My New Ride

For the last several weeks I have been combing through the internet trying to find just the right bike at just the right price. Call it a mid-bachelor chrisis if you want, but a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do! So after many late nights searching, and many phone calls, I tracked down my new bike! Its a 2004 Yamaha Road Star Warrior! Now for you guys, its 1700cc's of raw fuel-injected goodness!......oh who am I kidding, no guys ever read these blogs....we all know if by any small chance they actually get on and look at these blogs, they only skim through the pictures!! The bike was surprisingly clean with not a single scratch on the paint.....and by the way....HOLY CRAP it's fast! This is actually my second one of this particular kind of motorcycle, so I'm pretty stoked! So here's to a great year of riding with my boys....and perhaps a few rides with the ladies as well!!

While I was in Oregon, I stayed with Maile and Nate and Dad came down too. We had so much fun catching up and I was even able to have a little shadow named Quinn! I love my nephews so dang much, they are a riot! I helped Dad and Nate put in 12 new can lights and 3 new pendant lights in their kitchen. It was a fun project and Maile was pretty darn excited when we got all done!

I stole this off Maile's Blog cause I love this picture of Quinn and Cannon and I!

Us guys doing electrical work.

Dad and Cannon

Okay, and last, since I am a guy, I have to brag about my new speakers that Nate hooked me up with! My brother-in-law Nathan Thomas is an attorney and COO for a high end speaker company in Oregon called Aperion Audio. http://www.aperionaudio.com/ I got two new tower speakers, a new center channel, and a new Subwoofer! They sound freaking amazing! Thanks Nate!!

They come boxed with foam, and in these purple velvet bags to protect the finish!

Superbowl Sunday!!

This afternoon we went out to Lani and Craig Martineau's house for our annual superbowl party. It was kind of a small party this year, but we still managed to have a good time! We missed those that weren't there this year but it was fun having a little bit of a smaller crowd this year so we all could relax a little more!

Gotta love all the tasty lo-cal dips.

Me and my friend Meridith. Her daughter Hailey took this pic...she's 4 years old, so its a little shakey and blurry!

Lani looks mischevious, and Peyton looks a little less than impressed!

Luke has a habbit of taking pics on my camera when I leave it laying around!!!

It was a lazy day, and we loved it!

Silly animals!

About a month ago I was up in Morgan, UT wiring a house for the owners of Roberts Crafts. I was part of a crew of 6 guys. While we were up there, we ended up making friends with a little squirrel. We started by feeding him some chips and random food that we had in our lunches. Soon on of our guys was grabing a tool out of our trailer when he saw the squirrel run by with a whole slice of pizza in its mouth! He then saw it trying to drag the slice of pepparoni up a tree!! We were all laughing so hard when we heard that! Here's a shot of our friend....

The funny thing is, that the week i left for Hawaii, the fun really started....We have a 19 year old apprentice named Ben. He is a short tiny little guy who could seriously pass the sacrament and look like the newbie!! The guys were eating lunch one day when our little friend showed up looking for food. Ben for some reason thought it would be funny to chase this poor squirrel down. As he dissapeared out of sight down a hill from where the guys were standing, the all suddenly heard Ben screaming bloody murder. The tossed down their lunches and ran to the top of the hill to see Ben with a death grip on his leg screaming.."please little squirrel, don't bite me!!!..I'm sorry, but please don't bite me!!" As they watched in disbelief, they realized that the squirrel had somehow managed to run up his pant leg! Ben was trying to prevent it from getting any further up his leg, thus taking and hiding the wrong kind of nuts!!!!! Of course the guys weren't going to help him, but all started to pull out their camera phones and starting taking pictures instead of helping! With friends like that, who needs enemies, right?! I had to share that story, cause I was seriously dying laughing when I heard it!

This year has been really cold and really snowy. I have noticed more deer and elk down lower this year than any year I can remember. Last week my buddy Jesse and I were out in Saratoga Springs just west of Lehi doing a service call when we saw this heard of 29 Antelope bedded down in this field. It was quite the sight, especially considering they were within a few hundred yards of the busiest intersection of that whole area. I thought it was cool so I took a picture.

Final Hawaii Pics!

I wanted to post a few final photos of Hawaii.....mostly because its cold as crud here and i'm sick of blizzards and wishing I were on sunny beaches again! Here's a few last shots that I took with my Canon 10D.

