Modern Day Thanksgiving

This is definitely one of the most memorable Thanksgiving's ever! My first Thanksgiving at the dunes... It is well known in the Sharp's, Skillman's and George's Families as "Thanksgiving Point."

First, we line up our trailers, like so (see pic below).
We then set up tables for our big Thanksgiving feast!

Without Stacy, we don't know what we would do... WE TRULY APPRECIATE OUR CENTER PIECES!!!! It just wouldn't be the same without the boots! 

We then gather round for our wonderful dinner! We love everyone so much! We have those who love to cook, we have those who love to make fake potatoes (but a delicious ham), we have those who love to go for a Costco run (but supplies the most delicious pies, might I add), and we have those who just don't cook, but pretend to by cooking stove top stuffing. Then we have those who are very elegant and those who like to be red necks and tailgate it....

Then two girlies get bored because it rained nonstop the following day... so we decided to remodel the inside of our trailer with a homemade, 1st grade looking fort. To answer your question... YES!!!! We played board games in our fort, just like we used to when we were in elementary school, flashlight and all!

We both brought our pj's with us (not planned)! I just so happened to play Just Dance on the Wii with mine on! (Oh man!!! Did Ellie get a show or what?!?!?!) 

We don't just suffer when it rains, we stay busy! We have lots of bonding time with everybody! The most memorable 'bonding' time is with Mrs. Stacy!!! I think everyone will agree that Stacy always has something informative; such as, why you DO NOT wear socks with Ugg Boots, etc. Of course, we love spending time with everyone else too!!!!

Lastly, we made it to eat pizza on our way home! This pic does not even give it justice. These pizzas were HUGE! You can kind of get the idea if you see those little fingers up in the corner of the picture, that is a man's hand... look how small his hand looks compared to our pizza! Don't worry, we did not have just one pizza, but TWO PIZZAS & TWO HUGE PLATTERS OF SPUDS!!! Delicious! We ate it all! After all there were about 20 of us to feed!

Overall, we are so grateful to have the parents, family's, and friends that we do. We had an enjoyable time riding! (Yes, we ride while we are there, we don't just sit around! In fact, I feel pretty good about myself right now! I think I did pretty good racing up one of the hills. No offense to anyone else, but I think I beat just about everybody I raced... at least when I was on my quad. In all reality, I'm sure most of them were just trying to be nice and let me win.) But really, we truly did have an enjoyable time! We love our family & friends!!!! So glad we were able to get together for another successful dune trip!

Kauai- Post 3

This is Kauapea Beach, also known as "Secret Beach." Apparently this is the nude beach on Kauai; however, being nude in public is against the law in Kauai and they keep it under control, so we didn't get to see any nudists thank goodness!!!!



Smith's Garden Luau! You get a tour of the gardens, get to see how they cook the pig, get open bar (YES we loved every minute of the free drinks... don't judge us, we LOVE our virgin drinks! They were delicious! And yes I did get asked for my ID because we had about ten drinks on our table, just drinkin away, but then he realized that we were getting 'drunk' on virgin drinks), then the all you can eat buffet, then a lovely performance of different culture dances. It was fun!!! My all time favorite was the unlimited drinks! Seriously, they were the best!



The lookout on the Waimea Canyon! It was a sweet view! Birds everywhere... oh wait, those were just helicopters :P Tons of helicopter tours going on and they go pretty far down into the canyon.




Another picture of the Waimea Canyon....A lady kept telling her husband crazy things; such as the comment above, "Look at that bird.... Oh, wait, that's just a helicopter." Then, she was looking down at this view (pictured here) and what we all see are rapids, right?!?!?! Well, this lady once again told her husband, "Look at all of those cars parked down there, I wonder how they get down there." Her husband eventually took his binoculars out and said, "Those aren't cars, honey... those are rapids." hahahahahahahaha We could not stop laughing, I guess it was a 'you had to be there' moment.

Then, on our way back from the Canyon, we hear on the radio.... "Sweet & Savory PuPu!" Yes have you ever heard of 'poop' that is sweet & savory, I don't think so. To add to that, they also announced at our hotel, earlier on in the week, that we could have "pupu and pee pee on our pupu." Exactly what we said, "WHAT?!?!?!" Translation: "Pig/ pork and coconut cream on our appetizers."
(In case you didn't catch on...Pupu= pig/ pork or appetizers & pee pee=coconut cream)




Cave across from Tunnels Beach! It went in pretty far. I was standing in the cave quite a ways and Brandon wasn't even to the end of the inside of the cave. It was pretty wide too. It was fun to see. Tunnels beach was fun! We snorkeled a little bit and everybody kept getting beached, including, Rob, Brandon and this poor old lady!!!!


Yes we were swinging on vines!!!!




