Emma loves the park!Emma loves to go to any park and play. Anytime we drive past an elementary school playground, she gets so excited and points shreiking "Park! I wanna go da park!" And for the next five minutes I have to explain to her that we can't go to that park... we will have to go to another one. "I see da kids in da park! I wanna go da park!" is her reply. One of her favorite things at the park is the slide.

She looks a little funny in this picture, but there is a good reason. There is a park near our apartment that we go to pretty often. On this particular day, after we had supper, Aaron and I took Emma to play to wear her down before bed time. She was playing by the slide and two little boys soon joined her. One of them was 4 and one was 2. Well, the 2 year old kept trying to pull her away from the slide and she wouldn't go. She kept saying "no thank you" but he wouldn't listen to her and kept pulling her arm. (I taught her to tell other kids no thank you when they are doing something she doesn't like...we had a bully problem once before which resulted in handsfull of her hair being pulled out because she wouldn't get off a toy that she was playing with...) Anyway, her "no thank you's" got louder and more insistent. (Am I a bad mom? I just hung back waiting to see what would happen before I ran to interfere.) Well, before I could stop it, this kid was biting her arm. (That was when I stepped in.)

After talking to the little boy's mom, I learned that he had spent the summer in Hong Kong with his mother and her family and had lost all the English that he aquired before going to Hong Kong and only spoke Chinese now. Poor Emma, trying to use her words with someone who didn't even understand them! (If you click on the picture above this story to enlarge it, you can see the red spot in the bend of her arm where she got bit.)

The scene of the crime!

I have to say that Emma did a great job of recovering from the biting incident and going on with her time at the park. I did have to laugh though, anytime the kid came near her after that, she would yell "NO THANK YOU!".

Hawaii, the second time around!

We recently went to Hawaii for Sampson's (my brother) wedding in the Laie Hawaii Temple. We did lots of fun things on this trip. We went snorkeling a few times, my favorite time was when we went snorkeling with the sea turtles at Turtle Beach. We also went to the PCC with both our family and Brittany's family. We went to Pearl Harbor as well. It was a good trip and it was fun to get to go to Hawaii again!

I had to get a picture of this street sign!

My dad looked up the address to Dog the Bounty Hunter's place. He wanted to get a picture with "Dog" but they were closed that day. Dad went ahead and posed with a larger than life "Dog" anyway.

SunriseSampson playing with Emma in the ocean while the sun rises.

One of the great things about going to Hawaii is seeing the sun rise over the ocean. Since there is a four hour time difference from Utah, and five hours from Tennessee, we all got up pretty early. (We would wake up around 5:30 am, which was 9:30 am Utah time and 10:30 am Tennessee time.) It was a great way to start out the day!

I like the way the sun is shining from behind the cloud in this picture. The cloudy sunrises were the prettiest in my opinion!

Sea CreaturesThis is a starfish that we found at a place we went snorkeling called Shark's Cove. I have never seen a starfish like this. It was so neat! I put it on Sampson's shoulder to try and get a good picture of it!

We put the starfish on Emma's arm.

This is a sea urchin. It was really cool. It would move its spikes individually to move around.

Emma was so good to be careful and not squish the urchin.

This is a sand crab that we found on the beach outside our beach house. Most of the sand crabs are white, and about the size of a quarter. This must be an old one, because he was a bluish-grey color and was about the size of a dollar, folded in half. When Aaron and Sampson caught this one, it pinched Aaron so hard that it drew blood!

Around the beach house...

These are just some pictures that I took while we were around the beach house.

We went to the swap meet and got Emma this apron and borrowed the flower hair clip from Katherine. We got the lime from a tree at the house where Brittany's family stayed. I thought this picture was so funny! This is the view of the ocean from the deck of the house we stayed in.

Here is Emma with her Jefe relaxing on the hammock after Emma had a swim in the ocean.

This is the house that we stayed in.

Hawaiian Flora

So I am a bit of a plant nerd (I love plants!) and I usually get made fun of when I go to new places for taking pictures of flowers and plants. I can't help myself. I think that the different plants and flowers are what give different places their true beauty. So if these things bore you, feel free to skip over this post!These are white plumeria flowers. These are typically the flowers that Polynesian women wear behind their ear. I like wearing them in my ponytail when I am in Hawaii. The flowers are so pretty and they smell heavenly! In the place we stayed, there was a pink plumeria tree outside one of the bedroom windows. When the wind blew just right, the smell of plumeria filled the bedroom!

I took this picture while we were driving into town (Honolulu). (At least I think that was where we were going!) The mountains are so beautiful there. They are massive and look like they are covered in green "fur." The mountains are one of the things that strike me as being so beautiful in Hawaii. On this particular day, with the mist hanging over them, Aaron said it reminded him of the mountains in Colombia.

I was trying to be artistic. It is a cocnut palm leaf and the moon. I know, I am a dork.

This is a view from the temple to the ocean. (The temple is behind me in this picture). I think that I put a similar picture up from our first trip to Hawaii, but it doesn't have the pretty bougainvillea flowers in it.

This is a pink plumeria flower from the tree outside the beach house we stayed in. When we were in Hawaii last, I wanted a good picture of a pink plumeria flower so bad, and came home a bit disappointed. But since this tree was outside our beach house, I got tons of pictures of pink plumerias!

This is a tree that was growing on the temple grounds. I don't know what kind of tree it is, but I think they are so neat. It almost looks like an umbrella. On the Kam Highway, traveling from Laie to Honolulu, there is a field that has a lot of these trees in it. I just love the shape and the way they grow.

