Our WILD Weekend!

Summer is supposed to be a time to relax...right?....wrong! It seems that this summer is busier than ever and every weekend there is something going on. Don't get me wrong, it is all fun stuff but I would love to have a weekend where I had nothing to do but relax. I guess that can wait for one of those cold drizzly fall days.


Anyway, this weekend was no exception and were busy non-stop. Of course Friday was Cat's baby shower which was an all day event and a lot of work. I was already tired by Saturday morning. Saturday we had a blast doing a geocaching event. It was an event called "The Amazing GeoCaper" and it was basically a scavenger hunt around Pt. Defiance park solving logic puzzles as quickly as possible. I was so busy I did not have a lot of time to take pictures but for a detailed description of the race, go to my brother's blog at http://www.vanderhoeven.blogspot.com

When we arrived we thought we did not have a chance to beat some of the brainiac people that were there but we stayed calm and used our sense of logic and were thrilled to end in 3rd place. We are already making plans for next year where we plan on bringing the 1st place trophy home!


On Sunday we attended the McChord AFB airshow. It was the first time they had the show since 2005 and we were excited to go. When we went in 2005 it was a great show but it was miserable because it was over 90 degrees and there was not a lick of shade anywhere. Due to security issues, you can not bring ice chest, large bags or umbrellas into the show. This year the rules were the same. So since the real show was in the air, we decided to set up camp by our car. It worked out really well. We did not have to haul anything anywhere, we stayed cool and we enjoyed the show and never had to leave the comforts of the parking lot. Mike went with Jacob and Michelle to look at the various displays while I stayed at the car, read and hung out with the dog. It was so funny to see the same people walking around in circles looking for their cars. The parking lot was enormous and unless you looked around very carefully when you left your car it was very easy to lose it when you came back. I can tell you the number of people that walked by our setup and said they were going to do exactly the same thing that we did next year.


The highlight of the show is the Air Force Thunderbirds flying team. They were the last act of the event. In order to beat the traffic we left about 15 minutes before their performance and enjoyed their show from a parking lot at the end of the runway. All in all it was super fun day and we will most definitely be back next year.


Today is Monday and I am back at work...relaxing!! :)

Logan Is Almost Here!

Our first grandchild, Logan Dean Sirrine, will be arriving any day now and we could not be more excited. On Friday night my wonderful sisters and sister-in-law Valerie, had a baby shower for Cat. As with any VanderHoeven machine event, we can never do anything in small way and it felt more like we were planning a wedding than a shower. There were over 50 people invited and we had at least 35 or so attend. We had the shower over at Opa's house since it was more centrally located and large enough to hold a crowd. We spent the entire day Friday getting things ready. The highlight of the preparations had to have been when I opened the BBQ grill to cook chicken skewers and there was rat inside there enjoy the remnants from our last party. After I had a heart attack, I screamed for Jack who attempted to trap the thing inside and light the grill. Upon reminding him that we needed the grill to cook food for the shower, he decided that he would just gas the thing. The rat ended up escaping through one of the holes on the side of the grill but I am sure he at least had a headache and hopefully, we will NEVER see him again!

Anyway the shower turned out very well though and sweet Logan received many many cute and useful things. We can hardly wait to welcome him into our family soon. Thank you everyone for your help and support. You guys are the BEST!

Our New Puppy!

I know...can you believe it? We finally bit the bullet and got a puppy. We have always wanted to have a dog but our lives seem so busy that there never seemed to be the right time. Plus neither Mike or I am big fans of having both our house and our yard ruined but all the fun things that come along with having a dog.

Last week Ady got a new yellow lab puppy. Mike was talking to him at work and he was saying how cute she was and how much fun she was. Ady mentioned that the owner had one black puppy left and that they were willing to give her to us for a discount. As I was driving home from work that Friday afternoon, I started to think about it more and more and when I finally got home Mike and I discussed it and decided that we would go "take a look" at it. Well you know how that goes, to make a long story short, we brought her home that night and our house has not been the same every since.

She is adorable and is really a lot of fun to have around. We are bound and determined to train her to be obedient and well behaved. So far she seems really smart and is catching on. She loves to chew on everything of course and some of our shoes have puppy bit marks in them but for the most part she is a very good dog. I am sure we will have more puppy horror stories to tell in the future but for now, so far so good!

Girls Camp 2008

Every summer Michelle looks with great anticipation to Girls Camp. She absolutely loves it and can hardly wait to go. The dates for camp this year were July 7th - July 11th and it was held at the Ensign Ranch which is located up near Snoqualmie Pass.

In our stake they separate the girls by their year of camp. For instance all the first year girls stay together and all the second year girls stay together etc. Michelle loves it that way because as much as she loves the girls in our ward, she really enjoys getting to know all the other girls in the stake that are her age.

