Hawaii Cruise - even more pictures

This is our head waiter, Laurentiu, from Romania. Kind of looks like a criminal in this picture, though

This is while we were docked in Ensenada, Mexico

Hawaii Cruise - more pictures

This is our cruise ship - The Saphire Princess

Janice in ocean on the beach in Nawiliwili

Beach at Nawiliwili

Whale watching. This whale was at the back of the boat and is just about to slap his fin into the water. I was about 10 feet from his tail.

Hawaii Cruise

Finally, after several years, we have done something that is interesting. Janice and I went on a 14 day cruise to Hawaii. What a great time. We went with Jean and Don Ethridge, Tori and Paul Cambell and Tori's mother and stepfather, Ann and Stan Prescott. We travelled a total of 5,144 nautical miles, or 9,527 Kilometers, or 5,919 land miles. We left from Los Angeles and visited Hilo, Honolulu, Nawiliwili, and Lahaina.

At Hilo, we took a sea kayak excursion, at Honolulu, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, at Nawilili, we hung out on a beach, and at Lahaina, Janice went snorkeling, and I went whale watching.

We headed back to sea and went to Ensenada, Mexico and then finished in Los Angeles.

We took several hundred pictures, but I am going to spare you and only upload a few;

This is a view from the bow as we headed to sea. Below is our stateroom. It was small but very nice. We didn't spend a lot of time in it.

Bryan Hough Family Picture, July 2010

I thought that I would give you a preview of your Christmas present! With Greg's help and Photoshop, this turned out where everyone was looking at the camera.

Charlie Hough Reunion

We held a reunion for all the descendents of Charlie and Margaret Hough, my grandfather and grandmother on July 17-19th, 2009 at the Magrath Stake Campground in Magrath, Alberta, Canada. We really had never gotten together as the whole Hough family before. The reunion was enjoyed by all and thanks to all those who organized it.

A picture was taken of all my cousins, probably the first picture ever taken of all of us together (at least I have never seen one). A picture was also taken of all my cousins and my Dad, Art Hough, who is the only remaining child still alive of my grandparents.

I am not sure who is going to organize all the picture taken, but could those of you who took those two pictures of the cousins and the cousins with my father, please email me copies?

Thanks.

Gavin's Blessing

This is Aidan's new favorite toy that he found at his Grandma Mitchell's home. He loves to push it around, not necessarily sit in it, although we got him to do that for a minute. His hair is starting to return after Chris gave him a haircut a month ago.

Chris and Falene with Gavin at the Mitchell's after the blessing

Falene with a very tired Gavin. Blessings are hard work for a baby!

The whole family, although it was a fight to get Aidan to sit still for a second to take the picture.

Grandma and Grandpa Hough with Aidan and Gavin.

Here are some pictures of our deep sea fishing trip on the Gulf of Mexico. We didn't catch anything, but we had fun. There wasn't very many fish caught by anyone. The most excitement we had was when someone caught the barracuda (3rd fish from right). It was 4-5 feet long and had very big and sharp teeth. The deckhands were very careful around it. The red snapper looked really good to eat.

Texas Trip

It has been a couple of months since I updated this blog. Much has happened. I am now almost 9 weeks from my hip replacement surgery and am doing very well.

Last week, Janice and I took a road trip to Beeville, Texas to visit our new Grandson, Gavin Mitchell Hough (Chris and Falenes new son). We first stopped in Casa Grande and stayed with Jean and Don overnight. Janice hadn't seen Jean and Kari's new homes. We had a really nice visit with everyone and then left on Sunday for Texas.

We had a pretty uneventful trip to San Antonio. We did pass by these rather unusual rock formations just east of Tuscan. Sharon had mentioned them to me, but no one else seemed to know what they were.

We made it to San Antonio about 12 hours after we left Casa Grande. We stopped for gas and dinner and then headed back to the freeway. Just before we got to the freeway, our car died in the middle of the street and Janice had to push us into a MacDonalds parking lot. After trying several things, Chris came up and jump started the car and it seemed to be working again. We drove down to Beeville and everything seemed to be working. I went to Wal-Mart the next morning to pick some stuff up and when I got in the car afterward, it died again. I got a new battery and hoped that it would be fine. Janice and I went to San Antonio on Wednesday to see the Alamo and the Riverwalk. After doing that, we started back to Beeville and 20 miles south of San Antonio, the car died again. Fortunately, we were able to glide into a picnic area and get under some shade. We had it towed 75 miles to Beeville where a garage changed the alternator and the car has worked ever since.

Here are some pictures of our trip to San Antonio and the Riverwalk and the Alamo.

Hip Surgery Done

I had total hip replacement surgery on my left hip last Friday, April 24, 2009. It hasn't been too bad with pain pills, etc.

Just before I went into the operating room, the anestheseoligist explained the two types of anesthesia that I could get. One was the general anesthesia where they put you out and have to put a tube down your throat to breathe. The second was a spinal where they gave you a shot in the spinal cord and you were numb from your waist down for 12 hours. I had read up on both of them and had decided that I would do the spinal. However, in his explanation, he mentioned that I might wake up during the operation and hear doctors talking and other loud noises. It made me hesitate when I heard that, but I went ahead with the spinal.

So at some time during the operation, I remember hearing the sound of a saw, a drill, and a hammer. I remember saying to myself that the anestheseoligist had been right, you really could hear those sounds and it didn't hurt! I was more amazed than concerned. I must have fallen right back to sleep.

Anyway, I thought that I would update the blog and let everyone know that I am still here.

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since I posted anything. Janice has wanted me to post something (anything!) just to get the witch pictures off the main blog. We have enjoyed visting everyone's blog, even though we don't comment too much.

Nothing too much has happened since Halloween. We had family over for Thanksgiving and had quite a houseful. It was fun to get together with everyone.

We did spend some time at Christmas with Greg and Melinda and the grandkids. It sure is fun being around little kids at Christmas and see how excited they get. We made a special babysitting trip to Boise one weekend so Greg and Melinda could have a date and go to a special Stake Meeting with Elder Holland. We had alot of fun with the kids and even learned how to take care of Miles and administer his insulin.

We are teaching the 10 turning 11 years children in the Primary. Janice says that this is the first time she had taught Primary where the kids were old enough to read. We enjoy this calling and the kids are a little challenging, but it is fun. They seemed to like us and Janice always has something interesting for them to do. One day she showed them how a print press laid out the pages when printing the Book of Mormon. They were pretty fascinated by that so the next week we had them try it themselves.

As I am sure you know, Janice is my best friend. However, I have found a couple of very good new friends. (see picture). I have been limping around for about a year now and found out a couple of weeks ago that my left hip was bone on bone and I needed a hip replacement. Unfortunately, my right hip is not much better and will probably have to be replaced in the near future. As long as I was limping for that year, not too many people paid much attention, but as soon as I started using a cane and then crutches, people have paid a lot more attention. I guess props do make a difference.

For a long time, I refused to use a cane until I had seen the doctor. I didn't want to find out from the Doctor that there was nothing wrong and be embarrassed that I had been using a cane. Once I found out how bad it was, the cane and the crutches helped a lot.

My surgery is scheduled on Friday, April 24th. I don't know exactly when, but it should be in the morning. I am actually looking forward to it as it will relieve the awful pain.

I can't think of much else to say. I hope everything is going well with everyone.