I’m a little blogged out (4 posts in 2 days!), so here are some pics of Kai & Koa.

Kai likes to take pictures and he’ll get a pretty good one once in a while. His favorite things to take pictures of are Koa, our yorkies, me, Bill, & his favorite tv shows on the screen – in that order. Here is one he got of Koa:
Melissa has started working as a consultant for Taste of Home Entertaining and had a expo she worked. We got to watch cute baby Braden for a day! There was a 10 minute period during the day where Braden was crying and then Koa was crying partially because Braden was and also partially because I was holding Braden! So I was trying to juggle them both at one point and Kai went and got the camera and took this picture! I didn’t even ask him or tell him to! He just wanted a picture! So cute!

 My boys both LOVE when Uncle Aaron come over!

Kai refused to wear his light up goggles that went with the costume and Koa refused to wear his cowboy hat. But, it still worked!

Woody & Buzz: Best Friends

Bill & Kai’s seahorses

Some videos for your enjoyment!

 

Adorable, right?

So apparently I still had some bloggin’ left in me! But now I’m done!

This was really cute! Kai insisted his twin brother from another mother Kimball help him open his presents!


Aren’t they just two peas in a pod?!

Grandpa helping them put together one of the toys

Grandma coming to the rescue!

Grandpa & Grandma Griffiths; Ben (#2 – he was born later), Melissa, & Braden; Ali; Michelle & Jeremy; Kathy, Kala & Kawena; Janzell & Ben (#1); Nathan; Jamie; Denise, Erik & Kimball were all in attendance.

The beach at LaFonda

The Guys at LaFonda

After a nice and relaxing lunch and a mexican coke (so much better than USA’s because they use real sugar cane!) we headed to our starting point for the “race”- Horsepower Ranch. There we saw where the baja vehicles are built. It was really interesting. Because Bill and I are husband and wife, they put us in the honeymoon suite! The resort wasn’t super fancy, but a cute rustic ranch. The food was DELICIOUS!!!! The staff was super friendly and they really took care of us.

Here is a pic of Bill and I together that first day:

The reason I know it was the first day was because that was the only day we drove together! Yes, you read that right. You know the old cliche of a husband and wife driving somewhere trying to find a place and arguing every step of the way? Well imagine that times 10! Thats what happened to us as we were trying to follow the trail, listen to the radio, transmit the instructions to the next car as well as your driver and trying to drive without going off a cliff! It probably didn’t help matters that Bill’s helmet wasn’t working properly and couldn’t hear anyone except me! I swear we were ready to kill each other! In a loving way of course! Throughout the day all the drivers and co-drivers would switch spots at bathroom breaks. Speaking of which, yes, we went to the bathroom like neanderthals – out in the wilderness. It was a little harder for me than the guys though because I had to find something to hide behind and usually it was a cactus so I had to watch what I was doing or else I could get skewered (which I did a couple of times!) The guys would just walk a couple of steps away and just go! I swear everywhere I turned during those breaks all I saw were guys peeing!

Anyway, that was kind of a long tangent! So, whenever we would stop we would switch drivers. When it was my turn to drive I had a blast! I would go faster than Bill was comfortable with so cue more arguing! The guys would later tease Bill that I was a better driver because the cars behind us didn’t have to wait as long as they did when Bill was driving! Well, one time we were driving and looking for a pipe in the road that the car in front of us warned about and we were going up a hill and I went fast so we could catch some air. I figured it was safe because no one warned us about any sharp turns or anything, so I went for it! Unfortunately, as we were flying up over the hill in the air, I saw that there WAS a sharp turn afterwards and we were headed off a cliff! My life didn’t flash before my eyes like they say in the movies and on TV. I just thought “This is it. This is the end…” I was absolutely sure I was going to die. All I could see were the huge boulders at the bottom of the cliff which I was sure we were going to roll into once we landed. Time seemed to stand still as we were flying through the air. Suddenly we hit the ground and I hit the brakes. We had landed at a 45ish degree angle sideways. I kept leaning upwards toward the top of the hill trying to keep the weight on my side so we wouldn’t fall down to the bottom (which was Bill’s side). Bill undid all his harnesses and jumped out and took off his helmet.

