Kalilimoku Ohana Reunion

California

Other than seeing all the family and esp. baby Graham, I really wanted to do 2 things... Go to Sea World and go to the beach! And we did :)

Sea World was fun :) When we got there, the sky was cloudy and it was pretty cold... But I still made everyone (well, most everyone) sit in the Splash Zone during the Killer Whale show. It was pretty fun and we definitely got wet but it was short, in my opinion. And cold... oh man. It got so cold afterwards!! After that, we went back to the cars for lunch. After lunch, it warmed up a little bit. We went to the Sea Lion show, went through the Shark tunnel, saw the turtles (Peyton's favorite part), and watched the Dolphin show..... which was the best!! We sat in the perfect spot and got SOAKED!! It was awesome. Afterwards, we walked around and our group split up. Ashley and I took the boys on the rides and we had so much fun! We went to the Kid's Zone and let the kids go on some of the smaller rides and play on the HUGE play area. Then we went to the roller coaster... Ashley stayed with Grace, Peyton, and Owen and I took the twins. If you look at the picture that they took of us on the first drop, our faces look TERRIFIED.... it's so funny. After you drop, the roller coaster goes into this tunnel and an elevator takes you up a few floors to keep going on the ride. The tunnel is pitch black. You can't see anything. The car starts going up when it shudders to a stop.... At first I wasn't sure if that was part of the ride and then this voice comes over the intercom, "Excuse me ladies and gentleman. There is no need for alarm. The ride is experiencing some technical difficulties and will resume shortly. Thank you for your patience."  Um?? Am I about to die?! How high up are we? Why can't I see anything? And the couple behind me can't speak English?! I'm going to die... I'm going to die. Goodbye Ben. Goodbye Peyton.... This is all happening inside of me but outside, I'm telling Will and Jon, "Isn't this awesome? Are you having fun?!" haha, luckily we didn't die and we actually had a lot of fun! I wish Ben could have been there with us!!

The beach was fun.... cold but fun! I was nervous because Peyton has never liked sand under her feet but she did great! She realized that the sea gulls wanted her chips so she threw one for them... a whole one. The sea gull ate it and you could see the shape of the chip in its' throat. It probably choked on it. But it was pretty gross and kinda funny. 

And the main reason why we made the trip down to California: Graham!! It was a great blessing and Graham was so cute :) Especially sporting his new kicks from Aunty Trina and Uncle Ben :)

And this, I think, was the best picture of the weekend.... Peyton loved meeting her TN cousins and playing with everyone. It was so fun to see baby Graham and his proud parents. We loved talking and getting to know Mike and Lana better. They were so great to let us stay at their house and just cause chaos! :) Can't wait until the next time we all get together!!

San Diego (or the trip there)

2 weeks before Riena came home from her mission, I was able to go to California with Ashley and the kids for Graham's baby blessing. Russ and Ben were working and would drive down later but since the kids just got out of school, we decided to go a few days earlier. It was so much fun and I'm glad I went but I wanted to document the trip down there because that in and of itself was an adventure!

** Warning: No pictures, lots and lots of reading!!

Ashley came and picked me up around 11 am. We packed everything up and headed out. The trip from Provo to San Diego is about 12 hours.... and of course, not even 2 hours into the trip, we get pulled over for speeding. There goes our trip to Sea World! haha :)We were making really good time too! So that was our first stop...literally.

The plan was to drive non-stop to Las Vegas which would get us there around dinner time... we ended up stopping in St George to use the bathroom and stretch the kid's legs out. When we were ready to head out again, Peyton got that look on her face and so we had to wait for her to finish her business. 30 minutes later (!!!!) she STILL hadn't pooped and I was feeling pretty bad that everyone had to wait on us (but lets be honest... you don't want to drive in a car with a poopy diaper and nowhere to put it so that's why we kept waiting). Finally we decided that no poop would be making any appearances so we loaded up the van and headed out. 

When we got to the city of sin, we decided that it might be better to eat somewhere on the outskirts of the city so we got off the exit and pulled up to a McDonalds. Oh. My. Dirty. The kids were hungry and wanted to play on the play structure but I'm pretty sure that someone(s) could have died in the slide and the employees just shrugged it off and hid the body in the bathroom... it was so dirty and just... icky feeling so we didn't let the kids out, locked our doors again, and wanted to put on hand sanitizer. So we kept driving... We decided to go to the M&M factory right on the strip and go to the McDonald's right there. When we finally found the place, it took us another HOUR to find a parking spot where we didn't have to pay and the car would still have its stereo when we returned... But alas, that parking spot could only be found in the safe confines of Utah and since we were definitely not in Happy Valley, no parking spots could be found. (PS. I was laughing the whole time about our situation... Ashley, on the other hand, was not.) So after driving around in circles for a LONG time, we decided to give up that plan (sorry kids!) and just eat at the next place we could find OUTSIDE of the strip. 

