Our big trip this year was to go to Europe for vacation. We went starting on Memorial Day.

We landed in Amsterdam (we were using the last of David's frequent flier miles from when he was a globetrotter - it was the easiest place to get in and out of Europe from).

We took a bullet train from Amsterdam to Paris. There was a big "to-do" there as someone was skateboarding off of the Eiffel tower (you can see the ramp in the middle between the legs).

We spent a couple of days sightseeing in Paris and then flew to Venice.

We had a great hotel there along the Grand Canal. Helen especially enjoyed the rooftop pool, which had a great view of the city.

Bonnie and David really enjoyed the historical sites, the other Venice picture shows Bonnie and Helen outside the Doge's palace (the ruler of Venice).

From Venice we went to Florence. Bonnie had read a lot about the city and the cathedral dome (the world's largest). We had a great time viewing the artwork and the city. Florence and Venice were two places that David didn't go to when he was single and traveling a lot because he wanted to save some special places to visit with his family later.

From Venice, we drove down to Rome. Rome is one of David's favorite places, due to all the history. We spent a lot of time at the ruins around the forum and at Carcalla's baths. Very impressive construction for people without machines. In the photo of us together in Rome you can see the dome of St. Peter's in the background.

It was a great trip and we had a memorable time.

After about 7 and a half years of being mobilized for the Army Reserve, David went back to civilian life this summer. His last assignment while on Active Duty was handling the mobilization of medical personnel for Iraq and Afghanistan. The one difficult crisis was the Fort Hood shootings, where David and his team had to quickly find replacements for the casualties so the units could continue to deploy. Here is David with his mobilization team, CPT Allen and Sergeant Martial.

Three of the Penado's (David's nieces and nephew) came to visit us in Christmas 2009. We had a great time together and did all kinds of activities. The trip to the zoo was especially memorable, as the male tiger laid down right in front of us and played on his back to entertain us. We also did laser tag, dinosaur museums, and watched lots of movies. We wish we could see them more often!

Hawaiian Vacation

OK, I have been meaning to put the rest of this post up for the last two weeks, but kept procrastinating. So I did it today before church.

As we left you hanging last time, we had just gone down into the volcano. It was a great hike.

The thing was that the volcano is on the other side of the island from our condo. It is called the big island for a reason, and I did not want to spend a full day of our precious time in Hawaii driving back and forth. So we looked into other accommodation options near the volcano.

Turns out there is a Military recreation site right on the grounds of the Volcano National Park. And we were able to get a cabin for the night at the last minute (which was rather shocking, as I had always been told that you needed to make reservations for these places at least a year out).

Here is Helen in the door of our cabin. They are quite nice. Living room with fire place (why anyone would want that in Hawaii next to a volcano is beyond me!), bathroom and bedrooms with Stained Glass Windows (this was another surprise). The place was built probably in the 1920's.


Here is the whole row of cabins as we walked over to the Mess Hall for breakfast. Bonnie took this shot to show off the unique windows on the cabins.


After seeing the volcano we took a nice sightseeing trip up the eastern side of the island. One place we stopped was at a tropical garden. Beautiful tropical plants everywhere.

Here's a clip.



Bonnie even found some plant species that she is familiar with due to her Oboe career. Here is the plant she has to make reeds out of.


Once we got back to the Condo, we HAD to engage in Helen's favorite vacation activity, swimming in the pools. The big hotel next to the Condo had huge pools. The place was so big, it had both a railroad and a boat shuttle to get you between sites within the complex (I'm not kidding. I couldn't believe it when we first saw it).


We went out a lot to go sailing, snorkeling, swimming, and sightseeing. Here we are on the first boat trip we went out on. We sailed out to a good snorkeling site. Our boat even caught a big fish as we sailed around. Lots of dolphins even came out to race the boat.


Helen seemed pretty interested in the Dolphins, so we thought she might enjoy a closer look. Here she gets serious about suiting up to get into the water at the Hilton complex.

