July

4th: 

We just wanted to hang out at home and not do much today or entertain any guests. Still unwinding from a long vacation. We had a fire pit at 6pm and made hot dogs. It rained about 7pm-8pm. We put the deck umbrella over the fire and we were fine. Jared and family came over around 8:45pm to pop his fireworks off. We didn't buy any fireworks. Already spent enough money. Mum and Scott and kids came over too after dropping Heather off at the airport. She is going to NY. So much for not entertaining any guests. 

7/5 to 7/11: 

Not much happened this week. Shaun and Lawson came over Tuesday at 8pm to watch the All Blacks play Samoa. ABs won but was a close game. They were pretty rusty and the Samoans were fired up since it was the first time they ever played in Samoa.

7/12 to 7/18: 

Monday I met the Candi, Jaxon, Leila and Erana at the Natural history museum at 11am. It was free ticket day and we got some. I took a few hours off from work. It was fun. They had a temporary extreme mammals exhibit that had some things I'd never seen before such as a life size model of the largest land mammal to ever live. We ate Cafe Rio after before I went back to work. Mina went to Young Women camp Tues to Fri. Candi went the last night. I went to kapahaka for the first time in ages to practice a haka taiaha we are learning for a welcome for Jonah Lomu in a few weeks. It's called Whaia - Kii Mai. Tyrell is learning it too. Friday morning I went and helped Kendra Garcia in her yard and the missionaries came too for a bit. We dug up old wood and stuff from a where a shed used to be. Tyrell helped. Jaxon went on an over night fishing camp to Strawberry Reservoir Friday night. He's getting his fishing badge and went to Willow pond a few times this week. He likes fishing. He came home Saturday morning with 3 good sized rainbow trouts. We baked them Sunday but not very many of us ate them. Leila liked them the most. They have too many little bones, have to get the fleshy bits on the outside.

7/8/15
Erana doing her writing and I said why'd you write an L she goes L is for eLephant!

7/19 to 7/25: 

I had the 23rd off for Pioneer day so we went to Pineview for the night. We ended up at the Magpie camp site down sr 39 because Jefferson Hunt was full. It had a tent area up near the fire pit then another tucked back under the trees nearer the stream. Tyrell setup the smaller tent in that area and he and Mina stayed there. We spent the afternoon at the lake swimming and relaxing. Didn't rent a jet ski this time. Didn't feel like paying for one. It was a nice day. We had hot dogs and marshmallows and stuff and sat around the fire until dark. We had some kind of animal under our tent at night that would bump and poke the floor of the tent. I whacked it a couple times when it woke me up. We went to the park in Huntsville to see if they are doing anything for Pioneer day but there wasn't anything. Just a soccer game. The kids played and we hit the volleyball for a bit at the net. It got hot. We got some shakes before driving home as usual.

 

7/26 to 7/31: 

I had Monday off so ended up with a 5 day weekend which was very nice. But I worked Tues to Fri to cover for my co-worker who is taking Fri off. Can't remember what I did Mon. Must have been nothing much at all. 

California Vacation Day 8

There is construction that has the Virgin river gorge down to one lane so we left at around 6am to beat the traffic. We heard it could backup for a few hours during the weekend traffic. We went through no problem this early. We stopped at Beaver to fill up and get breakfast at Burger King. We ate at the tables at the Cheese factory then went in and got an ice cream. We got home about 12 noon. What a nice vacation. Always seems so fast. It could be the last with all the kids for a while. Tyrell is all grown up and could be off on a mission soon. We relaxed the rest of the day after unpacking. We went on the roof at night to watch people's fireworks.

California Vacation Day 7

We woke early enough to go to breakfast this time. We had cereal, doughnuts, bananas and waffles. We packed up our stuff and prepared for the long drive to Mesquite. I drove first. We left around 10 something. We stopped in Primm and stretched our legs walking around the mall and eating some cajun and chinese food in the food court. It is still hot in Primm. Candi drove us to Mesquite. I slept some during the drive. We stayed in the Virgin River Hotel. We opened one room then Candi and I surprised the kids by going to the room next door and opened the door that joins the rooms. They were surprised and excited to have 2 rooms and 4 beds. The rooms were only $27 so we got 2. They are nice rooms. We got there around 5pm so we had time to swim in the pool which was right out our room. It was nice and warm. Candi swam under water to see how many widths she can do while holding her breath. She came up one time and had a major nip slip. It was funny. Good thing no one else saw but me. There were other people and the kids but they were not looking her way. I told her and she pulls up her top and laughs. Tyrell and Mina stayed in the room.  We went and got dinner from Jack-in-the-box for me and Dominoes pizza for the rest. They got a yummy philly cheese steak pizza. I thought they were going to have pepperoni otherwise I wouldn't have got a burger. We were first going to try a chinese buffet (Candi said it looked scabby), then a 50's diner (expensive) then KFC (missed the turn off). We took it back to our rooms to eat and watch tv then went to sleep early to get up early.

California Vacation Day 6

We slept in today. The longest sleep of the vacation. Woke up around 10:15am. We missed the free breakfast. We got ready to go to Huntington beach and got there around 12pm'ish. We stopped at Burger king for some food first. It was a bit of an overcast day with temps cooler in the 70's I think. Beach wasn't too crowded but had a lot of people. The kids played in the sand and surf. They found lots of sand crabs which don't look like usual crabs. They don't have pincers. Mina and Jaxon got used to the cold water and body surfed and made a friend named Amber.  Jaxon said he saw her bum when the wave pulled her togs down lol. Mina saw a sting ray. Candi and I walked down the beach a bit then I had a little nap on the beach towel. We only stayed until 4:30pm. We had to go back and get ready for our Pirate Dinner Adventure. On the way home we saw a little dachshund dog running through our traffic lanes and the cars ahead stopped. I looked away to keep driving and also knowing it was going to get hit. Candi kept watching and saw it get run over. I heard the thump. Now Candi has a traumatic image in her head and I don't. I asked why she kept looking? I knew it was going to get hit. The kids didn't know where we were going for dinner. It was just across the street from our Hotel. It is for Tyrell's b-day dinner. He got some beads, flag and bandanna, and velvet cake piece for his b-day. We looked around and had snacks they brought around on trays as we waited to get seated. We sat in the green section. Dinner was a chicken leg with thigh attached, steak and veges on a skewer, mashed potatoes, ice cream and brownie. It filled me up. Tyrell's velvet cake slice had a candle in it. The show was good and had some funny parts in it. The kids enjoyed themselves. We went back to the hotel and watched tv until bed time.

