Kauai Was Great!

I have to say we had a very nice and relaxing trip while staying on the island of Kauai. It really is a beautiful place with lots of things to do. I expected to see a lot of Native Hawaiian's but I didn't. I expected to see some old culture, which I didn't. What I did see were LOTS and LOTS of chickens! They were everywhere on the island. When I say everywhere I really mean it! The story is there were roosters brought there for cock fighting and they got loose during a storm, possibly more than once. There are no mongoose on the island as they did not want them to eat the eggs of the rare birds that are only on that island. Therefore, we have an overpopulation of chickens! I wonder if it's alright to eat them...

Things Have Not Been Going As Well As I'd Hoped

Mostly it was a good summer and into Fall. The scooters have been a lot of fun. I have been riding mine to my Pulmonary Rehab, which is a graduated exercise class, until my back came up hurting again. Now I have not been to my exercise or on my scooter for a week.

I am visiting the chiropractor every day except Sunday and am hoping that will end soon. The good news is, Jeff and I are going to Hawaii on Saturday. We are staying on Kauai this time at North Beach. It will be relaxing but I doubt we'll have much of a chance to do anything with my back feeling like it does. Pray for a quick recovery!

I did not really have the chance to make any new costumes for Halloween this year, much to my disappointment, but then I don't feel much like dressing up anyway. I did manage to sell the Star Wars costumes I made for Katie and Mike 6 years ago to a local costume shop. How nice is that!

I guess that's it and please forgive me for not writing anything new in such a long time. It's not that I don't care, really! We will have no internet access on our trip so don't expect any updates.

I Took The Bull By The Horns!

So today was my motorcycle road test. I wish I'd realized the course I would need to run was on the pavement in the parking lot at the DMV. I think I would have practiced as I got by there 4 times per week. At least I PASSED and I won't have to do it again unless I get a bike with more than a 249cc engine. I'm legal to go on the freeway once my engine is broken in. That will be nice if the occasion ever arises when I feel the need to subject myself to that. I doubt it will happen any time soon. Anyway, Jeff is going to do his on Monday so we'll go this weekend and practice. Wish him luck! I'm sure he'll do fine.

It's Not Due To Lack Of Wanting To!

I've been run down, busy and just plain tired and sleepy. Not my fault! I have not been following anyone's blog and have not been writing in my own either I'm sorry to say. This week I started a pulmonary rehab exercise class and that goes 4 days per week. It's helping me regain my strength and stamina after being unable to do anything for too long now. Mental stress? Yeah, that got me down as well. I think I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. I've started letting a little sunshine in through the cracks of the shutters in my "cave" lately too. I believe that means I'm feeling a desire to be a participant in my own life! Yes, I do go through these stages as I'm sure we all do at times. I'm glad to be peeking out through the cracks and wanting to be involved. I'm starting to feel good! Hurray! I thank my Heavenly Father and the wonderful men who have given me countless Priesthood blessings for my success in recovery thus far.

Sunday, the kids are heading to Southern California and will be taking the grandkids to Disneyland. I'll miss them for a whole week! The day after they get back my sister and I are heading for Northern California for a few days to see our mother, brother and my eldest daughter. It's going to be a fun trip but I'll miss everyone I'm not seeing for those nearly two weeks of time. Poor little me... LOL!

So, this will be my first post in awhile but I really was having a good time until the dog bit me. Oh, did I forget to mention that? Yes, my dog mistook me for someone else during a sleep induced haze. He woke up with me trying to move him and snapped his chompers shut right into my right hand. I was on antibiotics for 10 days. Those ended last Wednesday. The hand is doing very well with some residual stiffness and soreness as of today. It's healed quite well and quickly. To his credit, there was the smell of the cable guy in the room and he woke up being tugged on. I'm sure he thought he was defending himself at least if not the household.

So with not much else to day I'll end this post and get it posted! Thanks for reading!

About Thursday...

