Oregon Arts Orchestra - day 4 Rome Concert

We spent the morning Wednesday on a tour of the Vatican.  This would have been a good place to be during the thunderstorm and downpour of the previous day.  It was almost entirely an indoor tour.  For all of our guided tours we wore what Flavio, our Italian trip tour guide, called the Italian iPod.  It was a radio on a lanyard with headphone jack and multiple channels so the tour guide could speak into a microphone and transmit it directly to our ears.  It was a nice contraption, allowing us to wander a certain amount without losing track of the lecture. It tended to start crackling when you got too far so you knew to look for the group and rejoin them before you were entirely lost.  In the Vatacan, we had to use their iPod, so we each got a second one to wear with it's own bright green ear bud.

OAO members: Lou (clarinet), Mihail (flute), Ann (cello), and Jae (Lou's wife). Outside the entrance to the Vatican.

The Vatican is an amazing place.  There is so much wealth there.  I couldn't help thinking of all the suffering in the world and how it seemed odd that a church would put so much effort into amassing wealth and impressing visiting politicians and dignitaries.  It didn't quite seem fitting for a religious institution.  And the tour guide told us stories of the Pope who commissioned  Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel. He was well known for his misuse of power.  The only person he couldn't completely control through money or threat was Michelangelo himself.  And this was the spiritual leader for the Christian world?

St Peter's Basilica

That afternoon we all headed to the second largest church in Rome after St Peter's Basilica on the Vatican.  San Andréa della Valle was dedicated to Saint Andrew and couldn't be the largest because he just wasn't as important as Saint Peter. But it still had to be large and showy because he was pretty important.  So, in his honor, the ceiling was covered with priceless frescoes by famous artists framed by fancy stonework covered in 24 carat gold.  Actually, I'm not sure about that.  It may have been 18 carat. It was very beautiful.

Playing in a super huge church is an interesting experience.  There is a large amount of reverb, 3-5 seconds of sound continuing after we finished playing.  We did a mini rehearsal and then broke for snacks and changing our clothes.

Before our concert, we got to play as part of the evening Mass.  We played the Gabrielli (no flute), some of Yvonne's Vivaldi (no flute), and part of the Cimerosa (flute duo). Everyone in the orchestra was struggling to stay awake as jet lag and a day of walking in the hot sun took it's toll.

After the Mass we had a little time to set up.  The seats in the main part of the church filled up steadily.  We ended up with an excellent audience.  That was nice, but intimidating.  For the flute duo concerto, Phyllis and I stood at the front of the orchestra.  We slipped into a little side chapel after the opening piece, the Rossini, and put on our sequined shirts while and Kip and Guy took our stands to the front and Cindy welcomed the audience and introduced the orchestra.  Then, we went up to the front.  We were directly in front of the first pew, separated from the front row of the audience only by our music stands and the wooden border at the front of the pew.  The heat and proximity of the people in front of me combined to make me more nervous than usual.  It wasn't my best performance.

After our bows, we slipped into the side chapel to pull off our sparkles, then got to sit and relax behind scenes while Yvonne played the Vivaldi.  We went back onstage for the Hansen. It didn't go so well.  The reverb was hard.  Reverberating dissonance and borderline pitch issues wasn't a good combination.  But we made it through and the audience was very kind.

Oregon Arts Orchestra - day 3 Rome

Tuesday morning we had breakfast in the hotel and then took to the bus for a walking tour of the colosseum and surrounding areas.  The weather conspired against us.  As we entered the colosseum, rain started to fall.  Serious rain.  The kind that means business.  The middle-eastern men selling postcards and scarves switched gear and brought out umbrellas and brightly colored ponchos with images of the colosseum on the front.  The rain was accompanied by lightning and thunder.  The rumblings reverberated around the colosseum, sounding like the gods were angry and wanted us to know. Some of the lightning flashes struck very close, shaking the colosseum as they thundered around us.  Those of us who were foolhardy left the comfort of the covered areas to look down on the colosseum floor.  We were soaked through in seconds.  Most of the tourists took shelter inside the arches, even retreating past ropes to cluster out of the reach of the drenching rain.  We waited and waited, but the pouring rain didn't stop, so we worked our way to the exit.  I broke down and bought an umbrella from a vendor reaching in through the iron bars surrounding the colosseum. That way, I could hold it over the camera and take pictures of me and Kip in the rain.