Because after she got suited up, she GOT to SWIM with a DOLPHIN for 45 minutes. Here is part of her once in a lifetime aquatic adventure:



The next day we were out on an even bigger boat. This time to the best snorkeling site in Hawaii. It is right off the monument erected on the site where the natives killed Captain Cooke, the explorer who discovered the islands.


The snorkeling here was spectacular! Like being in an aquarium. I could have stayed there for days.

The next day, we went down to the ancient Hawaiian village. This is outside of the main temple. Its quite a nice spot, and shows off what the place would have looked like when Captain Cook came. Here I actually got Bonnie to pose for a couple of pictures.



Here is a little video of the place. Right on the beach.



I also went snorkeling right near here. While I was out, a giant sea turtle came up from behind me and started swimming around with me! It was unbelievable cool! So Helen swims with Dolphins, I swim with large turtle. Hmmm. Wonder if there's anything meaningful to that.

We then, sadly, left the big island for Oahu, the main island where Honolulu and Pearl Harbor are. We went to Oahu because we wanted to see two things, Pearl Harbor (David) and the Polynesian Cultural Center (Bonnie). But we both did like both things.

Everything on Oahu was SUPER expensive and crowded. Luckily the Place we stayed at, while right on Waikiki beach, was right next to another military hotel, so we could eat and shop there for normal prices.

After getting settled into the hotel, the first big site we went to was Pearl Harbor. There is a lot to see and do there, especially if someone in the family is big into military history.

One of the first things we toured as a WWII submarine. They had a nice audio tour of the inside. Here is Helen at the controls. Only later did we find out that wearing a hat inside a submarine is bad ju-ju. (usually because you bump your head a lot).


After the sub tour, we went out by boat to the Arizona memorial. On the way we passed an aircraft carrier. I asked around, and found out its the "John C. Stennis". This just happens to be the carrier sunk in the new TRANSFORMERS movie, so I guess it was fitting that we saw it at Pearl Harbor.


What we really came out to see was the "Arizona" memorial. This is the memorial built over the wreck of the battleship that was sunk at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7 1941 by the Japanese. In the picture below, Helen is on the memorial and I took the picture to the Aft of the "Arizona". The memorial is built across the center of the ship. Behind Helen is the turret ring of the higher aft turret. The turret and its cannons were removed in salvage operations before they decided to turn the wreck into a memorial. What's really eerie is that there is still fuel oil leaking to the surface and you can see oil on the water in a couple of places.

There are the remains of almost 2000 sailors in the wreck. And they allow those that survived to be placed inside when they die.
After visiting the memorial, we went to the battleship "Missouri" which is just a hundred yards or so away from the "Arizona". This is the ship on which the Japanese surrendered at the end of the war, so its fitting to have it next to the "Arizona". Here we are at the bow looking back at the forward turrets. Each of the cannon is a 16 inch gun. The shells weigh as much as a car. Anyone standing where I took the picture if even one was fired would be vaporized by the muzzle blast.


We signed up for the top of the line inside tour. It was well worth it. A navy guy took us and 1 other person all through the insides of the ship, to areas that are off limits to the general public. We even got to go inside the turrets and the engine rooms. The ship is like 8 stories below the deck. Here we are inside the turret, in the turret's control center.


It was a full day seeing stuff where history happened.

The next day we went to see the Polynesian Cultural Center. This is right next to BYU Hawaii and is run by the church as summer jobs for the Polynesian students there. We toured all the exhibits, watched all the dancing, and then had a show while we ate at the Lu-Au.

After dark, we went to the show that featured even more dancing. But this time they did a lot of "fire" dancing. We had great seats, center and up front. Here is a clip of the show:



Afterward, I asked some of the performers if the fire dancers used that fire retardant gel that stuntmen use. They said they did not, and that the dancers are fully exposed to the flames. I don't think you could pay me enough to do this for a summer job!

