Blake and Melissa's Wedding

Come on, lets get married !!

Last Saturday, I performed my first wedding. Blake Scott got married to Melissa. They had asked me to perform the wedding a few months ago, and I had been looking forward to the ceremony. With Kayleen's father fading quickly, I didn't know whether I would be able to perform the marriage, but he lasted until Friday so I called the Bishop I had on standby and told him thank you, but never mind. Friday was the rehersal. I had prepared a few words to say, and during the wedding rehersal I was doing the "Princess Bride" marriage ceremony "Maawidge is what bwings us togethew today." I didn't think that would so quickly take hold of my tounge, but on Saturday I had a hard time following my notes.

I had "budgeted" 30 minutes, 45 max for the ceremony. Then I was going home to pack, do laundry and stuff to go to Idaho. Just before the wedding started, I talked to Kayleen, and she said, - "Blake and Melissa will not remember anything you say today, except that you pronounce them man and wife. KEEP IT SHORT. "


(Blake, Tim, Paul, Ryan, and Tim's oldest son)


I wasn't really trying to keep it short. But we started on time. The bridesmaids sprinted down the aisle. I talked for 5 minutes, asked the questions, pronounced the man and wife thing, and had them exchange rings. Then they sprinted back up the aisle. Eleven (11) minutes. Someone got lost on the way to the church, showed up 15 minutes late and missed the whole thing.

(Blake and Melissa signing their marriage license after the ceremony)
I will have to learn to stretch, or to find a way to start late. :)

Independence Day

Tim and his family flew in last Sunday night. Matt, Lecia and Mike drove down Tuesday, and got here on Wednesday. Here are a few pictures and videos of the activities.

Ben and Peter played hard until they were tired. They found activities to avoid the heat.

Peter enjoyed hearing the stories from Daddy

Everyone except Lecia (morning sickness) and Ben (14 months old) went to the baseball game. Peter enjoyed trying to lose his parents in the crowd.

The D-backs lost, but we are convincing Mike and Matt to become fans!!

After the game we watched the fireworks.

It was a great visit, but we were all worn out.

Utah Visit

I went to Utah last weekend. It was a quick trip. I flew in Friday evening. Went to a graveside service for Vi Christensen on Saturday morning. I visited my mother a couple of times.

I spent some quality time with my family Peter and Ben --

It turns out that Ben likes to play down in the window well

I met April Warner - Mike's fiancé

I learned about Peter's favorite song

And Ben is a funny guy!

Underwater Pics

Here are a few of the pictures we took while our faces were under water.

Coral formations in Shark's Cove

Here is an eel poking his head out of his hole.

Some of the orange and blues in the fishes

Some Schools of the smaller fish

Here is one of the surgeon fish. This one is only about 12 inches long, not 3 ft like some of the parrot fish we saw.

And finally, the turtle that was following Kayleen.

You will notice that something took a chunk out of his (or her) shell

The water was incredibly clear and beautiful. It really was like swimming is a huge aquarium

Looking forward to the next trip!!

Day Five

Final Day this trip

We drove out to Hanamumu bay. I will get the spelling correct at some point. It is a national wildlife preserve, so the snorkeling was fantastic. The fish were huge and plentiful. The water is mostly calm, and the whales come way in during the winter months.

We saw a whole school of what kinda looked like sand sharks, except for the triangular body shape. The fins looked very similar to shark. The gills even liiked life gill slits rather than covered gills.

We probably swam out 1/2 mile and then back. On the way back, we saw a spotted morey eel haning out in his hole. There are supposed to be a lot of octopi and squid, but we didn't see any of those. Anyway, we spent two hours and it was AWESOME!.

This was a wonderful day, but we have to go home tomorrow. We will probably be back.

Day Four

Learning about the Property

The pictures really don't have anything to do with the comentary on this issue.

We met with the Sales guy in the morning, and he answered several questions which we had prepared.

One of the most important was concerning a new snorkeling spot, which we will try on Day five. Information to follow.

This hotel sits on an area where four (4) man-made lagoons are located.

We went to lagoons 1 and 2 in the afternoon, and found that the snorkeling was excellant. The fish were not so plentiful, but they were large and there was a huge variety. As the coral expands and the reef matures, it will be able to support a larger poplulation and the snorkeling will improve.

We went to dinner in an outdoor cafe, and the rains decended upon us. At first it was just a fine mist, but when our chicken pasta came (excellant food, by the way) it started to pour. The waiters and bus-persons were handing out towels.

A few nights ago, we were on the beach and smelled smoke. It turns out that a car was burning. The flames were about 10 feet high, and scorched the tree above it. There is now burnt oil and ash all over the side-walk there. The funny thing is, that as the smoke was at its thickest, the band began to play "Smoke gets in your eyes."

Not quite like the other days so far, but Day four has been okay.

Day Three

Polynesian Cultural Center

Woke up and went for a short walk. Our bus did not pick us up until 11:00, so we had time to go into the water, which we did.

We met the guy who showed us how to make a woven fish out of leaves, and to twirl poi balls. I did okay at the spear toss. We got on the bus with Cousin Leo, and went to the site.

We took a boat tour of the villages.

We saw the canoe pagent, which was amazing.
We visited a few villages and received amazing demonstrations of the island way of life.

Kayleen particpated in the Hula training, and also was in the Somoan Nut dance.

We ate an excellant Prime Rib dinner, although Kayleen tried one of the desserts that turned out to be discusting. We didn't find out what it was. She offered some to me, but I took a pass.

The night show - "Horizons" was truly amazing. The total energy and island emotion the dancers had was overwhelming.

We called this day three, and although it took some effort to get the video on the blog and to get it to work, we declared this to be a day full of wonderous sights, cultural perspecitves, and new understanding, and the day was pretty dog-gone good.