The orchestra voted to scrap the rest of our walking tour.  Everyone was cold and drenched and just didn't want to spend two more hours walking around.  Most of the group headed back to the hotel on the bus and some even chose to dry off and have an extra rehearse.  Guy, Lou and Jae invited us to visit the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Chains to see the statue of Moses by Michelangelo.  The church was not open at that point, so we went to pass the time at the Moses Bar.  They served us thick rich hot chocolate, pizzas, and caprese.  It was a nice way to pass the time.  When we had eaten our fill and warmed up a little, the rain had stopped and the sun was peeking through.  We headed to see the Moses, walked around a little then took a cab back to the hotel.

On the schedule that night was the fancy dinner of the trip, at the Restaurant Tanagra, where you enjoy live opera music while you dine. Kip and I sat with Guy at a table in the back.  We placed our food allergy labels on the table, 'no glutine' for me and 'no arachidi' (peanuts) for Guy.  They served us pasta (gluten free for me) and risotto, meat and spinach, and fruit for dessert.  Or Tiramisu for the gluten-eaters.  And between the courses there were four opera singers who performed, two women and two men.  Some of the numbers were serious, some more fun.  The Barber of Seville took Jim up for a shave, face and bald head.  Lou and a man from another party were pulled up to sing along.  'Carmen' sang on the laps of several of the men.  People had a lot of fun.

Oregon Arts Orchestra - Italy Trip day 1 and 2 - Travel and Arrival inRome

We decided that we would drive the kids to Utah to be with their grandparents instead of asking the grandparents  to all come up to Oregon.  Because of that, Kip and I didn't fly with the rest of the orchestra.  We took off from Salt Lake and went through DC, with a quick visit in the airport from Wendy and Willem and their little guy.  Our flight from DC to Rome was scheduled to arrive 30 minutes after the main part of the orchestra, but it was delayed, putting us almost 3 hours behind them.  I hoped they would save us some room on the back of the tour bus for when we caught up.

When we got to the Rome Airport, we ended up choosing a shuttle to deliver us to the Piazza Navona where the main part of the orchestra was then eating lunch.  Once the driver had filled all the seats, he headed off into the city.  He was a crazy Italian driver, texting and talking on his cell phone while driving haphazardly through crowded narrow streets.  We had to periodically inform him that the light he was stopped at had changed to green.  He dropped the other two sets of passengers off first and finally pulled up to the Piazza Navona to drop us.  We hauled our luggage out of the back of his van and headed into the plaza, scanning the crowds of tourists for a familiar face.  We re relieved when we found them at a restaurant at the opposite side from where we had entered.  We pulled a table up and ordered our first meal in Italy.  It involved pizza.

After lunch we found the bus and went to the hotel, NH Leonardo di Vinci. We stashed our things in our rooms and went down to a conference room for rehearsal.  It wasn't a very pleasant rehearsal.  In spite of our efforts to sleep on the flights over, I don't think any of us were feeling rested.  We were exhausted and it showed clearly in our playing.  Cindy admitted defeat, sending us to dinner in the hotel with instructions to go to bed afterwards instead of coming back for another rehearsal.

Family reunion - July 2013

The Killpack Family Reunion was at a cabin near Manti, Utah from July 22-26. We had a ton of fun with everyone.

The cabin was way up in the mountains up a long dusty road.  We had a paper airplane contest and enjoyed launching planes from the balcony.

Everyone did a really good job.

We did a toy exchange and then got to play with some of them.

We also built and launched our own rockets.

We went to the Pioneer Day Parade in Fairview.

We got a ton of saltwater taffies.

We also visited the Manti Temple for a family photo shoot.

And went to the cemetery to see the graves of our ancestors.

It was fun spending time together and we learned a little about family history while doing it.

