Diesel turns 13!!

We had a Surprise Party for Derek's 13th Birthday.

It was so much fun and I'm impressed that his friends

actually kept it a secret because he really was surprised!!

Best gift----a bat from the Louisville Slugger Museum engraved

with his name and his favorite baseball team---The Red Sox

(Thanks to Nic for taking care of that for us)

The boys had fun eating pizza, playing ping-pong, pool and Wii

but the best part was a surprise visit from BYU football player

Andrew George!! Here he is telling them how it felt to make

the winning touchdown in the BYU-vs-Utah game this year.

Mo helping Derek blow out his "Happy Birthday to You"

candles. Happy Birthday Dies---we love you!!

Merry Christmas

We had a great Christmas and it was nice to

have Jeff & Julie and the boys with us this year.

Nic & Derek modeling their new clothes

The "Gram Band" giving a concert with the keyboards,

drums and guitars they got. I'm sure their parents are

going to thank me for those gifts later!!

The best part of our Christmas was getting to

talk to Elder LeChem in the Philippines via

Skype. It was so fun to actually see his skinny

face and hear his voice!!

Another WICKED Week-end

The first week-end in December my sisters, Sharon and Sandra

and my niece Britney and I went to San Francisco to see WICKED !!

Third time seeing it but NEVER get tired of going to the Land of Oz !!!

Cable cars. . .

Cheesecake Factory. . .

and Fisherman's Wharf. . .Oh My!!

We had such a great time and decided we are so lucky

to be sisters AND friends !!

Happy 30th Anniversary

On October 11th Gary and I celebrated our 30th Anniversary. There was really no question about where to go to celebrate since Maui is our favorite place on earth. Our friends, Liz and Ross Schofield also came along and we really had THE best time!!
On Sunday we attended church in the Kihea ward and then took a drive around the island to check out the beautiful sights.



While the guys went golfing Liz and I would head to the beach or the pool, of course Gary was in golf heaven at Kapalua!

The day we went snorkeling at Molokini was perfect, the water was crsytal clear and we saw lots of cool fish and turtles. It was probably a good thing that we didn't hear about the guy getting attacked by a shark in nearby Kihea though UNTIL after we got home!
Well as the "sun sets" on 30 years together, here's to many more good years and many more trips to Maui!!!

Southwest Adventure

Last week we enjoyed a fun trip to the American Southwest when we visited Jeff & Julie in Albuquerque. One morning we walked around "Old Town" and the boys had fun trying on all sorts of cowboy hats.
On Saturday we drove to the other side of the Sandia Mountains and took the chair lift up to the top. It was a beautiful view of Albuquerque but the best part was the fact that it was 20 degrees cooler up there!!


Sunday evening we headed to Sante Fe just because we had never been there before!! It is famous for a lot of really old churches, a lot of art galleries, Native Americans who come to the downtown Plaza to sell their beautiful jewelry and HUGE Breakfast burritoes!!




We decided we "WOOD" love to visit here again some day!! Thanks Jeff, Julie & boys for a really fun time.

Grand Canyon Trip

Gary just spent 2 weeks in July rafting down the Colorado in the Grand Canyon. It was his fifth time down the river but the first time that Grandpa Chem and all four of the brothers were on the same trip.

The trip is the equivalent of rowing from Provo to Idaho Falls (240 miles) Needless to say Gary came home pretty tired but other than having to swim through Lava it was a great trip. (If you don't know what swim the rapid means, don't ask!!)
The tired rafters at the end of the trip. Way to go Blaine--at 80 years of age, it was his 30th time down the Grand Canyon, yep----that's why we call him Grand Canyon Grandpa!!!

Orem All Stars

After a great season with the Padres, Derek was excited to be chosen to play on the All Star team. Orem won their first 2 games and then lost 2 and were eliminated but Derek had alot of fun and we had fun watching them play.