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My Favorite Time of the Year!!

Finally, after waiting all year, it was the Christmas season and time to put up the Christmas tree and decorate the house! Well, I have to be truthful, it wasn't technically the Christmas season just yet. I, being the impatient Christmas loving person that I am, could not wait until the day after Thanksgiving to start the season's festivities! On Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I couldn't wait any longer, and I made a deal with Lane so that I could go ahead and start decorating. Was it a good deal, I'm sure you're wondering? Looking back, I'm beginning to doubt it, but, what's done is done, I suppose! Lane agreed to let us put the tree up on one condition...that I allow him to pick out a new tree topper. Apparently the one we already had did not suit his specific tastes. In his own words, it was just too classy and not nearly as flashy as a proper tree topper should be. So, we headed out to find the perfect topper. We headed first to Ellis Pottery in Longview, one of the neatest places in town. They have gobs of Christmas decor, and I was secretly hoping Lane would "settle" on something from there, but, deep down, I knew that they didn't carry anything tacky enough for him to pick. So, naturally, we headed on to Wal-Mart, where at first, Lane was discouraged and thought he wouldn't find anything there, either. He had originally been looking for a flashy star of some sort, but just as he was about to give up, he noticed this display of angel toppers. The words that caught his eye were "Fiber Optic Lights". So, he finally decided on the perfect angel for him, which was wearing a blue dress, had red hair and, earily, looked a lot like me in the face. He thought it was so funny and knew he'd found the one. He kept holding it up to me and asking people in the store who they thought it looked like. Anyway, needless to say, I was beginning to think our deal was getting worse and worse. So, yes, our pretty tree is adorned on top with that creepy angel, and Lane is thrilled! Oh, well, it was still worth it, and I have loved every day and night we've gotten to enjoy our holiday surroundings!

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When we got home, Lane got the Christmas music going, and we sorted the ornaments and started in decorating. This was Sydni's first year to help decorate the tree, which was neat.

Dane is so proud of his ornaments and carefully chose just the right spot for each of them.

And, there she is - that angel. He looks so pleased.

The finished tree - oops, I "accidentally" cut the topper out of the picture!

Dane used the money he had made from the garage sale we had earlier in the month to purchase his own blue Christmas tree. We put it up in his bedroom, and he is so proud of it.

After church one Sunday, I just thought the kids looked so pretty, so we had a little photo shoot.

Taking time to hug the cat.

The next week, we got dressed up one night and took our official family Christmas pictures. As can be expected with little ones, it is definitely a challenge, but they turned out pretty good, considering.

I love the next two of them - they really do love each other so much, so I don't have to try too hard to get them to pose together, which is nice. I sure hope they always stay that way!

Our many attempts at a family picture.

And finally - the official 2009 Brown Family Christmas picture!

From our family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas, and we pray that, in the coming year, you will enjoy God's blessings of hope and love in all you do.

This is what happened when Sydni tried to help her dad clean the mud out of the koi fish pond one day...

Look at her hair! How gross!

Trick-or-Treating

After having a great birthday party with Daddy, we got all of the kids dressed up in their costumes and got ready to go Trick-or-Treating. They were having Trunk-or-Treating and games over in Hughes Springs at the city park that night, so we thought that would be the perfect venue for all of our crew of goons!

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Sydni was a little kitty cat this year, and Dane was Mr. Monkey. For those who don't remember, Dane's favorite toy and constant play partner is Mr. Monkey, a little stuffed Ty beanie baby monkey. Last year after Halloween, I found both of their costumes on clearance sale at Old Navy for $5 each, so Dane decided way back then that he wanted to be Mr. Monkey this year.

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Sydni just makes a cute little kitty, don't you agree?

This picture just cracks me up - he just looks like a sneaky little monkey! I love it!

Posing for a few pictures.

Before leaving for Trick-or-Treating, all the kids took turns getting tractor rides with their Pa. Here's Sydni keeping an eye on her brother during his ride.

Dane and I laugh about how weird it is for a monkey to ride on a tractor.

I wish I knew what Dane was telling Daddy. I'm sure it was something about how the tractor works. He loves to learn about how things are put together and work.

