Recently, I've been thinking of what I want for Christmas. Not that it matters a whole bunch, I can honestly say that having our family close by of visiting is the best gift ever. So, yeah! we had them here for the reunion, that was memories for a life time.
So, here at Christmas time, I am sharing some recap of our family visiting during the reunion and some of our visits this year.



In a month, our oldest grandchild, Christian will be 12 years old. That is awesome. Hopefully we can travel to help celebrate his birthday and when he receives the priesthood. Imagine, he'll be a deacon. That is awesome. He's a great example for his siblings and cousins to follow.


Our daughters posed for this photo during the reunion. Jo and I are so proud of them and their families. They are awesome daughters, spouses, moms, and sisters.

Part of the fun of taking pictures is making faces. This is a good example of that, making faces.
Perhaps it was the trip to the Bean Museum to see the wild animals collection. We got to add to the collection here.


An outdoor activity was just tempting enough for the kids to pile on dad. So, Mark got the rough end of the pile on.











Our #20 grandchild Evelyn shows her bright face here.


Visiting Dan & Nikki just after little Ruth was born was a fun time, especially with her siblings. They made up for making our time worthwhile.



Here's baby "R" giving us her undivided attention. She's a doll.


Ipo holds on to her toy as a sign that "don't mess with my stuff" kind of look. Since all the kids are gone, there's no one to play with, so this is keeping herself occupied.



This is our annual Christmas photo to you all. Thanks to Erin for making it possible. Enjoy all.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Time To Catch Up, It's Almost Christmas!

Whoa!! It's almost Christmas and I haven't posted anything in a long time. I guess, time flies when you're having fun. Well the word fun is debatable. Anyway, we've had some significant things to share in this blog about the past several months. For one thing, I'm happy we were able to have our family reunion of most of our children and their families here in August. It was awesome, but the best part was seeing the siblings and children interact with each other. What a wonderful memory it was to see them play together, talk together, help each other out, and have fun together. That reunion, made our year. I am grateful to each of our children who were able to attend and their spouses for making the reunion possible. Each of our grandchildren at the time, showed me why they are special. They possess the traits and talents of precious spirits, come from the presence of God, to make our lives a blessing. They represent the genetic, spiritual, social, and intellectual makeup of the generations before them. They are the rising generation and they are awesome. Without going into detail of how each one, (Twenty at the time of the reunion), these grandchildren are awesome and wonderful.

Now that we are back in our home ward, the pace of things are pretty slow. It's different now being involved with the planning, preparations and other things involved with the various activities held in the ward. On Sundays, we usually sit with Mark and Erin and their family. I've been wanting to move to retirement row (area in the overflow area of the chapel) but Jo prefers to sit with Erin up close to the middle front. I've even suggested we sit further in the rear to give us a different perspective of the meeting, but Jo can't see or hear as well back there. Not that I'm wanting to disassociate ourselves with the wonderful 3rd Warders, but sitting in different places of the chapel and cultural hall can be a new enlightening experience. I have a home teaching assignment in the ward, Jo is serving in Family History, or "searching for dead people" in the ward besides visiting teaching. I guess with time like this on my hands, I should choose to be more productive. I'm waiting for the revelations.

Our second daughter had her second daughter almost a month ago. Jo and Ipo travelled to CA to help out with the family, the week before Thanksgiving

Week. I survived with my own cooking and a few meals up the street at Erin's diner. Then on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, I flew to CA to join Jo there. What a blast, with the grandkids. Had a great time getting to know them closer. My two little buddies, the twins were very cautious with Papa at first. I found their weakness, fresh sweet grapes. So, I washed them, cut them in half and piled them on their highchair trays. Love them little guys. I learned to play the card game fish with the older ones. They are aggressive in that game. Had a great time viewing the drawings of Gabby. She is creative and great with her drawings. She's an artist in the making. I got to see how talented they are on the computer games, the learning ones. They each showed their savy and knowledge of the game and great comprehension. They only one I didn't spend much time with was new baby "r". She was well being tended to by her mom.

