Hawaii

My Mom and Dad recently returned from an LDS mission in Cameroon, Africa. They were kind enough to organize a family reunion for their children and their families in Hawaii. I believe there were 32 of us altogether. It was probably the first time we have all been together in a decade. We spent 10 days on the island of Oahu and had a wonderful time. We miss Hawaii.

There were sea turtles all over. We saw a handful of them while snorkeling.

We spent time over the course of 2 days at the Polynesian Cultural Center. They put on such a wonderful show there.

According to the tour books, Hanauma Bay is the place to go for snorkeling. I really enjoyed Hanauma, but I felt that we saw more fish and a greater variety of sea life at Shark's Cove.

Here is the whole clan crammed into the same canoe at the PCC.

This is the beautiful hotel we stayed at. This is a view from the back patio. All 32 of us fit into 3 separate villas. The hotel is called Turtle Bay and is located on the North Shore of Oahu.

Here is the whole family.

Adoption

For those who don't already know, Peter and I are in the process of adopting a little baby. We have been married for 4 years now without any luck of getting pregnant, so we felt it was time to explore other options.

We are really excited and if anyone knows any expectant mothers who are interested in adoption, please let us know!

As part of the application process, we have to put together a photo collage of ourselves so birth moms can look at it and decide if we are the right parents for their child. Peter and I are not very good at taking pictures, so we had a good friend of ours, Kaela Cusack, take some pictures of us. Here are some of the pictures she took.

Dallas

This is really overdue, but I wanted to post a few pictures from Dallas. For those who don't know, Peter so sadly left me in Provo for four months while he went to Dallas to do an internship with PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC). Those were sad times, but I tried to visit him about once every three weeks.
It was a very successful internship that ended in an offer for a full time job with them. Peter accepted the offer and we will be relocating to Dallas in about a year when Peter finishes is Masters of Accountancy at BYU.
Peter and I really love Dallas. It is a beautiful and clean city. The people are great and the cost of living couldn't be better.






While there, Peter stayed in a tiny studio apartment in Downtown Dallas to be close to his office. It wasn't much, but I think it fit his needs. Here is a picure of the kitchen and below is a shot of the rest of the apartment.







In order to avoid getting two of everything for the two apartments we were renting at that time, Peter had to survive with an Aerobed and one ikea chair. We used the ironing board as our table when I was in town. Peter was a very good sport.

4th of July

Our 4th of July festivities included hiking to and touring Timpanogas cave. Peter and I hiked it with his parents. Peter's parents are in their 60's, but they are in much better shape than me. The hike is about 1.5 miles on a fairly steep incline to the cave and I was so worried that they were going to beat me to the top. With my pride, I just couldn't let that happen. I worked my tail off to make it up that hill. It was a good thing that Aleen, my mother-in-law, had already been on a 25 mile bike ride and Paul had already run 3 miles in 23 minutes that morning--otherwise, I doubt I would have beaten them. This is a picture of us at the top before entering the cave.





After being bathed in sweat from the hike, we nearly froze in the cave that maintains a year-round temperature of about 43 degrees. You can see that Paul had to keep warm by putting his arms inside his shirt:)




This is my cute husband inside the cave. My pictures don't do the cave justice, but the caves were gorgeous. I couldn't believe that I had gone 8 years living in Utah County without ever seeing them. They are amazing and I would recommend that everyone take the opportunity to see them. They have formations that can only be found in 1 or 2 other places in the world.




Following the hike, we met up with the rest of the Ure clan to have a little 4th of July BBQ. Rachel and her family were camping at a site off of the Alpine loop. We had a blast together. Hamburgers always taste a little better in the wilderness.

Latest Transportation

Peter and I recently purchased a Honda Shadow. Peter has always wanted a motorcycle (what man doesn't?) and with the cost of rising gas prices, I thought it would be a good investment. I'm not sure if we will actually save money in the long run, but it has sure been fun for us. We've enjoyed cruising around on it during these last couple of beautiful summer months.

California Vacation

To celebrate Peter's long awaited home-coming from Dallas, we decided to take a little trip to California. The weather was perfect. We rented a convertible Mustang and enjoyed driving around along the coast and going to the beach. It was so fun and relaxing.

Peter and I bought some kites to fly at the beach. We got them up and flying and then tied them to our bags so we could relax and enjoy the sun.