Sydni finally got her turn for a ride with Pa. This was her first tractor ride, and she really enjoyed it, I think. Of course, everything's OK as long as she can suck her thumb.

Robyn did an amazing job making all three of her kids' costumes. Mary Nan was Wonder Woman, Laura was the Queen of Hearts, and J.J. was Woody, of course.

Here's Dane, showing off his tail and banana.

Jed was so cute dressed up as Cookie Monster, and it was so cute to watch he and Sydni enjoy all of their candy and explore the playground at the park.

This girl is a serious Dum Dums eater.

A monkey playing on monkey bars - ironic, I thought.

Relaxing with Uncle Joe David and Granna, as they enjoyed their suckers together.

This is one fantastic Granna, and from the look on her face, I think she was in heaven that night with everybody together. It was such a great day and such a great weekend! I love my family!

Dane's 4th Birthday Party!

It's hard to believe that Dane is already 4 years old. Sure doesn't seem that long ago to me. I am so proud of him for so many reasons. He is my only son, and I tell him all the time how glad I am that God gave him to me, and that is so, so true. He is one of the neatest people I know, and he is going to be such a wonderfully talented, caring and special man someday, just like he is now. Four years old is such a special age for a little boy, I think. Four year old boys don't hide their feelings, at least mine doesn't. Of course, that goes for all of his feelings, but more and more, I see him expressing his excitement for whatever he's doing, as well as showing his love. We have always told each other "I love you" frequently, but it has always been initiated by me...until now. In the last few months, just about every time Dane walks through the room I am in, busy doing whatever he's got going, he will stop and say, "Mom, I love you." This happens countless times a day, and I never get tired of it. I sure hope he never stops doing that. He's growing and learning at such a crazy rate, too, which is so neat to see and experience with him.

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Alan Dane Brown, I love you so much, and I'm so glad that God gave you to me! Your dad and I are so very proud of you and the fantastic young man you are growing to be.

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My nephew, J.J.'s birthday is two days after Dane's, so this year, Robyn and I decided to have a joint party for them at our parents' house the night before Halloween. Joe David, Stefany and Jed came in from San Antonio, so we had their party, followed by our annual Cousin Campout. Dane and J.J. both love Toy Story, so they had a Toy Story cake, courtesy of their Granna, and we had a great time!

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All six grandkids together, enjoying a string cheese snack and milk.

The birthday cake!

And the handsome birthday boys!

Getting ready to blow out the candle

First, a team blow!

Then, each of them had their own turn.

This guy got his very first big boy bicycle, and surprise, surprise, it's a Transformers bike! He was so surprised and so excited!

Little sister had fun pushing this little chair around the carport while all of the big kids rode their bikes. She and Jed would take turns doing this.

Fun times at the party!

After hanging out in the tent for a while, the kids headed back in to enjoy watching Charlotte's Web together. Someday, they will actually spend the night in the tent for Cousin Campout. For now, they just play around for a while until they're ready to come in and go to bed.

It was a really good day, and the next day was a good one, too. We surprised Daddy and helped him celebrate his 60th birthday. It was a great weekend to celebrate birthdays, and we topped it off with Trick-or-Treating that night in Hughes Springs. I will post those pictures in the next post.

A Weekend in Iola

For Dane's birthday weekend back at the end of October, we headed down to Torri & Roger's house to spend some time with the Brown side of the family. Of course, we were super excited to get to see the newest Brown cousin, Colton. He is growing so fast and is so cute! Aunt Torri, as usual, went out of her way to make Dane feel special, and she made a wonderful supper and also made Dane a birthday cake. Nana and Papa got to come, too, and they got Dane his first scooter for his birthday, and he absolutely loves it. In his own words, he loves to "scooter around". And he's actually pretty good at it. We "scooter" over to the corner store near our house, which is lots of fun.

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Here's my proud 4 year old boy with his new scooter!

We took a stroll down the road to the store.

The next day, before we had to head back home, we went to a Farm Patch in Bryan and got some more cute pictures of the kids. We took a sweet one of all three kids together, but I still need to get it from Torri. The kids got to wear their Halloween costumes a little early, which was fun, but we ended up taking them off before we left because it was so hot that day.

