Vacationing with the In-laws

We have spent the last 6 days in Hawaii with Glen's parents and his 2 brothers, Nathan and Mark and their wives, Cheryl and Katherine.  It has been a very enjoyable and relaxing time.  We went snorkling at Ke'e beach, swimming at Hideaways, (my favorite place, I would prefer it alone with Glen:)), got a spiritual high watching the turtles at Queen's Bath (seriously I could watch them for hours).  We also went to ancient gardens, lighthouse and saw soaring birds and hiked the Napali Coast trail aways.  

It has been a wonderful trip.  Here are a few pictures, I lost some of them on my other camera, of course they were the good ones, a picture of Glen's abs, thanks to Mitch Gaylord workout tapes and Grandpa's legs on the beach with socks to his knees and long shorts with a teeny tiny bit of skin showing, Awesome!

All of us at the lookout on the Napali trail.

Grandma and Grandpa were great.  They hiked everywhere with us.  Grandma on the trail made it to the lookout and Grandpa made it all the way to the beach.  They were not going to be left behind.  Grandma kept saying I am not 70 yet (May 5th is her birthday). 

Queen Emma's Bath was going off.  The waves were crashing hard up an over the rocks into the pool.

I love the turtles, they are beautiful.

Charlotte's blessing

Bret gave a beautiful blessing to Charlotte this morning. What a wonderful opportunity to give her a name and a father's blessing. He is a great dad and husband.

I made Charlee's dress this week as a surprise for Brooke. It turned out pretty good, if I may say so. Just don't look too close.

Brooke is beautiful as ever.


It was great to have Bret's parents here for the occasion. Everyone came over to our house for dinner afterward. We missed Chelsea, of course.

Jefferson's Monticello

On Monday we visited Thomas Jefferson's home in Charlottesville.  It is called Monticello.  It was very interesting.   My favorite part of the tour was the plantation tour.  The stories of the slaves was very touching and their sacrifice was great.  Thomas Jefferson wrote how slavery was an abomination and yet there must have been  pressure of the times, the need for wealth or something like that because he owned several hundred slaves in his lifetime. The hardest story to listen to was after Jefferson died he only freed 7 slaves and because he was in so much debt he had to sell the other 100 he owned at the time.  This meant that families were torn apart, any one over the age of 8 was sold.  This brought tears to my eyes and I thought of the temple work we recently did for the names that Grandma Goodsell found in a will.   I can only imagine the joy that is brought back to these families as we find their names and bring them back together in the temple.

Sunday Afternoon Conference Session

This was Sunday afternoon session of conference.  Taylor is the faithful one awake in the blue shirt.  That's Glen on the couch, Grandpa in the foreground, Nathan on the floor in the background and Cheryl in the chair all sound asleep!.  

Really though, it was a great conference.  We totally enjoyed what we were able to hear (some more than others.)  I look forward to reading the talks when the Ensign comes.

Virginia

It has been awhile since we had been to Glen's parents house in Virginia.  The trip was a bit of a pain.  Flight delay in the Atlanta Airport for 6 hours, so we finally got the rental car at 3am in the morning.  Stayed the night at the Dulles airport(much to Glen's dismay and Amy's insistance) Marriott 6 hrs of sleep and headed down to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  As you can see well worth the trouble.  It is beautiful here and we are having a great time.  

This is their beautiful home in Lexington, Va.

The view from the back of the Blue Ridge Mountains

The kids love the oreo cows.

Sorry about the sideways picture.

Grandma took us on an interesting tour of Lexington and then to the grave sight of her Momma and Daddy.  

March Madness

March came in like a lion and never left. It's been a busy month and I didn't get to blog. Here is a few pictures and little detail on some events.

We celebrated 2 birthdays in March.  Faye turned 6 on March 4th, wow our baby is growing up.  She is totally into her video DS these days.  So the other day as we were driving down El Camino Real in San Clemente, she saw some people in a store front on treadmills.  She is so into the game thing she wanted to know if they were real or a game.  

  Tess was 14 on the 21st of March.  Isn't she beautiful.  Look out church dances, here comes Tess!

Family party for Faye at her favorite place McDonald's

Glen and I went to a dinner dance for Faye's school. The party was so-so but the dressing up was fun.