A crew of us gathered to celebrate Jon's 28th birthday (front, right). Back row are Amity, Danielle, Christye, Kevin and Brent. Front row are Ken, me, Amy and Jon. Hope I spelled everyone's names right!

Brady turned 7 on Mother's Day, May 8. Seems impossible that we've been together 6-1/2 years. Time sure flies. But he's as spry and youthful as ever!

I'm helping with a Voice of Prophecy Visionbuilders event in Rancho Mirage (Palm Springs), and we're staying at the Westin Mission Hills Resort & Spa. Swanky place. Gorgeous grounds. I was very impressed with the beds; lots of pillows, nice linens, etc. The mattresses are high quality and they have a sheet, a light down comforter, another sheet, and a heavy down comforter on top. It's a heavenly arrangement.

Home again

Well, we made it back home tonight after a five-hour flight with two of the world's worst-behaved children two rows back. I think there must've been three cumulative hours of shreiking, back-talking, shouting and crying. One was a toddler and the other was perhaps four years old. The mom did nothing except a soft "Ssshhhh..." and the dad just yelled back at the kids. It was heinous. I kept hoping the Supernanny was somewhere on the plane and would come to everyone's rescue. But, alas, no such luck. I wish I were in control of the organization that regulated human reproduction. There would be some serious limits.

We drove over to Kailua Monday evening to go by the Oahu Dive Center and to have supper with Wendi. We happened by this marsh, which wasn't terribly exciting, but neat nonetheless.

Here's a heron, hanging out at water's edge.

Ken and I met Wendi for supper the night before we left. The restaurant was next to the marsh.

Since Ken has a stuffy nose, we couldn't scuba yesterday as planned, so instead we hiked Diamond Head. Yes, I am SO white. Then we drove along the coast to Kailua for a BBQ at Wendi's. Got to meet her darling fiance, Chris, though I failed to take even one picture!

This is the view from the very top of Diamondhead looking straight down (south). Inviting, eh?

From the top of Diamondhead, we could see much of the island. This view is of Waikiki. We did most of our watersports in the area you see furthest inland in this picture. That's the main Waikiki Beach. The zoo is in the heavily treed area just this side of the big buildings.

Today was the annual Spam Jam in Waikiki. It's a celebration of Hawaii's special relationship with the infamous Hormel canned ham. Odd celebration of an odd meat product. But there was good live music and plenty to see, so we had fun!