Recently I was able to take a trip to visit my parents in Las Vegas. They have a home in Henderson, NV and were just arriving back from a week in Hawaii. We spent our time visiting with friends, attending the temple, and eating lots and lots of yummy Korean BBQ! It was a great trip that helped me to really appreciate my upbringing, my parents commitment to family, and the legacy of faith both my parents have in the church, its gospel, and forever families...
Lisa Nicole with her group of high school friends outside the Bonefish Grill before the Homecoming dance! Nothing beats getting dressed up and all fancy for a fun night with friends! Lisa and her friend Katherine arrived in style driven in a Lexus sedan owned by friends of ours that were willing to play Chaffeur for the night! What fun memories Lisa will have!
Lisa Nicole's Junior year at Baker has proven to be a very fun one! Homecoming floats, parades, dances and more! Getting ready for the dance was half the fun! Starting around four hours earlier we primped, curled, pressed, and got lots of big smiles from the results!
Robert Anae and I both grew up in Laie. He now coaches for BYU and came over to say hello while we were meeting with the players. He was excited to learn that Lisa wants to attend BYU in a few years and asked her to come by to see him when she gets there. Would she just die if got to work with the team???? Hmmmmm....maybe some kind of assistant or something like that? 
At the end of every BYU game the players do the HAKA which is a Maori chant done by the warriors. The polynesian players on the team teach the other players the chant and they do it before heading into the locker rooms. It was fun to see it done live after the Tulane game!
Picture of the field from the endzone as we walked intot he Louisiana Superdome. I had never been in the superdome or anything similar. The New Orleans Saints play all their home games here and it was also the site where thousands of refugees stayed after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. 
The BYU semi truck carrying all the equipment and heading back to Provo! What I wouldn't give for a semi like that to help us with our cross country moves! Hmmmm...I wonder if they have any on ebay????
Okay...so this picture is a little weird, but it was one of my favorites from the day. We were a little confused in the bathrooms as to how to get the water to come out so we could wash our hands. We finally figured out that it was activated by a lever that we could push with our feet. We had to wait until the coast was clear to get this pic but we couldn't pass up the chance!
Nothing could've topped this day better than an ALL ACCESS PASS and entry to where the players and the media were lined up after the game! Lisa was in heaven! And has the pictures to prove it! 
Seats on the 50 yard line right behind the BYU bench were the BEST seats in the house! We couldn't have asked for a better view! One thing we did notice was the cushioned seats. We weren't expecting those! I was thinking for sure I'd need a pillow for my back, but these seats were actually quite comfortable! I guess I was impressed. I was expecting metal hard back seats like all the other stadiums I had ever been in!
Arnold and I posing for a pic down by the field. Its not often Arnold gets to do these kinds of fun things with us, but we lucked out on this day! Although overtime was offered to him... he turned it down. Glad he didn't miss out on all the fun! It was a fantastic day of surprises for Lisa!
Tom Holmoe is the Athletic director for BYU and after the game he waved us down to the field for a visit! It was so good to meet him and hear how his son was adjusting to life back at home! Erik Holmoe served several months in our Ward as a missionary for the Florida Tallahassee Mission before returning home a few months ago! What a fun thing for us to meet his dad and be able to visit with him while we was in town! After finding out what an avid fan Lisa was he put an All Access pass around her neck and took her on a personal tour introducing her to the players and showing her around! What I wouldn't have given for the chance to go with her!
Lisa got to talk to Erik Holmoe on the phone while we were visiting with his dad at the game! You can totally see the excitement in her eyes! She was in BYU blue heaven! If she wasn't completely convinced that she was going to be a future cougar at BYU in a couple of years... this experience probably cemented that decision for GOOD! (Yay! We couldn't be more pleased!)
Proof positive that BYU won the game! And what a high scoring game it was! I attribute it to the fact that I told Arnold that there was this old college tradition of kissing the person sitting next to you after your team scores any points! I sure got a lot of kisses during the game and for Arnold that was HUGE! He not big of public displays of affection so I was in HEAVEN!!!!
After picking up Lisa from taking her early morning ACT test we surprised her with tickets to the BYU vs. Tulane Football game in New Orleans, LA for her 17th birthday! During the two hour drive there we painted her face and decked her out in all BYU blue!!! What a fun way to spend the day together as a family! 
During a visit recently my parents enjoyed playing "mom and dad" to our kids while Arnold and I were vacationing in San Diego! Upon our return we got to enjoy them for a whole week before they had to return home. One of the best things about their stay was that my kitchen got reorganized, Jessica's closet got cleaned out, I didn't have to cook for one whole week, and my mom permed my hair!!!!!