Travelin' in Utah July 13-17

We drove down to Idaho on Saturday July 13th. It was a good drive with stops at some nice rest areas. We joined Robin and her kids for dinner that evening. She made us yummy tator tot casserole.  We had a good time hanging put with Robin, Zach, Elizabeth and Quinn.  They have infectious laughs and find lots of things to laugh about.  Dinner was a lot of fun.

We had a yummy breakfast at Robin's in the morning and loaded the car for the drive to Kaysville.  On the way down we had a need for a potty stop.  Our only option at the time was a gas station with a label in the window welcoming us to the middle of nowhere.  It was posted pretty clearly inside that restroom were for paying guests only, so I treated the kids to ice creams that we ate sitting in the dusty parking lot.

We made it to Grammy's without any problems but not quite in time to join her for church.  Instead, we settled in and fell asleep on her sofas while the kids broke out the toys she had brought out for them.

Sunday evening I had some of my favorite high school people over for a mini reunion. Our official 20 year reunion is next month but none of us really wanted to go.  So we emailed each other and set up a reunion with some of the people we did want to see.  I made some gluten free chocolate brownies with extra chocolate chips and fresh raspberries. They were delicious.  We had me, Erin Ford Findlay, Lori Hollist Auger, and Ann Baker Romero.  It was great to just sit and talk.  I could see why these were the friends I chose to spend my time with all through high school.  I definitely think we should do more of these mini reunions!

We stayed at Grammy's until Thursday evening.  We went swimming in the swim spa pretty much every day.  We also visited a few museums.  I took the kids to the Natural History Museum at the University of Utah on Tuesday the 16th.  It was a really nice museum.  We started by climbing all the way to the fifth floor. There, you can go out on the roof and learn about weather and water conservation.  There is also a room about Native American history and current relationship with American society.  We worked our way down through geological information and archeology and then to the dinosaur exhibit.  There were a lot of kid-friendly activities and the displays were all really well done.  It was a great museum.

On Wednesday we took a hike into the mountains behind the parents' house.  We had decided it was time to spread the ashes of the dog the parents had that died just after my mission. Yes, that was 14 years ago.  Her ashes have been in a box on the fireplace since then.  On Sunday when we were waiting for the parents to return from church, Becca picked up the wooden box of dog ashes and, shaking it, asked why Grammy kept a box of rice with the kid toys on the fireplace.  We decided it was time to move the dog on.  The plan had always been to scatter the ashes on the Vita Course, or nature trail. But the boys who frequently went up there never managed to remember to take the boxed dog. So, Wednesday morning the 5 Killpacks and Grandad put on their socks and shoes and headed up the mountain.  We walked to the creek and found a shady spot by the bridge.  That was where we put Cricket's remains. Then, Kip and the kids played in the creek, building up a little dam to increase the depth of the water they were playing in.  Anna and I got mosquito bites on our legs that bugged us the rest of the trip.  And eventually we headed back down the mountainside.

On Thursday Grammy and Grandad treated us with a trip to the Treehouse children's museum in Ogden.  It's another great museum option.  There were enough things to do that we weren't able to get it all done in the two hours of free parking we had available.  The highlight was when the staff hosted play staring the kids.  It was a version of Blanca Flore.  William got to be the prince.  He did an excellent job projecting his lines just like Elizabeth Moreno taught him for the school talent show.  Anna got to be one of the 7 bandits and also did well.  Becca really wanted to be a Bandit but enjoyed the play anyway.

After the museum, Grandad took us to the union station Grill.  We had a yummy lunch and then got to look at the trains on display outside.  They had a train car that had carried the olympic torch for the winter olympics in Salt Lake in 2002.

Plumper Pumpkin Patch, Oct 10, 2012

Becca had her preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch on Wednesday. It was at Plumper Pumpkin Patch, which is the same farm we've been going to since William was in preschool at Young Learner's. I have pictures of him helping push the manual pumpkin seed planter and checking out the milking area from when the farm used to have dairy cows.

