I can't believe summer has come and gone!  I feel like I haven't even got going yet!  

The true sign that summer has come to an end is the annual luau, and this year was a good one!

I'm not sure why, but this year it just seemed easier. It's probably because Kelley worked so so hard getting all the wood that was all over the back yard put away weeks before the luau.  I think people were starting to get worried about him getting it done cause they were all over here offering to help him wrangle the boards to a different location.  He was just like "naw, I've got a plan, no worries "  When he say's he's going to get it done, I believe him.  He's never let me down.  It was pretty amazing to watch the piles of wood slowly disappear till there was no wood at all.  He had built this huge rack on the side of his garage and it held a ton!  He took  a couple of loads to the dump too. 

Anyway, he got the yard all cleaned up and looking good and that took a load off my mind.  We've had some bad luck with the flowers we planted in the beds this year.  We did shorter zinnias (the tall ones we did last year were so tall they tipped over!) by the wall and they just didn't grow.  About half of them shriveled up and died.  I think it's a curse from Candice's cat Elton that we buried there.  

The  marigolds we planted along the back of the house started out doing good, then they slowly started dying off too.  Kelley and I went to the nursery's trying to find some flowers to replace them but by this time, all of the bedding plants were gone.  I thought well maybe I'll just fertilize the heck out of them and see if that helps, but even the miracle grow didn't revive them.  So a few days before the luau, I pulled the zinnias up and Kelley bought some grass and we filled in the flower bed with it.  (Ha ha, I swear that ground is cursed though because everywhere else we put the grass it filled in nice and green...the spot over where Elton is buried just turned brown and died.)

I worked in the garden quite a bit pulling weeds and trimming dead stuff till it was looking pretty good.  All the pots were looking real nice.  I planted a lot of coleus and they really got big and pretty!

We were sending the sign up sheets around for about a month before the luau and people were great and willing to bring whatever we needed.

  

Kelley went back by the fire pit one day and found this nice surprise...That Rick is sure a peach.  He cleaned out all the lava rocks and that's a crappy job!  He is always there to help out and we appreciate him so much! 

 Power washing the whole back yard!

Kelley and I went Friday afternoon to get all the meat for the luau.  We went to the west valley costco and got all the pork, but they didn't have the chicken thighs.  We asked the butcher guy and he said they weren't carrying them anymore but the costco on 21st south had them so we drove over there and looked all over but they didn't have them either.  So we decided to go with the thigh and leg packages they had instead.  They turned out alright and weren't that different from just the thighs.

Friday night, Stacey, Rick, Dave, Steph and Jeff came over to help with the meat preparation. It's quite the process.  Stacey and I put the foil together to make big sheets to wrap the pork in, then the guys opened all the packages of pork, sliced the meat a little, then put liquid smoke and salt in each one, then wrapped them up twice in foil.  Then for the chicken, we open all the packages and put the meat in coolers with the teriyaki sauce and ice.

They usually don't put the tents up until Saturday morning, but they decided they might as well do it while they had a bunch of guys over to help friday night. Jay brought his nice big tent over too.

Connor had fun with the hose while mama was helping.

Rick makes sure all the lights are working nicely.  Kathy brought over all the table covers and decorations friday night.  She is so great to help out where ever we need her.  She had put together these table decorations the year before so we decided to use them again, along with some cute signs Kate had painted a few years ago. She cooked a big roaster oven of rice and I cooked one too so that helped out a lot.

Kelley and Rick were out there at the crack of dawn lighting up the fire in the pit.  The high priests brought over and set up tables and  chairs about 9.  It's pretty great the way everyone pitches in to help!

Stacey came over Saturday afternoon and we got all the table cloths on and the decorations going. When things get stressful, she is my rock and makes me feel like we can do anything! Forever grateful for her!

The Elders (and Gina!) came over about 4 and started cooking the chicken. I was glad it was a little cooler Saturday...it was actually perfect weather.

Dave came over and set up the speaker system and music.  The Hawaiian music gets everybody in the mood! 

Kathy came over about 5 and helped finish up the decorating.  She was a great help in organizing the food as it came and telling people where to put it.

We had a great turnout with several people I had never met before.  They said they got the flyer and just wanted to come!  I hope they had a good time! 

Toby and Michelle are just the best.  They offered their back yard for babysitting for the evening.  Toby worked so hard getting their back yard all ready for it...got a bounce house, projector movies on the wall, and redid their swingset, play house area.It worked out so good to have them right over the fence.  Just couldn't thank them enough! And our cute young women babysat, and that wasn't easy...there were a ton of kids! 

Ok this was an incident...Steve G. asked Kelley the day before if we needed a pop up to put over the food and Kelley was like sure...So while Kelley was back tending to the meat Saturday afternoon, this happened.  Rick about had a come apart, but Kelley wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing him freak out so he didn't say anything and just went and got his Utah flag to ward off the bad spirits.    It was actually really funny how many people commented about it.  I'm sure Steve is still chuckling about it.  

Everyone ate and visited the night away and I think a good time was had by all.  Then everyone pitches in to take everything down.  We didn't have much left over food...just a few vegetable trays and some meat and rice. We bagged it up and got it to a few people that could use it. 

This was one of my favorite luaus'...There was a good feeling there and we got to visit with some great people that we don't see very often and that's what it's really all about.