We radioed everyone to alert them that we were off the trail and on the side of a cliff. They asked me if I was okay and tried to ask Bill if he was okay but I told them that he couldn’t hear them because he was out of the car and had taken off his helmet. Later the guys would tell me they thought I meant that he had been thrown out and his helmet had come off. Eventually they found us (we had taken a wrong turn somewhere before that hill and so they couldn’t find us at the mile marker we told them because our route was different than theirs. After lots of pictures of my folly (not to mention the teasing), our crew towed our car off the cliff and continued on. At lunch, everyone kept teasing me good naturedly. I just smiled and took it in. After all, I did almost roll the baja over a cliff! After lunch, it was Bill’s turn to drive. After we were on the trail for a couple of hours, we heard some of the cars in front of us alerting the following cars to watch for a big dip at mile 26.7. As we approached that marker, I saw the dip and some weird stuff all around it like a backpack and pieces of something. A split second later, I looked past the ditch and saw this:

Except no people around it but one of the guys still strapped in upside down and the other guy crawling out of the front window. I immediately called out on the radio that car six had flipped! Then as fast as we could got unstrapped and ran to help the guys. Luckily, there wasn’t any super serious damage. The driver, Mason, had a few bruises where the harnesses were on his shoulders. The co-driver- I can’t think of his name right now- had the same bruises but also was hurt in his arm. He can take it though. Shortly before he came on this trip, he was racing his dirtbike and crashed and got ran over by another bike. He had this mean old wound on his back that looked like he’d been stabbed! Anyway, back to the crash in Mexico.

Our crew was able to get a replacement vehicle and flip the crashed one back over and was able to load it up on a trailer. The only good thing about this was that I was no longer the butt of all the jokes! At least my crash wasn’t a crash and didn’t cause any damage to anyone or anything! I could have, but was lucky! After we got everything in order, we finally resumed our trek to San Felipe.

San Felipe is a cute town on the coast. When we got there, we were assigned rooms and we all went swimming. Some in the ocean and some in the pool. I opted for the pool because they had a bar there. Yes, I am a heavy drinker! Just kidding. They made me VIRGIN margaritas. They were awesome. Also, after a hot sweaty day in the dust, the pool just seemed more refreshing and clean.

After swimming, we all got ready and went for dinner and a night out on the town. We walked about 10 minutes to this restaurant reknowned for its shrimp. After driving all day, it was kind of nice to walk. During dinner, Loren, the head honcho of ProComp and the guy who gave us these trips took me aside and told me how glad he was that I came on this trip. It was kind of cool.

When we were done eating, the non-drinkers (about 5 of us) headed back to the hotel while the rest of them stayed there. Bill and I were pretty tired, so we just went to sleep.

The next day, I woke up at like 5 and couldn’t get back to sleep. So I went and sat out on the beach and just watched the waves roll in and out. The seagulls were out trying to catch the fish that were flying out of the water and the fishing boats were way out casting their nets. I just sat there and took in the calm beauty of it all. I watched the sun rise too. Here are some pictures I took of that peaceful dawn.

On this day Bill went in Dave’s car and I went with Loren. We figured we wanted to go with experienced drivers so we could see how far you could push the bajas and how to get the hang of it. After driving with Loren for a few minutes, I knew we had made the right decision! Loren was much more patient and since he knew what he was doing, he taught me how to know when I could go faster and when to pull back. Same for Bill and Dave. And as an added bonus, Bill and I weren’t fighting, but enjoying ourselves for once! I know this makes us sound dysfunctional, but oh well! Maybe we are a little! We still hung out at all the breaks and later at the next ranch. See?

During day 2 of the “race”, we ran into some federalis. Apparently, they were on the side of the trail and when the lead car went past them (going super fast since they knew the trail) the federalis (who were on foot) started running after them with their oozies. The lead car saw them and immediately stopped. I guess the federalis thought we were drug or gun or human traffikers since we were going so fast. It was a good thing one of our crew guys who spoke English and Spanish carried around lots of water and treats for us, because he offered them to the federalis as a sort of peace offering and to help them be more understanding as we explained what we were doing there. After the federalis were appeased, we continued on. It was still a little unsettling to see these mexican guys wearing camo and carrying machine guns!

