For several years now, David and Vickie have invited us to go to Hawaii with them at this time of year. They come over for a conference that they are part of and each time we have to say no because of other commitments (school, kids, life in general...). But this year we said yes... Brian is the only one home, but Richard and Nickie were here to keep an eye on things, so off we went to Hawaii! Also, we usually visit Kauai and Oahu, but this trip we went to Maui which was a lot of fun.
When we arrived to Oahu, we got a phone call from my mom letting us know that my dad had passed away. It was a devastating blow to say the least. He had been suffering with Alzheimer's disease for a couple of years and was getting worse, but I didn't know how bad it was till my mom called. The next few days were hard and made our trip a bit different.
As always, the sunsets on Waikiki were amazing and we enjoyed
walking along the beach to watch them each night.
We made plans to visit with Bradley a few times who is in school at BYU Hawaii,
but because we didn't rent a car, he usually came to town to see us.
We had dinner a couple of times and enjoyed Halloween, Hawaiian style...
The funeral for my dad was held on Nov 5, so we flew to Maui, then immediately left the next day for Utah. Several of our children were able to come to the funeral, even Taylor, who was given permission to come.
After the funeral, we flew back to Maui and met up with David and Vickie and had a great time with them.
Black Rock, where we did some snorkeling
along the road to Hana
We arrived in Hana and I guess I was expecting something more, but this is it. A sleepy little Hawaiian town. We bought a t-shirt so everyone would know that we had been there...
This is a place called the Seven Pools and it was beautiful.
We hiked in to the area and found a lot of people swimming and jumping off the rocks.
You can see how big it is by the size of the people.
It took us a while to find this church but we finally found it. love it! It was really cute.
Our favorite place to eat while we were there. Bubba Gump's in Lahaina.
Robert and I ate here three times...
One day we walked down to see some of the other hotels and we found this
one hotel that had a little area where they had these penguins! So cool!
The view from our room. The clouds and the mountains were beautiful!
You can see a rainbow on the mountain on the left.
In the airport on the way home. We will meet up with Larry & Melanie, who have been vacationing on the big Island and will be on the same flight home with us.
On our last day in Maui, we got a call from the airlines telling us that our flight back to the mainland from Oahu would be delayed several hours. We met Larry & Melanie at the airport.
Catherine enjoying the flowers as we walked to the restaurant...
We decided to use the dinner vouchers they gave us and enjoy our last evening on the island.
Catherine was really loving these fish at the restaurant and kept trying to catch them!
We had such a good time with David and Vickie and are happy we were finally able to go to Maui with them!
I wanted to post some pictures of my Dad's funeral. I was so impressed at the funeral by all the things that were said about my parents. I felt that I didn't know them at all. They are so unselfish and giving to the members of their community. As I sat and listened, I got to know a different side of them that I've never noticed before. I'm so glad that my parents had the opportunity to move to Aurora and make so many dear friends.
I've been thinking about what to write that would adequately 
