Welcome to our family!

Kids say the darndest things....

2009-02-13T13:02:00.000-08:00

Last night, we went to dinner at Chilis with Kyle & Tiffanie and Ben & Melissa and all our kids. Kai had had a lot of sugar that day so he was on a MAJOR sugar rush when we got there. However, half way into the meal, he crashed and he crashed hard!!! He was falling asleep sitting up! I was worried he was going to fall into his plate of food like they do on the movies!!! So since Bill was already done and we had driven seperately, Bill offered to take them both home while I stayed and finished eating (I'm a REALLY slow eater) and to pay the bill. So the boys all got up and just as they were walking away, Kai waved and smiled huge and said loudly "Bye mom!!! You can eat lots!! I won't tell!" and then he left~ leaving us laughing super hard!

Our Korea, China, & Japan trip in 2005

2009-02-03T14:19:00.000-08:00

Saturday, September 10, 2005

As promised, here are pics from our trip to Korea, China & Japan!

Kai playing on a high-tech dance stage after midnight while we try to locate our hotel.

We found it! (Our shirts say "Kim Ohana")

Kai's first ride on a subway

Walking on the waterfall bridge at the Korean Folk Village

Kai wearing Shrek ears

One of Lorinda's companions from her mission. You'd never tell from this picture that they wanted to kill each other back during the mission days!

Bill took this pic of us sitting in the NEW chapel pews made of basketball material. Look closely! We're not kidding!

The DMZ. The 2 mile strip of the demilitarized zone separating North & South Korea. So sad that families are torn apart by what this strip represents.

Behind me is North Korea. You couldn't take any pics past the yellow line. Even up at the wall all you could see on this foggy day was fog!

The Korean temple

Lorinda standing in front of the sign telling you which way is the way out. Her first time to Korea, her & her companion were looking for the exit out of the airport but couldn't find any signs that said 'exit'. All they could see were these 'way out' signs...

Bill's favorite anti-smoking ad

Lorinda's trainer

Lorinda's golden investigators. They're still very active...

Another one of Lorinda's convert families. Also still very active!

Kai's first sink bath!

On the flight to Japan, they gave Lorinda a seatbelt for Kai that hooked on to her seatbelt. It was cool!

This is the condo we stayed at in China

Lorinda's mom made us take this pic in front of the "Love Tree"

Tien Ah Men Square. Our tour guide told us he believes that the massacre never happened. It was kind of interesting being in a communist country where they even control your beliefs...

This was cool. Some members of our group were on one side of the complex and others were on the other side - about 200-300 yards away from each other but we could hear each other as if we were right next to each other

Almost our entire group that went to China (4 people less than in Korea- the people taking the picture are also not in this one)

Lorinda taking her first step up on The Great Wall of China

Bill & Kai doing the same thing. Our tour guide told us that a Chinese man went up in space and looked for the wall, but couldn't see it, so now that "fact" has to be taken out of the textbooks because its not true.

Uncle Zui giving Bill a break going up to the top

At the top! We're above the clouds, thats how high it was. It was a very arduous climb!

All of us who made it to the top- except for Uncle Sedanne who went all the way to the top and was halfway down by the time we were half way up! I should mention that Uncle Sedanne was the oldest in our entire group that took this trip to Asia!

We thought going up was hard! Look at how steep it was going down! By the time we got back down to the bottom, Lorinda's legs were shaking so bad they felt like jelly! And Bill did most of the trip up and down holding Kai!

A few mis-translated signs that will make you laugh:

This is a fresh water turtle before...

and after he was cooked for us to eat. Mmmm. He was tasty! (no I'm not kidding)

Kai was a celebrity everywhere we went. We learned the word "cute" in Korean, Chinese & Japanese pretty quickly due to the fact that we heard it at least every 5 minutes in the corresponding country! Kai sure new how to deal with it tho. He is a natural born flirt just like his parents.

This is an actual restaurant in Japan. I guess it also doubles as an antique store. We don't know for sure as this was the one country we went to where none of us spoke the language!

We went to a zoo. It was pretty cheap so we weren't expecting much, but we were very surprised! It was a Really nice zoo! Here are some of my favorite pics

Kai was so enthralled with the polar bear, Bill couldn't get his attention to look at the camera!

Monkey see, monkey do!

After we came home, Kai returned straight to his piano lessons. He loves them so much he screams and kicks when his mom tries to take him away.

Lorinda baby sat Kai and his cousin Paige who is 3 months younger than him for one day. This was a rare moment where they were both quiet and happy! It was fun, but also the best form of birth control!

Somehow, a bird came in through one of our vents in our roof into our hot water heater closet. We had to call Animal control to come and catch it!

Kai, waking up happy in a hotel in Idaho. Why were we in Idaho?

Maybe to visit my MTC companion and tell her all about Korea again & see her new baby...

or maybe to trade in Bill's beloved Jeep for...

A NEW TRUCK!!! (You have to say it like they do on The Price is Right!) This is our new Nissan Titan! It is so nice & so much fun. Lorinda can't wait to Hawaiian it out!

June of 2005

2009-02-03T14:11:00.000-08:00

Monday, June 13, 2005

We know, we know... is been a long time since our last entry. Theres only so much you can do when you don't have internet at home, tho! Enjoy these pix from Feb until May!

This is actually from end of Dec. or beginning of Jan. after Janzell & Ben, Zui and Michelle moved up to Utah and we finally had Hawaiian relatives to hang out with! Those empty plates had ono Korean food on them before we got to them!

These are pix from our trip to Hawaii in Feb.

FHE!

Cousins Jenna, Lindsay & Shayde with Kai

Great-Grandpa Kim with Kai

L-R: Gma Kim, Aunty Lehua, Shayde, Gpa Kim, Lorinda (Mom), Jenna, Bill (Dad), Kai (Me), Lindsay, Aunty Amy, & Uncle Daro

We visited Lorinda's childhood friend Monique and her family. L-R: Cheri, Tonya, Monique, her son Jaymon, and you should know the rest!

Kai & Bill at Waimea Bay. Kai's first trip to a Hawaiian beach! (Isn't Bill sexy with his farmer's tan?)

Gma Kim & Kai in her back yard. Kai is trying to see if his butt looks fat for the picture...

Kai kept getting bitten by mosquitos so finally we put him under this mosquito net made to protect food... Good thing he was smaller than a serving platter!

Gma Kim & Kai again in her backyard. Look for the Koi fish in her pond behind them!

Uncle Bob & Aunty Krista w/ Kai at Great Gma Shirley's 75th bday party just after we got back from Hawaii. Isn't Kai cute in his bear outfit? It was a gift from Uncle Bob & Aunty Krista. Wow if that doesn't freak your freak: Kai is in the picture with Uncle Bob and Aunty Krista in the outfit that Uncle Bob and Aunty Krista gave him! Isn't that a weird cohinkydink?! Do you think I mentioned Uncle Bob and Aunty Krista enough?

Welcome to "THE BEAST"! With its long, decorative antennas...

lovely, sophisticated mudflaps...

and of course chic, classy gun racks. Everyone needs one!

Bill is so proud! He loves playing with his new toy and plans on using it to do yard work once our builder flattens and grades our property.

In March, we took Ben & Janzell down to Las Vegas to help them pick up a truck they bought. Of course, we stopped to see the sights too! We stayed at the Excalibur and went to the tournament of champions, played carnival games, went to the underwater predator aquarium at Mandalay Bay & went shopping at the outlet malls. Here are some pix:

Kai's first carousal ride! He had a blast!

Our hats we won playing games!

Mommy, are you sure the glass will keep him away from me? He looks hungry...

Mommy, I swear thats a humuhumunukunukuapua'a...

Daddy, can we stay here forever? Son, you've just voiced my lifelong dream... (Ben are you spacing off again?!)

And now we leave you with fun pix of Kai:

Wanted: cute lovable 8-mo old male accused of being too adorable

Kai: Our musical protoge! Playing on the piano before hes even a year old!

Christmas 2004

2009-02-03T13:32:00.001-08:00

Saturday, December 25, 2004

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! Ryan's first Christmas.

Yes, I am crocheting!

Another Christmas Picture of Kai.

Kai's first trip to Mexico Dec. 19-23, 2004

2009-02-03T13:31:00.001-08:00

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Trip to Mexico...Dec 19 - 23

Time to wake up! See our new Mexican blanket.

Allison and Krista found the huge hermit crab! I found the other two. Look how big it is!

Mason takes a mexican bath.

