The McRae Family

Summer so far!

2011-07-30T16:46:00.000-06:00

Here I am again a sad sad excuse for a blogger and what do I go and do? Why I make another blog! Yes yes its true. But hey my new blog has some reasoning behind it. Check it out here and help me meet yet another goal! I made the decision to start it after a conversation Bren and I had about my lack of cooking. But enough about that blog, you're just going to have to click on that link to learn more about it :).

Back to this blog. So much has happened this summer and I have yet to blog about ANY of it! What a slacker I am! Well lets start from the beginning! And my favorite part of this summer! Hawaii!!!

Lets just say Hawaii was AMAZING and of course, it was not long enough. I have made up my mind and gotten over my fears of living so far away from my family, I want to someday live in Hawaii. Visiting it every other year is just not enough for me!
Here are some cute pictures from our fun vacation!

Beautiful Beautiful Hawaii!

Anna's first time on the beach. With Daddy and Grandpa McRae

Hangin out with the Doria's at Fumi's

Fumi's! An Oahu MUST!

our little hitch hiker!

The Hukilau Cafe! Featured in 50 First Dates. Another Oahu MUST!

Sunsets on the beach

The mumu we got for Anna at the swap meet

The view from our back patio

the beach behind the house we stayed in

Wiamea

Haleiwa Joes yet another Oahu MUST!

Kenton got his endowments!

Just a few pictures right! Haha. I must say one of the best parts of the trip was also the last. We got to go through the temple with Bren's little (or not so little) brother Kenton.

After Hawaii we had lots of family time! Anna (yes, we're calling her Anna now) Won 3rd in her age group at the Orem Summerfest Cute Baby Contest! We're so proud of our little pip-squeek!

Here are some fun pictures from all of our fun times this summer!!

Cousins

new friends

Texas Roadhouse Rolls

First time fireworks

Pig tails

Dinner time at Grandma and Grandpa McRae's

Big Bows

First braid!

Pool time with Grandpa McRae and cousin Annie

4th of July

Costa Vida

Helping mommy clean

Mess maker!

Big news!!! Our little Anna is a CRAWLER!!! Yes that is right!!! She crawls! She loves to be chased by mommy and crawl every where and under everything! Sometimes she gets stuck. We now have two baby gates because of her attraction to our stairs and the house is underway of being baby proofed.


Crawling!!!

Pictured above is another bit of big news! Our little Anna now has two teeth!!! The first one popped through on my mom's birthday at her birthday party. The second one popped the next day! My how she is growing up!!!

Bren has always wanted a handgun so he finally bought one, a Glock 9mm (which he sold to buy a Glock 40 cal. a few weeks later). The purchasing of this gun led to what I like to call firearm fever! After Bren bought his glock he wanted to buy a 1911 45 cal. Soo along came the Remmington (a very fun gun to shoot!) After he bought his gun I got jealous and decided I wanted a gun of my very own! So, Bren bought me a CZ Phantom 9mm. (Which led up to Bren selling his 9mm for 40 cal.)

Here are some pictures of our shooting adventures this summer!!

Shooting the Glock

My very own gun!

Bren and the Glock

Me with the 1911 45 cal.

how cute is she!

Daddy Daughter bonding time!

And there you have it! Our summer so far has been a blast! So sad that we only have one month left of summer fun! But this fall will be amazing as well. Baby's first birthday, Jake gets home from his mission to a whole slew of new nieces, and much much more!

Don't forget to check out my new blog!

Another over due update

2011-05-28T11:48:00.000-06:00

Sooooo I havent been very good at my blogging goal. BUT I have gotten BETTER. I'm working on it, but life is so much better spent living, then blogging. I'll find that happy medium :)

SO I know you all want to know about Kalia and not my pathetic excuses for not blogging so here goes!

My beautiful little princess LOVES sitting in the floor in her daddy's office and just playing. She sits soo well now. She rarely falls, no she likes to face dive for toys that are out of her reach. Once on her tummy and the toy she's diving for is within reach, she grabs it and rolls to her back. Basking in the triumph of having successfully retrieved her toy.

