I was having a hard time deciding which ones, so I went with these two. Here is Grandma in Hawaii when she and my mom came to visit us last year. We were driving around the island and Brent mentioned that coffee has now become the biggest crop in Hawaii. When she heard that, all she wanted to do was see what a coffee plant looked like. We finally found one at the Dole Plantation. It's a big shrub with red berries on it. She was so excited. Ahhh, my silly Grandma.

This one just cracks me up! I know it's kind of hard to see what she's doing, and this needs some background information. My grandma feels that the best thing to kill bugs with is your fingers. She will squish anything between her fingers. This is not something I inherited from her. I find it to be GROSS! The only thing she doesn't like to squish with her fingers are tomato worms. For those of you who don't know what those are, they are these HUGE GREEN catapillars that eat your tomato plants. So, how does my grandma kill those? She steps on them. And green goo spurts out both ends. It's horrible. Anyway, in this picture she's pretending to squish a snail. Normally she just throws those in the street to get cooked. I say she's pretending to squish this snail because the shell was AT LEAST 2 inches long. It was like the Northwest slug's really big cousin. (This is all in Hawaii) She didn't squish it, but she would have done something to it had it been in her yard. Oh, here's a weird aside - don't step on snails. The eggs can get on your shoes and you can take them back to your own yard.

My Grandma Cherryl is pretty much the opposite of a "normal" grandma. She really doesn't like to cook (except she does make good candy), she isn't really great with children - they kind of get on her nerves, and she is pretty sure that a little dirt never hurt anyone. I absolutely love that about her. She marches to her own drum and even if sometimes that just DRIVES ME CRAZY, I still love her so much for it!

Happy Birthday Grandma! We love you!

It's Christmas time...Grandma's in the hospital

I haven't really talked about it, but last Sunday my Grandma Sally went into the hospital with pneumonia, again. It seems like every holiday season she does this. It makes me kind of angry. I know it shouldn't, but it does. I just want her to be healthy and happy and she hasn't been healthy for a really long time.

Well, now she's going to have to get a pacemaker put in tomorrow. Part of me isn't worried, but part of me is. I know my mom is really worried. I hope and pray that this operation will go well tomorrow and there won't be any complications. I love my Grandma so much!

This picture is from May of this year. My grandma has been on oxygen for a REALLY long time. At least 20 years, but none of us remember exactly when she went on oxygen. And, now she has a feeding tube. It sucks for us, but it must really suck for her to be so sick all the time.

I remember when I was little that she would spend so much time in her garden and yard making it look just so. She always had zinnias around the garden. I still think of her when I smell zinnias. I also remember how she would make apricot nectar and serve it in these special cups. (There you go Jess, some childhood memories.)

I'm not telling you this so that you'll feel bad for her or me, just talking.

:)

Pearl Harbor

Today I have decided to focus on the day we visited Pearl Harbor...

December 7th was the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Last year when we were in Hawaii, they really didn't do much for Pearl Harbor day. This year was quite a bit different. As I said before, there were a lot of Pearl Harbor Survivors around. They felt like this was going to be the last chance they had to come back. There was a ceremony at the memorial where Tom Brockaw spoke. They also announced that they are going to begin remodeling the memorial.

The Arizona Memorial is one of the only things in Hawaii that's free. You sometimes stand in a long line to get into the building. (I say sometimes because this last time there were hardly any people so that was nice.) Then, when you get in the building, they give you a ticket with a number on it. You have to wait until they call your number, which can sometimes be a long time. In our case, it wasn't. Then, you go and watch a movie about the attack on Pearl Harbor. It's really well done and makes me cry every time. After the movie, you take a boat out to the actual memorial. You're only out there about 12 minutes, but that's usually enough. It's a moving experience. If you're ever in Hawaii, we definitely recommend it.

I wanted a picture of the sign talking about the 65th anniversary, and I'm trying to get more people in pictures, so... I don't know why he wouldn't face the camera. Sometimes he's a little bit silly. Anyway, we went a few days after the 7th, so we didn't get to see all the ceremonies and stuff, but we still saw all the stuff around.

