50th Reunion: End of June 2122

To celebrate our 50th anniversary, our kids put together a wonderful low-key reunion in Santa Clara, Utah. It was perfect: no agenda, just visiting, food, family slides, swimming, and a celebratory dinner.

Ollie's farewell via Zoom

Group Dinner: buttermilk pie

Breakfast with the cousins

An overnight visit on their way to Santa Clara

View from our VRBO

KBT, ATH, ETE, MTY, PDT, KTC, and DAT

Their hair got up before they did

Pippy's delicious breakfast

Eldest and youngest: Madeline Alta and Arthur

Plenty of pool time

Evelyn Alta, Harry David, and Grammy with mini Legos

EAC and Pop Pop

Dinner is served

Anna's fabulous family slide show

Huge hit

Leather chairs and my hair don't mix

Shades of Harry Potter

JRE and KBT: BFFs

Clearly, it's the middle of the night in Hawaii

Puzzling

Pizza for the third generation

Fancy food for the first and second generations

Katy, Anna, Gavin, and Maren

Emily, Jayson, Kris, Dickie, Phillip, and Daniel

Katy avoiding being in the last shot

The Rose of Romance and the complementary dessert

Saint George's finest

Harry failed his COVID test

Ready to head home

The bathroom remodel is about a half an inch from completion

Everyone has arrived for the summer so there will be more, but this is all for now.

OXO

D.

June 2022: Sunday and Monday in Hawaii

Sunday the kids had church, so we had a slow morning. We slept in and went for brunch at the Cream Pot, the very quaint, very un-Hawaiian restaurant in the hotel. That afternoon, the kids took us to the National Cemetery in the Punchbowl Crater, followed by a ride up into the moutains to the Nu‘uanu Pali Lookout. We dropped down onto the windward side of the island for a visit to the Hawaii State Veterans' Cemetery where Meagan placed leis on graves of some of her family members. Back in the Manoa Valley, Phillip made a delicious chicken dinner for the family.

Meagan picked us up Monday morning at the hotel and took us out past Diamond Head to see the rocky ocean cliffs. We also visited the Punahou campus and stopped at the little Manoa shopping center to visit Starbucks and Phillip's bakery to try his pastries. We returned to pack and that evening we enjoyed a delicious Chinese nosh with the family at the Golden Duck. The finale was delicious malasadas from Leonard's Bakery. They are soooo good.

Waiting for a table at Cream Pot

The Hawaiian state flower

Exquisite orchids hanging from the pergola over our table

Brunch

This beautiful little gecko joined us

View back to Honolulu from the Punchbowl War Memorial

A beautiful bit of memorial architecture

The chapel

The mountain top at the Pali overlook

The view of wonderful mountain remnants of an ancient volcano

Kaneohe on the windward side of O'ahu

A few Taylors (Meg was still sleeping after her all-nighter)

Windy? Very!

The man can cook

Grammy helping Meagan with an alteration

Sunday dinner in Manoa Valley

Monday sunrise on the Ala Wai Canal

Halona Beach Cove

So, for some reason this Starbucks is a favorite spot for Japanese

tourists to take selfies -- we just buy their collectable mugs

Pastries at Fendu Boulangerie where Philly makes pastries

Look! Our cliché we-are-in-Hawaii selfie

That's our window up there 24 floors

The Golden Duck (Ollie was on Moloka'i)

Leonards for malasadas 

Tuesday morning early, Phillip dropped us the airport and we flew home via PHX. This was a wonderful trip thanks to Meagan and Phillip and their incredible planning and hosting. But that's all the fun for the time being.

OXO

D.