April trip to Utah

Dave, Aubrey & I took a Saturday morning hike up Ensign Peak. There were quite a few other people enjoying the hike as well thanks to a stake youth conference.

 Looking back down the trail and noticing that the hike is a popular thing to do on a beautiful day.

It was a bright sunny day so Aubrey borrowed a pair of my groovy sunglasses.

Sweetie pie Kira checking out the ride on her sister's bike. Kira had her first birthday this month.

Cute Moriah modeling her new princess dress she got for her 5th birthday.

Darling Fiona and her creative head gear.

Kira has such big blue eyes and long eye lashes.

We went on an outing to Thanksgiving Point to see the beautiful gardens. The tulips were in bloom and so gorgeous.

Lovely Aubrey's shiny auburn hair.

Kira showing us her walking skills.

Aubrey found some nice shade from the sunny weather.

Aubrey took this picture of the entrance to maybe The Secret Garden.

Fiona looks so cute sitting by the lovely blossoms.

Kira enjoying a tasty snack.

Beautiful Driel with Moriah and me.

So many amazing colors!

Moriah and Fiona making music.

Such a fun time we had enjoying the gardens.

More Kailua Beach, Laie Temple, Polynesian Cultural Ctr

We had no idea how beautiful Kailua Beach was until we took our first stroll along the water's edge on the very soft white sand. Kailua Beach is one of the top three beaches in the world.

Here's Steve looking for a good book to read in our very comfy two bedroom apartment.

On our drive to Laie, we had to stop and check out the Shrimp Shack's garlic butter shrimp.

While we were at the temple grounds, this is what the sky looked like out towards the beach. When you turned around and looked at the temple, this is what you saw. . .

While we were at the PCC visiting the many different island villages of the South Pacific, we had to visit the Tongan Village and see the drum show because our son-in-law, Brandon, served his mission there (not in the Tongan Village but in the country of Tonga).

We enjoyed watching the Parade of Canoes. On our way over to the luau for dinner and a show, we were caught in a torrential downpour. We were soaked to the bone! It took awhile that evening to finally get dry.

Oahu--Pearl Harbor, Mighty Mo, Kailua Beach

After enjoying our time on Kauai, it was time to fly to Oahu and spend a few days before having to return home.

The visit to the Pearl Harbor Memorial, which is built over the battleship Arizona, is a sobering experience especially when you read through the many names of men that lost their lives on December 7, 1941.

Recreating a classic kiss.

The following picture is of the Mighty Mo where the formal surrender document was signed with the Japanese ending WWII. The next two photos are of our apartment at Kailua Beach.

Shaved Ice, Waimea Canyon, & Duke's

Kauai had no shortage of beautiful waterfalls to enjoy during our visit.

Here's what our lovely condo looked like upstairs. We fixed a number of delicious meals in the well equipped kitchen.

We were told to check out Jo Jo's Shaved Ice shop on our drive to Waimea Canyon. The shaved ice was delicious. Hidden inside each of our cups of flavored ice was a scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream--mmmm good!

Waimea Canyon is deeper than the Grand Canyon.

We decided at the last minute to check out the seafood at Duke's Restaurant.

We loved their Opah, a local Hawaiian fish.

Stormy weather, church, & zipline

We had an amazing rain and thunderstorm that lasted for 24 hours. Thanks to Dave and I for bringing this weather with us when we visit the islands. Here we are standing on our back deck that overlooks the pond. The problem is that the pond is flooded and the condo maintenance people are trying to pump the water out onto the street so that the bottom floor condos stay dry.

Sunday morning we headed off to church not knowing if the roads were ok or washed out. We safely made it to church and thoroughly enjoyed the ward.

Our kids would be happy to know that there are still many chickens living happily on the island of Kauai. The population has definitely increased since we were there last (we noticed later on when we were on Oahu that we didn't see one chicken running around wild).

We took a drive in the early evening and stopped at a fishing dock to enjoy the sunset. Here we met Paul, a fisherman, originally from San Francisco and living on Kauai and working as a cook on one of the tour boats. We are sad to say that we didn't see him catch one fish while we visiting with him.

Nice early evening lighting.

A gorgeous view from the boat dock.

Monday morning we got up early and drove to the Princeville Ranch Zipline. While waiting for our safety briefing, we found some lovely orchids that needed their picture taken.

The sun was shining! We were hoping to get some use out of our sunglasses.

Steve the gadget man. He wanted to film his zipline adventure.

Here we are with our gear on waiting our turn for a thrill ride on one of the nine zip lines.

This is me having a blast on the zipline.