Becca and I got to the farm a little after 9:00 am. The weather was uncharacteristically perfect. I think I've been to that farm on at least 4 other field trips and I don't believe we've had good weather on any of them. This Tuesday morning the sun was shining, the weather was cool but not super cold, and everyone was ready for fun. There were a lot of people there. We found a teacher from Becca's class and learned that today's field trip was the free-range kind. We could wander wherever we liked, do a hay maze, slide on the various slides, ride the hay ride, and pick a pumpkin. Becca was strangely unenthusiastic about all of it except the part where she got to pick a pumpkin.

We met a few of her friends, but she refused to go into the hay maze with them, or smile for a picture. All she wanted was her pumpkin. I decided that maybe we should just take off and go to a card-making party I had accidentally signed up for at the same time, but before we left, I asked if she wanted to do the hay ride. This was the first thing other than the pumpkin she got excited about. She definitely wanted a hay ride.

The hay ride consisted of a tractor attached to a covered trailer with hay seats around the outside and a row along the middle. There were two tractors running. One was attached to a trailer all made of wood with a peaked wooden roof. The other had a trailer that looked like a covered wagon with similar seating arrangement but much more decoration. It had bright yellow and orange ribbons and bouquets of dried flowers. Both were doing a circuit of the farm so that each one stopped and loaded,or unloaded about every 5 minutes. The line to get one was very long. We got in with Jenny Gennings and Angelise and started our wait. Becca was a trooper! We must have stood there for at least 30 minutes but she didn't complain at all. We watched each wagon unload and load and the line shrink a little bit until finally we got our turn.

The less-decorated wagon took us on our loop. We went around the barn and stopped by the Christmas trees. The driver told us about the three kinds--Douglas firs with their needles growing all around the branches, Grand firs with needles on opposite sides of the branch, and Noble firs with needles pointing up. He told us about the train hundreds of feet below the farm in an underground tunnel and how the farm got electricity before anyone else in the area because the train had it in the tunnel and gave it to the farm for the right to go under their land. I've heard it enough times, I could almost give the speech. Then we went up to the pumpkin shooters. They showed us the trebuchets and the air cannons and the slingshots for people to shoot little pumpkins at UofO and OSU signs. Then we went down the hill, past the field where we could get our free pumpkin (not really free because we paid $6 each to come), and back to the drop-off. We hopped off the wagon and headed to pick out our pumpkins. There were a lot of nice looking pumpkins of varying sizes. None were huge, of course, because this was the lot of complimentary pumpkins, but there were some that Becca couldn't pick up easily. We found a few that I liked a lot, two bigger ones, and I thought we were done. But Becca changed her mind. She decided she wanted something different. Instead of the plump, round, medium-sized, regular-looking pumpkin, she wanted something unique. She chose a small, oddly shaped little one with a lot of character. I thought it was pretty cool. She drew a face on with her markers. We'll go over it with sharpies and I think it will be perfect!

Maui, Sept 28, 2012

Today's adventure started with a drive to Ahihi bay.  This is at the far south of Maui among the lava fields. The landscape down there is amazing--fields and fields of crusty black lava rocks and scattered vegetation.  There were some black lava goats grazing on the scattered vegetation.  I read that they were brought here by farmers but have run wild causing untold harm to the environment.  I was impressed they could survive the lava fields.  Those animals are tough.

We found our parking lot for the best snorkel bay the Killpack way by driving past it while saying something like 'we're looking for a dirt parking lot a lot like that one'. Then we had to turn around as the road got considerably more narrow (when it was already narrow to begin with) and unpaved. Luckily, our little red rental Jeep has a great turn radius.  (And a lot of head room for a tall driver. Kip is thinking it might be time to retire the '95 Sentra and buy something headier.) We got back to the parking lot, which is kind of dirt spread over lava rock.  I appreciated my fancy yet sturdy new croc sandals as we crunched across it, only slipping off their slight heal a few times. The walk to the bay was over lava rock that had been crunched under the feet of thousands of tourists and local surfers and snorkelers.  In some places it was fairly smooth, in others it was quite rough.

