Pow wows and Hannukah....

So, last weekend I was feeling a little sick and was taking it easy (o.k., basically in bed for a big chunk of the day). I had to finish prepping my lesson for church on Sunday, so I set out to start reading when all of a sudden I heard a drum thumping: "pum, pum, pum, pum...pum, pum, pum, pum" and then again and then voices chanting...and it continued the whole day long!! I neglected to mention we live right next to a park that has a site that is supposedly a natural spring that was inhabited by some of the first Californian Indians. Don't know how I've missed it in past years, but I guess they have this pow wow to celebrate the site once a year. A cool tradition and all, but not when you're right next door.

and....Today I was working with this group of kiddos with high functioning Autism, they are such cuties, totally bright, affectionate and with the funniest outlook on things. In this group, there's a mix of kids who celebrate Hannukah and Christmas. So, I was working with them on a little fine motor craft of a Christmas tree and one of the kids says to me as were finishing up: "Miss Kim, after I'm done being Jewish, I'm going to buy a Christmas tree".

Beantown!!!

This weekend I was able to go to Boston and visit some really great friends of mine, John and Diane. Some funny background on our friendship: we met a little over a year ago when my friend Tonnette and I were getting ready to board on a Scandinavian cruise. As we arrived in Amsterdam, we ended up meeting John and Diane in the shuttle bus to our hotel. They saw I had a travel book on Amsterdam, and mistakenly took this to mean that I knew the city, after getting lost an entire day together, we became close friends and on the cruise spent tons of time together. They are an amazing couple, are fairly newlyweds, have been married a little over 5 years and are in their early 60's. Just goes to show that friends can be made in the unlikeliest of places and that age is just a number. They were the most awesome hosts and showed me the best time in Boston. Diane is Italian and grew up right in Boston and knows all the inside details of the city. Wish I could include a quick little snippet of video b/c her accent alone would crack you up. She is constantly trying to find me a man in Boston and was so disappointed that she couldn't find someone for me in the 3 days I was there :) In short, I am now in love....with Boston!! I had been there once before forever ago and remembered bits and pieces, but it is such a cool place with so much history, beauty and fun.

Some of the places/things we did were:

Plymouth Plantation/Mayflower
Salem: House of Seven Gables, Birthplace of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Site of witch trials
Harvard Square/Cambridge
North End: Little Italy
Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall

Wedding bells are ringing.....

I'm a little belated in posting this but I had the best trip home in August! It's always so great to be home again with family and all the fun that includes. I swear it gets harder and harder to leave them each time I come back to L.A. Here are just a some of the fun things we did:

-road trip to St. George w/my Mom, Dad, Am and the Jones' to see Tarzan at
Tuacahn....one word "amazing", can't
recommend it highly enough
-hiked Donut Falls
-participated in the 2nd annual Pulley "homemade" triathalon...thanks for the fun
idea Ky and Am
-lots of fun walks w/the sisters and nieces and a beginning Yoga class w/Jen
that wasn't so beginner :)
-of course it wouldn't be a complete trip home without a little Great Harvest,
Apollo, Rocky Mtn. and Cafe Rio
-hit up a bagpipe concert w/Mom, Dad, Ky and Livvy at Brigham Park downtown

Oh and for the greatest news of all....Mindy and Mike got married Aug. 28th in the Mt. Timpanogas temple: such a great day! They looked so incredibly in love and just excited for their future, I'm so happy for them!! To make things even better Beck and Mitch flew in the morning of and surprised us all at the temple! Definitely a cool feeling to be with the whole family at the temple. And.... in more exciting news, Ky and Hales announced they are pregnant with their 3rd!! Of course, they announced it in the most creative, adorable way possible, that's just them, with a pseudo US weekly cover w/pics and all. I can't wait to see what their next little cutie will look like.

My A,B,C Summer....

Aruba, Brazil and Curacao....

I started vacation the end of June and had to be back to work the first part of July, but was really craving to go somewhere. On a whim, I was thinking I had always wanted to go to Brazil. As it turns out, our "adopted" sister Cema (our exchange student from Brazil who lived with our family for a year when I was 8 and forever became a part of our family :) lives in Natal (northeast coast of Brazil) with her husband Antonio and kids, Tais and Igor. Anyway, we hatched a plan that I would fly out to Natal and spend a week with them. I can't even begin to tell you what amazing hosts they were. It was so fun to have so much quality time with Cema and it was like no time at all had passed and it was so fun to get to know Antonio and the kids. We went everywhere, to a family reunion at their family farm, to several of the beautiful beaches, downtown Natal, etc...

