A week in Palm Springs with my BFF's!

Last week I went to Palm Springs with 6 of my friends. It's a get-a-way that we all look forward to every year. Some have been going for 5+ years. This was my 2nd year going. I'm afraid it's now a tradition and a party that I definitely don't want to miss!

We all stayed together in one condo right in downtown Palm Springs. The best part of  each day was floating on our floaties in the pool!

In the evenings after we got out of  the pool and cleaned up we went out to dinner. Here we are having some authentic Mexican food. California has the BEST Mexican food!

 

Kim and I relaxing by the pool.

One day while we were at the pool we were entertained by this guy who was swinging from tree to tree trimming all the palm trees around the condo. It felt like we were in Hawaii watching a show at the Polynesian Cultural Center!

The first part of the week the temperatures were in the 100's. The only way to truly cool off was to be in the pool. And I loved that!

One night after coming home from dinner we all got in our comfy jammies and watched the American Idol finale together. Here are Chris and Heidi on their bed and Helen laying on a pool floatie! No...Helen did not sleep on a floatie! She shared a bed with Kim!

 Getting frozen yogurt after a fun night of shopping! Yum!

One night we all went to the movies after dinner.

One day Sarah went and picked up a huge bag of Sonic Drive In pellet ice. Oh it tasted so good with my ice cold diet coke!

In the evenings we had fun playing Mexican Train.

Here we are grabbing a bite to eat on our last day just before we headed to the airport to fly home.  

We had such a fun week and I am already looking forward to Palm Springs 2013!

An awesome ride on "my" 787 back to Okayama

Hi. Steve here with a "short" blog about a cool experience I had last week.  The story starts 31 and 1/2 years ago when I headed to my mission area in Okayama, Japan.  Here I am at the wise old age of 19 years...

After studying Japanese for two months at the Missionary Training Center I said a happy and yet tearful goodbye to my family (below) at the Salt Lake City airport. 

I flew to Los Angeles and then boarded a Pan Am 747 for Tokyo.  After landing and checking into the hotel I called my older brother Scott, who was then serving his mission in the Tokyo area. It was awesome to talk with him - what an awesome bro and example. The next morning we took a bus to the other Tokyo airport - Haneda, where I boarded an airplane for Okayama.  It was October 16, 1980. Here's my ticket.

If you look closely you will see that the airline was All Nippon Airways (ANA), the airline I have been responsible for and working with the past 8 years on the 787 program. 

Well last Thursday, while in Tokyo on a business trip, I flew down to Okayama on one of "my" 787s - one of the seven 787s I helped develop, define and deliver to ANA - along with the rest of the awesome 787 Boeing team.  Here's my ticket from the flight. 

You can now see why - for many reasons - this was an awesome flight for me. Here's a video clip I made on my iPad while there.  Scroll down and pause the background music and then click on the link to enjoy the video. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNNQ4Xmx1cs

10 Days With Baby Silas

Last week our family had the opportunity to watch some friends of ours, Anna and Dave's little 6 month old baby while they were in France together on vacation. They left their other 4 children with a niece and they were going to take Silas with them until we offered to watch him. 

We e-mailed lots of pictures of Silas to his mama and daddy while they were in France. So here are some of the pictures we took and the fun adventures we had with Silas. 

 Silas loved sitting in his high chair and munching on baby cookies while I made dinner. 

 

Brooklyn feeding Silas his bottle before he went to bed.

 

Silas was always so happy when he woke up in the morning. Check out that cute smile.

 

Each morning after he had his breakfast Silas would scoot around our bedroom and play with his toys while I exercised and got ready for the day. He was as happy as could be. 

He loved his bath time and smelled so good rubbed down in baby lotion.

Brooklyn enjoyed feeding Silas his veggies and fruit for dinner. 

 

 One day we went out to the outlets to do a little shopping. He loved riding in the stroller and I loved having the stroller as a bag holder!

Silas got to go to church with us 2 weeks in a row. Here we are after coming home from church.

 

Here is Brooklyn teaching Silas how to play the piano!

Silas loved scooting all over our family room and kitchen. He pretty much entertained himself. 

 

One Saturday after doing all the yard work Steve enjoyed holding and playing with Silas.

 

Mackenzie watched Silas for us one night when we went out to dinner. He was such a happy little guy and Mackenzie had fun babysitting him.

This picture was taken on Mother's Day. Silas's mama came to pick him up later that day. He was so excited to see her and the rest of his brothers and sister.

We took this picture when Anna and the kids came to pick up Silas. Such a cute family.

We sure had a great time as a family having Silas with us for those 10 days. He brought a lot of happiness and joy into our home. Thanks Anna and Dave for letting us adopt your sweet little boy for those days. We will remember and cherish those memories with him for a long time.

Mormon Prom

Steve and I were asked to help chaperon and be in charge of running the water table at the dance. On our way over to Issaquah we stopped and had dinner.

 Check out my prom date! Wow...am I a lucky girl or what?

Monica, Ian, McKenna, Shon, Brooklyn and Andrew giving us a silly pose!

Brooklyn & Andrew.

Mackenzie and Damon walking the red carpet.

Check out this cool pose with it foggy and a little bit blurry.

Mackenzie & Damon.

Our girls looked so happy and they really had a great time. They couldn't have asked for better (or more handsome) dates either.

I showed Mackenzie and Damon the room where they were keeping the mini cupcakes and here they are sampling a few! 

 

We had such a cushy job running the water table! It was easy and allowed us to walk around and take pictures during the damce. We have been able to go for 2 years in a row now to help out at the dance and it's a lot of fun. It was sad to see such a fun night end. And we're already looking forward to next years Mormon Prom.

Brooklyn's First Date - Prom

Brooklyn's first date was to Mormon Prom. She had a lot of fun that day getting ready for her date with Andrew.

We took a few pictures of Brooklyn before Andrew came.

 

Brooklyn did ringlets in her hair and it looked so cute. 

Andrew brought Brooklyn a bouquet of flowers. Ahhh...what a thoughtful young man.

This was Brooklyn's first time pinning a boutonniere on a date. She had to have her dad step in and help her out! We all thought it was pretty funny.

A picture out in the backyard by the pool.

A close up picture of the two of them.Andrew's tie matched perfectly with Brooklyn's bright pink dress.

Here is a picture of the corsage that Andrew made Brooklyn. It was so pretty.

Brooklyn and Andrew waving good-bye. They doubled with one other couple. They took group pictures at Monica's house before they went downtown for dinner. They ate at a restaurant named "13 Coins". Brooklyn said that it was really fancy and that the food was really yummy. After dinner they went to the dance in Issaquah and had a great time. 

Brooklyn looked so beautiful on her very first date to the prom. It was a fun evening for her and one she will always remember

Mackenzie - Prom

Saturday night was Mormon Prom. Mackenzie had a fun day getting ready for her date with Damon. Saturday morning Steve took both girls to get a manicure and pedicure. Lucky!

We took a few pictures of Mackenzie before Damon arrived. This picture is one of our favorites.

What a beautiful daughter we have.

Here is a picture of Mackenzie pinning the boutanniere on Damon. She couldn't get it to lay just right so Steve had to step in and help her while I took pictures!

What a gorgeous looking couple. Damon's tie matched perfectly with Mackenzie's dress.

Picture out in the backyard by the pool.

Damon's mom made Mackenzie's corsage. It was so pretty.

Leaving for a fun evening. Mackenzie and Damon went with a group of 7 couples. They all met at one of the girls houses for group pictures. Then they went downtown and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Then to the dance. Then they ended the evening by going to some friends house to watch a movie in their big theatre.