This is taken from the boat going out to the memorial. The architect for the memorial said that it is bowed in the middle to show the sadness of that day, but tall at the ends to show our strength.

Just under 1,200 people died on the USS Arizona that day. Around 900 are still in the boat, so the memorial is also a cemetary. We also learned that those who survived can choose to have their ashes intured with their "fallen comrades." Having never been in a war or a battle like that, it kind of surprises me that so many have.

On the other side of Ford Island, which is actually a military base and where Brent had his class, there is the USS Utah Memorial. I really hadn't heard about this. It's not that big of a memorial, but it's there. To get there, you have to be able to get on base, which is probably why so few people go there.

I took this picture off the Arizona Memorial page. It's from December 7, 1941. The capsized boat in the middle is the USS Utah.

And, this is what's left today. I am not really good at remembering important dates or history facts, but I am good at stories. I have also found that I'm good at remembering things when I see them myself. It makes it real to me.

Ok, enough of that bummer post. It was a good day and a lot of fun! Here's a joke...

What are two men with no arms and no legs on the wall named?

Kurt and Rod

Hee hee hee!

:)

Mele Kalikimaka is the thing we say...at Christmas Time

I'm just going to get started with the pictures and go from there. (Don't you love the new template?? I do. It's very Northwesty! Especially the fog lately.)

On Tuesday we introduced John to Matsumoto's Shave Ice in Haleiwa, North Shore. How to describe shave ice? (Notice, there is no 'd', it is "shave ice") I would say it's like a snow cone, but that would be like compairing a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse steak to a McDonald's hamburger. They shave ice off a big block then they put on whatever topping your would like. It's kind of like snow. There is a way to order it as well. You walk up to the cashier. You tell them how many you would like, what sizes you would like, whether you would like beans or ice cream, then the flavor. You may be asking yourself, beans? We also asked ourselves this. You can get beans in the bottom of your shave ice. I don't know what kind of beans they are. Laura was brave and got beans in hers. What we learned from that was that the beans are just weird, and we don't get it. The ice cream is good, but it takes up precious shave ice area, so I wouldn't recommend it. (Brent would disagree with me on that, but I'm typing it, so I get to say whatever I want.) I would also recommend spending the 25 cents and buying a holder. Many a sad shave ice eater has cried when most of their shave ice landed on the ground instead of in their mouth. Brent likes the Hawaiian (coconut, pineapple and banana flavors) and I like the lilikoi which is passion fruit. Whenever you are in Oahu, go to the North Shore and stand in the LONG line of Japanese tourists and locals a like and get a Matsumoto Shave Ice. They also have cute shirts for purchase.


This is the only flower picture I'm going to put on. I once again took a MILLION pictures of flowers, but this one is my all time favorite. Isn't it a beautiful color? Can you just imagine the card this is going to make?? I can. :) For those of you who aren't plant ladies like myself...this is a hibiscus. They are ALL OVER Hawaii. And, come summer, there are going to be a few in our yard as well. Not this pretty, but...

Ok, I have now decided that these are no longer going to be in any order, just as I want to put them. I love Brent in this hat. He looks so great! Don't you think? Like a real adventurer.

This was in the lobby of one of the 3 hotels we stayed in. This one is called the Prince Kuhio and it's in Waikiki. The house is made out of wood, but then they stuck gingerbread all over it. It made everything smell very good. Plus that big tree in the background is a REAL tree. Last year we were curious how much a real tree costs in a place that doesn't have any evergreen trees. Well, a normal one that would be about $40 here was $100 there. So, this tree was probably at least $1000. That's just a guess, but I bet we're pretty close. That's just a little bit nutty, if you ask me.