That night we went to Mike’s Sky Ranch. We had traveled up a mountain that day so we were at a higher elevation and it was quite a bit cooler, which was actually refreshing! I was still hot from the day so I put on my swim suit and dived off the diving board into the pool. I felt like I was doing the polar bear jump! It was FREEZING!!! I’m surprised the pool didn’t have ice in it! I tried to stay in it for awhile hoping I would get adjusted to it, but no, my legs just got numb and I started losing feeling in my body. So I got out. The funny thing is that in our group we had 3 Canadians who we teased a lot for being, well, canadian! Mason, Kelly and Adam had gone swimming with me at both San Felipe and at Mike’s Sky Ranch. At San Felipe, they were complaining that the pool wasn’t cool enough where I thought it was just perfect! At Mike’s Sky Ranch I was freezing, but they thought that they were in heaven! I don’t think I ever want to live in Canada if that freezing body of water they called a pool was considered refreshing!

This is the driveway to Mike’s Sky Ranch

This is the courtyard around the pool at Mike’s Sky Ranch

After I got out and changed into warmer clothes, we all sat around the pool and listened to music (Adam had brought his ipod and a speaker set) and hung out and talked. It would have been nice except that there were incessant flies bothering us! As the outside temperature cooled down quite a bit, the flies began to disappear. We ate dinner (another yummy authentic mexican meal) inside the dining room and then went back outside to enjoy the clean air. Thats when Bozo broke out his margarita machine he made out of a blender and a motorcycle engine. To make the blender work, you have to rev the motorcycle handles like you’re driving one! He let me play with it which was a huge deal because he usually doesn’t let anyone work it! Bozo made margarita after margarita and it was kind of funny to watch some of the guys lose theirselves as they got more and more drunk! I had never been around people who drink so this was a new experience for me! Luckily they were loving drunks, not angry drunks! It was seriously hilarious! At 10 pm the generator turned off so we all headed to bed. We used flashlights and candles to find our way around and do our night routines. I love that feeling, you know the same one you get when you’re out camping in the wilderness! Everything is silent and peaceful and you see more stars that you ever have before. Man I really miss it.

 This is the motorcycle blender & me driving it

Behind me are 2 of the canadians, Mason & Kelly

The next day, we woke up had a great breakfast in which our crew kept stuffing food into Sto’s pockets without him noticing while he was talking to me. I knew they were doing it so I was deliberately distracting him. Pranks were flying throughout our trip – mostly between the crew members! There was a new crewmember and they were initiating him- mostly with pranks! It kept the trip quite fun actually. They threw him in several pools and dumped water on him a couple of times too. And other stuff I can’t remember right now!

After we had breakfast, we headed out and continued on our last leg of the race. We were returning back to Horsepower Ranch. This day, there weren’t any major incidents. I did lose control of the baja once and spun out off the road and then got stuck in a ditch while trying to get back onto the trail. But I wasn’t the only one who got stuck that day, so I didn’t feel bad. Here is one of the other cars that got stuck in a ditch. Also for the record, the guys in that car had come on this trip 4 other times.

For about 20 minutes before we got to the ranch, we drove on the paved freeway. I was the co- driver at the time and since we didn’t need the radio on the freeway, I relaxed and actually fell asleep. I guess even after we arrived at the ranch, I was still sleeping soundly because Bill showed me all the pictures everyone took of me sleeping in the baja vehicle. In my defense, in order to ride in those vehicles that bounce around constantly and not get motion sick (which I get really bad even in normal vehicles on paved roads) I had to go on some medicine. The medicine would make me fall asleep when I was tired and relaxing. Between that and my “couch” of a seat I was riding on, it was really easy to fall asleep. The guys were teasing Loren that he must be a mild driver if I could fall asleep in one of those cars!

At Horsepower, we ate showered, ate dinner and filled out customer satisfaction surveys. Once again, the dinner was delicious! Out of all our great meals on this trip, Horsepower Ranch had the best food. After we were done, we all boarded the shuttle back over the border. We had to get out of the shuttle and physically walk over the border after going through customs. Once we were over the border, everyone and I mean EVERYONE of us pulled out our cell phones and started calling our families. One of the guys – Ryan- said loudly, “Does anyone have a cell phone? Anyone? Anyone?” It was a pretty funny sight.

