December 5th -- Day 4: Beach and Pearl Harbor

Day 4 started with Cameron not feeling great. So Dave and the girls grabbed the boogie boards and headed down to the beach while Cameron laid on the couch and I snuggled up with the sun on the balcony and a good John Grisham book (that by the way had an ending I didn't love).

I was out reading on the deck and came in to check Cameron. By change I happened to feel his neck and his glands were swollen.. a quick look down his throat and white spots... could it be strep?

After lots of calls and the girls and Dave enjoying the morning at the beach we found an urgent care clinic and 15 minutes later Cameron was on amoxicillan! Thanks to ibuprofen he was feeling pretty good and we decided Pearl Harbor would be a relaxing, low stress afternoon activity.

With only one slight detour and direction asking, we found Pearl Harbor and started the tour. That really is an amazing place that has a reverence about it. The movie gave a perfect start and had me in tears (ok... only 2 times so far this trip) and then we did the boat ride. It is so sad to visualize what happened that day, all of the lives that were lost and the families that were effected. The kids really seemed to enjoy it and Cameron seemed to be feeling pretty good!

After dinner the girls and I wandered through the shops again and headed to the beach. This time the girls wore their swimming suits and danced on the beach in the moonlight. It was just perfect! We even got to see the fishermen catch a huge, slimy eel -- yes in the same water they'd been playing in... but it didn't seem to bother them.

On the way home we found more penny squishers (another entry later) and a new shave ice place (my favorite). We brought home shave ice for Dave and watched Harry Potter and enjoyed another cool treat!

Another calm evening at home (good thing about time change is that the kids go to bed early and wake up early too).

December 4th -- Day 3: Hanauma Bay

Thanks to Adam and Stacey hooking us up with 4 boogie boards, beach towels and a cooler we were off to our first all day adventure Hanauma Bay beach and snorkeling. Unfortunately you have to watch a movie before heading down and it freaked out the kids a little -- seeing all of the fish swimming around... but it was beautiful!!!! I've forgotten how picture perfect Hanauma Bay is and it was a perfect sunny day. Just like Disneyland, I think the week after Thanksgiving is a good time to visit Hawaii. We pulled in the 1/2 filled parking lot and headed down to the beach.

Although the water is not caribean clear and quite as warm -- the fish were fabulous. I saw 3 of the coolest fish I've ever seen. A zebra striped fish, a black with orange rings and a rainbow fish I've never seen before. Dave loved the snorkeling and the kids loved the sand.

Cam layed down to take a nap and snoozed for about 2 hours (under towels so we didn't get burned). Unfortunately when Cam woke up he didn't seem to be feeling well. We packed up and headed home.

We had a fun dinner at some little shops by the hotel. Dave had Pho (that noodle soup stuff) and the kids and I had Hawaiin BBQ chicken with chopsticks... it was yummy!!!

Afteward the girls and I headed out for what would become a nightly adventure. We wandered through the shops (Lauren was acosted by a cute sales lady trying to get her to buy a purse -- we had to quickly make an escape) and headed to the beach. It was so beautiful at night! We could see venus and jupiter and the girls played in the water. No swimming suits -- but they still had a great time! We wandered back through the shops, found a shave ice shop and headed home to enjoy a cool treat!

December 3rd -- Day 2: Hawaii Bound

With everyone well rested and ready to "go to the beach" we load up the car and head to the rental car return. The kids were a bit confused when we returned the car (we knew Cameron would freak out if he thought we were heading home) so we told them we were going to the beach someplace else. When we got to the airport and starting checking in Lauren saw Honolulu on the screen and was soooo excited. "I knew we were going to see Bethany, I knew we were going to Hawaii." Soon everyone knew and we were done with the surprises. (Kenzi did say for the next couple of days that maybe we were still lying and we weren't really in Hawaii and we were in Hollywood and we were on a movie set -- she told us we shouldn't lie because then people wouldn't believe you.)

Great flight to Hawaii -- personal entertainment devices in front of each passenger -- I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling with kids. With a choice of 10+ movies, lots of video games and TV, the kids were entertained for the entire trip. Their favorite thing was to put on the trip monitor and watch the airpline fly over the ocean and inch its way closer to Hawaii. After several movies, lots of games (including Kenzi pounding on the back of the seat of the lady in front of us playing a fish game), and tons of snacks we arrived in Honolulu. I think the kids really believed us at that point. When we got the rental mini-van Lauren was especially excited... can you say yeah for Priceline and the 1/2 off the mini van?

