Sean's Birthday and the Zoo

So Sean turned 26 on friday! He's now closer to 30 than he is to 20 - weird. We celebrated with a delicious breakfast of french toast, some time at the beach and then a little date courtesy of our friends Natalie and Mark who offered to watch Bannock. We went shopping for his birthday then out to dinner (the Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki is crazy on a friday night! So we had to settle for Old Spaghetti Factory, which was good. I forgot my camera that night but we did have fun!
We continued his birthday into saturday with a trip to the Zoo (and some more shopping). Bannock had a ball at the Zoo - he was able to practice his animal names which so far consist of "Peacock", "Giraffe", "Monkey", "Zeeba", "Hippo", "Gecko", "Fish", "Phent (elephant)" and we're working on some more. There was a bold peacock walking around the playground with about 30 kids and it couldn't have cared less. Bannock also learned how to say "cheese!" for the camera and was eating it up, the two pictures up there are the best I could capture with my crappy camera, but, suffice it to say, his faces and hand gestures were hilarious. It was so fun to watch Bannock absorb everything - yesterday he was telling me all about it, the "two phents" he saw along with the "beeg Hippo!" and "hippo beeg mouf!" I love seeing him grow and learn every day. Its so rewarding. I love being a mom!

Home for Christmas!

We surprised our parents and flew home for Christmas : ) They had no idea. Sean's dad was so in shock when he opened his door at 11 o'clock at night and Bannock was standing there. He was speechless even when Bannock walked right in and said "Pop pop!". It had been almost 4 months since they'd seen him. We surprised my parents the next night and even though they had just seen Bannock it didn't register that he could be in California. It was a fun surprise and a fun visit. We went to Folsom Zoo's first annual Christmas night at the zoo thing - they had lights everywhere and all the nocturnal animals were still awake (did anyone know the Folsom zoo had tigers?) At the end of the walk Santa and Mrs. Clause were there to take pictures. It was Bannock's first time and even though he would get excited and say "Santa!" any time he saw one, being up close and personal with him did not go over well! What is it with kids and Santa? We also got to go shooting with Sean's family, which was fun. It had been awhile since I had gone shooting. I'm pretty proud of the picture of Sean I took - you can actually see the bullet! Anyway, we had a great Christmas, it was so nice to be back and almost impossible to leave. As great as Hawaii is there is no place like home!

A visit from the folks

My parents came to visit the beginning of December and it was a lot of fun. They rented this cute little bungalow on the beach that we practically lived at with them. We went to the Billabong Pipemasters surf competition which was so fun (got a ton of free stuff!), went to Pearl Harbor and saw the Arizona memorial, ate delicious Thai food at Haleiwa Eats and then caught a cute Christmas parade through the town. We also got to pay our respects to Ron Artis' family - he's a great local artist who had passed away just two days before we went to Haleiwa where his home/studio is. We spent a lot of time on the beach, of course, and Bannock was thrilled that his Nahna and Pop pop were there to spoil him rotten! It was a great week : )

in parenthesis

I have news and updates and pictures galore but for now...

I stumbled upon this dreamy little website in cahoots with Anthropologie.

The Anthropologist

It has articles on wonderful people, places and things. A long with beautiful photographs. Look. Dream. Imagine.

Kethup

Here's a little catch up. We've been loving it out here. It's so nice to be back in school. I'm just soaking it up, so glad to be getting a good education! I love campus life and I'm trying to participate as much as my work/wifely/motherly duties will allow! Each weekend they have a free moving showing in the theatre on campus and this past weekend we watched "the karate kid" (yes the new one) with our friends Jason and Amber, Zach and Julie and Jozie (minus her other half Tommy, who was in Arizona for a wedding). Bannock didn't do to well during but after we went and nabbed free food (sushi and fruit and a chocolate fountain anyone?) from the Fashion Show while Bannock took his first ride(s) on a skateboard. We've made the best friends here and I'm going to be so sad when we they have to move in January, but the campus is small (shoot, the entire town is small!) so I'm sure we won't lose touch! It's just been fun to have potlucks and impromptu game nights and venting about landlord issues!

But moving on! These pictures are from two or three weekends ago (i forget to bring my camera everywhere!) when we went on a little drive in our beautiful 1988 toyota camry. I WILL post more pictures and more often!

This is the view from the Valley of the Temples

Our dashboard friend/sunglass holder KeAloha, she's legit


A mausoleum in Valley of the Temples

Chinaman's Hat off of Kualoa + random tourists

Another view from Kualoa

An address to these changing times

I have to speak up about these current events. I refrain from posting anything political or religious on facebook because I feel it just stirs up contention. I have so many friends and family members of completely opposite beliefs and sadly I feel that stating my opinion in such a public place as Facebook for all of them to see would merely pit them against each other.

Yet I can't remain silent about what is happening in this world. To start, Elder Boyd K, Packer of the quoram of the 12 Apostles spoke at the sunday morning session of General Conference. He reiterated the church's proclamation to the world and our beliefs about the organization of family. He in no way attacked. he said nothing hurtful. He merely re-stated what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' stance on marriage and the family as well as touching on various other points of church doctrine. I was sad and angered to hear that in response a gay activist committee rallied in front of the church headquarters in Salt Lake City and asked Elder Packer to "retract" what he said about the FACT that the Lord would never impose on us inborn tempations that are "preset and cannot be overcome". Our Heavenly Father does not tempt us beyond that which we are unable to overcome.

We do not go to the Gay community and ask you to retract your views that marriage is not a sacred God-given ordinance so do not ask the LDS church to retract its views on homosexuality. I am sorry that there were people who were hurt by these statements. But many in our religious community are hurt by the fact that we must change our laws (on state level, by no means do i mean on an eternal level) to accomodate your views.

I am becoming tired by the politics of this country. The United States of America was founded on the basis of religion - the freedom to worship as we please. How dare anyone try to take that away? So many have forgotten who the founding fathers were. They were God-fearing intellectuals and I aspire to be that someday as well.

I support the rights of the minorities. To an extent. When the rights of the minority are held superior to the rights of the majority, and therefore are subsequently imposed on the majority, thats where the line must be drawn. For now you are creating a minority out of the majority. And then the process must then be reversed, should it not?


I am afraid for the world to come. I fear for the society my children will inherit and I am sad for the destruction of the world which, judging from current events, is not far off. I am thankful for the Gospel and the faith that I have, it brings me an inner peace that I wish we could all have. I know the Lord is merciful and through Him all will be made right in the end.

I leave you with this:

"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light and ligh for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" - Isaiah 5:20

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Dear ants crawling on the bathtub, wandering alone on the carpet, coming in through the kitchen window-

I hate you. I loathe your existance. Really, what ARE you DOING?! there is nothing on the bathtub to be congregating in that mass for. There is no reason to be scavenging by yourself on the carpet- if there were food i'd understand but so far you're out of luck so why are you wandering aimlessly around? And to you in the kitchen, I more fully understand your reasoning over the others, it is the kitchen after all. But I try to be as meticulous as possible and make sure there is NOTHING for you there. So please. Leave. Either get all your buddys, attack, swarm, have at it, get it over with - or just accept that there is nothing for you here and please get on with your measley existance. Or you will face mass death by my hand which I will not regret but enjoy to a full extent.

Sincerely,
the one whose sanity you are destroying.