Thanksgiving

Getting things ready to eat...

Dad carving the turkey. YUM!!!!

Me and my sweetie

The family

This year Cade and I went over to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. It was so nice. The weather was perfect. I didn't need anything more than maybe a sweater the entire time. Cade flew down Wednesday before Thanksgiving and was able to stay the rest of the week. What a blessing! My mom's side of the family came down for dinner as well. We haven't gotten together like that for a really long time. It was wonderful to be able to have us together. We were able to talk about so many things. It was really nice to be able to talk to my grandparents about the gospel. I don't think they realized how involved Cade and I really are with the church. It is really different comparing west coast to the south. They do not have very many members in the south so they were surprised to hear about how many temples there are and even how many people are in our ward. It is so nice to be able to share these moments with people you love. I am so grateful that I am able to have these moments.

A Couple of Projects

Letters for my sister A baby blanket

I have discovered crafting and if I do say so myself, I am a little addicted. I love it so much! There are so many wonderful ideas that I finally get to work on now that I have the courage. It took a long long time, but it is finally here. I have had so much support from my mom and girlfriends. Thank goodness they have patience because I am such a perfectionist that I would talk myself out of things before I got started. I am so glad that I am over that fear now. I have so many fun things that I want to tackle all at once...now I just have to master time management.

Point Taken

I did not realize that I had not blogged in forever. (Thanks for snapping me back into reality Sheena :) ) There has been some pretty neat things that have happened since my last post. For starters, I went to my first ever Time Out for Women. It was awesome. I got to go with a wonderful group of girls from church and some family. The speakers were amazing. It was your classic scenario where we are laughing our behinds off one moment and then the next there is a powerful, spiritual moment where we are all sobbing. I even won a $50 gift certificate. It was awesome. I learned so much and realized that I love the feeling of unity with so many women who are striving to become better.
I also got going with school again. I am so excited. It is completely online so I don't have to travel so many hours a week. And I think that I am doing really well. Granted it is only my first two classes, but I am having a great time.
My girlfriends, I am sure, were relieved when November 20th came around because then I would shut up about Twilight for a little while. Yes, ladies, I am a Twi-Hard! I was so excited for "New Moon" to come out, even Cade knew when it was coming out. Friday night at midnight I went out to see the first screening with two of my great girlfriends. The next day I went with a pack of Edward and Jacob hungry women for another showing. It was so much fun!!!

Obviously I am an Edward Fan!!! Is it really that hard to not see why?

It was so much fun. We went and watched the show. Then thanks to a wonderful girl (love you Tami) we were able to munch on Twilight candies and smell yummy in our Twilight lotion. We went to eat afterwards and laughed so hard we were crying. It was such a great girls trip!

Last, but certainly not least, I just got back from visiting with my family for Thanksgiving. It was so nice. Thankfully I was able to get my homework done within a reasonable timeframe and was not bogged down the entire trip. We were able to do some really neat things: visiting an old candy shop downtown (it was so cute. There was even an old soda fountain bar that they still used.), some of the best restaurants I have been to in a long time, Thanksgiving (obviously), and a Rennaissance festival. I am sad to say that I did not have my camera with me when I went, but it was super fun. I have had some wonderful things the past few months. I hopefully will be getting some pictures in that I can update with.

Birthday Pics

I was so surprised. It was the coolest thing seeing all these wonderful people there.

Showing everyone how to "pinch dem tails and suck dem heads".

Cade's co-conspirators. Totally blind-sided. I had no idea.

Birthday Extravaganza- Taking Advice from Trish

A wise woman once told me that I should make every birthday as special as I want it to be. So I did. Thursday night was our night for Taste-N-Trade. This time it was at my house. It was so much fun there were 12 girls that showed up with wonderful breakfast goodies. They were so sweet. Before we even got started, they sang "Happy Birthday" to me. It was so appreciated. After we had eaten and gabbed for a couple hours, the girls left. Andrea hung out and we talked for a while since we hadn't seen each other in forever when the phone rang. I assumed that it was Cade calling to see if he could come home as he had left to go to his parents' house to give us girls to some testosterone-free fun (isn't he the sweetest?!?!). It was Jess on the other end seeing if I wanted to play a game since I would be out of town on my birthday. So she came over and the three of us played the Twilight game. It was so much fun! It was a great night.

Friday came and Cade called me to see what I would want to do since we were going to be out of town on my birthday. Last year, our good friends Bryce and Trish took us out to eat and out to the Redlands temple for my birthday. I think that I want to keep that as a tradition for me. So I asked Cade to take me to a session at the temple. We barely made it, but it was such a wonderful ecperience. I love when you get that feeling of absolute peace. It is so wonderful to be away from the chaos of the world and just have complete peace of mind, body and spirit. After we had completed our session, Cade took me out to California Pizza Kitchen. Oh so yummy! I love going on dates with my sweetheart. He is so great to talk to and he spoils me rotten. "Get whatever you want" is usually what I hear. So we both got our different pies (he- a meat lovers with every animal on it one could imagine me- a BBQ Chicken Hawaiian pizza with huge-o chunks of pineapple on it). It was so delicious. A wonderful night of spiritually refilling our cups, of fabulous conversation with the man of my dreams.

