WOW, what a summer!

Gosh, it's been too long. I've forgotten how to do this blogging stuff. Anyway, we are back in Hawaii after a fabulous month and a half in the Mainland. We saw all of our children and their families and our siblings and folks. Our travels included Utah, Idaho, and California. I celebrated a great birthday although so many candles nearly burned down the house (see picture). Timothy and Amber created these "cows in the pasture" birthday cake by standing loaf angel food cakes on their sides in a platter of coconut colored green for grass. The coloring on the cows was melted chocolate chips, mixed with peanut butter. The eyes were blueberries with horizontally sliced strawberries for the mooing lips.

We saw so many fireworks this year at Timothy's neighborhood and those at Disneyland just went on and on. My favorite, new for me, ride at Disneyland was the Indiana Jones one that I had never ridden before. Of course "Pirates of the Caribbean" and and the Haunted House are old favorites. Ben's lawyer-magician friend got us into the Magic Castle in Hollywood for a fun evening of astonishing magic. Other highlights included a family reunion in Idaho and at Bear Lake with my sisters. Greatly missed was Harmony who did not come up from Texas this year. We had lots of fun activities with Timothy and Kristin in Utah and Peter and Eileen went with us to California to see Ben and Rebekah. Sandi and Amber celebrated their anniversary while we were in Utah and were able to attend a session at the Salt Lake Temple while I strolled around with their two children in the Visitor Centers.


Back at home now in Hawaii, the vacation memories will hopefully not fade. The complications are piling up at home. Sandi and Amber, Topaz and Emerald are living with us in our small two bedroom town house. Sandi was unable to get an early renewal to his green card so that he could ship out with the Army on Aug 20, so after much hassle, the Army has changed his ship out date to Jan. 14. Meanwhile that leaves him unemployed and them homeless. They have found an apartment (brand new) in Hau'ula that they hope to rent but with what for money. When it rains it pours so they say, thus not only are they unemployed and homeless but Hawaii Quest insurance canceled their coverage in July because they said they couldn't find their correct address. Obviously the caseworker was a little behind on her updates, but now they have to get that straightened out too. We shall see how it all works out in the next couple of weeks. Let this be a lesson to everyone to make sure the tithing check is paid before the vacation, not after, as those windows of heaven can stay tightly shut.