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Here's Torri and her sweet little man. Dane and Colton were both monkeys this year for Halloween, so they got to wear their monkey suits together.

Sydni and Aunt Torri sharing secrets.

Here's a few pictures of Little Miss Kitty.

And a few of our crazy Mr. Monkey!

Digging in the corn kernels searching for baby pumpkins.

Pumpkin Patch Pictures-Catching Up!

Now that I finally have all of our vacation posts finished, I can start to get caught up on everything else that has happened since.

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The week before Halloween, we went to a great pumpkin patch near Tyler, and the kids had a great time. They had some great pumpkins to choose from and had so many great places to take pictures. It was a really neat place.

This was the best that we could get of Sydni by the measuring stick.

Here was our final pick from the pumpkins. We loved the silvery-green pumpkins the best.

Sweetie pie, trying to escape the wagon.

They had the cutest barrel train for the kids, and Dane was ecstatic that they had an Aggie car!

Just enjoying the ride

When we got home, we decorated our pumpkins for the front porch.

Hawaii Vacation-Sept 23-Oahu Day 4-Hanauma Bay Snorkeling

This was our last day in Oahu, and then we headed back to the Big Island to Shayne & Billie's house to meet back up with them and the kids.

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Before we left Oahu, we did a little bit more sightseeing before we had to make our late afternoon flight. We drove to downtown Honolulu and saw the state capitol, which is in the picture below. To me, it looked more like an office building than a state capitol building.

Then, we headed over to do some snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, which is a marine preserve. I was really surprised at how much I really enjoyed snorkeling. I was a little bit nervous before the trip, but I was willing to give it a try, and I'm so glad that I did. I really don't have any interest in scuba diving, but I think that I could snorkel all day long, if I had the chance. This was the best place. Because it is a preserve, they require you to watch a 10 minute movie about snorkeling safety and guidelines to protect the marine life. Of course, this was another thing that made Lane and me start laughing. Anytime we are in a situation that we are supposed to be serious, we usually find things to laugh at. Anyway, we did pay attention, and we made sure to snorkel with our buddy for safety. This place was so pretty. The bay was formed when one of the edges of a dormant volcanic crater collapsed and was filled in with water. Most of the bay is very shallow, with a sandy bottom, and it is filled with the most beautiful fish! It is a completely different world under there, and it is so fascinating - I could have wandered around there all day, if we could have. We ended up staying there about 2 or 3 hours, until we had to start heading back to the airport. We ate lunch that day at Teddy's Burgers, a local burger joint, and it was very good, too.

Thursday, our last full day there, was spent packing and doing last-minute souvenior shopping, and we also went to the Big Island Candy Factory in Hilo that day. They had some pretty tasty treats there, and it was fun. We got some chocolate dipped shortbread cookies there that were so wonderful! We headed back to Texas that night, and we flew through the night and arrived back in Houston around 1:45 Friday afternoon. We were a little bit nervous about how the kids would do on such a long flight in the middle of the night, but they could not have acted any better! Dane literally fell asleep before we left Honolulu, and he didn't wake up until we touched down at the Phoenix airport six hours later! Sydni slept in my lap the whole long six hour flight, and she only woke up 3 or 4 times and quickly went back to sleep after getting comfortable again. Needless to say, the flights were definitely our least favorite part of the trip, but it was totally worth it for all of the great experiences we gained, and I'm so glad that we got to share so many memories together as a family. I hope that Dane will remember all he did, and I hope that Sydni will be able to look back at these posts and enjoy the things she did but probably will never remember. Oh, well!

This was just the best trip, and we are so glad that we were able to go. We had such a great time getting to see Shayne, Billie, Tyler and Caleb, and we really can't wait until we get to go back someday. We fell in love with that place!

Hawaii Vacation-Sept 22-Oahu Day 3-Parasailing, Beaches, a Lost Discovery & Dole Pineapple Plantation

I am finally getting around to finishing the final two posts of our wonderful Hawaiian vacation. Then, I can get caught up on everything else that has been going on since then.