Saturday was my actual birthday. Cade woke me up with a kiss and a "happy birthday". Then my phone rings. Trish and Bryce called to sing "happy birthday" to me. It was such a lovely surprise. After that, there several phone calls and text messages from family and dear friends. I was very pleased. That afternoon we headed out to Parker to help out the Crawfords and Crooks with getting things ready for the trek reunion. It was so great to be working and serving others. It was a change of pace than I am used to for my birthday. It was a lovely activity with the kids getting together with their leaders and to remember the feelings they had while we were on the trek.

Sunday was a wonderfully busy day. I had to teach sharing time, which I think went really smoothly. Then Jill asked me if I could come over to help her prepare for her activity that is being held on Wednesday. So I went over and wound up spending about 2 1/2 hours talking. It was so great. She told me that she was going to be taking Ron and Faye over to my house in like 15 mintues for cake. So I headed home and walked in the garage. I walked in the door and my sweet friends were there to surprise me. Cade had been orchestrating this surprise crawfish boil for weeks. It was such a pleasant surprise. I'm so glad that I was able to be surrounded by wonderful people on my birthday. It was really fun teaching people how to eat crawfish and seeing them succeed. Crawfish can be tricky. I am glad that we were able to share something that is so special to me and my family with those dears that are here. Thanks to all who helped make it a wonderful day.

Dream Come True

We (meaning mostly I) were so excited to take a wonderful and much needed vacay to the beautiful island of Kauai. It has got to be the most beautiful places on Earth. It is still mostly untouched from tourism. There are jungles and beautiful forests with amazing beaches and views of the ocean.
We were so excited to be able to just lay out and enjoy all of our senses being engaged. It was so beautiful. I am convinced that I need a sound machine to be able to properly fall asleep now. The sound of crashing waves is the only thing that will soothe me. (Maybe if I convince myself and Cade of that we will have to get at least a time share or something there.)

This is the restaurant where we got to eat breakfast every morning. They open these floor to ceiling window panels so we can hear the ocean in the morning. What was actually pretty funny was that each morning we got one table closer to the deck until the last morning when we did eat on the deck. Oh I know you're probably tired of me saying it, but it was soooo gorgeous.

Just a quick pic after some fun in the sun.

(Disclaimer: Speedo approaching) So I did the best I could to limit the damage, but I had to show you our first speedo sighting. What is it with foreigners thinking that we all want to see their 'blessings"? I get that it is normal there but no thanks. Cade was playing in the water when I took this picture. He sees the guy and runs back laughing. He says "Tell me you got that." All I do is smile and say, "I'm so lucky I married you."

We went this amazing luau at the Hyatt down the road from our hotel. The food was delicious and the dancers were amazing. I can't imagine being able to do anything remotely as coordinated as the dancing they were doing. The girls were all so beautiful.

As we are entering the courtyard where it is being held, they were handing out Mai Thai's for the adults and fruit juice for the kids. So after we had both received out leis, we were the only two that went to get juice. It was pretty funny.

The opening ceremony- I have a video, but watch your volume. There is a brief moment where there is some interference with the microphone, but it only lasts a second. The videos are at the very end.

The microphone interruption is around 28 seconds and lasts only a second. All I have to say is if I could move my hips like these ladies, I can think of one person who would be very pleased if that were true.

I ask your forgiveness with this one as well. I am in the background gasping as if I am this poor fellow's mother and cheering him on. It's your call with the sound. Just so you know the thing lit on fire is a gigantic knife. Now how sharp it is, I don't know. It is really neat, though.

Our Zip-Lining Adventure

This was the start off point. Thirteen of us rode in a cramped bus along with our instructors. They were the coolest. Their names were Lucas and Carina over at Outfitters Kauai (www.outfitterskauai.com). They were so laid-back and informative. They had these amazing stories to tell. We got strapped up here so you can imagine what the rest of the hike looked like.
Just getting started. I'm sure you ladies already figured this, but all the guys were worried that they might be smothered a little. Not to worry. Lucas led the way. I was so excited. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

This was our first line. We got to ride it twice because so many people get freaked and close their eyes the first time across. It was super sweet. There was a waterfall to our right.

Picture of the waterfall and stream we passed on our first cable.

Cade analyzing the situation.

He is doing what they called an "iron cross". You walk up to the edge of the platform and turn around. You hold your arms out straight and just fall backwards without grabbing onto your tether. It was the sweetest feeling. You are literally free falling for a few seconds.

This is our second cable. We got a little bit of repelling in this one. We got to go backwards for this one. To the right (my left) is a cave behind a waterfall where a little ninja statue is hidden. To the left (my right) is a smaller waterfall and stream that feed the previous waterfall.

This is where we stopped for lunch. This group was amazing. Not only do you get to take this sick adventure, but they pack lunch for you as well. It was so great. I would highly recommend if you are Kauai to look up this company. It was amazing.