The bay was in two sections.  In the first, the waves were mild and people were snorkeling.  In the second, the waves were boisterous and people were surfing.  We walked out about 2/3rds of the way into the first section and looked a little lost.  The shore was made of sharp black lava rocks.  Where were we supposed to enter the water?  A nice looking local man probably in his mid 40's pointed it out to us.  He showed us the slightly-less-sharp-and-pointy area where you can walk into the water and put your fins on.  He also pointed out where the best fish could be seen and said that he takes his kids there and they enjoy it.  I wasn't sure if he wasn't also suggesting that if his young children could do this, we were lame mainland wimps to be just trying it out for the first time as old as we were.  In any case, his help was appreciated and we took off our shoes and headed to shore.

I think it's important to mention at this time that my feet are very sensitive.  They are used to soft carpet and smooth linoleum and even then usually cocooned in a fluffy-lined slipper with custom orthotic inserted.  Walking on the concrete sidewalk barefoot is torture for them, although I have to say that whoever came up with the crazy, rock-heavy concrete of our neighborhood sidewalks was a loony.  I mean, sidewalk chalk is useless on that rough stuff.  Where's the fun in that?  But the beach sand mixed with lava rock of Ahihi was a particular type of torture for my foot bottoms.  I hobbled out into the waves like a wounded animal, no doubt to the amusement of all the visitors at the bay that day.

In the water I faced the next struggle: not getting crashed up the beach by the waves while struggling into my snorkel mask and flippers.  I am certain that this again was a source of great amusement to onlookers.  The challenge of the endeavor was only heightened by the fact that my hair kept getting stuck in my mask and said mask kept fogging up. The ultimate struggle eventually was conquered and Kip and I managed to stick our faces in the water and breathe through our snorkel tubes.

We paddled for a little and suddenly came upon what people go snorkeling to see--a coral reef!  There were fish, yellow little ones (yellow tangs?) and bigger black ones with a white or blue line outlining their bodies.  There were fancy coral structures and strange foggy voids.  I think I saw a starfish once, and I know I saw pokey anemone-things.  At one point I saw a little yellow fish chasing a zebra-striped fish.  It was really neat and definitely better with the corrective-lensed snorkel mask.  That was a fine development by the snorkeling world.  And it also helped that Kip was a master at unfogging my mask.

My body, I have discovered, is built in such a way that floating is quite easy.  If I lay on my back in water, I can float almost indefinitely.  Even my knees and feet are buoyant, bobbing up to the surface and poking out of the water.  On my belly, it turns out that it is pretty much the same.  I could float with my snorkel mask in the water staring at the fish forever with hardly any effort at staying on the surface.  The effort is in fighting the current to keep from getting too far out to sea or too close in to shore.  Kip isn't the same.  He has that type of body that gravity drags toward the sea floor.  He can float, but his legs get pulled constantly down.  I feel pretty lucky.

Unfortunately, as we were swimming, the large cups of water I drank over the course of the morning made their way through my system.  I remember once on a family trip to Florida being in the ocean when Anna realized she needed to pee.  Our rental house was two blocks away and we had only just gotten to the beach for the morning.  In spite of our assurances that it was OK to pee in the ocean, she just couldn't do it and one of us was forced eventually to take her home.  I felt like Anna this morning.  Logically, I knew it was OK, but years of training to ONLY pee in potties left me trapped.

Kip and I were both tired at this point and had had a good swim, so we headed back to the shore. As we neared the beach, I considered keeping my flippers on to avoid the torture of walking on the rocky sand again, but the waves were too strong and after falling onto my hands and knees, I gave up and pulled off the flippers.  I found a mildly painful place to wait and Kip got me my shoes.  By this point I really needed a potty.  I ditched Kip and trekked back to the parking lot where I knew there were two lovely though well-used port-a-potties at my disposal.  I hadn't realized how long the trek was until taking it at breakneck walking speed back.  The little heals on my sandals kept slipping out from under my hurrying feet, but I didn't care to slow down.