Some of the trip highlights were:
-World Cup craziness...everyone (grandmas to babies had their jerseys and Brazilian flags out) I've never seen anything like it.
-Getting to see Brazil from a native's view
-The language...seriously I'm in love with Portuguese, it is such a beautiful language. I know I must've slaughtered it, but it was sure fun trying
-Spending time with Cema and her fam

After getting home from Brazil, it was back to work for the month. Summer school was in session for all of the special ed. kids and therefore lots of little kiddies who need therapy. We had a team of 4 OT's, plus 1 PT working together and it was great. We all pitched in with the planning, treatment, etc... and it really made it such a nice summer to be working w/such great friends. The highlight was on one of our last days we had 4 Occupational Therapists, 1 from Panama, 1 from Spain, 1 from Argentina and 1 from Chile come and shadow us to observe our therapy techniques here in the U.S. It was so fun to be able to share ideas and have them with us for the day.

Thanks to my cute sister Mindy, who is forever generous w/her travel perks, my friend and I decided to go to Aruba. The best surprise of all was after having been there for a day, having Mindy, Mike and my Dad fly in the next day, so we were able to spend the week together. They had all been to Aruba several times, but this was me and Misty's first trip. All I have to say is, "Hello, most beautiful turqoise, warm ocean, loved it!" We were able to go to church on Sunday and met the most amazingly nice people and so cool to hear all 4 of the island languages being spoken: English, Spanish, Dutch and Papamiento. We had so much fun just exploring around town, checking out the hotel's private island, etc... Then, we decided while we were there to fly over to Curacao. Curacao was really pretty too, very reminiscent of Amsterdam, but obviously w/brighter buildings and clear water. Our trip home was a little more event filled, enjoying a cozy night at a JFK motel after missing our standby flights, but having said that, who cares after spending a week in paradise and being able to be together to enjoy it! :)

World Cup=30 days of international eye candy :)

It's World Cup time!!! I'm so excited to see the display of athleticism, skill, teamwork, etc... and let's be honest, to see this:

Happy Belated Mother's Day.....

I know Mother’s Day is long past, but just wanted to share a tiny part of what I love about my mom!

She is the most upbeat person I’ve ever met and it is 100% sincere
My mom has a game for everything. Turkey bowling, check, open the chocolate with the gloves on, check, sack relay races, check, never a dull moment and I love it!

My mom’s telephone voice (family, you know what I’m talking about) the happy one and the down to business one

She would do absolutely anything/everything for her family

She loves to read and learn new things

My mom is so incredibly humble, her automatic thought is always to those around her

She always makes me feel loved and is my #1 fan

She makes me excited to be a mom in the way she talks about how much she loves it

I love my mom so much and feel so lucky that she’s mine!! Happy Mother’s Day mom!!

here comes the bride....

looks like weddings are in the air and me and amber are hoping the tradition carries right on this year :)

mind and mike are engaged!! congrats you guys! i'm so happy for you guys and it couldn't have happened to 2 more deserving people!!

amazing race lds style

last weekend we had one of the most fun singles activities i've been to, and that's saying a lot :) we all met up at the ballfield behind the temple in westwood and divided up into teams of 8 or 9. then after receiving our 1st clue, went on a little footrace around westwood to find different "stations" where we would have to complete challenges before receiving our next clue. some of these including: wearing pantyhose on top of the head weighed down w/tennis balls, trying to knock over water bottles, using a tennis racket to bounce a tiny marble into a center target, bouncing a cookie from the forehead into the mouth without dropping it on the floor, etc... after sweat pouring down and lots and lots of weird looks from passers by, i'm proud to say our team won!! not much of a prize, but still worth it :)

Jen and Ron's Wedding Weekend!

Here's a sampling of some of the fun we had at the wedding this weekend:

Fuerza Chile!!

So, Chile has been on my mind lately. I wish I could say if only for it being one of the higlighted stops on The Amazing Race (shout out to Puerto Varas, which was in my mission) :), but primarily for the terrible 8.8 earthquake that took place there Sat. morning. As many of you know, I served a mission for my Church in southern Chile and had the opportunity to live there for a year and a half. It will always be a special place to me, not just for the amazing scenery, but the amazing people who make it the country it is. Thank goodness, since Chile is an earthquake zone, they were prepared, yet I don't think anyone can be fully prepared for the severity of an earthquake like that. Even though, I haven't quite caught the Facebook/Twitter craze, it has made me grateful as a means to contact a lot of my friends and get updates. As far as I can tell, most of my friends are o.k., just shaken up. However, the daughter of one of the families I lived with who was working in Santiago hasn't been heard from and one of my good mission friend's brother in law is also missing, so please keep them in your prayers.

Christmas in February!

So, I realize this post is a wee bit delayed, but I figured better late than never. Just wanted to share all the details of Christmas break along w/some pics. After Am and I flew home, we woke up early the next morning (Christmas Eve) and flew home. We made it just in time for our family Christmas Eve dinner. Because of our large numbers, we've moved past the dining room to the cultural hall at the ward. It ended up being so fun because the kids had plenty of room to run around and play and everyone could squeeze into the kitchen to help out. We had a yummy dinner followed by fun games, our annual nativity play including a cameo by my dad as the donkey :) and the highlight of the night: a visit from Santa.

