Taylor's 1st Haircut

Okay most kids are not 2 months away from their 4th birthday when they get their first haircut but you come from our family you do. I did give Nathan his first haircut at about 18 months because I wasn't digging the mullet look on my little boy. On Friday November 6th I took Taylor to Snipits, a place in Chandler that is just for kids haircuts. Her hair wasn't very long but it was in desperate need of some style or shape.


Frontal before picture.

Side before picture.

She did really good. Not a single tear was shed, the place was really cool.

They even put a cute little ribbon in her hair. I asked her how she wanted her hair cut. Taylor's reply " I want to keep it long and I don't want bangs" So the girl cut to the shortest part of her hair and left the bangs alone so we can brush them to the side.

This is a view from the side. I don't like the way it was styled. I think it looks much cuter when I use a straightening iron so it is nice and smooth. I don't have any close up pictures of Taylor after I have styled her hair. Those will come at a later time. At least the day is documented.

Grandpa's Funeral Day

This past Monday November 9th was the funeral for my Grandpa. The oldest Grandsons from each family were the casket bearers.Grandpa was a World War II veteran so there was a Military Honor Guard at the burial. It was all very sobering. Patriotic stuff always makes me emotional so you can just imagine how emotional I was. Especially when the trumpet was played.

All of the siblings. My Mom is the one in red, she is the youngest of the 5 kids.
All of my immediate family posing for a picture. Honestly it is not the greatest picture but hey at least we are all together and took the photo opportunity. The baby is the 89th Great Grandchild born and his name is Warner Walter (Walter is my Grandpa's first name). The best thing is my brother had just come from Utah and visited Grandpa 4 days before his stroke and only 10 days before he passed away. Grandpa was able to meet his namesake.

After the funeral services and luncheon we all got in play clothes and headed to my parents house for some family togetherness. The kids rode bikes, scooters, walked my parents dog. The adults and older nephews played some football and basketball.

Preston decided he would take advantage of the day off work and take a nap on the front lawn.


After a while Natalie accomplished her goal of waking Daddy up.

It was a really good day together as a family even considering the reason we were all together. I love my family and appreciate the times I can spend with them.

The past few days have been an emotional roller coaster

On Thursday November 5th my maternal Grandpa passed away at 4:45 am. My Grandpa is an amazing person. I love him so much and cherished every time I got to spend time with him. I will miss him terribly but I am so grateful that my kids were able to meet and know their Grandpa Great. My Grandma passed away a little over 8 years ago ( a little over a week before I discovered I was pregnant with Nathan). I am so happy that my Grandma and Grandpa get to be together again. A couple of things that I want to remember and tell my kids when they get older.
Nathan while saying his evening prayer on Wed Nov 4th "Bless Grandpa Great that he will survive." We then had the discussion of how sometimes what we want isn't what Heavenly Father wants. That Grandpa Great probably wouldn't survive much longer because it was time for him to get to work in Heaven and to be with Grandma Great again. Nathan asked some questions and we had a great little moment together.
I went down to the Hospice center to see my Grandpa on Wednesday the 4th. At this point he was only able to slightly nod to let you know he heard you. I was able to give him a drink from a small sponge. I was so grateful to have that opportunity to serve him. My cousin Britney was also there at Hospice with her husband while Preston and I were there. We stood on both sides of the bed while our Husbands sat at the foot of his bed. When we were kids we would always sit on the arms of his recliner. My mom crossstitched a picture with 2 girls sitting on a grandpa's lap with the phrase. There is always room on Grandpa's lap. So as Britney and I sat there we mentioned how there is always room on Grandpa's lap. Grandpa gave a very slight nod in agreeance. I told him I loved him and turned quickly away to leave before I lost all of my composure. Preston said Grandpa mouthed the words I love you after I turned around.

Taylor and Natalie went with us to the Hospice center but I didn't let them go into the room. So Taylor drew him a picture that my Mom showed to him after we left. After waking up to learn that Grandpa Great had died.
Taylor asked "Oh is he in Heaven now?"
Me- "Yes"
Taylor- "When are we going to see him again?"
Me-"When we go to Heaven."
Taylor "Oh, are we going to go there today?"