Anyway, she had a blast. Since this was her fourth year camp started with a 12 mile hike up a mountain and then an overnight stay with the other fourth year girls. It was a lot of work but as you can see from the pictures, the girls all survived and were even smiling when they reached the top.

The following day they joined the rest of the stake at the Ensign Ranch where they enjoyed a week of waterslides, horseback riding, crafts, skits and of course lots of laughing and even a little bit of crying.

I am so grateful for the youth programs of the church and for leaders who are so willing to sacrifice their time to build up and care for these girls.

Next year...YCL!! Yee haw!

McChord Anyone???

Give us a call if your interested!

Our Missionary Is Coming Home!

Our son Matthew has been serving in the Mexico-Tijuana Mission for the past 23 months. He will be returning home on August 5th and we are so excited to see him. I marvel every week at the outstanding and dedicated missionary he has become. In fact, yesterday I was reminded of it once again. There was a sister that lives in Utah that called us. She said that every year her and her husband along with a group on youth, travel to Tijuana to build houses for families in need. While she was there she had the opportunity to meet and work with our son. She said she was so impressed with his dedication and love for the Mexican people and she said he truly has the light and spirit of Christ in him. She said his leadership skills and mentorship of the younger elders will truly be missed in the mission. She said she wanted to call me and tell me what an outstanding person Matthew is and that we should be very proud of him. Indeed we are and we can not wait to welcome him back in our home and partake of his sweet spirit. He will be coming home on August 5th. We do not know all the details yet but the countdown is on! Only 29 days to go!

And The Rocket Red Glare....

As mentioned in the blogs from Karen/Bob Lutz and Brian Lutz, we had a most amazing July 4th. Maybe what made is so awesome was we had such low expectations. Most of the family was out town for the weekend and everyone that was in town, was invited over to our house to celebrate. I cooked a yummy chicken dinner. By the way, it is WAY easier to fry chicken for 12 than for 30. Our family went shopping for fireworks the previous night and after dinner we started the show that pretty much went on for the next 5 hours...NON-STOP! It was amazing and unless you were there, you really will not understand it. Every house on our street and in our sub-division for that matter was loaded with every variety of pyrotechnics you can possibly imagine. We missed the out-of-towners and our numbers were small but it was sort of nice because we were actually able to visit with each other without having to shout. If you have ever been to a VanderHoeven family gathering, you know what I am talking about. Anyway, it was really fun and here are some pictures of the night. We can hardly wait for next year!

Fall Planning....Already!

Even as the days are warming up and summer is upon us, it is time for us enrichment leaders around the globe to start thinking of Super Saturday and what fun craft projects we can plan. Our ward in Bonney Lake always makes a big deal about Super Saturday. For the past several weeks our planning team has been meeting trying to come up with the most fun, trendy, inspiring, educational projects that we possibly can. So far we have about 9 things planned. We are all working now to price and recreate them for our next meeting in July. Here are a few of the things we are doing. I will post more pictures after our next meeting. I would love to have any of your ideas. What have you done in the past that have been succesful in your ward? What worked well and what did not? Oh, and if any of you want to come, it is taking place on October 18th. You of course are more than welcome or we can plan another Super Family Craft Saturday for later on.

1. Painted set of 3 small pumpkin goards. This are really cute to put on a shelf or on an entry hall table. (no picture yet)

2. Decorated Halloween treat bowl - this is basically a wooden bowl spray painted black and then you cut Halloween scrapbook paper in geometrical shapes and decorate the inside of the bowl. Then you decopage the whole bowl and it is SUPER cute! (no picture yet)

3. Family Blocks - pictured below but we will also have the same blocks that say BELIEVE and HARVEST in holiday colors of course.

4. Favorite Things magnetic board - We will be making the boards as well as the cute magnets. There will be two choices. One will say "THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS" and the other with say "MY GREATEST BLESSINGS CALL ME GRANDMA".

5. Hand stitched primative pillows and signs. These are signs and pillows you stitch on muslin and either turn into pillow or frame them and turn them into pictures. CUTE! (no picture yet)

6. Large Family board - This one your can just hang in your house or on your front porch.

7. Birthday card file - This is a handy file you can keep in your purse to help you remember birthdays and other special dates (no picture yet)

8. Scripture signs - The one pictured is the youth theme for this year but we will be doing two other ones that we have not decided on yet.

9. I can't remember this one but I know it was cute! (no picture yet)

Summer Is Officially Here!!