With some great Dave driving and fabulous Steph navigating we made it to the condo, got checked in and headed to Costco. One thing about a family trip vs. a couple trip is the food. Eating out 3 meals a day with all 5 of us didn't sound very fun (Cam is no the best eater outer!).

Back to the condo to meet Adam, Stacey, Bethany and cute Anniston (she is adorable!). We headed down to Waikiki beach and time for playing in the water. Cameron was so funny!!! He just stood in the waves and let them crash over him. He would fall down and jump right back up. He is generally afaid of water a little, but he didnt' seem fazed at the big waves. He was the karate kid in the water!

Back to the condo, a little dinner and off to bed.

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day -- December 1st & 2nd 2008 -- The Big Surprise

December 1st -- Hey kids... Uncle Scott and his family are flying into SL tomorrow morning early to go to a karate tournament. Do you want to surprise them and go out to the airport and take them out to breakfast? You do... good! Ok, let's get some clothes set out tonight and we have to go to bed early so we aren't too tired in the morning. Oh and Scott would like to know if Josh and Jordan can borrow the gameboys so get those charged and get them out. And Lauren, make sure you get your camera so we can take a picture of their surprised faces when we get there.

So I've always considered myself a very honest person, but in this case I couldn't believe what a great set of lies I had just laid out. In one discussion I managed to get our family ready to get up early (4:30 am to be precise) and start out on our Hess Family Hawaii Christmas vacation.

Ok... so it was months in the planning (I think we started about March). Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Adams and a generous timeshare, we had a chance to go to Hawaii this year. Dave decided we for sure needed to go when it was colder weather in Utah and Adam and Stacey and Bethany are all at BYU Hawaii so why not go in December. And... let's not tell the kids anything about it ...and let's really surprise them and fly to Disneyland for a day first and then fly to Hawaii.

Airplane tickets, rental cars, Disneyland tickets, hotels, emails back and forth, rides to the airport (thanks Sterling... I owe you), getting the girls homework, stopping the mail, not being able to go to Colonial Days, piano and everything else. For months now we've had to plan that we would really be here December 2nd -- 11th and somehow we did manage to keep it a surprise.

December 1 -- 5:00 pm: After months of work I almost got busted. Kenzi got in the car to go to piano and jumped in the back... what did she see, her math book I had snuck over to the school to get. She asked me what her math book was doing in the back... I told her she brought it home and it fell out of her backpack. She looked at me kind of strangely and then said 'ok.' Whew, that was close!

December 1 -- 9:00 pm: After a fun evening at the neighborhood Christmas party we all come home and go to be quickly -- remember, Uncle Scott is coming in the morning.

December 1 -- 11:00 pm: Cameron and Kenzi fast asleep -- Lauren comes upstairs saying she doesn't feel good and thinks she is sick. Ok...can't happen. Dave and I are too excited and way to much has gone into this trip!

December 2 -- 12:30 am: Lauren still saying she doesn't feel great and she doesn't think she will be able to go to the airport in the morning. Ok so the first clue that I've not been really honest. I finally tell Lauren that she can't be sick in the morning because we are really going on a trip,we aren't going to the airport to see Scott. Of course, Lauren is totally freaking out and wants to know where we are going. She finally falls asleep and 4:00 am comes really, really early!!!

December 2 -- 4:30 am: Wake up kids! Hurry we've got to get to the airport -- no we aren't going to see Scott, we are really going on a trip. I think it was so early and they were so confused that they really weren't sure if we were serious or not.

At that point Lauren saw an email from Adam that said Hess Hawaii. She starting jumping up and down and up and down saying we are going to see Bethany, we are going to Hawaii. I told her I promise we aren't going to Hawaii today (which we weren't we were really going to LA to Disneyland). On the way to the airport everyone made their predictions. Lauren said Hawaii, Cameron said Washington to see uncle Scott (who says now Cam is his favorite since he was his 1st choice) and Kenzi said Disneyland and Aunt Cathy was her choice. When we got to the airport the girls saw LA and they were so excited to go to Disneyland (although Cameron was still mad we weren't going to see uncle Scott). I really think the kids weren't sure if we were really going someplace or not until we took off on the airplane.

We had a great plane ride and despite some really hyper excited kids (Cameron just kept saying "this is awesome, this is awesome, this is so awesome!!") they all managed to have a short nap on the plane.

December 2 -- 7:00 am: On the ground, off to get the rental car, quick stop at McDonalds and off to Disneyland.

