I know, I know I have been neglecting my blog. Things have been busy lately. This fall has been full of football games, baking, and catching mice!
We have a very involved and supportive ward here. Most of the families go to the high school football games and the youth football games. It's been really fun to go watch football games every Friday and Saturday. Luckily, we have had a pretty nice weather so it's been fun to cheer and to socialize with people in our ward.
Now the mice story - Several weeks ago I had a horrible headache that kept me up all night. Finally at 4:30 AM I got up and creeped downstairs to get a little something to eat to I could take some headache medicine. I fumbled my way downstairs and turned on the kitchen light just in time to see a mouse run a cross my counter on down the back of my stove. Of course I screamed. I absolutely do not like mice but it startled me more than anthing. When Ty heard me scream he comes rumbling down the stairs to come protect his wife from the person that was attacking us, or so he thought. Needless to say he wasn't too happy that I had woken him up over a mouse. Tyler is not a morning person and loves his sleep. He was really sweet though, he sent me back to bed and made me a little something to eat and fed me in bed,
A week later Tyler was at the State Center playing ward basketball so I was home alone working upstairs when I hear this SNAP and a flapping sound. At first I though maybe Ty was trying to get in and his key wasn't working. I was too lazy to go downstairs to check the door so I called him on his cell phone. I asked him if he was home and having difficultly getting in. He said he was just leaving the Stake Center. When I heard that my heart started to pound like crazy. I try to sneak downstairs to see what the sound was. I'll admit I was totally scared. When I got down stairs I could actually hear the mouse. So I ran upstairs and called Ty again to tell him to come home ASAP because we had caught a mouse and it was still a live flopping around in the kitchen - gross! I wa so happy to have got one of mice but scared to look at it. Luckily Ty came home some to be the man and take care of it!
We are having some new construction going on right next to our house so we are figuring we will get a few more. I hope the construction is done soon!

Beautiful Oregon

So when the boys went up to Washington for their boys weekend, my Mom and I decided to go rent a condo on the coast. We found a really cute condo in Lincoln City that sits right on an inlet into the ocean. It was so nice to take in the scenery and to relax with my Mom. We went shopping at the outlets, relaxed and read on the deck, ate at our favorite fish restaurant there, saw tide pools, went to the OSU science center (never been there before but I have to say it was better than the aquarium), and watched movies.

Here are some pictures of the inlet from our condo. It was really peaceful to sit out there and read.

Thank you Mom & Dad for coming to visit us! We love and miss you!

So Rise and Shout, the Cougars Are Out!!

BYU Football played Washington Huskies this past weekend in Washington. A few years ago the men in my family started their annual "boys weekend" where they pick a sporting event to go to with all the boys. This is a time that they can be as loud and obnoxious at the game as they want to without their wife's elbowing them to be quiet and sit down. They also are able to eat whatever they want - triple decker ice creams for Mike, dessert and chips for Tyler, etc. This year was Ty's first time being able to attend due to basketball and work. He really loved it. For people that don't know, my family are HUGE BYU fans, almost to the extreme. We had a "BYU prayer rug" growing up (which was really a door mat) that we knelt on for family prayers, my Dad threw his back out celebrating a after a last minute made shot by to win a game, and I think there are several refs that can be blamed for an ulcer my Dad had. I know it may be extreme but we have had a lot of fun with it.

Anyway, each trip they come away with one line that makes the trip memorable. This year was no different. BYU was able to win by 1 point last Saturday to defeat Washington. With 2 seconds left BYU blocked Washington's kick. As you could guess, my family was going crazy! Mike actually jumped up several rows of bleachers, doing the splits, holding up arms to encourage the crowd to cheer. When he got down, Ty was starring at Mike asking how he got up there so fast. Mike's responded nonchalantly - "Yeah, I'm pretty agile for a fat guy." Classic Mike. It doesn't sound as funny as it was. Tyler does a great reenactment that has me crying with laughter.

For 2 days after, all I heard about was Mike and a second by second replay of every bad call the ref made by my Dad.

Thanks everyone for organizing this weekend.

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Tyler's birthday was on Aug 25th and I am a bit late in posting this but I guess it's better late then never. I have a wonderful husband that dispite all my short comings loves me and I feel so blessed to have him as my husband. He is the opposite of me - he very even tempered, kind heart, forgiving, postive, social, etc - and he takes all my quirks in stride.

He isn't really into birthdays so we kept it really simple. In years past I have tried to plan something bigger for his birthday but he was never really into it so this year I decide to keep it simple. So the 2 of us went to Mac Grill for dinner at Bridgeport and then went to the Nelson's for pie and ice cream.

Love you, Tyler!

Here is Tyler, Dax, and Kailey right before they all blew out the candles.

Our Hawaii Trip

ALOHA!