Ryan on the hand made patch quilt from Aunty Lory.

Mason in our sand fort.

Our sand fort had a slide to get in ond out. Mason running around to the back slide.

House #52

And the sun had to set on our last night as our trip came to an end....

Kai's Baby blessing Dec. 19, 2004

2009-02-03T13:30:00.001-08:00

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Ryan Kai's Blessing December 19, 2004

Outfit made by Aunty Claire!

Kai 5 days old

2009-02-03T12:14:00.000-08:00

Sunday, October 17, 2004

Ryan at 5 days old. Notice all the black hair!!!!

Do my tonsils look red to you? I think all my crying is starting to irritate them...

Speaking of crying...this is my mad face!

When Kai was born

2009-02-03T12:13:00.000-08:00

Sunday, October 17, 2004

Introducing Ryan Kealiiokekai Ying-Long Griffiths, born Tueday October 12, 2004 at 6:07 p.m.. 19 1/2 inches long weighing 6 pounds and no oz. Is his name Ryan or Kai...depends on if you ask Bill or Lorinda....

(Look how tired daddy is)

Look how cute I am sleeping...

September 2004

2009-02-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Here are some pictures I borrowed from Krista's blog...

Lorinda & our 3 non-human babies (Left to Right: Jax, Maddie & Princess. Behind all three: human baby in Lorinda's tummy)

Little baby boy Griffiths

Look closely for Bill!!! Its a great shot of him & his brother Brock "behind" Brock's wife Allison & baby Zach!!!

Here's pictures I borrowed from Bill's dad's site...

Here's a better side of Brock & Allison & Mason:

Here's gramma Griffiths & Zach

(L-R) Bob, Krista, Lorinda in our pajamas in a cabin up in the Kamas mountains

Bill & Jax & Princess

Bill & his little sister Courtney on an ATV

For all the friends and family in Hawaii, bet you would have loved being in UT this past winter when we had tons of snowfall. This is Bill's dad's house after the first few snowfalls. There was a point during the winter when the snow level was twice the amount in this picture!

Speaking of Bill's dad, meet Dave!

Here are Dave & Ali (Bill's sister)

Here are Dave & Karen

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-01-03T15:16:00.000-08:00

So I woke up yesterday morning at 6 am and had a hard time going back to sleep. I looked at my phone a saw a couple of text messages with birthday wishes and I remembered - "Hey, its my birthday!" Bill woke up with all my moving around and said happy birthday, gave me a kiss, and went to make Koa a bottle. While he was doing that, I lay back down and must have fell back asleep because I opened my eyes and no one else was in the room and my phone said it was 10:30 am!

I got up and took a shower, got dressed and went downstairs to see what everyone else was up to. I knew Lory & her kids were up because their room was empty upstairs, but there seemed to be more voices than just their family and my family. As I got downstairs, I realized there was almost all of my siblings and their families and also some of our extended family was there too. I was confused because I didn't know about any family meeting we were going to have. Everyone was wishing me a happy birthday as I went by and I kissed and hugged them all. I finally got to Daro and I asked him what was going on and why everyone was here. He put his hand by his mouth and whispered "Dont tell, but its Lorinda's birthday! ... oh wait!" Then he smiled and laughed!

It turns out, Bill and my siblings had cooked up a plan to throw a surprise birthday party for me! It worked! I was totally surprised! My sister organized a pyramid made of some of my nieces and nephews and kids of my cousins too. She showed me the picture and I realized how not put together I looked! I had, after all, just gotten out of the shower! I went back upstairs and made myself a little more presentable and came back down to enjoy the company of all my family.

My dad gave a short speech before we started eating lunch. He said "Who here knows what Lorinda always asks me to bring to Utah whenever I go up to visit?" My niece Lindsey says "Wasabi Poke!" For you mainlanders, that is raw tuna fish cut into cubes with soy sauce and wasabi - a japanese horse radish. My dad says, yes, what else? One of my sisters said "Lau lau!" Again, for you mainlanders - it is a traditional Hawaiian dish of pork and fish wrapped in what are called luau leaves. My dad said, yes! Then thats when they brought out the poke, and the laulau and kim chi and seaweed wraps (also called kim) and rice! My dad made sure all the foods I missed from Hawaii were there for my birthday lunch. How sweet is that?

We actually started lunch with the birthday cake tho because some of my family had to leave to go to a baby luau. So they brought out a homemade icecream cake made by Jenn! Kai & Anjuli hovered nearby and I just knew they were dying to blow out my candles-which I didn't mind! So right after they were done singing, I waited for them to blow- however, out of nowhere, Ethan swooped in and blew them out! We were all laughing -except for Kai that is! Anyway, we put the cake back in the freezer and dug into the lunch. SOOOOOOO ONO! For all you mainlanders, that means delicious in Hawaiian! Then we had the cake- It was vanilla and chocolate icecream spread over a peanut butter and graham cracker crust with an oreo and whipped cream topped frosting! It was AMAZING!!!!! Thanks Jenn!

After everyone left, Bill and I took a little time to catch up on email and rest. When Bill finally woke up, we went swimming with all my siblings and some cousins and our families. We went to rec center 7 and Kapono let us all in. It was a little cold (and I had forgotten my bathing suit bottoms) so I didn't go in. But Kai & Koa did! They had a blast- Koa loved splashing on the stairs and jumping up and down. After we were all done, we went to Daro's house for hot chocolate and saimen. Bill and I didn't have any tho because we were going to go out for dinner.

We left Daro's house and went to Walmart to pick up some items we had forgotten to bring (like bathing suit bottoms!). Bill went to find me an iPhone for my birthday which he said he had been planning on getting me for a long time (probably since I started dropping hints after I saw Bens!). But we didn't really like the way the sales associate at Walmart was treating us, so we didn't buy it there.

After we finished shopping, we went home to drop the boys off with Lory. Daro & Zui were hosting a Starcraft game night at our house so it was packed! I've never seen so many geeks in one room before! All the laptops networked to each other... all the wires all over the place, too funny!

Bill and I freshened up a bit and then snuck out. My dad had given me a gift certificate to Palace Buffet - a Korean buffet (duh!) so we headed there. We got there at 8:45 and found out they closed at 9! So we went to Chilis instead! After we ate, we walked across the parking lot to the movie theatres. Yes Man was playing soon after and I knew that that was one movie both of us wanted to see, so thats what we did! It was pretty funny! When we got out, it was just after my birthday ended... What a fun birthday!

P.S. When we got home, most of the guys were still there playing Starcraft! Geeks...

P.S.S. Here is an unrelated picture of all the 13 grandkids. And Bill. And Jenn. And Lehua...

My mom's funeral info

2008-12-29T19:56:00.000-08:00

We will be celebrating my mother's life on January 9th and 10th. On the 9th, viewing will be from 6-8 pm and a short memorial service will start at 8 pm. On the 10th, we will have viewing from 9-11 am with the funeral services at 11:30 am. These will all be at the Mililani LDS Stake Center. The burial will be at 1:30 pm at Mililani Mortuary. Please join us for lunch following the burial at 2 pm at the Stake Center again. Hope to see you there.

Merry Christmas Mom!

2008-12-26T18:56:00.000-08:00

Linda Chiang Ling-Chuan Kim

January 28, 1948 - December 26, 2008

This morning around 9 am Hawaii time, my dear mother passed on from this world. She was an amazing woman who touched many lives, most of all the lives of her children and grandchildren.

It happened really quickly. On tuesday, the 23rd, my mom was complaining of a really intense and painful headache. My father had her take her blood pressure and after getting the reading, she was rushed to the ER. Shortly after that, she lost consciousness and was put on life support. I knew when she had gone to the hospital, but didn't think it was anything serious until I got a call at 3 am UT time. Thats when I knew - before Bill even answered the phone- that things were seriously wrong.

My mother had suffered from a massive brain anneurism. They didn't think she was going to last through the day. I stayed at the hospital that night with my father and my siblings returned the next day. The nurses kept telling us it could be any moment, so we stayed.

But my mother - as my brother Daro put it- wasn't only strong willed, she had a strong heart too! All those marathons and exercise classes and running at 4 in the morning helped her hang on long enough for us to make peace with it. Also my father was worried if she died on Christmas day that it would be a bad memory for his grandkids. That was just like my mother and father to be thinking of others at a time like that.

My mother was strong and steady and surprised even the nurses. This morning, she started to decline and then passed away peacefully.