Jo and I checked out the local shop

ping areas and remembered why we loved the central coast area. It was hard to leave the family but we had to get back to Happy Valley. The one thing we did enjoy was missing the hugh snow storm of Thanksgiving week and the cold. So on our way back, we had to take a slower pace to get home safely. That did requi

re a stopover for the night in Las Vegas. It's amazing how cheap or inexpensive it was to stay there. We got home with now accidents or major problems. We had run out of space in the trunk of our car with our luggage and stuff that we bought to bring back, like CA oranges fresh from the grove, artichokes, grapes, and other stuff. We never fail to frequent the commisaries, or BX. Anyway, having to catchup with work, end of semester at the Y, and now finals week at the Y, there is still lots to do.

Why I Love A Good Family Reunion !!!

We held our family reunion last week and are in recuperating mode right now. Was it worth it? "Heck Yeah!!" Did I enjoy it? "You better believe it!" Would you do it again? "Darn Right, am open for suggestions when to do it again, and where to hold it?"

What did you enjoy most? Was there any special moments? "Hey! Just watch the clip of the Tahitian dancing by the young wahine cousins!" The young cousins really got things going during the family luau. With just a short amount of training from our island connection, Rachel, those young wahines really could shake'um.

The five cousins plus one auntie put on a show for the crowd. We even had a dance off or shake'um competition with the kane of boy cousins participating. "It was all good."

At the reunion, we had four of our five children and their families attend. Luckily, we had enough housing locally to put up all the out of towners. Having Sunday dinner together was a bit of an experience with everyone at our home. No one complained, the dog did her bit to help out, and there was lots of hands to help with the cleanup.

Was there any special things to remember aside from the "Tahitian dancing?" Like what? "The older boy cousins hung out alot, the girl cousins got along really well, they all liked being together because they're cousins. The uncle and aunties treated all the kids well, their own included. Later, the uncle and aunties played games, went to the movies after the kids were asleep, grandpa watched them, and had a fun time. When you have 18 grandchildren, first rule established by Grandma, the mommies and daddies were responsible to clean up their little ones, including nasty diapers. Hey, we had our turn doing that! The activities were cheap or free, like going to the swimming pool to cool off, or to Thanksgiving point for $2 Tuesdays, a museum trip at BYU campus, and a day trip up the canyon. One thing we didn't do well was take a group family photo. Nothing wrong with the camera stuff but the timing was just before dinner, the afternoon sun, and being hungry like Hungry Hungry Hippos! Again, it was all good!"

There were some other highlights like bringing each family to BYU to see Grandmas co-workers and brag about the grandchildren. There was even making a church statement, that we can occupy more than one row of church pews during Sacrament Meeting.

While looking through some older family photos, I notice that Ruby looks alot like Erin at a similar age, so does Gabby looking a lot like Nikki at a similar age. The same goes for Wyatt looking like Rachel and Anna looking like Leslie but without curly hair. Of course, my granddaughter Klai look darker than Grandpa because she's been in the sun more.

We were joined in our reunion by Uncle Dick and Aunt Joan and cousin Jarom and our dear friends the Funns. We had a blast, making lasting memories. Special thanks to our sons-inlaws, Troy, Dan, Mark, and Jase for bringing their families to happy valley this past week and a half. Also special thanks to Leslie, our program director/planner, Erin for the chicken long rice and taking the family portrait photos and scheduling the swimming activity. Special thanks to Rachel for the Halau O hula shakem up style training and #20 moopuna, and to Nikki for #'s 18 and 19 and soon #21. We love the little ones. We did miss Jesse and Amy and the boy, out on the east coast. We were all thinking of you all. Mahalo, to all.

What "dog days of summer" ???

A good recipe for "dog heaven" is bring in 18 grandchildren to a family reunion and giving the family dog "carte blanche" near and around the dinner table and kitchen. It must have been an easy way to clean up the food messes but not always is a good thing, a control thing. Her best buddies are Squadge and Taters. Of course, Wyatt and Ruby she likes. Then there was Emily and Anna always giving her a doggie bone, and who can forget those wonderful little people for leaving the front door open to let her scamper out the the neighbors and have to be bribed with a treat to get back in the house. Wow, she says, this is too easy.

After nearly a week of unsuspecting grandchildren seeing their food and snacks disappear before their noses, the family dog was again found pilfering the food right out of the hands of the wee little ones. As seen last evening at an outdoor cookout at Erin's back yard, the family dog was going from kid to kid and making easy pickings off Ruby, Shae, Wyatt, Teddy, etc.

