Church History

WHERE: Missouri, Iowa, Illinois
WHEN: July 1999
WITH: Mom and Dad
WHY: Church history tour

MEMORIES:
-First trip alone with mom and dad (Diana was in Australia/New Zealand for the summer).
-IT WAS SO HOT.  The whole time.
-Steamboat Arabia museum - that was pretty cool.  A steamboat sunk in the Mississippi River and ended up being covered by mud, etc. as the river changed course; everything was perfectly preserved...the museum was full of all the goods that the steamboat was carrying: clothes, tools, food, toys, books, etc.-Various church sites including: Liberty Jail, Independence, Carthage Jail, Far West, Haun's Mill, Nauvoo, and others, I'm sure.
-Beginning of Oregon trail site(s)
-Went to an Amish community (communities).  I remember eating one of the best meals of my life at a restaurant there.  It was a chicken sandwich and the homemade bun was amazing.
-RLDS church visitor's center/temple
-Hallmark factory
-We went to an amusement park, Worlds of Fun, one day.
-Harry Truman home/library
-Kansas City Royals baseball game
-Hannibal, Missouri: Mark Twain's childhood home, watched a play, went into the caves.

At Steamboat Arabia

Dad and I went on this roller coaster, "The Mamba" countless times.  It was really tall, and really fast.

Mom likes the water rides.  I'm sure it felt good in that heat!

Tom Sawyer Fence

In the Mark Twain caves.  I just kept thinking of those scenes from the Jonathon Taylor Thomas movies and was scared that I would get lost in them.  The tour guide kept teasing me too, I did not like that.

Aloha, Family

WHERE: Maui & Oahu, Hawaii
WHEN: March 1999
WITH: Family (Mom, Dad, Lanson, Amy, Kim, Mark, Darin, and Diana)
WHY: Spring Break

MEMORIES:
-1st time (for most of us) to Hawaii!  Lots of memories, we had such a great time...so many photos.  Memories will be underneath.

Waiting to take off!

Please note: Kim and Mark went tanning beforehand "so they wouldn't burn."

First time in the water - it was so warm!  Top 10 favorite family memory.

Being in Hawaii is tiring.

First time I had ever snorkeled.  Saw some great fish, and a sea turtle!  Made me feel claustrophobic breathing out of that tube, though.

Went sailing on a catamaran.  The guide, me, Kim, and dad went.  We sailed really far out and it scared me.  Then it was super windy and we almost flipped over the boat trying to turn around.  I was terrified at that point and couldn't wait to get back on land.

Happy to be back on land.  It was somewhat traumatizing for me.

Left to Right: Kim, Mark, Diana, Dad, me, Lanson, Amy, Darin, Mom

Darin climbs a coconut tree.

Whale watching trip - we were the only ones who wanted to brave the rocky boat.

Off of the Road to Hana

This ended up being our Christmas picture that year.

Shave ice.

Banyan tree in Lahaina.

I went through a horse-back riding phase...mom would find horse-back riding for me as often as she could when we went on vacations.  What a nice mom :)

Luau at Polynesian Cultural Center

Laie Temple

We went to dinner at Hilda and Roy Taguchi's home.  My parents knew them from when they lived in Okinawa.

I remember during the blessing on the food, Roy was so sweet and said, "we're grateful for this food prepared by the golden hands of Hilda Taguchi."  What a sweet man!