Twilight

So you may or may not know that I have become a avid Twilight fan. I loved the books and am almost embarrassed to say that I have read them all several times (I even made Brian read Twilight but don't tell him I told you). Needless to say I was extremely excited about the movie. Well, the big day came and a group of us were their for the first showing at 12:00am.
I promised myself I was going to like the film no matter what, but they sure made it hard. I had no problem with any of the actor/actress choices (of course no one can be as gorgeous as Edward and the other Vamps are supposed to be) but I felt like they took out all of Edwards charm and didn't show how Bella and Edward fell in love. I could go on and on but I will just say that it was less than stellar and disappointing. In allegiance to the books, I will like the movie anyways and am excited for the next one.

Cabo

We have enjoyed some great trips this year and our week in Cabo San Lucas was no different. We had a blast and were especially glad to have my sister Kristin, her husband Darin and their youngest daughter Sydney with us. We were able to stay in a great resort a few mintues walk from downtown (thanks again Doug and Cindy). Here's the view of it from our balcony.

Yes, that is a ship in the pool!
Most of our morning were spent hanging out at the pool which the girls loved.

We also went deep sea fishing. Brian gets horribly sea sick so he opted to babysit the girls. After a full morning we had two bites, one was a beautiful El Dorado (mahi mahi) and the another that got away, and were headed back when Darin and Kristin spotted a Marlin. We had seen quite a few but hadn't been able to get them to bite. Well, this one took the bait and after 1 1/2 of hard work Darin was able to reel in the beautiful black and purple 200lb 9ft Marlin. Congrats Darin. We then released it.

We also took a snorkeling cruise. Even the girls got in and saw some fish.

Of course, we loved the beach and warm ocean water.

Fall Carnival

This year our ward had a carnival to go along with the trunk or treat. The primary sponsored it but each organization put together a booth. The booths were all scripture themed and it was so much fun. Here were a few of the booths.Adam and Eve's apple bobbingDaniel and the Lion's Den tossJonah and the Whale fishingMalachi's Tithing toss
This year I decided to make our costumes, anyone who knows me knows that this was a big stretch for me but I think they turned out pretty well. Hannah was a chicken, Brian was a bull and I was a pig.

Apple Hill

Brian grew up going to Apple Hill with his family every fall and we've decided to make it one of our family's traditions. Our adventure started with breakfast by the pond at High Hill Ranch. We had apple fritters and hot chocolate. Very yummy.

Hannah loved crawling around the pumpkins and sitting on the hay bales.

We went to Bolsters Hill Top Ranch for the main event of picking apples. Brian picked most of the apples but Hannah picked a few too.

I think Hannah's favorite part was running through the apple orchard. The orchard is on a hill mostly sloping down so Hannah would start to run and then because of the slope would get going too fast and fall. She would then pick herself up and do it again.

After repeating this a number of times, at least ten, she finally fell and then just laid in the grass.

Camping

Our ward had a fun overnight camp out this weekend. Brian and I like to go camping and try and do it at least a couple of times every year but this summer we just didn't make it so this was our camping trip. We went up to Camp Navoo which is a camp just outside of Placerville owned by a couple of stakes. We had dinner and then a big campfire and just played a little the next morning. It was short but we loved being outdoors and most importantly handing out with our ward. (We really love our ward!)

Gardening

As many of you know, we have a very tiny backyard. I often refer to it as our glorified patio. This year we decided to pull up some of the plants, the ones we didn't really like, and plant a vegetable garden. We couldn't plant much of course but we planted two eggplants, four tomato plants, a couple of zucchini plants and a cantaloupe plant just for the fun of it.

Hannah loves going outside and playing with hose and watering the plants.

Aloha

Greetings from the Big Island!

In anticipation of their mission, Brian's parents planned several vacations to use up all their timeshares for the next two years and luckily we benefited by going to Hawaii with them for a week. We had so much fun.

I was nervous about the plane ride, especially because Hannah was just getting over an ear infection, but she did pretty well. She just walked up and down the aisles with her blanket and baby doll saying hi to all the other passengers. We saw many of those same passengers on the island and so through out the week they would come up and say hi to her. Being the very social child that she is, Hannah loved the attention.

We did a lot of great stuff on this trip. Of course, we spent a lot of time at the beach. This was Hannah's first trip to the ocean and beach. She was afraid of the ocean, more specifically the waves coming in, but she loved playing in the sand.

Doug, Brian, and I went scuba diving while Cindy played babysitter. (Cindy doesn't do diving). We did two dives. The first dive took us through a lava tube. It was cool to look up and see the light coming through the tubes. We saw lots of cool fish and we saw a huge eel. On the way to our first dive, we saw some dolphins so we dove in that area for our second dive. We didn't see any dolphins underwater but saw several eagle rays.

We of course went to a Luau while we were there and enjoyed kalua pig, poi, haupia and lots of other tasty island treats. Here are a couple of the locals pulling the cooked pig out of the imu.

We visited Halemaumau crater at the summit of Kilauea volcano. Kilauea is currently the most active volcano in the world and it erupted about a month before we went to Hawaii. It only erupted gas and steam and a large plume was still gushing when we were there. The islanders call it "vog", volcanic smog. It was pretty neat to see the massive crater, the gas vents and we walked through a big lava tube.

All week we had been hearing about the "vog" and health reports saying that the air wasn't good quality and those with health risks should stay inside. We didn't pay much attention but when we went to the crater you could smell the gas and even feel it when we breathed. When we started to head back, Hannah began to have a hard time breathing, and she could barely talk, so we decided to take her into the emergancy room. They gave her a breathing treatment and a steriod to decrease the inflamation & swelling in her esophagus. She was actually pretty good through the whole thing and they gave her a teddy bear which she now loves and calls "Kona Bear."