Happy BIRTHday!

I'm an aunt again. My brother and sister in law, Thomas and Melanie Trebilcock had their fourth child on March 13, 2008.

Her name is Elizabeth Jane Trebilcock. Welcome to the world.

Happy Birthday Hayden

Talmange, Hayden, and Kennedy around Hayden's cake

The day Jon and I got back from Hawaii was Hayden's 2nd birthday. It is a good thing Hayden was only 2 because he kind of got ripped off in the cake area. If you notice his cake, it is from KFC (Yeah, the 99 cent one you can add to your meal). We had KFC for dinner that night. It has become a tradition that the day we come home from a vacation we don't cook that night (mainly because we are busy unpacking and are still in vacation mode and aren't used to cooking).
I can't believe my baby is 2. I think the biggest reason I can't believe it is because since I started having kids by the time they turn 2 I am either pregnant or have just had a baby a few months back.

This is Hayden with Grandma Snazzy. She does singing, story, and coloring time at our local grocery store 3 days a week. When it is the kids birthday, they are the star of the day and get sung Happy Birthday to and she sprinkles their head with glitter. They also get some sort of present (the store gives her some past holiday stuffed animals or toys to hand out to the children on their birthday).

Hayden is a happy boy when he comes in the room he is all smiles. He loves the typical boy things trains, cars, Legos, star wars guys, swords etc. He is saying new words all the time and is putting those words into short sentences. His favorite shows to watch are Blues Clues, Mickey Mouse Club House, and The Wiggles. Happy Birthday Hayden I love you.

Aloha!! What a Deal!

On Valentines day Jon and I went to Hawaii just the 2 of us. How did we pull that off you ask. Well, one day in January Jon was asking my parents about their master bathroom (they haven't been able to use their shower for over 3 years due to it leaking and tile being ripped out) and what their plans were for it. I guess they were quoted a large amount of money to rip out the remaining tile in the shower and bathroom floor, fix the shower so it wouldn't leak anymore, and re tile the shower and bathroom floor. They just kept using the money for other things. So of course Jon's brain starts thinking of a plan for them to get it done. So here's the deal. My parents would buy all the materials and Jon would do all the labor for their bathroom (rip out tile, fix shower problem, re tile, put in new shower fixtures, new shower door, and probably a few other things). For payment my dad would use some of his frequent flier miles and hotel points (my dad travels all over the world for his job so he has lots of frequent flier miles and hotel points) to fly Jon and I somewhere and put us up in a hotel for 4 days. Oh and one more thing they would also watch our kids. We wanted to go on a weekend my dad would be home to help with our kids. Our first choice was Mexico, or some island in the Caribbean. Only a few hour flight from Atlanta. Those places were booked up on the weekend we could go (Presidents weekend). So our next choice was Hawaii (it was winter so warm weather was a must for me).

So here it was Valentines day. I dropped Talmage off at Jon's parents house (When Jon's mom found out about our trip, she insisted on watching Talmage (our 4 year old) which didn't bother my mom since she would be watching the other 5). in the morning and then dropped Hayden (my almost 2 year old) off to my parents house (the other kids were at school). From their Jon and I drove to the airport and got on our plane for an 8-9 hour non-stop flight to Oahu, Hawaii. It was a long flight but with no kids crying, hitting, whining, bugging, yelling, it was quiet and relaxing. We arrived in Hawaii about 9:30 pm their time (there is a 5 hour difference) so 2:30am our time. By the time we got our rental car and checked into the hotel it was after 11:00 pm (4 am our time). Luckily time was on our side since we only had 4 days. We only stayed on Oahu.

The next morning we hiked up Diamond Head the Volcano. The views were gorgeous.

Diamond Head Views from Diamond Head light house and Honolulu

The ocean, the green mountains, Honolulu city buildings. The only thing we didn't see were whales. A tour guide who was there said they don't come by until the afternoon. From there we went to Hanauma Bay. The #1 snorkeling spot on Oahu.

The water was chili. You would think being in Hawaii where it is warm all the time the water would be warm but no such luck. I guess the Pacific Ocean is quite a bit colder than the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea. Once we got used to the water (about 10 minutes) we snorkeled. We saw lots of different kinds of fish, lots of correl, and we we even saw a sea turtle.

Hanauma Bay

From there we headed back to the hotel and checked out the hotel. We stayed at the Hilton. It was a big hotel that had 3 different hotel buildings and between the hotel buildings they had shops and restaurants and a big pool. Our hotel was right on the ocean. They also had penguins (yeah I know penguins). They are the type that like warm weather. Our hotel every Friday and Saturday put on shows. We saw some of the show and afterwards we watched the fireworks they do over the ocean while we sat on the beach. It was real cool.

