Grandmas Everywhere

Last weekend we jumped in the car and headed to Logan for a couple days. Original plans included skiing the Beav but I elected to sleep in instead. There is something about a Grandma's basement that makes you want to sleep until noon. And the crazy thing is you actually can. Even Jack can't resist the magic of the basement. It was after 9:30 a.m. before we went to make sure he made it through the night. On Friday night Curtis and Jennie and Andy and his lady friend (sorry, just spaced her name) came over with their 1 and 1/2year olds to eat Grandma's spagetti. It was fun to watch the boys "play" together. Which basically means play by themselves while sitting next to the others. When we went to Grandma and Grandpa Emmett's to visit I said to Jack while getting him out of his car seat "let's go see Grandma and Grandpa Emmett." He looked up and around as if to say "where are we? That word "grandma" sure seems to be thrown around a lot lately."
In addition to visiting family Logan gives Beth and I chance to visit a couple of our favorite places. Beth loves the giant used book store next to my favorite place, Norda's. While Beth found 10 books in less than 120 seconds I pick up a new Beach Cruiser. I went with the Robert August . Pretty sweet, eh? Were giving my other cruiser to Beth's Grandpa McEuen.

Jack insisted on trying the raw potatoes he found and was very pleased when his Great Grandma cleaned it up for him

Thanks for playing Grandma!

Mmmmmmm, Yo-Gos.

Hey Snoop do you like Yo-Gos too?

Here try this. It's good, trust me.

Dang you Snoop! Eat this!

Poor bum

What's sadder at a Midnight diaper change . . .

1. A 17 month old crying his eyes out because of a diaper rash that won't quit.
2. Baby's momma crying her eyes out because the baby is crying his eyes out.
   
3. Dad catching the contagious cry.
   

Kicks like a little girl

When Beth was pregnant with Jack she always claimed that he was kicking her. I began to have my doubts when I still hadn't felt anything by the 8th month. Supposedly he just wasn't cooperative and would stop kicking as soon as I put my hand on her stomach. I think I maybe felt it once or twice the whole pregnancy, which you fathers will agree is a pretty awesome experience. It was hard to catch because he wouldn't do the kick, kick, kick . . . . kick, kick, kick thing. He preferred to get it all out with a single KICK!
This is not the case with Little Baby What's Her Name. As soon as Beth lies down (which is an annoying habit by the way) she starts her tap dance. It has been so wild for me the past week or so to feel her little taps. And they are all over the map. If you put your hand where the last series of kicks was she is sure to swim away and kick elsewhere a minute later. Some of them make Beth jerk in pain as a vital organ or two gets hit. I told Beth she needs to buck up, What's Her Name kicks like a little girl.
The Doctor suggested she might get everything out of her system and be a nice gentle baby. That would be nice but we'll see about that. If she is anything like her brother we'll spend the first year trying to get 8 seconds of stillness in our arms.

Jack at 7 months didn't feel well and actually feel asleep in Beth's arms. We had to document the occasion.

Jack's back, but not for a while

Jack Bauer that is. It's official that Season 7 of 24 has been postponed until next January. However, there was some good news for Jack Bauer fans (like us) earlier this week. Sometime this fall there is going to be a two-hour T.V. movie set between seasons 6 and 7. The movie is supposed to help bridge the gap between the two seasons. I don't know how it's going to work but I have a feeling it will be awesome. It will especially be good as long as no members of Jack's family manage to get themselves in trouble (that was exhausted by the second season). I just want to see Jack vs. the bad guys.

You might be asking yourself "what do I do in the meantime." Let me make a suggestion, read a book or eight. If you haven't already discovered Vince Flynn and his books you are missing out. Especially if you are a fan of American Counter Terrorist Agents and their exploits. Mitch Rapp is the recurring character. He is the CIA's top counter terrorist agent and was waterboarding bad guys way before it became cool. Without giving anything away I'll just say that he has saved the U.S. and other civilized countries from countless tragedies and rid the world of some pretty evil people. In one of the books set before the Iraq War he even went undercover after the Hussein brothers. Protect and Defend came out last Fall and has been the only book I've read (other than on our vacation) by choice since school began. I feel guilty reading for pleasure when there is so much school reading that I can't get to. It was worth it to catch up with Mitch. If you haven't read any then I recommend starting at the beginning, you can thank me later.

Oahu

After Kauai we hopped on Aloha Air for the 29 minute flight to Oahu. Aloha has replaced Jet Blue as my favorite airline. Granted they have the built in advantage in the fact that you will always be flying to or from the Hawaiin Islands but they also serve up fresh baked chocolate chip cookies on the flights. Delicious. This part of the trip was on our own and not part of the Novell trip. Needless to say when I'm in charge and use Priceline to plan the trip it isn't as luxurious. It didn't matter though because we were very busy and had a great time.

