Trip Down Memory Lane

Let us take a little trip back in time. Do you remember dancing throughout the kitchen and living room to this classic album?

(Lindsay, notice the great disco floor on the cover -- one day your dream may come true!)

I got lost in a fabulous childhood memory when something made me think of this, so I looked online to see if I could maybe buy the CD so that one day my kids could boogie down as much as we did. Unfortunately, it's now a collectors item, and no longer in print so prices were like $50. No thanks. But, I did find this awesome website that let me listen to the entire album for free. Oh yeah, just imagine me rocking out in my room to these classic hits: Disco Mickey Mouse, Welcome to Rio, Mousetrap, The Greatest Band, Macho Duck, Watch Out for Goofy. And who can forget the disco-funky versions of It's a Small World, ChimChim Cheree, and Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah! I know, the memories are flooding back.

So, as an early Christmas gift, please enjoy a little listen. Get out those dancing shoes, because once the first synthesizer notes start playing, you will be in heaven!

http://www.last.fm/music/Disneyland+Records/Disco+Mickey+Mouse

Sewing and Moving

Mom and I had dueling sewing machines on Saturday making the cushions for the bench.

Do you know why we look so happy? Because we made the decision to not do the piping which would have added approximately a year and a half onto the project. No swearing was involved in the making of these cushions.

In other news:

We said a tearful good-bye to the old piano.

It's moving to its new home today. Katie and I had one last go around with it and called Gina to break the news. We were sad you weren't here, Gina, to play the Beer Barrell Polka one last time for us.

So long, Old Faithful. You served us well for 30 years. 25 of which with broken pedals.

We're Back From Paradise!

Camille and I have made our triumphant return from Hawaii -- and it truly was paradise. We filled the week up with anything and everything we could think of, or find in our handy-dandy travel book! We covered tons of the island and saw as much as we could. The entire trip was perfect -- even though we did spend two hours stuck in a parking lot waiting for Triple A to help us get our keys out of the trunk. We took a gazillion pictures, but I thought I'd just give you a highlight of things we did. So here it goes:

We went to Pali Lookout, which had an amazing view of the southern coast of Oahu, although probably the windiest place I've ever been in my life.

We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and had an amazing time! The shows were great, the luau was so fun and the night show was spectacular. I'm so glad we went.

We saw the sunset from Sunset Beach on the North Shore.

We went to the Valley of the Temples which is actually part of a cemetery. It was beautiful. It had a koi pond with the biggest koi I've ever seen -- it made me miss our little pond.



Camille took this amazing picture of Waikiki on our last night there. Isn't it perfect? Yep- paradise.



We hiked this insane hike to Manao Falls. It was so steep and muddy. The first picture was taken after we rested a bit and could actually smile. The hike up was amazingly beautiful, and the falls were gorgeous, but wow, it was some hike!

We visited the temple in Laie. It's being renovated, and they had just painted it white earlier in the week. It was beautiful (I know, I use that word too much, but it's the best way to describe things).

This is the Banzai Pipeline on the North Shore. The waves weren't huge like I wanted them to be, but there were so many surfers out there, I don't get how they're not constantly running into each other.

Th is is the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. This was a pretty amazing place. We watched a movie and then took a boat over the the memorial (thanks for the miraculous ear patches!). The diagram above shows how the memorial is sitting on top of the ship. It was a little eerie to think of all the men that are actually buried in the ship right below us. But I learned a lot about what happened that day and I'm grateful we went. They also had a submarine memorial next to it that had a plaque for each of the 52 submarines lost at sea during WWII. The plaque had the information for the submarine and then listed all the crew underneath the heading "On Eternal Patrol." It was pretty touching.

We also visited Ko'Olina beach on the west side, drove this amazing road through the "jungle" of Oahu, went to Laie Point, drove through a mile-long tunnel in a mountain that looked straight out of "Lost" (it could have been, we were right near the filming area), had the famous Hawaiian Shave Ice (we can't figure out why the just say shave ice, not shaved), swam at Turtle Bay, attended church during an adorable Primary program -- those Polynesian kids can belt it out!, we spent 3 hours talking with Jacob -- it was so good to see him, went to Krazy Karaoke with the Purcell family and sang our hearts out for 3 hours, and just had a marvelous time! Now we're back to reality, but have enough pictures to keep the memories alive. Aloha and Mahalo!

