Joshua Tree National Park

The young men and women in our ward go to Joshua Tree for an annual rock climbing trip with Brother Briggs. I had never been before because I either didn't go when I was in YW or it wasn't going on back then -- I don't remember. I would also like to take this introduction to confess that I am listening to Christmas music right now and loving it. It's the gospel-y type, so it felt more acceptable when I changed my Pandora station to it. I just had to get that out there. I have been fiercely in opposition to the listening/celebrating of Christmas before it's due time; namely, after Thanksgiving because everyone seems to go straight from celebrating zombies and vampires to the Savior's earthly mission. Interesting, no? Anyway, I must be getting older and becoming less passionate about frivolous causes. Christmas music is good and Thanksgiving doesn't have great selection, let's be honest. And, as I said, it is gospel-y, so it's not the stuff focused on greed and reindeer.

On the subject of getting older, Glen and I both enjoyed our birthdays last week/end. It was Bronson's first birthday, so we mostly did things for him haha. We've always been pretty low key on the whole birthday celebration side. 

The weekend we went out to Joshua Tree, it was blistering hot back home and a cool 88 degrees of heaven out in the high desert. It has been incredibly hot this year and I am seriously looking forward to like 70 degrees... That isn't asking too much, but it feels like it is possible for the weather to never cooperate with that request. We arrived a little later than expected, but CA traffic, ya know? Plus, our car kind of missed the exit because we were enthralled listening to Carrie Underwood's rendition of "How Great Thou Art" and couldn't be disturbed by directional signs. 

We got there and a couple of the girls and I went exploring up a rock until we realized we didn't have flash lights or proper shoes for the conquest of the rock. We had a devotional after dinner about the different ways to go about climbing and how it relates to staying securely fastened to the commandments of God. 

We were interrupted in our attempts to go to sleep by the inebriated, male neighbors next to the girls' campsite. Them, and the stars. It was hard to close my eyes because it has been since moving from HI last December that I had really seen stars. Well, both of those and the coyotes howling and cackling all night; I had a dream that it was the girls doing it, but woke to find no one awake. But I did get some rest and we got our courteous neighbors back by getting them up before dawn because we were readying breakfast and our things to head out to our rock climbing adventure. The sunrise was gorgeous and it was my first one in a long while. 

After all the youth had their chance to get up the rock, there was still some time for me to try my hand. I tried on all of the climbing shoes, but none of them fit. I tried going up with shoes that were three sizes too small, but my toes felt like the Hulk in a straight jacket; ready to burst. So, I came back down, freed my feet, put back on my New Balances, and climbed up with a ton of slips.

 I just really like this rock formation.

This is Scotty climbing on the left and a girl from the Euclid ward on the right, Mikayla (that is spelled wrong for sure).

Glen belayed everyone all day. In the hot, hot sun. He's such a stud. Also, look at those freaking Chum's hanging off his ears. So awesome. We found them in the carnage that is his parents' garage. We've been trying to clean out and organize with little-to-no success up until last month when we got rid of the storage unit and have more room in the garage than in years... Oh, the joys of the D.I. and recycling bins. I love purging so much. Also-also, Glen's gonna kill me for putting this picture in because, well, because. But, it's the only photo I took of one of us and that's just how it goes sometimes.

We had tons of fun and can't wait to go back and take more pictures of each other doing awesome things haha. We got home and took a long nap after shower time. A big thanks goes out to all of the leaders that plan this trip every year and most especially to Brother Briggs who snagged us camping sites and brought all of the climbing gear and took these here photos of me climbing!

Aloha.

Freedom Fireworks

We started off with some garden time because it was necessary for watering and stuff of the younger plants. After a slow-paced morning, we took Alex and some ads to the fireworks booths around the corner. TNT has been the main booth around here for forever and most of their fireworks have been less than awe-inspiring for forever (in my opinion). But this year there was a competitor -- Phantom. Since TNT is the lamest and we got an ad for Phantom to get a $25 fountain if we spend $70 there wasn't a competition.

By the time we got to the booth the $25 fountains were gone so we just got the money to get whatever we wanted. Which was really cool even though we were stoked on what the other fountain could do. Early bird specials have never been our strong point, but there's always something else you can get if you ask.

We had two barbecues starting at the same time; in the end, we chose to spend the day with my family and the night with his. We made biscuits and brought cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden to share with my family. As usual, there were four choices of meat and two choices of vegetables. And bacon rice, which is practically a meat, so five choices.

We played in the pool with Jaydyn and Bronson; Alex came over after the other barbecue had finished because he needed food he'll actually eat and more swimming. We left when the sun was starting to set so we could get back and clean up before the night party.