Pictures from the wedding

Since this is the whole reason we went to Hawaii in the first place, I figured I should put up some wedding pictures! I took some and Russell took some of these as well. Emma was the "flower girl". She had this pretty halo made out of pink plumeria flowers, but I think that this is one of the only pictures that we have with her wearing it! Here are Sampson and Brittany walking out of the temple. I was going to crop Emma out of the picture, but I wanted everyone to see how she really was during the day!

Here is Brittany trying desperately to get Emma to cooperate for a picture. Emma wasn't having it. She was so funny. Brittany's brother, Kenny, was taking pictures of everyone in front of the temple. Instead of being in any of the pictures, Emma stood behind Kenny and shouted directions for everyone who was having their picture taken. She would yell and point and try to repeat anything that Kenny said. It was so funny!

This is my sister, Katherine, and me. I am 17 years older than her. And for anyone who doesn't know me that well, my hair color is really the same color as Katherine's. And I used to be as skinny as her, too!

Emma loves it when her daddy throws her up in the air. We all think this picture is funny because Aaron had time to throw up the shakka wave. (The shakka is the wave that most people associate with surfing/surfers. According to Erin Summerill, and a few other Hawaiian locals that I met, the "shakka" wave started with a man from Laie who worked in the Kahuku Sugar Mills, located a few miles north of Laie. This man got his index, middle and ring fingers cut off while working in the mill. After that, to wave to people he would put up his hand (that only had a thumb and a pinky) and shake it. Somehow, it caught on!)

(Erin, correct me if I got it wrong!)

A few more from the family reunionJoLayne sent me some of the pictures that she had taken at the reunion. I thought she got some great pictures of Emma. Here are a few. Emma loves to cheese it up for the camera...if she is in the right mood!

Emma is driving Daddy's car, under Grandpa's supervision! (She isn't really driving)

Aaron and Emma on the hike with Grandpa and Grandma Jones.

One More... So I am a little forgetful and forgot to add this picture in with the others of Emma's Big Weekend. This fence and meadow were on the drive up to the canyon. She was having so much fun posing on the fence!

The FamilyI forgot to post this picture with the rest of the Jones Reunion pictures. (Aaron, Haley, Emma, baby Grace, Jillian, Ammon, Janae, JoLayne, Kathy, Derek and Janel)

Emma's Big WeekendEmma had her second birthday recently. See the lovely cake I made? Yeah, right! This little cake was purchased at the Target bakery. If you like buttercream icing, Target makes a pretty good one. We had a friend over from church for Emma, and Sampson and Brittany came. When I asked her what she wanted to eat that day, she said hotdogs. So, we grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, and just had a fun, laid back afternoon. Oh yeah, and we got her "cooking" stuff for her birthday. You know, little play pots and pans, plastic "dinnerware" and food.

The next day, Emma got her first haircut. I was a little unsure how she would handle this ordeal, so while I was getting my hair cut, Aaron brought her to watch. When it was her turn, we put this shiny red cape on her and the girl that cuts my hair (Stacia) gave her a sucker. Emma was very nervous and wouldn't even eat the sucker at first. We put her on my lap, and when Stacia moved behind Emma, the poor kid let out this horribly loud (and long) scream. It was really embarassing because I get my hair cut at a pretty nice place down in the Riverwoods (if you know where that is). So when Emma screamed, all these people started poking their heads around corners and turning around to see what was going on. After letting out the shreik, she sat still and quiet, ate her sucker and let Stacia cut her hair.

The next day, Sunday, we went to church. I got this dress for Emma (actually BB paid for it) while we were in Tennessee. I thought that she looked to big in this picture!

Emma loved the pockets in this dress. Pockets are a new discovery for her. She likes rocks, loose change, and anything else that she can stuff into her pockets.

On Sunday we also went for a drive up in the mountains. We stopped here at Rock Creek Canyon. It was so beautiful here! (If you click on the picture to make it larger, you can see some of Provo and the Utah lake in the background in between the two mountains.)

Here are my two crazy kids! These two chased (and caught) a lizard, and Emma found some dirt to play in.

What a dirty (but cute) face!

Jones Family ReunionWe had a reunion for the Jones side of Aaron's family. We went down to Cedar City for a week and stayed in the dorms at Southern Utah University. The campus was beautiful and we learned about some of Grandpa Jones' ancestors that were significant in the history of the school. His ancestors were also some of the first settlers of that area.

This is a picture that I took of Aaron and Emma while we were walking around the SUU campus.

We also spent some time in the mountains at Aaron's great Uncle's cabin. His uncle owns a large number of sheep and they stay in the mountains. It was pretty cold up there, and we didn't bring coats (seriously, who would think that it would be cold in southern Utah in August?) so Emma and I played in Aaron's Pathfinder for a while. And to entertain ourselves, we took pictures. Notice Emma's eyes in this one-she looks so funny! While at the cabin, Aaron's cousin, Amy, found this creature. I think that it is called a horny toad, which confuses me because I think it looks more like a lizard than a toad. Anyway, we put it on my shirt so Emma could pet it.

Here is Grandpa Jones giving Emma a big hug!

This is Emma loving on her cousin, Grace.

Aaron's Uncle also had a farm down in Cedar. He had some goats there that he let the kids feed. I was really surprised that Emma would feed them, but she did and she loved it!

On another day of the reunion, we went on a hike in a small town called Kannarraville. (I may have misspelled that!) The trail followed a stream and then led into these narrows. It was a beautiful hike, and super easy. Emma walked a lot of the way, but Aaron wound up carrying her as well!

Emma and Aaron pose for a picture during our hike. She just looked so cute here!