Hawaiian Vacation

Lori and I were awarded the Cisco Systems 2009 Chairman's Club. We were flown first class to Kona, Hawaii and stayed at the Four Seasons Hualalai.  It was a once in a lifetime experience.  Here are some photos and videos.

Here is a quick tour of our suite.




Here we are after 8 hours of flying arriving at the resort:

The next morning, we drove up around the island to Hilo.  On the way, we stopped for lunch.  Here's a panoramic view from the parking lot.

We then had lunch at the Ono Kine.  The mango Malasadas are a must.

Lori got the purple chips:

The vegetation going into Hilo is magnificent:

We went to see Volcano National Park, but didn't get to see any lava.  Lots of steam and the rim road was closed due to the sulfur dioxide levels:

We had to watch out for the Nenes

That night, we had a wonderful dinner with a co-worker and his wife.

The next day, we took a trek to the north side of the island.  When we got there, they put us on a Pinztrek and took us over the cane fields to the edge of the forest:

The mango trees are not native to Hawaii. But they sure do love it there:



The waterfalls were beautiful.  We even got to swim in one of the water holes:

We also saw these really neat fainting ferns that would wilt if touched as a defense mechanism:

And this is where we had lunch after the hike:

The next day we went snorkeling next to the Capt. Cook Monument:

We went out with these powerful twim 150s:

Here we are getting some instruction:

And Lori's getting into the water:

After resting at this vista:

We had a nightime performance of Smashmouth.

 

We were very sad to leave all this the next day:

Breakfasts

The pools:

The plants:

The sunsets:

And most of all, the people.  We were blessed to see my cousin, Daniel Nietz, and his wife Nikki for lunch:

As I was waiting for Daniel in the lobby, Auntie Tutu and her brother sang this for us:

Shooting Rockets

We were finally able to go out and shoot a couple of rockets west of Five Mile Pass in Toole County.

Here is Becca shooting from the back of the Prius:



And here is Isaac shooting while trying to keep his ears covered:

Thanksgiving 2009 and Shannon's Wedding

Yeah, I'm behind on the blogging, but here are some photos and videos from Thanksgiving 2009. We drove to Colorado Springs and had a delightful visit. Mom put on a great dinner as always. We also were able to go to Shannon's wedding in the Denver Temple as well as here reception at the AFA O-Club.

Below are a couple of videos of Thanksgiving dinner on the porch:






Below is the whole Parr family 2009



Here is the happy couple at Thanksgiving:



Here are Shannon and Steve with some of their nieces:



Isaac and Hayden looking "innocent":



Grandma, Megan and Ben Schlosser:



Allie and Steve at the reception:



Isaac and Shannon at the reception:



This must be what it's like herding cats:



Here's some dancing at the reception:



Criss-Cross Dancing:



And finally, Dad and Shannon dancing:

2009 Camping Pictures

Lori is glad to be inside the Fishlake Lodge during the mountain thuderstorm.

Isaac in the mountain flowers

This year, Allie, Isaac and I decided to try camping in tent. It still gets cold at 10000 feet.

Megan loved catching perch.

Allie and Becca warm themselves by the fire @ Fishlake lodge.

Isaac giving a silly grin in the trailer.

Becca LOVES camping.

Baptisms in Manti

I had the opportunity to drive down and join Megan and Becca to assist them in doing baptisms for the dead. Becca had a good time. Baptizing Megan was like gently watering a most beautiful and delicate flower. The Manti Temple is old (188?) yet beautiful.

Isaac's Lego Heroes

You will notice Isaac's drawing from his Primary class last week. Of course he was learning what about the wonderful gifts our Savior has given.

He is also very much into engineering Lego designs. Like all young boys, he also has his heros.

Above you will see the stick figure representing Isaac holding hands with two of his heros: lego Joker (Batman) and.....

lego Jesus.

The Aviator

As you can see, Isaac fancies himself as quite the aviator. His dad assembled the plane, but just couldn't get any lift. Isaac went to get the instructions and showed me that I had put the wings on backwards. Thus, my thrust was not.

The bird still had a few issues as Dad flew it into a tree or two. It seemed to want to enter a death spiral towards the starboard. So we looked a little closer and found that one of the stickers was raised and providing wind resistance. Next, we found the rudder to be off. Once we fixed that, we were able to fly 75 feet.

We were not able to figure out how to turn the thing around and bring it back without crashing. Unfortunately, we lost an engine mount during one of the crashes, so we've applied model epoxy to see if we can master the flight next time.

The Best Birthday Present Ever

As y'all know, we had Superbowl 43 in February. I supposed it's great to have a reminder the month before my birthday. This will become increasingly important as we approach Superbowl L

One of Dad's favorite "jokes" is a response to the question, "What do you give the man that has everything?" Answer? "A box to put it in."

Mom and Dad Parr sent me the most thoughtful gift I've received in a long time--a couple of flying machines to assemble with the little nugget:

Thanks to scocurti and mglancy

Thanks guys for thinking of us. Lori and I really enjoyed the dinner @ Ruth's Chris Steak House this afternoon:



We also enjoyed the movie tickets, but the theater got excited when I pulled out the video camera! ;-)

Excuse the video. Still trying to get used to the Flip.

Hosanna

I went to another choir practice this evening. Lex De Azevedo played the piano for our practice this evening. In addition to his Millenial Choir, 4 soloists and a small orchestra, we are performing his Oratorio, "Hosanna, The Life of Christ" in April. What a great experience.

Took my daughters to the Temple

Was able to take Becca and Megan with the YWs group yesterday to the Mt. Timpanogos temple to perform baptisms for the dead. They much enjoyed it. Becca learned from the last time and launched herself backwards--in a dive almost--each time she was baptized. Pulling Megan back out of the water was much like lifting a felled tree.

Corpses and Fondue

Lori and I went to see Body World in Salt Lake City this afternoon. Though the lines were long, the exibit was fantastic. It was amazing to see how the human body is assembled. The processes they used allowed the different systems--circulatory, nervous, etc.-- to be isolated so you could just focus on that system. For instance, there were bodies showing the entire circulatory system in bright red. Another body had been completely removed except for the nervous system.

Each of the full body displays showed the bodies in artful, athletic positions. For instance, one man was throwing a javelin...another was holding a woman over his head in a dancing position. Each of the bodies was "fillet'd" in a differnt fashion, exposing the different muscle groups, organ groups, or skeletal groups, etc.

Next we ran over to the Melting Pot for a fantastic, though expensive meal. Our favorite was the cheese fondue (cheddar with a little lager beer) and the chocolate-peanut butter dip for fruit and cheesecake. I also enjoned the smoked salmon.