Hawaii...Day 2

The four of us started our day at a "welcome" breakfast (actually, it was continental style -- you know, fruit, bagels, doughnuts, juice, etc.) and the usual sales pitch for events on the island (in and around Kailea/Kona). We had so many things to choose from that it was hard to make a choice! Input from everybody helped.

For the first day, we selected a Parasailing adventure for Billy and Anna, with Dean and I observing from the boat. It was an exciting "ride!" Billy and Anna rode tandem with this huge parachute-like contraption. Whoosh! And they were airborne! I couldn't see the looks on their faces, but from our vantage point, it looked pretty exciting. The driver of the boat got them up some 400 feet and we were moving at a pretty fast clip. At some point, they asked Dean and I if we would like to go up! My immediate reply was, "No, thank you!" It looked like fun from our vantage point, but I did not want to be the one up in that thing! This was one of those things that you only do maybe once in a lifetime, and Billy and Anna said that they really liked the "high!" For a girl who is afraid of heights, she seemed to be enjoying herself.

After that amazing adventure, we walked into town to a Scandanavian Shave Ice store to treat ourselves to a wonderful taste-treat. We saw some people outside of the shop with huge shave ice's and told the girl at the counter that we really didn't want the biggest one -- maybe the middle sized one. We each got one to share and even the middle sized one was huge! But, I must say, yummy!After cooling off for awhile, we enjoyed a liezurely walk back to where we parked the car. Now, you have to understand that parking is a premium in this little village, and so finding a parking place is a miracle in itself. It seems that there are a lot of really skinny athletes in town training for the upcoming IronMan Triathlon event scheduled for the weekend of October 10th and 11th. Dean's comment was that he had never seen so many skinny people in one place for a very long time! There were bicyclists, swimmers and runners everywhere and each and every one was trim and fit. The run would be a 26+ miler, the swim would be 2+ miles, and the bicycle event would be 100 miles! Amazing. Back at our Condo, we decided it was pretty hot, so we went for a nice swim. The pool was wonderful and clean and we had it all to ourselves. I spent a little time in the jacuzi, too for my aching back and knee.

The nice part about staying in a time share, is that when you can, you can eat there. There is a really nice kitchen, and Billy made a wonderful salad for us to enjoy. We didn't want to eat too much, because our adventure to an authentic Hawaiian Luau was about to happen.


We chose the Luau at the Royal Kona Resort. We opted to walk and get the exercise before a hearty meal! I bought Anna a lei at the local country market and we both wore our lei's to the Luau. (I guess I forgot to mention, that Dean had arranged for a lei greeting at the airport when we arrived in Kona. It was a gorgeous purple orchid one! I loved it, while it lasted!)


We were not disappointed in the food or the entertainment at the Royal Kona. Of course, the big treat of the evening was to watch them pull out the roasted pig from the huge pit where it had been cooking all day. This is so much fun! We all piled our plates high, and even tried the poi! Actually, I quite like it with pork and fish. Not the greatest taste -- sort of bland -- by itself! Billy and Anna seemed to be having a great time.


We watched a beautiful sunset, even cought a glimpse of a rainbow to the east, and I learned something new about sunsets. If you watch closely, under certain conditions, there is a green flare, just as the sun disappears "into the sea." I got to see it! I tried to catch it on camera, but what I was seeing, was not what came out in the picture. Oh, well!

All in all, our second day in Hawaii was all that it could be. We all went to bed tired and reflective of a perfect day spent on an island paradise!

Seven Glorious Days in Hawaii...

DAY ONE...

Dean and I spent the night at his cousin's house in Gresham, so we could get up early to take the Max Train to the airport for our 8 a.m. flight to Hawaii. We always have a nice stay with Lorraine. She is 80+ years old and a wonderful hostess. She always welcomes us at her "Motel Miller!"

We arrived at the airport on time, settled ourselves into our seats and got ready for our 5 hour flight across a very big "pond!" In-flight, we watched the movie, "Night At The Museum II: The Smithsonian." It was a really funny movie and helped pass the time on this very long flight. They served us a nice lunch and we rested the rest of the time. We arrived in Honolulu about 10 a.m. (gaining 3 hours in the flight west) and waited for about an hour and a half to connect to our flight to Kona.

