Paradise on Maui (part 1)

After leaving LAX at 6:30 a.m. we had a very long flight and arrived in Maui later that same afternoon. We were greeted with our beautiful leis and went and picked up our sporty convertable. The first place we hit was the local Costco, to where we were met with over priced food. After our jaw dropping check out, we headed to our condo. We rented a 2 bedroom unit at Menehune Shores in Kihei which I found after doing a ton of researching on vrbo.com. Our unit was on the 3rd floor and had a fantastic view. Our goal was to go out to dinner that evening and watch the sunset and relax, however, we were so pooped that we just grabbed a bite from the fridge (thanks to Costco) and crashed around 8:00 p.m.

This was a view of the sunset from our lani when we finally realized how late it was. Can you tell how full of energy we are?

This is the view of the ocean from our bed.

Our breakfast view from our lani. I loved how the ocean would just light up and sparkle.

We enjoyed walking along the beach by our resort. Here I am walking towards our condo, the picture cuts off before you would see where our room was

(It is the next row of windows.)

A rainbow we saw as we were driving to Lahaina.

Sunny California

During our 2 week trip/vacation, we went to Southern California. We were able to spend time with family, friends, go to the beach and the temple.

Thursday night, we got into LAX around 8:30 p.m. we picked up our car and headed to Fullerton to stay the night with Don Sr. Friday morning, we got up, visited a bit, and headed off to San Diego to go to the temple. We did one session and participated in some sealings. After the temple we headed to my sisters house. We did a double date that night, going to Sweet Lumpy's for some yummy BBQ and then over to their bishops house to watch a movie in the backyard.

(Rick, Jolene, Camille and Donald at Sweet Lumpy's in Old Town Temecula)

It was awesome weather and we enjoyed our evening. Saturday morning we played ROCK BAND on their WII and I was the lead singer. Of course I should have my own record deal but I am way to talented for something like that. What I really want to know is why I have no problem jamming out to Bon Jovi at home, but once it is in a game I am a total dork!

(other band members are Bryant and Parker)

Saturday we also went shopping and I got some HOT shoes! Later, we went and checked on our home, I went to lunch with my girlfriend Jana (Baja Fresh) and then we went went to Souplantation for dinner with Wade, Sabrina, Jacob and Taniel Anderson. Sunday we went to church, saw a few old friends, and then one of Donald's old college roommates came over with his little growing family. Monday we did a Lowe family gathering at Huntington beach for the day and just relaxed. Tuesday, we left for the airport at 3:15 a.m. and surprisingly it only took us a total of 30 minutes to get there. (I swear that must be some kind of a record.)

I will hopefully FINALLY get tothe Maui stuff tomorrow - cross your fingers I succeed!

Happy Birthday Tanner.

I can't beleive Tanner is already 3 years old. It is amazing how time just flies by in the blink of an eye. Today we were able to have a really low key birthday dinner with my parents and Tanner just kept talking about how it was his party. It was really cute to watch how excited and happy he was. The only problem was getting him to actually eat his food! Nonetheless we had a nice evening and Tanner had a ton of fun.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY FAVORITE TANNER!!!!

Here's a video clip of us singing happy birthday to Tanner. He just cracks me up all the time. The 2 bad things about the clip are: 1. that it is grainy because I used my camera, 2. that the main voice you hear singing is ME, bleck!

I had to rush her to the doctors . . .

(this actually happened yesturday on the 19th)

Today is Donald's birthday, and he wanted to go over to the church parking lot and spend a few hours playing roller hockey, ride bikes, play baseball, etc.

{here in Mississippi we have an insect call a fire ant. these are related to the WASP family and they bite/sting and they are killer. as a matter of fact I got a fire ant bite the morning we left for our trip, and my whole foot swelled up and it ached and hurt so bad and the itch was HORRIBLE. This pain and discomfort usually lasts about a week.}

back to story: So we were over at the church and Brook and Tanner were playing by some pine trees. about 10 minutes later she came wobbling over to me like she was itchy on her foot. I roller bladed over to her and immediately took off her skirt and her shoes and made sure no ants were on her. Her feet were covered with bites, as well as several on her legs and a few on her hands. My mom quickly put some itch ointment on all the bites on her lower body. We stopped our hockey game and took a break for some drinks and snacks. about 15 minutes after Brook got attacked (those evil evil evil ants) I noticed her face getting blotchy as well as her ears being fire red. about 5 minutes later her whole body was red and blotchy and swollen. Her whole face and eyes were so badly swollen. Then she started with a weak cough. we IMMEDIATELY packed up the kids and all our stuff and sped home. I called the doctors office as soon as I got in the door. The doctors and nurses were still at lunch for another 20 minutes. I told the receptionist kinda what was going on, and she promptly spoke with someone. She said that she would advise me to go to the ER. I asked if I could just do a walk in appointment if I was there at 1:30 (which was in 20 minutes) they said they could squeeze us in as a walk in. I ran out to the car to leave, and Donald and my dad were giving her a blessing. We took off for the doctors office. Once we got there, we waited in the waiting room for about 2 minutes till we got called back. We saw a nurse right away. about 10 minutes later our doctor came in. He checked her breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. He had the nurse get her a shot of adrenalin for her allergic reaction. The doctor examined her some more, and suggested that we have her stay in the hospital overnight for observation. He was concerned about the secondary reaction that some children have that can sometimes be fatal. After talking with the doctor and weighing out our situation, we decided that we would bring her home. The only benefit the hospital would provide is she would be hooked up to an IV and if she went into shock, the nurses would be able to administer to her immediately whereas if we are here and she goes into shock, it could be fatal. So, once we decided that we would bring her home, the doctor advised us of what we could do at home and what to look for.She is now asleep in her crib and on about 4 different medications. Poor thing has been thru a lot the past few hours. We will have her sleep in our room tonight so that we can check on her every hour. If she is going to have a secondary reaction, it will manifest its self within the next 30 hours.

UPDATE: Brooklyne has been doing well and I think we are in the clear. She has definately needed her medicine regularly, but as long as we stay ontop of it, she has been doing great. We have an appointment with the allergist on the 29th.

WE are BACK!

Sound the alarms, because we are back in town! We had a great time on our 10 year anniversary trip to California and Maui Hawaii. I will hopefully be getting lots of info and pictures up this week to share with everyone.

OH, and on a side note, tonight at dinner Kolby kept hitting the table, chair, his leg, etc. When I asked him to stop hitting things, his reply was "MOM, I am practicing!" I of course asked him what he was practicing, to which he responded "My DANG IT!" So there you have it, my son practices the way he is going to say DANG IT.

RED SQARE = LOUD NOISE

****** this story took place the morning we left for our vacation ******

My children must feel the need to let their presence be known at the preschool. If Brooklyne is not having a fit of a day, and if Tanner is not being feisty and unruly, then Tanner must get creative and pull the FIRE ALARM!

Yes, that is right, my child, my perfect innocent angel child, pulled the fire alarm at preschool today. When I went to pick him up at noon, the teach seemed to lecture ME, that I need to teach him not to pull fire alarms. Well, I must say, in his defense, the fire alarm was at a small child's reach, was a bright red square in the wall, and had this handle that just SCREAMED "pull me"! I mean what inquisitive child would turn down such an offer?

Of course the fire department had a truck half way to the school before they found out it was a false alarm. I told Tanner it was not a good choice to pull the alarm and to not do it again. (With that said, I secretly think it would be a hoot if he pulled it the last week of school -aren't I evil!?!?!?)