California Vacation Day 5 - Tyrell's 18th Birthday

Tuesday, June 30th: 

It's Tyrell's 18th birthday today! Wow, where does the time go? Candi and I wondered what we should do with the van. Get it towed or have a hotel person jump start it? We figured we'd ask for a jump start. After breakfast I went to the front reception about 8:30am. She said the maintenance people won't jump start the car, don't know why but must be a policy they follow. I was frustrated. I figured I'd go try the van anyway and it started up. I was so relieved. Candi said later that she prayed that it would start in the morning. I can always count on my wife's faith more than mine. We found an auto repair shop on google last night about 5 miles out that opens at 8:30am so I went straight there. A nice man diagnosed a weak battery and showed me his instrument that measures the power. He said he'll replace it and had one on hand. I was so fortunate. It cost $65 to diagnose plus cost of battery with total of $205. He said "God bless you" when I left and that's exactly what happened, He heard our prayers even though I may have displayed some impatience during that trial. I went back to the hotel and we packed the van and left around 9:45am to go to Universal Studios.

By the time we got into the park at around 11am it was already very crowded and hot. We had no fast passes this time so had to wait in line for everything. We went straight to the lower level and waited in line for the Jurassic Park ride. It was a long wait. The ride was fun. Erana closed her eyes during the inside dark part where the t-rex bites at you before you drop. When we splashed at the end we all got soaked but it cooled us off and felt nice. Then we went to the Mummy ride. Candi got a child switch pass and I went into the single rider line to go faster. The other kids waited together. The wait was still a bit long but got out and switched with Candi so she could ride. It's a coaster ride in the dark with the Mummy movie theme going on. It was fun. We next waited in the Transformers ride line for about an hour. That was a 3d ride and made me sick during it. I looked neat and all but I couldn't really enjoy it. The kids did though. We went back up to the top level and waited in the studio tour line which as about another 70 minutes. I enjoyed the tour. Still had some same stuff from when I took it over 30 years ago like the shark, flash flood and Back to Future set. The newer stuff like the King Kong 3d and Fast and Furious 3d parts were awesome. The Fast and Furious part just opened about a week ago. We went and watched the Water World stunt show which was fun. We skipped the Minion ride because the wait was long and Tyrell said it wasn't worth the wait. They did the Simpson ride. My feet were tired and I didn't want to wait again so I sat down and waited for them to get out. We went straight to the Animal actor show after. By that time it was getting late so we looked in some stores, got a pin and we left about 8:45pm. We walked through the Universal City center mall on the way to our car which had lots of lights and stuff. Stopped at a couple stores. Then we drove about 45 min to our next hotel in Buena Park, right close to Knotts Berry Farm. We checked around 10pm. We went through the Burger King drive through right close to the hotel for some food for the kids. We stayed up a little late. This hotel had a separate room with a queen bed so Candi and I took that one and had quality time together.

California Vacation Day 4

Monday, June 29th: 

We got up and went to free breakfast. They cooked omelets to order and we had french toast and fruit, juice, bacon, sausages, etc. We ate a lot then went to Magic Mountain around 9:45am. It opened at 10:30am. Candi spent the day with Erana and I went with the other kids. We went straight to the X2 which was a fun ride. Leila had to wait, she couldn't go on the 54" rides but could on all the 48" ones. We went back to get our flash passes after which allows us to go to the front of the line. It cost way more but was quite worth it at the end of the day. The lines were long on many rides but it allowed us to get on all 18 or so rides that it covered at least once. Without it we could have been on less than half cause of the waiting in line. It didn't cover the X2 that's why we went there first. After the first few roller coasters I got a headache and felt sick. It was also so hot, in the mid 90's or more. I skipped a few rides to feel better. I would go on another and get sick again. Some of the roller coasters are way extreme. My favs were X2, Tatsu, Twisted Colossus, Full throttle and Superman. Tyrell got a bit sick too. We got a $15 dollar cup that gave us free refills all day and we got heaps of refills. We ran into Martin Palmer. We chatted a few times. He gave me a pain pill. He was getting the same thing, sick and stuff. He just moved to Bakersfield to do a dental residency the day before. Was nice to catch up with him. We watched a show with a variety of acts and dancing that was fun at about 5:30pm. We called up Candi and told her to go to the 7pm show and we'll meet her there. The kids wanted to see it again. After the show we went on the Lex Luther drop ride then went to the store before leaving. The van acted funny when starting then after we went to Wendy's for dinner it wouldn't start. It just made a clicking sound. We prayed in the car and got an impression to ask in Wendys for a jump even I thought it wasn't a jump that would fix it. A nice worker came out to help and it started up. I drove it around for a bit but didn't turn it off when I picked them up and went back to the hotel. After turning it off there it wouldn't start up again. Did the same clicking. We just left it to worry about in the morning. I had a feeling before the vacation the something was going to happen to the van, it didn't feel like danger so I kinda blew it off and hoped I was imagining it. I think the still small voice was whispering to be ready.