Our Family

This is a set of pictures of the outside of our house remodel. It is nearly complete. The floor and carpet are installed inside. All that is left are the window covers in about 3 weeks and some built in shelves in the garage, family room, and office.

The front entrance showing the landscape installation.

Also the front of the house showing the garage side and the gate to the side yard where my garden will be.

Looking at the patio from the family room.

Looking at the side yard from the patio.

Looking at the back yard from the patio.

Looking at our house from street side.

The view of the mountains from our upstairs patio.

Another view of the mountains.

And a view of Catalina Island from our front balcony.

Finally, a view of the hills from the street in the front of our house.

Below are some pictures of our Christmas Vacation trip to Hawaii. We stayed at my Brother Paul's house in Kaneohe Hawaii on Oahu. We wanted to go to Hawaii to see Brian and his family before he leaves for his second tour to Iraq.

On the first day, we decided to go to Hanama Bay to snorkel. The park filled up before we got there and therefore we could not snorkel so we just drove along the coast and took some pictures at different scenic points. This a picture of Gavin with the Pacific Ocean in the background.

Also a picture of Judi at one of the scenic points.

A couple of shots of the coast line just north of Hanama bay.

On the same day, we spent some time with Brian, Suzi, Fionna, Almut and Benedickt. Below is a picture of Fionna and Almut racing on their back porch.

Judi holding Fionna.

One 2nd day, Judi and I stopped by a Bhudist temple in a cemetary close to by brother Paul's house. The two photos below are of that place. It is a replica of a temple in Japan. It is really a peaceful place even though a lot of tourists stop by there each day.

We spent Christmas day at Brian and Suzie's house.

Judi and I with Brian, Suzie, Benedict, Almut and Fionna.

Michael playing with Fionna and Amut and the toy train they got for Christmas.

Benedict is sitting up and will be crawling soon.

One day we went to Wiamea Falls.

Michael and Deanna with Wiamea Falls in the background.

Michael and Gavin Swimming in
Wiamea Falls

We also checked out the surf at Sandy Beach. Mike and Gavin decided not to surf here. They did surf in Waikiki earlier in the weak.

We also went to Banzai beach, but the surf was not up on this day.

On the same day, we checked out Mr Matsumoto's store on the North Shore, the original shave ice store in Hawaii.

Gavin, Michael, Deanna and Judi getting ready to order shaved ice cups.

One evening we had Brian, Suzie and their kids over to my brother Paul's house for dinner.

Judi is teaching Almut and Fiona how to Hula Dance in Paul's house.

And Brian got out his flute to play with Judi accompliment.

We also visited a shopping center where Brian sat in Santa's seat with Fionna and Almut.

The last afternoon and evening of our trip was spent at the Polenesian Cultural Center. It is a fabulous show of all of the different Polenesian cultures where demonstrations, songs and dances are put on by BYU students from the different Polenesian areas. This is the way these students are able to pay for their college education. The pictures below are a selection of photos of that part of the trip. The first four photos are of a boat parade where each boat represents a different island group. The last three photos are of our family at a luau and an evening show where flash photography was not allowed.

I think these dancer's are Tongans but not sure.