Not only was yesterday the first day of the summer according to the calendar but it was also the first day our family officially kicked off the season. Chris, Cat, Valerie, Sarah, Laura, Joshua, Ben and I all took advantage of the beautiful weather and spent the afternoon at the McChord AFB swimming pool. This is one of our favorite things to do in the summer and generally the thoughts of spending a summer day at the pool gets us through the cold, dark, wet winters here in the Pacific Northwest.


We had a wonderful time and we can't wait for the next sunny day to go again! Who's in?

What's Cookin'?

I don't know about everyone else but I am getting tired of eating the same stuff all the time. Seems like we have about 5 regular dinners or so that we just rotate. I would love to make something new. I thought we could maybe exchange some recipes. Email me your favorites and I will post them here. My email is pams@expedia.com

We can start it with my fried chicken. This is a family favorite and when I make it, it usually draws a crowd. My friend Ms. Betty taught me how to make this when we lived in Texas. She was a good ole black southern lady and this recipe reflects that. Here it is:

Aunt Pam's Famous Fried Chicken

Start with boneless skinless chicken breast well trimmed of any extra fat. If your chicken is extra thick, you might want to butterfly it so that it cooks more evenly. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and place them in a bowl of buttermilk, eggs and tabasco sauce. I generally use 1 egg for every cup of buttermilk that I use. Tabasco sauce you can add a much as you would like. This is what gives the meat that little twang when you eat it. If you have time, marinate the chicken in the refrigerator until you are ready to fry it. If you don't have time to marinate, that is fine too but the longer you marinate it, the better it is going to taste and it will be nice and tender

Heat oil to 375 degrees. It is really important the oil is clean and that it is the right temperature. If it is too cold your chicken will not be crispy. If it is too hot, the crust will burn and the chicken will be raw.

While oil is heating, in a separate bowl, mix flour and seasonings. I usually add salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, and poultry seasoning. You can add whatever you would like.

One at a time remove chicken from marinate and coat generously with flour mixture. If you want your chicken extra crispy you can re-dip you chicken back into the buttermilk mixture and then in the flour for second time. I usually only dip once though because double dipping makes a big mess.

As soon as you dip in the flour mixture, shake off the excess and drop your chicken in the oil. I usually cook 3-4 breasts at one time. If you add more than that then the oil cools off to much and your chicken will be soggy.

Cook for about 15 minutes. You will want to turn it over a couple of times but try not to touch it too much because it will pull the coating off. The chicken is done when it is golden brown.

Serve with white gravy and a baked potato and you will have a meal sure to please you and your family. If you prefer chicken tenders rather than whole breasts, simply cut each chicken breast into strips and follow the same directions.

Now send me your favorites!

Weekend Getaway to Rexburg!?

Jacob, Michelle and I had the opportunity this weekend to travel to Rexburg to visit with Jamie and Landi. We have been wanting to go there for quite a while but it seems every weekend we are busy with one thing or the other plus the winter was so cold and snowy, we just have not had a chance to go. A few weeks ago we set this weekend as our date to go and we just stuck with it. We are so glad we did because we had such a nice time.

We left very early Saturday morning. It was so beautiful taking off from Seattle. As soon as the plane lifted out of the clouds, we were welcomed by bright blue skies, sunshine and the tops of the cascades. We could see Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood all at the same time. It was really beautiful.

After a quick plane change in Boise we arrived in Idaho Falls around 11 a.m. Jamie and Landi met us there at the airport and we were so excited to see. They both looked great and are doing so well. We went and had some yummy Italian food for lunch at Johnny Carinnos (sp?). It was delicious. Then Jacob and Landi went to go see the movie "The Hulk" and Jamie, Michelle and I did some shopping. It was so fun to have both of my girls with me on a Saturday to shop and laugh and just have a good time.We met back up with the boys around 3ish and decided to head for Rexburg. We wanted to go and get the Idaho Cache Across America geocache and since we had time and we thought it would be nice to go for a drive. The cache is hidden near the Teton Dam location which by the way is AWESOME to see. I had always wanted to go there and this geocache gave us the motivation and directions to get there. Landi had visited the dam site before with his geology class and was able to give us a full lesson on the physics of why and how the dam collapsed. I was really fun to see.

That evening we went to dance concert on campus. Landi needed to attend the concert for his Fine Arts class and we were glad we had a chance to go. The dancers were very talented. The concert hall was hotter than Hades but we had a fun time anyway. Afterwards we headed to Maverick for some soft serve ice cream and then over to the temple grounds to see the temple. It was a beautiful sunset and the temple was like a crystal light shining up on the hillside. It was absolutely beautiful!