I finally came in site of the parking lot only to realize that there was a port-a-potty cleaning truck parked at the potties giving each one a deep cleaning.  I laughed ironically and crossed my legs and waited.  I did a little dancing.  It was awkward since there were people sitting in the cars parked on either side of our Jeep.  If they hadn't been there I might have been tempted to use the Jeep as a shield and just go for it.  As Kip started approaching from the beach, I couldn't take it anymore and headed to the potties.  The potty-cleaner saw me and stepped to the side saying something about having cleaned them out just for me.  I thanked him heartily and went inside.  He said something about making sure of locking my door that I didn't understand.  I mean, who wouldn't lock the port-a-potty door, especially with a cleaning guy in the stall next door?  But I must say, if you have to use a port-a-potty, a freshly cleaned one really is a treat.  I don't know how they do it, but it smelled like mint and sparkled.

Once that was out of the way, we were able to get back on the narrow road and head back up to Wailea and our cozy condo.  We had a relaxing lunch there and then spent the afternoon at the Maui Ocean Center, where we got to see all sorts of fish and coral from behind glass windows.  It was definitely less effort, but I'm glad we did the snorkeling and saw them in their natural environment.  It was neat to be a part of it and not just watching fish someone put in a display for us to observe.

Of course, we didn't see nearly as much variety in our little swim.  There were turtles, all sorts of fish, and even sharks and rays at the aquarium.

We happened upon feeding time at the shark and ray tank.  They had some divers come in and give the rays treats.  They then swam around with their bellies to the glass sucking the fish into their mouths.  The female ray was gigantic!  After giving the treats, the divers got out and dropped in the main feeding of fish.  The sharks and other big fish swam around in circles selecting their foods.  There wasn't a feeding frenzy.  Everything was pretty calm.  But it was interesting to watch.

One of the bonuses from our rental car company was a free item coupon for the aquarium gift shop.  We weren't sure if we had to purchase something to earn it.  There had also been Hilo Hatties coupons for us but you had to spend a certain amount in the store for your free gift.  There, you got a t-shirt.  It wasn't fancy, but there were several choices and they weren't bad.  So we chose a couple souvenirs from the aquarium gift shop and turned in our coupons.  It turned out the free item there was a luggage tag in the shape of assorted sea animals.  Not terribly exciting, but we chose one each and called it good.

Snorkel and Luau, Sept 27, 2012

Today we went snorkeling.  It was my first time ever and I was a little nervous.  We went to Polo Beach and walked out into the surf.  We'd managed to find snorkel masks that had corrective lenses, so we were set for a good session.  We pulled on our masks and flippers and floated out.  The idea is to just stick your face into the water and look down, but whenever I felt the water over my mouth and tried to force myself to breathe I would panic.  I knew my mouth was under water and if I breathed in I would fill my lungs with salty sea-water.  I contemplated calling it quits and just hitting the beach with my Bill Bryson travel book, but I wanted to push through.  'I am in a glass bubble filled with air,' I told myself, and put my face down and forced myself to breathe through my mouth.  And I finally got it.  I could breathe with my face in the water!  And I could see!  Unfortunately, all there was to see at that particular spot was sandy water.  We found one place where there were some rocks and little fishes, but it was pretty small.  There were black lava rocks on either side of the beach, but I was nervous to head over there because of the surf.  The waves were pretty strong and I could just imagine being dashed into sharp unfriendly black rocks while trying to look at the fish through my prescription goggles. Kip wanted to play in the waves, but I get dizzy from the up and down of it all, so I headed to the beach.  It was a hotel beach with hotel-owned lounge chairs that I technically couldn't use.  I didn't feel too restrained.  I found a vacant lounger and asked the lady next to it if I could sit there.  She was fine with it.  Plus, our white beach towels almost matched the hotel-issue ones the residents all had.  I didn't feel too conspicuous.  I got some good reading done and Kip tried to perfect the art of body-surfing without a board.  He did pretty well--maybe it helps to have a long body.

