Tuesday, March 30, 2010

2010 girls camp

my calling is in the stake young women's which means i don't get to have ward girls camp anymore that is just mine but i get to go visit 7 girls camps! our wards was first at bellows. marj, debbie and cindy mcarthur and i went down on fri. night for dinner a speaker and a show!

the girls made poi balls and laura range taught them how to dance with them. it was very cute and i think they had a lot of fun with it.
young women's president patlynn with the girls. last year at stake camp was the first time she had camped, now she is a girls camp pro!
Mililani 1st ward young woman and their leaders. their t-shirts were so cute, they screen printed them themselves. they said "return to virtue" and a picture of the hawaii temple.
it was fun to hang out with them for a little bit and hear their wonderful testimonies and eat ice cream!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Anela's baptism and march birthdays

On Sat. my cute baby Anela was baptized! Her brother Makana baptized her. It was a very special day. Her dad was there watching over her. we missed his physical body but felt his spiritual presence. i had tears in my eyes watching makana go into the font and to see nellie come down to him, be baptized and to watch kana wrap her in a big bear hug. she was confirmed a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by many of her uncles including matt, carlos, wilson, jason and scotty which i know he felt very touched to be invited to join in her blessing.
anela, i love you very much. you are a good example to those around you. you are a sweet, kind friend and a very cute girl! you are creative, artistic and smart.i am very proud of you. i will make you playdough any time! (anela told me she reads my blog!) love, aunty kelly


makana and anela before the baptism

anela after her baptism. i gave her a baptism towel with her name and CTR (choose the right)
the friends who came to see her baptized.
nellie and drake
we went back to nikki's for lunch and to celebrate march birthdays (there are always birthdays!) happy birthday, chris, amber, kyra, mai mai and kana's girlfriend sya. like our improvised candles?!



Thursday, March 25, 2010

spring/summer schedule

i am becoming a little overwhelmed with the things on my plate. i started thinking about all we have going on in the next few months with ki getting married and caleb going to college.
find caleb an apartment, keep planning wedding details, work on hawaii open house, find a place to stay in san diego etc. etc.
May~ going to st. george, utah for a week. matt has his triathalon that he planned many months before kiley was engaged.
June~ going to utah to take caleb to college
July~ go to san diego for wedding and reception
Aug. ~ get ready for hawaii wedding open house

Sept~ depression sets in:)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

motivation?!

I need it! i don't know how i got so out of the habit of working out! or what i really need to know is how did i get into the habit in the first place? i have not worked out at all for months~ months! like maybe 12:) i know that is a year but it sounds really bad to say a year.
i walk baxter every morning for a half hour and then around the block at night but i am not kidding myself that that is enough excercize but at least i move at some point during the day.
the first thing matt said to me when ki got engaged is "is your daughter's wedding enough motivation to work out?" i thought it might be but so far turns out not so much!
i was going to do it during spring break, i did it one day and then planned wedding stuff the other days. i was going to go to yoga but stuff came up.
i have to do it. for my health, for my flab for my mental status and for my husband.
what now??!!
oh and p.s. spring showed up! it is so nice. even a little hot but i won't complain. can you tell i am a fair weather friend!

Friday, March 19, 2010

senior portraits~ Karlee

i am not a photographer. i am not amber mozo. i am me, i love taking pictures. i do not know a lot of technical things but i like pretty things. some people ask me to take their pictures, i am always happy to but they need to know i am not a pro! i am cheap (people always try and slip me a 20$ bill)/free however so you get what you pay for!! i have taken a few of my young women's senior pictures. karlee asked me if i would take hers and of course i said yes i took her older sisters Kacee's. i think they turned out nice.





Dear Spring!

are you coming? it is cold and windy and it should be warm and sunny! wind is whipping through my living room and i am freezing. it is spring break and i want to lay in the sun!
well i have tried to have a fun break anyway. yesterday i got to have drake and nellie. we took baxter to the park, got mcdonalds, and made playdough. nellie wants to make playdough everytime she comes over. she is 8 and drake is 9 and they still love it!


they wanted ice cream at mcdonalds but it was broken so after playdough and nemo we went to menchies!
ummm, frozen gummy worms!
spring break is almost over, wish we had better weather but it was nice to get some wedding things figured out, watch the today show in the morning and walk baxter after 6:30 a.m.!

FYI there is a site called freerice.com. you can play vocabulary or other games and donate free rice to the hungry, win win!