As for me and the rest of my family,

I was lucky and got the first flight out on the 24th despite being the busiest travel day of the year. I was also lucky since it was a direct flight and also because it was a clear day - just before that massive snow storm hit UT. I was in Hawaii by 3:15 pm Hawaii time that day. Zui picked me up from the airport and took me directly to the hospital where I met up with the rest of my siblings.

Like I said before, me and my dad spent Christmas Eve with my mom. It was nice to be able to be there for my dad for once. Altho as one of our family friends put it - my dad is the rock of gibraltor! Christmas day, the rest of my siblings and their spouses joined us. We hung out together taking shifts to be with my mom in her room (only 2 people were allowed to be in there at one time). We had a good time bonding and reminiscing about my mom. It had been a while since we had all been together you know with my sister living on Maui and me living in UT and all. We even laughed so much my stomach muscles are still aching from laughing so hard.

Later that evening, she took a turn for the worst, so we called all my dads siblings. The cousins and uncles and aunties came and we all piled into the room (with the doctors permission of course) and sang several hymns and carols in 4 part harmony (if you knew my family, you'd understand) and ended with Aloha Oe. Then we all said our goodbyes. Luckily I had brought my laptop with me and I had pictures from making my mom a digital scrapbook for her 60th birthday. And also luckily, Darrell had just downloaded the pictures from her camera and had his flashdrive with them on him. So we had pictures from her youth all the way up until last week. We combined them and had a slide show running the entire time.

After we were done, her vitals started to go up again! We were so surprised at how strong she was. We knew though that because her vitals had been dropping even on life support that it was just a matter of time. So we stayed and waited. We had an adult slumber party in the waiting area of the critical care unit. Since my mom was transfered to the ccu, we had taken over this area. It was like a cubby - small but cozy! Daro, Amy, Lory, & Alma slept on the ground with blankets the nurses had provided us. Brent and Lehua shared two chairs and I put two chairs together and used it as a bed. Zui and Dad slept next to moms bed. Here is a picture Lehua took.

As you know, she lasted through the night. The next morning after the shift change at 8 am, the nurses told us her heart was having pauses between her heartbeats so she wasn't going to make it much longer. We kept taking shifts keeping a close watch on her heartbeat. When it was my turn, her heartbeat dropped to 19 beats per minute. So I went out and told the nurse and dad went in with her. He waved us all in immediately so we all went in and stood by her as she slipped peacefully beyond the veil. We sang Families Can be Together Forever, I Need Thee Every Hour, Love at Home, Kanaka Wai Wai (Let Me Walk In Paradise with You, Lord), E Hawaii Aloha, Arirang, Liang zhi Lao Hu, Wo Shi Shen Di Hai Zi, and the theme songs from Ni Hao Kai Lan and Sagwa. We laughed about how funny it was that after all the chinese classes that mom taught us, we were singing Chinese songs that we learned from TV! We said our goodbyes again and left sad yet at peace.

We are waiting for family to come from the mainland and from Taiwan, so the funeral will be on January 10th.

I am just glad that my mom was able to have one last trip to Utah at the beginning of December. We had a good trip with her and the kids LOVED playing and hanging out with her. The first picture at the top was taken just before the Beneficial Life Financial Group Christmas party they attended while they were there. She was and always will be a beautiful person inside and out.

We will miss you mom! Aloha 'Oe until we meet again...

** My father has asked that if my mother has personally affected your life in some way that you share it with us. Please email your experiences to lindaclckim@gmail.com . Thank you!

Tagged!

2008-12-23T22:03:00.000-08:00

*8 Shows I Watch Regularly
1. The Office
2. The Mentalist
3. Numbers
4. Rachael Ray
5. 30 Rock
6. Gary Unmarried
7. Big Bang
8. How I Met Your Mother

*8 Things That Happened Yesterday
1. Kai crawled up to me in the morning and said "Mommy, You're the bestest friend!"
2. Koa slept through the night!
3. I shoveled the snow
4. I was able to listen to my ipod (instead of letting my kids hijack it to watch their shows or play games!)
5. I helped with accounting at Fat Bob's Garage
6. I helped install fender flares on a Tundra at Fat Bob's Garage
7. We received goodies from neighbors (thanks!)
8. We had Aaron over for steaks, rice, and mushrooms and onions after work!

*8 Favorite Places to Eat (ooh I *LOVE* this category!)
1. Tempanyaki
2. Chili's
3. Outback Steakhouse
4. L&L Drive In
5. Best Teriyaki
6. University Broiler & Grill (only the one in Ogden)
7. Flemmings
8. Sizzlers (I know, surprising right?!)

*8 Things I am Looking Forward to
1. Christmas!
2. New Years Eve party!
3. My birthday!
4. Koa's birthday!
5. Bill's birthday!
6. Kai's birthday!
7. Transamerican Expo in Cali!
8. Reuniting with old friends (no nothing is scheduled, but I want this to happen!)

*8 Things on my Wish List
1. For Bill, Kai & Koa to be happy and healthy!
2. Day Spa anything!
3. Trips anywhere!
4. For more business at Fat Bob's Garage!
5. iPhone
6. To go back home to Hawaii next year for vacation!
7. A nice camera
8. A nice fireplace

*8 People I Tag
1. Lory Aiwohi
2. Jenn Kim
3. Krista Griffiths
4. Allison Griffiths
5. Kim Nelson
6. Kaui Brown
7. Sara Berg
8. Sarah Parkin

Christmas lights

2008-12-11T11:39:00.000-08:00

If any of you are my facebook friends, you were updated frequently as to the status of my Christmas lights' progress and my plight in getting them done! One of my friends from my youth Lisa asked for pics so here they are:

So it started with the lower tier which wasn't too bad since I could have the ladder on the ground. The upper tier was harder. For one thing, I had to have the ladder out on the ledge of the lower tier- like this!

Not exactly the most stable thing in the world! It took me a good hour to get the ladder out the window and open like that! I then climbed up the ladder with the lights, a staple gun and staples and my emergency cell phone in a back pack. You know, in case I fell off the roof or the ladder fell and left me stuck there... You get it.

So this is the finished product - at least for the lights. These are the lights with the camera flash on.

These are the lights with my camera flash off.

And this is the close up of one of my "holly berries"!

All in all, it went well, but due to my almost debilitating fear of heights, it was harder than you would think! Getting down was soooo scary. I thought going up was hard! I got stuck up there for about an hour trying to get the guts to get back on the ladder. When I finally did, the ladder shifted and scared me so back on the roof I went! After another courage building prep period (which was longer than I am willing to disclose), I held my breath, looked up at the top of the ladder, and took the plunge off of the roof. Then I went VERY slowly down step by step. About what seemed like 5 minutes later when I got all the way down, I finally let out my breath and let my heart rate slow back down!

The things we do for the unsaid peer pressure from the neighbors, right?

What?!

2008-12-11T11:36:00.000-08:00

This past week while I was teaching piano, Kai came to join me as he often does. This week we were practicing for our Christmas recital and I had my students stand up, introduce themselves and what songs they were playing. During Jason Peacocks lesson, he did just that. But as he was doing it, Kai stood up too and said:

"My name is Kai Griffiths and I like to pee and fight animals!"

What in the world?!?!?!?

:)

My little vampire

2008-12-02T21:07:00.000-08:00

So I think I've mentioned before that I am a huge Twilight fan! Haven't seen the movie yet, but I will! But I digress. If you have been a loyal reader of my blog, you also know how much Koa likes Oreos. Well, if you've bought Oreos recently, you will understand how an Oreo could transform my little Koa ...

Into my little vampire!

Not your typical Thankgiving- but fun still the same!

2008-11-28T18:43:00.000-08:00

It started as a normal Thanksgiving. Kai and I were de-stemming mushrooms to make stuffed mushrooms. I made sausage & cream cheese stuffed mushrooms and artichoke stuffed mushrooms. Surprisingly, the artichoke ones were delicious! I just knew I like artichokes and mushrooms and now I know I like them together!!

These were the artichoke mushrooms

These were the deviled eggs I made.

They're mostly gone because they were the only edible food available when we first got to Daves house! The reason for that is because about an hour before all the food was supposed to be done, Ogden had a power outage that affected 500 homes! Luckily, Dave has gas stoves so we were able to cook some things by candle!

And we also had their amazing grill that is just like an oven! Here we are cooking our rolls and my mushrooms in it. That is after we finished cooking the turkey in it!

And of course, it wouldn't be thanksgiving with out the dress up. The fact that Jake got upset about it was just an added bonus! Look how pretty Hunter is!

