8 Mysteries of Me

Here are the rules:
1) Post rules on your blog
2) Answer the six '8' items
3) Let each person know by leaving them a comment.

(and rule 4 - look for a picture to make things interesting - find an old one that you'd forgotten about but love, and stick it on your post... jk)

8 favorite TV shows:
1. The Office
2. Lost
3. The Amazing Race
4. American Idol
5. The Biggest Loser
6. So You Think You Can Dance
7. Good Eats*
8. Iron Chef America*
* (doesn't matter cuz we don't have cable)

8 Things I did Yesterday:
1. Woke up at 6:30 without an alarm -Drove to Orange County to pick up Tyler from his conference
2. Went to my parent's ward for church (saw old friends)
3. Sat through Sunday School AND Relief Society WITHOUT making a comment : )
4. Hung out with Granny Goose, B & Jay, and the fam
5. Ate a belated birthday luncheon my mom arranged for me (flank steak, funeral potatoes, fruit salad, broccoli and red cake - delicious!) - thanks for driving out grandparents
6. Learned to do a long-tail cast on and purl (it's knitting - I started a dish cloth)
7. Caught up on the first 3 episodes of Lost (oh baby!!)
8. Stayed up late into the night talking to Tyler (gotta make up for all that non-talking during church)


(speaking of B & Jay - here's a pic Liza took for us a couple years ago when I was trying to get a group shot - see how good a picture you get from a 3-year old?)

8 Things I'm looking forward to:
1. world peace
2. So You Think You Can Dance on DVD (all seasons - come on - where's the love)?
3. my sweet P90X six pack (it could happen)
4. hot shower with ginger citrus sugar scrub
5. lifetime supply of Life Cereal, Cranberry Almond Crunch, and Cap'n Crunch
6. winning a random drawing that doesn't involve junk mail or phone calls - like a random cruise package or trip to Disney World
7. spring
8. dude - I just finished a trip to Hawaii and a weekend home with the fam - what do I really have to look forward to? life is good.

8 favorite restaurants:
1. I don't eat at restaurants a lot - and there are so many chains around - I can't say they're favorites - just what's around
2. so the last few that I've been to, and would return to, say if invited by Tyler, are:
3. California Pizza Kitchen (yes, I own and use their cookbook frequently - but having THEM make my food is even faster and easier - and hurray for no clean up - and NO, their freezer pizzas aren't even close)
4. Los Dos Patrillos
5. Thai Basil (let's hear it for their crispy duck and curry sauce!)
6. that Italian place downtown that we found when wandering - totally yummy - and the "locals favorite feel" that I love
7. Did I mention Italian and Mexican food places?
8. And every once in awhile (like twice a year) a great steak place - uh - what's it called? where we had our first Twiss Dental Christmas party....BROOKS!


8 Things on my wish list:
1. Spike a volleyball like Sheri O.
2. Serve a volleyball like Sheri O.
3. Legs like Natalie (I'm wishing here, right?)
4. All paint projects in my house to magically complete themselves (Mary Poppins - where are you?)
5. The ability to extend my days by 4 hours and still get 9 hours of sleep
6. TiVo back in my life
7. An iphone
8. a standing appointment with a maid and a masseuse (though not at the same time)

8 people I tag:
1. Shelby
2. Natalie
3. Naomi
4. Peter
5. Andrea (we just gotta hear from ya!)
6. Michelle
7. Becky
8. Kelsey

Happy Birthday to Me

This morning Liza came running into my room yelling, "Happy Birthday, Mom!" (My birthday was yesterday.) She went on to show me that she'd wrapped me a present. Inside was one of her dolls. "Now you can sleep with him (it's actually a girl in pink pajamas - but apparently quite masculine-looking to Liza, because she always calls her "him" - unlike the other girls who receive the appropriate pronouns - an older version of this Pottery Barn doll). "He's the softest of all, except Horton -but I sleep with him."


Now come on - a gift from the heart, yeah? Thank you, Liza. Yesterday, once they'd seen that the "birthday elves" had come (put up streamers and balloons) and it was my birthday - I had asked the kids if their gift to me could be a day of no whining or fighting. No dice.

So, on to things I could control - I decided to have a little birthday pizza party. Tyler's late night is Tuesday, and given the fact the we just returned from the aforementioned trip to Hawaii, he had a full day (though did manage to squeeze in making me the wonderful, traditional breakfast in bed).