We arrived in Kona about 1 p.m., rented a "big" car. I kept trying to tell Dean that we didn't need an upgrade to a bigger car, because there were only two of us and if the trunk wasn't big enough, the rest of our luggage would fit in the back seat. He kept saying he wanted a car with power to climb the long drive up to the volcano. MEN! OK, so we got the bigger car!

We drove straight to Kona, following the directions to our World Mark Time Share close to the beach. We only got lost once, having to turn around and make the "right" turn onto Polani Drive. (For the life of me, I will never keep these Hawaiian names straight!) We checked in and parked and started packing our luggage up to the third floor to room 313. Dean opened the door and said something about, "I wonder if they got my flower delivery OK" -- he always gets me flowers! -- and as we were walking down the hall, I could see not only some lovely Oriental Lillies in a beautiful orange hue, but a Chocolate/Peanut Butter Birthday Cake, as well. I started to say, "Oh, Dean," but got interupted by a big "Surprise!" There standing in the middle of the room was my son, Billy! And then, Anna jumped up from the corner and also said, "Surprise!" I just stood there in unbelief and started to cry! I said, "You're going to give this mother a heart attack with all of these surprises!" What a wonderful birthday! What a wonderful gift to have my son here with me in Hawaii. (I've been trying to get him here for years!)




Now, I understood the REAL reason for the upgrade of the car. There would now be 4 of us being tourists on the Big Island! After coming down from my fog of disbelief, we decided we needed to go get some groceries for this place and then to out for dinner. There is a very nice Safeway store not far from where we were staying, so we did our shopping there. On the way there, I noticed the spire of the Temple to our right with the Angel Moroni on top and said, "Oh, Dean, look how close we are to the Temple! We do need to go there and get pictures while we are here!"

And so, the end of a perfect day came in the beautiful little village of Kona/Kailua. We watched our first sunset over our western shore. It is beautiful here. Nothing like I remember the Big Island that I visited with Gerry way back in 1971, before I was pregnant with Heather! Much has changed since then.

Twenty-Four Hours...

This is the photo that greeted me on my cell phone on Saturday morning, with the caption, "Happy Birthday, Mom". I had worked the night before, and was sleeping, when Billy came into my room, sat down on my bed next to me and said "good morning, Mom. How much longer do you want to sleep?" I told him maybe another hour, and he left the room. In only a few more minutes, he came back in my room and handed me my cell phone and said I got a call. I tried to focus on the screen to see who it was from (no glasses when you are sleeping) and pressed the right button for the message and a picture popped up. I had to ask Billy who was in the picture? He said it was my kids! I thought, "how sweet, for my birthday!" I still didn't "get it" I didn't see (without my glasses) that ALL of those kids (minus Mark) were standing in front of my very own house!

So, with a sheepish look on his face, Billy took my hand and said I had to get up and so I did and I followed him to the front door, which he opened, and there were all of my daughters right there in my very own front yard! I immediately started crying and hugging and I was at a loss for words! It was all so surreal. And, not only the girls, but little Hailey and Parker and Rich and Brian, too! What an amazing Birthday present. Please, if I am dreaming, don't let me wake up!

Once I got control of my emotions and we settled down to reality -- it wasn't a dream, we started making plans for "my day!" First we drove to the beach house that Brian and everyone were renting on the beach and walked down, oh I don't know, maybe 250 steps (it looked like it!) to the beach.

Just about everybody took a turn at trying to fly Billy's kite in the brisk wind and we took lots and lots of pictures. (The bulk of the pictures will come to me later from Debi and Heather.)

After the beach, we all went to the "60's Cafe" for some really good milk shakes and a lot of good company. We had time to kill before Dean got off work and would join us for my Birthday Dinner at the Inn at Spanish Head. (More pictures that I am going to have to post later.) I don't know about anybody else, but my dinner was supperb. I had a cocoanut and Macadamia nut encrusted Halibut with Asparagus and Baked Potato that was out of this world. I think everybody enjoyed their own selections as well.