Starting tomorrow, the family dog is being returned to her normal diet, no people food, and probably have to attend therapy, missing the kids. Things will return to normal in the household, they'll be just the three of us, but an occassional grandchild or two or three to watch the Disney channel, etc.

"Recalculating!"

Some time ago when all our young-uns were still at home, I'd make a statement, expecting to be believed as "the word", there would be an echo, something like "not???" with the inflextion of a negatory question. Even before that time, our kids would always question us on numerous matters, even so that on one summer trip, my wife and I appointed our eldest daughter to be the "answer lady" for all questions. She had a gift, and probably still has it to this day for coming to the rescue and providing authoritative answers to questions posed by family members. I'd dare say she could give wikipedia a good run for their money and be just as believeable.

Anyway, the point taken here is that now with all the young-uns on their own with their own families, my wife and I have had great difficulty finding a good destination for a summer trip, or road trip, lest making preparations, getting ready for the road, housing the family pet, etc. Our previous commitment to stay in town, aka ecclesiastical callings/assignment, now completed, it made for good reason to hit the road. So in preparation, we have the checklist which includes all things necessary, such as, getting the car checked out, tire rotation, gas fill up, oil change, packing and loading the car. Then there are the more important things, like road trip survival gear that includes, audio books, camera gear, laptop, GPS (my lady), cell phone chargers, nutritional supplements (ice chest, paper products including TP, water, caffenated drinks aka Pepsi & Mt. Dew, Keebler Dark Chocalate and Almond cookies, Teriyaki Beef Jerky, chips, nuts, cheese sticks, etc.) So, after all the essentials are packed, we drop the pet off at Erin's boardomg kennel with detailed instructions how to take care of the pet. We make one last pit stop before hitting the road, house is secured, alarm set, thermostadt set, lights turned off, and then we remember to stop the mail and newspaper. So a quick after hours call to the local USPS, and we arrange for the newpaper to be picked up, we are off.

Since we are making a late departure, we'll wing it on the trip. We have a tentative idea how far we will travel and stop for the night. Lucky we got a GPS, who guideth our every move. I'm begining to get annoyed when it says "recalculating" in a very annoying english voice. All through the trip, you make a slight detour here or there and the response is "recalculating." There's only one thing to do here, "MUTE" the GPS voice!

So, our reason to get on the road was the State holiday, recognizing early pioneer journey to the mountain west, or Pioneer Day. It's a recognized State holiday, celebrated with all kinds of festivities including local parades, rodeo, fireworks, lots of camping out, and other celebrations. If you live in the state and you want to go camping to a nearby spot, you'd have better made them reservations back in Christmas, that's how serious we take this celebration.

The pioneers journey started on the banks of the Mississippi River and culminated in what is today, Salt Lake City with the prophetic statement made by Brigham Young, "This Is The Place!" I guess they had a better equivalent to the modern GPS that didn't say "Recalculating!"

So, like a modern pioneer, we hit the interstate, headed west, stopped in Elko, NV and went to Carson City, NV. From there we journeyed down to Yosemite National Park, CA and back to Lake Tahoe and on the Yerington to see family. On the way out, can't resist stopping at a military installation, Fallon Naval Air Station, NV. After the kind and simpathetic Marine allowed us on base, we got gas and snacks, and hit the road heading back to "this is the place" again with the annoying GPS lady repeating "Recalculating!" over and over again.

Once safely home, you check out the homestead and find that your garden is overwhelmed with humongous (sp) zucchinis. Should have told Erin to pick them while we were away.

Anyway, we're glad we went on the road trip. We visited the scenic Humbolt National Forest and Lamoille Glacier (outside Elko, NV). We visited Yosemite National Park and entered from the East side (Lee Vining entrance area), and of course, Yosemite is one of our favorites. We got to see Mono Lake at Sunset, and found the two Wal Marts and one Costco in Carson City NV. We also found that Yerington, though it is in the dessert, is fairly green with farming fields and livestock. As for Fallon NAS, those sailors and marines are always addressing you as "Sir." Oh by the way, I wouldn't recommend that Quality Inn motel on North Carson Ave. Their housekeeping needs more OJT.