I was absolutely amazed at the news I got from Melissa! She told me that Koa had done just fine with them and that Kai wanted to stay at the Sillitos the entire time! He slept there and everything! I was definitely relieved to say the least!

Most of the guys were headed home on flights that evening. Bill and I and the canadians were all staying the night at the Marriott again and then headed home the next day. So we all went to dinner after checking in. We went to 5th Avenue again and it being a Friday night, was soooooo different than it had been on Monday! It was like being at Mardi Gras! There were lines out the doors of every restaurant, Hare Krishnas walking the entire strip back and forth, cars cruising the strip including billboard size lighted ad signs being towed on trailers behind trucks and even a walking carnival! There was the fat lady, the tall skinny man on stilts, a unicyclist, a guy walking on a ball, and some other guys. Then there were also cheerleaders wearing skimpy uniforms asking diners sitting in the outdoor areas of the restaurants trying to get donations for whatever cause they were working for. It was CRAZY! Yet, oddly fun! It was a nice evening spent with the Canadians, who incidently were my favorites from the whole trip. The next day we said our goodbyes and headed home.

 This is most of our crew

This is Sto and Bozo

 
This is Danny. He was the guy who helped with most of the mechanical issues like our helmets and my problem of being able to reach the clutch. It was kind of weird to see a white guy only be able to speak Spanish.

What a trip! Every time I think about it I just smile and relive the fun. As it is 1:30 am right now, I’m going to have to edit this later and add the pics then too. But Hoo- rah (say it like
Marines) I finished this post. Finally.

Amazing right?!  Two posts within one week!  Both Kai & Koa did something cute in the last two days so I wanted to note it for posterity before I forgot!

On Monday night, we had a family home evening at our house with Brock, Allison, Mason, Zach, Calvin, Ben, Melissa, & Braden.  It was a lot of fun.  We had dinner then Melissa did the lesson on family – it was a cute lesson so I’m going to digress!  She compared a family to ingredients of a cake (in our case it was brownie cookie bars).  She asked them if the ingredients would taste good by themselves.  Of course not!  But, if we mix them all together (she had them all mix them in bowls) it becomes a delicious brownie cookie bar!  Brock jokingly asked who was which ingredients and they were naming who would be the chocolate.  So I spoke up and I said if anyone should be the chocolate, it would be me since I have brown skin!  I said I ate so much chocolate thats why I have brown skin!  Mason and Zach looked at me in awe and wonder believing me & I started laughing and said I was joking but they didn’t look like they believe me!  Brock and Allison (who were also laughing) said that they just knew that the boys would be laying in bed that night continuing to wonder if that was true or not! 

Okay back to where I left off.  After the lesson and closing song (Koa loved singing along even though he didn’t sing words!) Allison had us play games.  We played fruit basket!  We had some interesting fruits in our fruit basket!  Lychee (that was mine) guava, boisenberry, papaya and of course banana, orange & apple.  We had a chair set in front of the tv so that we could kind of have a circle to play with.  It was a blast! 

After we were fruit basketed out, we just sat around talking.  So Kai put his booster seat onto the chair in front of the tv and climbed into it.  Then he said “Let me tell you a story, once upon a time, firebird trapped in a cave. then he trapped in a cave and lost.  He dropped a firebird feather and it flew away to rockets house. ” (I couldn’t remember exactly what he said last night, so I just told him to tell me the story again and thats what he told me)  The way he told it to us was so animated!  He is a great story teller!  He had great voice inflections and facial expressions!   The story he was telling us is a Little Einstein’s movie.  It was really cute!  Then he went and grabbed a book and started reading it to us – showing us the pictures and everything!  When he was done, he closed the book and said AAA-MEN.  By this time I had grabbed our video camera and was ready when he got another book.  This next book he took a lot longer to read because sometimes he flipped the pages one way and then other times he flipped them the other way!  It was still cute and he still finished by saying AA-Men!  Allison and Brock still wanted to stay and watch him but by this time it was 10:30 ish at night so they had to leave.  Then Kai brought me a book and I started reading to him and he fell sound asleep before it was even done.  It was a cute, fun night!