On Sunday morning our flight home left Idaho Falls at 11:40 a.m. Landi and Jamie had church at 9:00 a.m. so when they went to church we decided to start heading towards Idaho Falls. On the way we pasted by "Bear World". We have driven by Bear World a million times and every time we have we had always wanted to stop. This time we actually had some time so we decided to check it out. We are so glad we did because it was AWESOME! You drive you call around the park following a course. You are warned when you go in to not stop, drive 3 MPH and keep your windows rolled up. We sort of laughed at the warnings but when we arrived at the bear enclosure, we understood why. It was the coolest thing ever. There were lots of bears and they were all over the place and they walked right next to your car. They literally came right up to you. We were amazed and we loved it.

We also went to the petting zoo afterwards to feed the baby bear cubs and in the petting zoo there was a mother deer who had just given birth to a fawn. It was still all wet and there was vet helping it. Then we realized that there was another baby coming. We were right there when the deer gave birth to another fawn. It was AMAZING and what we feel was probably a once in lifetime experience. Anyway, we are so glad we stopped. If you are every driving by Bear World, be sure to stop in. It is well worth it!

We arrived home early this afternoon to homework and laundry but we are so grateful we had the chance to go see Jamie and Landi this weekend. They are so happy together and they are so much fun. As a parent you greatest wish is for your children to be happy and find a companion that loves and cares for them. Jamie and Landi are doing great and we could not be more proud of both of them. WE LOVE YOU GUYS!

Michelle's New Room

Ever since Jamie got married, I have been promising Michelle that we would redo her room. We wanted to make more room for her by taking down Jamie's bed and we also wanted to do a complete color change. Over the past few months we have been picking things out for her but finally this week we got around to making the change. My sore ankle slowed down the progress a bit but for the most part, we were able to finish things this afternoon. We still need to make a trip to IKEA to look for some cool lighting and we need to find something to hang on the wall over her bed but we have attached some pictures of our progress thus far. The pictures do not do it justice. It is really cute and inviting and a room that I am sure any 15 year would love! Michelle sure does!

The balls in the corner are actually lights. I need to get a couple more cords and then there will a set of 3 of them hanging in the corner. We also need to get her a TV table to put her TV on.

How soon will this be reality?

Five Things....

Five things I was doing 10 years ago

1. Working at Mutual Travel
2. Running my boys between baseball games
3. Cheering for the Mariners
4. Hanging out with my mom
5. Vacation to Disneyland

Five things on my "To Do" list.

1. Paint Michelle's room
2. Replace the faucet in the bathroom
3. Get caught up on my work emails
4. Clean and organize my garage.
5. Put up a fence.

Five of my favorite snacks/food.

1. Anything dipped in ranch
2. Ice cream
3. Otter pops
4. Strawberries
5. Pickles

Five things I would do if I were a billionaire.

1. Buy a big house with a swimming pool and ATV track.
2. Pay off the houses of all of my siblings.
3. Travel Travel Travel !!
4. Buy a vacation home in the Caribbean
5. Make a large donation to the church for whatever is needed.

Five of my bad habits.

1. PROCRASTINATION!
2. Being judgemental
3. Sitting around to much. I should be moving/exercising!
4. Over shopping.
5. Patience

Five places I have lived.

1. Bonney Lake
2. Federal Way
3. Madrid Spain
4. Germany (3 times!)
5. Kansas City

P.S. There are more!

Wednesday - Hamburgers and Chocolate Milk

Ugh! Not a very appetizing looking dinner but we have had a very busy week. Maybe Thursday will be better.

Tuesday Tacos?

Our's were Taco Bell tacos....but they were still tacos.

What's For Dinner?

Ahh...our favorite dinner week of the year. Ernesta Week! It is the one week that we do not need to ask ourselves that timeless question, "What's for dinner". We all know what we are having!

Monday is hot dog day. How many of you had hot dogs for dinner tonight?

Truck Update

UPDATE! The battery is in, the truck runs and our house is still in one piece! Mike is back on the road today. THANK YOU BOB!!

My Husband Is No Mechanic!

Let me start this post by saying that my husband is no mechanic. Is has a lot of other great personality traits and talents. He is a great dad! He is kind and loving. He takes great pictures! He can take a mound of dirt and turn it into something beautiful! But...he knows nothing about cars and he has no desire to. When something goes wrong with any of our vehicles, we usually bite the bullet and pay a professional to fix them or if it is really serious, we call in the family expert Bob Lutz for diagnosis. We NEVER attempt to try and fix something ourselves because past experience has told us it is just not worth it.

Our saga started Monday morning. Mike and Jacob were out working in the yard getting it ready for a family picnic. Mike was moving the cars off of the driveway so he could spray it off. When he went to move his FedEx truck he only got a click click click when turning the key. There was no spark and he knew immediately it was probably a battery problem. He swears he didn't but he must have left the dome light on since he parked in on Saturday afternoon. Anyway, he had a dead battery.