Kalia loves bath time. She loves to sit and splash and most of all, she loves her foam bath letters. She'll pick up a letter and chew on it while I show her other letters. I make the sound it makes, tell her what words begin with that letter, and tell her what color the letter is. She thinks its hilarious. I know someday it will sink in and she'll know her alphabet, but for now, its play time for her.

A is for Anna!

Anna Kalia McRae

Everyone knows Kalia has a lot of hair, here's and idea of just how MUCH hair she has. Yes, her hair really is that long. And I LOVE it!

This is what I came home from work to the other day. I walked through the front door and my little princess was hangin out by her bouncer listening to the music it plays. Yet another on of her favorite pass times. This time dad had put a hat on her and she left it. I about died it was so cute!

And lastly. Here is a video (we'll see if it works) of Kalia dancing. Boogy woogy, or techno. either way she loves to shake her tush.

I should be blogging again in the next couple of weeks. But until then. TTFN! (ta ta for now!)

Updates, Updates, and yes... More Updates!

2011-04-20T17:38:00.000-06:00

Yada Yada Yada I know I know I'm a terrible excuse for a ~~blogger~~! But hey! Twice in one day!! I've gotta get some points for that.... Right?

I'm sure you have all been squirming in those chairs of yours just wondering what they heck has been going in the lives of the McRae family! Kalia must be getting so big and growing so fast!! .... or at least thats what I like to tell myself. (it helps me sleep at night)

SOOO much has happened since my last update, so hopefully this post will satisfy your McRae craving ;)

Kalia eats! She sits! She laughs on camera!

First things first. Kalia Eats!!! (and loves it too!)

Our little string bean was introduced to green beans the beginning of this month. Next to the occasional bite of apple sauce and the whole strawberry her dad let her suck on, this was her first experience with food.

She ADORES green beans, we couldn't get the spoon in her mouth fast enough! A day or so later after she finished off that jar of baby food, we introduced our little girl to carrots.

She loved them as well, just not quite as much as the green beans. Same story we couldnt get them in her mouth fast enough. Eventually our little love decided to take matters into her own tiny hands... literally...

yes there are carrots in her hair, eyebrows, and nose...

On to the next blog worthy update. Kalia Sits!!!

She is still quite wobbly but she has all the strength, she just lacks a bit in the balance department. But we are working on it and before you know it she'll be a sitting pro!

How could you not love this beautiful little face?

Lastly of the blog worthy updates (and my favorite by far) Kalia Laughs on Camera!!!

A couple of weeks ago Bren was playing with Kalia before bed, he let out a sneeze and our little princess cracked up. So Bren decided to keep sneezing and this was the result <3

Precious isn't she?

That's everything I can think of now (and perfect timing as the little sleeping beauty just woke up from a nap). But I will honestly try harder to blog better.

Hope I was able to keep you interested, and if you made it through the post... you rock!

A waay over due post!

2011-04-20T14:44:00.002-06:00

Lets face it, I'm just ~~not~~ the blogger I wish I was... But I'm working on it!!!

This post should have been done a LONG time ago... Like back when Bren and I closed on and moved into our home!

Being a homeowner is a wonderful thing! But the home buying process is much longer, much harder and a more tedious process than I ever would have imagined! And there are two people who made it possible for us (which i have been meaning to blog about for a while).

Who would have thought there would be so much to buying a home?! Honestly! I always thought it would be like the movies or those cute realty commercials where you find the home you love and they hand over the keys. Boy was I wrong!!

First you have to set a price range that you have to stay within and get pre-qualified for a loan. Next you have to find a realtor, then comes the fun part, the shopping around and looking at homes. After you find the home you want to live in, you have to place an offer and hope that yours is accepted. Once your offer is accepted comes the funding.... and on and on and on!!!!

I have no idea how Bren found our amazing realtor Jerome, but I'm sure happy he did! Now talk about a guy who really earned his pay check!! Jerome was the nicest guy ever and had the patience of a saint! Seriously though! We placed 5 offers on 5 different houses!!! He was so easy to work with and truly cares about his clients, their best interests and finding the right home in the right price range for them. If anyone is in the market for a realtor in Utah give Jerome a call, he wont let you down I promise!

