Zion

We flew back to Vegas after Hawaii. Our good friends Josh and Jody were kind enough to meet us at the airport the morning we flew out and take our car home with them. They took care of our car while we were gone - I mean really took care of it - they washed it and even cleaned out and vacuumed the inside. Good friends. Then Jody picked us up from the airport when we got back and we all went to dinner at In-N-Out. We had a good time catching up with them. They have a cute little daughter the same age as Cora named Maddy; it was fun to see the two of them together.

We drove back to St. George that night and then decided to stay the next day too to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa. While they were working in the temple that afternoon we decided to go to Zion National Park. I had never been there and it was beautiful. We took a bunch of pictures. Sightseeing is really easy there - they have a short section you can drive through and then you park and take shuttles to see the rest. The shuttles come every few minutes and stop at every site, so you can get off whenever you want and catch another one. We had a fun little outing and then went back to spend the evening with Grandma and Grandpa.

This video was taken that night at Grandma and Grandpa's house - we were watching America's Got Talent and Cora got inspired to dance for us. She put on a pretty good show, break-dancing like the guys on TV, but we only got a small bit of it.



These pictures were all taken the next day. On the way home to Pocatello we stopped at another part of Zion called Kolob Canyon. It was beautiful, just a short scenic drive right off the I-15.

Laie Temple

We wanted to take pictures at the temple on our last Sunday there. Here are Jason and Cora eating a snack and waiting for everyone else to get ready.

Here comes a breakdown - it was naptime and she had waited through too many pictures.Good thing Jordan was there to comfort her.We actually took pictures with everybody, but none of the ones from our camera turned out that well - we'll have to post more after sharing pics.

Here are a couple more pics taken that night when we were packing up to go early the next morning.
Cora and grandpa cuddling in his chair.
Cora tackling Johnny.We were sad to leave; it seemed like our time there just flew by. It was a great visit. At the same time, we were excited to get back to our house and move back in to our own place.

Hukilau, pirates and sea slugs

On 7/29 Ryan, John and Jordan got up at 5:30 to go to the ward camp hukilau at Hukilau Beach. The hukilau didn't end up starting til about 7, so they got to hang out and watch the sun rise together.
We stopped by Kaneohe Bay to take a look at the Queen Anne's revenge (not the Black Pearl, like we originally thought) which is visiting the islands for filming the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie. We didn't get to see Johnny Depp though.We went to Goat Island, but didn't take the camera since we have to walk across the water to get there. On the way back, though, Johnny caught these cool sea slugs on the beach. Took us a while to find out what they were.

7/27 Overlooks - Pali and Punchbowl

We went to town and stopped at the Pali and later, the Punchbowl overlooks. We ate lunch at our favorite Thai place and ran a few other errands.

This is at Punchbowl.This is a turtle we saw at Laniakea beach on the way home, driving the North Shore way.

7/26 Beach and temple garden

A walk on the beach - beautiful but maybe not as relaxing as we thought it would be - since Cora refused to walk on the sand and made us carry her. ;) We rested in the temple meditation garden after and took some pics.

More beach 7/24

Just hanging out at Hukilau with the family.

Feasting on delicious musubis Heidi made.It was pretty bright out.

Cora and Daddy playing in the water - not her favorite thing but she tolerated it.Sometimes he had to hold her up over a wave so she wouldn't get splashed - although the sunglasses were great at keeping water out of her eyes. Whenever he brought her back down, she would cling to him and pat his back.

Here's a guy much happier in the water than Cora! Just look at the big smile on Marcus's face.

Kaena 7/22

Ryan and John took the Hummer out to Kaena Point and had fun off-roading and spending time together. This top pic was taken at Haleiwa Beach Park on the way home, the rest were taken at Kaena.

Cora's first beach day 7/20

This is the first post I am catching up on from our trip to Hawaii. We wanted to see our family, especially John who now has his papers in and will be going on a mission soon, and also check out a possible opportunity for Ryan in Kahuku. We spent two weeks there and had a blast. Cora had never met her auntie Heidi or her cousins from Hawaii so it was great to see them, just before they went back to school.

This is the first day we took Cora to the beach in Hawaii - she did not like the water or the sand but by sitting with her on my lap on the sand, then slowly transitioning her to sitting on her own, she started playing with it a little, eventually even helping Jason to bury her legs in the sand and make her a mermaid.