Now ordinarily a dead battery is no big deal. You either jump it with another battery or you replace it, but when you are dealing with a big FedEx truck, nothing is that easy. Yesterday morning Mike decided to take the 24V battery system out (2 12V batteries) out and take them somewhere to be charge them up. Taking the batteries out is no easy task. They are located in a metal box under the stairs on the passenger side of the truck. They weigh at least 50 lbs each and you have to carefully maneuver around sharp metal and wire to remove them. As Mike was removing them he realized that there were no indications on the wiring which wires were positive and which wires were negative. In an "ah-ha" moment, he took a piece of cardboard and made a drawing of how the cables where connected and how to place the batteries back in the box once they were charged.

Several hours later and a couple of trips to the auto parts store the batteries were charged (at no cost..hooray!!) and Mike and Jacob commenced to putting them back in. Mike pulled out his handy drawing and suddenly realized he did not mark the top or the bottom of the picture and it was square. After much head scratching, a few swear words (kidding), and a bit of elevated blood pressure, he thought he had it figured out. He connected what he thought were the positive terminals first and then one negative terminal and then finally the last negative terminal. What happened next I did not witness but as I was pulling in the driveway coming home from work I saw Jacob with a fire extinguisher in his hands and Mike once again scratching his head. Turns out they put the batteries in the wrong way. Mikes words to me were "Your smart...you figure out how to do this. *&%$^&!!". HA!! I went in the house to make dinner.

A short time later I came back outside because I was afraid he was going to blow himself up. We removed everything and started from scratch. I tried to interpret his drawing and between logic and knowing how Mike's brain works, I thought I had figured it out. We very methodically put the two massive batteries back in place only to find out that the space between cables was not fitting correctly. Mike decided to drive down to Freightliner in Pacific to seek the help of a professional. 2 hours later he came back and found out that you need to slightly tilt the batteries to make the cables fit properly and then when you secured the batteries with the crossbar it would stretch the wires and it would fit just fine. Easy right? NOT!!

Anyway, we were finally able to make the cables fit and just when we were hooking up the final negative terminal we once again experience lots of sparking, a small fire, burning rubber and lots of screaming. I had visions of the whole truck and it's 30 gallons of diesel fuel catching fire. Which would have in turn ignited all 3 of our other cars in the driveway and surely our house it was sitting next to. Scary!! We once again had to use the fire extinguisher as Mike bravely used a pair of pliers to remove the connection where the fire ignited. The bolt connection on one of the batteries completely melted off and both batteries where ruined.

Mike returned to Freightliner to buy two new batteries ($240) and I was hoping he would be able to speak with a mechanic or look at another truck and hopefully gain some information on the right way to connect the cables. He got back home around 8pm with the new batteries and phone number to call Freightliner customer support for advise on how to install the batteries. We decided that before we do anything we would talk to them before we risked ruining another set of batteries and blowing up our house. After holding for 45 minutes with no answer, the sun was setting, it was getting dark and we still had no answers. We were not about to attempt to do this in the dark when we could not get it right in broad daylight.

As a last resort Mike called Bob Lutz while I held with Freightliner. As best Mike could he tried to explain the complicated set up and Bob offered as much advise he could over the phone but in the end this problem is still not fixed.

Mike is renting a truck at work today and plans to look at all the other batteries setups on his co-workers trucks and will hopefully come home with some answers. Bob has gracious volunteered to come out to the house tonight to help if Mike can't figure it out on his own so the saga continues.

Lesson learned. If I ever see Mike with a pair of pliers in his hand looking under the hood of a car, I will distract him, call a mechanic and pay the price. He would much prefer it that way anyway! UGH.....CARS!!!

Indiana Jones!...He's BACK!

I love the company I work for. In addition to just being an all around great place to be, they really make an effort to offer their employees opportunities to have fun. Yesterday was a great example of that.

Expedia is a sponsor of the new Indiana Jones adventure called the "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. We have a whole summer promotion based off of the film call the Summer of Adventure where people can purchase adventure travel based of the earlier films. Because of this Lucas Films arranged for our entire company to preview the movie. They rented out the Lincoln Cinemas in downtown Bellevue. There was a town hall meeting first but once that was completed we were treated to a popcorn and soda and we got to see the movie.

One of the highlights of the day was a film clip they showed before the movie. It was an edited version of the last scene of the Last Crusade. Rather than the bad guy choosing the wrong goblet, he chose the Travelocity gnome. He of course chose "unwisely" and his face pretty much fell off. Indy then of course made the wise choice and chose the goblet with the Expedia logo. If you work for Expedia it was pretty funny. Anyway, here is my opinion of the film. if you don't want to know anything about it, you may not want to read on from here.