The next person who truly helped make our dream of owning our own home a reality was our loan officer. Bren and I had a disaster of an experience with our previous bank. I wont name names because they truly are a wonderful bank and the loan officer was a very nice guy but he had poor communication skills and was not as efficient as we would have liked him to be.

Remember when i said we but 5 offers on 5 different homes? Well the second offer we placed, we TRULY almost closed on, but long story short, the bank couldn't make our deadline so we had to back out before we lost our earnest money.

Ron Pippin, the Loan Doctor was our loan officer. He was amazing! Fast, efficient, and personable. Bren and I utilized the Provo Grant as our down payment, there were some complications with paperwork and a few other things and Ron personally drove down to Provo and got all of the paperwork taken care of and straightened out! What a nice guy!!! If your in the market for a great loan officer give Ron a call!

http://www.helpmewithamortgage.com/

Boring to some interesting to other? But hopefully some day (if not already) you will have the pleasure of owning your own home! And when that happy day comes, a great realtor and loan officer can make your experience worth blogging about too!

Kalia's Blessing day

2011-03-08T17:18:00.006-07:00

The long awaited post has finally arrived. I'm sorry I really don't have very many photos of our house. But I will post a picture of the front... from google earth hahaha.

No, this post will mostly be about my beautiful little girl

And the name she will be known by through out this life and on the Church records will be

Anna Kalia McRae

Where did we get this name from? Anna has been a favorite of Bren and mine for a long time, (Bren got it out of the Children of the Promise book series.) And Kalia we got on line, shortly after we found out we were having a little girl. We truly almost didn't go with the name Anna because we have a beautiful little niece named Annie that is only 3 months older than Kalia, but it just felt right. One of the reasons I feel we were prompted to name our little one Anna, is because the day our beautiful baby girl entered into this world, Bren's Great Aunt Ann slipped out of this world.

Now I know what you're thinking: If her name is Anna, why do you call her by her middle name? Why didn't you just name her Kalia as her first name? Well you see, I got the final say on what we would call her, I decided on Kalia, it's different, its beautiful (like my little girl) and it means beloved in Hawaiian

(which she truly is).

On to the blessing, I have NEVER heard a more beautiful blessing in my life as the one Bren gave our little princess. Needless to say I was pretty much bawling (its ok, Bren cried too awwwwwe!!) I felt so full of love and so proud at that moment. It truly was a special blessing and I am so thankful my husband is a worthy priesthood holder and was able to bless our little one.

The dress was the most beautiful blessing gown I have EVER seen, my wonderful mother made it (no surprises there she is amazing). My mom has had the pattern for YEARS and has just been waiting and waiting for a little granddaughter to make it for. It was long and gorgeous and perfect!

Oma making final adjustments for pictures

Our sweet little girl looked just like a porcelain doll in her beautiful dress

One of the most special parts of the blessing was the fact that my grandpa was able to be a part of the priesthood circle for the blessing. He was soo excited and had been asking his CNA the entire day before if "he was gonna be able to help bless that baby." It was very special!

The day was perfect and we had a huge turnout. Thank you to everyone who was able to make it. And to those who couldn't we wish you could have made it but we understand and love you all.

A special thanks goes to our parents, without whom the day would have been a disaster. We couldn't have done it without you!

Grandma and Grandpa McRae

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson

Oma and Grandpa French

Cute pictures of my sweet little princess on her very special day

As you can see, this little girl is loved by so many, Kalia (beloved) she truly is!

We ended up taking Kalia out of her dress shortly after we finished taking pictures of her with her grandparents and great grandparents. She simply ~~hated~~ being in that dress. After everyone but my dad and Jolene (my beautiful second mom) had left I realized, OH MY! We never got a family picture of just Bren, Kalia, and myself!

Whatever will we do!

Luckily Jolene was our wonderful photographer.