The first order of business was Pearl Harbor. One bonus was that since I was there last the Battleship Missouri Memorial opened.

My favorite part of the Missouri was seeing where a Kamikazee pilot penetrated the air defenses and hit the Missouri. It left these cute little dents in the side of the ship. The only casualty was the pilot.

We also toured the Bowfin and I was able to confirm that I would never be able to serve on a submarine without going crazy in the confined space. I'm so grateful there are others that can.

The Arizona Memorial was as powerful as ever. If you've never been it is a floating memorial over the sunken battleship. You can still see most of the ship just below the surface. Over 1,000 sailors were killed and still lay with the ship. There is a wall with the names of all that died. We didn't find any Emmetts or McEuens but wouldn't you know we found some Millers . . .

and some Smiths . . .
and Elvis.
After Pearl Harbor we drove to Kailua to visit some friends or ours, the Westbrooks, from BYU. Lynn made a great dinner and Ben and I were able to talk about how great it is to be a Lakers fan again. The next morning we hopped in our rental car to spend the day on the North Shore. We asked for the Michael Scott special and were excited they had the grey Sebring convertible. It turned out that you need to pay close attention to where you park in the touristy lots because apparently we weren't the only ones with the Sebring on the island.
First stop on the way was the Dole Pineapple plantation. I went with the chocolate covered pineapple and Beth elected the pineapple ice cream. We both shared the pineapple muffin. Thinking about it makes me hungry.
We spent the first half of the day lounging around Waimea Bay before lounging around Pipeline. I love seeing surf spots that I've seen and heard so much about. The surf was only 5-8 feet when we were there. We heard the old "you should have been here last week" and from what I read the swell was 25 ft+ the week before we got there. The Pipe Masters bodyboard contest was going on while we were there, so unfortuneately I couldn't paddle out. It's always overhead for those guys. I took a short video of one of the sets.

I picked up boardshorts pair #19 while we were there and no, that's not the British flag. It's the State of Hawaii flag. I convinced Beth that while I may not need another pair it would be a great conversation piece. "Why are you sporting the British flag on your trunks?" "Actually it's not the British . . . ."
After checking out Sunset Beach we went to Laie to see the temple and visit the Polynesian Culture Center. We saw the standard shows with hula dancing, fire starting, tree climbing. The evening performance was great. Beth clapped a lot in approval. I was pleased to find that the PCC has less white kids from Idaho pretending to be from Polynesia than I remembered from 10 years ago. The PCC is owned by the Church and proceeds help support BYU-Hawaii. I tried to get a discount with my BYU i.d. but it didn't work. We still had to pay a bundle to get in.
Our last day in Hawaii was spent snorkeling at some state park bay and then hanging out at Waikiki. At Waikiki I rented a surfboard and paddled out with the crowds for a while. The board was the biggest piece of junk I've ever seen but I still had a lot of fun. The surf is pretty small this time of the year on the south side but there was enough for everybody.
The last night we were pretty exhausted but when I mentioned something about the Cheesecake Factory Beth perked right up and was convinced it would be the perfect place to go on our last night in Hawaii. Waikiki is so different from the rest of Oahu and the rest of islands. It's like Vegas on the beach. It was fun to see but it's pretty low on my list of places to return to.

Sorry for the travel log but I'll forget everything if I didn't do it. We were so pumped to go home and see Jack. We got the feeling that we missed him more than he missed us. My mom said he was perfect and didn't seem to miss a beat without either of us there. We don't want a kid that falls apart without us but come on buddy! at least make us feel needed.

Kauai Part II

The travel log continues. Sunday we went and snorkeled at Poipu state beach and then came back to relax around the pool. Notice the new sunglasses that were nowhere to be found the next night as we packed up. They weren't my favorite but they were comfortable and expensive enough to still make me sick.

Sunday night was the gala. Everyone dresses up for this open bar. The executives address the crowd and the qualifiers get their picture with the VPs. The dinner was nice but the food was overrated. At least the company was good. We forgot our camera in true Emmett form but some friends were nice enough to take one for us. You can tell from the raccoon eyes that Beth liked her sunglasses.

Monday was one of those beautiful days that you never forget. Perfect day for a helicopter tour of the island. This was one of the coolest things I have ever done. I couldn't stop taking photos so if you ever want to see 100 photos of Kauai from the air just let me know. I've included a few to give the idea. The photos above and below are of the Na Pali coast. The sensation of flying over a mountain and then looking straight down to the ocean was wild. The couple on our helicopter from Denmark got a little nauseous at that point.

Flying through Waimea Canyon, the "grand canyon" of Hawaii.
You could see a lot of whales breaching of all shores at all times. I was never quick enough with the camera but did get this blow hole.