The movie was good in that there was a lot of nostalgia included. They tied in many things from the previous films which made it fun to watch. Indiana himself has aged but he is still a mega-stud and is my own personal hero. He was great in the film. The part I did not like very much was the story itself. One of my favorite parts of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade was that they were semi-realistic. Some of the actual stories were historically correct. The story line in The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was pretty far fetched. I won't share with you all the details because I don't want to ruin it but let me just say nothing even close to this has or will ever happen.

Regardless of how unrealistic it is, it is still a 2 hour must-see movie and you will be completely entertained. I am sure my weekend plans will include several opportunities to see it again.

Our Vacation!

WOW! What a week we have had. There are so many different things that we could blog about but rather than blog everything separately, I thought I would put together day by day general rundown of our vacation.
First of all let me say that Kauai is beautiful. It is lush and green in the mountains and the beaches have crystal clear blue water and pearly white sand. The people are kind and friendly and I can very much see why the Hawaiian people take a lot of pride in their amazing land. It does however take FOREVER to get there. There is a lot of water between the west coast and the islands. I saw somewhere that said that Hawaii was about 2700 from Los Angeles to the west and another 2500 miles to Marquesas to the east. It is literally in the middle of nowhere.
Our vacation started last Monday afternoon. Mike and Jacob took an evening flight to Los Angeles where they were going to stay overnight and then catch a morning departure from L.A to Honolulu. The reason they chose to go to Honolulu first rather than straight to Kauai was because they really wanted to visit Pearl Harbor. They arrived there around noon on Tuesday and spent the next 5+ hours visiting the USS Arizona memorial and taking a tour of the USS Missouri. They loved it and had a great time!

Michelle and I took a direct flight Monday evening to Kauai. It is 3 hours earlier in Kauai. We arrived there around 7pm but by the time we got our luggage, figured out where we going and navigated our way in the dark to our hotel, it was about 10pm. We stayed at the Sheraton Kauai on Poipu Beach. The hotel was lovely and since check out on Tuesday was not until 12noon, we decided to enjoy the pool and beach for a bit and get our vacation underway. After we checked out of the hotel, Michelle and I went and did some exploring around town and then at 3pm we were able to check in to our condo.
Our condo was at the Waipouli Beach Resort and it was absolutely perfect. One day in the pool we were trying to thing of some things we did NOT like about the property and we really could not think of anything. The property was almost brand new. You can rent units from Outrigger properties but we actually rented ours from a private owner. It was a 2 bedroom 3 bath unit. The bedrooms were on each side of large living room/dining room area. The kitchen was amazing with very high end appliances and every kitchen utensil you could possibly imagine. Each bathroom had large soaking tubs and there two separate stand up showers. The unit was furnished with new furniture and was nicely tropically decorated. Our unit was on the bottom floor and one of our favorite things was to go out on the patio and enjoy our breakfast in the morning.

Tuesday evening everyone else began to arrive. The first being Valerie, Joshua and Benjamin at around 6:45pm. Then Mike and Jacob came in from Honolulu at around 7:30pm and then finally Jeff and Sarah arrived at around 9:30pm. Everyone arrived there in one piece and we were ready for the fun to start.

Wednesday morning we all woke up very early, again because of the time change. The clock said 5am but our body clocks said 8am. We had breakfast and then headed out to the swimming pool which by the way was also amazing. It had 2 water slides and was a series of winding rivers that all came together in a central area. There were 3 hot tubs all with sandy bottoms (wonderful!). Two of the hot tubs were for adults only and the third which is where we spend allot of time was for families. It was fun to sit in there because the water was not as hot as a normal hot tub so the kids loved it. That morning we went from pool to beach to hot tub and then to the beach again. The hotel was on a quiet beach with not allot going on. We pulled up the lounge chairs right into the water and sat there while the tide came up and splashed us. It was really fun. After we had been at the pool for awhile, we decided it was time to do a little island exploring. We knew there was an geocache we wanted to do but sometimes becomes inaccessible if there is allot of rain. Since it was a dry day, we decided to give it a shot. We drove high up in the hills until the road ended and turned in a mud trail. We had to cross over two rivers and we proceeded to go deeper and deeper into the jungle over very bumpy, rocky, muddy roads. It was scary but a BLAST!

