Valentine's Day--a murder at the Four Deuces

To keep with tradition, we celebrated Valentine's Day with some of our good friends.  It was the ladies' turn to plan the date, and we all think the men have their work cut out for them next year.  This one will be hard to beat!
We planned a Roaring Twenties murder mystery party at my dad's hangar.  We decorated the tables, made the dinner, planned the costumes, and had so much fun!

Lady (and gentlemen) in Red

My kids LOVE to dress up.  Obviously, it doesn't matter what the costume is.

Cinderella-the ballet

Lucy was lucky enough to go with her Nana, Aunt Kelly, Aunt Shannon and lots of cousins to the Cinderella ballet at BYU last weekend.  I was so sad I couldn't go with her, but she was in great company and loves spending time with Shea's side of the family.
They went early enough that they had a chance to meet the dancers before the performance.  Lucy was in heaven!  She has been twirling and pirouetting ever since.  Thanks Nana, Kelly and Shannon!

Spoiled

While Shea and I were enjoying our togetherness in Kauai, our kids were loved, spoiled, and entertained by Shea's parents and mine.  It was so nice to go and know that our kids were in better hands than when we are home!

They enjoyed swimming at the Lehi pool, playing at Trafalga, eating out, being with cousins, cheering for the Jazz, and exploring the ice caves in Heber.

Mahalo Notes--edited for the Taylors' vacation

Since I did help write a lot of these, I'm stealing them off of Emily's blog.  I don't feel like it's stealing though...I just made her do all the typing and then I handled the copying and pasting.

*Mahalo frigid 4 a.m. walks to the airport shuttle for giving us a reason to be excited we’re up at 4 a.m.

*Mahalo old lady swimsuit bums for reaffirming the importance of cover-ups.

*Mahalo Love Handles of Skimpy Bikini Wearers for the same reason…

*Mahalo Mountain Goat/Lizard/Turtle Heather for being all-terrain.  Mahalo, Emily, for being easily fooled.

*Mahalo, two tiny dates, for providing just the right coverage (for some.)

*Mahalo bikinis on unlikely candidates for covering at least that much and making it easy on everyone’s imagination.

*Mahalo tattoos for my newfound appreciation of Crack Stamp art.

*Also, Mahalo tattoos for proving a canvas doesn’t necessarily have to be stretched.

*Mahalo Papalani Gelato for just being there. In the right place. Conveniently located Next to Pew-ka Dog.

*Mahalo POG gelato for being our daily dose of fruit and island spirit.

*Mahalo Pukey and Belly Button. Just…Mahalo.  And for not pukey-ing where I snorkeled.

*Mahalo Aloha Spirit for being present in the first scent of balmy air.

*Mahalo Captains Quarters for a slim fit.

*Mahalo Green Light of Courtesy forproving that being handicapped can be fun and making the entrance to our hotel room interactive.

*Mahalo Christopher, for pushing the Green Light of Courtesy button EVERY time we went in or out of the room.  It never got annoying.

*Mahalo torrential, hurricane rains for preventing us from being really sunburned.

*Mahalo Costco—you really do have the best beer. (Hey guys…you know what I love here?)

*Mahalo United Airlines for helping us lose weight at the beginning and end of our vacation.

*Mahalo Lanai for sharing breakfast with us every morning.

*Mahalo Beach Vest for attempting to keep the sun away. But No Mahalo for failing.

*Mahalo SPF 10 for being the perfect companion, except when you were almost gone and left Shea looking like a pink-spotted leopard on our last day.

*Mahalo legs for not giving out on our jungle adventure.

*Mahalo Mating Whales on the Nepali Coast for sharing your love. Also, Mahalo for the underwater shout-out.

*Mahalo Granola Leg for your impressive attempt at “Indigenous jungle woman”.

*Mahalo Funnel Cake for keeping Shea alive.

*Mahalo Talk Story for being the Westernmost bookstore in the United States. And having a cat.  And smelling like nast.

*Mahalo Nerts and Show tunes for providing the evening’s entertainment. Oh, and The Bachelor.

*Mahalo little girl @ Costco for reminding Emily she's far from home and that she's really exotic in certain parts of the world.

*Mahalo Kalua Pork for being on every menu.

*Mahalo Andy…all of you.

*Mahalo Merriman’s for being the first, the last…and a lot of in-between.

*Mahalo Stanson for being so darn full of the Aloha spirit.  I just remembered who Stanson is!   Definitely Mahalo to Stanson for the efficient airport check-in.

*Mahalo Maui Guy Salsa…mahalo, mahalo, mahalo.

*Mahalo Neoprene for the laughs you provided at others' expenses.

*Mahalo spinner dolphins for showing how great love can be.

*Mahalo Hawaiian drivers for helping us stop and smell the Hibiscus--every time we drove anywhere.

*Mahalo speed limit for being just a limit with no minimum.

*Mahalo palm tree for fending off 2.5 inches of the sun’s diameter.

*Mahalo beautiful, friendly tropical fish for making your species seem less disgusting. 

*Mahalo Highway to Heaven. In our Jeep. With the top off. (Michael Landon, is that you?)

*Mahalo Fire Alarm for your boisterous celebration of Ahi Tuna.

*Mahalo, Gladys, for the John Smith talk. And the view…oh, the view.

*Mahalo, Bernie, for raising the hot tub to a comfortable chin level.

*Mahalo, Jen, for your many one-sided conversations--that I avoided at all costs!

*Mahalo “has diven” for being a perfect past tense just when we needed it.

*Mahalo Hawaiian lady in the hall for not laughing at Christopher when he said Mahalo like a real white “Homeboy”.

*Mahalo Hawaiian bathroom signs for making me question my gender every time.

*Mahalo Vibratory Restriction Zone sign…???

*Mahalo ravenous oceanic shark for taking a holiday from eating divers.

*Mahalo xylophone music in LAX for making us appreciate Hawaiian music after all.

*Mahalo driver’s license for getting Emily frisked.

*Mahalo option for private screening by airport official.  We didn't all need to see that.

*Mahalo Molten Lava Hot Tub for helping us realize that second degree sunburns are not the most painful thing.

*Mahalo T.J. for taking up valuable vacation time to point out the absurdity of paying for a vacation. Good luck.

*Mahalo mean Australian guy for denying me a comfy shoulder to rest upon and a steady stream of conversation, but No Mahalo for the mean part. Go sit with your wife. Who cares if it’s a window seat? The German guy didn’t care.

*Mahalo Indian couple for not speaking English so you were unable to perform the duties of the Exit row. Heather and Shea really appreciate the extra leg room. But they’re used to it.

*Mahalo, United Airlines, for recognizing the Taylors and treating their bags as such.

*Mahalo Tutus (Grandmas) and grandpas for liking your grandkids enough to spoil them while we were gone!

*Mahalo Coxes for being perfectly vacation compatible.  

Kauai 2011

This is just a teaser while I wait for some pictures.  Shea decided that we didn't want to haul our big camera around during the whole trip, so Emily graciously captured our vacation.  We took our Flip, and so we have some sweet footage of us sitting and reading, sitting in the rain, sitting on the beach, and sitting in our home away from home.

Can I tell you how nice it was to just sit?

(Don't worry, we burned many calories on our sweaty NePali Coast hike one day.  It was gorgeous!)