Now seems like as good of time as any to tell the wonderful story of where we stayed while in Hawaii. When Brent got his orders, there was only hotel reservations from Dec 3-7th. The travel department said they would work on it and let us know where else we're going to stay. So, on Monday, Brent and John called the travel people and they said that we needed to start looking for someplace to stay because they couldn't find anything. What? That's their job. It turns out that this week was the worse possible one for us to be in Hawaii. There was the U2 concert at Aloha Stadium (which Brent is still REALLY sad that he missed), the 65th anniversary of Pearl Harbor (there were a TON of Pearl Harbor survivors there because they felt like this was their last chance), and the Honolulu Marathon. So, we start calling hotels. John gets us rooms at the Prince Kuhio for 11th-16th. I find rooms at the Ohana Beachcomber, which is also in Waikiki, for 7th-9th. So, all we have to find are the 9th and the 10th. We start calling all the hotels in the yellow pages. There were NO ROOMS AVAILABE ON OAHU FOR THOSE TWO NIGHTS. I will repeat that - NO ROOMS!! We called everywhere. I got really tired of having people laugh at me. I mean, that's kind of rude, don't you think?

I have a couple favorite moments from the hunt for hotel rooms. The first one is when Brent called somewhere, I really don't remember where, and the guy on the phone said, "We have 2 rooms available in Lahaina for those nights." So, I'm reading over his shoulder as he's writing this down and I'm thinking...Lahaina is in Maui. Yep, that's right, they were trying to get us to stay on a completely different Island. If you're going to work at a reservation place, don't you think you should know how to read a map?

My second favorite is when I called another hotel chain. (Again, I can't remember where I called.) I asked the gentleman to check if they had any rooms available on Oahu for the nights we were looking for. He said, "Well, there has to be at least on room available...hmmm...ummm...well, there's aren't! What's going on there?"

And, now my ABSOLUTE favorite! I called a place in Waikiki and asked if they had any rooms available. (Oh, Brent and John had gotten us a couple of rooms at the Navy Inn on base for the night of the 10th, so we were now just looking for the 9th.) He said, they did have two rooms available for the 9th, but they only rented for 7 nights at a time and the rest of the week was all booked up. So, when I asked why we couldn't just stay that one night, since they were open he said, "It's like if you make a cake and someone only wants to buy a piece instead of the whole thing." At this point I was so frustrated with him and the whole situation that I just hung up. That is the STUPIDEST argument ever! The reason we only want to buy a "piece of cake" is because someone else has already bought the rest of the cake. What a dork. I wish I could remember what hotel that was so I could tell you never to stay there.

So, finally the travel people come through and find us 2 nights (9th and 10th) at the BOQ (Bachelor Officer Quarters). We were a little worried about the bachelor part, but it turned out to be a really nice place. The only bad part was that they gave us a key and we go to the room and there is already a family in there. Great. But, it all worked out.

Here's the summary...we spent 4 nights in the Prince Kuhio, 2 in the Ohana Beachcomber, 2 in the BOQ and 5 back in the Prince Kuhio. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? It sure was!

The Prince Kuhio is a good place to stay. I like the pool a lot. It was decently warm and there was hardly ever anyone there. The rooms were nice. Not great. They are remodeling right now, so they'll probably be nicer soon. It's close to the beach and lots of good restaurants. It's also right by a bus stop, which is nice.

The Ohana Beachcomber was a CRAPPY PLACE!!! The elevators took FOREVER to get there. I had to do laundry and the dryers were only 24 minutes for $1.50. (Nothing was dry) The pool was dumb and closed at really early...I think like 6pm. All in all, not the best place to stay! Especially for the money. It was the most expensive place we stayed.

The BOQ was the nicest place we stayed. The only drawback was that it was on base and I hate having to go through a check point to get somewhere. There was cable and a DVD player in each room. It was nice!! You have to be enlisted or on orders to stay there, but it was very nice.

This is from the Dole Plantation. I think it's a funny picture. John is holding the baby pineapple because it was so cute, I guess?? We went to the Dole Plantation just before Laura left so we could all get Dole Whips, which are the best pineapple sherbert concoctions ever!!

John is also of the opinion that people should be in pictures. I am not always of that opinion, but...that could be because there are only two of us and Brent starts to whine if he's in too many pictures.

You may remember these figurines from last year. It was fun to see them again. Santa Claus and Tutu Mele. I think Brent looks cute in this picture. And, you might not be able to tell, but my hair looks AWESOME!! It curled so nicely!!! I love it when that happens and on my birthday too!