Yesterday, when we went to Bill’s office I had my hands full so I couldn’t carry Koa so he walked behind me.  As we entered the warehouse, Justin was walking in from the opposite direction and said something like “Hi bud!” to Koa.  Koa broke out in a huge grin and started running towards him like he was going to hug him!  But at the last minute, he stopped inches in front of Justin, turned around and squatted above Justin’s feet like he was farting or trying to poop on them!  It was hilarious!  Whats even funnier is Bill installed security cameras just the other day, so its caught on video!  Maybe we’ll enter it on America’s funniest videos or something! 

Wow, I sure write a lot don’t I?  Oh well, better more to remember than less! 

It’s past midnight so I’m just going to jot a few things that happened so that I don’t forget! 

Last weekend, Bob, Krista & Jackson came to Utah just because they wanted to and because Delta had a sale!  Kai LOVES playing with Jackson!  It’s really cute!  We had fun hanging out with them!  I made my Chocolate Trifle and put it in my Pampered Chef Trifle bowl for our sunday dessert. 

Doesn’t that look delicious? 

Then, this weekend, Brock, Allison, Mason, Zach & Calvin came partly for work and partly to escape Hurricane Ike (they live in Houston).  At first, only Brock was going to come but at the last minute, they all decided to come.  Its a good thing too because they currently don’t have power or water at their home in Houston and they don’t have any idea when they’ll get either back!  In fact, one of their friends called them yesterday and told them that they were driving around in their car because their kids were bored so they’re watching a movie in there while finally sitting in an air conditioned area and charging their cell phones!  Man, the things we take for granted! 

Yesterday, Brock’s family and me and Kai and Koa went to the BYU/UCLA football game in Provo.  It was a blast!  It was sold out but Brock had tickets for his fam he had purchased earlier.  So I found a couple of scalpers and bought  tickets for our fam.  It was a fun game but man it was HOT!  No shade is no fun – even in the low 70 degree temp we were having yesterday!  I spent more than I would normally buying drinks and ice cream!  But it was well worth it!  Did I mention BYU won 59 – 0?  It was amazing!

Both Kai & Koa were really cute during the game!  Kai was so hot, he wouldn’t keep his shirt on.  Koa, on the other hand, just lay back and enjoyed the shade provided by the slightly larger woman standing next to him!  He just lay down, head on the diaper bag with the popcorn bag on his stomach and ate his snack while relaxing!  I took pics so I’ll have to upload it later! 

On the ride down to Provo, Kai said the cutest thing!  He was playing with Mason & Zach in the back row of Dave’s Tahoe and they were being rowdy little boys as usual.  Suddenly Kai starts yelling in an attention getting voice “Lorinda! Lorinda! Lorinda!”  As if that wasn’t funny enough, when I asked him what he needed, he said “Mommy, I need chopsticks.”  Everyone bust out laughing really hard!  But not Kai!  He was dead serious and a little annoyed that we were laughing at his request!  Eventually he just started laughing with us.  Too cute!

We finally bit the bullet and bought a Wii.  I’m addicted to Mario Kart.  We haven’t even had it for a week and I’ve unlocked almost all the games in all the levels!  I also am participating in a little fantasy football with some of my family!  It’s fun!

We bought an Emperor something or other fish from Aquatic Dreams.  It is a gorgeous fish!  I’ll have to take a picture later and post it.  He’s very sociable and is nice to our other fish in that tank (2 black clown fishes and an orange anthius).

Koa said “bottle” today for the first time!

I’m really tired so I think thats all for now!

Goodnight!

 Okay, so I’ve been a total slacker lately!  I guess I’ve just been so busy that I really haven’t had time to keep up with this blog.  A few moments I wanted to note: 

On August 14, 2008 Kai learned how to say his full name!  What is it you ask?  You can ask Kai as he is so proud and is willing to tell anyone and everyone his full name!  But just for the record, his full name is Ryan Keali’iokekai Ying-Long Griffiths.  And yes, he actually does pronounce it correctly!  Even more so than Bill!  LOL!  I wanted to note this because everyone always asks me when I learned how to say my full name when I was a kid and I have no idea when.  This way, Kai will have an answer for people when they ask him!