So back in the dress Kalia went (and she was none too happy about it)

But it was all worth it

If you made it all the way through this post, you rock!

Thanks for bearing with me, and sorry about the wait!

Just a little longer

2011-02-26T13:12:00.002-07:00

Ok friends, I know you are anxiously awaiting pictures of our new home, however, we are still in the middle of the unpacking/cleaning process. It will be done today (Kalia's blessing is tomororw) SO when all the madness is done and over with. Not only will you be getting pictures of our beautiful new home, but you will be getting pictures of Beautiful baby Kalia's blessing!

A better post will come!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

Happy Valentines day all!

I must say I have to blog today because I LOVE Valentines day! I used to hate it when I was younger and single and would refer to it as Singles Awareness day. But I love the idea of celebrating your love for another person. What a beautiful thing love is!
I truly have the most amazing Valentine anyone could ever ask for. Bren is such a wonderful husband and father. And I am truly thankful to have him in my life!

So lets all enjoy tonight! And celebrate that special person in our lives! So whether you're spending the evening with your significant other or your friends. Take the time to let them know that they are special in your life.

I felt in honor of the day of love it would be fun post the history behind this special day

http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day

So there you have it!

And of COURSE I have to post a cute picture of my beautiful princess in her Valentine's Day outfit! <3

Sorry for the terrible picture quality, I'll get some better pictures and post them later

More to come!

2011-02-12T10:40:00.004-07:00

Yes yes I know, I didnt blog on Sunday... But thats because it was the superbowl... and well we weren't home. SOOO I was going to blog on Monday, but this week went by REALLY fast. Lots going on and not enough time to blog. BUT I figured, since Bren and I are going out of town this weekend ( so I wont be blogging tomorrow either) I figured I could handle a small minute to blog before I get back to packing.
Yes... I just said packing! Bren and I got our final approval on our home loan last night! That means we close on Wednesday, and have to be out of our townhouse by Friday. A lot ahead of us? I think yes! We are so excited! But I cant blog for very long... because I should be packing right now.

Update with the little miss Kalia! She rolled over from her tummy to her back for the first time yesterday! YAY! My little girl is growing up so fast! Oh how I love that baby!
Here are some cute pictures just to satisfy you... (if there really is anyone that reads this blog :)

Kalia finally likes her bumbo.... for short periods of time

Some Beach

2011-02-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

Wait what is this? It's TUESDAY?? And the Blog is being updated? Unheard of!

Any who, I just felt a need to blog about my UNBEARABLE need for a tropical get away. AHHHH. Wouldn't it be nice just to get away for even a couple of days?

Doesn't that just look divine? I can almost hear the waves crashing and feel the sun shining! ...
Who am I kidding? Although today was one of the warmer days, I'm still stuck in a frozen tundra!

This is how I feel sometimes. Alas Summer is not too far off I guess.... right?

At least I have Bren and Kalia to keep me warm and cozy for the rest of the winter until then I will hum the words of Blake Shelton's Some Beach until I can get my wish.

Happy 3 months Kalia!!!

2011-01-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

Yep, you guessed it! Kalia turned 3 months old yesterday!!

(not that it was a hard thing to guess or anything... since that is what the post title is...)

3 months ago yesterday our beautiful little baby girl entered into this world and our lives couldn't be more blessed. She is such a sweet little girl and we love her so much!

Every day my sweet little princess gets bigger and bigger, its not just the growth that amazes me. Not only is she shooting up like a bean stalk, but she is also growing intelligently, and advancing in her motor skills as well. My little three month old can already completely hold her head up on her own, and has been able to do so for quite a while now. She will probably be sitting on her own pretty soon here too, her back is getting stronger and stronger. Bren likes to practice sitting up with her, she can support herself for a couple of seconds before she topples and of course daddy is there to catch her. She does well in her Bumbo, but she isn't the biggest fan of it, after a few minutes of sitting in her bumbo she gets mad and wants to be held. She can grab and hold onto things all on her own now (yes this includes mommies hair), her two favorites are her little TY monkie beanie baby and her blanket Oma (my mom) made for her.