On this particular day, we really packed it full of fun and adventures. We started off the day by sleeping a little late and then grabbed some quick breakfast at Burger King on the way to our 10:00 am parasailing appointment. I was so looking forward to parasailing, and it was definitely worth it. We were able to go tandem, or together, so it was neat to get to visit while we were floating along up 750 feet in the air. I really loved it, and the scenery was absolutely beautiful, and I'm so glad we got to do it! It was a great way to start off one our favorite days in Hawaii!

They dipped us in for a few seconds before we were reeled in.

This one looks kinda scary.

The skyline of Waikiki






Diamond Head - a dormant volcanic crater.

Fun, fun, fun!! We were the only English speaking people, except for the two facilitators. The guy driving the boat was actually from East Texas and now lives in Hawaii. Small world. We sure do wish it was a little bit smaller, so we would go back there more often!

The view from the parasailing boat.

After parasailing, we headed out to search for the "Lost" beach. We are big fans of the show "Lost", and we knew that they film it on Oahu, so on Monday night, Lane got online and researched where exactly everything is. They shoot at several locations on the island, but we headed out to find the beach where the plane crashed. We thought that we had found it at one beach, which happened to be my favorite one, but it actually was about a mile down the road. We drove on down and stumbled upon a YMCA camp, called Camp Erdman, and recognized the yellow houses of The Others' camp on the show. We were very excited, and we just knew that we were going to be cast as major characters for the last season of the show. Unfortunately, no filming was taking place that day, so we just wandered around and took pictures.

Some mountains nearby on our drive to the beaches.

By far, the most beautiful place I've ever been in the world. This is my favorite place, and I just sat and relaxed and marvelled at God's wonderful power! All of the beaches along here were unpopulated, so it was so serene, being almost the only people around.

The mountains behind us at the beach.

As Lane walked along the beach and explored a bit, I sat and relaxed and noticed tons of these little hermit crab holes in the sand. I sat for about 20 minutes, waiting for the crab to peek his head up so I could get a picture, but I always missed it. They are very fast critters!

Here's The Others' village from Lost.

Another shot of our fun car - the Mustang, not the minivan.

These beautiful plumeria trees are all over Hawaii, in several colors, and I never got tired of seeing them.

The assembly hall at the YMCA camp. This building was used for several scenes in Lost.

We saw this yellow lab at the camp, probably the camp dog, but we were convinced that it is Walt's dog on Lost.

This is the plane crash beach on Lost. It was very pretty, too.

Posing for the camera, hoping beyond hope, that we would be discovered at any moment!

I loved these pretty flowers that grew along over the sand.

This grove of trees is just off the beach, and we think that this is where they filmed the camp on the beach after the plane crash.

More of The Others' village

Next, we headed on to the famous North Shore of Oahu, where all of the huge waves are. This is the area where the surfers come, and this particular beach was the Bonsai Pipeline. We were there in September, and the biggest waves don't come until winter time, but they were still too big for me to even want to venture in the water at all. So, I just sat on the beach and watched the surfers. Lane did wade in and let one wave crash over him, and then he joined me on the beach, too. That water is just so beautiful!

After leaving the beach, we started back toward town, and we stopped and ate in Haleiwa, a small beach town, at Haleiwa Joe's, a nice little restaurant. We ate out on the lanai, or patio, and had such a nice meal.

Our last stop of the day, before going back to town, was to see the pineapple fields and to tour the Dole Pineapple Plantation. The fields were really pretty, and the plantation was beautiful, too. It was nice, but was a bit of a tourist trap, we thought. Maybe we were just tired, though. Lane did enjoy some pineapple ice cream, and we went through a maze and went on a little train tour of the plantation. Lane and I just kept laughing on the train ride. They had the corniest music playing on the train, and it was one of those times when everything was making us laugh.

Lane looks so irritated in these pictures. I think he was just ready to go.

After we got back to our hotel, we got cleaned up, dressed up and headed out for a late dinner at The Chart House, which was the restaurant next to our hotel. It overlooked the marina, and we ate at a table on the upstairs balcony. It was so nice, and the food was really wonderful. It was a great last night out in Oahu!