Shortly after we finished cooking everything, the power came back on! We all cheered! It was kind of funny! All in all, it was a different, but fun Thanksgiving after all.

What I'm thankful for...

2008-11-27T08:31:00.000-08:00

This morning is what I am thankful for. I woke up to Kai leaning over me and Bill and when he saw our eyes open, he says "Good Morning Mommy! Good morning Daddy!" Just then, Koa came over and fenagled his way in between me and Bill (he has great skill in fenagling his way into wherever he wants to get!) and Kai says "Good Morning Kokodrillo!" So cute! Then he brought me a book to read and when I finished, Kai closed the book and said "Amen!" Thats right Kai, Amen...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Kai & Koa's Disney on Ice experience while we were in Vegas!

2008-11-19T09:51:00.000-08:00

Ben & Melissa took Kai & Koa to Disney on Ice the saturday we were in Vegas. They had a blast! Here are some comments Kai made:
Kai: (about Its a small world) Thats AWESOME!

Kai: (about one of the princesses) "Shes BEAUTIFUL!"
Ben: What did you say?
Kai: Shes Beautiful! Just like my mommy!

Awww! Isn't that just precious? Koa loved the whole thing too- except for the Genie in Aladdin! I guess that scared him. I'm just glad they had a good time while we were having a good time too.

Our anniversary in LAS VEGAS!!!!!!

2008-11-16T23:00:00.000-08:00

Okay, so 2 weeks ago, Bill went to Vegas for a SEMA convention. I was so upset he went without me I didn't talk to him for 2 days. Then something unexpected happened! When he came back, he asked me if I had plans for the weekend of the 15th. I told him I did! He then asked me if I could cancel or reschedule those plans. I asked him Why? It turned out that Bill had planned an early trip for us for our 9th anniversary!

It was AMAZING! Bill kept me in the dark about the whole trip except for the dates (Friday, the 14th- Sunday, the 16th) and the fact that it was in Vegas. Even up until today, I had no clue what was coming next! Right from the get-go when we got off the plane in Vegas, Bill was acting a little suspect. When we got to the baggage claim area, I understood! Bill had hired a Limo to pick us up! She was holding up a sign that had our names on it and everything! It was pretty cool! I couldn't stop smiling! Our chaufeur then drove us to our hotel- another detail I didn't have a clue about! When we pulled up to Mandalay Bay I was SOOOOO excited! It was too early to check in so we left the bags with the bellhops and walked the strip. When I say we walked the strip, I mean literally the entire strip, from one end to the other! Bill had gone to the great Italian restaurant on his last trip and wanted to find it again. However, he didn't know exactly where it was. So we walked til we found it! It took us around 2 hours! But we found it! The food was delicious and totally worth it! The restaurant was next to a mall, so we went inside and I had fun shopping for Bill! He let me choose out a shirt, jacket and shoes for him! After that, we took a taxi back to our hotel to check in. Bill didn't want me around while he did that to keep things a surprise, so I went and played some slots to kill the time. I played $20 and won over $100, but didn't quit so I ended up losing it all! Of course! So Bill came and found me and then we headed up to the room. Only it wasn't just a room! It was a suite on the 2nd to the top floor! Next to the penthouse! It was really cool! And once again, I was totally blown away and couldn't stop smiling!

Prior to going to Vegas, Bill told me I could choose one show to go to. I chose Mamma Mia! Luckily, Mamma Mia is in Mandalay Bay so we got discounted tickets. So we went to book it for the next night since there were no shows on Friday night. After booking the show, we went back to the room to get ready for the night Bill had planned for us that night. He told me we had to dress nice so I assumed it was a show. We took a taxi to the Stratosphere and I just followed Bill wherever he was going. We got in an elevator and went up 107 floors! We got out and we were at The Top of the World restaurant! Its a restaurant at the top of the Stratosphere that rotates slowly around! Bill had made reservations long ago for this evening! There was also a live band, a professional photographer and excellent food! The waiter told us that the chef there is the highest paid chef in Vegas! This was really a special experience for me! When I was younger, there was this restaurant in Hawaii called John Dominis. It was THE restaurant to go to. I remember thinking, one day I will be rich enough to go to that restaurant. So I never went to John Dominis but I did get to go somewhere even better! And with someone I love!

It was soooo romantic! We had a candle lit dinner and we had a table right next to the window, so we could see the city as we went around! We both had steaks and they were mouthwatering delicious!!!!!! It was great just to hang out with the love of my life enjoying the atmosphere and food and company!

The next day, we just relaxed! After walking the strip the day before, our frail old and unexercised bodies had taken a slight beating. Between that and not really having a break for so long Bill needed a day to just relax. So, while he slept in til early afternoon, I read Eclipse, book 3 in the Twilight series (I'm addicted!) After Bill woke up, we went to a Sushi joint in the middle of the casino in Mandalay Bay. After eating, we went back and got dressed up again and then headed down to go to Mamma Mia! I was super super excited! In case you didn't know, I've always dreamed about doing a Broadway Musical one day. My happiest memories from high school were the musicals I did! Anyway, back to Mamma Mia- We had AWESOME seats! We were 8 rows up and dead center! We were literally eye-level with the actors! We were so close we could see their "hidden" microphones, every facial expression, the slight body language nuances, and best of all, the musicians in the pit! they were seriously the perfect seats. Any closer and we would have had to look up and wouldn't have been able to see the musician pit. Any further back and it wouldn't have seemed so intimate! Perfect! I had never seen Mamma Mia - even the movie - so it was fun to see it with fresh eyes and without any expectations! Even Bill was able to feign enjoyment at times! Plus, I love ABBA! I was dancing through out the whole show! I swear the actors could see me because they would make eye contact with me! After it was over, I was on such a high!

Bill and I walked the casino and made our way to the Luxor. We were looking for a steak place to eat dinner at and saw a restaurant called American Bistro. Sounded good, so we went in and got seated. They brought us our drinks and told us that the waiter would bring us the menu. Finally after 10 minutes and speaking to the water guy, our waiter came and brought us the menus. The reason they waited to bring the menu was because they had to explain how to use them. The explanation? Its a la carte and every item is 2 oz each. And they only serve one item at a time. Yes, that is what we waited 1o minutes for. Then when we looked at the menu, there wasn't really anything "American" on it! There was sushi and some other weird stuff! We didn't want any of that so we asked for the check and left. I think it must have been one of those trendy restaurants. It sure had a blase name for a trendy restaurant. It was really misleading. So we left and found a real steak place! It was super delicious! They had new zealand grain fed beef, american kobe beef, japanese kobe beef and others! Now thats what I call a steak house! After dinner, we played a few more slots and then went back to our room. We had a jacuzzi in our room, so we relaxed in the jacuzzi and enjoyed each others company. We got ready for bed and then Bill watched tv and I finished Eclipse! Awesome day!

The next morning, we woke at 8 am because Bill had a surprise for me at 8:30. We got in the elevator and when I attempted to get out at the lobby, he held me back. We went to the floor below the lobby- the pool, beach and spa. When we headed towards the spa, I was blown away! We were taken into the separate women's and men's spa to relax until our appointment at 9. There was complimentary snacks and drinks, every temperature pool you could want, a sauna, waterfalls, cucumbers for your eyes, and a very comfy robe (a little long on my short body, but comfy nontheless!) and slippers. It was soooo relaxing. When 9 came around, Bill and I met up again in the lobby of the spa and we were taken to a room for a couples massage! I chose the hot stones massage and Bill chose the deep tissue. It was sooo relaxing I fell asleep a couple of times! It didn't last long enough! But it was still awesome!

After leaving the spa we went back to our room and packed. We checked our bags with the bellhops and went to the casino. We ate breakfast at the House of Blues ( I had one of the best omelets of my life!). Bill isn't fond of gambling, so while I stayed in the casino and played the slots, he went to see the shark reef aquarium. Bill and I both had been to the aquarium twice previously, so I didn't feel the need to go again. Bill on the other hand, can never turn down an opportunity to see aquariums! After the aquarium, we met up and went to the bookstore. We bought Breaking Dawn (the 4th book of the Twilight series) and we sat in the food court while I read Breaking Dawn and Bill read a magazine. After an hour, we headed back to the luggage pickup and got our bags. A limo was already waiting to take us back to the airport. AWESOME! Part of me didn't want to leave this perfect weekend behind and another part of me couldn't wait to get home to see my kids! After 9 years of marriage, Bill still loves me and I still love him and even better, we get to share this love with our wonderful sons!

