Baby Girl Cook

Hello Everyone. Mike and Holly's baby girl miracle has arrived. For those of you who don't know, they got the call Thursday night that their daughter had been born that morning. Because of various reasons, they had not been notified that they were the chosen parents until Thursday night. Friday night they flew to Oahu and on Saturday she was placed with them. They came home Saturday night. I know everyone is dying to see her, and can I just say that she is so beautiful that even these great pictures don't do her justice.
Love to all, from us and Mike and Holly.

Back to Kauai

Before I forget, we also went to the water park on Oahu and had a blast. They had two fabulous kid areas and the craziest wave pool I have ever seen. After our four days on Oahu, my parents accompanied us back to Kauai for eight days. They were happy to get a break from the Idaho weather and adjust to a slower schedule from the previous four days.

Rusty had to go back to work, but one day he took off early and one of the golf cart guys at Kauai Lagoons (where Rusty just finished a model unit and will be working on building two more buildings for Ritz Carlton) took Rusty, Mike, and my dad golfing. Another day Rusty was going golfing with a supplier and they also took my dad with them. He spent several mornings on Kukiolono golf course, which is just above our house. It costs $9.00 per day to golf there. Just a couple of days before they left we went on a hike from Shipwreck beach toward Mahalapu. There is a great view of Poipu Bay Golf Course on that trail and my dad just couldn't resist. He golfed there the next day. Four courses in 8 days, not bad Dad! We also took my dad snorkeling. He even got to see a sea turtle at Lydgate State park. He was pretty excited. It had swam right past him. I think he now understands why I say if I were a tatoo kind of girl, I would have one of a sea turtle. I love them.

Another day trip was up to the Fern Grotto. We took our little inflatable boat up the river and had a picnic. This picture really doesn't do the fern grotto justice, but it is a natural ampitheatre where royal Hawaiians used to get married. There are ferns hanging from the ceiling and water trickling down the rocks. The flowers and greens are amazing. It is a beautiful place.

We spent alot of time at the beach. One day we went to the North shore, hoping the waves would be big enough at Hanalei to surf. They weren't, so we walked down the pier where an unusually large number of people were fishing. Then we noticed that kids were catching fish in nets, and even with their hands. We asked a guy who was fishing from the pier with a net what was going on. He said that a fisherman had come in and fished a large bait ball. To my understanding this is a solid ball of fish that swim together to protect themselves by playing the numbers. The more of them there are, the less likely they will be the one to get eaten. Larger fish come in to feed on the smaller fish and it spirals from there, creating a bait ball. Apparently there is only one fisherman on the island who has permits to fly overhead to spot the bait balls and fish them. He had come in and netted the bait ball. Then he goes through and throws out all of the smaller fish. The ones that were being caught from and around the pier were the rejected fish who were very weak and some were already dead. While we were there a man caught a shark on a pole. It was about a four foot tiger shark and it kept thrashing out of the water. It got off the pole and believe it or not even the people who had seen the whole thing were getting back into the water. The fish had brought the sharks in for dinner. The next day in the paper we read that the whole bay had been shut down after repeated shark sightings. The largest shark sighted was reportedly 12 feet long.

We had tons of fun having mom and dad here. We can't wait to see them again. We also can't wait to have more people come and visit us. The invitation is open.

Oahu days 1 and 2

On March 20th, 2008 we flew to Oahu to meet my parents for the start of their two week vacation and a four day vacation for us. We had the best flight of our lives. No delays, layovers or anything. It took longer to get to the airport from our house than it did to fly from Kauai to Oahu. We arrived at about 8:00 a.m. We picked up our rental car, got some breakfast, etc. and picked up my parents around noon. First things first....my parents got lei'd in Hawaii. Notice the pretty purple leis in the picture. We went straight to the zoo. To be honest Honolulu's zoo wasn't that fabulous, there were a lot of birds. We did enjoy watching the chimpanzee's eat and their handler came and talked to us about the group of chimpanzees. My parents really liked the banyon trees. A banyon tree is a tree that has a virus and it ends up looking like this.

After the zoo we went to Duke's for dinner. It was right on the Waikiki beach and we were able to walk from our hotel. I was excited that they had monchong available, my favorite fish. We played in the water of Waikiki for awhile after dinner. KyKy cannot get near the water without getting soaked so she walked back to the hotel dripping wet.

Waikiki beach

The next morning we were up bright and early to hike to the top of diamond head. It is a .7 mile hike with 271 stairs, tunnels and a bunker thing at the top that makes a good lookout spot. My mom was so proud of herself for making it to the top that she bought a certificate that proved she had been there. She really wanted a T-shirt that said "I made it to the top of diamond head." Halfway down the hill a guy was selling just that T-shirt so she got her wish. The view was spectacular. Kyleigh made it all the way up and most of the way down all by herself. She had blisters on the back of her feet when we were done but she was such a trooper. When she starts to get tired we tell her she is training for Alaska (so next time we go to Alaska she can come with us) and she will keep going.

view from the top of diamond head.

That afternoon we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was so fun. First we watched a movie about the coral reefs in the IMAX theatre. Then we watched the canoe pageant with a different canoe representing a different island of the Pacific. We walked around to the different "islands" and participated in cultural activities. We went to Tahiti and got a tattoo. In Samoa we watched a cooking demonstration. In Tonga we listened to a drum show and somewhere else we weaved small fish from native plants. In the evening we went to a luau with lots of food, hula and Hawaiian music. Our favorite was the lei greeting and the purple taro rolls.