Tonight, we had our luau at the Grand Wailea.  We got there a little late, but had reserved front seating and were in the second row at the front of the table.  It wasn't bad.  Our table had a couple from Vancouver BC, Seattle, Brazil, and a mom and daughter from here.  Everyone was very friendly.  I think when you visit, you must temporarily adopt the Hawaiian friendliness.  We all introduced ourselves and talked about why we were here. We took pictures for each other.  It was fun. The food was pretty good, but after finishing the buffet, I was hit with a migraine.  Was there something in the food?  It just seemed odd to hit so fast after a pretty relaxing day.  I took excedrine and watched the show.

I thought the show was pretty good.  The dancers are so smooth.  Their hips and feet move and their upper bodies stay almost motionless.  It looks pretty cool.

There was a rain goddess who did a dance on ribbons.  I'm not sure that's traditionally Hawaiian.  But it was very neat.

The best of course was the fire dancer at the end of the show.  He was amazing, throwing his fire stick all around.

Although the boy dancers doing the sit-on-fire dance were pretty funny, if not quite as impressive.

We ended the night with a group photo for Casey, the local girl there with her mom.  Kip and I get to email it to her because her phone camera didn't do a good job of it, so we took it with our camera.  I guess we made a friend in Maui!

Traveling in Hawaii, Sept 26, 2012

In honor of the fact thatwe're traveling and this blog was originally created to chronicle our travels, I thought I'd post some of my journalings from our current Maui trip. I'll add pictures later since we don't have the connector to get them from our fancy new camera onto my iPad. We're in Hawaii!  Wailea, Maui. I had a tough night.  I didn't put on enough sunblock yesterday and managed to burn.  My right shoulder is the worst.  Then there's a bright red V down my chest.  There's some blotchy paler areas from where I did manage to put some sunblock on in the middle of my chest, but some areas are definitely red, hot, and burned. In honor of my weakened physical state, Kip and I opted to hang at the condo for most of the day.  It's a pretty posh place to hang.  It's got a direct view over the rest of the neighborhood to the ocean.  Sunsets are amazing from the lanai (what the rest of the world would call a balcony of course).

The interior is very modern/island/comfortable.  Everything is recently totally remodeled and in pretty  close to perfect shape.  The bathroom is a work of art.  In fact, there is so much art on the walls that Kip and I let ourselves wander into an art shop in Lahaina. We both fell in love with a giant poppies painting that would have cost us $7k for an artists edition. Funny. So hang out we did.  Kip made us mexican omlettes with the leftovers from our first night here (last Saturday). They were good.  We played a little Milles Bournes. I cheated so I could win handily.  Oops.  I didn't mean to. Kip made his special jalepeno poppers on the lanai grill. He dropped one down on our neighbors porch and they had a good laugh when he went down to clean it up.

We had to be in Makena at 3:45 to catch a boat for the sunset sail we had scheduled. The weather had High Surf alerts, which made seasickness a concern since motion sickness in our family isn't entirely limited to Becca.  But we gave it a go. The boat sails from a super fancy hotel and golf course.  There was supposed to be free parking somewhere, but we stumbled on the valet option first and went with that.  The friendly valet gave us directions to the launch site and took off with our red jeep. (Anytime you see a jeep in Hawaii you know it is a rental.) We walked through the hotel and manicured gardens down to the beach.  There we found a little hut selling drinks, renting snokle gear, and offering expeditions to swim with turtles or the like.  A super-friendly girl behind the counter told us we were in the right place.  

Watching her greet all the people, I realized something about people in the tourism business in Hawaii.  They are extroverts.  They greet everyone like they just met one of their best friends.  Well, actually I realized later that some of the people on this particular cruise really were tour-guide-Amy's best friends.  But either way, the general feeling we've gotten from people here is one of immediate friendship.  Take the girl who rented us our snorkel gear yesterday.  We learned all about her and her 4 kids and her honeymoon in Vegas (a real one, not the show).  And we told her all about us and our kids and this being our tenth anniversary trip.  She drove by on her way home while we were eating pizza next door and we smiled big and gave each other a friendly wave.  And we really meant it.  It wasn't just, oh, she saw me looking, I'd better wave.  It was, hey, she is my friend now.  I'm glad to see her again.