This is the top of Mt. Waileawaileamkahmehalehainahonlupka (sp?). It's the second highest point on Kauai and the wettest spot on earth. Over 450 inches of rain a year. Our pilot and just about anyone else we talked to from the island will tell you that you can only see the top less than 30 days a year. Mostly a cloud just sits on top of it.

After the helicopter tour we returned back to the beach. There was this rock out in front that I would watch someone jump off every once in a while. I went up to check it out but couldn't tell how deep it was. Then the jr. high let out and a dozen kids showed up and started jumping with no hesitation. At least I knew it was safe but all of the sudden I didn't feel so special. Beth did grab a video for me. It was plenty deep and you could actually see a turtle in the water that you had to jump over.

Night Drops

One of the most fun things about President's Club is the night drops. Every night we were excited to get back to the room and see what gift was laid us for us. This year it started and ended with a whimper but the middle nights were pretty awesome.

Day One: Two XL t-shirts and Hawaiian treats gift pack. Anyone need a free t-shirt?








Day Two: Our choice of Maui Jim sunglasses. Now we are talking. BTW, if anyone in Kauai has come across my pair of glasses let me know. I really enjoyed the 4 days we spent together.







Day Three: Canon PowerShot digital camera with a tripod and memory card.







Day Four: iPod Touch with speaker. We have hit the mother load. I wonder what tomorrow brings? They certainly are building to something.







Day Five: a book.

Kauai Part I

This is the first of a few entries of our trip to Hawaii. It's going to be more travel log than I would prefer but hopefully I'll still be able to show that the trip was an absolute blast. We left an absolute blizzard in Utah on Wednesday night to fly to Orange County to drop Jack off at my parents. Beth later admitted that she feared she wouldn't be able to leave him behind and thought we might have to take him with. That was before the relatively short flight with him. He wasn't bad or anything, he was just himself. If you know him then you know that trying to keep him confined to small space is a pain in the butt. Plus with all the snow we had to sit on the runway for an extra hour. The next day it was much easier to leave him behind. On Thursday we landed on Kauai a little after noon. That left us plenty of time to check out the wonderful Hyatt and begin to do our favorite thing . . . lay around and read.
I'm proud to say that Beth only read one more book than I did. Granted one of her books was bigger than the Bible. Seriously it was huge, at least 10 pounds. I don't know what all she read but I'm sure she'll tell you if you ask. I read a couple Travis McGee novels by John MacDonald and another book called The Mark. Since school began I had only read one other book of my own choosing so that was nice. We also had time to check out the area around the hotel. The Hyatt is the group of buildings over my shoulder.
Beth at least has an excuse for her belly.
The first night there was a mixer for all the Novell people. The food was really good. Lots of seafood. There was the first of many open bars. There's something about an open bar that makes me want to drink. Beth finally saw what I meant. It's probably because I'm cheap and I feel ripped off not taking advantage of something that's free.
On Friday morning there was a breakfast meeting for all the qualifiers and their guests. The second half of the meeting was mandatory for the employees. Apparently they have to do something businesslike in order to treat the club as a business expense. Luckily it was short and sweet. That afternoon everyone was shuttled to the Waimea Plantation on the West side. There they had all kinds of activities for us, including another open bar. Beth and I had a lot of fun paddle surfing.

Two seconds earlier would have been a great photo of both of us.

Saturday morning we went our separate ways. I went on an all day adventure tour. Originally Beth was planning to join but as the day got closer she elected to have a day at the spa rather than kayak/hike/zipline around the jungle. It was a smart move because she had a really good time and would not have enjoyed the tour in her state. She did report that the massage was amazing and the 12 shower heads in the steam room were a treat. I loved the tour. We started out kayaking a few miles up the river before going on foot up the hill. At this point we had a tractor pull everyone on a trailer across the old sugar cane fields. You could see where they films scenes from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park. We then went back into another part of the forest to do some zip lines.

My favorite part of the tour came at the end when we hiked to Kipu Falls. This is me grabbing the rope swing. A friend took a video for me on the swing. It was the bomb!

miss you buddy!

We are having a great time in Kauai and will be off to Oahu tomorrow. More of that to come. We just can't believe how bad we miss this kid. Can you blame us? Just look at him! He doesn't seem to be suffering the same pains though. Here he as at the Aquarium in Long Beach with his party animal babysitters.

Tag. I'm it?

Apparently I've been "tagged" and am now obligated to post my responses to some questions. I should make it known that I have no problem being tagged but if I never respond or choose to ignore the tag please don't take it personally. Sometimes I'm just not inspired. But of course I have never replied to one of those "if you are my friend reply to this in 30 minutes" emails either and have somehow managed to remain friends.