This is the Christmas tree from downtown Honolulu. We think this one is much prettier than last year's. Last year the theme was bears. This year it was musical instruments. Much nicer!


Well, I was just going to keep putting pictures on until it made me stop and it's not stopping me, so I think I'm going to stop now. Tune in next time for more pictures.

I'm going to leave you with a great joke...
What did Batman say to Robin just before they got in the car?
"Robin, get in the car."

Hahahahhahahahahahahah!

:)

Hawaii - Part 1

Hello everyone! The long awaited Hawaii pictures are beginning to come to life! We have been having such a great Christmas and the rest of the week that we just haven't been able to get things done at home...more on that in coming posts. But first...Hawaii.

I have decided to start at the very beginning, since that's a very good place to start.

Since we had been to Hawaii before, we became John and Laura's tour guides, which was fine with us. It made us look smart. (Oh, does everyone know...Brent works with John and they are in our ward. Brent and John were in "class" together, so Laura and I got to come and play.) So, one of the first places we took John (since Laura didn't come until Wednesday) was the East side of the Island. We think that the coastline on this side is some of the prettiest there is!

So, the other day we were showing these pictures to Ryan and he said when he saw this one, "Can you see Thomas Jefferson too?" Sure enough, we can....can you?

I personally think it looks more like George Washington, but it is kind of weird, don't you think?

When we were there last year, someone got washed off this point because they were too close to the water. The take home message is that you should RESPECT THE OCEAN!! It is much stronger than you. No picture is worth it!!! I'll get off my soap box now.

I'm sitting here in my cold basement with my little heater meer inches away from me thinking about how nice it was to be able to wear flip-flops in the winter. 85 degrees and sunny isn't horrible when you're cold.

Tomorrow I may go crazy and just post all day and get this done. Then again, maybe I won't!

See ya!

Catch Up

I thought I'd put on some pictures that aren't about Hawaii and catch up with what's been going on in Washington...

First, the snow. As you probably know, it snowed quite a bit for here the week after Thanksgiving. These are the best pictures I have. It really only snowed maybe 4" here, but you are reminded how many hills there are when they are all icy. (The pictures are of our back deck)

This next picture is suppose to be of the snow. It was actual real snow, not the wet rain we normally get here. You can really see the snow flakes in the regular size picture, but I don't know if you can see them too well in this one. Sorry...

Now for the wind storm last week...The power was out for about 36 hours at our house. We really didn't have to throw that much away...all the milk products and stuff that was close to being dead anyway. We were lucky. There are still about 80,000 people without power right now. They are saying that some of them won't have power until after Christmas. Whole substations were destroyed in this storm. We really lucked out. Our house was protected...along with our friends. There are trees down all over the place, but - knock on wood - none on our street. Here's a picture of our branch on our roof that I was worried about. Nothing to worry about...

Now how to get it down without falling off the roof...

And, finally, I had to show you how nice our door looks with the Christmas wreath...

That's so cute!!

Hawaii pictures are coming...we're getting them organized and getting the ones from our friends who where there too. Keep checking back!

What does Mother Nature have against the Northwest this Winter?

Apparently, we had too nice of a summer, if a little warm. We just wanted to let you all know, while we still can, that there was a HUGE wind storm that went blasting through Port Orchard Thursday night. Court says that she has never heard wind howl that loud. The power in Port Orchard has been out since Thursday night. (There is some indication that it is back on now, but we don't know for sure yet.) Our house has a "branch, not too big with no damage" on the roof. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to not be worried about that until after we see it. As far as we know, all of our friends are ok. We think that Ryan and Marcela are ok too since it says on the Internet that Silverdale didn't lose power. We haven't talked to them yet though. Our Stake President is predicting that the power is going to be out for at least a couple of days for most of the Stake. So, we may not be able to write for a few days.

There were 70 mile an hour winds on Thursday. They shut down basically all the bridges in Western Washington - Hood Canal, Tacoma Narrows, and all the Seattle ones. At the airport, the tower lost power and a 3'x6' window was blown out. It also was suppose to rain 8", but I haven't heard if it really did.