It was a difficult trying to get out and ride today! Our attention was needed in so many other areas today, we ended up having a nice long ride for later in the evening.
At lunch time we went to a new restaurant near our home. It's called Cafe Victoria and they serve a small selection of Mexican food favorites. It reminded us of Taqueria Rosita back in Napa. Delicious! The staff were friendly and helpful as well. I told them I was going to blog my meal there and give them some free advertising so here it is. They are located at 183 North West State Street in American Fork. The restaurant was very clean and had a nice atmosphere. Having been exposed to good authentic Mexican food my whole life in California I have to give Cafe Victoria two thumbs up!

Once we finally got out for a good long ride on our new scooters we headed toward 5th East, the back way. It was nice scooting through neighborhoods and enjoying the scenery. We ended up on the Alpine Highway, which starts at 100 East in American Fork. We decided a trip to Alpine was in order! Here's one small photo of the lovely scenery we were able to ride through out near the mountians. We had a wonderful time and also discovered we have now joined a new community of people. Cycle riders everywhere we went gave us a small wave to let us know we were seen and welcomed. It was quite fun and made us feel completely accepted! Now isn't that special... :)

When One Just Isn't Enough!

So a funny thing happened on the way home from getting protective jackets today. We thought, "Why share a Vespa when we can have two?"

We stopped at home to pick up Jeff's helmet and gloves as I told him the silver Vespa was MINE! He'd planned on driving the new one home but as it turned out, it was just the right color to match my helmet!
What else could I do but borrow his helmet and gloves, put on my new jacket and drive my NEW Vespa home! He could have the OLD one, right? It was, after all, only 24 hours old...

Jeff followed me home and snapped a picture of me driving the new "HOG". LOL! It'll be great being able to ride together just like my Mom and Dad used to. Yay!

The Irresponsible Thing We Did Today...

Let's just let the pictures tell the story, shall we?

This is Melanie.

This is the Vespa that Melanie showed us.

This is Giovanni who fitted the helmets so we could ride the Vespa that Melanie showed us.

This is a once through, an overview as it were,

by Giovanni who fitted our helmets so we could ride the Vespa that Melanie showed us.

This is the scooter we bought after Giovanni fitted our helmets so we could ride the Vespa that Melanie showed us.

We love the new Vespa we bought after Giovanni fitted our helmets so we could ride the Vespa that Melanie showed us! Yay!

I Should Have Posted Before Now...

A few things have happened since I last posted so I'll start with number 1. I turned 50. Jeff and Katie planned a nice Birthday party for me where I got to be the Queen. Yay! The biggest gift was my firstborn child coming to visit. That was something I had been hoping for and when she showed up I was so happy! I really needed that; thanks guys! I had a lovely cake supplied by my sister, good music, friends and family. That's all I needed to make the party perfect.

The next thing to happen was Stephanie, Jimmy, Kaitlin and Care'n coming for a visit to Logan. They were here for a family wedding and luckily Katie and I had some time to drive up and say hi! We took Jacob and Ellie with us and had lunch out while we were there. Jacob and Kaitlin were so happy to see one another again so soon and the first thing they did was hug in the doorway. All three little ones had lemonade at lunch and all three little ones spilled their lemonade at lunch. WooHoo!

The wedding actually took place at Timpanogos, just down the road from us, and so we had a second visit in the same amount of days. What a splendiforous time we had, even though it was short.

The third thing will be addressed in the blog I write following this one, which will show up just above the one! You'll probably read that one first.

Movies We've Seen

I'm not going to be giving full reviews on the movies but I will list them in the order we saw them and say which ones I liked or did not like and why.

First there was the new Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Brendan Fraser is one of my favorite actors and I do love the sometimes campy humor of the Mummy movies. I gave this one a thumbs up. It's too bad they had to replace the Evie character with a new actor as she was not nearly as interesting. We can't have everything.