I don’t remember when, but since my last blog, Kai learned how to pedal his tricycle, so we bought him a little bike with training wheels.  He loves it!

We went to Arizona at the end of July for Bill’s brother Ben’s baby Braden’s baby blessing (how about all those b’s!) and for Bill’s other brother Kevin’s missionary farewell.  We played Wii and hung out at the pool most of the time!  All of Bill’s brothers were there with their families, so it was a fun mini reunion! 

The following week, Ben, Melissa and Braden moved up to Utah since Ben works with Bill.  They rented an apartment in Ogden so we helped them move in.  We’ve had lots of fun with them since they moved up here!  I’m sure some of our fun times are to follow in this blog!

We went to Las Vegas for a short trip with Ben, Melissa, Braden and Aaron and met up with Bryan from ReadyLift and his family.  Bill had to go for a business meeting so we all packed up and went for fun.  We rented a house in Henderson with 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, a private pool, hot tub and a pool table.  We had a blast.  We stopped at the M&M factory and Game Works and spent some of our winnings there playing games.  On a side note, Virtual Bowling sucks!!!  Aaron and I tried to play a game and it didn’t even register the bowling ball path correctly!  Back to our winnings, yes, we sinned and loved every minute of it!  I won 800% of what I spent!  I played a $0.25 slot machine 6 times and won $8.00 after only starting off with $1.00.  Not too bad!  But not as good as Bill either!  Bill took Aaron (who was the only unmarried and kidless person in our party) to the strip early one morning while the rest of us slept in with the kids.  Shortly after everyone had woken up, Bill called my cell phone and all I could hear was clink clink clink clink clink clink clink clink clink clink etc.  Bill had won the jackpot and won 20,000 credits!  The funny part is that he was playing a nickel machine so 20,000 credits ended up being $92.00!  Still, winning $92 is better than losing $92!  All in all, it was a fun road trip!

On Sept. 2nd, Kai started preschool at Mary’s Little Scholars in Kaysville.  He loves it!  He is going with 2 of our neighbors, Hailey Sillito and Jackson Stott.  Its funny because just from 2 days of school, the 3 of them have become best of friends.  Yesterday after school, they continued to keep playing together riding their bikes around our cul-de-sac and jumping between our houses until 6 pm.  When we separated them, they all started throwing tantrums because they didn’t want to stop playing!

Yesterday Bill finally got his big red sign on his building making us so much more noticable from the street and easier to find!  It looks REALLY good!  It looks so official too!  See?

Today me and the kids drove up to the office and Kai said “Mommy!  Daddy got a red sign!  Lets read the letters!  Uh, S, uh B, uh zero, uh B, uh uh T, uh A, uh F!”  He said it so triumphantly it was cute!  Then I asked him “What does that spell?”  He cheered back “Daddy’s Office Building!”  It was adorable!  (In case you didn’t catch what Kai was spelling, he spelled Fat Bob’s backwards- substituting a zero for the O!)

As for Koa, hes just the same Koa!  Laid back and fearless at the same time.  The other day, he had 2 binkies in one hand, another binky in the other, a binky in his mouth and a bottle tucked under his arm!  We’ve decided that his bottle is his wubby.  If he’s crying all we have to do it hand him a bottle full or empty and he’ll stop crying (unless he really is thirsty- then he gets mad!)  He thinks everything is a game.  If we tell him no, he tries it again and when we go to stop him -again- he starts belly laughing.  We have to keep a close eye on him because he will climb anything in sight!  One day at the office, the guys left a ladder up and before I knew it, Koa had climbed all the way to the top!  He even got down by himself.  Don’t worry, I was right there to catch him if he fell, but he knew what he was doing!  He also loves to run/stand on tables.  I have no idea how to stop him from wanting to do this!  Then when we were swimming in Vegas, he would copy Kai and just jump in sometimes before I had even recovered from catching Kai!  We sure had fun!  I have a feeling Koa is going to give me some sleepless nights throughout his life!

He is very cute though, too!  He loves to watch Dora, Diego, Little Einsteins, Super Why, and of all things, Family Guy.  And out of all those shows, which one do you think makes him belly laugh?  If you guessed Family Guy, you would be correct! 

