Pearl Harbor

 

Our first official vacation day we went to visit the USS Arizona Memorial as well as touring the USS Missouri battleship.  I am glad we took the time to go visit here as it was very different than anything else we did on our trip.  The memorial itself was simple and beautiful.  I found this aerial photo of the memorial where you can get a better sense of what lies beneath the memorial.

 

 Here is the wall of names of the people that were killed aboard the Arizona on December 7, 1941.  I loved the way this beautiful window let light into the room. 

This memorial was peaceful as everyone is quiet and respectful.  It was a moving experience to be there.  Below you can see the oil that is still leaking from the ship, they call it the "sailor's tears".

One of the most interesting things was that we happened to be there on a day when they would be burying one of the survivors with the ship.  There were few survivors but the ones that did survive are able to be buried back with their ship and their shipmates if they so choose.  The picture of the box below shows the survivors that have passed away since then that have returned to be buried here.  The red white and blue tape is covering the name of the man being buried that day with his ship.  I think they said that there are only around 17 remaining survivors.

Once we left Pearl Harbor we headed to visit the USS Missouri which is docked right across from the memorial.  We had a great tour guide who shared with us many interesting facts about this ship.

This ship is huge and it is hard to look at a picture and have any concept of it's size.  Wandering around inside makes me wonder how anyone knew where anything was.  They actually have a full dentist office inside.  I guess I've never thought about having your teeth fixed while on a battleship but it was sure cool to see.

This ship served in World War II as well as the Korean War and the Gulf War until it came to it's final resting place here in 1998.  Just one of the guns that Charlie is standing by weighs as much as a space shuttle and shoots bullets that weigh as much as a car that can hit a target with pin point precision 25 miles away!  Pretty darn amazing.

 

 

 

One of the coolest parts for me was getting to stand on this spot.  This is where the table was that they signed the instrument of final surrender that brought WWII to an end.  So while on this ship you could see the USS Arizona memorial where WWII began for us while standing in the exact spot where WWII was officially over.  Very interesting.

 

Aloha!

We have arrived home from our most relaxing and fabulous trip to Hawaii.  I thought I would give a quick preview of day 1 so that it will keep me going on the rest of the posts.  I will warn you that most of the pictures are of just the beautiful scenery and that my camera and my camera skills struggle to even remotely capture the beauty of what we saw.

 

We were off on a 15 hour day of travel getting up at 4 A.M. and LOVING every second of it.  It is amazing how wonderful simple things like driving in a car or flying on a plane can be as just 2 adults sans 5 kiddos.  We were in heaven! 

We arrived at the Turtle Bay Resort very tired that evening but were thrilled at the beauty of where we stayed.  We originally had booked a hotel right in downtown Honolulu but switched to this hotel on the opposite side of  the island and boy am I glad we did. 

 

Honolulu is a big busy city and felt nothing like what I wanted Hawaii to feel like.  The north shore however was far less busy and it was beautiful and tropical and everything we were hoping for.  A little bit longer of a drive, but well worth every scenic second.  Plus, we rented a convertible so we put the top down and just sucked in huge deep breaths of clean beautiful Hawaiian air. 

Ahhhhh...relaxation here we come!

 This was our resort and below is the view from our room.  We slept with our balcony doors open the two nights we were there and fell asleep and awoke to the sounds of waves breaking on the beach.  This hotel is as close to the water as you can get.  In fact, due to changes in building codes if this hotel were to be built today it could never be built as close to the water as it is. 

Going to this resort is awesome because you just walk right in.  No doors, no turnstile thingys....it is just all open to nature.  I can't even imagine living somewhere that it is so nice all year round that you don't even need a door!

Because of the time change we were pretty much up by 4 A.M. every morning.  I think the latest we slept was until 6:30 and one day we were even up and at it at 2:30 in the morning.  Don't worry, there were plenty of pool side naps and early bedtimes each  night.  We watched the sunrise each day and it was wonderful.

 

 

Here we are early morning on our first day of vacation watching the sun come up.  The moon and the stars were still out when we got to the beach. 

 

 

The rest of the shots are just from our sunrise that day.  There are many more of these to come.  I am missing it all already!

 

Chicago visit

I've said it before but I can't say it enough.  We LOVE having some family within driving distance to be able to go visit once in awhile.  All of our other family require 7 airline tickets for us to see so a 5-6 hour drive is a breeze for us.

We took the week of the 4th to go visit Grandma and Grandpa and spend some time with some cousins as well.  Ross and Diane...please never move!!!!

I absolutely adore this picture.  This is typically where you will find grandpa in the chair with one of the grand kids telling them all a story about "Jake and John" and it always ends up in a tickle fight with hysterical laughter.

 The week we were there it was hot....like really hot.  All of our outdoor plans had to be switched to indoor plans or involve water of some kind.  We found some fun new places and the kids had the time of their lives.

We found a place called airtastic that was filled with inflatables.  The kids had so much fun we went twice while we were there.

 We watched fireworks with the family and we even had our very own secluded viewing spot right under the fireworks.  And let me tell you, to find a secluded spot to watch fireworks in Naperville is unheard of.  I won't reveal our spot ever because I would hate for the secret to get out but it was a PERFECT night.

 Here is where the water comes in.  We had to get a bit creative since it was so hot and grandpa had a great idea.  He came up with a game of swords and shields.  Basically it is grandpa attacking kids with a hose while they do their best to defend themselves hiding behind sleds and buckets.  They were out there forever and had such a great time.  Good idea grandpa! 