It was so fun being home!! I had such a great time spending time with friends, family and relaxing. Plus, such a bonus to be home for Chaser's farewell.

southeast asia or bust......

so, i'm a tad late in updating oh the last month or 2, but here goes....

my sister amber is in her 1st year of grad. school at the "U", getting her master's in education. needless to say, for the first time in forever, she had a nice long break over winter, which happily coincided w/mine and we decided to capitalize on it and take a little vacation. it's pretty funny how easily we came to the decision of where to go and both decided on thailand, vietnam and cambodia. here's a quick re-cap of our vacation. they were all such amazing, beautiful, cheap, fun places!! i would easily go back for more.

bangkok, thailand: 2 nts.
got dropped off at 2 a.m. in the wrong sketchy alley way where are hotel was supposed to be located, but no fret there were plenty of them to go around. we ended up walking around a bit and found our 1/4 of a star hotel (which they claim was 3 stars ha!). we could not stop laughing when we saw the 3 beds pushed together, shower w/no curtain over the toilet, etc... we ended up meeting an awesome family from montana w/1 son and joined up w/them to explore the city: touring the temples, visiting the largest reclining buddha, going on a river cruise, eating some of the yummy food and experiencing one of many massages (at $6/hr., "no massage" is not an option). overall, we both thought bangkok was nice and cool how oriented it was to the water, but another big city and probably our least favorite of the trip.

chiang mai, thailand: 2 nts.
hopped on a flight to chiang mai and got checked into our hotel. already such a huge improvement from our last hotel, it's not even funny. it does make me laugh looking back on our pics how we totally derived inspiration from our wardrobe from the "amazing race": hence the running pants w/t shirts and sweatshirts in multiple shots :) we went on an amazing tour that took us up into the jungles to see a unique tribe of thai people, on an elephant ride, a hike up a beautiful waterfall and lastly to go on a ride down the river on a long bamboo raft. it was a small, really fun group on our tour that day, a mom and her son from england and 2 couples from the netherlands, plus me and am. after getting back and getting the obligatory massage :), we hit up the night bazaar market. you would've thought we had just heard we no longer need to attend another single's activity, it was the happiest feeling ever being surrounded by such bargains :) my only regret now is not getting more. i only wish i had a video of amber offering the salespeople such ridiculously low prices that they would just look at us in disgust, but it did score me a $2 fake pair of ray bans.

siem reap, cambodia: 2 nts.
hands down this place was the highlight of our whole trip. everything about it was amazing: scenery, people, adventure. we took a tuk tuk (a little carriage hooked to a scooter) around the town to scope things out and to hit up shopping at the market at night. the next day we went on a quad tour: (an aussie couple started these 4 wheeler tours through the rice paddies and decided to take the earnings and open up an orphanage in the area). after going through the fields and passing through small little villages, we ended up at the orphanage. wow! such a lesson to me about the resilience of little kids. it broke my heart to see how little they had, but to see how proud they were of their school, their dorm area, the garden they were growing, etc... and such smart kids, they were learning japanese, english and cambodian. it really had an impact on us. here's their website if you want to check it out: http://cambodianorphanage.org/
after that we hopped on another tuk tuk to angkor wat: the largest religious monument in the world. in a word amazing! so extensive and so much detail, it's so neat to think of everything that's been preserved.

ho chi minh city, vietnam: 2 nts.
and welcome to the land of motor scooters. oh my gosh! such a shocker, they were everywhere, we had never seen anything like it. and it was kind of funny b/c everyone drives w/the face masks on and it's almost like those and their helmets are their way of expressing their fashion sense, there's every style under the sun. am and i were joking that now one of the biggest accomplishments in our lives is being able to cross the street in vietnam. people do not stop or even slow down. we would just link arms, say a prayer and try to find a group of natives to trail. it was like playing a game of human frogger :) we took a tour in vietnam of this beautiful temple about 1 1/2 hours outside the city then went to the cu chi tunnels, extensive tunnels used during the vietnam war. very cool, but very claustrophobic. we ended the day by hotel hopping: happening in to fancy hotels around the city to check out their amenities :)

highlights of the trip:
1) being together-it was such a bonus being able to travel w/amber, b/c we just get each other, we have similar tastes in things/activities and it was just so easy and fun.
2) all of the amazing people we met on this trip: our friends from montana, peruvian cousins, an aussie couple and their daughter, the 2 couples from the netherlands and our friend and her son from england. it is so fascinating to hear what draws people to places and just to hear their backgrounds.
3)surprisingly, i know, the food! i wouldn't say am and i are the most adventurous eaters, but oh my gosh, the food was sooo good! especially in vietnam and so incredibly cheap.
4)4 wheeling through the rice fields and seeing the orphanage in cambodia
5)walking around downtown ho chi minh, with the whole city decorated for christmas