I took this photo the first night I was there from the Ko ohlina resort that we stayed at.

And for Luke...It was taken at 1:30am f/3.5 30 sec ISO 200.

Looking down toward the North Shore from the temple grounds. My dad and I took this photo Christmas eve. My padre is my favorite photo partner...we always have a blast chatin and killin time!! This was a great way to spend Christmas eve!

Moon behind a palm tree.

The day I left.....hey...at least a storm was rollin' in!!

An Evening at the PCC

Friday night we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. It is divided up into several areas that each represent one of the islands of Polynesia. We spent time at each of them watching the demonstrations, and went to the big show at the end. It was pretty rad, and along with several pictures that I took, I took a few videos too! This is my first attempt at posting videos, so we'll see how this goes!!

These are some Tahitian dancers.....I cant believe how they shake their moneymakers!

This dude was crazy, and so much fun to watch!

Pretty cool Hula Dance.

More Fire Dancers!

Nate and I decided that every woman should learn how to do this!!

Laie, Hawaii Temple

This morning I took a stroll by myself to the Temple grounds for some peace and quiet! The house we are staying in is only about 1 1/2 blocks from the Temple. I took along my camera and took some pics.

Front view.

Turning around from the picture above, this is the view of the street leading up to the temple. At the end of this street off in the distance is a small temple garden on the beach of the North Shore. If you look close, the first left hand turn off this street is the street we are staying on. You can see the Temple lights at night from our living room!

Standing up by the temple overlooking the front grounds.

Gardens behind the Temple. There are some cool vines hanging down everywhere!

I also took some pics of some various plants and flowers on the grounds. Kind of my ode to Uncle Carl!! Here they are!

Kolekole Pass

Today we set out for the Scholfield Barracks to pick up Ben from work. After we grabbed a quick bite at the PX, we headed out for a place called Kolekole Pass. It is property that is owned by the US Navy, and is only accessable if you have Military escort. It just so happens that my Brother-in-law Ben (Kami's Husband) is in the Army. It was a beautiful pass, and a really fun drive. The only other thing we did today was go to a small beach town on the North Shore and walk around at the shops. It was a lot of fun even though it kind of drizzled all day!....don't feel too bad for me....it was still 74 degrees outside!

View from the first vantage point on the Kolekole Pass.

If you look close you can see the road that hugs the mountain.

Ben and I on top of the pass.

Punch Bowl & Hanauma Bay

Today we set our glorious Red minivan sail to head first to a monument nicknamed Punch Bowl. It is a large monument set up on a hill side that pays tribute to All fallen service men and women. On the walls there were large murals of all the war strategies and events as they transpired. It was very humbling to see all the names and to take in the views.

Looking up the Memorial.

Close up of the main focal point of the Memorial.

Looking down from the top of the Memorial.

Next we drove all over Honolulu looking for some damn Hawaiian BBQ place that was closed once we got there. Holy crap I was so hungry and honery by the time we got to a place that was open I thought I would scream! Of course I couldn't pronounce anything on the dang menu, so I asked for the combo.....hmmm....this is what I ended up with! It consisted of salt, salty, and ungodly amounts of salt!!!!

Hmmm........not so delicious!

Next, we headed over to Hanauma Bay for some beach time. It is a bay that is believed to have been created by a Volcano, which eventually eroded into an opening to the sea. Today, it is full of sea life and an active reef in fairly shallow waters. There are hundreds of varieties of fish as well as endangered Sea turtles seen regularly in the Bay. Nate, Ben, Maile, and I all snorkeled. It was my first time snorkeling, and it was so much fun. I saw some incredible fish, and I'm really ready to go get scuba certified now so that I can go into deeper waters to explore!

Headed out for the first time!

Mom and Dad coming to get in on the mix.

Here's a view of the bay from the shoreline.

Looking over the whole bay. Notice the flip flops?!! Another successful day of no shoes!

The last thing we did today was stop at a place called the Blow Hole. It is a hole in the rock, that when the waves crash into the rocks, it forces water up through the rock and it blows out like a whales blow hole! It was really pretty, as were the surrounding beaches! I know, I know....Shocker!!

Water shooting out...thus the name!

I want this as my backyard!

All this running around wore padre right out! Gotta love that gaping mouth! Another successful day in the Hawaiian islands!!