We will let you all know how we are. Luckily, since we were coming here, there wasn't much in our fridge, but the freezer is another story. Sad days, but what can you do? At least our garbage can is empty and garbage day is Monday.

:)

The following is a news report off the web on the storm, just in case you're interested.

SEATTLE - The worst windstorm in more than a decade tore through the Pacific Northwest, leaving more than a million people without power Friday and killing at least six.
Winds gusted to a record 69 mph about 1 a.m. at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, breaking the old mark of 65 mph set in 1993. Winds were clocked at 90 mph near Westport on the coast.
Power was knocked out at one of the airport's concourses until late Friday morning. Dozens of flights were canceled, including all American Airlines service through the morning hours. Flights were also canceled at Portland International Airport in Oregon, and Amtrak canceled service between Seattle and Portland after downed trees and mudslides blocked the tracks.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer went unpublished for the first time since a 1936 labor strike, because electricity was knocked out at its printing press, managing editor David McCumber said. The Seattle Times, which shares the press, had only about 13,000 copies available Friday morning. Late Friday, a Times' spokeswoman said Saturday editions of both papers would be printed and delivered.
Seattle public schools were closed Friday, as were numerous smaller school systems and The Evergreen State College in Olympia.
A 41-year-old Seattle woman died Thursday after she became trapped in her basement while it flooded. Neighbors had called for help after they heard screaming.
A 28-year-old man was killed while he slept when the top of a tree snapped off and crashed into his home in a trailer park in McCleary, 18 miles west of Olympia.
Elsewhere in Washington, two people died in traffic accidents involving windblown trees.
And on the Oregon coast, an elderly couple died in a house fire caused by candles they were using during a power outage.
A family of six was sickened by carbon monoxide from a generator set up in a garage after the storm knocked out power, police said Friday. Four children and two adults were hospitalized. Three of the children were listed in critical condition late Friday, while the other child and parents were in good condition.
Puget Sound Energy, Washington's largest private utility, had 700,000 customers without power on Friday. Some won't have their lights back on for days, spokesman Roger Thompson said.
In Oregon, about 350,000 customers lost power, and repairs to restore all of them could stretch into next week, utility officials said.
The Oregon Department of Transportation closed three major highways crossing the Cascade Range because of fallen trees or downed power lines.
The Evergreen Point floating bridge, which links Seattle and its eastern suburbs, was closed early Friday for minor repairs, but reopened before the evening commute. The Hood Canal floating bridge, which links Washington's Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas, and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge were reopened early Friday after being closed Thursday evening because of heavy winds.
It was the most intense storm to hit the region since the Inauguration Day storm of Jan. 20, 1993, which killed five people and caused about $130 million in damage, said Clifford F. Mass, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor.

Well, Maybe It's Not COMPLETELY Paradise

Sometimes you just need to get stuff off your chest, right? Well, this is going to be one of those blogs, so if you would rather not...you don't have to read it. I just need to complain.

We bought my tickets to Hawaii from Hawaiian Airlines on the Tuesday before we left, so not a long time. Well, just after that, I get this email that says my flight on Sunday has been changed from the 8a to the 9a flight. No worries. I called to make sure everything was ok and they said that yes, I was confirmed on the 9a flight. They had bought a bunch of planes from Delta that they thought would be in working order, but turned out to need a lot of work, so they have had to cancel some flights. No worries. I was assured that everything was ok.

So, here I am in paradise wondering what time my flight is, because, since you're in paradise, you don't really pay that much attention. I get on the Hawaiian Airlines page and it tells me that my flight is at 1:10p, not 1:30 that I thought it was, and that I am flying through Maui with a 2 hour layover. HUH??? So, I'm annoyed, right? I call Hawaiian and say, basically, "What's up with this?" They say, that the flight I was on was cancelled so this was the only other way I could get back to Seattle. They also said that there are no direct flights to Seattle. So, my 5-1/2 flight has now turned into an 8 hour journey. And there is nothing they can do about it. I hate flying in the first place, now the idea of having to be stuck in airports and planes that much longer makes me mad. AND the part that makes me the MOST angry is that they didn't tell me. True, 15 minutes AFTER I got off the phone with the Hawaiian Airline people I got a email telling me about the change, but ... when I called, they hadn't told me.

