Big Island 2007

The day after Tiffany and Jeff's wedding the whole DeVore family flew over to the Big Island of Hawaii. Tiffany and Jeff kept going to Kauai for their honeymoon and meet up with us on the last day. We had a great time. Our hotel/condo was great, we shared with Nathan, Kiersten and Henry. It's been a few months now and we still miss waking up to Henry crawling on the wood floor slapping his hands on the floor as he goes along. Our condos are owned by Hilton so we went over to the Hilton hotel just down the road. It is the biggest hotel I have ever seen! Check out the picture of us paddle boating with the huge stairs behind us and you'll get an idea of how big it is. There are 3 different pools to swim in as well as a lagoon with turtles and fish swimming along with you. Besides the hotel we went to a few beaches, which are hard to come by because most of the coast is lava rock! Not too nice to swim in. We did make it down to a black sand beach which was pretty cool. The most fun was had at a rope swing we happened to come by on our way to the volcano. Ja and the boys had a blast, Kiersten and I did try it even though I was scared about hitting the rocks underneath. Fortunately everyone survived. We did make it to the volcano but it was getting dark and cold! Who knew it could be cold in Hawaii. We drove by a warm steam vent and then drove home. It was a very fun day. Everyone had a blast and we are very grateful we were able to go.

Here are pictures of the black sand beach we walked down to, a view from the hotel and Nathan jumping off the rope swing.

Pearl Harbor

Devin, Ja and I had a 10-hour layover in Oahu the day before we returned to Utah. We decided to go over to Pearl Harbor and take a look around. The harbor is so peaceful now, it was hard to imagine the total chaos that happened on December 7, 1941. We got to see the U.S.S. Arizona which was bombed and sunk to the bottom of the harbor. The picture has all the names of the people that died that day on the U.S.S. Arizona. It was really sad to see letters from wives and girlfriends written to the soliders saying, "We can't wait to see you in a few months," or "Can't wait to hear back from you." Those families weren't able to say goodbye. In the middle of this we ran into some friends, the Wests, from Utah, we had no idea they would be there. That was fun. Devin, Ja and I then went on the U.S.S. Missouri battleship. That was pretty cool to see in what small quarters the Navy has to live in. We did get a picture of the huge canons. It's hard to imagine how loud those would be when firing. And to think when Japan was bombing the harbor there were multiple bombs and canons shooting. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the ship but it was pretty cool. Tiny rooms, tiny beds, tiny storage, tiny offices. Part of the ship was like a little musem with artifacts from soldiers. All in all it was a fun layover. If you ever get a chance to see Pearl Harbor it's a trip worth taking.

These are the huge canons. Notice how little the people are in the background.

Our dream come true!

He did it! Ja got into BYU's accounting program! We couldn't be more excited. The day Ja found out he called everyone he knew and told them the good news. He was so excited he went and bought his books 2 months early! So this fall Ja will be starting classes in the #2 accounting school in the nation. We've been waiting for that day for two years. Thank you all for your many prayers. We are so grateful for this opportunity. Whenever Ja remembers he's in the accounting school he looks at me and says, "Laura I'm going to be an accountant!" with a huge smile on his face.

Christmas Break 2006

Instead of taking us to Yosemite again the Seymour family decided to let us scrape their ceiling instead. We offered to help them, we didn't know it would take so long. If any of you are thinking about doing this here is a word of advice: Use the metal scraper! It works so much better. What a good way to spend a vacation huh?

Happy Birthday and Blessing

For my 21st birthday we were able to celebrate with the DeVore family because we were down in CA for Henry and Caleb's baby blessings. All of the uncles were able to be in the circle to bless the babies. Even though it was only for a weekend it was fun to be in CA and to be with the family.

Wedding Dress Party

This may sound crazy, but we had a wedding dress party! Since most of us in our ward are newlywed's we had a party to show off our favorite dress. This way we got to wear it more than once. My friend Erin and I hosted the party and we were excited so many girls showed up. We even had a wedding cake, a photographer and a red carpet so show off our dresses!

St. George Trip

We took a weekend trip down to St. George with our friends, Andrew and Chelsey Jones. We went to the St. George temple, played tennis, went swimming, watched a movie and took a day trip to Las Vegas. We had a lot of fun.

Golf, Golf, Golf

This summer was the summer of Ja improving his golf game. He went about once a week with his Uncle Steve then four or five times with his friends. The Elders Quorum even had a golf championship. Ja was able to enjoy his birthday golf clubs. He eventually got better at the end of the summer. Ja also took a trip to Midway, UT to go golfing with Jason Roberts while I went shopping with Jason's wife Katelyn. If we aren't shopping Katelyn and I ride along in the cart and the guys would let us drive.

Maui

The DeVore family took a family vacation to Maui this summer. Ja and I were only able to go for half the week while the rest of the fam stayed the whole week. Even though we were only there for a few days we still had a blast. Our hotel had a kiddie pool with a pirate ship that the kids loved to play in. Brigham got Ja to go in a few times. Brigham thought it was fun to pull Uncle Ja on the "skateboard." We were able to go snorkeling, to a black sand beach, and on a fun Sunday drive. It's wonderful to walk into the ocean and the water is warm! The waterfall was amazing, we felt like we were in the jungle! All in all we had a great time and were really sad to go back to Utah and school.

We're weren't in Provo anymore

Just a few miles up the Provo Canyon there is a ski resort named Sundance. During the summer you can ride up the ski lift and walk down the mountain. We did this with Ja's uncle Steve and aunt Kathy because Ja's cousin was working there. It was so pretty up there. We didn't feel like we were in Utah anymore but in the mountains of Austria. We almost started singing doe a deer, a female deer.

Ward Campout

Our first ward campout was quite a hit. We made some new friends while playing croquet and had a great time. Our campsite was right next to a river so we fell asleep to rushing water.