After dinner, we convened at our house and looked at picture books -- I had to show all of my girls their special pages in my scrapbooks. And the scrapbooks that I started for each one of them -- that are all a "work in progress".

All in all Saturday was a nearly perfect day. I loved just about every minute of it and am still pinching myself to see if it really was true.

This morning, Debi, Kim, JerriAnne and Billy went to Sacrament Meeting with me and then we all went to breakfast at Sambo's.

All too soon, the 24 hours were spent and I found myself, through tears, saying good-bye to all of my kids. Every time we go our separate ways, there is a hole in my heart the size of the Grand Canyon and it will be days before it starts to come together again. Like my son, Mark, I hate "good-byes". But, no matter how hard we try to avoid them, they come to us in many shapes and under many conditions. I will miss these beautiful faces and their wonderful laughs, but the memory of these past 24 hours will live on in my memory for the rest of my life.

Thank you, children for this amazing gift.

Moving on Down the Road...

It has been a couple of months since I last wrote about my journey of moves. I will attempt to pick up where I left off. I believe I was in St. George!

St. George brought many blessings my way. It also brought many trials. But, the Lord tests us in a miriad of ways and never more than we can handle. Sometimes I wonder about that "handle" part, but I know it is true. And if we endure it well, the strength we gain in the process somehow makes it all worthwhile.

I found in the first few years in St. George that some days I was lacking either strength or wisdom or growth and wondered if I was ever going to get through another day. But, always a blessing would follow the storm-and looking back, I can honestly say, it was worth the trial.

One of the great accomplishments I made while living in St. George was to tackle going back to school. The opportunity came to a large group of nurses at the hospital to sign up for a distance learning program through Weber State University to earn a BSN degree in 2 years. Something inside of me told me to "go for it!" I know Gerry would be so proud of me. And so I did. It was a grueling 2 years that actually lengthened out into 3, because of the pre-requesites I had to finish plus some missing credits added to the mix.

I worked full time, went to school full time and was still a full time single mom. Needless to say, it was a difficult 2 years. I graduated in June of 1992 and decided to move to California with my daughter Debi and her 2 children. We shared an apartment in Vista in North San Diego County. I secured a job at Tri-City Hospital, which served the Vista/Oceanside/Carlsbad communities. I was hired as an Assistant Unit Manager in the Telemetry Unit. Now, there was an interesting growth promoting experience! I found out in just one (1) year that I was NOT cut out for middle management. Make me the boss or keep me in the trenches, but don't put me in the middle again. You feel like a rubberband, being stretched from both ends.

In the summer of 1993, I started searching for another job. There was a hiring freeze on in most of the hospitals, so it wasn't an easy task. Debi moved back to Utah, Heather and Brandon were on the verge of splitting up, and so I headed to Laguna Niguel to see what they had to offer. I moved into a nice apartment complex in Laguna Niguel, and began an earnest search for a job. I was unemployed for 2 months! I finally got a job at the Mission Viejo Hospital in their Telemetry unit.


By now, I was deep in debt and behind on my payments and too proud to ask for help. I was really having a difficult time making ends meet. About the same time, my mom's health wasn't doing very well, so a decision was made to move back to St. George. So, by November, I was once again on the road to start yet another leg of my journey through this thing called life. I haven't regretted moving to California; it gave me some wonderful experiences and great times with my kids. The beaches in Carlsbad were gorgeous and my long walks watching the sunset will be missed, but sometimes, we just have to move on and do what we have to do with our lives.

My mom was so grateful to have me back in her home, helping to take care of her and her needs. The hospital in St. George welcomed me back, too, so it was like "coming home!" I had no idea what the Lord had in store for me through all of these experiences and yet another move, but one thing for sure, He wasn't finished with me yet!

More to come.....

Update on the Henderson Clan...