This picture was taken in June.

On a happier note. Thursday November 5th was also our 11th wedding anniversary. Or as we refer to it, our family's birthday. So that morning Preston and I had pancakes on our red plates and we sang happy birthday to our family. Preston bought me these beautiful flowers.

Friday night we went out as a family to celebrate our birthday at Famous Dave's

Taylor loved the Famous Dave's pig and gave him a few hugs.
Natalie on the other hand was not a fan. If she ever saw him in her vicinity she would frequently look over her shoulder to keep tabs on him. This is one such occasion. I guess she isn't ready to meet all the Characters at Disneyland.

Hawaii Part 2

Here are a lot more pictures from our Hawaii trip. Sorry it is a really long post but we took over 200 pictures. On Friday before we flew to the island of Kaua'i we went to get some Hawaiian shave ice at the popular Matsumoto's. It was good but I wish I didn't add the Azuki beans to it. I didn't care for the taste. We did go to 2 other shave ice places over the weekend. One place that was right next to our hotel in Kaua'i that was heavenly. We got a pina colada with ice cream at the bottom and then they drizzle sweetened condensed milk over the top. I Loved It. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.We visited the outside of the Laie Temple. The temple is going through a major renovation and has been closed all this year and won't open until around next July. So we just walked around the temple grounds and then inside the visitors center.

Posing on the beach one last time at the Turtle Bay resort before heading to the airport.

On Friday afternoon we took the very little inter island airplane to the island of Kaua'i to spend the weekend. These 2 pictures are of the atrium (?) in front of the hotel lobby. It was amazing how all the hotels are totally open there,they don't have doors to the lobbys.

Saturday morning we went on a raft tour of the Na Pali Coast. It was beautiful but the raft was adventurous and really bumpy. The water was really rough coming back. I was sore by the time we got back. This is where we got off the raft and checked out an old village on the side of the mountain, ate lunch (provided by the tour) and snorkeled. The water was clear and pretty. We saw some great fish
Some of the mountains along the coast.

Some pictures of us on the raft.

The highlight of the trip was we came across 2 dolphin pods during our raft tour. There were dozens of them swimming all around us. We have some cool video but I am still blog illiterate and have a hard time downloading videos on here.

If you look really closely in the middle of the water in this picture there is a little baby dolphin that kept jumping out of the water and doing flips it was so cool and cute.
Some sea turtles that we saw during the raft tour.

We drove up the Waimea Canyon. It was pretty but parts of it looked a lot like the Arizona canyons so we didn't go all the way to the top. We were bored with it. But here are a couple snapshots.

We also rented a boogie board and some snorkel equipment that we took to some beaches. Preston attempted the whole boogie board thing but it didn't workout too well for him. The waves got huge after he gave up and got out of the water. Go figure huh.

On Monday before we flew back to the island of Oahu we did the Wiki Wiki (quick) zipline. There were 3 zips, 25o ft, 800 ft and 750 ft. It was fun. They have a cool little set up there.

Preston walking across the bridge that was really scary to me. We were always clipped in to something with our harness so we were safe, but this bridge had gaps between the wood planks and I was worried I would slip and injure myself.



This is me on the first zip.
After we landed in Oahu Hollie and Bret picked us up from the airport and we all headed to Pearl Harbor. It was sobering to see the video and the memorial of all the names of the people that died that day. I found a marine that shared my maiden name.


After Pearl Harbor we grabbed some lunch and then went to do the Diamond Head hike. It was a bit of a challenge to be honest, I really thought I was in better shape then my body demonstrated during the hike. We went up around 200+stairs along with a ramp and alot of switchbacks. The hike itself was ugly I thought, but the view from the top was pretty.

Letting the sand go through my toes one more time before heading to dinner and then we caught the red eye flight that night. I don't think I will ever do the red eye again if I can avoid it. We didn't get much sleep at all and there were some real wackos on the flight.

So there it is our Hawaiian adventure. I LOVED being in Hawaii and I LOVED being with Preston for that long. I felt like we were newlyweds all over again. It was an Awesome vacation. Thanks for taking the time to read this incredibly long post.