Well, glad we're back, now it's time to get ready for our family reunion.

Whats Not To Celebrate? It's The 4th of July! Soooo???

I love fireworks, starburst and bombs bursting in air. I'm patriotic, I'm proud to be an American, and I love our country. Also, I do enjoy a good reason to BBQ and then some. Here in Happy Valley, its a big deal, to celebrate the 4th of July. I love parades, patriotic ones, how about a good hot air balloon liftoff, or even the fireworks. Thats part of the celebration.





Our little town of PG had its own fireworks display and it was great. Only had to go down the street from our home, bring a lawn chair, park it in front of a neighbor's driveway and instant great seating. Great neighbors share their front driveway for the fireworks display. I setup my camera for some time exposure shots, got a great view, and just had to put up with onlookers or those arriving late driving up and down the street, with lights on of course. Hey, next year, we're blocking the road so no through traffic.





Love them fireworks. Can't wait for more. Enjoyed a great show, and so did many others.


I'm grateful for being an American, our way of life, our freedom to be Americans, and so on. Sunday meetings were up lifting, very spiritual. Others felt and expressed their testimonies with such wonderful spirit and deep feelings for our country.





Got up early to catch the balloon lift off in Provo. It was a fun event and I always enjoy the balloons. One day, I hope to catch a ride on one and take my camera to record the view.


Started to get warm for the parade, so I came home and caught up with putting my flag out for display. I love doing stuff like that.

While we enjoyed the holiday, there was a lot to catchup with and little time to do them. I was adjusting a couple of sprinkler heads in the yard and accidently broke one off. Got met with a sudden burst of water shooting straight up in the air and on me. It took me a while to shut off the water first and then try to fix the sprinkler head. In the end, I have that zone shut off and will replace the head completely.





On the bright side, most of the garden is planted and just one or two more projects to finish up. I'm going to add another Square Foot Garden grow box on the terrace for more stuff to plant and finish off planting two more rows in the garden. If all goes well, we should be buried in vegies by the end of August.





Speaking of celebrating the Independence Day, yesterday, our neighbor, Doug, was sworn in and got his American citizenship. Congrats. It's a big deal and I'm glad he realizes it. Most people take it for granted and don't appreciate the significance of their citizenship. If you've lived out of the US for a period of time, you get the message real quick.










Well, we're gearing up for our ohana reunion or get together in a month. Yes, we are a month away from kick off. Jo and I are looking forward to seeing as many of our grandchildren together in one spot. If all goes well, we will have 18 out of the 20 here in PG. That ought to be a sight. Looking forward to all the fun to be enjoyed. We are going to take some family photos and will have to Photoshop those who are missing into the picture.

Sometimes Even Your Parents Read FB!

It's amazing how technology is always upgrading and improving. Electronics are getting tiny tiny by the minute. Well, I don't think that we are so far behind the technology curve as some people might think.

If it has a keyboard, we liken it to a manual typewriter. If the keyboard is comfortable and slanted like a typewriter, we like it. If its flat or less than a full size, we have challenges. Heaven forbid, trying to type or text with those little tiny tiny keyboards that seem to slide out on a cell phone. It least that has more promise than tying to text using a numeric keypad of older cell phones.

Well, I frequent FB just about daily to keep up with people we know and whats happening in their lives. Its more interesting when it's from one of our children or their spouses.

On Monday, I answered an email from our youngest about what the current gas prices were. Not thinking and just answering her questions, I gave quotes from the local pumps here in Happy Valley. Seemed normal, since they are planning to travel to the mainland at the end of next month for family visits. Little preparation never is a waste on such matter as car rentals and gas prices.

Then the next day, my wife spied a comment on FB about if our youngest was going to attend her HS Reunion. Earlier comments were the great expense of airfares but as she read more comments, it was highly likely that our youngest was going to travel to the Mountain West to attend such HS Reunion.

The neat thing about FB is that you can get related comments or post from others say such as our son in-law. Yeah, his was more of a confirmation that they were indeed flying over. By then, other friends of our youngest innocently confirmed their meeting at the HS Reunion. Ah Hah!