After the show, we got to take some pictures with the performers. This is Helen with the Prince and Princess from one of the dance acts.


The next day, we just kind of hung out on or around the beach at Waikiki. This next shot is the view of Diamond Head from the beach.


As I mentioned earlier, our hotel was next to the military's hotel. The military hotel was built on the site of an older fort that was built before WWII. They tried to demolish the fort, but couldn't. So they turned the fort itself into a museum. Outside we ran into a Federal officer who actually patrols the grounds on a BMW stand up tricycle (like a Seway, only way more expensive). He showed us the whole thing. It even has flashing lights and a siren. After seeing the move Paul Blart: Mall Cop with Helen earlier in the year, this was hilarious. The guy was a great sport to let me film him.



On the day we left, we went up to the "Punchbowl, which is the crater of a dormant volcano converted to a military cemetary for WWII and then used for Korea and Vietnam. It has breathtaking views of Honolulu and Diamond Head.


From here it was literally back to the Airport and back home. We would go back to Hawaii anytime, as long as it was the big Island. And we would recommend the sites on Oahu to anyone. It was a wonderful vacation and we were all sad when it ended.

Now on to the thing we take the most pictures of, family vacation.

This year we went to Hawaii. First we went to the "big island". It is the island of Hawaii, but this is just confusing. We stayed mostly on the west side, north of Kona.

The first places we went to were the beaches. They were perfect, and no crowds! There were like 40 yards between us and the next family. Helen did a lot of shell collecting. I swam with her some while Bonnie enjoyed sitting on the beach. Unfortunately, there are no pictures, as evidently sand, sea water, and digital cameras don't really mix.

After getting accustomed to being on Hawaii, we used Bonnie's tour guide to plan out trips and sight seeing.

First we went around to the other side of the island to see the waterfall's.

This one was huge. It took water about 7 seconds to make it from the top the bottom.



Here is Helen and I in complete awe of the scenery!


From here we went to see the big site on the island, the active Volcano!

We couldn't get anywhere near real lava, which was a disappointment to me, but a relief to Helen. For some reason she didn't want to have a "magma incident".

The national park service had also closed a bunch of roads due to high levels of poisonous gas coming out of the volcano. But we did get around to an inactive side that had lots to see and hiking trails.

This is us up on the rim of the crater.




We then walked through the jungle on a path that went serpentine down the cliff and then out onto the lava field.

Here's a shot of Bonnie and Helen admiring the plant life that is growing up through the now hardened lava.



More when I get back to this tomorrow (its taking a long time to upload pictures and video).

Tina and Joey Reception

Now on to the bigger stories. Before we went on vacation, we went to the Open House for Tina and Joey after their Hawaiian wedding (Tina is the widow of Bonnie's husband Les, who died in a plane crash about 3 years ago).

All I could get was a picture of the couple from behind, due to the large crowd, long lines of well wishers, and the fact that as I was ready to take a shot of them from the line, the child Tina was holding "had a massive accident" (actually he just poured a fruit smoothie all over himself).

Pentagon Award Ceremony

It has been a while, but I will try to update this whole page with one massive entry. (OK, it looks like I will have to make multiple entries as I can't get more photos to upload).

After last Christmas, the first big thing was that Helen got the cast off of her arm. She is fully mobile, functional, and has no lingering effects of her last sports injury.

In the Spring, we found out that the Army project I spent most of last year working on won a big competition. Our command got selected as the best Reserve Command in the Army. I got to go with the General to the Pentagon to collect the prize. In the photo you can see how much we got. Unfortunately, there are all kinds of regulations that prevent Soldiers from getting bonuses.



The big deal was being on the stage at the Pentagon auditorium with a Four star, Three star, and my commander, the Two star general being handed the check.

Later, they sent us a video of the whole affair. I trimmed it down to my 60 seconds of Army fame.