Disneyland Memories

The day before Thanksgiving, we all went to Disneyland. Gavin and Ellie wanted to spend as much time as possible at "It's a Small World".
During the day, we took a break and had lunch at Uva, a restaurant in Downtown Disney.
One of our favorite rides, and by far the longest wait of 1 hour, was Toy Story Mania. . .the best score we got was 140,000 points.
It was great to have Jeannie and Alana home for Thanksgiving.
Evan is shown here riding on Uncle Tude's shoulders.
We had a whole boat to ourselves at Small World. It was decorated beautifully for the Holiday season.
Auntie held Ellie and Jeannie held Gavin when we all went on the Small World ride.
Here are the three people in our group that have had their cars hit in the last 4 weeks. . .too bad some people out there can't drive. Below, Gavin is shown watching the fireworks show at Disneyland, enjoying some popcorn.

Friends, Family, Food and Fun

With both sets of parents here for dinner, we had a feast of steak and lobster tonight. What a blessing for all of us to be able to share good times together. My parents and Brad's parents have been close friends for about 35 years so it is always fun when we get together.
Ethan and Coco at least enjoyed having the steak. . .they weren't quite into the lobster yet.
After this very filling dinner, we all had Family Home Evening together and learned about Cooperation vs. Contention. Ellie and Gavin were especially helpful with the lesson.
James and Gavin are displaying some of the lobster tails that were the deal of the year at approximately a penny a pound - and there is quite a story behind that price.
Now that's a dinner fit for a king!

Spring in San Pedro

Evan just got word today that he will be in San Pedro for another 6 weeks. . .and he is pretty excited about that. He loves San Pedro and the ward there. Also, he will be in a location and with people that he knows well for Christmas - and that makes a mother very happy. He is shown above in front of the city sign with one of his favorite companions, Elder Amasio.
There have been a number of baptisms in San Pedro since Evan has been there. These are two children that were recently baptized, Marisol and Ariel.
Here is a picture of Evan looking at the ward building. He said that the weather is just now starting to get a little bit warmer. . .but that it will heat up a lot by the time their summer comes in December.

Mahalo

We continued to work on the condo while we were in Hawaii. Other than watching the surfers on Sunset Beach for an hour one morning, we never made it to the beach again. On one of the trips into Honolulu to get some furniture, we stopped to take a picture of beautiful Waimea Bay.
Mom and Dad have found a new way to bicycle on E-bikes. These are regular bicycles that have a battery pack on the back that gives an assist when pedaling up a hill. They were great!!
We always enjoy a stop at Matsumoto's Shaved Ice. . .our favorite on the North Shore.
I made sure that I had plenty of pictures, with this one taken from the condo lanai, to post on the new website advertising the condo for rent.
We worked on getting some new furniture and rearranging the upstairs bedroom. The new bathroom will be put in around the first of the year.

Aloha and Happy 60th, Mom and Dad

Helen and I have been in Hawaii with our parents for the past 5 days, working on fixing the condo up. We have made some progress and it looks like the major work will be done in February. The weather has been pretty rainy, off and on, and today is the first day that the sun has shown consistently. We went to Ted's Bakery with Mom and Tat and got the macadamia nut Danish and went to Sunset Beach to watch the surfers. The mauka showers produced a rainbow right over where the surfers were in the water.
Sunset Beach had very few people on it today. The surfing championships ended yesterday. . .they had 25 foot waves for the championship.
Tat came up to North Shore and spent the weekend with us. A friend from home that is going to BYU Hawaii, Kristine Magnusson, joined us for dinner out on the lanai.
For their 60th Anniversary dinner, Mom and Dad chose Lei Lei's on the golf course and Helen Tat, and I joined them. The seared ahi is excellent at this restaurant.
The Hawaii Temple at Laie was having an Open House for the first time since 1978. We all went to the temple and enjoyed how beautifully it has been refurbished.

Happy Halloween

We had a great Halloween with all of the grandkids. How fortunate we are to have them living near us. They are pictured here on the front steps with all of the pumpkins that they carved.
Gavin and Coco went out Trick or Treating tonight. Gavin was an engineer and Coco was a BYU cheerleader.
Here they both are, ready to go to the Ward Halloween Party.
Megster made her traditional stew in a pumpkin. . .and we all loved it. Everybody had a good meal before they went out trick or treating.
Here are the four kids dressed up at the Ward party. Ethan was a frog, Coco was a cheerlead, Gavin was an engineer, and Ellie was a fairy princess. They were the cutest little kids.