On Saturday we went to Pali Lookout (basically looking out on the other side of the island not the big city of Honolulu side). That place is supposed to be very windy most of the time. There was no wind for us.

Pali Lookout

Then we stopped off at a park on the beach and took some pictures.

Then we headed over to the Hawaii Temple. We walked to temple grounds and went in the visitor center. The grounds were so amazing and beautiful.

After that we went to the Polynesian Culture Center. This place is owned by our church and most of the workers attend BYU Hawaii next door and work at the Center to pay for college. This place is divided up into 6 different Polynesian islands (like Tahiti, New Zealand, Hawaii, Figi, Tonga). At each area they put on some type of show all about their Islands culture, and most of them had some sort of dancing or music. They also have an IMAX theatre which they had a movie on Correl. It was very interesting. We bought the Luau package so for dinner we went to a Hawaiian Luau. We were greeted with flower leis and we ate the yummy Hawaiian food. I really wanted to eat real Hawaiian food once on our trip poi and all. The pork and chicken were my favorite. The desserts weren't anything to brag about. After the Luau, they have a night show where all 6 islands come out one at a time and do a dance native to their island. It was a fun show. I liked the fire twirling and throwing best.

Sunday we went to Pearl Harbor. We walked through the little museum and watched a movie about the events that happened on that day. It was very well done and I learned a lot of things I hadn't known. Then they took us on a boat out to the monument. The monument is directly over the USS Arizona, the ship that sunk that day and where most of the casualties occurred. The bodies still lie in that ship. It was very quiet and peaceful.

After that we headed off to the Dole pineapple plantation. Their we took a train around some pineapple and other fruit and sugar can fields. While on the train they gave us a background of the Dole family pineapple story. Basically they are not sure who brought the pineapple to Hawaii. But Dole bought all this land (the place where we were touring) and grew pineapple and had a shipping plant there. Later they moved the shipping plant to Honolulu (where all the other shipping ships are so they could ship them out easier). Then they ran out of space to grow pineapple so Dole purchased one of the small Hawaiian islands for pineapple. The only people living on this island were the Dole employees and their families. Then Dole died and someone sold some of the island to other people. They never said if the rest of the island still grows pineapple or not. We had a pineapple ice cream.

Then we were off to the North Shore to watch some surfers. The North Shore of the island is basically the only place on the island that gets real big waves. We saw a few surfers but really enjoyed watching the wind surfer. It looks like a surfer flying a kite.

On Monday, we hiked to Monoa Falls. It was a big waterfall running down lava rock. It was beautiful. The hike wasn't too much fun. Lots of rocks towards the end of the hike.

Then we went to what is called The International Market Place. It is basically a whole bunch of individual stands of people selling souvenirs (You know the ones like in Mexico, and the Bahamas that you can wheel and deal). It is by far the cheapest way to go to buy things like T-shirts, jewelry, nick knacks, Hawaiian dresses etc. Since we have lots of kids to bring things back to we didn't want to miss this place. We browsed a few gift shops the days before just to check out prices to see if what the market place was offering was a good deal. After that, it was time to get to the airport and return our rental car and get on the plane for our 8 hour flight. We arrived home Tuesday morning Atlanta time (still in bed asleep Hawaii time). We had a great time and were able to do everything we wanted (except see a whale). The best part was the weather. The few weeks before we arrived it was windy and rainy and chilly. While we were there it wasn't windy at all and only rained 2 times. Once while we were driving back to our hotel from the Polynesian Culture Center and that only lasted a couple minutes. The other we were at Pearl Harbor and it rained for 5 minutes. It was sunny and upper 70s low 80s.
Oh, I almost forgot there was one bad thing about our trip. Dumbie me left the camera battery charging in my bedroom outlet. Of course we couldn't have a camera that takes AA batteries. Luckily, our digital video camera has a camera still shot mode on it (not sure of the quality of the pictures I just downloaded them on the computer). After snorkeling, we were driving back to our hotel and we happened to pass by a Radio Shack. So Jon went in and what seemed like forever and something like $80.00 later came back with a battery (of course they don't come charged) and charger. The only good thing was the battery was on sale (we could have paid $100) and the charger wasn't just for this camera but for many other types of cameras as well as video cameras and maybe even other things. Of course they don't sell the chargers individually at Radio Shack (ya know it is only a shack and not a mansion in size). So if anyone ever loses their battery charger I bet I can hook you up. If I wasn't in Hawaii or on some other awesome vacation, I wouldn't have worried about it and just used the camera mode on the video camera but since I probably wont be going back (at least not to that island) it was worth the $$.

post mess up

Just to let you all know. Their is a new post after the snow days one. I guess since I started the Birthday one first, but posted the snow days first it screwed the order up. Oh well, like I said I'm just starting out so I can have a few mess ups.
For those of you who haven't read any of my post yet Why not?? just kidding don't really need this post then. Happy reading!