As for Bill and I, Bill is the same -working every minute every night and day!  As for me, I still go in almost every day and I still teach piano.  Melissa and I have been going house shopping for them quite a bit too.  It’s pretty fun!  It almost makes me want to buy another house!  The big news for me and Bill is that we are going on a trip to Mexico!  We’re going to take a baja tour in Ensenada!  Here are 2 links- one is the actual website of the company that we’re going with and the other is a youtube video of some guys who went on the exact tour we’re going to go on.  The trip is at the end of September and I can’t wait!  Bill and I have never had a real honeymoon or vacation without family, kids, or friends, so this will be our first!  Melissa will be watching Koa and the Sillitos have offered to watch Kai and take him to preschool.  Kai will be in heaven!  Not so sure on Koa, but hes the most familiar with Melissa so if anyone has a chance, Melissa does!  It’s the first time we’re leaving him overnight with anyone else so this should indeed be interesting.  I know you think I forgot about the website links, but you’re wrong!

www.wideopenbaja.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD8n1P5UQkM&feature=related

Here are some pics from Kai’s first day at preschool

Okay, I think I’ve got most things caught up on.  TTFN!

I forgot a few things…  In a period of 3 weeks, 3 of our cars were in accidents.  Logan was driving our Jeep Wrangler when he ran a stop sign and hit a car.  The damage was pretty throrough but we had Kevin Wood (not Kevin D Wood) fix it up.  We had him paint it a different color too which was a good thing- but I’ll get back to that later  The very next week, Kevin D Wood was driving our GMC Sierra 2500 on the freeway and jackknifed into a trailer .  So we called Kevin Wood (not Kevin D Wood) again.  The very next week, I was backing up into a parking space at Bill’s office in my Toyota Tundra when I backed into a tree.  Yes, I have rear sonar sensors (they were unfortunately turned off at the time) AND a rear camera (I have since started using it!).  So once again, we called Kevin Wood (and once again, not Kevin D Wood) to help us fix it.  Here is where it was a good thing that we changed the paint color on our Wrangler.  We matched the color to our Tundra.  So since Kevin Wood (not Kevin D Wood – is that getting irritating yet?) had the paint color already, it was relatively easy to fix the truck bed door.  But I will never live down the fact that I backed into something with rear sensors and a rear camera

Here’s our wrangler (fixed) and FJ Cruiser

Another car related issue we had was Bill ran a red light in our Chevy Malibu Classic – wait, I’ve just been corrected by Kevin D Wood.  Bill was actually in our FJ Cruiser- thanks Kevin.  There also happened to be a cop right there, so Bill pulled over before the cop even turned on his lights.  Whats even funnier is that he had been stopped at the light and when a different light turned green he started going!  The cop came to his window laughing and asked him “What happened there?!”  A funny side note:  The cop that pulled him over was husband of my bowling friend who is a bailiff at the District Court where I used to work!  In Bill’s defense, that intersection he was at is pretty confusing!

Anywho, thats all I have to say about that! And NOW I am done!

Okay, I know.  Its been two weeks.  But I have a good reason for not writing!  I had a medical procedure done that condenses the gestation period to 14 days and had another baby!  What gender?  Boy, of course.  We named him Kimball and here is our current family picture:

Did I mention that he came out with the physical appearance and mentality of a 24 month old?  Ok, I know I’m not fooling anyone!  Yes, his name really is Kimball, but he is not ours.  If there really was a procedure like that our world would be way over populated!  Kimball is not even a cousin or a relative for that matter!  He is the son of one of my parents’ sister missionaries from their mission in Taiwan, Denise Winter and her husband Erik Oh.  Here is what their family would look like if my kids were theirs:

Here is their real family picture:

Kai and Kimball became friends real fast last night at the Taiwan Mission reunion my parents had at the Oh’s home last night!  Its really funny to watch them because they have the same mannerisms and sayings and likes!  Denise told me that the fact that Kimball must really like Kai because he was sharing his toys willingly!  his morning, Kai was begging to go play with Kimball or to have Kimball come play at his playground.  It was really cute!  I couldn’t believe he remembered his name!  In fact, as I am writing this, Kai is pointing to the above pictures and saying “That’s my friend!”  How cute is that?  Denise and I are planning on setting up playdates for the two of them soon!  They are a very cute family. 