One word can sum up our Hawaii trip - AWESOME! We spent a week on the west side of Maui soaking up the sun and eating lots of food! The island was so beautiful. I couldn’t get over how clear the water was and the beautiful beaches. We had fun relaxing and playing in the ocean. We planned 1-2 fun activities everyday,with the exception of Sunday. We went parasailing (my least favorite), snorkeling, body boarding, surfing, to a magic/comedy show (defiantly a highlight of the trip. If anyone is going to Maui go see Warren and Annabelle’s Magic show on Front St. It was really good!), massages, and shopping. The weather was perfect. The only day it rained was the day we flew in. We loved every minute of it and were sad to come home. We are trying to formulate a plan so that we can afford to go every other year. Our trip probably isn't as interesting to everyone else as it is to us so I am going to write this post more as a journal entry so I can remember what we did everyday so good luck in following it.

DAY 1

This day was a very, very long day. We woke up at 5:00 AM to catch our flight, which wasn't direct. Thanks to Deedie who woke up so early to take us to the airport! We boarded the plane and 8 long hours later we finally land in Maui. We make a quick trip to Costco to buy food and treats for the week. We way over bought on food but I tried my hardest to eat it all! Our family moto is - "Hollist's don't waste food" - so we tried really hard to eat it all. I gained 2 pounds that week but it was totally worth all the good food. We ended throwing some of it away but we ate most of it. Everything was delicious.

We finally got to our condo with a car full of food and the front desk said our place wasn't' going to be ready for another 2 hours! URG! I was so frustrated from having no sleep, on a plane all day, and chicken and fish thawing in my car! Not to mention that we arrived during the check in time but the room still wasn't ready. I think the front desk saw my frustration and gave us a room with a fabulous view of the parking lot. That's right - the lovely parking lot. Every time we went out on our patio Tyler would tease me about our view and that if I was nicer to the front desk people we could have had ocean view! At any rate, we really liked our condo and the view wasn't too bad either. We could see a bit of the ocean and hear the waves.

We did make it in time to see the sun set on the ocean. It was beautiful! I have posted a couple of pictures. I used different settings on my camera and that's why it they look different but it's the same sunset.

DAY 2

We woke up and went to visit the activities desk at our hotel so we could set up all our activities for the week. The lady there signed us up for a timeshare presentation, which saved us $300 on our activities. Totally worth it! We signed up for parasailing, massages, a luau, surfing, and 2 snorkeling cruises. The activities lady was awesome, she hooked us up with all sorts of stuff.

We bought body boards and snorkeling gear from Costco so we thought that we would go try them out while we waited to go parasailing. We rubbed on our SPF 50, that's right 50 I didn't want to get burned on our first day, and went into the ocean. We finally came out 6 hours later when it was time to go parasailing.

Parasailing was cool, not the highlight, but defiantly worth doing once. We rode tandem with a 800 foot line. The views up there were incredible and you felt so at peace.

I was a bit scared. I don't ususally like heights, let a lone dangling 800 feet with just the ocean below. At first I couldn't look down.

This is us continuing to go up to our 800 feet.

The boat driver brought us down and dipped us in the water. I had to fight back a scream. I thought the driver had lost his mind and was landing us in the water!

When we got back to our condo we realized that playing in the ocean for 6 hours was a bad idea. We were totally burnt! Ty was way worse then me but we were both hurting. We went and bought several bottles of aloe and more sunscreen to ease the pain. We relaxed and watch the sunset from our patio and ate fresh fruit. Yum!

DAY 3

Today was a day of rest and relaxation. Ty was so burned that he didn't sleep at all. When I woke up in the morning he had just went to sleep. He took some medication to help him sleep and did just that for most of the day. For me I napped, read, ate (of course), and relaxed. I had to go and visit the lady at the activities desk to rearrange our schedule because we couldn't do any outside activities for a few days. Ty felt dehydrated and sick so we rested most of Friday.

We did have a luau this night that we decided to go to. It was so fun. Mike and Tamara had a friend that actually performed in this luau and was able to hook us up with a great deal on admittance. Thanks again, Tanuvasa's! You guys are the best!

The picture on the right was the pig that was still cooking. All the food there was so good. They had several kinds of fish, pork, chicken, and steak. All of Ty's favorite food . . . . MEAT!

These next pictures are just random pictures of the luau. The dancers were amazing!

The luau was right on the water. It was beautiful. I still can't get over how clear the water was.

DAY 4

Saturday was another day to lay low and relax. We drove part of the Road to Hana and swam in the waterfalls there. Everything was so beautiful. The water was a bit cold but we had fun swinging through the waterfalls. We also stopped off on several beaches to watch the surfers, sail boarders, and kite surfers. The picture below was a beach that was really, really windy and had pretty good size waves so all the sail boarders were doing some pretty cool tricks.

These kite and board surfers had no fear. I couldn't beleive some of the stuff they were doing and how much air they caught.

These are some of the waterfalls we hiked to.

This is right before Ty jumped. Check out his muscles! I am one lucky lady!

DAY 5

Sunday we decided to take it easy. We went to Church, took a nap and a couple of walks on the beaches.