Hawaii Vacation-Sept 21-Oahu Day 2-Sightseeing

We didn't finish touring Pearl Harbor until about 3:30 that day, so we had to get back on the road and fit in as much sightseeing before dark. Thanks to Daniel, Lane's GPS, we managed to drive to the eastern part of the island to see a couple of beautiful lookout points, Haloma Blowhole on the coast, and the Pali Road and Lookout point. Both were really beautiful.

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And, most importantly, it was finally my turn to get to drive the convertible! That was lots of fun, too!

I always look so mad when I don't have any expression on my face!

This was a really pretty stretch of road near the blowhole.

The viewing place to see the blowhole overlooked this beautiful little bay. We had hoped to come back here and do some snorkeling, but we ran out of time. So sad!

Off to the other side was a nice beach in the distance.

Here's the blowhole! They said that at high tide during the winter months, the waves will crash with so much force that the water will be sucked in and blown out up to 50 ft. high. We definitely didn't get to see anything like that. You can see the blowhole near the bottom left part of the next picture. It was kinda a letdown after all we had read about it, but it was still neat to see, and the beautiful scenery around it definitely made it worth the trip.

Then, we headed back inland to see the Pali Lookout, a cliff that overlooked a huge valley below and also had a great view of the ocean to the east. It was so pretty. It also was the sight of a significant battle which ultimately led to the unification of all of the Hawaiian islands under the rule of one king. Supposedly, 400 warriors were forced off the cliff's edge during that battle!

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All of the mountains in Oahu are so unique and have these jagged, steep peaks.

Here's the overlook

Way down there is a tunnel in the road. Later on that day, we drove through it and got some pictures.

And, here's the tunnel.

Just some pretty trees

As we returned to town, we stopped at the Ala Moana Shopping Mall, which had tons and tons of restaurants to choose from, and we finally decided on Islands Fine Burgers. I got a blue cheese burger, and it was so good! We had just a great first full day in Oahu.

Hawaii Vacation-Sept 21-Oahu Day 2-USS Missouri Battleship

Our last stop on our tour of Pearl Harbor was the Battleship USS Missouri. I had never toured a battleship before, and it was so massive! Lane and I really enjoyed this tour and probably spent most of our time here that day. This was the battleship where the Japanese surrendered to the Allied Forces in 1945. I know that a lot of these pictures may be uninteresting to some, but I wanted to make sure to include as many of the details in my posts, so that we will be able to look back some day and remember it better.

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As we approached the battleship

I just couldn't get over how big these guns are - they said that a shell shot from one of them could go as far as 23 miles!

A view back toward the Arizona Memorial

After we looked around the deck for a while, we headed into the ship to see the inside.

The next few photos are of the officers' quarters.

Officers' dining

In this area, they had an exhibit with lots of interesting World War II items, pictures, quotes, charts and stats. I took pictures of the things that were the most interesting to me.

The computer room - you can definitely tell that it's been a while since this ship has been on active duty.

The crew's sleeping quarters

A nice little game table.

Not really a great picture, but I liked the tile design.

The next few pictures are of the crew's dining area and kitchens. There were several different kitchens for all of the different areas of food prep, and they were all huge!

Chief Petty Officers' lounge and dining

The ship's library

I don't remember what this is, but it sure looks important!

Another view of the Arizona

The navigation room

This was one of the most heavily fortified areas of the ship, we think. The steering wheel.

There were no windows in this room, and look how thick the door is!

The next few pictures are from the Surrender Deck. We got to look into the Captain's Quarters here, and also got to view the Surrender Document on the spot where it was signed.

There was a group of soldiers touring the ship that day, too, and I thought this was a great picture to take as we were leaving the ship.

Across from the ship is the USS Oklahoma Memorial. The Missouri is docked in the same location that the Oklahoma was docked on the day of the attack, so the memorial is closeby.

Hawaii Vacation-Sept 21-Oahu Day 2-USS Arizona Memorial

After touring the USS Bowfin sub, we walked over to the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center. There, they had a bookstore and a small museum, as well as a short film to watch, which recounted the events of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Most all of us have family members who were directly involved in World War II, so seeing all of these places firsthand really helped to put it all in perspective for how life changed for our family members back then.

