SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!!!!

Okay, okay, okay. I know I have not posted much since Mia's birthday, and I apologize. We have been pretty busy lately, and have had a the absent minded professor disease. I'll try again to post a little more often, but in the meantime, you can always visit our Facebook accounts.

So there were two things Mia wanted for her birthday. The first was a Pirate party with her buddies, and the second was to get her ears pierced. Here is my brave little girl with her new earrings.


Not too long after, we attended the Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork. We missed it last year, but weren't going to this year. It is an annual Hindi celebration where the people throw colored, scented, power bombs at each other. This was a blast and we invite everyone to come along with us next year.

Sean tried out for the High School Baseball and Track teams in the early spring and made both teams. He decided that track was the route he liked, and turned down the baseball invite. Sean later made the JV team and was running against Juniors and Seniors. It was pretty cool!

We did it! We finally went to Paris. Paris was beautiful. The culture, the architecture, the food, the ambiance. We loved Paris very much and can't wait to go back again.

Paris was also a nice introduction to the culture for Mia for another reason. In the beginning of the year we filled out an application for Mia to be entered into a dual immersion language program in the fall, and she got accepted shortly before our departure to Paris. Come this September, 50% of Mia's classes will be in English, and 50% in French. The program anticipates that she will have a basic understanding of the language in 3-4 months, and be fluent in a year. We are very excited for her.

So we get back for Paris and Sean is continuing to excel on the track team. There was even the possibility of him lettering as a freshman. Then...he fell backwards on the field and broke his left wrist and sprang his right wrist. This not only put a stop to track, but his percussions as well. Time for 6 weeks of healing. UPDATE...Sean got his cast off today!!!

So David got promoted at his job. He is now the new corporate trainer at his company. He loves to train people and was chosen 6 weeks ago to assist with a new hire class. He did so well, that he was asked tom come on as a fulltime trainer. He started his first class yesterday.

So we were supposed to go camping this weekend with the family, but our campsite was cancelled due to the possibility of snow. So we instead hopped a flight to Texas to see Grandpa and the horses. Grandpa has a new baby horse named Dakota. The kids had a blast! David and Ruth also got caught up on a little R&R. Mia now knows what she wants for her next birthday party...a cowgirl party!

And its official...SCHOOLS OUT FOR SUMMER!!! FINALLY!!! We are working on a few new adventures for this summer. Mia and Ruth will be on their way to Hawaii next week. Sean starts Football conditioning on Monday. Mia will probably be put in some sort of summer program. David and Ruth might be sneaking off to some undisclosed location soon. We love you all!!! Au revoir!

Happy Birthday Mia!!!

Wow, my baby girl is 6 years old. I can't believe how quickly time flies. I remember staying up all night on the Feb 28th and wondering when she would actually get here. She took her time of course in true Mia fashion and I should have known then that I would have a handful. We would not trade her for the world and are so grateful to have her in our life. She as certainly added a level of excitement in our life that was not there before and her unconditional love for her family overwhelms me at times.

Happy Birthday Mia!!! We love you, our little Pirate!!!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy.

Happy 15th Birthday!!!!!

Wow I can't believe I have a 15 year old. Its been a crazy ride and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Thanks Omi for these wonderful pics! I love you Sean...Happy Birthday!!!!

Aloha Again!

Our trip to Hawaii was loaded with a lot of excitement and new experiences. From working, to the funeral, then finally some play time.

When we arrived, we worked for the first 5 days. We threw out trash, cut down trees, and even got to play farmer. The kids had a blast feeding the pigs and goats. They also liked harvesting fruit from the trees.

James arrived a few days later, and one of the things on the list was to slaughter a pig. James took the shot, then Sean bled him. This was the first time for many of us. Later in the week we kalua 3 pigs for the funeral luncheon.

Mia was not squeamish at all. She wanted to see everything. "Daddy, where's the heart, stomach, brains?" Ruth thought it was so funny because she was the same way with her father when she was younger.

At the end of the week we had Grandpa's funeral. It was the nicest funeral I have every been too. Grandpa was involved in everything, Boy Scouts, Military, Senior groups, you name it, he was on it, and those people showed up.

The family was reacquainted with people they haven't seen in years.

After the funeral we had a luncheon with the pig we kalua, then drove down to the Veterans cemetery for the military honors ceremony.

This is the some of the family that drove down to the Veterans cemetery. This photo even includes some of Grandpa & Grandma's brothers and sisters.

Here's a pic of Grandpa's children, and another pic of all of Terry's kids.

After the funeral we took the next few days to have a little R&R. We did some swimming and some shopping.

I took a picture of this sign because they are all over the place. The reason why I added it to the blog is because only after I downloaded the pic and view it on a monitor, I noticed the guy running from the wave.

Take notice of the scale of this wave next to the people standing on the rocks.

Here are one of the many lava tubes that are on the island. When you drive from the airport to Kohala, you drive through a lava field, and you notice that people write their names with the cora rock. It was our turn to do it.