Maui

My last trip this year - barring anything unexpected coming up - was to Maui. And yes, this was for work. And no, I don't need (or at least can't talk my boss into) anyone to carry my bags for me. If that changes, let me know if you want me to add your name to the list. :-)

At any rate, as I always say ... if you have to work, Maui ain't a bad place to do it. It turned out that the place we were going to stay was full, so they put us up in some adjacent condos. Let's just say that this place was MUCH bigger than my house. I very much wished that I had someone along with me for the trip. Both of the girls and their families could have stayed and we would not have been crowded. Oh well. :-(

The island is beautiful, of course, but I was surprised at how dry it was in certain places. We visited different venues that we thought might work for the group, one of which is a helicopter tour. What fun! The tour we took went up over Haleakala (the volcano) and then down the green side of the island.

Another tour we're considering is a submarine ride leaving from the town of Lahaina. You go down about 135 feet, and the fish just come swimming up to the sub (I guess there's good stuff on it for them to eat).

Kaiya Jane Turns 2

Our own little reincarnation of that lovely Disney beauty, Cinderella (also known as Kaiya Jane), turned two years old on Sept. 8. (I know I'm a little late in getting to this, but I'm having camera issues :-( )

Mom made her a Cinderella cake, and the great cupcakes in the background (gee, Steph, I just thought of another business you could do at home ...).

LOCKED AWAY PHOTOS

Sueno Beach - Antalya, Turkey

Grand Resort - Limmosal, Cyprus
Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Jerusalem)
Tel Aviv

Well, I've been meaning to update the blog with some recent stuff, but I've lost the cord to download photos from my camera, so I haven't done it. In the meantime, I've been to Israel, Cyprus and Turkey, and I'm sure had a few family things in there as well. So, I'll get caught up a little better later, but for now here are some "canned" photos of where I've been.

Happy Birthday Steph!

Tomorrow (Sunday) is my baby girl's 30th birthday ... she may be handling it pretty well, but I'm not so sure I am! Steph brought a sweet and wise spirit when she came to us, and helped me to learn and grow in ways I am still amazed by. There is never a day that I'm not so grateful for her presence, and so proud of the person she's become. And she is truly an AWESOME mom ... better than I ever hoped to be. I love ya, baby. Happy Birthday!

Start Spreading the News ...

I'm in the awesome and completely crazy city that could only be New York. Today a guy was walking along in front of us as normal as could be, and all of the sudden he laid down on the sidewalk, smiling into the sky. He stayed like that for maybe a minute, and then hopped up and walked away.

We're staying at the Waldorf Astoria, where "Brangelina" stays when they're in town. Also, all the Presidents have stayed here. Our hotel contact (a Utah girl, if you can believe that) said that mostly they get ample notice of these stays, but that Clinton was pretty notorious for just showing up. As you may know, they have to clear both the floor above and the floor below when the President stays anywhere, and the hotel is almost always fully booked, so you can imagine the chaos that caused.

Switzerland

I recently returned from an event (business) in Lucerne, Switzerland. Kristen and Sterling were able to go with me on this trip, which was great.

Switzerland is a beautiful country. Very clean, though a bit expensive. We arrived on Friday, rented a car and drove to the hotel, which overlooks Lake Lucerne. Kris was falling asleep on the way to the hotel, but she kept saying, "I don't want to miss anything." It's pure Heidi. Lush green hillsides rolling into green mountains (unlike the brown mountains of Utah), chalets (now I know why they call them "Swiss chalets"), a million lakes. And Lucerne is a beautiful (small) city. We didn't know it, but it happened to be the Swiss "independance day" so we watched fireworks over lake for hours that night.

The next day 180 people (from 17 countries!) arrived, so that was a busy and long day. On Monday night, we went to the top of one of the nearby mountains to a place called Stanserhorn. There is a revolving restaurant at the top - actually, the very center of it revolves, but not the outer part. After dinner, we had fireworks all around the 360 degree view. It was pretty spectacular.

On Tuesday, we went to a monastary/town called Einseindeln. Here's the group from the Ukraine.

The group had free time on Wednesday and Thursday, but I was busy getting things ready for the Gala night on Thursday. Kris and Sterling went to Munich on Wednesday. On Friday, the group went to Berne

And to Interlaken. Everyone felt that there wasn't enough time in either location, so I guess I should have picked one or the other.

We ended the event with a dinner cruise around Lake Lucerne. The next morning, I was up at 4:00 a.m. to see people off, so that was another long day. Kris and Sterling managed to make it into Milan, Italy for a day trip, although they did caught in a pretty big traffic jam. They said everyone just got out of their vehicles and started visiting and smoking.

I have to say that I enjoyed the event this time more than usual. This is a group where I know many of them from prior years, and it's always (or mostly) good to see them again. And I loved Switzerland! The only thing was ... I came home to an empty house. While I was gone, Steph & Mickel found a cute place in Sugarhouse and moved out. It's without a doubt good for them - to have their own place and for Mickel to be so much closer to work. But while it's good to get peace and order back, it doesn't quite make up for mornings with Kaiya. Or to be on hand for Teague's "firsts."

A "Free" Day

Well, today's about as free as my time gets during the TAC convention. Kristen and Sterling have gone to Munich, Germany for the day, and I'm just working on stuff for the Gala dinner tomorrow night and enjoying the view from my balcony. That's Lake Lucerne (or "Luzern") out there - I think there's a million lakes in this country!