Random pictures & videos

2008-11-04T20:04:00.000-08:00

I'm a little blogged out (4 posts in 2 days!), so here are some pics of Kai & Koa.

Kai likes to take pictures and he'll get a pretty good one once in a while. His favorite things to take pictures of are Koa, our yorkies, me, Bill, & his favorite tv shows on the screen - in that order. Here is one he got of Koa:
Melissa has started working as a consultant for Taste of Home Entertaining and had a expo she worked. We got to watch cute baby Braden for a day! There was a 10 minute period during the day where Braden was crying and then Koa was crying partially because Braden was and also partially because I was holding Braden! So I was trying to juggle them both at one point and Kai went and got the camera and took this picture! I didn't even ask him or tell him to! He just wanted a picture! So cute!

Kai loves playing with Braden!
My boys both LOVE when Uncle Aaron come over!

Kai refused to wear his light up goggles that went with the costume and Koa refused to wear his cowboy hat. But, it still worked!

Woody & Buzz: Best Friends

Bill & Kai's seahorses

Some videos for your enjoyment!

Adorable, right?

So apparently I still had some bloggin' left in me! But now I'm done!

Kai's 2nd 4th birthday!

2008-10-19T22:05:00.000-07:00

We had another party for Kai the Sunday after his actual birthday. The reason behind this second party was that we didn't invite Bill's grandma's to CEC as one of them is on oxygen 31 (i.e. 24/7 - if you watched Two & a Half Men you'd understand!) We also hadn't invited any of our friends or family from Provo or SLC because they wouldn't have been able to make it up to Layton on a Monday (& school) night. So we had this 2nd party. It was quite the contrast from CEC! It was more laid back, you could actually hear each other without having to scream from a foot away from someone and my cousin Jamie set the mood playing mellow songs on her new ukulele. I was so busy cooking that I didn't get to take very many pics. So here is what I got:

This was really cute! Kai insisted his twin brother from another mother Kimball help him open his presents!

Aren't they just two peas in a pod?!

Grandpa helping them put together one of the toys

Grandma coming to the rescue!

Grandpa & Grandma Griffiths; Ben (#2 - he was born later), Melissa, & Braden; Ali; Michelle & Jeremy; Kathy, Kala & Kawena; Janzell & Ben (#1); Nathan; Jamie; Denise, Erik & Kimball were all in attendance.

Kai's 4th Birthday!!!!

2008-10-13T22:04:00.000-07:00

Kai turned 4 years old on October 12th! When we woke up that morning, there was 4 inches of snow on the ground! It was pretty cool.

Since it was Sunday and there was snow, we stayed inside and and just relaxed. Ben came over because Melissa and Braden were visiting AZ. We watched TV, played Mario Kart Wii and made cookies!

As you can see Koa was eating more than he was helping, but it was still cute! We were making peanut butter cookies with m&ms on them. It's a good thing I bought a big bag of m&ms because we all were eating them on the side as well (myself included)!

The next morning, Kai celebrated his birthday with his preschool class. Miss Mary had me bring pictures of Kai to show the classmates and a snack. I brought fruit rollups and a birthday face cake from Sam's club. Here are some pics:

We decided to have his birthday party that evening at Chuck E Cheese's for a couple of reasons. #1: We had just left him for a week to go on our trip. #2: A new Chuck E Cheese's had just opened in Layton. #3: We knew Kai would LOVE it!

Before we left on our trip to Mexico we asked Kai who he wanted to invite to his party. It was really cute. He actually did give us names of who he wanted there!

We booked a birthday party with C.E.C. for the 13th because it was a monday night and we thought it wouldn't be busy. Boy were we wrong! Apparently C.E.C. is busy all the time because it was so new! In fact after I came back from Mexico, I looked into maybe moving his party date and found that CEC was booked for 2 whole months without any openings at all except for on Sundays!

So back to the party. The Hogge's came, the Dee's came, the Sillito's came, and Aaron, Ben, Melissa, Tarra, Paige, Huner, Dave, & Courtney. It was a zoo! But soooo much fun! We had a whole reserved table, a dedicated server and tokens for everyone to play with. We had pizza, sandwiches, and cake! In fact, CEC himself came out to sing happy birthday to Kai. It turns out Kai is a little afraid of huge costumes. He was pretty scared of Chuck. And to make matters worse, their own special birthday song they sing is like 5 minutes long! It was almost torture for Kai! Although I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, here is what I've got:

My life didn't flash before my eyes. I just thought "This is it. This is the end..."

2008-10-05T12:40:00.000-07:00

WARNING: I have been working on this post for about one month because I didn't want to forget or leave out anything! Because of this, beware: this post is LONG!!!!

Our Mexico trip was everything you love in a great movie: Romance, fun, excitement, action, comedy, beautiful scenery, and of course a near-death experience! I'll get to that in a little bit though.

We first flew into San Diego where Pro Comp (the company Bill won the trip from) sent a 6" lifted Tahoe to pick us up. Dave - one of the higher ups from Pro Comp was there personally and was impressed that I could get into their Tahoe without any help!

He then drove us to the Marriott in the Gaslamp district. Apparently its the happenin' place in San Diego. Our room was gorgeous and very comfortable. We didn't even know what to do with ourselves since we didn't have any kids! So what did we do? We called them of course! Especially since we were going to be out of cell phone range for the week. After we knew for sure that our kids weren't going to burn our house down and weren't going to die of broken hearts without us, we decided to scope out Gaslamp.

We were told that 5th street was the place to be so thats where we headed first. Surprisingly, it was pretty dead. Then again, it was also a monday at 1 pm. When we went back at night again for Sushi, it was a little busier, but not much.
The next morning we met all the other guys who were going on the trip too. Some of them were at the hotel and the rest of them met up with us at the ProComp factory. There were 15 of us total. And I was the only female! Bill actually won 2 trips, one for me and one for him. All the other guys only had 1 trip each. So thats why no other wives were there.

After touring the factory (which was HUGE and VERY interesting!) we headed over the border. We stopped at a restaurant called La Fonda for lunch. When we pulled up to it I kinda giggled because it made me think of Napoleon Dynamite! Anywho, La Fonda was awesome. The seafood was fresh, the chips were homemade and we sat right off of the beach. Anyone who knows me would know that I LOVE beaches! In fact, beaches are the number one thing I miss about Hawaii (my family is a very close second!)

The beach at LaFonda

The Guys at LaFonda

After a nice and relaxing lunch and a mexican coke (so much better than USA's because they use real sugar cane!) we headed to our starting point for the "race"- Horsepower Ranch. There we saw where the baja vehicles are built. It was really interesting. Because Bill and I are husband and wife, they put us in the honeymoon suite! The resort wasn't super fancy, but a cute rustic ranch. The food was DELICIOUS!!!! The staff was super friendly and they really took care of us.

We had an orientation and watched an instructional/safety video. The rest of the night we just hung around the lobby and got to know each other better. I started playing ping pong with one of the crew members and had a blast. We also found out one of the guys on the trip was also LDS (Wayne) so we were happy to know we weren't going to be the only ones not drinking (as that is traditionally a big part of this trip!) As it turned out, there were a handful of us that didn't drink. Which was good as half of our group went to have a night on the town that night i.e. drink! The rest of us hung out and talked or played ping pong or darts. There wasn't power wired there so they had a generator going which turned off at 10 pm. That was a good thing though since we were going to have a 7 am start the next day!

Believe it or not, I was actually up EARLY!! I guess it was all the excitement! As we got situated we realized I wouldn't be able to reach the clutch even with the chair as forward as possible. So they pulled out a cushion made just for that reason. What they didn't expect though is that even with the cushion, I still couldn't push the clutch in all the way! So I ended up having TWO cushions! The guys all teased me about having my own personal couch to sit on while driving! As we started going, we had a trial run to test the driving and radio skills. See, we were driving in a caravan style. There was the lead car which had our 2 guides (Sto and Bozo) then following them was car 1, then car 2, and then all the way to car 8. The guide would go a mile or so ahead of the first car and then relay big rocks in the trail, ditches, which way to turn etc. We all had navigation systems in our cars and we would sync them so when he said to turn left at mile 3.7 we would know exactly where we had to go. The lead car would tell car 1, then car 1 would relay it to car 2 and so on so forth. The reason we had to do that is because there were times when the lead car and the last car would be separated by 4 miles or so and the radios would not be able to transmit that far. We were separated by that much because we couldn't drive in the dust of the car in front of us so we would wait at every stop point until the other car was 30 sec or so in front. Here are all the cars lined up at one of our stop points:

Here is a pic of Bill and I together that first day:

The reason I know it was the first day was because that was the only day we drove together! Yes, you read that right. You know the old cliche of a husband and wife driving somewhere trying to find a place and arguing every step of the way? Well imagine that times 10! Thats what happened to us as we were trying to follow the trail, listen to the radio, transmit the instructions to the next car as well as your driver and trying to drive without going off a cliff! It probably didn't help matters that Bill's helmet wasn't working properly and couldn't hear anyone except me! I swear we were ready to kill each other! In a loving way of course! Throughout the day all the drivers and co-drivers would switch spots at bathroom breaks. Speaking of which, yes, we went to the bathroom like neanderthals - out in the wilderness. It was a little harder for me than the guys though because I had to find something to hide behind and usually it was a cactus so I had to watch what I was doing or else I could get skewered (which I did a couple of times!) The guys would just walk a couple of steps away and just go! I swear everywhere I turned during those breaks all I saw were guys peeing!