Next there was Dark Knight. I have to say the acting was superb, if not disturbing! The story was well written and acted. The scenery was excellent. The only thing I didn't like was the feeling of darkness and depression I carried with me from the first scene. I did not like the movie and I can't say I'm glad I didn't miss it. It just was not to my taste.

Lastly we saw The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Again, it was dark but what X-Files episode wasn't? It was an interesting, if gruesome, tale but it kept my attention. I may have liked it simply because it was 'an X-Files' just as I loved the first Star Trek movie only because it was Star Trek.

There you have it. The reviews are more of my opinion but since this is my forum I feel I can express it without reserve. Thanks for reading my blog!

Things That Go Bump On The Road

What happened was this... When we started home from Nebraska on the last day of our vacation to Chicago the rear end of the car started bouncing a bit. It got worse as we drove along. We thought maybe one of the balancing weights had fallen off.

I forgot all about it on Wednesday and vowed to make an appointment Thursday to take care of it. I forgot. At 4:00 this afternoon I suddenly realized we were going to be driving several hours tomorrow to Idaho and then back again and I really needed to get this problem fixed!

We dropped by Les Schwab Tires and they said they could get it done in an hour. After the hour was up we headed out to get the car and found it was not finished. Apparently there was a problem with the rear tires...

Can you say BALD? Look, you can see the steel belts showing through on both rear tires. Can you imagine how blessed we were not to have a blow out driving 80 miles per hour? My theme song for today would be, "Count Your Blessings".

I was wondering why my tires were sliding on the concrete Freeway whenever I hit a rough spot!

Girl's Night Out!

Katie and I usually have a little birthday celebration between her birthday and mine, since they are so close. Last night we had an impromptu "girl's night out". We first went to select a different camera case for the new camera given me by the family for my birthday (early). It's a Sony Cyber-shot 10.1 megapixel dream!

Armed with the new camera we were off on our evening adventure! We stopped to pick up a small case to protect the camera which will live in my purse. Following that we went to Applebee's and had the House Sirloin dinner. It was delicious! Katie had a plain baked potato and I went for the mashed variety and had mushrooms added to my steak. We had fun taking all sorts of wacky photos of the table, our food and ourselves.

Since two babes like us could not be seen in my travel worn Kia we then stopped by the carwash and had all the grime from the Chicago trip washed away. I'm surprised my headlights were still visible through all the bugs; Yuck! Anyway, we drove over to the American Fork Cinema and bought our tickets for that dazzling flick "Mamma Mia!" I honestly do not think I have laughed so much in a film for a long time. It was fun and enjoyable. There were actually a few men in the theater, which was filled nearly to capacity.

As you can see, we really love our shoes! Here we are inside the theater waiting for our mid-birthday celebrating movie to begin!

The movie was so fun and funny we would have to recommend it to women everywhere. Just beware of the galley scene on the boat if you do not want to see the bare backside of a middle-aged man! The movie will be especially enjoyable when shared with a group of your best girlfriends. The only thing that could have made our evening better was to have Christy along as part of our Girl's Night Out.

Third Time's the Charm?

I have tried to post on our one full day in Kenosha twice already but something keeps happening and the post disappears. Better luck this time!

After we left the Museum of Science we drove straight to Kenosha, Wisconsin. After checking in to the room at the hotel we found the bathroom was not sufficiently clean. As I started to clean the sink I kept finding hairs around the room that were too long for Jeff's and too short and light colored to be mine. Gross!
We called the front desk and the manager on staff was THE only employee on the premises. She gave us a new room. This bathroom sink did not have soapy scum on the back but it did have a long hair and a dead bug. Enough! She could not come clean the room for us until late in the evening so we took sanitary wipes and did it ourselves. She decided to comp the room for us that night which was fine with us.

The next morning we met up with Phil, Susan and the girls once again. We all went to visit Elsa & Julie. Elsa was the boys' old nanny and Julie is her husband. These visits have become much more important lately as Elsa's health is suffering. We always have an enjoyable time visiting with them!