These girls in the canoe pageant could really shake!

After the luau we went to the Horizons night show. It was 110%. The costumes, backdrop, music, dancing, and especially the fire dancer. When we saw the star of the show, the fire dancer, we realized he was the same person who weaved the girls hats at the coconut festival in Kapaa (a town of Kauai) last fall. He told us then that he worked at the PCC, but we didn't realize he was the star of the show. How fun.

All of us at the luau.

Random catch up

Hello Everyone. Sorry I haven't posted anything for so long. We have been having trouble transferring pictures from the camera card to the computer. All is well in Hawaii. Kyleigh is having a great time at preschool and can't wait until Tuesday and Thursday come around. She loves ballet, and just yesterday Daddy came home early from work so he could go watch her at ballet class. She also loves the beach and would be there every day if she could. Katelyn loves the beach too, but it wears her out.



Katelyn is growing bigger and bigger. Just the other day we found her fifth tooth. Her personality is busting out. She is a girly girl like her sister. She loves shoes, bracelets, and purses. The other night she got ahold of some glittery lip gloss and had it smeared ALL over her face. She was pretty proud of herself. She thinks it is fun that she is getting big enough to do some of the things her big sister does, like play on the swingset.

Rusty and I just took another golf lesson. It was our third of four lessons. We learned how to drive the ball. Our teacher has all kinds of fun ways to learn, including the luau swing where we carry the tray, slap the pig, spear the fish and pull the net in, then stop for our kodak moment. If anyone needs golf lessons on Kauai we can recommend a great instructor.

Random picture of Katelyn who we frequently call Queen Kong!

We continue to volunteer at the humane society. The last time we went we made quite the scene. We took a dog out on a leash to the courtyard. I let Kyleigh hold the leash and the dog pulled it out of her hands. The courtyard is supposed to be enclosed but a delivery person had the door propped open and the dog escaped. Luckily the kennel staff was right there and they were right on it. They had the dog back very soon and I got a lecture on how to hold a leash. I don't think we will venture out to the courtyard again for a while.


Do you know what the picture below says? Ten points if you can figure it out.




This is the sign we made for Kyleigh's half birthday party. It says Happy Birthday Kyleigh, with only half the letters. We celebrated her half birthday on April 26th. We had been stuck inside for the week before because we were sick. We needed something fun to do, so we planned a half birthday party. We had half moon shaped cookies for desert and half sopapillas to make navajo tacos. Mike and Holly joined us. We couldn't sing happy birthday on a half birthday so we said "Hap, Hap, happy half birthday," and of course no presents at a half birthday (although KyKy tried to weasel some presents out of it). We are looking forward to my mom and dad visiting us next week. We are going to meet them in Oahu for 4 days so we are very excited for that, too. In May some friends of ours from Silver City, James and Vicki Hill, will visit. The invitation is open to anyone. We would love to have you!

Christmas 2007

Hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas, 07. We did. We celebrated on Kauai with three fun parties before we left for Idaho. One with Mike and Holly to open the gifts to one another. One for Rusty's work. Kids were invited and Santa made a special trip to deliver treats to the kids. Then the next night Santa came back to our church party where we were treated to imu pork and turkey, among other delicous foods. We left for Idaho on Dec. 20th at 9:00 P.M. We made the trip to Idaho with only two major complications. We had an extra 3 hour layover in L.A. for a grand total of 6 hours. The girls were real troopers. The worst part about it was that it was soooo cold, even in L.A. (atleast for us). When we got to Salt Lake City we were one bag short. We figure someone must have taken our bag by mistake because there was one very similar to ours left from our flight. Eventually they returned it and the airline flew it to Pocatello. We got it December 23rd. In the meantime we made due by buying some clearance items at Shopko.


Our christmas gingerbread train.

We had the special treat of meeting our new nephew/cousin, Payton Aaron Olsen once we got to Pocatello. He is the most handsome little honey you ever did see. Tucker, our other nephew was alot more respectful of Katelyn now that she can walk. Atleast he didn't try to hit her every time he saw her-until the last couple of days we were there.

Kyleigh with new baby cousin, Payton.

We did all sorts of fun things in Idaho. Kyleigh helped GG with everything, including making sugar cookies, watching the cranberries pop, and re-decorating the tree after the babies (Tucker and Katelyn) removed ornaments. We had a party with the Graves family on the 23rd and one with the Larsen family on the 24th.

KyKy watching the cranberries pop with GG.

Rusty and I got to go sledding one night. Tyler, our brother in law works at Les Scwab tires so he got some really good tubes and we went to a hill near ISU at night. We went with my sister Darci and her fiance Dan, my brother Nate, and my sister Rissie and her husband Tyler. Of course "normal" tubing was quickly taken over by jumps, shovel sledding, group tube chains, spinning wildly, and human michelin man sledding.

Katelyn, KyKy, Payton and Tucker. Smile (yea right)

Rusty had to come back to Kauai for work a week earlier than I came back. We left the girls with my mom and I took him back to the airport. We stayed overnight in Salt Lake. We got to go to Olive Garden for dinner, the Salt Lake Temple, and around Temple square in a carriage. I've always wanted to do that.

Kyleigh and daddy building a fabulous snowman.

I can't name all of the fabulous gifts we received because I know I would leave something out. I will say the most treasured gift I got was a picture of my mom and dad that they secretly had taken. I have it proudly displayed on my counter. Of course, the best part of the whole season was catching up with friends and family through Christmas cards, and visits. I am already looking forward to the next holiday season.