Anyway, that was kind of a long tangent! So, whenever we would stop we would switch drivers. When it was my turn to drive I had a blast! I would go faster than Bill was comfortable with so cue more arguing! The guys would later tease Bill that I was a better driver because the cars behind us didn't have to wait as long as they did when Bill was driving! Well, one time we were driving and looking for a pipe in the road that the car in front of us warned about and we were going up a hill and I went fast so we could catch some air. I figured it was safe because no one warned us about any sharp turns or anything, so I went for it! Unfortunately, as we were flying up over the hill in the air, I saw that there WAS a sharp turn afterwards and we were headed off a cliff! My life didn't flash before my eyes like they say in the movies and on TV. I just thought "This is it. This is the end..." I was absolutely sure I was going to die. All I could see were the huge boulders at the bottom of the cliff which I was sure we were going to roll into once we landed. Time seemed to stand still as we were flying through the air. Suddenly we hit the ground and I hit the brakes. We had landed at a 45ish degree angle sideways. I kept leaning upwards toward the top of the hill trying to keep the weight on my side so we wouldn't fall down to the bottom (which was Bill's side). Bill undid all his harnesses and jumped out and took off his helmet.

We radioed everyone to alert them that we were off the trail and on the side of a cliff. They asked me if I was okay and tried to ask Bill if he was okay but I told them that he couldn't hear them because he was out of the car and had taken off his helmet. Later the guys would tell me they thought I meant that he had been thrown out and his helmet had come off. Eventually they found us (we had taken a wrong turn somewhere before that hill and so they couldn't find us at the mile marker we told them because our route was different than theirs. After lots of pictures of my folly (not to mention the teasing), our crew towed our car off the cliff and continued on. At lunch, everyone kept teasing me good naturedly. I just smiled and took it in. After all, I did almost roll the baja over a cliff! After lunch, it was Bill's turn to drive. After we were on the trail for a couple of hours, we heard some of the cars in front of us alerting the following cars to watch for a big dip at mile 26.7. As we approached that marker, I saw the dip and some weird stuff all around it like a backpack and pieces of something. A split second later, I looked past the ditch and saw this:

Except no people around it but one of the guys still strapped in upside down and the other guy crawling out of the front window. I immediately called out on the radio that car six had flipped! Then as fast as we could got unstrapped and ran to help the guys. Luckily, there wasn't any super serious damage. The driver, Mason, had a few bruises where the harnesses were on his shoulders. The co-driver- I can't think of his name right now- had the same bruises but also was hurt in his arm. He can take it though. Shortly before he came on this trip, he was racing his dirtbike and crashed and got ran over by another bike. He had this mean old wound on his back that looked like he'd been stabbed! Anyway, back to the crash in Mexico.

Our crew was able to get a replacement vehicle and flip the crashed one back over and was able to load it up on a trailer. The only good thing about this was that I was no longer the butt of all the jokes! At least my crash wasn't a crash and didn't cause any damage to anyone or anything! I could have, but was lucky! After we got everything in order, we finally resumed our trek to San Felipe.

San Felipe is a cute town on the coast. When we got there, we were assigned rooms and we all went swimming. Some in the ocean and some in the pool. I opted for the pool because they had a bar there. Yes, I am a heavy drinker! Just kidding. They made me VIRGIN margaritas. They were awesome. Also, after a hot sweaty day in the dust, the pool just seemed more refreshing and clean.

After swimming, we all got ready and went for dinner and a night out on the town. We walked about 10 minutes to this restaurant reknowned for its shrimp. After driving all day, it was kind of nice to walk. During dinner, Loren, the head honcho of ProComp and the guy who gave us these trips took me aside and told me how glad he was that I came on this trip. It was kind of cool.

When we were done eating, the non-drinkers (about 5 of us) headed back to the hotel while the rest of them stayed there. Bill and I were pretty tired, so we just went to sleep.

The next day, I woke up at like 5 and couldn't get back to sleep. So I went and sat out on the beach and just watched the waves roll in and out. The seagulls were out trying to catch the fish that were flying out of the water and the fishing boats were way out casting their nets. I just sat there and took in the calm beauty of it all. I watched the sun rise too. Here are some pictures I took of that peaceful dawn.

On this day Bill went in Dave's car and I went with Loren. We figured we wanted to go with experienced drivers so we could see how far you could push the bajas and how to get the hang of it. After driving with Loren for a few minutes, I knew we had made the right decision! Loren was much more patient and since he knew what he was doing, he taught me how to know when I could go faster and when to pull back. Same for Bill and Dave. And as an added bonus, Bill and I weren't fighting, but enjoying ourselves for once! I know this makes us sound dysfunctional, but oh well! Maybe we are a little! We still hung out at all the breaks and later at the next ranch. See?

During day 2 of the "race", we ran into some federalis. Apparently, they were on the side of the trail and when the lead car went past them (going super fast since they knew the trail) the federalis (who were on foot) started running after them with their oozies. The lead car saw them and immediately stopped. I guess the federalis thought we were drug or gun or human traffikers since we were going so fast. It was a good thing one of our crew guys who spoke English and Spanish carried around lots of water and treats for us, because he offered them to the federalis as a sort of peace offering and to help them be more understanding as we explained what we were doing there. After the federalis were appeased, we continued on. It was still a little unsettling to see these mexican guys wearing camo and carrying machine guns!

That night we went to Mike's Sky Ranch. We had traveled up a mountain that day so we were at a higher elevation and it was quite a bit cooler, which was actually refreshing! I was still hot from the day so I put on my swim suit and dived off the diving board into the pool. I felt like I was doing the polar bear jump! It was FREEZING!!! I'm surprised the pool didn't have ice in it! I tried to stay in it for awhile hoping I would get adjusted to it, but no, my legs just got numb and I started losing feeling in my body. So I got out. The funny thing is that in our group we had 3 Canadians who we teased a lot for being, well, canadian! Mason, Kelly and Adam had gone swimming with me at both San Felipe and at Mike's Sky Ranch. At San Felipe, they were complaining that the pool wasn't cool enough where I thought it was just perfect! At Mike's Sky Ranch I was freezing, but they thought that they were in heaven! I don't think I ever want to live in Canada if that freezing body of water they called a pool was considered refreshing!

This is the driveway up to Mike's Sky Ranch

This is the courtyard around the pool at Mike's Sky Ranch

After I got out and changed into warmer clothes, we all sat around the pool and listened to music (Adam had brought his ipod and a speaker set) and hung out and talked. It would have been nice except that there were incessant flies bothering us! As the outside temperature cooled down quite a bit, the flies began to disappear. We ate dinner (another yummy authentic mexican meal) inside the dining room and then went back outside to enjoy the clean air. Thats when Bozo broke out his margarita machine he made out of a blender and a motorcycle engine. To make the blender work, you have to rev the motorcycle handles like you're driving one! He let me play with it which was a huge deal because he usually doesn't let anyone work it! Bozo made margarita after margarita and it was kind of funny to watch some of the guys lose theirselves as they got more and more drunk! I had never been around people who drink so this was a new experience for me! Luckily they were loving drunks, not angry drunks! It was seriously hilarious! At 10 pm the generator turned off so we all headed to bed. We used flashlights and candles to find our way around and do our night routines. I love that feeling, you know the same one you get when you're out camping in the wilderness! Everything is silent and peaceful and you see more stars that you ever have before. Man I really miss it.

