Aloha!

Aloha! I started this post with the intention of presenting a professional picture story in a logical order but then I quickly remembered that I can never remember what order things go in when I'm uploading. So here are a bunch of pictures in no particular order that I hope you enjoy!

See? We really were on a tropical island... a bird of paradise on the side of the road and everything.

A wall of coconuts that I think looked cool. You can form your own opinion.

Turtle! This was taken off the boat the day we went snorkeling. We saw him and his friends swimming around in the deep blue sea too.

Seth won't like that I posted this shot... he hates it!

(Sorry Seth! I really didn't mean to post this one!)

After we were done snorkeling, one of the guides brought this small octopus up from the bottom. Stephanie immediatly held out her hand and asked to hold it. I got as close as this picture shows and that was good enough for me. It really did sound like suction cups releasing when it was taken off her arm. It really left a bunch of black stuff behind too!

I got slimed too!

Me, Sherrill, Steph and Seth on our snorkeling adventure day. And yes, having a Steph and a Seth in the same family does get confusing!

.Here we are enjoying a pineapple-mango smoothie at our luau. And even though it looks like we've had a few adult beverages we were stone sober, the luau is put on by the Mormon church which means no alcohol allowed.

Here's our family photo with our Polynesian Cultural Center guide, Cousin Glen. Apparently the Polynesians refer to everyone as cousin. Welcome to the family!

Cousin Glen. Once again, welcome to the family.

This was our cultural guide in the Samoan village. For the life of me I can't remember what his real name is, think of something long with lots of vowels, but he told us it translates to "so handsome" in English. He was really very funny and as you can see not bad to look at either.

I think Steph was having a good time this day.

One more family picture. Gee Steph seems so itty-bitty when stacked up against us all!

This one's for you Leanna. I thought that if you were thinking of getting back into the Mormon religion you should see that you could worship in paradise. This place was amazing!



And on the flip side, I thought the entrance to this tunnel looked like the gates of hell.



Ahhh... isn't that sweet. You have to love a place that has heart shaped leaves on the trees!

(Or in this case, laying on the ground.)

Stephanie, Joe and Sherrill on the beach with Chinaman's Hat Island in the background.


Joe, Nancy and Seth


And of course Seth and me, too.


While we were wandering around the beach and taking pictures in front of Chinaman's Hat island there were two separate sets of brides and grooms there to get pictures taken. Imagine all the sand that got stuck in that formal dress! She had heels on too!


Steph looking tropical.


Nancy probably won't appreciate this picture but the look on her face is genuine and priceless. As you can see she wasn't expecting the water to come in over her feet.


A scenic picture postcard shot of Chinaman's Hat Island.


This was the view off the deck (sorry, lanai) of our rental house. The small, white rectangle in the center of the picture is the USS Arizona Memorial with the USS Missouri behind it to the right. All the water you see is Pearl Harbor.


Sunset from the lanai.


So is this called sunrise or moonset? This shot was taken at about 7 am.

A misty sunrise off the lanai. If you enlarge this picture, you'll be able to make out Diamond Head in the center. As you can see we had a great house. The inside matched the views outside.

A shot of the North Shore with the waves crashing. I could sit there all day and watch.

Seth and his co-pilot Megan prepping for their glider ride. Seth was smiling even bigger when they landed.

An early morning kiss and cup of coffee with Sherrill and Joe.

This is the medallion in the deck of the USS Missouri where the WWII Japanese surrender agreement was signed. It was really interesting being able to walk around this ship and see a bit of how Navy sailors live. And you think you don't have storage space!

The flag on the bow of the Mighty Mo! A beautiful day on Pearl Harbor!

Merry Christmas 2009

I hope you all had a great Christmas. Except for Bertha (the winter storm), ours was peachy keen. We even got a tree up and decorated this year!

Caleb, Ajha, Mazzy & Rudolph at Bentleyville a few days before Christmas.

Don't you love how Mazzy is chewing her popcorn during this shot?

This was the best of a few bad pictures. I gave Seth a lecture about how when someone is taking his picture he's supposed to smile at the camera! Tara & Mazzy made it in the shot too.


Blizzard Bertha dropped almost 2 feet of snow at our house on Christmas Eve. Then she started raining on Christmas Day. Lots of the snow melted and the streets and sidewalks are an ankle-twisting, fender bender mess. Think of a rutted, muddy road... that's frozen solid! Lots of fun! But Jack had fun playing in the snow on Christmas Eve.

Until he fell over and got stuck. Then later in the day the McDonald Clan was supposed to get together as tradition dictates but some were snowed in in Duluth and others in St. Paul. We still had the party room booked for our swimming pool fun so we convinced our friends, the Ruders, to come out and join us. The kids had fun in the pool. Jack and Sadie especially loved running up and down the halls!

Sadie says, "Jack, you wait here and I'll go grab the Cheetos off the table!"

(Don't you love her beach towel toga?)

"I'll be right back!" As Jack gives her the sly thumbs up in agreement.

I think this is the exact moment that Sadie shared her cold with Jack.

Go Vikes!

And then on Christmas morning, we made our way to the Kempffers, in the pouring rain. Seth loved the footie pjs in the boots so much he had to take a picture.

This play vacuum was the first thing Jack opened at Grandma Donna's and, as far as he was concerned, he was done. He didn't even wait until it was out of the box to start playing. Why a toy vacuum? I told Mimi (Auntie Amy) to keep an eye out for one because Jack throws a royal temper tantrum when I put my dust buster away. Did this decoy work? Of course not! He still loves my dust buster.

This dumbstruck look was Caleb's reaction to opening an iPod Touch. It was fun watching him run around the house on the scavenger hunt that his grandma set up for him to find it.

Isn't this how we all feel at the end of Christmas morning?

I think he was watching Wall-E at this point.