Believe me, I'm going to complain!! It just makes me mad. If that was the only flight they had had, I wouldn't have bought the ticket, but now I'm stuck. It just makes me mad!!!!!!

So, there's my complaining....boring as it may be.

The rest of the trip has been FANTASTIC. We really have had a great time! I'm just not looking forward to tomorrow. I must sound like a whiner. Sorry. I just needed to complain.

Just wait for the cool blogs. They'll be coming soon! We took a lot of fun pictures and have some fun stories.

:)

Aloha Oi

Well the Shipyard giveth and the Shipyard taketh away, and this time it givith it back. I was supposed to go to Hawaii for training, but due to a scheduling conflict I got bumped. The class that I got bumped to got full, so you guessed it bumped again. So I thought the Hawaii trip was mine to begin with so I should get to go. After much toil and email I am once again on the list to go. From the 3 through the 16 of December we get to escape the cold and snow that have set in on the Northwest and sit on the beach (after studying of course).

Ah the sunshine and warm of the beach, not to rub it in or anything, but ahhhh! We could have taken the class in Groton Connecticut, but who'd want to go there in December.

One of the things that you learn about working for the government is that the only constant is change. One minute its there and the next its all different. Makes for interesting days, never boring!

Yes this is the first time that I have actually posted to the blog. Don't worry its not going to become a habit or anything.

In this time of Thanksgiving...

**Disclaimer - I wrote this a couple of days ago at work, so it's a little disjointed.**

Hello all! I just wanted to say thank you for always checking back, even though I rarely write. I really appreciate it! I love all your comments! Thanks a lot!

Here I am at work, not wanting to work, so I'm typing up my blog. I'm going to save it and add pictures when I get home. That's thinking, isn't it?

We've been doing good. Just plugging along. Let's see...

Halloween was fun. We had a trunk or treat on Halloween night at our ward. There was a carnival before hand and the Young Women had to do a "booth" so we played tic tac toe with bean bags. I was cool and actually sewed the bean bags. I know what you're thinking...you can sew Ashley? Well, not really. I can kind of sew in a straight line though. The bean bags stayed together that night, so I guess they were ok.

Brent would give out more candy to those kids he thought did a good job with their costumes. Star Wars won out mostly. He's a silly boy!

We've been getting ready to have Young Women in Excellence. We have a nice simple program, now we just have to get the girls to bring stuff and really do what they signed up to do. Our new 2nd counselor Loki is teaching some girls a hula. That is the favorite thing, but... I'll be glad when it's over!

I just got a paper cut on my finger tip. It's right where the finger hits the keys, so it's hurting. Oh well. I'll get over it.

The weather here has been typical Western Washington in the winter. It has been RAINING AND RAINING. Brent and I keep saying that we really need to get a rain gauge so we can see how much it does rain, but let's just say ... a lot! Today was such a beautiful, sunny day! Now it's getting dark and cloudy. Sad!

Brent is still having fun being the ward clerk. Well, he still doesn't like meetings, but I don't think he ever will. He seems to be figuring it all out and people are starting to know who he is. Which is both good and bad.

Like I said, I will now go home and put the pictures on. Hopefully it won't go crazy again!
:)

Here's a few of the Linton Clan in Bremerton. That's the USS Turner Joy in the background. It's an old frigate that you can take tours on. We didn't take a tour, but we did pose in front. Check out my super cute shoes! :)