We finally arrived at our destination which was the location where Jurassic Park was filmed. The poles in the picture were where in the movies the gates of the park were built. It was awesome to be there and we can not wait to watch the movie again just to say we have been there. There was one more cache 1 mile up the road and since we had made it this far, we decided to give it a try. We made it to the cache and as we were finding it, a couple drove up in the swim suits and started down the trail into the jungle. We asked them where they were going and they told us there was a swimming hole just down the trail. He told us he would show us the way there and the kids proceeded to take off in the jungle behind him. All of the kids literally disappeared into the jungle. We were a little bit scared at first but after following the trail a good 1/2 mile, we finally found them in a beautiful swimming hole in the jungle. There was a water fall that feed a deep pool and then another waterfall went down the mountain from there. The kids (and Jeff) enjoyed a brisk swim.

Later we headed back to our cars, made out way out of jungle and then proceeded to check out some of the beaches on the northern end of the island.

Day 3 again started early (darn that time change). We had booked a river tubing trip before our trip for this day. Valerie and Ben stayed behind at the hotel because Ben was too little and Valerie was too pregnant to go. We went to a warehouse where we were fitted with our gear including lamp helmets and gloves. We were then taken via open sided jeeps high up into an old sugar plantation where our tubes were put into the irrigation ditches. The ditches and tunnels were used to bring water from the mountains to the sugar cane fields. All of the ditches and tunnels were hand dug in the late 1800's. We then tubed down about 3 miles of tubes including 5 tunnels. The longest tunnel was .6 miles long. It was so AWESOME! We had a blast twisting and turning and navigating down the canals. Afterwards we had lunch along the river, did some swimming and then headed back to the warehouse. We met back up with Valerie at the hotel around 1pm or so. The kids really wanted to snorkel so we rented some snorkel gear and headed towards Lydgate Park which we heard was great snorkel spot especially for kids. It is protected by a rock wall making the surf calm and easy for the kids to navigate. We saw fish of every shape and size. The kids that were brave enough loved it. The others (Michelle and Joshua) just played on the beach. That day ended enjoying a hot dog at Costco while feeding the chickens and roosters. BTW roosters and chickens are everywhere in Kauai. Apparently when they had a hurricane back in 1992, a rooster fighting farm was destroyed and all the roosters got loose. Since then their population has exploded and they are everywhere! Big, mean ones! Chickens and roosters there are sort of like pigeons or seagulls here. CRAZY!!

Day 4 was an awesome day. It started with an morning at the pool which was fun. I sprayed Michelle and Sarah's bottoms and legs down with suntan oil to make the water slide really slippery and greasy. It was so funny and they came flying down the slide. That afternoon Mike and Jacob had scheduled an ATV tour. This was 3 hour tour riding ATV's all over a cattle ranch up in the hills. This was the highlight of both of their trips. They had a absolute blast. Three hours later I picked them up and they were covered in the red dirt of Kauai. This dirt does not come off very easily and directly from the tour we headed straight to a luau at the Sheraton that evening. They both had dirt caked to their faces, hair and arms and no matter how much they washed up, they could not get it off. They got to see all kinds of things including the place where Indiana Jones jumps in the river to catch the plane at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Their favorite part was high speed ride to the finish line. They now both insist that we need ATV's. As I said, that evening we went to a luau at the Sheraton which had delicious food and pretty dancing. The setting was beautiful. It was right on the beach and it was lovely to hear the music and watch the sunset. We really enjoyed it.

Day 5 was a day we had planned ahead of time as a day to explore. We headed south and west on the island and did a whole day of geocaching. The best part about geocaching is it brings you to places that you would never go to otherwise. We went down many side roads and enjoys gorgeous views and vistas. We did about 25 or so caches. Our day ended with a trip to Bubba Burger up in Kapaa and then back to our hotel to cool off in the pool. PARADISE!

Day 6 was our last day in Hawaii. We had to be out of our condo by 10am that morning but our flights were not until late that evening so we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do. We decided to get a hotel room at a less expensive property just to use as a day room where we could clean up for our flights home. This ended up being one of our favorite vacation days. After we checked out of our condo we went and did a riverboat ride up the Wailua River to the Fern Grotto. This is a place where fern grow upside down out of the rocks. It was lovely but it was a very sunny day and it was getting hot and humid. After the boat ride we headed to our temporary hotel to see if we could check in early. The hotel was the Aloha Beach Hotel. We were in luck and the front desk clerk allowed us to check in. We headed straight to the pool which was not big but was comfortable and was directly on a great beach. We spent the day relaxing by the pool and boogie boarding on the beach. It was blast and was a great ending for a perfect vacation.

Our flights left that evening. Jeff and Sarah were first at 7:00pm via Honolulu to Seattle arriving at 6:00am this morning. Jeff was heading straight to work (poor Jeff). Mike and Jacob left at 9:00pm and were going via L.A on American Airlines. They arrived back here in Seattle around 10:00am this morning. Valerie, Joshua, Benjamin, Michelle and I all took the 10:30pm Alaska Airlines straight back here to Seattle. We got in around 7:00am this morning. Michelle went right to school and as soon as she got home from school this afternoon, she went to bed. We are all exhausted but we had a fabulous time. It could not have gone any better. The only problem now is....we do not have another vacation planned yet. Humm....where should we go next?

