Hawaii Again...

I was lucky enough to take my trip to Hawaii because of one of my friends. She had a couple of free condos in Maui because of her travel club membership, and she decided to invite us and some other friends to join them on vacation. Our little travel club consited of me my two girlfriends, one girlfriend's new husband and our 7 kids - three 19 year olds, three 17 year olds and a 13 year old. We have all been friends since our kids all were all toddlers at day care together. With 3 woman, 1 man and 7 kids, all from Utah, the polygamy state, we decided to call our trip the "Sisterwives Tour".

One of fun little excursions was taking the whole family to a luau. The old Lahiana Luau is right along the water were we were treated to yet another lovely sunset. I was a little worried that the kids would all think a luau was lame, but they all enjoyed it as much as we adults did... even if they were a little apalled about the dead pig in the pit!




Our "family" at the luau. Being a big Utah family and all We couldn't all fitat one table, so the 17 year old girls got one of their own.

Aren't they just cute as can be?

Nerd Humor

One of the guys in my lab has spent most of the summer in a lab in Australia learning new research techniques. He finally sent us postcard this week. I love his quirky sense of humor, sending us a little of his research in the mail. I guess laboratories don't sell post cards to send to your friends back home.... maybe there is an entrepreneurial opportunity there. LOL. Oh, the horizontal white "lines" in the picture in the middle... that's DNA!!!

Vacation...

I guess I took a little vacation from my blogging as well as a real life vacation. The kids and I took a trip to Mauii with some friends. One of our tourist moments was a trip to the top of the Haleakala Volcano to see the sunrise over the crater. Fortunately we did this on our second day there, because still being on "Utah time" (4 hours later) made getting up at 3:30 AM so we could be at the 10,000 ft summit by sunrise a little easier. It was, perhaps, the most spectacular sunrise I've seen in my life. Also a cold one! Even in Hawaii it's darn cold at that altitude! It was also an easy summit, we could drive nearly to the top, and it was only a short hike to the summit... it seems that hiking to 10,000 ft is easier at sea level LOL!


It was Sunday, which for me was actually Son-day, as it was my son's birthday. He thought that rising to see the sunrise was pretty cool way to start his birthday.

Me and my boy, waiting for the sunrise!



Being the the lucky boy he is, he got to end the day in style, as this was the night we chose for a sunset dinner cruise. Sunday, Son-day, Sunrise, Sunset! Sea level to10,000 feet in one day. I think my boy had a great 20th birthday!


Sarah, Matt and the setting sun!

My Universary...

Yeah, today was the day... My Universary. That's my name for the day that would have been my anniversary had my marriage not come to such a sad demise. Having divorced 18 months ago this was 2nd Universary, but it was kind of a big one, because had things worked out the way they should have it would have been my 25th aniversary.

I was a little worried about getting depressed, so I figured the best thing to do was to stay busy... fortunately one of my hiking, biking buddies suggested we join the local Meetup mountain biking group for a ride. So after work we headed out to the Glenwild trail in Park City. The coordinators split up us into two groups, a beginner type group (most of my friends and I) and a more advanced, gonzo, type group. Mike, who led our group was really patient with us beginner types, and he gave us some great instuction. With the exception of one of my friends taking a bad spill, it was a really nice ride.

My other anti depression plans was to invite my buddies over to meet my friend Miss Rita (Margy-Rita!)after the ride. I thought it would just be the four of us, but the rest of the biking group was so nice I ended up inviting everyone for the apres-ride margarita party.

It's always interesting when you open up and are friendly to strangers. It turns out the coordinator of the group lives a couple of blocks away. One of the women, was also a recent divorcee, another woman lives near by and was sure she knew me, turns out are kids played on a soccer team together, and we have several common friends. Every turn of the conversation we found commonalities. My old friends, my new friends, we all had fun talking and laughing! We even toasted my Universary. I can't think of the last time I had so much fun inviting a bunch of strangers to my house. I think it's something I should do more often. Turned out to be just the thing I needed on what could have easily been such a dreary day! Reach out and be friendly. it may just bring you happiness!