Lets get back to her two FAVORITE things in the world (besides daddy and mommy of course)

1. Her blankie Oma made for her, its a cute fluffy and soft green blanket with white and brown polka dot trim my mom sewed on the edge (pictured below). She loves to grab onto it and snuggle it up to her face. It helps her go to sleep and is a constant companion in her car seat.

2. Her TY monkey Beanie Baby. She just discovered it this week (with daddy's help. She adores this monkey, she loves its long arms and lets that are easy to grab on to and swing around, but it is also fuzzy and soft and she loves to cuddle it close when she is getting ready to fall asleep.

Another thing little miss Kalia discovered this week is dancing. Oh how she loves to dance! She loves music and shaking her little bum. Its pretty fun to watch her and help her dance. I was listening to to What is Love (the cheesy 80's techno song) and she was bobbing her little head to the beat. VERY cute!!!

I cannot go ANYWHERE with her, without someone (or everyone) stopping me and telling be how beautiful she is. People are ALWAYS ooglign over her BIG blue eyes and long thick dark brown hair.

Now to the pictures!! Below is the most amazing, sweetest, cutest baby girl to have ever been born... (biased? Maybe, but then again maybe not ;)

Little Miss ready to go out.

MMM Paper! I ran to the bathroom for a quick moment, when I came out this is what i found. She had managed to grab one of dad's receipts and was munching away

Our little sleeping beauty, she LOVES her bouncer. Picture taken on her 3 month birthday <3 love that baby girl!

Blogging Goal

2011-01-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

Chantal here,
So I have decided that my New Years Resolution is to be a better blogger. I have been a TERRIBLE blogger, matter of fact, Bren has done over HALF of the blogging here. Yes yes I know my husband blogs more than I do. So here it is, my goal is to set aside Sunday as my blogging day, I don't want to be too over zealous so I will start out with once a week. Hopefully this doesn't over whelm me... does blogging over whelm? I guess we'll find out. So this is my pathetic post for today. Next week i will be a little more entertaining and post some pictures, but for today I will give a little updates.

Lets start with Kalia,
She is now 12 weeks old and getting bigger every day. She's all smiles and giggles and LOVES to play with Mommy and Daddy, mostly Daddy. She is getting SOO big! She already fits into most 6 month old clothing, they are a little loose on her but she still fits into them pretty well. She holds hear head up completely on her own now, my little baby is not so little any more!

As for Bren and I, well, we're pretty much adjusted to being parents by now, but every day still holds its little surprises. We LOVE our little girl and we LOVE being parents. It's so hard to remember life before our precious little princess. She is the most loving and happy little baby, we are truly blessed to have her in our lives.

Well thats all for today, next week will bring pictures.

2010-12-12T11:18:00.000-07:00

Shutterfly is the Best!!

Overall, the website is user-friendly and going through the photo uploading and registration process is quick and fast. They offer great customer service and the quality of digital prints is substantially better than the current competition. As far as the price is concerned, Shutterfly offers very good rates and the more copies that you order, the lesser the price per print will be. Shutterfly offers a huge variety of different types of picture genres. My favorite are the Christmas cards. They have a huge selection that you can find here. My other favorite is that they offer customizable calendars that can make great presents which you can find here. They also have great birthday cards that can be serious or very funny. You can find those here.

Whether you're a casual photographer or someone who just plain loves pictures, then Shutterfly is definitely the site for you. Just like what their tagline implies, you can utilize the site to print out and share pictures which tell great stories.

Anna Kalia McRae

2010-11-04T10:36:00.001-06:00

Welcome to the world
Anna Kalia McRae
Born : 10/29/10 at 8:08pm7lbs, 19inches

Bath Time!
We love this little girl and her cute facial expressions.

All Clean!
Of course with all that hair, daddy couldn't resist giving her a mohawk.