This is the motorcycle blender & me driving it

Behind me are 2 of the canadians, Mason & Kelly

The next day, we woke up had a great breakfast in which our crew kept stuffing food into Sto's pockets without him noticing while he was talking to me. I knew they were doing it so I was deliberately distracting him. Pranks were flying throughout our trip - mostly between the crew members! There was a new crewmember and they were initiating him- mostly with pranks! It kept the trip quite fun actually. They threw him in several pools and dumped water on him a couple of times too. And other stuff I can't remember right now!

After we had breakfast, we headed out and continued on our last leg of the race. We were returning back to Horsepower Ranch. This day, there weren't any major incidents. I did lose control of the baja once and spun out off the road and then got stuck in a ditch while trying to get back onto the trail. But I wasn't the only one who got stuck that day, so I didn't feel bad. Here is one of the other cars that got stuck in a ditch. Also for the record, the guys in that car had come on this trip 4 other times.

For about 20 minutes before we got to the ranch, we drove on the paved freeway. I was the co- driver at the time and since we didn't need the radio on the freeway, I relaxed and actually fell asleep. I guess even after we arrived at the ranch, I was still sleeping soundly because Bill showed me all the pictures everyone took of me sleeping in the baja vehicle. In my defense, in order to ride in those vehicles that bounce around constantly and not get motion sick (which I get really bad even in normal vehicles on paved roads) I had to go on some medicine. The medicine would make me fall asleep when I was tired and relaxing. Between that and my "couch" of a seat I was riding on, it was really easy to fall asleep. The guys were teasing Loren that he must be a mild driver if I could fall asleep in one of those cars!

At Horsepower, we ate showered, ate dinner and filled out customer satisfaction surveys. Once again, the dinner was delicious! Out of all our great meals on this trip, Horsepower Ranch had the best food. After we were done, we all boarded the shuttle back over the border. We had to get out of the shuttle and physically walk over the border after going through customs. Once we were over the border, everyone and I mean EVERYONE of us pulled out our cell phones and started calling our families. One of the guys - Ryan- said loudly, "Does anyone have a cell phone? Anyone? Anyone?" It was a pretty funny sight.

I was absolutely amazed at the news I got from Melissa! She told me that Koa had done just fine with them and that Kai wanted to stay at the Sillitos the entire time! He slept there and everything! I was definitely relieved to say the least!

Most of the guys were headed home on flights that evening. Bill and I and the canadians were all staying the night at the Marriott again and then headed home the next day. So we all went to dinner after checking in. We went to 5th Avenue again and it being a Friday night, was soooooo different than it had been on Monday! It was like being at Mardi Gras! There were lines out the doors of every restaurant, Hare Krishnas walking the entire strip back and forth, cars cruising the strip including billboard size lighted ad signs being towed on trailers behind trucks and even a walking carnival! There was the fat lady, the tall skinny man on stilts, a unicyclist, a guy walking on a ball, and some other guys. Then there were also cheerleaders wearing skimpy uniforms asking diners sitting in the outdoor areas of the restaurants trying to get donations for whatever cause they were working for. It was CRAZY! Yet, oddly fun! It was a nice evening spent with the Canadians, who incidently were my favorites from the whole trip. The next day we said our goodbyes and headed home.

This is our group picture. When we took it, 2 of the guys were already in their car and didn't want to get unharnessed for it so I took a pic of them in their car.

This is most of our crew

This is Sto and Bozo

This is Danny. He was the guy who helped with most of the mechanical issues like our helmets and my problem of being able to reach the clutch. It was kind of weird to see a white guy only be able to speak Spanish.

What a trip! Every time I think about it I just smile and relive the fun. As it is 1:30 am right now, I'm going to have to edit this later and add the pics then too. But Hoo- rah (say it like Marines) I finished this post. Finally.

Fruit basket, story telling & fun videos!

2008-09-17T09:03:00.000-07:00

Amazing right?! Two posts within one week! Both Kai & Koa did something cute in the last two days so I wanted to note it for posterity before I forgot!

On Monday night, we had a family home evening at our house with Brock, Allison, Mason, Zach, Calvin, Ben, Melissa, & Braden. It was a lot of fun. We had dinner then Melissa did the lesson on family - it was a cute lesson so I'm going to digress! She compared a family to ingredients of a cake (in our case it was brownie cookie bars). She asked them if the ingredients would taste good by themselves. Of course not! But, if we mix them all together (she had them all mix them in bowls) it becomes a delicious brownie cookie bar! Brock jokingly asked who was which ingredients and they were naming who would be the chocolate. So I spoke up and I said if anyone should be the chocolate, it would be me since I have brown skin! I said I ate so much chocolate thats why I have brown skin! Mason and Zach looked at me in awe and wonder believing me & I started laughing and said I was joking but they didn't look like they believe me! Brock and Allison (who were also laughing) said that they just knew that the boys would be laying in bed that night continuing to wonder if that was true or not!

Okay back to where I left off. After the lesson and closing song (Koa loved singing along even though he didn't sing words!) Allison had us play games. We played fruit basket! We had some interesting fruits in our fruit basket! Lychee (that was mine) guava, boisenberry, papaya and of course banana, orange & apple. We had a chair set in front of the tv so that we could kind of have a circle to play with. It was a blast!

After we were fruit basketed out, we just sat around talking. So Kai put his booster seat onto the chair in front of the tv and climbed into it. Then he said "Let me tell you a story, once upon a time, firebird trapped in a cave. then he trapped in a cave and lost. He dropped a firebird feather and it flew away to rockets house. " (I couldn't remember exactly what he said last night, so I just told him to tell me the story again and thats what he told me) The way he told it to us was so animated! He is a great story teller! He had great voice inflections and facial expressions! For your information, the story he was telling us is a Little Einsteins movie. It was really cute! Then he went and grabbed a book and started reading it to us - showing us the pictures and everything! When he was done, he closed the book and said AAA-MEN. By this time I had grabbed our video camera and was ready when he got another book. This next book he took a lot longer to read because sometimes he flipped the pages one way and then other times he flipped them the other way! It was still cute and he still finished by saying AA-Men! Allison and Brock still wanted to stay and watch him but by this time it was 10:30 ish at night so they had to leave. Then Kai brought me a book and I started reading to him and he fell sound asleep before it was even done. It was a cute, fun night!

Yesterday, when we went to Bill's office I had my hands full so I couldn't carry Koa so he walked behind me. As we entered the warehouse, Justin was walking in from the opposite direction and said something like "Hi bud!" to Koa. Koa broke out in a huge grin and started running towards him like he was going to hug him! But at the last minute, he stopped inches in front of Justin, turned around and squatted above Justin's feet like he was farting or trying to poop on them! It was hilarious! Whats even funnier is Bill installed security cameras just the other day, so its caught on video! Maybe we'll enter it on America's funniest videos or something!

Wow, I sure write a lot don't I? Oh well, better more to remember than less!

Family in town

2008-09-15T00:23:00.000-07:00

It's past midnight so I'm just going to jot a few things that happened so that I don't forget!

Last weekend, Bob, Krista & Jackson came to Utah just because they wanted to and because Delta had a sale! Kai LOVES playing with Jackson! It's really cute! We had fun hanging out with them! I made my Chocolate Trifle and put it in my Pampered Chef Trifle bowl for our sunday dessert.

Doesn't that look delicious?

Then, this weekend, Brock, Allison, Mason, Zach & Calvin came partly for work and partly to escape Hurricane Ike (they live in Houston). At first, only Brock was going to come but at the last minute, they all decided to come. Its a good thing too because they currently don't have power or water at their home in Houston and they don't have any idea when they'll get either back! In fact, one of their friends called them yesterday and told them that they were driving around in their car because their kids were bored so they're watching a movie in there while finally sitting in an air conditioned area and charging their cell phones! Man, the things we take for granted!

Yesterday, Brock's family and me and Kai and Koa went to the BYU/UCLA football game in Provo. It was a blast! It was sold out but Brock had tickets for his fam he had purchased earlier. So I found a couple of scalpers and bought tickets for our fam. It was a fun game but man it was HOT! No shade is no fun - even in the low 70 degree temp we were having yesterday! I spent more than I would normally buying drinks and ice cream! But it was well worth it! Did I mention BYU won 59 - 0? It was amazing!

Both Kai & Koa were really cute during the game! Kai was so hot, he wouldn't keep his shirt on. Koa, on the other hand, just lay back and enjoyed the shade provided by the slightly larger woman standing next to him! He just lay down, head on the diaper bag with the popcorn bag on his stomach and ate his snack while relaxing! I took pics so I'll have to upload it later!