So, sunset sail hostess Amy totally fit the friendly persona I've come to expect here.  She stole all our shoes (it was a barefoot cruise, of course) and met us down on the beach when everyone had been checked in.  The boat pulled as close to the shore as possible and had two fold-down staircases for us to run up onto the deck.  The choppy waves from the high surf came crashing under the boat right at the foot of the stairs.  Amy stood there holding the railing and told us when to run for it between the big ones.  Kip and I got on pretty quick and didn't get too wet.  When we were all on, Amy and the friendly bartender guy from NY/Houston pulled up the stairs.  We had a little safety talk in the cabin and were let loose.

The boat was a rectangle with big pontoons on either side and a deck all around the outside. The deck surrounded the step-down cabin with seating and The Bar.  The free alcohol was quite the hit with most of the crowd.  There were probably 20-30 of us on board and it was very comfortable.  Not overcrowded.  The crew said it was less bumpy at the back of the boat, so when they set us loose, Kip and I got sprites (wahoo--free drinks Mormon style!) and went back there.  My drink went down OK and my stomach felt good, so we moved to the very front and sat on the deck (there weren't many seats outside of the cabin) with our feet in the nets between the pontoons and the stairs.  It was a bouncy ride, but we both enjoyed it.  Every now and then a wave would smash into the boat and splash us.  I was glad I wore my swim suit.

Eventually the crew put the sail up and appetizers were brought out.  We moved to seats against the cabin windows when everyone rushed the food and talked with the barman for a while.  Down in the cabin I snatched the last shrimp (sorry, Kip!) and made a plate full of veggies, fruits, and cheese and sat down to eat.  We got into a conversation with some of the passengers and learned how Amy really was already friends with them and that this was by far the best sunset sail in Maui and that some local music celebrity was singing at a nearby Irish pub that night.  Then, the seasickness hit me.  It must have been that last piece of cheese.  It was perr-jack and I was expecting something mild and creamy. I headed out to the back of the boat and thought about asking for some of the natural seasickness remedies the captain had mentioned during the safety breifing.  It was just coming into sunset time and the captain stopped the boat so the back right side, where I was holding in my stomach was facing the view.  

My quiet area was suddenly invaded by 20+ people in varying stages of sobriety carrying foul-smelling alcoholic beverages that make me nauseous on the best of days.  Things got pretty tense.  I wasn't sure I would make it.  Luckily, I did, but I have to say I have a new appreciation for Becca and her carsickness after tonight.  After the sunset event finished, we got our disembarkment instructions and headed for the shore.  Again, Amy held the railing and the waves crashed under the boat.  I ran down and broke the rule about not jumping off the bottom because I couldn't see the last step.  I didn't bonk my head and I was thrilled to feel solid ground under my feet. So now we're home.  Kip's asleep on the couch and I've spent far too long writing about this.  I think it's time for another layer of aloe vera on my flaming red sunburn and bed.

Anna's Birthday, pt 2

Anna officially turned 6 on August 7, 2011. Here she is on her birthday throne before tearing into her presents.

And here she is with her birthday gifts. She has spent hours playing with the shrinky dinks and the magnetic dolls. It was a great year for presents!

Anna's 6th Birthday! pt 1

The first part of Anna's 6th birthday celebration happened a day early. We took her on August 6th to Out of This World Pizza in Hillsboro with her 2 best friends, Lily and Tristan. We ate pizza and had cake and the kids had a ton of fun running around on the play equipment.

Here's the whole crew after devouring some cake. Tristan's in the front, then Anna, and Lily behind her. Elizabeth is in the back behind William. She's Lily's big sister and William's good friend. Becca's got cakey face, of course.

Lily, Anna, and Kip were having lots of fun!

Pioneer Day, July24, 2011

Our stake did a Pioneer Day celebration at a local farm. There was lots of good, pioneer-style food. Oh, and shaved ice. I'm not sure pioneers had that. But we enjoyed it.

The kids did a pioneer parade. William joined, even though he'd chosen not to wear pioneer clothes. He was Anna's moral support. The marched around the barn at least 10 times.

Thank goodness for lots of water!

Becca was a super cute pioneer with her daddy!