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After viewing the film, we exited the theater and boarded a ferry which took us out to the memorial site. The battleship is still resting where it sunk on the day of the attack, and the memorial is situated over the sunken battleship. Even after almost 68 years, there is still oil seeping out of the ship, so the air smells very heavily of oil, and it can easily be seen floating on the surface of the water. The memorial was done so well, and it is a moving and fitting memorial to those men who gave their lives that day to the cause of our country's freedom. I'm so glad that we got to go and see it.

A beautiful mural of the USS Arizona, which was in the Visitor Center.

A wall of "Pearl Harbor Survivor" license plates from many states.

Of course, here's the one we were interested in.

The ferry that took us over to the memorial site.

The memorial, as we approached it.

As we entered the memorial, we passed through a flag room, with flags on either side on the walls.

These plaques were in the memorial

At the other end of the memorial, they had a wall with the names of all those who died on the Arizona.

The following pictures are of the views we had of the actual battleship. You can definitely see the seeping oil on the surface in some of these pictures. You'll see how it is iridescent. You can also see in a couple of pictures the USS Missouri battleship docked in the distance. It is docked where the USS Oklahoma was on the day of the attack. The Oklahoma was struck by a torpedo and capsized.

The day that they commemorated the memorial in 1950, they raised an American Flag on this new pole to honor those who died and remained entombed within the battleship below. I thought this picture turned out so pretty.

Back at the Visitor Center, we walked through the museum area and looked at several items of significance to the Arizona.

This is what the ship looked like when it was first commissioned.

This is how the ship looked in 1941. It had undergone a facelift and modernization.

A letter of condolences from the Navy to the family members of one of the fallen sailors.

A Purple Heart medal along with a certificate.

A Christmas greeting from one of the crew of the Arizona, which was delivered to its recipient after the attack had already taken place.

A clock that was recovered from the ship, which stopped at the precise moment the ship was bombed.

A diving helmet that was used in the recovery efforts of Pearl Harbor. This was prior to the advances of modern scuba diving equipment, so diving was a very limited and dangerous endeavor.

A torpedo found near the capsized USS Oklahoma, which was launched from one of the Japanese mini-subs.

Hawaii Vacation-Sept 21-Oahu Day 2-USS Bowfin Submarine Tour

On Monday morning, we started off with a nice breakfast in the hotel restaurant. They had a very good buffet, and we had a nice table by the window, which overlooked the marina. From there, we headed out to spend the rest of the morning and some of the afternoon touring Pearl Harbor. We chose to go on three of the tours they offered, the USS Bowfin submarine, the USS Arizona Memorial, and the USS Missouri Battleship, in that order.

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The Bowfin submarine was really neat, and Lane and I both agreed that we would not like to be stationed on a sub for any length of time. Everything is so small and cramped.

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Here are some road signs on the interstate, as we got closer to Pearl Harbor.

The area around the submarine was interesting, since there were lots of torpedoes and missiles on display. Those torpedoes are enormous.

The view from the dock. Isn't the sky pretty?

Some views from the deck of the sub.

Some pictures of the officers' quarters.

This was the area of the sub that controlled the speed and depth of the sub. There was a ladder that led to the area with the parascope.

The main galley for the crew.

The menu for the crew. They said that the menu on a sub was typically better than on other ships, due to the confined quarters and stress the sailors had to endure.

The hand-written memo to the crew, regarding the approaching attack on the Japanese at Tokyo Bay, which led to the ultimate surrender of the Japanese to the Allied Forces.

The same memo, typed out.

The crew's dining quarters

The crew's sleeping quarters. The beds were called hot beds, since the crew worked around the clock and once one person got out of bed another hopped in.

The small doorways. They said the average height of a sailor on board was 5'7".

The main engine room

The electrical controls and gauges.

This was my favorite part of the sub tour - the torpedo room. Everything was so shiny and huge! There was one of these rooms on each end of the submarine.

Back up on deck

I thought this was a neat shot, in the distance, you can see both the USS Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri Battleship.