SNOW DAYS!! January 2008

Brenton, Payton, Talmage, Jon, and Kennedy 01/16/2008

On Wednesday evening, it started to snow. Let me tell you in Atlanta, Georgia this is a big deal. It either snows or freezing rains 1 or 2 times a year. The snow or freezing rain only lasts less than a day, but during that less than 24 hours everything gets cancelled. Wednesday is our church youth, boy and cub scout, and achievement day girls night. That was cancelled. Oh, you can't really tell by the picture that it only snowed less than 1/2 inch and that was only on the grass, decks, and roofs. The roads were just wet (not freezing). If you were to go to the grocery store that evening, they would basically be out of all their bread, milk, and water from people stocking up on it from either the night before or that morning. I think it is so funny but this happens every time there is word of snow or freezing rain in the area. Since we have lived in Georgia (over 10 years now), the roads in our area have been free from snow or ice a few hours later (usually it snows early in the morning and by the time the sun comes out the snow melts quickly) and then the roads are just wet. The snow north of us once you get out of the suburbs of Atlanta sticks around a little longer. To bad for the kids that the snow started about 10 hours too soon because school was not cancelled. Spending my middle and high school years in Michigan I think it is so funny that they cancel school for such a tiny and I mean tiny bit of snow. Any way 3 days later when we woke up it was snowing again.

Talmage, Hayden, Kennedy, Payton, and Brenton 01/19/08

As you can kind of tell from the picture, the 2 snowmen took up just about all of our snow in our front yard. I don't know which the snowmen had more of leaves and pineneedles or snow. Poor Hayden just look at those red hands. We are not prepared for snow in the glove department. Well, the kids lost out again because today was Saturday. Well I guess we totally didn't miss out. On Sunday, we combined with the ward that meets before us and had one big sacrament meeting and then went home and had some family time. The bishopric didn't want to put pressure on the teachers if they didn't feel comfortable coming out in the bad weather. What bad weather? By Sunday morning all the snow was basically melted and I don't remember but the road might have even been dry. Well it gave me a break from my Primary lesson. Those were the only snow days of the year. We enjoyed them while they lasted and for me it was just the perfect amount and lasted the perfect amount of time.

Happy Birthday Jan. 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENTON

On January 21, 2008, Brenton turned 11 years old. Brenton is the oldest out of the 6 kids. He is really a smart kid who loves to play video games. As of right now, he wants to make video games when he grows up. I think he would be great at that since he has a really great yet sometimes strange imagination. Perfect for making games. This year he is going to go through lots of changes. Brenton isn't one for change so this should be interesting. He finished up with cub scouts by earning his Weblos and Arrow of Light.

Brenton and Ryan crossing over to Boy Scouts

Now he is an 11 year old boy scout. Brenton is finishing up 5th grade (well since it is the end of May has finished already). Next year, he will be in Middle School (Yikes!!). Jon and I will also have him babysit the kids for an hour or less at a time in the summer to get him ready for when he turns the big 12.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD

Dad with a real life tarantula on his shirt (Yikes!)

My dad also had a birthday on January 24. It was his big 60. My mom, sisters, and I threw a surprise party for him and boy was he surprised. We had the party at Christa's house. Here is how it all went down. It was Friday night and Taylor (My 15 year old sister) had a basketball game which my mom and dad took her to and watched her play. After the game was over, my parents were going to drop Taylor off at Christa's house to babysit her kids. The way we got my dad and mom in the house was Christa had just made Turtles (ya know the yummy candy) and invited them in for a few seconds to have some before they went out. Little did my dad know we had about 40 other people there. Of course when he walked through the door, everyone yelled surprise. We had the chocolate fountain going with lots of yummy food to dip in it. My mom, Christa, Cheri, and I each made one of my dad's favorite desserts. Instead of presents we had everyone bring a white elephant gift that were all exchanged so everyone got to bring a little something home good or bad. My dad really like the white elephant gift exchange. Jon made a DVD of pictures a few from my dad's childhood all the way to the present day. We had that playing on Christa's TV. It was a really great night especially since we were able to pull off the surprise.

Hello blogging world

Well, after many months and with the help of Leanne I am finally here in the blogging world. This is something I have wanted to do since the beginning of the year. So with that said I am going to start my blog out by highlighting the year so far. It may take awhile to catch up to today since I don't know what I am doing yet.