Do you know how hard it is to find someone who knows exactly what to do with Asian hair and how to perm it just right so that I don't have to go through that awkward "I'm waiting for it to grow out" stage? Well, after all these years my mom is still just as professional at it as ever! I couldn't believe how quickly she rolled my rods and got me under that plastic cap for setting! I was in heaven!!!
This week our activity for the YW was combined with the Activity Day girls in our Ward which meant Lisa and Jessica would share an activity together! We had a sister in our Ward who makes cakes come and teach all the girls how to decorate cakes for birthdays and other special occasions. 
Each of the YW and activity day girls were asked to bake a cake and bring it with them to the activity. Jessica and Lisa chose chocolate devil's food cake baked in these fun heart shaped pans! This is how Jessica decorated her cake! I think we have a true chef in the making!!!!
As a leader I always anticipate someone forgetting something so we decided to bake a couple extra cakes. Come to find out... each of the girls remembered everything they were suppose to bring! So this was an extra cake decorated by a young girl in our ward who is the same age as Kenny. I told her to be creative and that the cake would be for Kenny. This is what she came up with! When I got home and told Kenny this young girl had decorated the cake for "him" he just got this really big smile on his face and blushed beet red (just like his dad does) !!!!!
One guess who decorated this cake!!!! Yep you're right! Our Lisa! BYU's biggest fan! I thought the best thing about this cake was the cute "pink" laces on the football at the top of the cake. I guess she's more girly than I thought!!!!
What a fun surprise to come home to after a long vacation away from the kids! My mom had Lisa, Kenny and Jessica put together a fun birthday party for me when we got home from the airport! This was the first extended vacation Arnold and I have ever taken without our children. It was exciting for them to be on their own, hard for me to realize they are growing up way to fast, and tempting not to call and check in on them every single hour!!!
Some of my fun birthday presents included a beautiful new dress from ROSS! I'm so excited! Its a size 10. My new favorite number! Lisa and Jessica gave me a pedicure and Kenny....well Kenny decided he would clean his room for my birthday present! Could it get any more perfect than that????
A beautiful cake to celebrate with... Appa's favorite - carrot cake with cream cheese frosting! It looked sooooo good! I opted not to have too big a piece though... that way 10 can continue to be my favorite number! Its all about give and take these days...
Appa and Jessica bringing over the presents! It has been so fun having my parents here for a visit. It has been several years since they traveled out this way to see us. For the most part we have been able to travel out west to see them or fly to Hawaii for a quick get together. Its so nice having them in our home again!
The kids singing Happy Birthday (a bit relunctantly) to me but still singing nonetheless! These birthdays never get old.... I may actually be getting a bit old... but nothing compares to birthday parties like these!!! To another great year!
I loved the California landscape! Houses built high up on the moutain sides... lush green trees every where... reminded me of Hawaii! The weather couldn't have been more perfect for us during our trip too! Mid 70's during the day sometimes even in the 80's but at night it would drop to the 60's. I needed a coat once the sun went down! 
One last California sunset before heading home! I don't know what it is about sunsets. Maybe its because I saw so many of them growing up in Hawaii that I can honestly say that it makes me a little homesick. Hard to catch a good sunset here in the south where we live. No mountains and about an hours drive to the nearest beach. It was nice being able to look out over the city and watch a beautiful sunset again...
California is so unique and different! Everywhere we went we saw something that caught our eye! There were beautiful buildings all across the area! Next to the perfect landscape there was so much to see and so many pictures to take!
Miles and miles of freeway! We even got on the I-15 a couple of times which would've taken us back up to Utah if we had 12 extra hours to spare up and back! It made me homesick! The traffic got a little hairy for us in LA but driving in San Diego was a breeze! Who needs a GPS when they've got me for a navigator???
After so many days at the same hotel we quickly became friends with alot of the hotel employees! Arnold and I will miss Ellen the most! We looked forward to seeing her every morning at breakfast! I think she knew everything about us by the time we left! We would definitely stay there again if we were ever in the area! Probably just for the chance to visit with her again! 
One last picture of Arnold and I before boarding the plane back home to Mobile, Al. We were in Dallas waiting for our connecting flight when someone sitting next to us saw my unsuccessful attempt to take a picture of us together one handed. She politely offered to help and I quickly accepted! You know if we had brought the kids along we would've had plenty of help taking pictures! Its been a good trip but it will be nice to be back home again...
