We won!

Here's how we'll celebrate our tenth anniversary in June. And it will be free!

Inn of the Mountain Gods Fondest Memory Contest

Here are pictures of our trip there in 2005.

More Disneyland Vacation

Jason's mission friend gave us a tour of San Diego. It was so nice to have a native tour guide (and some great advice from another San Diego expert, Kerry). First we went to the San Diego Temple which I had always wanted to see.

I can tell this story because I'm not saying the name of Jason's mission friend. It will be anonymous! Her little boy had to go pee pee with an urgency and the Visitor's Center was not open. Let's just say there was a Gatorade bottle involved and problem solved! Duty calls even at the temple.


Next we went to Mount Soledad, the highest point in San Diego. It was windy! I thought we were going to get blown off the top.
Then we went to La Jolla Cove. We really enjoyed seeing the beach again, probably since we had more than a bathing suit on this time.

We saw the seals but the kids were more interested in the sand. Go figure! I'm so glad I drove a thousand miles for the biggest sandbox a kid could ask for.
Who's ready for Disneyland?

Disneyland!

We decided to take a two day drive to CA which was a good choice since Google Maps optimistically estimated it to be a 12 hour trip, but it actually takes 15 hours to get to Anaheim. Once you add in potty break for three kids it takes about 26 hours. We had to drive because if we were to fly on a plane it would take $3,000 to cover all the extra baggage fees. I think our van was about ready to scrape bottom with all our stuff.

We stopped for the night in Phoenix and stayed with one of Jason's missionary companions from his Hungary mission. Loads of fun!

Then we set out for San Diego the next day. We stayed with another one of Jason's missionary friends. I'm so grateful Jason could strategically have missionary companions spread out across the country for us to visit. We had to go to San Diego for the purpose of showing the kids the ocean. Last year I took the kids to Cochiti Lake (about 45 minutes from our house). It looks like this (photo is from www.anglerweb.com, I don't know what copyright law so I thought I better reference it, I don't want to get in trouble):


Well that picture makes it look nice. It's really more of a puddle of water in the middle of a gravel pit. The kids swore to me that this was the beach. So you see, we had to go to the ocean.


It was about 60 degrees, it was cold! Oh well! We still swam anyway. For about 5 minutes.
Yes, Steve is wearing Liz's pink cover-up. Don't judge me, it was cold!
I think Steve ate too much sand and felt a little off after driving for two days. As we were leaving the beach, Steve threw up. Then he felt better. There's nothing like being covered by sandy vomit. Good times!

Hawaii Day 6

I'm finding that I enjoy reading blogs a lot more than writing one. You might have already noticed from my lack of posting...

On our last day in Hawaii we did the Haleakela Zip line. Jason went snorkeling with me so I decided to run off a platform suspended by a cable across a ravine fr him. Probably an even trade.

There just happened to be a professional photographer on the tour too. She had been hired to take pictures for a photo book about Maui. Throughout the day she took picture of everyone on the tour. At the end of the day she said if we emailed her she would send us the pictures for free. If you ever need a photographer on Maui, she was great. Here is her website: www.carlajalbert.com. I won't even bother showing you our pictures. In one Jason took of me you can only see my elbow as I fly by. We went up to 45 miles an hour. Our stick like figures have low wind resistance...









We spent the rest of our last day shopping in Lahaina, relaxing and cruising around in the convertible.

The only way to get home from Hawaii is to take a night flight. It seems counter productive to have a relaxing vacation and finish it off with an over night flight. It was great to be back with the kids again. Speaking of that, want to hear about our Disney vacation?

For early readers

Happy Easter! We're always looking for reading learning opportunities for Dave, here's one for your early reader too. It says butt so you know it especially works with little boys.

Hawaii Day 5

How can you go to Hawaii and not snorkel? You have to remember that this trip we planned was a "Once in a lifetime, I don't now if we'll ever get to go back" kind of trip. We went to Molokini Crater off the coast of Maui to snorkel and it was amazing. We wish we would have had time to learn how to snorkel before the big day but the company that we did the tour with gave great lessons to us desert dwellers. Check them out at Kai Kanani Charters.

Here's the crater:

Here's my hunk (the boat we rode in is in the background):The desert dwellers:

I have the best husband ever. He's not a great swimmer or a fan of swimming but he did this all for me. He knows I love swimming and always wanted to snorkel. If you know Jason you know this was a big deal for him. Good job, Jason!
We both had underwater cameras from WalMart. The pictures didn't come out as great as we had hoped. It really didn't look green at all underwater. Anyway, all we heard all day was "We wish we bought underwater cameras!"

