The new little ones

3 very special babies were born the last few weeks that I am excited about. First picture is of my new nephew Preson Joseph Stubbs. Congrats Janie, Chris, Zac, and Abby!

The next two are Xander and Alexa Crawford. Congrats Chersti and James! I am so excited they finally get to start their family.

I can not wait to be able to see all 3 of these precious babies when I go home at Christmas.

Hawaii trip

I went to Hawaii from September 27 to October 6 and we had a blast. I went with my sister, Heather, my roommate, Athina, and our friend, Amy. This are just some of the pictures we took. I think between the 4 girls we took 800 pictures and I still don't have some.

The first series of pictures is us in the airport (it took forever to get there because of layovers and late planes) The scenery pic is outside on the balcony of the time share. It was beautiful. I loved Maui!! I am so glad we were there for 5 days. Then there's Skeena and Heath in the kitchen ready to head to the beach.

The second series is us on the first day taking a drive around Maui and stopping at different locations. We went to the blow hole and to one of the hundreds of beaches.

These pictures speak for themselves. The scenery and especially the sunsets are gorgeous. We tried to see the sunset every day that we were in Maui. The middle picture no joke looks exactly like the picture on my credit card.

On Maui we rented snorkels for the whole week. One of the days we took a boat cruise out to Molakini....which is a crater off of Maui. They stopped at turtle town first and we got to see and swim with the turtles. But it is illegal to touch them so we just watched them. At Molakini we saw alot of different fish and there were even eels. They fed us lunch on the way back on the boat. It was a good time for all. Look at the pic of Heather on the middle right. She fell in love with this floating device and we had to go rent one for her. Before the floaty she was freaked out to go out snorkeling. After the floaty she snorkeled all over. For some reason it was a safety blanket to ward off sharks too because she was all of a sudden not scared of sharks any more. ???? lol

From Maui we then went to Oahu. I was not a fan of Honolulu when we got in. It is an ugly city. It was like a mini San Fran. Too much traffic and scary areas. Too commercialized. It got better when we got to our hotel in Wikiki. Still alot of people but it was beautiful. All these pics are not all from Oahu but the middle pic is us at the hotel and the top left is me and Heather with some turtles on one of the beaches on North Shore. Bottom pics are us at dinner at Bubba Gumps (that was on Maui though)

We went to PCC (Polynesian Cultural Center) We saw shows at a few islands and then went to a fabulous Luau. We all got lei'd there! I didn't want to stop eating the food was soooooo good. We went to the big show after dinner. I would definately say that if any one goes to the PCC go early because there is so much to see and we didn't get to go to much. Some day I will go back though. Hopefully sooner than later.

On our last day we went to Pearl Harbor and the swap meet. I am so glad we went to Pearl Harbor. It was a great experience to see the place where WWII started for the US. There was a film that brought me to tears. So many people died that day. We then took the boat out to the USS Arizona memorial where most of those who died on the battleship are still entombed. The memorial is placed on top of the ship and you can see some of the ship under and on top the water still.

This trip was definately put in my top 3 vacations of all time. I already can't wait to go back!!

Hawaii

Hi everyone! So I just got home from Hawaii today. It was a blast! It is as beautiful and relaxing as I have every imagined it would be. I absolutely loved Maui. Now Honolulu...some parts are pretty, like in Wikiki where we stayed, but I did not like the city of Honolulu at all. As soon as I get all my pics on my laptop and then get my laptop working again (I am on my roommates right now) then I will post pics and blog about where we went.

I am off to do homework and study.

Have a fabulous day!!!

Reunion and Wedding

Ok I am finally finding time to blog about my trip home. I had alot of fun at my family reunion and the wedding. Here are some pics.




Here are pics of the Nielsen Family Reunion. I haven't been able to go for the last few years and it was great to see every one. We went on a hike, had a pot luck, visited. I also played in a horse shoe tournament and me and my dad's cousin's son's wife (no joke), Daisy won the girls tournament.


top left: Robby, Heather, and Lana

top right: Playing in the river

lower left: Mom and Grandma Bates

lower right: Mom and Heather trying to get a signal up in the mountains.... yeah right.

Because the wedding was late on Saturday we had a wedding dinner on friday night. It was at a park in Fruit Heights. It was really windy and we had a hard time setting everything up. But everyone we invited came. It was fun and casual. There was toys for the kids and Robby's sister and brother in law own a sno shack so they brought the machine and made snowies for everyone. I was so excited because in Cali they don't have the little sno shacks/snowie stands on the side of the road like they do in Utah.