 The bishop of Ross and Diane's ward has a beautiful pool and he very kindly offered for us to be able to come and use it.  When he offered I don't know that he really thought we would come every single day but he saved our vacation.

It was so nice to get out each day and spend some great quality time as family and cool off in this beautiful place.

This is the truck that Logan spent the entire trip playing with.  It is actually grandpas truck from when he was a young boy that his father made for him.  Logan loved it and I have already requested that it is put in the will to give to Logan.  I have a feeling though that this may end up in a battle of the kids just like The Santa!

 We ended our trip with a night of fun at Medieval Times.  The kids had so much fun cheering on the green knight and eating "dragon" with their bare hands.

 At the end of the night Morgan was awarded the Queen of Love and Beauty sash by our green knight and she was so thrilled.  She wore it all the next day and all the way home.

It was another great trip to a place that feels like home to both of us.  We also placed an offer on an investment property while we were there so if it all goes well we may be back sooner rather than later and that is just fine with me!

Field of Dreams

A few weeks ago my kids got to do one of the coolest things ever. 

We have a beautiful baseball field here in our town and  they had a special night for Scouts and their families to have a camp out on the field.  We got to go watch the game as a family that night with some great friends and when the game was done the scouting families got to go and set up their tents right there on the field.  I headed home with Logan since he is not quite ready for camping yet.  I was sad to have missed the fun night but the kids had such a blast I think we will for sure do it again net year.

 They set up camp and then got to watch a fun baseball movie up on the jumbotron and eat popcorn all night.

From what I hear they all got to stay up very late but they had an absolute blast.  I hope Logan is cooperative enough by next year so we can join them.  I love special summer fun things like this and I am so glad we live in such an amazing town that offers so many great opportunities for families.

Totally Random

When our family was in Chicago visiting a few weeks ago we took the kids to go see The Pirates! Band of misfits.

In the movie there was this totally random song.  Charlie and I both looked at each other and just laughed through the entire thing.  It just came to my mind for some reason and I looked it up and it made me laugh all over again.

So if you are in the mood for a chuckle and a totally random song take a listen.

I can't decide what my favorite line is:

I'm making a lasagna (for one)
For your information there's an inflamation in my tear gland   OR
My eyes are just a little sweaty today

I actually downloaded this song and have added it to my running playlist in hopes that it will make me giggle and forget that I want to die!

Boys Gone Fishin'

Before one of our good friends moved away the guys planned a manly fishing trip for them to have one last adventure together.  I was not there but from the stories I heard they had a beautiful and fun and relaxing day out on Lake Huron. 

I love that my hubby has some great buddies and they have such fun together.  They have had many a late night playing games and eating ridiculous amounts of calories and talking about who knows what.  But they have fun and I love it.  Rick is missed already!

 Once the day was done they were able to take their catch to a restaurant right down the road and they cooked up their fish for them for a great dinner.  I think this is one tradition they just may continue over the years!

Birthday Trip

This year in school Ethan got to study Pennsylvania.  He loved coming home each day and sharing with us all the interesting facts about Philadelphia and he especially loved learning about Milton Hershey and all of his chocolate!

Charlie just so happens to work for an awesome company that provides a free airline shuttle to employees and family members that goes to Philadelphia.  So one thing led to another and before Ethan and I knew it we were both headed to Philadelphia for an adventure just with the two of us!

 Our arrival day was a bit more stress than we had planned for with delayed flights, sheets of rain, cars with no GPS and missed tours but I put on my brave momma face and made the best of it and got us to our hotel safe and sound.

The rest of the trip was a breeze and we had beautiful weather and had so much fun together.

We started out bright and early the next day at Hershey's Chocolate World.  This place was great!  Ethan and I loved every second of it.  We took a chocolate tasting class where we were taught to notice the different flavor notes in the chocolate.  It was deliciously fun!

 After that we took a tour on the Hershey Trolley all around Hershey Pennsylvania.  This tour was so well done and Ethan and I both agree that it was our favorite part and they gave you chocolate to eat all along the way!

 We then headed back to make our very own chocolate bars.  You pick what kind of chocolate you want to use and what special things you want added to it and then you watch it go from start to finish all the way down the conveyor belt!  You finish it off my designing your own packaging.  Ethan and I both had so much fun doing this together.

I fell in love with the town of Hershey.  Maybe it was because the day before had been stressful or maybe it was because the weather was absolutely perfect but this town was peaceful and gorgeous and I would have loved to have brought a good book and just sat down in a patch of grass and relaxed the day away.

 After Hershey World was done we headed back to Philly to walk around downtown and see some of the historical sites.  Most of the places were closed by the time we got there but luckily the tour that we had scheduled the day before that we missed because of the delayed flight let us reschedule.

 So we headed out on our Ride The Ducks tour.  It is a fun little tour that takes you on a driving tour of all the historical sites and then you drive right down into the water with a big old splash and get to see the city from the Delaware river.  They give you these little duck quackers at the end and it was really fun.  The quackers are now hidden away since Logan and Sam got a hold of them and drove me nuts in about 4 seconds flat!

That night we headed to the hotel for a swim and watched a show together until we both fell asleep.  It was a quick but fun trip and it was nice for Ethan and I to spend our birthdays together in such a special way.  I hope this is a trip he remembers for a long time!