**If you'd like to see the rest of our 200 pics, we'll be doing a fireside this Sunday night where we've prepared a slide show of our travels, or just come here our testimony travel-log next Fast Sunday!

THE FLOOR IS IN

Dad worked long and hard to get the floors in and they look great! He just has the finish work left on it but the back-breaking part is done.

Really???

For all of your fat joke needs....

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday to the best mom ever! I've made a top 10 list of things I adore about mom.

10. She always knows what she's getting for her b-day and mother's day before we do.
9. She's the most kick back mom (but not with the gospel, thank goodness).
8. She loved us more as teenagers (which other mom could say that?)
7. Slimepits - pronounced slim-a-pits (hands down, my favorite scripture moment with mom)
6. Conversations around the island (you could always have a good one with mom)
5. Brief reenactments of the "Grand Land Singer performances"
4. Sassy mom (always catches me off guard, because she hasn't always been sassy)
3. Laughing in the NY van and not knowing why (hands down my favorite NY moment)
2. Always on her knees (or standing these days) praying for us
1. Her genuine, consistent love for us

Thanks for being wonderful, mom. We love you!
Dad, we know your thinking that something wonderful should be written about you right now, but it's not your birthday. :)

Autumn in Utah

Lindsay and I flew to Utah last weekend to visit with the northern half of the family. What a delighful weekend. We visited Salt Lake City and saw the Joseph Smith Movie. Lindsay had the treat of waking up to the cutest faces on the planet (no, not Sam and Stacy, but they are cute, too), Ben and Tom. She filled up on fun times with the nephews. I took Casey to Costco to fill up on goods. I saw his apartment and where his classes are and where he works. We saw Chris and Gina's new home which is delightful and very homey. We had good food and wonderful conversation and lots of laughs. It was a great trip on a beautiful autumn weekend in Utah.

Grandma and Ben with their finished art project.

Lindsay and Ben admiring the beautiful clouds. Ben says "The clouds are so beautiful".


The fam chillin' in Chris and Gina's back yard.

The attack of the fall leaves.



Casey and Lindsay's pick at the pumpkin patch.

Ben and Tom's picks at the pumpkin patch.


A beautiful Autumn day in Provo, Utah.

Thanks to Chris, Gina, Sam, Stacy, Ben, Tom & Casey for a wonderful time and to Lindsay for sharing it with me. I love you all!

OUTSIDE PAINT - CHECK CHECK

The eaves are painted. Yeah! As the pictures show, Dad really takes his painting seriously. He loves his new paint sprayer.

This week we work on the kitchen back splash, door & window casings and the window seat.

Next week - the floors.

Paint, check!

While the rest of the fam spent the weekend eating bon bons in exotic places like Phoenix and Provo Dad and I painted the rumpus room. In between conference sessions we finished up the molding on the grid, which looks great (admit it, you were skeptical)

and then after the second session we went to town on the walls. The color is kind of magical because it looks beigey in some lights and greyish in others. The perfect Neutral! We both really like it. The true test will be when Mom sees it in a few hours.

As you can tell by this picture, I decided to change my hand out for a paint roller, like Captain Hook. And I have grown a goiter on my neck.

The Other Side of Construction

Mom, Camille and others post pictures of the expanding beauty of the addition. I thought that in an attempt at balance I should post the other side of it - the outside where all the mess is kept. These pictures were taken after we had hauled out 5 dumpster loads of trash last week. The first picture is of our garden during construction. The others are probably self explanatory. Notice that the Camp Sink is set up. It was for the 3 weeks we did not have use of our kitchen sink. Good memories. After the addition is done, you can see what the next project will be. As I told Rachel last night, it will be another month or so until we can be considered for the Mayor's Home Beautification Award.