Hawaii Vacation-Sept 20-Oahu Day 1

On Sunday, we went to church with Shayne & Billie in Hilo, and Lane did another great job preaching. After church, we ate lunch at KFC, and then headed back to the house to get packed for Lane and I to head out on our 3 day trip to the island of Oahu. Shayne and Billie were so gracious to, not only let us stay with them a whole week in Hilo, but also to keep our kids so that we could get away for an early 10 year anniversary trip. Thank y'all so much for that - it really means a lot, and we know that the kids had such a great time with you!

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We flew out about 4:30 that afternoon, and arrived in Honolulu at 5:30. We picked up our rental car at the airport and made our way to check in at our hotel, the Hawaii Prince Hotel in Waikiki. While we were researching all the different tours in Oahu, we found that, even though most tours provided transportation from our hotel, they were all very expensive and also took too much time. So, instead, we decided to spring for a convertible mustang for our rental car, and we were able to drive all over the island and see everything that we were interested in seeing. It was so much fun, and it was a wonderful time together. I am so grateful that God brought Lane into my life to be my husband, and I am especially thankful for all of the wonderful blessings and opportunities that He has blessed our marriage with during these past ten years.

Lane got to drive first, but we really did share and took turns driving each day. It was really fun! These pictures were taken on our drive from the airport to the hotel.

We arrived at our hotel, and we were very pleased with it. We booked it through priceline.com, and we were very pleased with both the price and quality in our reservation. The hotel is situated on the far west end of Waikiki, which gave us easier access to other areas of Honolulu, without having to drive all the way through Waikiki and its traffic. It overlooked the marina, which was very pretty and made a nice picture out our window. We were on the 12th floor, in room 1212.

As we were getting ready to leave for dinner, I took this beautiful picture of the sunset from our hotel room window.

We had a hard time deciding where to eat dinner that night because there were so many choices. We parked our car down by the beach and walked up the main strip of Waikiki, along the beach and then by all of the restaurants and shops, until we finally decided on Jimmy Buffett's Beachcomber restaurant. We figured it would be fitting to have a "Cheeseburger in Paradise", and it was a great choice. I actually had one of the specials, a grilled flaky white fish, covered with a spicy lemon butter and garlic sauce. By far, the best fish I have ever eaten! Lane had a blackened fish sandwich. We sat up on the terrace upstairs, with no wait for a table. We also got to sit and enjoy some great live music. After dinner, we walked through an international market, where we negotiated a great price on a cute Hawaiian tote bag for me. It really was a nice way to start our Oahu getaway!

A view of the Waikiki nightlife from our terrace table.

Too bad this one turned out blurry. I was having major camera issues that night.

Our great dinner entertainment.

All along the sidewalks of Waikiki, there are street performers, and we had to take a picture of Elmo to show Dane and Sydni!

This is the best that I could get of Waikiki Beach. We walked along the beach on our way back to the car. It was so pretty!

A couple of statues that we saw along the beach.

Lane and our sweet ride

Hawaii Vacation-Sept 19-Kona Day 3

Saturday was our last day in and around Kona on the Big Island. On our schedule for the day was Lane's morning scuba dive, followed by more beach, then make our way back to Hilo.

While Lane was scuba diving, the kids and I got all packed up and checked out of our condo, and then just ate some McDonald's for lunch, went to Wal-Mart, of course, and then drove around until time to pick Lane up at 12:30. This was Lane's first open water dive, so he was both very excited and a bit anxious, too, I think. He had a good time, despite the fact that the group got caught up in a drift on their 2nd dive, which caused them all a bit a trouble and were unable to move around much. Everyone was safe, though, and it was a great experience for him.

That afternoon, we headed north of Kona and went to Hapuna Beach, which is one of the more popular beaches on the island. It was really pretty and very big, and for some reason, I didn't take any pictures, so you'll just have to take my word for it that we actually went there. Billie, Tyler and Caleb stopped by for a few minutes, too, so they can vouch for me! As usual, Dane built sand volcanoes and lava tubes, and Sydni walked around looking for rocks. We had a great time, until Sydni suddenly decided that she wanted to start running directly into the ocean. So, after chasing her for about 10 minutes or so, we headed on out and made our way back to Shayne and Billie's house.

Here are some of the pictures that Lane took while diving.