As for the past two weeks,  I’ve started organizing my house.  Bill’s manufacturing guy, Danny has a father and son working for him- Santos and Oscar.  The mom, Grace, cleans Bill’s office and recently started helping me clean our house and organize it.  She is AMAZING! It works out well because for trade, I have started teaching her other son Ernesto piano.  My kids love her. 

My parents also came into town and had taiwan mission reunions (in case you didn’t get that from earlier).  We had curbing put in around our fire pit, our house, our dirt mounds and our playground!  We’re going to dig up the grass and put sand in around it.  I also attempted to plant a red maple tree but ended up with a sprained ankle instead!  I was digging the hole and when I jumped off the shovel, I landed on uneven ground and my ankle caved and I heard a popping sound.  I had heard that when you hear that sound when you twist your ankle, it is very probable that it may be broken.  I was in soooo much pain!  It was in the middle of the day and Kai and Koa were inside and no one else was outside.  I couldn’t put any pressure on it or it would make the pain intensify like crazy.  So I had to crawl on my hands and knees to the house because I was so worried about the kids!  I ended up swelling up to the size of a large orange – my ankle that is!  It still is black and blue to this day.  Anywho, that kind of catches us up! 

Hello again!

This week I started full time as a part time volunteer employee at Bill’s office!  Did you get that?  Typically, I go in with the kids at noon ish and then we stay til about 8 pm or later.  So I guess I really am full time!  The kids stay in the playroom we set up although trying to keep them happy in there is another story.  There is a big window I can see in from my desk so I can check up on them every so often.  We decorated the playroom in a Car (the Pixar movie) theme.  I’ll have to bring my camera in so I can post pictures. 

Another thing this week was we threw my cousin Michele a bridal shower.  It was really fun to make her blush with our presents!  I was in charge of the e-invitations.  Janzell (my other cousin) chose a cheerleading theme since Michele used to be a cheerleader in hs.  Since Michele’s mom was out of the country at the time, I had to get inventive for a picture.  I found a google image with cheerleaders from Kamehameha HS (where both Michele and I are alumni) and used my new photoshop skills to combine that image and one I had of her from our trip to Korea to create this:

It was pretty funny because when Michele first saw this, she thought it was her!  She said her fiance Jeremy was the one to tell her that it wasn’t her!

Also, Happy fathers day to everyone!  In honor of Fathers day, I created this for my grandpa.  Unfortunately, he hasn’t seen it yet because yesterday morning (yes, on Father’s day) he had an incident and had to be taken to the ER and is still admitted in the hospital.  Love you grandpa…

And that wraps up my week! 

Today I am just going to post pictures!  That way I finally post them and I also continue my weekly blog even though this week is the same as the past few weeks – moving to new office blah blah blah.  Exhausted yada yada yada… So here goes!

Aaron and Kai on one of our 4 wheelers

Kai just hanging out in his “bed” in our sand box at Bill’s old office!

Kai & Koa playing in the sandbox again.  Whats on Koa’s face?  Lets take a better look…

What is that?!  Oh yeah, he had gotten into some Oreos right before going outside!

Here are some pictures from the actual train ride on our Day Out with Thomas the Train.

After the train ride we visited some of the other areas they had there like the petting zoo and the Legos station.

Yes, that is handfuls of sugar and junk in their hands.  See if you can find these items: Cheetos, Capri Sun, Rice Crispy Treat, Cotton Candy, Diet Coke, Thomas the train tatoos! (temporary of course!)

The big news this week is that both Kai & Koa learned how to go down the slide on our playset by themselves!  Koa wants to be like his big brother so much he learned how to do it in one day by following and trusting him!  By the way, I know our grass is a little overgrown by the playset, but it does make a great landing pad the boys!

Here is Aaron watching a movie with us all the while Kai is talking his ear off!  Whether or not Aaron could understand Kai-nese is another story!  For the record, everytime I put clothes on Kai, he would strip down so I gave up!

I thought this picture was priceless.  The boys love riding with Bill when he is mowing the lawn.  I just love this view!  And I’m not talking about the mountains …