Pearl Harbor - USS Bowfin & USS Missouri

While we were at Pearl Harbor we also visited the Submarine USS Bowfin and the Battleship USS Missouri. I can't believe the size of these vessels. The USS Bowfin was commissioned on December 7, 1942, exactly 1 year after Pearl Harbor was attacked. The submarine was dubbed the "Pearl Harbor Avenger." It went on 9 missions and had 41 kills. It never suffered any serious damage, no one ever died, and they only ever had 1 injury (someones leg.) I thought it's "stats" were pretty cool.


Next we toured the USS Missouri, the battleship where Japan surrendered, ending WWII in the Pacific. We walked 1 1/2 miles touring the ship. It is HUGE! I can't believe the size of the cannons.


This is one of the beds where the enlisted personnel sleep. There are 3 bunks, I am in the middle one. There's not too much room to turn over. I wonder how they decide who gets the top bunk. I also wonder which bunk is the best...


It makes it easier to understand why the Arizona sunk so fast when you learn how much ammunition it takes to fire these cannons. When the Arizona was bombed, all of the ammunition in the forward magazine exploded. It tore the ship apart and killed everyone. The USS Missouri is moored in a way so that it watches over it's sister ship, the USS Arizona in her final resting place.

Pearl Harbor - USS Arizona

Today we decided to visit Pearl Harbor. I can't think of any other way to describe it other than reverent and serene. It reminded me of the feelings I have at Liberty and Carthage Jail. What is really inspiring it that the memorial was designed to focus on serenity and introspect rather than sadness. It was amazing, I can't believe I was finally able to come.




This is the second gun turret of the USS Arizona. I couldn't believe how much of the ship you can see. A silhouette of the entire ship is visible from the air.

The BEST Surprise EVER!!!

My awesome children gave me THE BEST surprise. They sent me to Hawaii! I thought I was going to go to work with Quinn in California, but right before I left for the airport, Rex gave me a hug and said "Have a great time in Hawaii!" I was sooo surprised! It turns out Quinn had this planned out for months and the kids NEVER breathed a word of it. They are amazing.

Disney World

We had a great trip to sunny, warm Florida!
Disney World was one of the big highlights. The kids are a bit older than they were last time we came here so now all they wanted to do was ride all of the "BIG" rides. It was really fun. Occasionally Dexter wanted to sit off a few, but for the most part he rode everything!

Puerto Rico

Quinn let me tag along on yet another trip for RedBox. Puerto Rico is beautiful yet filthy all at the same time. My favorite part was the rain forest. It was unbelievable. The size of the trees were breath taking, and I couldn't believe how much of the sun they blocked out. It felt like dusk when we were hiking around under the canopy at 2:00 in the afternoon. I tried to catch several lizards, but I'm not quite fast enough. One of these days I'll succeed and my boys will be so proud!

Tarzan eat your heart out!


I wore really smart hiking shoes, my feet were so sore the next day but it was completely worth it.

Happy Halloween

Haley as a vampire. She did her own makeup, and was especially impressed with herself when she remembered to make her arms pale too. Too bad she couldn't figure out a way to make her skin sparkle like diamonds.


Dexter as Indiana Jones. He likes to be called "Dexta Jones", he practiced for months perfecting his smirk.


Max as a mummy, we wrapped him up really well, so good in fact that he couldn't walk, sit or even move. This is how we had to transport him to school and we had to use his scooter to get him to class. It loosened up after a while so he survived.


Rex as Superman. He wouldn't stay still long enough for me to get a picture. I finally caught him in class. He insisted that I make the perfect curl in his hair right on his forehead so he would look "exactly like Superman."


Halloween in always fun at our house. Especially when it is time to carve pumpkins. We love to watch Dex clean his out. Every year he reluctantly digs the seeds out of his pumpkin and "dry heaves" the entire time. I try hard not to laugh, but it's such a good show. Poor kid, I'm sure I am damaging him for life... I tried to be a little nicer this year and I scraped all of the seeds into one clump, but I still made him pull them out of the pumpkin. Yes, he still dry heaved.

Lint the Frog

I guess time-out didn't work this time. While staying at Cabin Jack, Dexter was a little naughty and had to be sent to time-out in the laundry room. While there he spent his time staring at the floor. Suddeny he started yelling "there's a frog in here!" Over and over. Frustrated, I went to see what in the world he was calling a frog. It was very cold in late October and we hadn't seen any frogs outside. I thought Dex was just trying to get a little attention. Low and behold, there really was a frog. It was tiny, dehydrated, and covered in dryer lint. We were all really excited, espically Dexter since I completely forgot all about time-out.



We cleaned him up and brought him home to Utah, we took very good care of him untill I forgot to close his lid tight and he escaped. We are still looking for him...

p.s. In the picture mom is touching the frog. Can you believe it?