Where have the years gone?

We were just going through some old pictures and came across this one. Where have the past 25 years gone (besides my hips and chin :) ?)

Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day and with comes many mixed emotions for me. On one hand it makes me contemplate how much I love being a mother and how much I love my kids. It's a fun day. I always get the traditional breakfast in bed including all the fixings. Then the rest of the day I get to relax while my husband and children take care of all of my responsibilities. I love it and I love them for making me feel special.

On the other hand it is a day that makes me really miss my mom. My mom died to cancer about 3 years ago. When you lose someone you love so much I don't think you ever really get over it. You just learn to live with it but the emotions and sadness sit right under the surface and sometimes the smallest things can bring all of those emotions back. Take for instance when I was sitting in church today. Of course all of the talks were about mothers and they were wonderful. Our closing song was "Love at Home" and for some reason, just listening to that song really brought back a lot of memories for me and I of course started to make me laugh and cry at the same time.

My mom loved to play the piano. I have many memories of my mom playing the piano and my dad laying on the floor singing the hymns she was playing. One time my dad bought a second hand organ and was teaching himself to play it. One of his favorite songs to play was "Love at Home". It was relatively easy to play and he would work out the chords on the organ and go into some sort of trance while he sang the words to the song. As children we would complain whenever he headed to the organ because his lack of skills sometimes where pretty painful to listen to. He would yell at us and tell us to be quiet and then he would commence to go into his trance again and play "Love at Home". It was pretty funny and the thought of my dad yelling at us one minute and then reverently playing a hymn the next minute make me laugh even today.

Anyway, when I heard that song today it brought back a lot of emotion for me and I started thinking about my mom and how much I love her and miss her. I started thinking about how she has shaped me as a person and about all of the things she taught me in life. Here are some of the things I thought of.

1. She taught me how to clean. She taught me how to make my bed just right and she taught me how wonderful it was to go to bed at night in a bed that was made neatly the previous morning. She taught me that life was just more pleasant and easier when their was cleanliness and organization around you. This has stuck with me and even today it is difficult for me to relax if I there is dis-organization around me. I love having a tidy home.

2. My mom taught me service and sacrifice. My mom was not the kind of person who jumped in to help at the drop of a hat but if there was a true need, she was the first one on hand to offer assistance. She never boosted about the service she performed. It was true silent service. She did it unselfishly and never looked for her own personal gain. She was also always willing to sacrifice everything she had if someone was in need. Especially for her children! I knew that I could ask my mom for anything at anytime and regardless of what it was she would help me. She was willing to go without so long as our needs were met.

3. She taught me how to work hard. She taught me that nothing in life is easy and if something is worth having, it is worth working hard for. My mom was a working mom and she always worked hard both in and out of our home. She took pride in doing a great job in everything she did and she was admired by those around her for it.

4. My mom taught me how to have fun and appreciate the small things. We went on many vacations with her and there was never anything that she was not willing to try or do. She hated getting older and having limits placed around what was she could physically do. Even when she was sick, she wanted to go out and have fun. She would marvel at the smallest things in nature and she would take the time to appreciate the moment. (She would kill me for posting this picture of her!)

5. She taught me to love the gospel. She had a strong testimony that she would share often. She truly had the spirit of Christ in her countenance and you could feel the strength of her testimony oozing out of her. I loved being around her for this. Her strength made me stronger and I will be eternally grateful for that.

6. She taught me "Family First". My mom loved her family. She loved her children and I can truly say that we came first in her life. She would do anything for us. When we lost her it left a hole in each of us. We still do a lot of things as a family but even three years later, she is still greatly missed. She was the matriarch of our family and she truly was the glue that held us together.

7. Lastly she taught me "If you ain't Dutch, you ain't much". She taught me to take pride in my heritage and in my family name and to never do anything to disgrace or bring shame to it. I have not been a VanderHoeven for 25 years but I still take pride in that name and knowing all the responsibilities that come with it. Sometimes it is a bit overwhelming but there is nothing or no place I would rather be.

Pardon my indulgence for putting these thoughts in our family blog. A blog is probably more for putting down current things that are happening rather than a place to share things in the past but I felt compelled today to write something about my mom.

Mom, wherever you are....thank you for being such a great mom. Thank you for everything you have done for me and taught me. Thank you for watching over me and my family. I love you! Happy Mother's Day!

Do You See The Resemblance?