Our little Pacifier Junkie

An hour after being born she was introduced to her favorite thing in the world

2010-10-16T12:47:00.000-06:00

It's almost time to welcome our beautiful baby girl into this world! We haven't decided on an official name yet but have a few ideas. The doctors say she could get here any day! Of course they always say that but we can't help but hope she comes soon! Looks like we're going to actually have to keep up with our blog when she gets here! We will let you all know when the little darling finally decides to make her grand appearance!

2010-03-29T18:44:00.000-06:00

2010-03-29T18:41:00.000-06:00

Virgin Gorda
Virgin Gorda

2010-03-29T18:32:00.000-06:00

Swimming with turtles
Stingray

2010-03-29T18:25:00.000-06:00

Our adventure in the Mini Moke
Chantal Navigating

Sugar mills in Barbados

2010-03-29T18:18:00.000-06:00

Barbados
Payn'es Bay, Barbados
Antigua

2010-03-28T12:29:00.000-06:00

Trunk Bay
St. John
St. John

Saint John, Trunk Bay B.V.I.

2010-03-28T12:26:00.000-06:00

Our Cruise Ship

2010-03-28T12:22:00.000-06:00

2009-08-01T20:54:00.001-06:00

Our New Truck!

Happy Birthday Bren!!

2009-05-11T13:01:00.001-06:00

Saturday was Bren's 24th birthday! We went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner and we also went to the new X-men movie. We had a lot of fun! Bren got a bbq from his parents for his birthday but we had to return it because it was a lemon. Bren tried to put it together but the holes didn't match up and the grills were warped. We were truly sad!

The Big Move!... Again!

2009-03-23T22:49:00.000-06:00

We move into our new place on Wednesday! Yes... that's in 2 days! We have been packing all day today and will finish tomorrow, we also have to deep clean our apartment as much as we can. We have to be completely moved out by 5:00pm, Chantal doesn't get out of school until 5 and cant miss any of this week because it's cutting week and if she does she has to repeat core, so poor Bren is stuck doing the moving. But we are excited to be Kaylee and Scott's neighbors until they move!

The long awaited post!

2009-01-27T19:39:00.000-07:00

Ok Ok Ok. So it's been a while since we've posted.

We just recently moved from Orem Utah to Rexburg Idaho. You never quite realize how much stuff you have until you decide to move!

A few new updates, Bren is going to school at BYU-Idaho and is enjoying his classes. Chantal has decided to go to cosmetology school! She starts in March.

We had our 1 year anniversary! November 24th and we went to Disneyland to celebrate, we had lots of fun. And Chantal is a legal adult! She turned 21 on November 16th

Christmas and New Years were lots of fun aswell, we got to spend time with both of our families and Bren got to meet Chantal's crazy dutch family.... it was quite the experience. But Bren was a good sport and ate all of his food. Even the dutch version of Sour Krout.

Now for the pictures. Sorry we dont have that many. (we're working on it)

Chantal's 21's birthday. Dinner at Texas Roadhouse, They made her get on a saddle while they sang to her. She was pretty embarrased!

Bren and Chantal on the Rodger Rabbit Spinout ride at Disneyland. The ride broke half way through and we had to get off and walk out. Quite the experience.

Bren decided he wanted to take blame for the broken down ride.

Bren took Chantal to see his mission, this was one of the trailers he was lucky enough to live in.

Chantal's crazy van Yzeren family.

Bren and Chantal Chrismas 2008

Alpine Slide

2008-09-29T18:34:00.001-06:00

The ski lift up to the top of the alpine slide. It was possibly the slowest ski lift we have ever been on in our lives

Bren and Chantal just before their race down the alpine slide... Bren won.... by alot

The Hogle Zoo!

2008-09-24T20:31:00.000-06:00

This little guy came right up to the window to say hello

Yes it's real, and yes it's WHITE! At first we thought it was a robot, it really didnt look real. But then he surfaced and there you have it. The Ghost of the Bayou.

mmm branches!!!

This baby giraffe was so close to the fence that Chantal got to touch it! She was very excited!!

Very lazy tiger

+

Man in a tiger suit

=

Problem solved!