Look how burnt Ty's face was.

DAY 6

By Monday we had recovered for the most part from our painful sunburns so we decided it was time for a massage, well me at least. Ty's shoulders were still pretty red. So I scheduled a massage with Ernesto and had one of the best massages EVER! It was awesome. I love massages! I only wish they were cheaper and they lasted longer than an hour.

Ty went and had a surfing lesson. He was pretty good. The instructor was hesitant because of his height. They don't get too many 6'8" guys that want to surf. In fact most of the people there were kids. Ty was 1 of 2 adults that signed up. Oh well, he had fun and was pretty good at it.

These was Ty at his surfing lesson. I was proud that he was able to get up. He instructor said he did really well considering how tall he is.

Later that night we went to Warren and Annabelle's Magic show. It was really funny. They made Ty and I sit in the "hot seats" because Ty was too tall to fit in the normal stadium seating chairs. The "hot seats" were regular chairs at a table. The bad part was that people in the "hot seats" became part of the show. Warren pretty much made fun of Ty most of the show. Ty did well and played along. He was a good sport. I know a magic show seems like a weird thing to do in Maui but seriously it was one of our highlighted things to do. My sister and brother recommended it and I thought they were crazy but the show was really, really good.

DAY 7

Today was our last full day in Maui. We had our snorkeling cruise booked for this morning. We should have done better on our planning because we had to wake up at 5:30 AM to catch the boat and the magic show didn't get done until 1:00 AM. So we were pretty tired and maybe a little bit grouchy on our way to the boat. Although, once we were there and heading into the water we were okay. Ty was the smart one and took some Dramamine and I hardly ever get motion sickness so opted out. We had 2 dive spots and at the end of the 1 spot I got sick. You are out in the middle of the ocean and the waves were bouncing me around enough that I got sick and had to stay on the boat for the second dive. I was so bummed. The second dive was with sea turtles and that is what I was really looking forward to and I didn't get to see any up close. I did see several from the boat but it isn't the same. Ty said that he was able to swim with about 6 turtles. He said it was pretty cool to have them so close.

This was Ty swimming with the turtles.

Once we were done with that we went back to our condo took a much needed nap and got ready to hit Front St. We went and had dinner Cheeseburger in Paradise and do a little shopping. Hurley just opened up a new concept store there and since they are part of the Nike family I got 50% everything! I am such a sucker for good deals and they had some really cute stuff there.

We ended our last night there with walking the shore line and plotting how to afford to come back.

This was a sad morning because this is the day we leave. I never really did get use to the time change so I was up at about 6:30 AM most mornings, which was fine because it gave me a chance to side outside and read in the morning. It nice to relax in the cool morning and munch on fresh pineapple on our last day. Ty got burnt again on our snorkeling cruise so he didn't sleep much that night so he slept in and I had the morning to myself. Once we were both up we packed and cleaned up and left for the airport. We checked our rental car back and loaded the plane. Hawaiian Airlines has the COLDEST planes I have ever been in. I think I caught a cold from the flight. I was bundled up in my blanket for 5 hours! I had the small blanket tucked tight around me during the in flight movies. The flight felt sooo long! By the time we got home I crashed into bed and am really struggling trying to try to get back into my routine at work.

Overall, Ty & I loved Hawaii and are trying to figure out how we are going to get back soon.

The Beaver's Game

Yesterday my department at work took the afternoon off and went to a Portland Beaver's baseball game. It was fun to get away from my cube and be able to chat and laugh with friends. Parking downtown Portland can sometimes be a problem so most of us rode mass transit - The Max- to the game. Michelle looks fine but Heather looks a bit scared! I don't blame her there are some freaky people on the Max.

This picture is of 2 favorite co-workers and friends - Michelle and Sydney. Without them I am not sure I could handle my job everyday. Thanks for a great afternoon girls.

Busy Weekend

Ty and I are heading to Hawaii soon so I have been busy trying to take care of things so that we don't miss anything while we're are on vacation. I'm exhausted. I am not sure why I do this - running around like a mad women trying to accomplish things that would normally take me 2 weeks to do and I try to cram everything into 1 weekend. Not sure if taking a vacations is worth it! Oh wait, I am going to Hawaii so I guess anything is worth it! Anyway, I work a normal 40 hour a week job but I also own by own bookkeeping business as well. I have 7 clients now and since it is month end I did all their books in 1 weekend! Friday I worked 14 hours! - UGH! My eyes hurt from starring at my computer all day (of course I am sitting here blogging starring at my computer which isn't helping). I am proud to say I have finished all but 1 client. Hopefully, I can enjoy my vacation instead of spending my time in the hotel on my laptop - sad to say I have done that before. Sometimes I feel like work is my life and I am getting tired of it. I am either stuck in a cube at Nike or in my at home office with a can of Diet Coke as my companion. I really need to pick up a hobby. Anyone have any suggestions?