Monday, March 15, 2010

The Dress

this is what we have been doing,

it is actually kind of hard. it is fun trying them on but deciding is another story. kiley is very simple and wants it to be "her" which means not frilly, sparkly, or poofy! it has to be "The Dress". and on another note it has to be modest for the temple which presents another issue, that is not what they are going for when they design wedding dresses! i think we may have decided but no pictures of that one will be posted!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

celebrity blogger

when i was in provo, utah yasmin and her friend arlene took me to a mexican restaurant for dinner. i don't even remember the name. we were finished and walking out to the car and i saw someone walking from the parking lot to the restaurant. it was "cjane", or courtney, or nie nie's sister. if you are a blog stalker like me then you know who this is. stephanie neilsen had a blog until she was in a devastating plane crash while she was in a coma courtney took over blogging for her until stephanie (or nie nie) could do it herself again. courtney has her own blog called cjane, it is on my blog list and i read every new post she writes. she is hilarious and full of spunk and very retro and mormon and fun! i saw her walking with her husband and baby. i couldn't believe it. it was like seeing some big celebrity. i told yasmin who she was and she had heard of nie nie but i was in awe. i wanted to say hi but i know that she has such long days at home with a toddler in winter, she is pregnant and she was on her way out to enjoy dinner with her husband Chup. ~ that's when i decided i don't want to be a public blogger. that is too weird that i know her, her husband and her baby. she doesn't name her baby on the blog they call him chief but i still feel like i know a lot about her and her family. i don't want to be out in public, no makeup and my dog walking pants on and have someone see me and put it up on their blog:)
it was a little exciting though. on another note her parents were called to be mission presidents in st. louis, they are going to love it!

Friday, March 12, 2010

A few of my favorite things!

Matt had a work conference in Park City, Utah. i really wanted to go. it involved a few of my favorite things. getting away with my husband. he is training for this triathalon and i am not getting to spend very much time with him so getting away, i could have him mostly to myself minus the conference he was attending every day but it is only 2 hours twice a day.
second, shopping. utah has the best shopping! there is the outlet at park city and the wonderful stores in provo. i shopped a lot! food. they have such good food. my favorites are cafe rio and bajio. i had the best chicken tortilla soup i have ever eaten. so fresh and yummy! i had jason's deli twice with the best baked potato ever. my family gets annoyed when i am taking pictures while we are eating so i skipped the pictures. and friends. i get to see some of my favorite people in utah! this is all not to say i don't love st. louis where i was supposed to go in march, i will come eventually! ok here we go, lots of pictures!

we drove up to the olympic park where the salt lake olympics were held.
this is as much skiing as matt got in, he doesn't want to get hurt and lose training time.
real medals on display from the olympians
it was really cool to see the bobsled, luge and skeleton runs and how it was all set up for the games. below is the view from the top of the olympic venue.

we were able to go to the bountiful temple. it was so pretty in the mountains and we really enjoyed going since our temple is closed for a year and a half for renovations.
this was where we stayed at the canyons resort in park city. it snowed a lot. this is taken outside of our window where it was really coming down. it was fun to sit inside with a fire and watch the snow fall. it has been a while!
we didn't get caleb anything for his birthday in hawaii, it would all come in utah. we got him a full day of snowboarding lessons. i could not get up the mountain to where he was without a lift ticket so i couldn't take pictures of him snowboarding which just about killed me so i told him to call as soon as he came down so i could take a picture of him with his snowboard. we waited and waited and i told matt let's just walk up and see if we can wait for him. this is where we found him on his way down. i said you were supposed to call me, he said he did not care about a picture! so this is what i got , after a day of snowboarding. he loved it. his instructor said he really had it down and after the lesson with 5 other people, took him off of the beginner slopes. he will be ready to hit the slopes at school come thanksgiving and hopefully will be a little more prepared, his hands were freezing and he needed goggles!

we decided it would be good for caleb to come meet us there so he could look at his school in provo so we drove up there on fri. and went to UVU. we met with his counselors, got his schedule for summer figured out and toured the campus. i think it was really good for him to see where he would be.he really liked the school and says he doesn't mind the snow and cold.
i had to see a few of my favorite people so matt and caleb would drop me off and go do something else so i could spend some time with my girls.
i met holly at noodle co. another one of my favorites. we only had a little over an hour to talk but it was just so good to see her in person and give her a big hug. there are usually 4 of us, nikki and the other kelly were missing but we were thinking about them! i hate sitting next to her she is so beautiful! miss you girl! please blog for me!

then there's yasmin. there really aren't words to describe yasmin. she is like mother, sister, and chocolate chip cookies all rolled into one lovely person! she acts like you are the most important person to her even though she treats everyone that way! she drove an hour and a half to meet me for dinner. she has done this many times for nikki and i and she never complains!
i met her for dinner and we talked as fast as we could in the time we had which is NEVER enough but we went over to deseret book so she could say hi to matt and caleb.
i told her i wanted a picture and she said only if i promised it wouldn't be on the blog. i told her i could never make such a promise, sorry you are beautiful and i want to remember it! i couldn't believe it when i saw her she had cut her hair, her really long yasmin hair but i love it and think it looks great on her! thanks for meeting me!! i on the other hand was sick and look it!