We planned on taking them out to dinner but once the bill was to come Julie insisted he pay for all of us instead. Jeff took lots of silly pictures as we were visiting so I'll post them in a slideshow!


Among the pictures Jeff took on the tour around the city were photos of the places Phil and Jeff lived and attended school. The most significant one is the picture of Radio Shack. That's where Jeff would go after school to hang out, promising the salesman he would eventually buy a computer. Gramma J made that dream a reality by buying a computer for the boys from that store. So this Radio Shack is where their technical careers began.

We left Kenosha the morning of July 28th and took two days to get back to Utah. It was a long drive but we enjoyed listening to the 3rd Fablehaven book on CD as we drove. It makes driving much less tedious. I think everyone should try it!

Kenosha Slide Show: http://www.slide.com/r/TfM2tdjA7T_0871pnQ9pw0Sxokujy8Fd?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

Katiebug Appreciation Day

We choose this day, the first day of our journey home, as the official Katiebug Appreciation Day. Katie has worked tirelessly at cleaning up after our dog and cats while we've been away and for cleaning out and reorganizing the pantry and all the freezers. Other items of interest will be discussed later in the day with Katie herself. :)
So, in appreciation for all you do, we wish you a Happy Katiebug Day! We love you very much and will be home soon to apply the afore-mentioned appreciation in person.

Love,

Mom & Papa

Saturday at the Museum

We arrived at Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry just before 10:00 Saturday morning. We left around 4:30 that afternoon. It was a long day. Let me try to describe the interesting things we saw and the fun things we did. First we saw baby chicks hatching and then we saw their older siblings all fluffy and soft. We were not allowed to touch them but they did look incredibly soft. Had they not been inside a locked container I'm sure the crowds would have taken them out and cuddled each and every one. There were scale models of both Seattle and Chicago. The detail was amazing! There were simulators of all sorts, games to play, technology to play with, simulated cow milking machines and even the Wright Flyer to see. There were full scale planes on the upper balcony level. We had fun in the Hall of Whispers and viewing ourselves on a thermal imager. There was 'Brain Food' to eat at the cafeteria but it didn't seem much like brain food to me. Too much sugar and fat for the brain to maintain equalibrium! There was even an example of how manure can be used as energy on a farm. There were lines for the Navy flight simulator and the Coal Mine but the wait was far too long for any of us to spend time waiting. We had an enjoyable time with Jeff's brother and family at the museum. Upon leaving we headed for Kenosha, Wisconsin which I shall write about tomorrow.

Navy Pier, Chicago

It's sort of like an amusement park, but not quite. It's a long pier extending into lake Michigan on the East Side of Chicago. Friday, after finishing up the boat tour we met Jeff's brother, our sister-in-law and two nieces there for lunch and some fun.

There's a huge ferris wheel, sort of. The seats are semi-enclosed baskets that rotate very slowly on a ferris wheel frame. They go slow enough to let passengers get off and onto the ride. Bekah was not afraid of the ride but when Jeff and Phil threatened to rock the carriage she was not happy at all!



Since Phil's family lives in Michigan and we live in Utah, we don't get to see one another all that often. Any reunion is an occasion to celebrate!


We ran into this unfortunate woman on the pier selling flowers for a dollar. She was hoping to raise enough money for the surgery that would cure to her disfiguring disease. Thank goodness we came along. With the dollar we gave she was instantly cured. It was a miracle! We were so happy to have been able to help her out in her quest for normalcy.

No, really this is our sister-in-law Susan. We love you Susan and thank you very much for playing!

We were also able to see the Cirque Shanghai Gold. It was very entertaining. We took a lot of pictures and some video. We hope you enjoy the show! Until I can get the slides to show just click the link in the post above.

The Slide Show: http://www.slide.com/r/5zr7BPPX7D8gNQ_tHsC60F-8NqDVe8mD?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original