Now this is a super cute picture! It's from when we went camping with the Brown's. This is the day after, so we all look, ummmm, cute. Court was wondering why we would take the picture on the second day. I told her, it's because then we look like we're actualy camping! Oh, here's a side note. Sarah has on her BYU sweatshirt. Brent calls it her abomination shirt. So, whenever Brent comes in when she's wearing it, she says, "Oh no, it's my abomination shirt." So cute. That reminds me of a story. Last year, Brent decided to take it upon himself to teach the girls about Star Wars. He feels that Court and Brad aren't exposing them to the best movies ever at an early enough age. So, he would try to talk to them about Darth Vader and Princess Lea. He even brought out his Darth Tader toys so they could play with them. Well, Court and the girls are in Target one day and they see a whole bunch of Star Wars stuff including a Darth Vader helmet and Chloe says, "Look Mom, it's Darth Tader. Brent loves him." Court tried to explain that it was Darth Vader, not Tader, but Chloe wouldn't hear of it. Then, a little while later it was Halloween and they got a magazine with costumes in it. There was one whole page with Star Wars on it and Sarah and Chloe were CONVINCED that that was what Brent was going to be for Halloween. It was funny!

Well, it's almost bed time! Bye :)

Ok, Seriously

I just had a huge posting, I promise, but somehow I lost it. I'll do it again tomorrow. If I try tonight and it does that again, I may have to throw the computer out the window, then Brent would yell and we'd get in a fight. It's just now worth it!

:)

More of the Same

I promise, someday the pictures will be done!!

Here are some of the fun and happy people while we were enjoying the beach at Point No Point! Julie had just taken off her jacket because she thought it looked stupid to be wearing a jacket on the beach. Probably practical on the beaches here, but...

Isn't this a cute picture...I think it's so funny that the blond one sticks out! :) One of these things is not like the other...

Have I posted this one before?? I can't remember...so...here you go again. Now the hair colors are even. ;)

We'll stay with this theme. Beautiful dress, bad picture. Sorry.

This is Kyle when we went camping. He was having a great time, he would fall down, then start playing with the dirt. It was fun. If you notice the big old bandaid on his arm, this is how it happened. Since Court can descibe it much better, here's what she said about it....

Kyle hurt his arm while he was in the bike trailer. He figured out how to get his arm through a small space in the canvas and then stick it into the spokes on the wheel. Luckily Brad stopped pedaling as soon as he heard something in the wheel. Kyle's arm had quite a bit of skin that had come off, but it wasn't broken or bleeding. We kept it bandaged up for about two weeks. It has healed nicely.

Well put. The other night when we were watching the Brown kids, we put Kyle to bed and turned on the baby monitor. He sat in there and talked to himself for about 45 mins before he went to sleep. The funniest part is that he sounded like he was asking himself a question then answering it. You were hear babble babble babble? And then "Yeah". It was a hoot!

And with that, I'm done with pictures for the night. We apparently have to clear up a little question that's been going around. We were going to go to Hawaii again in December, but it has now been cancelled. Brent was going to go to training, but now he has training here in Washington. Anyway, sorry we didn't clear that up earlier!

Love you all!

The Posting Strikes Back

Ah, Star Wars...isn't it the best! :)

Oh my heck! That is just so cute! Reyes is getting so big. I really notice it in this picture!

Here is the tennis gang. Thanks for the picture Julie! They had a lot of fun, except for when Brent was trying to get a ball and crashed into the chainlink fence instead cutting his forehead and scratching his glasses. Fun was had by all! Mostly.

Here's Brent and my dad flying kites in Port Townsend. My dad had the BEST time. He was all smiles. It was fun to watch.

Ok, kind of a bad picture of Sarah, but I think Brent and Kyle are so cute that I can't help it. Kyle likes to point out lights and say, "lie?" And we all say, "Yep, that's a light." He's pretty cute! And he really like Brent which Brent likes. Oh, and you can't see, but Sarah has a BYU sweatshirt on. That's another reason it's good to have Kyle in the front. :)

Reyes, Marcela and Luz. Three generations!

I like to call this one, "Knock it off Jared!" But he is kind of funny!

I saw this bouquet in Pike's Place Market early on in our Seattle adventure. I just loved it so I bought it saying that I would carry it the whole way. Well, Brent ended up carrying it most of the way, but that's just because he is so super nice! :)

Well, I have to go to church. I know, I take too many pictures! It's true! See ya!