We had a ton of fountains and loved them all. Even the two-second ones. We shared our night with the Wolde's next door who are in town for the Summer before they move closer to USC. They have four children who are so adorable. They are all so nice to each other (at least when I'm looking) and they were also terrified of fireworks.

This is a super lame picture of the Jupiter/Venus super star after they separated (obvi). I bumped the camera when it was taking and then fireworks were happening so I didn't get another chance. Anyway, rainbow planets! Yay?

Glen has had fireworks stowed in his/our closet for like eight years or something! The planets aligned this year and we actually shot off most of them. He went with Bruce and Jeff to Nevada one weekend just to buy fireworks and got so many that his young heart couldn't get rid of them fast enough.
This is from a mortar rocketing up into the sky. Our neighbors the next cul-de-sac over were insane though! So many mortars, so many cakes, so many fireworks that they were lighting them off before we started and far after we had cleaned up our street.

We brought out the sparklers and everyone was excited about that -- even the kids! Here's Ana and Alex... he didn't really get the whole move it around and have fun part of sparklers. Oh well.

The square is Christine and this is when we brought out Glen's old sparklers that actually last longer than 5 seconds and spark. 

We usually go and watch the fireworks from the church parking lot, but we had so many fireworks of our own that it lasted for three hours! It was awesome. And the neighbors show was visible from our room, so we hunkered down in there and waited the last boom out.

Until next year, happy Independence Day!

Hulina Lani: The Simmons' Family

This adorable family will always be a fun memory for me! I babysat/taught these two little ones for the past year. You might remember I went to Jaxon's dominating break through into the soccer world (see here) a couple Saturdays ago. The only weird thing about this photo shoot was the amount of clothing and lack of food crumbs on the children.

Love them and how these pictures turned out!

Ending a year of friendship and just enough children-time to keep me off Glen's back about my empty oven (haha) was both sad and really fun. Seriously so grateful for this family and being able to teach and learn with their children. Hope I didn't ruin them too much(;

Aloha Friday

High Five for Friday: Sick

Glen and I have been battling this stupid sickness for months now. We would always get just the right amount of rest every night to keep it in submission, but we have succumbed in the past couple of days. And if we get sick again from going home next week like we usually do I am going to lose it! I don't know what I'm going to lose at this point, but I like to throw things away when I find myself alone for long periods of time. There's usually something important that comes up "lost" later and I remember my throw away party I had so much fun at. Pray for me.

Besides being sick and hating it, there were some really awesome things from this week and here are five:

1. On Saturday, it was Jaxon's (I have been babysitting him and his little sister since February) first soccer game! He's three-almost-four and loves soccer with his life half the time. Kids are weird that way. This day though, he was killing that soccer life. I mean, compared to me he's got nothing on soccer because he has such tiny legs he can't keep up. When compared to his three year old peers though! Man, this kid rocked their butts! Honestly, it almost felt disgusting to keep cheering for him -- although I managed to continue quite easily. The other two members of his team were shy and couldn't play because of the tear fest they really needed to get to on the sideline, so for the last half of the game (the whole of it lasted 20 minutes, tops) it was 1 against 2/3 and Jaxon the blue team won 4--1.

2. I had promised Jaxon I would go to his game if I was still around and I'm super glad it worked out. He was so stoked when he saw that I was there and the game was so hilarious! Every time he'd score a goal, he would come running up and ask to see the picture I took of him. Oh yeah, and he's really into taking pictures with weird faces right now, which really works for me.

3. After the game, Glen and I went Small Business Saturday shopping because American Express has this really cool deal where you get $10 back if you spend at least $10 with your card (just at three stores). And the Waiahole Poi Factory was listed on their website as a participant! Oh snap, we were excited!

Everyone's poi tastes are different, I understand that very clearly. This poi is very good tasting, but the thickness just wasn't for me that day. I like my poi pretty thick and this was on the watery side for me. For reference, I like when the poi can be picked up with a toothpick and this one was definitely spoon-necessary. The laulau was perfect though. Perfect.

 4. We went over to Waialua the other day and had fun exploring farmlands. We only got locked in once, but that was enough to send us packing for the day haha.

5. Glen is officially done with his undergraduate life now. Ha. He had to present his senior research before that could happen and he did it yesterday evening. There was delicious pizza accompanying a subject I know little about, so that was nice.

Hope I get off of the sick wagon soon. I'm banking on the off chance that serving in the temple tonight will bless me with health again. It's dang cold in there most nights though. So, probably not.

Aloha Friday.