So, we do the domestically proper thing, we call on the telephone, but no answers and try again and again. Same result. Then my wife decides to make an official inquiry by emailing our youngest. In polite surprise that we deducted the coniving plan of surprise, she admits to their travel plans. See, your secret is out on FB.

We are pleasantly happy for their travels, we get to see our #20 grandchild, and wow, how blessed we are. Oh yeah, the photo is compliments of our son inlaw using his new Apple iPhone 4 that he got in line at 2 or 3 AM in the morning in Las Vegas to get it. Neat or cool phone. He demonstrated some cool things that it does.

So in conclusion, if you don't want your parents to find out you plans or secrets, don't discuss it on FB even if it is a way of sharing the news.

We Have Been Assimilated, "Resistance Is Futile"

Today was the first official day back in our home ward after over 5 and 2/3 years serving in the 8th Stake. Wow, lots of older people, large, large Primary, lots of teens, and we know less than half of them.

We've had lots of great memories and experience, just awesome young families there. We had a great blessing of working with other awesome couples from "feeder" Stakes in the area. They too will be missed.

Well, today was "Fathers Day" and we celebrated it with our ohana here in PG. Erin and Mark did a super BBQ, Jarom provided some ukulele lessons and entertainment, the grand children were delightful, and Bubba got a hose bath out in the yard. I think he above all enjoyed the cool water bath.

Of course, this is PG in June, warm weather has finally arrived. The dessert of root beer floats or sundaes were awesome. Hit the spot.

Got some of my garden put in yesterday. The weather this spring has been mostly cold and rainy. Hope the garden will catch up before the fall sets in.

We are planning our PG Family Reunion on August 9, 10, 11. We hope to have as many of our children and their families be here for that event. We will make the most of it during that time. It will be great to have as many of the grandchildren here. Can't wait.

For a catch up on the past couple of months since the last post, Jo recently had a hand operation and is still wearing a cast/splint. Trying to do things with only one hand is a challenge. We've been busy at work and church. That changed last week when I was released. All good things do come to an end, at least for now.

I will try to be more diligent in updating the blog frequently. You all have a great day. Bye for now.

Spring Starts Tomorrow, Goodbye Winter

This is Ipo, our doggy. She has the run of the house and yard, and if she happens to slip out the front door, or garage, or yard, then the neighborhood is her domain. We resort to a reliable and proven method to get her back to the house, bribery. She know how to play the game, and she's very good at it. Above all, we know who rules in our home.

Now for more less important things in life, and Ipo could care less, let me proceed.

You ever notice how time moves so slowly until you don't want it to move at all? You all probably suffered as much as we do with daylight savings time. Yeah! We never seem to adjust to it for a couple of weeks.

Since the beginning of the year, winter has taken it's toll on us. You're cold all the time, you boost the thermostat a few degrees in the home, you boost it in the car while driving, you even turn on the bum warmer in the car seats if you have them, just so you can feel the warmth.

So when spring comes, you start to appreciate the longer daylight, warmer temperatures until July and August, and you realize the grass is turning from brown to green and starting to look shaggy. Whatever your plans were, now you have to start to plan to cut the lawn, water, fertilize, and if you're realistic, pick up the winter dog poop, prune the fruit trees and start the gardening.

With spring, comes the dreaded allergies. For the most part, I don't suffer from the pollen, dust, house mites, etc. Just from the yard and garden work. Our doggy is affected by the grass. Strange but true, it affects

her paws. Maybe the solution is to put some shoes or boots on her.

There's just no end to spring time work.

I "STOP" for local food!

So this month, we're taking the much relaxed approach. Valentines has come and gone, not a bad celebration, just kept it low keyed. We've got a few family birthdays to celebrate and also and anniversary, ok two of them, our youngest daughter's and or own (37th wedding).

Anyway, the point of this post is to say that anytime I come across some information about a new eatery of local (Hawaiian foods), I stop, and take note. I was reading the newspaper the other day and came across an article about a "poke" contest held recently. It was there that I found two local kine food eateries because they happen to be the judges of the contest. It renewd my interest in local food places. Add that to the less than handful I know about along the Wasatch front, I feel like I'm almost in luau land.

