Blondie

I am now a blonde. Which means my blonde moments that come more frequently then I let on will probably be more noticeable. Oh, well at least my hair looks smokin'. Thanks Mel!

Garage Band Discovery

I am doing all the normal things teachers do to get ready for school; clean, organize, copy, label, map, and plan. Maybe just a little more laxed because I am trying to squeeze every bit of wonderfulness that summer has left to give me. Each year I record my warm-ups with a karaoke machine onto cassette tape. Yeah, I know cassette tapes, ancient right. I have always known that there must be some way for me to record everything with a MAC program called, Garage Band. With Garage Band one can edit songs for content, length and do voice over tracks. My roommate Rachel is a Garage Band guru and is going to teach me all she knows! Yippee!

July 25th Tyler and Kim's Vegas Wedding

Before the ceremony

Ty and I haven't had a picture together since we were preteens.

Tyler and Kim look so beautiful. Tyler looks amazing considering he had an emergency appendectomy the night before. You want the story right? So, here it is. Friday night July 23rd Tyler and Kim go to a buffet. They get back to their hotel and Tyler gets very sick, throwing up all night. Both Tyler and Kim have Type I diabetes, so they come prepared for most illnesses but, not this. I get a call Saturday morning, the day before the wedding, from Kim. She tells what's happened all night. We all determine Tyler needs to get to the hospital. Grandpa, my mom, and Rob take Tyler and Kim to the hospital. Kim thought Tyler had food poisoning. The ER doctors determined it wasn't his gallbladder after doing a cat scan, it his appendix. At that point everyone in the ER knew he was getting married so they quickly got a team there to perform the surgery. On Saturday afternoon Tyler went into surgery at 3:30pm and the surgeon came out at 4:20pm to let us know all went well. Sunday morning I think he was discharged at 11am was dressed into time for everything. It was quite the adventure. Welcome to the family, Kim!

Fiji Adventures after on the way home from Tonga

This was our rental car a Suzuki Swift named Sally. She was a good car to us.

Jaynie and I at the Suva, Fiji LDS Temple

We randomly met Vinnie, Solomon, and their family at a big event to celebrate the Fiji Temple anniversary, 10 years.

This is the Club Fiji Resort in Nadi. We stayed here 3 nights, isn't it beautiful!

Beach at Club Fiji Resort

The mountains in Fiji on the way to our drop off to raft on the Upper Navua.

Navua was the river they filmed the second Anaconda

Kenny our guide. He was most knowledge about the villages on the river and the ecology of the river.

Our last night we decided to visit an outer island, Beachcomber. It was fab, I would so visit here again.

Sunset on Beachcomber

Sunrise on Beachcomber

Kava ceremony with a village on another island. Never drink Kava. First, it makes your mouth numb and has a yucky after taste. Second, new research has show that it's chemical properties are dangerous. Jaynie and I had planned not to drink it but, we didn't want to disrespect the tribe. So, we took our chances!

The island in the distance is Castaway island. Yes, the island they filmed Castaway. We headed there next.

Castaway

We were at Castaway for about 2 hours. We spent most of our time snorkeling. The water clarity was amazing. I kept feeling like I was in Finding Nemo.

Looking at this picture makes me miss Fiji and the South Pacific. It is sooooooooooooo beautiful. I WILL VISIT AGAIN!

Tonga- Interesting people, places, and happenings

Each village has it's own cemetery.

The first four days after everyone came we had no problems showering. On Thursday we came home to get ready to attend the temple and there was no water pressure. This was also the day we did some heavy painting. We had to get creative, bucket showers, for the rest of our trip!

Our last night in Tonga I was getting ready for bed and Dani one of the other parent coaches notice the spider extremely close to where I was standing. There was some serious screaming, a shoe, and the spider hide. I can handle snakes but, not spiders. I didn't sleep well that night knowing it was on the loose.

This guy could play the uk with his teeth.

In Tonga the love American Pop music. He is the best Justin Bieber impression. His name is Ciopai. He would walk around and sing to us and with us.

In the Tongan culture when someone is dancing very well you put money on them or in their clothes, like a tip. The girl kept dancing, the boy was a kid from our group, he didn't know where to put the money.

Hapi, she was our Travel agent. She is such a good woman. Before the kids came, Jaynie and I were figuring things out she provided humor, internet, and food.

Tonga- Fun Activities

This was an arch similar to Stonehenge built at the site of the first palace of the first chief of Tonga.

Thursdays in Tonga we attend the LDS Temple

Second Saturday we went sea kayaking to an island resort called Pongi 'a Motu. The being out on the water was so fun. There was really no boat traffic because reefs surround most of Tonga.

We also attended a floor show inside a cave, pretty cool. While in the South Pacific I saw several floor shows, this floor show had the best island music I have ever heard.

A trip to Tonga would not be complete without attending a rugby game. If you are any kind of sports enthusiast rugby is the game for you.

The last place we visited was the blow holes in the southwest part of Tongatapu. Pretty amazing aren't they!