So much time passed between the time I booked the tour and going on the tour that I forgot Kai Kanani would take us to a second location after Molikini to snorkel with giant turtles.
Ooh look! A giant sea turtle AND a big, white tourist!AND then they fed us lunch (in addition to the breakfast they provided that morning). AND after the swimming was done they took us sailing for an hour and had an open bar (you're not allowed to swim and drink). Jason and I were able to witness one of the tourists drink a Mai Tai through his snorkel. People in Hawaii are happy people, but you haven't seen happiness until you've seen drunk Hawaii tourists. That's a sight us two Mormons had never seen before. I'm a little sorry I don't have a picture... It's possible it was the same guy in the turtle picture. You know who you are, Mai Tai snorkeler!

Hawaii Day 4

Honolulu and much of Oahu is big city life. We wanted to see the more pristine, natural Hawaii so we decided to go on the Hana drive in Maui. It's loaded with jungle plants and waterfalls. After we made our plans we found there are some intense feelings about doing the Hana drive. Quote: "The Hana drive is the road to divorce!" Wow! Sounds just what I want to do on my tropical vacation!


To explain, it's several hours of very windy roads so if you get car sick, this isn't fun. And if you go during peak tourist season you'll just end up in a caravan for miles and miles. We don't get car sick and the economy was starting to tank so tourist season was slow. We went and we loved it. And we're still married. This helped:

You only live once so why not enjoy it! Lots of other tourists had the same idea, we saw about 10 of these convertibles. Nothing screams tourist like a rented convertible with whiteys in it. Fortunately, Hawaiians are nice to tourists. Well, they are nice to everyone. And they are happy about everything. Who can blame them? They live in Hawaii!

Here are some of the sites in Hana. Black Sand Beach:

The Upper Waikani Falls (or The Three Bears Waterfall), you may recognize this if you have seen the Mormon temple endowment movie:


A waterfall (not all of then have names):

Another waterfall:

A stream leading to the ocean:
And plenty of ocean views:
We picked up a hitch hiker on the way back. I'm not one to pick up hitch hikers, but she was so nice looking that she made me look like an ax murderer. She was in Hawaii wwoofing it. She had lived in Hawaii for quite a while so it was like having a tour guide. She answered all our tourist questions and even helped us pick some guavas.

For the rest of our trip we splurged and stayed here: Maui Prince Resort. You only live once, remember? It was worth it!

Back to the land of the living

We just pulled out of two months of sickness and it sure is good to be back to the land of the living. First Liz got a sinus infection that led to pink eye in both eyes. Then I got a sinus infection and a virus that led me to google "Whooping Cough" it was so bad. It took 3 weeks to get over. It was all over our neighborhood and everyone took 2-3 weeks to get better. Just as I was detoxing from cough medicine, Steve and Dave came down with a cold. Dave shook his off but Steve's lasted a full week and developed into a sinus infection. He shared it with me and now, two months later, we're finally better. No one is allowed to get sick in our house. I have forbidden it! However, if you ever need to know which cough medicine works best you can borrow some, I have enough to medicate Dave's elementary school.

This is so off topic, but I love free stuff: Want free fabric? Click here. Ever gone to Joann's with three kids? Then you'll know why I hope to win free fabric.

Hawaii Day 3, and you thought I'd never post it

You could probably spend 2 or 3 days at Pearl Harbor alone, we only had three hours. I had just finished reading Winds of War and War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk and it made the experience that much better. I highly recommend it. This is history, people!

We didn't know that you had to have tickets to get to the USS Arizona Memorial and that it's first come, first served. Our tickets were for an hour and a half later so we went over to the USS Missouri to pass time. We were so glad we did! If you can call being on the USS Missouri passing time then you're nuts. It was awesome.

I'll call this picture "You want a piece of me?"
A submarine! The USS Bowfin

"Do you want a piece of me?" Part 2
It's a battleship! Sorry, I'm just a little star struck with this amazing piece of American workmanship. I live in a landlocked state, can you tell?