Hawaiian poke (seasoned raw fish)
1 pound Ahi tuna
1 teaspoon Hawaiian salt or sea salt
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, roasted
1 tablespoon small dried shrimp
1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 small onion, sliced into slivers
Cut tuna into 3/4-inch cubes and place in a bowl. Sprinkle with salt, sesame seeds, dried shrimp and red pepper flakes. Using your hand, toss gently.
In another bowl, mix soy sauce, sesame oil and oyster sauce. Add soy sauce mixture and onions to the tuna and toss gently.
Servings » 8

Now, let me count the ways, first there was "Bamboo Hut" which changed management from local Hawaii outcast to totally non-hawaii ownership. Signature trademark still is the BBQ ribs, still ono!.

There's "Sweets" in Provo still serving some local favorite plate lunches, still in business, BBQ or Teriyaki Chicken still ono.

Of course, keeping the hawaii connection is L & L, a young favorite in the islands and now here locally. They have an assortment but my favorite is the laulau plate and kalua pig. The laulau is real, wrapped with ti-leaf and cooked like at home, probably in a pressure cooker. The other stuff on the menu is alright but for real locals, gotta go for the laulau.

Another local is Matiki's which seemed alright but they have only opened irratically. Must be the economy. They're alright, friendly, work hard, and cook your food while you wait.

Up in Salt Lake county, there are probably more but the two that caught my stomach are "Mo Bettah Steaks" and Pounders Grill. Mo Bettah Steaks is a plate lunch stop, serving pulehu steaks or teriyaki style, plus some other offerings like kalua pig, chicken, etc. Trendy, not bad menu, great bust u mouth food. Friendly atmosphere, great vido of the islands, the ocean, the surf. Eat it there or on the go. As for Pounders, I haven't stopped there but will soon. Gotta keep local food in my opu.

So, the question, why is the local (Hawaiian) food stops more attractive or onoliscious than say the mainland foods? I donno but taste bettah to me!

What To Do For A Weekend Getaway?

I've always seen those travel commercials where they bait you into taking a weekend getaway and have all

these exciting things to do to have fun. Just like cramming for a final but more fun.

But us, we're more practical people who don't usually pick the fun things. I say it's a matter of perspective.

Tops on our list was to take a trip to California and first get out of the inversion filled air we were blanketed with. that alone is a good reason to go to the west coast.

Another winner was to attend the baptism of our grandson, third one to be baptized. There were conditions first, before we headed off to California. The weather had better not have a forecast of big winter storm in the picture on the traveling days, going and returning. Second, was that we had to rearrange our appointment schedule with work and church, got to make sure we have coverage. Third is that Ipo needed boarding, sort of a sleep over at Bubba's house, she doesn't travel well in the car. And fourth, we needed to make lodging arrangements at Nellis AFB on the trip down and on the way back.

Well the checklist went off perfectly, car loaded with travel stuff, emergency storage supplies (200 lbs. hard white wheat, and numerous vacuum packages of yeast), camera gear, church clothing, and of course, ice chest of snacks.

The exciting eventful thing going down was furiously eating clementines and oranges before we get to the California Agriculture inspection station. The guard inspected our ice chest and discovered the apples in there and asked where we got them, from Macey's of course. And he let them pass. They were only interested in the home grown stuff. Good to know for future reference. We were ready to give them up at the check point.

Another thing learned is that if your GPS plans out the trip for shortest distance and travel time, it's probably better not to deviate. As I took what I thought to be the shortest known route, it only added more travel time. Lesson learned going to California. (We decided to follow the Garmin lady's direction for the return trip, wrong! It took many, many hours longer due to the first of three storms hitting the California coast.) Next time, buy yourself a map and plan it your own way.

The best part of the trip was spending time visiting Nikki, Dan, and the kids. We had an awesome baptism service for Pookie, great time visiting and getting to know our twin grandsons, Squdge and Q-mouse. They are the cutest things. They laugh, giggle, smile, burp, spit up, and other normal things for their age. The best part is that, the whole family pitches in to take care of the little guys. Gabby, Bun, and Ethan help feed the twins along with Mom and Dad, and Hammy makes sure that they are amused with their little mobile toys.

I should mention that Pookie had both sets of Grandparents in attendance and his Uncle Ben for his baptism.

The pictures in this post are from the trip.