The Poster Face For DisneyLand

Here's a close up of Olli's face after he hit the rough end of several consecutive waves. "The happiest place on earth?"---he begs to differ.

More Hawaii,see below

Welcome to the collage of your dreams. This fantastic selection of pictures depicts the trails and triumphs of our half day hike. Very cool, very hard.

Q: Those turtles seem unusually large. A: Excellent Observation, keep up the good work, gum shoe!

Q:Who have we here? A: Starting back Left: Nadene (Ben's Mom), Kelly ( Our friend from Blanding), Ali (Ben's Sister), Amber (Sister in Law), Mark (Ben's Brother), Dan (Ben's Cousin), Marie (Dan's wife)----Front Left: John (Ben's Dad), Jodi & Ben.

Q: Is it me, or does that yellow lab look LOST? A: It is no small coincidence, that we stumbled across this mysterious dog after locating the beach crash site for the hit TV show LOST. Thanks to a series of hunches, and a GPS unit, we located said beach, and found Vincent waiting for us.

Wake up Slow and makin' Banana Pancakes

The word apparently leaked out that Ben and I have been frivolously vacationing our lives away, so I decided I'd better fess up and give proper documentation to the alleged frolic.... Below is the view from our back deck. Q: Jodi, tell me, is Hawaii the tropical paradise Hollywood would have us envision? A: Why yes my friend, yes, yes it is.

Q: Who's that babeO'licious and what about that back drop?

A: That tropical Tiki doll is Jodi, and she's posing from the punchbowl cemetery, which offers a great view of downtown Honolulu

Q: What are your chances of seeing and/or being injured by the marine life? A: 100% (Please note the shark below, and let the record show: Nadene was brutally attacked in a confrontation with a blue-bubble jelly fish.)

Q:Is Ben swinging from that tree? A: Naturally.

Raindrops on Roses and wiskers on Kittens

I Think this is officially the first tag I have ever followed through with. Chalk it up to Larissa's personal invitation, sent to me via-email (knowing that I'm less than sufficient when it comes to blog-updating/perusing).
So, here goes.
Behold Six things that make me happy ( in no particular order)......
#1. Christmas!-I know, I know the holidays make everyone happy, with the exception of some hard hearted old Hollywood men, but even they eventually come around. All is takes is a few angles, a little girl with a miracle up her sleeve, or a flyby from Santa, but in the end, they all come on board, and as much as I like to think my self outside the box, I'm going to have to go with the masses on this one.
I love the decorations, the smells, the shopping, the letters to Santa, the excitement and reverence that you feel on Christmas eve, and of course the food.

#2. Love at home......Nothing gives me more pleasure than seeing my boys play and enjoy each other. These moments are few and far between, but hey, even Wally and the Beav had their run ins.

#3. White dresses with blue satin sashes.........or rather the mission to find one on clearance. Yes, I love a bargain, and I love to hunt down a deal. Now that doesn't mean I'm good at haggling with used car salesmen, but give me 6 hours, no kids, a good pair of shoes, and a metropolis, and you've given me happiness. ----Does that sound horribly worldly? I'll try to clean in up for the next one.

#4. I love it when Ben kisses my forehead out of the blue. ( It's pretty much why I married him.)

#5. Speaking of brown paper packages tied up with string. I get a major rush of happiness when I get a new book in the mail.

#6. Getting my eyebrows waxed. (sorry more worldly stuff)

Kitchen

So, I've been telling Lesli that I would post some photos of the house for the last two months ........and I'm just now getting around to it. Better late than never!
They'll probably put that preceding sentence on the front door of my sarcophagus.

Ther are Places I Remember--All my Life, Though Some have Changed

Just look at these boys roaring their terrible roars and gnashing their terrible teeth

And take a gander at these cuties: Brennan and her floppy little James

Iowa, Where the wind comes sweeping down the plains.

What a great trip! My only regret is a complete lack of photo documentation, but even without the picture proof, you can take my word for it: Burlington is as we left it (except not so under-water.) It was so fun to see all the familiar faces not excepting the Olson family, who seem like they were born to live in Southeast Iowa. Abby and Andy are even training for a ridiculously long bike race through the State (talk about local ! This is not something that Ben and I ever contemplated.)
We were more or less able to hit all the important parts of our old stomping ground.
1. Rendezvous with the Hartson family, giving Reid and Billy a much needed buddy reunion.
2. The set up of Base Camp (Olson Home, formerly the Cope residence)
3. Mazzio's Pizza (a buffet featuring pizza--need I say more?)
4. Snake Alley
5. Mary Snow's Homemade Bread
6. Several late nights being Lost in Austen (or the Gilmore girls--a modern version of what our husbands don't want to watch.)
7. Pomegranate Juice and Wasabi Peas at Brennan's all night bar and grill.
8. An introduction to Cinnamon crunch bagels via Abby
9. A Trip to the Moline Zoo (As shown above)
10. Spending time with the friends we love

I've misplaced one of the two camera's we took on the trip, so there are more pictures to come.