Can you believe I'm in Pearl Harbor?!?!? I think this is one of my favorite pictures.
Now for the USS Arizona. First you watch a movie about December 7, 1942. Then you take a 20 minute boat ride out to the site of the USS Arizona and the Memorial. This is a view from the USS Arizona looking toward the USS Missouri.
The employees there give you a big talk before you go to the USS Arizona that this is sacred ground and to please act respectfully and quietly. There were a couple Japanese tourists there that were really loud and joking around. I'm pretty sure they didn't speak English (at least I hope that was the reason), yet it still took four harsh shushing to quiet them down. It was weird.

On a lighter note, there are no bathrooms at the USS Arizona. I would recommend you take care of business before you get out there. I'm just saying...

Then we spent 20 minutes at the Swap Meet at the Aloha Stadium, great deals!

Next, onto Maui. We got lost in Honolulu and barely made our flight on time. Not that it probably would have mattered much since there is a flight every half hour to each island. Pictures from our flight:

At the Maui airport we saw the biggest cockroach I have ever seen. I'm sorry to report there are still cockroaches in paradise. It had it's own weather system. It was the mother of all cockroaches. Well, maybe I haven't seen a whole lot. But there was a guy there from New York City and he said it was the biggest cockroach he had ever seen. Anyway, I didn't go to Hawaii to see the airport. I was in Maui!

We stayed at the cheapest hotel we could find since we were only going to be in it for one short night. It was $100. That's cheap in Hawaii. Thank goodness for Swap Meets!

News and a Commercial

I'm back! I better bring you up to speed on Harper news.

First, we just refinanced our house! The downturn in the economy has it's benefits. We got an AMAZING deal. Seriously, it does not get better that what we got. Now it's time for a shameless plug. I'm doing this for your benefit! Read on if you like saving money. If you don't then I'll send you my PayPal account email. I take checks and all major credit cards.

I cannot say enough good things about Rob Burdick and Brian Chinn at Premier Choice Mortgage. Or read their blog here. He was highly recommended by my Mom who spent 20 years in Real Estate and met all kinds of mortgage lenders (and there are some real slime balls out there, scary!). When it comes to your house, you better get representation from someone you trust! Rob took care of us and probably fixed problems we never even heard about (and if you've ever bought a house or refinanced you know there can be a lot of bumps no matter who you work with). So if you're even wondering if this is a good time to refinance or get a mortgage to buy a house, stop wondering and just call. Last year we met with Rob to see if we needed to refinance and his advice was to wait. He's not in it for a quick buck but will tell you what's right for you. Waiting paid off BIG TIME. His advice was right on. Rob is honest and ethical. Those are rare qualities in the mortgage industry right now. It does not matter if you don't live in NM, he is part of a network called "By Referral Only" so if what he offers isn't right for your situation, then he can find someone who matches your needs that has the same affiliation with "By Referral Only." My Mom was part of "By Referral Only" for years and these are the kind of people you want to work with. The "By Referral Only" philosophy is that if you do your job right and have excellent customer service, then you'll get referrals from your clients and you can spend less time and money advertising and more time helping people like you and me. This is what you want! Alright, I'm done with this commercial. Just call! You won't be sorry.

Now that we refinanced, you know what we're gong to do? We're going to Disneyland! How could we not? We have a 6 year old that loves Star Wars and a 4 year old that loves Princesses and an easy going baby. Plus I'm not pregnant or nursing. That's a plus for a 12 1/2 hour drive. We're ready for magic!

So I guess that means I better get onto Hawaii Day 3...

The spoils

Look! Dave's a Trekkie! I'm so proud!

Our annual contribution to Disney/Pixar.

A second contribution to Disney/Pixar. They have us right where they want us.

The best present is the one you can cuddle with. Thanks for the extra blankie, Grandma! Steve already has one, but we needed a spare so it could get washed once and a while. The original blankie was getting pretty ripe.

Holiday Cheer

Dave's creation...

Liz's creation...
Dad's contribution...
A closer view...That's a raisinet in there in case you were wondering.

Why I haven't posted more about Hawaii yet

My kids (and why I'm asking for a new camera in 2009)...

A better picture (but Steve was sleeping)...
The big one...
My little tree with all my kids pictures...

My centerpiece. Yes, that's the Dangerous Book for Boys in the background. It didn't have anything about centerpieces in it but Dave and Jason made an excellent paper airplane.
In my Christmas to do list priorities the kitchen slipped pretty low. I believe in being real so here is the picture. I'm providing this shot as a service to you so you can feel good about yourself. You can say, "My kitchen is way cleaner than Mary's!" I do it all for you.
And the after shot so you don't think I'm too much of a pig...