This tiger hated the guy in the suit every time he saw him he would freak out start growling and then he would chase him. It was very exciting for people to watch

2008-08-09T22:03:00.000-06:00

The Hike to Timpanogos Cave

2008-08-09T22:00:00.000-06:00

Entrance to the cave

2008-08-09T21:55:00.000-06:00

Chantal turned into a cooked lobster after the excruciating hike.

2008-08-09T21:54:00.000-06:00

Timpanogos Cave

2008-08-09T21:52:00.000-06:00

The mashed potatoes

2008-08-09T21:50:00.000-06:00

The Baker

2008-08-09T21:48:00.000-06:00

Some pretty cool rocks

2008-08-09T21:34:00.000-06:00

The Heart of Timpanogos Cave

2008-08-09T21:30:00.000-06:00

The end of the cave, Chantal excited to go to the ladies room.

2008-08-09T21:28:00.000-06:00

Waiting to go into Timpanogos Cave

2008-06-09T22:40:00.000-06:00

This guy was just walking down the road like he owned it. There was a whole heard of them. Bren was very entertained.

2008-06-09T22:22:00.000-06:00

For a second we really thought these guys were going to charge our car. They got so close Bren could have reached out and touched them! No harm was done to the car though. It's all good

The Bear!

2008-06-09T22:11:00.000-06:00

Ok.. So look closely... closer... closer! Ok do you see the little black dot in the middle? Bingo! That is a bear! Bren's one goal in going to Yellowstone was to see an actual bear.. One in the wild not behind bars. His wish was granted with this little guy, well at least from where we were looking he was little. Probably not so much up close!

Mammoth Hot Springs

2008-06-05T21:18:00.000-06:00

This is Mammoth Hot Springs, it is a geyser that grows with every eruption. It is very beautiful and massive.

We hiked all the way to the top. It took us longer than we would have hoped for because Chantal is more out of shape than we thought. She was exhausted when we made it to the top and we still had the hike down.

There were stay on the marked path signs everywhere, we looked the other way for this picture, but isn't it cute!

Buffalo Calf

2008-06-05T21:04:00.000-06:00

This is a mommy buffalo right off the boardwalk to a geyser basin near the Firehole River. You cant see the buffalo calf because it is hiding behind its mommy but look at that hunk right up in front!

Here is the cute little buffalo calf they were every where, wandering down the road and in the meadows. It was really cute!

Old Faithful

2008-06-05T20:50:00.000-06:00

What's a trip to Yellowstone with out visiting Old Faithful? This was Bren's first time ever going to Yellowstone National Park and we had to pay a visit to the most famous old geyser in the park. Most of the time you have a nice long wait for the geyser to go off, but we got lucky, not five minutes after we got there the geyser went off.

The Opal pool (Yellowstone)

2008-06-05T18:50:00.000-06:00

View from hotel (Turtle Bay)

2008-04-18T13:43:00.000-06:00

PCC Luau

2008-04-18T13:41:00.000-06:00

Pig

2008-04-18T13:39:00.000-06:00

Poly Dancers (PCC)

2008-04-18T13:37:00.000-06:00

Chantal Eating Poi (PCC)

2008-04-18T13:35:00.000-06:00

Poly Climbing Tree (PCC)

2008-04-18T13:33:00.000-06:00

Pearl Harbor!

2008-04-18T13:29:00.000-06:00

Gun Turret (Pear Harbor)

2008-04-18T13:27:00.000-06:00

Taking a nap in the Missouri

2008-04-18T13:24:00.000-06:00

USS Missouri

2008-04-18T13:20:00.000-06:00

Flight Museum (Pearl Harbor)

2008-04-18T13:17:00.000-06:00

Flight Tower (Pearl Harbor)

2008-04-18T12:51:00.000-06:00

Snorkeling Hanauma Bay

2008-04-18T12:47:00.000-06:00

Hanauma Bay

2008-04-18T12:43:00.000-06:00

Snorkeling Hanauma Bay

2008-04-18T12:36:00.000-06:00

2008-04-18T12:35:00.000-06:00

Laie Temple

2008-04-18T12:33:00.000-06:00

2008-04-13T16:14:00.000-06:00