December 2 -- 9:00 am - 6:00 pm: How fun is Disneyland?!?!?!? Everytime I go I forget how much I love it... especially when there are absolutely nooooo lines (we just loved walking right on Indiana Jones and Pirates and the Jungle Ride) and who doesn't love Its a Small World all decked out in Christmas attire (Jingle Shells in the Hawaii room) and Christmas trees in the Haunted House. The Christmas Light parade brought tears to my eyes (surprise, surprise) and somehow they transformed the entire place to feel very festive!

Great Uncle Ray was able to get us park hopper passes so we had gotten to so many rides at Disneyland so we even got to run over to California Adventure as well. Lauren and Dave absolutely loved the roller coaster and Cam, Kenzi and I loved the new Toy Story 3-D ride... very cool. We even went on Soaring Over California. That is the coolest ride!!!!! I must admit I think I was more scared than Cameron and Kenzi -- it really kind of freaked me out!

And to end a fabulous day... we discovered that it is a small world on "It's a Small World." We were walking through the lines to get on the ride and we looked back and saw our niece Jenny Jones and their two kids -- the ones that had just stayed at our house a few weeks back. They live in So. California and have passes and she had decided to go to Disneyland for the afternoon/evening. Amazing we would run into them. We all got to go through the ride together (Dave' favorite but he went because Cameron loved it so much and Dave made him go on Indiana Jones and we thought it was only fair for him to then go on Cameron's favorite).

After a little sun (it was pretty overcast), lots of fun, a little too much food (Dave and Lauren loved the turkey legs) the day was over. The kids were too tired to stay for fireworks so we headed back to the hotel and off to bed.

December 2 -- 9:00 pm: So we had so much fun surprising the kids we decided to keep it up for one more day. We told the kids that the next morning we would go to the beach so we needed to get to bed early... we just didn't tell them the beach would be in Waikiki, Hawaii!

Christmas Angels Sing all around us...

FM 100 Concert
We love you Masa!

In between shots on Channel 2

Early morning TV fun.

Gateway Performance
Gallivan Center
Kenzi getting Dan Beck's autograph after -- she LOVED watching him.
FM 100 Concert
KUTV News

We had the most beautiful kick-off to the holiday season this year. The girls' choir was on overload this week ... and though it was a bit crazy, it turned out to the be the most beautiful way to start the holiday season.

* Wednesday at 6:30 am they sang on Channel 2 news to promote the food drive.
* Friday at noon -- FM100 Christmas Concer with Dan Beck (he was Jesus in the play with Kenzi last spring)
* Friday at 5:00 pm -- Lights on at Gallivan Center
* Friday at 6:30 pm -- Lights on at Gateway
* Saturday afternoon -- Joseph Smith Memorial Building

If you haven't hear the choir, they really are so beautiful. The sweet little faces just add to the incredible harmony and songs Masa writes and arranges. As I sat there sipping hot chocolate at the Gateway on Friday night and watching the girls I got tears in my eyes (ok... not so surprising) just soaking in the lights and sounds and feeling of Christmas. I love that the girls are involved with something that helps others, is so positive and so beautiful!!!

Thanksgiving Fun... Great Memories

Fun at Duck Park

The ducks were a little too friendly -- who knew Brooke had a thing about birds/ducks?

Grandpa and Luaren -- kind of a scary combination!

The "kid" table.

The "adult" table -- Brookie was glad we were not couple side-by-side sitters!
Mmmmm turkey... Jenn's traditional oven -- Dave hickory smoked grilled turkey!
Fun on the wheelers!
Dance, dance revolution... you've gotta love it... especially when Jenn and Dave go hip to hip!!No the most flattering picture but the Wall girls decided we needed to do an annual snapshot.

I've always loved Thanksgiving and have so many great memories of Thanksgiving through the years. The Bevan girls were always great cooks and have no idea how to plan a dinner without having enough leftovers for two weeks. (And... it seems the Wall girls have carried on that tradition. The year my mom died we had the Bevan family for dinner at mom and dad's house and we were so worried we weren't going to have enough food. I think we were having 20 or 30 people. We cooked 20 pounds of potatoes and made 7 batches of rolls... mom and Laraes best rolls!!! Cathy Jones and family were with us that year and she kept trying to tell us that 7 batches of rolls were be more than enough. When we started rolling them out Thanksgiving morning when we got to 120 rolls we finally decided Cathy was right and we maybe went a little overboard. Everyone took home a goodie bag of rolls along with a bag of roll dough to make scones the next day.)

Anyway, here are some pictures of the Wall Dinner 2008 at Grandpa's cabin. I love doing Thanksgiving there! This is the first year in quite a while we've been together (Rob was in Fillmore and Scott in Washington) but we did have a great Wall girl & dad Thanksgiving!