Caleb (18) and Matt. March '10
there was so much snow on the ground there, around 6 feetbut the weather was so beautiful and didn't feel cold at all, we only wore a coat once. and it was warmer there than it is here and much warmer than our house, insulation is a beautiful thing!
caleb takes such different pictures than me but i love it.
then we left the canyons and went up to kelly's house in kaysville, to see a few more of my favorite things... these little cuties!!
harper (turning 3) and skylar (just turned 2) are my neices daughters. they are cousins. they are adorable. they are the smartest girls and it is so fun to watch them play and listen to them.
we went to lunch with all of kelly's kids who we refer to as the McKids (last name McCausland).
matt, harper and skylar at jason's deli
matt's sister kelly and all of her 6 kids and 2 grandaughters!
at jason's they have free soft serve ice cream after your meal. it was a hit!
matt left utah to go to seattle for more work stuff so caleb and i had one more day at kelly's house. skylar took quite a liking to caleb. calling his name for him to come play with her. caleb is not really into little kids but he was so good with her and played with her for hours.

here they were at the store and i think skylar was ordering food while they are both eating string cheese.so cute!
so we were supposed to leave utah sunday at 3:00. we left from utah and flew to portland. we boarded the plane in portland and took off only to turn around a half hour later due to mechanical problems. they deboarded the plane and told us to wait 5 hours while a flight from minnesota brought the part to portland, they fixed it and reboarded us, while handing us a 7$ meal voucher for food in the airport where on a sunday night nothing was open.
at 1:00 a.m they cancelled the flight and sent us to a hotel without luggage to spend the night and try again the next day. caleb and i went to the fairfield inn with about 20 other flyers and at least got some sleep. no toothbrush, pajama's, hairbrush or anything else! we went back to the airport the next day and flew out at noon. it was a LONG day but at least i had a really good book, caleb had a new phone his cousin strattton hooked us up with for his birthday and we both got 100$ travel vouchers which will be good for our return trip in june to take caleb to school! (the book was still alice which i loved!)
this was a long post i know but i wanted to document our trip. we had a great time. i want to go back in june with an empty suitcase:)!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

happy birthday to you and you and you and you!

at the end of feb. we had a few birthdays to celebrate. caleb turned 18 , my niece maggie turned 19, anela turned 8 and sas is a fabulous 29!! (right sas;)?)

i forgot maggie's name and wrote it in edible ink under the others- bad aunty!
happy birthday to you! maggie, caleb, anela and sas runnels~ we love you all!!


Wednesday, March 10, 2010

playing catch up

i am a little behind on my blogging so i am going to backtrack.
the week before we left for utah, matt's sister Kelly and 2 of her girls betsy and brynna came.
they had a fun time roaming the north shore and getting sunburned! on sat. we took them to bellows and kailua for lunch with maggie.
you always gotta go to teddy's bigger burger! i usually eat at maui taco next door but this time i asked for a burger on lettuce leaves. it's just not the same! matt, caleb, maggie, betsy, brynna and kelly.

brynna, betsy and kelly at bellows
cousins~ maggie, brynna, betsy and caleb
caleb and maggie are 1 year apart and caleb and betsy are 5 months apart. brynna is 14.
the girls enjoying the water.
it's always fun when family comes to visit and we got to see them the next week at their house!


Thursday, March 4, 2010

some things about utah

here are a few things going on in utah. i didn't bring my camera cord so i will have to post pictures at home.
the first few days were beautiful, in the 50's and sunny. we didn't even wear a coat. today, not so much! it is cold and windy and snowing- A LOT! it has been coming down like crazy all day!
caleb went snow boarding for the first time, i was so worried he was going to be frozen. we didn't exactly have the right gear~ like goggles! but he managed and loved it.
matt and i are sick. what is it about utah, we get sick every time we come here in the winter. i guess our hawaii immune systems are not used to utah weather. we spent the day hanging out in the hotel room and napping while caleb had his snowboard lesson. it was actually kind of nice, when can you just take a day, lay around by the fireplace and relax.
i read glass castles by jeanette walls. it is awesome. it has some language in it but the story is so amazing. i can't believe it has taken me this long to read that book. i want to read half broke horses by her.
i have shopped like crazy. i love utah. it has the best shopping. we still have to go to provo tomorrow to a few of my favorite stores! and to see a few of my favorite people.
our room has grown on me. it is small but cozy and it has a full kitchen so we can eat anything.
there is also a whole foods down the hill so i think i have been there 4 times, every night for dinner. we have eaten very well. i had the most awesome baked potato ever at jason's deli.
well that's all for now!