On the ride down to Provo, Kai said the cutest thing! He was playing with Mason & Zach in the back row of Dave's Tahoe and they were being rowdy little boys as usual. Suddenly Kai starts yelling in an attention getting voice "Lorinda! Lorinda! Lorinda!" As if that wasn't funny enough, when I asked him what he needed, he said "Mommy, I need chopsticks." Everyone bust out laughing really hard! But not Kai! He was dead serious and a little annoyed that we were laughing at his request! Eventually he just started laughing with us. Too cute!

We finally bit the bullet and bought a Wii. I'm addicted to Mario Kart. We haven't even had it for a week and I've unlocked almost all the games in all the levels! I also am participating in a little fantasy football with some of my family! It's fun!

We bought an Emperor something or other fish from Aquatic Dreams. It is a gorgeous fish! I'll have to take a picture later and post it. He's very sociable and is nice to our other fish in that tank (2 black clown fishes and an orange anthius).

Koa said "bottle" today for the first time!

I'm really tired so I think thats all for now!
Goodnight!

Our recent happenings...

2008-09-06T12:42:00.000-07:00

Here are a few moments I wanted to note:

On August 14, 2008 Kai learned how to say his full name! What is it you ask? You can ask Kai as he is so proud and is willing to tell anyone and everyone his full name! But just for the record, his full name is Ryan Keali'iokekai Ying-Long Griffiths. And yes, he actually does pronounce it correctly! Even more so than Bill! LOL! I wanted to note this because everyone always asks me when I learned how to say my full name when I was a kid and I have no idea when. This way, Kai will have an answer for people when they ask him!

I don't remember when, but since my last blog, Kai learned how to pedal his tricycle, so we bought him a little bike with training wheels. He loves it!

We went to Arizona at the end of July for Bill's brother Ben's baby Braden's baby blessing (how about all those b's!) and for Bill's other brother Kevin's missionary farewell. We played Wii and hung out at the pool most of the time! All of Bill's brothers were there with their families, so it was a fun mini reunion!

The following week, Ben, Melissa and Braden moved up to Utah since Ben works with Bill. They rented an apartment in Ogden so we helped them move in. We've had lots of fun with them since they moved up here! I'm sure some of our fun times are to follow in this blog!

We went to Las Vegas for a short trip with Ben, Melissa, Braden and Aaron and met up with Bryan from ReadyLift and his family. Bill had to go for a business meeting so we all packed up and went for fun. We rented a house in Henderson with 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, a private pool, hot tub and a pool table. We had a blast. We stopped at the M&M factory and Game Works and spent some of our winnings there playing games. On a side note, Virtual Bowling sucks!!! Aaron and I tried to play a game and it didn't even register the bowling ball path correctly! Back to our winnings, yes, we sinned and loved every minute of it! I won 800% of what I spent! I played a $0.25 slot machine 6 times and won $8.00 after only starting off with $1.00. Not too bad! But not as good as Bill either! Bill took Aaron (who was the only unmarried and kidless person in our party) to the strip early one morning while the rest of us slept in with the kids. Shortly after everyone had woken up, Bill called my cell phone and all I could hear was clink clink clink clink clink clink clink clink clink clink etc. Bill had won the jackpot and won 20,000 credits! The funny part is that he was playing a nickel machine so 20,000 credits ended up being $92.00! Still, winning $92 is better than losing $92! All in all, it was a fun road trip!

On Sept. 2nd, Kai started preschool at Mary's Little Scholars in Kaysville. He loves it! He is going with 2 of our neighbors, Hailey Sillito and Jackson Stott. Its funny because just from 2 days of school, the 3 of them have become best of friends. Yesterday after school, they continued to keep playing together riding their bikes around our cul-de-sac and jumping between our houses until 6 pm. When we separated them, they all started throwing tantrums because they didn't want to stop playing!

Yesterday Bill finally got his big red sign on his building making us so much more noticable from the street and easier to find! It looks REALLY good! It looks so official too! See?

Today me and the kids drove up to the office and Kai said "Mommy! Daddy got a red sign! Lets read the letters! Uh, S, uh B, uh zero, uh B, uh uh T, uh A, uh F!" He said it so triumphantly it was cute! Then I asked him "What does that spell?" He cheered back "Daddy's Office Building!" It was adorable! (In case you didn't catch what Kai was spelling, he spelled Fat Bob's backwards- substituting a zero for the O!)

As for Koa, hes just the same Koa! Laid back and fearless at the same time. The other day, he had 2 binkies in one hand, another binky in the other, a binky in his mouth and a bottle tucked under his arm! We've decided that his bottle is his wubby. If he's crying all we have to do it hand him a bottle full or empty and he'll stop crying (unless he really is thirsty- then he gets mad!) He thinks everything is a game. If we tell him no, he tries it again and when we go to stop him -again- he starts belly laughing. We have to keep a close eye on him because he will climb anything in sight! One day at the office, the guys left a ladder up and before I knew it, Koa had climbed all the way to the top! He even got down by himself. Don't worry, I was right there to catch him if he fell, but he knew what he was doing! He also loves to run/stand on tables. I have no idea how to stop him from wanting to do this! Then when we were swimming in Vegas, he would copy Kai and just jump in sometimes before I had even recovered from catching Kai! We sure had fun! I have a feeling Koa is going to give me some sleepless nights throughout his life!
He is very cute though, too! He loves to watch Dora, Diego, Little Einsteins, Super Why, and of all things, Family Guy. And out of all those shows, which one do you think makes him belly laugh? If you guessed Family Guy, you would be correct!

As for Bill and I, Bill is the same -working every minute every night and day! As for me, I still go in almost every day and I still teach piano. Melissa and I have been going house shopping for them quite a bit too. It's pretty fun! It almost makes me want to buy another house! The big news for me and Bill is that we are going on a trip to Mexico! We're going to take a baja tour in Ensenada! Here are 2 links- one is the actual website of the company that we're going with and the other is a youtube video of some guys who went on the exact tour we're going to go on. The trip is at the end of September and I can't wait! Bill and I have never had a real honeymoon or vacation without family, kids, or friends, so this will be our first! Melissa will be watching Koa and the Sillitos have offered to watch Kai and take him to preschool. Kai will be in heaven! Not so sure on Koa, but hes the most familiar with Melissa so if anyone has a chance, Melissa does! It's the first time we're leaving him overnight with anyone else so this should indeed be interesting. I know you think I forgot about the website links, but you're wrong!

http://www.wideopenbaja.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD8n1P5UQkM&feature=related

Here are some pics from Kai's first day at preschool

Okay, I think I've got most things caught up on. TTFN!

I forgot a few things... In a period of 3 weeks, 3 of our cars were in accidents. Logan was driving our Jeep Wrangler when he ran a stop sign and hit a car. The damage was pretty throrough but we had Kevin Wood who owns Precision Body Shop (not Kevin D Wood - one of our employees) fix it up. We had him paint it a different color too which was a good thing- but I'll get back to that later The very next week, Kevin D Wood was driving our GMC Sierra 2500 on the freeway and jackknifed into a trailer . So we called Kevin Wood (not Kevin D Wood) again. The very next week, I was backing up into a parking space at Bill's office in my Toyota Tundra when I backed into a tree. Yes, I have rear sonar sensors (they were unfortunately turned off at the time) AND a rear camera (I have since started using it!). So once again, we called Kevin Wood (and once again, not Kevin D Wood) to help us fix it. Here is where it was a good thing that we changed the paint color on our Wrangler. We matched the color to our Tundra. So since Kevin Wood (not Kevin D Wood - is that getting irritating yet?) had the paint color already, it was relatively easy to fix the truck bed door. But I will never live down the fact that I backed into something with rear sensors and a rear camera!

Here's our wrangler (fixed) and FJ Cruiser

Another car related issue we had was Bill ran a red light in our Chevy Malibu Classic - wait, I've just been corrected by Kevin D Wood. Bill was actually in our FJ Cruiser- thanks Kevin. There also happened to be a cop right there, so Bill pulled over before the cop even turned on his lights. Whats even funnier is that he had been stopped at the light and when a different light turned green he started going! The cop came to his window laughing and asked him "What happened there?!" A funny side note: The cop that pulled him over was husband of my bowling friend who is a bailiff at the District Court where I used to work! In Bill's defense, that intersection he was at is pretty confusing!

Anywho, thats all I have to say about that! And NOW I am done!