This was just one of our many pictures of our famous photo shoots. Every time we go somewhere away from home, I make Brandon do a photo shoot with me, our camera and our tripod lol!!!! We hate the process of taking the pics, but we always love the outcome. (Actually, this was a last minute picture and we had Rob take it! He's comparable to our tripod ;)

Zip N Dip in Kauai - Post #2

First, we went to Hanalei Bay and went boogie boarding and watched some surfers. There was a sweet little girl was surfing better than anybody out there. Then, of course, our men were the best boogie boarders :P We had tons of fun at the beach. But then we did the Zip N Dip at Paradise Ranch. That was "FREAKIN AWESOME!" We started out with a short zip line, a little over 100 feet. Then we ended up with 'King Kong' which was 1200 feet. Nine zip lines total, a swimming hole right before the big finale (King Kong) and one of our tour guides sticking to his word!!!! It was a blast! I highly recommend it to every one who goes to Kauai!!!!



Hanalei Bay



Zip Line



Brandon (left), Rob (top right), Kayleigh (bottom right)



Swimming Hole



Brandon & I at the swimming hole



So before we started King Kong, the tour guides made sure to repeat themselves numerous times telling us to make sure that we grab the rope at the end of this one. On the other zip lines we went one at a time; therefore, the guide could grab us if needed. However, this time, we went two at a time so we had to grab our own ropes. Well, Rob & Kayleigh went last and I think Kayleigh got a little excited at the end because she made it across..... well.... let's just say she got a major wedgie.....Poor Kayleigh :(



KING KONG 1200FT

The beginning of bonding brothers & sisters together in Kauai

We drove from Grants Pass to Portland on Friday night. Flew out of Portland on Saturday and got to Kauai about 10:30pm Kauai time. Lon story short, we were up for about 24hrs, we all feel like we're lil old people because we need our beauty rest. Anyways, we got some sleep. Brandon and I woke up way too early, so we went for a nice breezy, or so we thought it was going to be a nice breezy, walk. But it turned out to be a little hike. Anyways, we saw plenty of chickens and roosters and a beautiful beach. I didn't realize people got up so early to go swimming, snorkeling, surfing, etc; however, the water is gorgeous and warm and it's very warm all day long. To church we went. We got to church which was only about a 10minute drive from our hotel, but it ended up being Stake Conference in Lihue, so we had an hour drive. It's such a beautiful rive. I can't get over how different Kauai is from Oregon. It's so pretty in Oregon, but it's totally different here and just as gorgeous. Brandon keeps making fun of me because I can't get over the fact that it's so pretty here and the fact that there are chickens everywhere you go, sidewalks, parking lots, beaches, hiking trails, etc. Anyways, here are a few pictures from the beginning of our week long journey! We are having a blast!


This wasn't in Kauai yet, this was in Portland the day before... the 4 of us(Brandon, Rob, Kayleigh and I) were racing across the street and I was so focused on running across the street that I almost stepped on this nasty, dead fish :( EWWWWW!!!!!!


Chickens & Roosters are everywhere here



Beach after church. It's gorgeous!!!!!



Long stairway down to one of the beaches. Rob & Kayleigh are at the bottom (if you can see them)



Beach down by St. Regis













Frogs come out at night, they jump across the sidewalks and they are everywhere at night

What a HANDFUL!!!!

My sis-in-law decided to have a modeling shoot for her two GIRLY girls. I emphasize girly because... Well take a look for yourselves, they are gonna be a handful well before high school! That being said, these are my favorite girls in the world! I love them so much!!!! They are absolutely adorable!!!!

Rocking Out!!!!

Tonight we had dinner with Brandon's family. We decided to play a little Rock Band afterwards, I would say we could make a pretty great band in downtown New York! After rocking out for a little while ,we had a little dessert...I guess this is the result of a baked apple dessert..... (F.Y.I., she doesn't know that we are posting this, in fact she had NO IDEA that she was even being recorded as she was rocking out. )

We love you Mom!!!!

Private First Class Ferrell

This is our Tommy Boy graduating from Marines boot camp!!!! I guess he isn't our lil' Tommy Boy anymore.... He's a Marine... He's a man!!! We had a great trip down to San Diego to pick up our man! He had quite a few of his fans show up!

This first picture is right after he finished the 4 and a half mile Motivational Run and they had to song their little diddies the entire time too :) This was the first time we got to see him in over 13 weeks (more for me, I hadn't seen him since his high school graduation). We saw him right before the Motivational Run. He looks so great!
This is more of our stud!
He's not as short as he looks here, he was just standing next to really tall guys because Private First Class Ferrell was also "Squad Leader Ferrell." That's why he's in front, he's a leader!
He just looked so great! I couldn't take enough pics of my bro!
This is the first time we got to see him in uniform! He's marching onto the Parade Deck! ONLY MARINES ARE ALLOWED ON THE PARADE DECK!!!
How handsome!
My Marine and I on family day!
I just love him so much! (GIRLS....BACK OFF, He's mine)
PFC Ferrell escorting his Mom!
Private First Class Ferrell with his DI's
Marine!!!
Graduation Day!!!
What a handsome man!
Private First Class Ferrell with our cousin, Officer Kolb!!! It was 'cute' because everybody has to salute Officer's, including Tom's DI's, so Tom felt pretty special walking with Andrew and everybody having to drop their bags to salute Officer Kolb.
PFCFFC (Private First Class Ferrell's Fan Club)
Singing the Marine's song (I think they call it something else in the Marines)