There are 4 living sisters left in the Henderson Clan. Actually, there are six, if we include the two sisters-in-law (Valoy Henderson and Florene "Lori" Henderson-Mickelson), and we do count them, too. I recently received a really nice update letter from Betty, who lives in Indio, California and keeps me up to date with a lot of the news, when she can. I am going to quote from her most recent letter, as follows:

"Dear Florene and family: I am sorry it took me so long to answer your letter. So many things have happened. I was going to Idaho in July but Ruth called and said Joyce was in the hospital in Idaho Falls and she was in lots of pain. The doctor took lots of tests and said she had last stages of Pancreatic Cancer. Within a few days she was gone. Enclosed is a copy of her obit. I got there the day after she passed. **(I will enclose the copy of the obit in an email -- can't seem to get it to go in here!)

"We went to visit Mabel (who turned 95 in July) and she was more lucid than she had been in five years. She knew us and she talked some.

"Ruth and I did Raspberry jam, apricot jam, and I helped her catch up on her sewing and ironing. Ruth's eyes are pretty bad and Loyd is (in) the early stages of Alzheimer's and his bowels and kidneys are giving him trouble. So Ruth has her hands full. He is not at the point of going into a home yet."

She went on to tell all about her girls and what they are up to and the lives of her grandchildren. And then she wrote, "I turned 89 years in February and I cannot do everything I used to do, but I am still living alone and doing the best I can. Doris is having some problems. She will turn 90 the 2nd of January."

It does my heart good to hear from my "first" family. They are all so precious to me and I love hearing from them while I can. They are all getting on in years -- Ruth is the youngest now and Mabel is the oldest. They are all octogenerians PLUS! Oh, how I would love to go visit them all just one more time before any more leave us.

The Henderson Clan is a wonderful family to belong to and I am so grateful for all that they have given me throughout the years in the way they live their lives.

Mabel (Henderson) Kellogg, Age 95

...EIGHT YEARS!

I often go back to that day in history when time stood still for America and most of the rest of the world. I am told it's foolish to remember that awful day, it only brings sadness; but I say, "That may be true, but it is more foolish to forget."

I was just a toddler when Pearl Harbor was bombed by a dispicable enemy, but my folks never forgot that day! I was a young mother of 3 on that November day in 1963 when J.F. Kennedy was shot by a cowardly gunman for no apparent reason, but I remember holding my 1 1/2 year old baby close and rocking her in our living room with my eyes glued to the TV in Salt Lake City. I was pregnant with number 4, and tears streamed down my cheeks.

And I remember the morning of September 11, 2001as if it were yesterday. It was my habit to get up at 5:30 a.m. every morning and read my scriptures while I waited for Eliot to get ready for school so I could drive him to the bus stop. We always had a few minutes in the car waiting for the bus and I had the radio on. I heard something about "a plane crashed into the World Trade Center" and thought, how awful. But that was all! When I got home, I went back to bed, but not for long. The phone rang and one of my daughters (I think it was either Heather or Kim) called to tell me to turn on the TV. What I saw was horrifying! And it is those images that will never leave me.

No, America, I will never forget and I think it would be disrespectful to all of those who gave their lives that day and in the rescue attempts that followed. For them, I will continue to remember.

We have many events in history that deserve our consideration in memory. It is for all those who have given their lives for the cause of freedom throughout history, that presses me forward in my own little fights for freedom. Some say we should end this mindless war -- well, aren't all wars mindless? But wars are the culmination of an ongoing battle between right and wrong that began long before the human family ever peopled this earth. As long as I have some fight left in me, I will continue to stand up for the right and those who would choose righteous living.

May God continue to bless that part of America that still holds tightly to the thread that holds our amazing Constitution together. We are not done yet, my friends; the war between good and evil will not be over until Christ deems it so -- and He is training a very courageous army even as we take the time to watch and pray.

On This Day In History...

On this day, exactly 95 years ago, a great man came into this world in the form of the number two son of John Alvin and Ida Jones Davenport. My amazing dad was born on this day in 1914. Oh, how I wish I could see him today. It boggles my mind that he would have been 95 years old.

I shall forever treasure the memories of him and all that he taught me -- by example, by precept, by hard lessons learned. He truly is my "hero!" And I shall forever treasure being under his wing. Daddy, you truly are "The Wind Beneath My Wings!" And I miss you as much today as I did 20 years ago.