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning. B. Each player answers the questions about themselves. C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 years ago....I had been in the MTC one month on my way to Denmark. I was loving every minute of it. Believe it or not I even have a journal entry from that day: "At the TRC (training resource center) it was golden. Elder Bonham and I did pretty well in teaching the first discussion but we could have used our notes a little less. The funniest part was when Bonham reached in his back pack grabbed a BOM to give to the guy and fumbled it, dropped it on the table, and knocked over the candle and candle holder. The candle literally exploded into a bunch of pieces and scattered everywhere. We just laughed. When we were watching the video we put it in slow motion and watched it over and over. Elder Bonham decided to keep the tape. I tried to stop him but it didn't work." Bonham actually emailed me a few months ago and said he came across the tape and laughed and laughed at the teaching experience and our Danish.

Five things on my to do list today..... It's Sunday so my list is to do as little as possible.

Snacks I enjoy....Oreos with milk, Chips Ahoy with milk, 100 calorie Peanut Butter Kudos (minimum 2 at a time) with milk, toast or cereal with milk, and since it's Fun Food February at the Dairy Keen I enjoy fried Twinkies. It's probably too late to stop you from saying "oooo, gross!" but I'm telling you a fried Twinkie with strawberries and whipped cream on top is delicious. No matter where you are it's worth the drive to try one but you better hurry because they are only available in February.

If i suddenly became a Billionaire ..... I would need houses in Newport Beach and Park City so I could be a lifeguard in the summers and a ski patrolman in the winters. It sounds like I would dedicate myself to saving others but really it's just an excuse to spend all day at my favorite places. I'd also need a boat, probably one of the new Mastercraft. We'd travel a lot but that's a lot of money so I'd do the responsible things like setting up trusts for future generations.

5 bad habits..... Smoking, drinking, cursing, lying, stealing. Was I supposed to list my bad habits?

5 jobs I have had... Drive-thru at El Pollo Loco, Kniveologist for Cutco Inc., Great Harvest Bread slicer, MTC teacher, Intramural sports referee.

5 things most people don't know about me....I was voted "cutest" in the 8th grade, I've secretly started training for an Iron Man once I finish my M.B.A., I thought I found a gray hair last week but Beth was unable to find it again, I just bought my 18th pair of boardshorts, CDs I bought after my mission included Backstreet Boys, A-Teens, and Lou Bega.

6 days!

But who's counting? Ok, Beth and I are. It's going to be great. The first 5 days will be spent at the Grand Hyatt Kauai as part of Novell's President's Club and then Beth and I will fly to Oahu to check out Pearl Harbor, the North Shore, etc. for a few days. Hopefully Beth will get over the flu before Thursday. Jack gets a vacation of his own with Grandma and Grandpa in Irvine. All the attention he wants and he'll actually be able to go outside and play for a change.

Missing: One snow shovel

Would whoever lifted my snow shovel off my front porch please return it. I mean couldn't you have picked a better time than the weekend that brought feet of snow to Midway? This winter continues to be awesome, in both sense of the word. At times I think it's getting out of control but I'm not ready to cry enough already. Especially if it means more days like the ones we had last Friday and Saturday at Snowbird.

This is from our front porch Sunday morning before I started shoveling 21 inches before hurrying to church only to be told to go home again. I didn't even know it was possible to cancel church. If you look close you can see what was left of our chokecherry tree, it has since been completely buried. Beyond the light post is a snow pile where our car used to be.

Jack in the backyard immediately was buried past his waist.
He eventually started to eat his way out.

The snow banks off the sidewalk make him look so little!

They have already brought tractors in to remove the snow twice this year but the roads are once again down to one lane with 12 foot high walls at places. Doesn't my truck look good with the hitch cover I got for my birthday?

Tube thoughts

MASH? The Super Bowl was the second most watched T.V. program ever. I know I'm from the wrong generation to really understand but everytime I'm reminded that the most watched T.V. event in history was the MASH finale I'm blown away. It makes me feel left out. This catch (the whole play really) by David Tyree was pretty amazing.

Tell me this is true! Arrested Development is probably the second funniest show I've ever seen. It's a shame it only lasted three seasons. It and Seinfeld are the only shows that I can just think about and have the type of laughing fit that makes those around me ask if I'm OK.

American Gladiators. I can't believe I was excited for this. I have tried twice and could barely stomach 5 minutes of that show. Way too much cheesy talking from hosts, contestants, and gladiators.

Lost is finally back. I think this guy at USAtoday summed up my sentiments of it's return perfectly. There seems to be only lovers and haters of this show but I don't know why, it has everything I look for in entertainment. I always challenge the Harry Potter cynics to read the first book and just try to stop. If you aren't already a fan I think the same applies to Lost.

Super Tuesday. I'll be stuck in class tomorrow night as the results come in but you know I'll be glued to cnn.com. I'm not sure why, I already know I'll be disappointed with what happens.