I can't remember if we found another McDonald's before we headed out or not... If we did, it probably had a couple cop cars parked outside of it, lights flashing, and a few drunks/prostitutes/dead guys in the cars....Just kidding! There was no such thing but I wouldn't put it past them... Either way, we headed out of Vegas and kept going. By now, all the kids are pretty cranky because they are starving and the grownups are frustrated because the kids are starving and there are dead people everywhere (ok, seriously with the dead people?! there weren't any....I'm done with that now). We finally found an exit that had a Jack in the Box at it. I love that place and Ashley doesn't but we went there anyways... That's how hungry the kids were. We get there (and by the way, it is super out of the way) and park. Finally happy that the kids will stop screaming and crying and Ashley makes the comment, "Wouldn't that be funny if this place was closed?" Well, thanks for jinxing us because IT WAS!! I guess the power was cut off or something but either way, it was closed. Luckily there was a gas station right next to it so we decided to go in and just let the kids pick something to eat for dinner there. We get in and then realize that this building's power is also turned off so you can't pay for anything since the cash registers run off of .... power. Just our luck.

We get back in the car and keep driving. Thirty minutes later, we find an exit that looks promising so we pull off. There's a Burger King we pull into with their lights on. Yay! But then Ashley spotted a Carl's Jr. with a play area right around the corner so we go there instead. We park, go in, and the kids are so excited to play on the slides and things when we read the sign that says the Play Area is closed for maintenance issues. Seriously?! Too bad for the kids but we were too hungry to care. 

Our next stop was to fill up the van for gas and get the kids ready for bed... But of course, the gas station's water line was broken so there wasn't any water for going to the bathroom or filling up bottles so we had to leave again. There was another gas station across the freeway that we went to. Power? Check. Flushing toilets? Check. Drinkable water? Sorta check... They didn't have any drinking fountains but they did have water from the coffee maker so you had to fill a cup up with ice and then put the steaming hot water over it and hopefully it'll balance it out so that it was the right temperature to drink it.... haha, really?

There weren't any other issues the rest of the way but it did give for an exciting trip!! Luckily, the kids were really good the whole time and it was awesome to spend more time with Ashley :) We joked that everyone probably thought we were a couple because of all our kids and the way we were dressed... Ashley thought that I would be wearing sweats, shorts or something comfortable so that's the way she dressed for the trip. I thought that she would probably be in jeans and dressed up a little so that's the way I dressed! haha :)

Oh man, good times.

PS. Ben and Russ's trip? They got lost right outside of Vegas because of some construction signs or something... that was about how exciting their trip got. "Lost".... haha

Playing Dress Up

Peyton is a girl... 

She LOVES high heels and is actually really good at walking around in them! 

That's my girl :)

 And all sorts of things will go on her head: hats, helmets, bowls, buckets.... yup

SBK at MMP

My friend Kamry works at the Miller Motorsports Park up in Tooele, UT. They had a HUGE event and she was in charge of running a lot of it. We got to get in for free and help with the volunteers but since we knew Kamry, we got all the easy jobs and were able to watch the races from the best seat in the house, the race track!!

Our main job was to deliver the meals to all the volunteers out on the track so using the Ford Raptors, we got to drive on the main track. It was pretty cool! When we weren't busy with the meals, we were able to walk around and look at all the cool bikes, watch some crazy trick shows, go on car rides (drifting in the Charger and off-road Raptor rides), and watch the bikes during the races from right on the sidelines (the bikes were going soooo fast! Almost 100 MPH! Can you imagine crashing at that speed?!).... All for free! We got a lot of cool swag stuff and lots of free food too!

Thanks Kamry for the good times!

Hair Cut!!

These pictures arent the best at all.... But since it's summer time, I decided to chop my hair off and get a little crazy! So we added the red underneath a few layers and voila!

It was pretty funny when I went to get my hair done because I forgot how long it takes to dye hair.... They had to bleach my hair first but that took way too long so I had to leave the salon and go to work with it not finished. Unfortunately for me, that was a Saturday so I couldn't go in until Monday to finish it. Oh well, not too many people noticed it.... hopefully!

Water Fun

The other day I found a deal for a really fun wading pool for Peyton... I'm a sucker for all things fun so I got it! Don't worry, it was 50% off and shipping was free so total cost came up to about $25. Yes! The pool is awesome. It came with 3 inflatable toys (a whale, a turtle, and a game of ring toss), a small slide, and has water that shoots out from all the sides. Peyton doesn't like that part of it. She likes playing in the water but doesn't like getting splashed in her face.

This is only our second day with it but so far, we've spent a lot of time "pool" side :) These pictures are from yesterday. Peyton did a good job of helping us set it up and then it was time to get in!

Today I was Skyping with my family when I told them about the pool so I decided to show them what it looked like... As soon as the door opened, Peyton ran out and within 2 seconds, her diaper was off and she was in the pool! She was SO fast :) It was pretty funny though! Warning: NAKED BABY PHOTO!!! I only posted a side view though so don't get too excited... or not..... 

Playing in the pool... 

Notice the laptop in the background :) haha

We LOVE summer time!!