They got married on August 16 in the Bountiful temple. Here are some pics of the temple. The ceremony was good and she looked beautiful.

top left - Heather/Rob w/parents and grandparents

top right - Heather and Kaiden

middle left - Dad and grandma and grandpa Bates

middle right - The whole fam

bottom left - Heather and Robby

bottom right - me with my sisters

The reception was held in an awesome backyard of someone Robby's family knows. It was beautiful. If you can't tell her colors were bright pink and black and white polka dots. I don't even like the color pink and I really liked it. The yard has bridges, ponds, fun toys for the kids. There was a continous stream of people coming all night long. Here are some pics

Crazy and Hectic!!

OK so I know I haven't blogged for a while. Life has been crazy and I haven't had more than a few minutes on the internet lately. After being in Utah for a week and a half I then got back to work and to more responsibilities with a new clearance center which has been a night mare and one of my employees decided he did not want to work any more and just stopped showing up to work. I also have been packing to move to another apartment which I did on Wednesday and am now in the process of trying to unpacking it all but have been cleaning the old apartment instead. In between every thing I am taking a college class at Sierra College which I found out today they are out of the book I need and I have a quiz and homework assignment due on Tuesday. When did life get so hectic??? I have never been so busy, stressed, and exhausted.

I can't wait for my Hawaii trip in 29 days!!!

OK so enough complaining I am now going to bed. I will write about my trip home and Heather's wedding when things slow down maybe some time next week.

Quick trip home to Utah

I got to go home to Utah for a few days last week and decided I was just going to hang with family. I had a fun time with everyone.


Mark, Robbie (newbie to the fam), Heather and Carson July 24th BBQ

A few days after I got the I picked Jeff up from the airport.

He has been in Florida all summer - we surprised my nephew

Carson who did not know Jeff was coming home.

Me and Heather dancing with Ian and Abby

Played some football with the boys



Played with sidewalk chalk on the patio with Abby and Ian


Kaiden was sick the whole time....poor little thing


I also got to go to the Allen Family party and bowl with
my Grandparents/Aunts/Uncles/Cousins (2 generations)


Heather and Robbie (the engaged couple)


Mark, Dad, and Robbie ready to bowl


More of the fam bowling


Me and my nephew Carson


I went to the Rocky Mountain Revue with my dad
and saw the new BB players

I went to see Mama Mia (again) with Heather,

Jennacie, and my mom


Me and Jenna Benna trying on hats

Two good movies

I have seen a few really good movies the last few days.


Dark Night (Batman) was awesome! I saw it at 12:04 am the day it opened. It was the best Batman I have seen maybe the best superhero movie. I would definately suggest it to everyone.



Then I saw Mama Mia tonight. It was really good too. In a different way though. You have to like musicals (which I do) It was funny.

Bowling with the Willey crew

Last night I went bowling with work for our Summer party. We had a blast. Here are some pictures of my crew and other co workers.


My boys!


general manager Tammy (Cooper) and
roommate/coworker Athina (Skeena)


The Chris' (Riddell and Stangeland)
LP and my night supervisor


Riddell, Stangeland, Rua, Kao
crazy goofy drunks


Debbie, John, and Marilee

Sister getting married

So many of you are asking which sister is getting married and info about it so here it is. Heather is getting married on August 16th in the Bountiful temple. Her temple divorce went through this last week which was what we were all worried about but because of everyones prayers and fasting it came through. She is marrying a guy named Robert (Robbie, Rob) Haltinner. I have not meet the guy yet. We have messaged back and forth on facebook though and he is big sports fan and hates the Lakers so I am sure we will get along just fine. She is happy and I am happy for her.

Here they are with my Nephew Kaiden

Cali is burning!

Smoky California - pic from my apt balcony.

So I always thought California was just going to fall into the ocean but after the last few weeks I think it is just going to all burn to the ground. Poor smoke filled California! We had a day or two of relief and then Tuesday it started again. You can't go any where to get fresh air because it's every where you go. It doesn't help that it is also 110 degrees outside. My guys at work have been wearing masks because we have to open the warehouse doors for deliveries and customers and the smoke fills up the warehouse. It needs to just go away so everyone can go outside and play....after all it is summer and I need to start getting my great tan for Hawaii.