It was the big "three - oh" as they all say, and I had been out of town - I wanted my friends to come hang out. So, a few phone calls later, a quick trip to for surprisingly good $10 pizza, and voila! Party

It was such a blast. The kids all ran around, and we spent the afternoon with friends coming and going. Before I knew it - the day was done! Sure put a new perspective on the old way to spend a birthday. (which was... - I dunno!)



oh - and no pics - too busy having fun to even think of it. Too bad - I was hair -ed and make-up -ed, and it wasn't even Sunday : )




(P.S. - Thank you to all who e-mailed, texted, called, snail mailed, oh - and sang, et.c - such fun to feel loved all day!).

Hawaii

Last night we returned from an 8-day trip to Hawaii. We spent the bulk of our trip on Kauai, and had overnight layovers on Oahu. It was such a fun thing to spend time as a family on vacation - no people to visit, activities to be at - just us. We made it our duty to check out beaches rated as GEMS (by our favorite guidebook writer and resident of Kauai - I'll put a link here when I'm more motivated), and also made it our civic duty to taste test as many of the shave ice places, bakeries, or general eateries that were "ono." Totally fun. Here are a few pictures from the trip.



This was one of two times we saw a monk seal. This guy swam up not far from us and took a nap. The lifeguard came after awhile and roped off a large area so people would leave the seal alone. We didn't have to move -just kept our front row spot : )



We were at Ke'e beach on this day (seal #1 day). For those who've been (or are interested), it's that very last beach before the Na Pali Coast begins.


I love the above-ground roots thing. The hala trees do it even more - but not in a way that lends itself to standing under them (especially if you're more than 2 feet tall).


Our first of many taste tests. Check out my Hawaiian-born son's sweet T. It probably means nothing to you - but was Liza's when she went to preschool in Hawaii. Landon technically tagged along too, though he only knows all of the songs because we still listen to our CD regularly. "E na keiki, o kaina... oh, tutu and me traveling preschool, in Hawai'i ne!"



The sunrise from our porch. We had a SWEET setup at the Westin in Princeville. If we'd realized before we left how much space "two bedrooms" entailed, we would've invited friends along. Instead, we just spread out and enjoyed ourselves.



Liza turned 5 while we were gone. Doesn't she look older? Sheesh. Where'd my baby girl go?



We scheduled this Hawaii trip upon returning from our every 2-year trip to Newport Beach with the whole Mark Walker family. The beach is such a perfect place for kids, ya know? Humongous sand box, water that plays with you, things to collect (shells, sticks, whatever), seals and whales to watch, what's not to like? Landon and Liza both loved it. Liza also loved when I'd take her out into the waves. "I love going up and down in the waves, Mom." On Landon's first day, he was simply fascinated by the waves themselves. He called them bumps until we taught him otherwise. "Oh - the bumps are coming to get me!" and, when we were packing up to go back to our hotel on Day 1:
"When does the ocean stop?"
"Stop? You mean, like, the waves?"
"yeah."
"Oh - never. Isn't is wonderful?"



Tyler shreddin' em at our favorite beach for the week: Moloa'a. Don't go there. We like it that way :)



The benefit to getting called in hourly for new sunscreen and water? Regular treats and snacks. Liza started being weird about pictures until I pointed out that she should take cute pictures to print and share with her friends at pre-school. After that she was all smiles. Too bad I didn't think of it earlier in the week.



Tyler was a doll about trying out the sweet camera he borrowed from work for our trip. He tried all the settings and lenses and just played around with it. It's so much fun to take pics with that camera - you can actually capture a quick-moving toddler. Here, obviously, Landon's not moving - just contemplating the mysteries of the ocean.


A friend of mine was sitting shotgun and said, "You've got freckles! I never realized before." I swear that says nothing about our friendship, or the 2.5 years I've known her, but the teenage Sarah would've been thrilled to hear it. By now I just laughed.


The kids signed on really quickly to our mission to test various shave ice places. Our favorite way was with ice cream on the bottom and all that delicious goodness on top. Those things we call "snow cones" on the mainland have a long way to go.


Kilauea lighthouse. It's set out on a bluff and a sweet spot for whale watching and bird watching (there's a sanctuary there where some 6,000+ birds hang out - don't ask for names, it makes me giggle).



For those who weren't avid watchers of our website while we lived in Hawaii, or who have sat around and wondered, deeply pondered, the minutae of that time in my life, here is a picture reminiscint of that time. It's actually taken from the bluff at Kilauea lighthouse, but was, to us, the most striking resemblance to our shores in Pahoa. After the week we spent showing ourselves around Kaua'i, we couldn't help but feel that the Big Island's windward side has been shafted. No beaches. Apparently that's not the norm on the other islands. See these cliffs above? That's our norm on 'da Big Island. Poor youngest child. Maybe one day.



Come on - just one of those things we love about Hawaii.