First full day in paradise

As I woke up this morning I could not believe that I was waking up in Hawaii.  What a dream!  Before we could even change out of our pajamas, Joey suggested we walked to the beach.  In less than 5 minutes we were on a beautiful private beach.  This was one of the perks of staying in a condo on the Turtle Bay resort.  It was so beautiful and I could not wait to spend every day of our vacation here.  We went home and got Luke and Gray, changed into our swimsuits and we were back at the beach.  We brought some snorkel gear and there were some big fish that the kids saw.  The beach was more like a cove so there were not many waves.  This was so nice for the kids just getting use to being at the beach.  After a few hours at the beach, we went home for lunch.  We showered and got ready to go explore a little more of the island.  We were to Matsumoto's shaved ice and it totally lived up to it's hype.  We all enjoyed shaved ice over vanilla ice cream.  Then we drove to see the Hawaiian Temple.  It was so beautiful and all of the missionaries were so kind.  We then drove to see BYU Hawaii.  I still cannot believe we are here.  We grabbed some dinner on the way home.  We were all exhausted so we went to bed early.  Tomorrow we are planning on going to Pearl Harbor.  When we planned this vacation, Pearl Harbor was one place that they all wanted to go so it should be a great experience.

On our way...

First of all I cannot believe that this is really happening.  It has been a year in the making.  Most of our vacation time is spent in St. George since that is where our home is.  I really wanted to take a trip before Luke's senior year.  I started a savings account over a year ago to save for this vacation and here we are!  Today was a long day of traveling but the kids were champs!  We flew out of Salt Lake at 8:30 am to Los Angeles where we had a 4 hour layover.  Joey, Luke, and Har were super lucky to be upgraded to Comfort Plus.  I was in the cheap seats with Nash, Gray, and Tag. Everyone did great.  After lunch and hanging out in the L.A Airport, we were on our way to Hawaii.  It was a little rough with six hours in cramped seats for my tall family but we did it!  They were all so excited to arrive.  We got our luggage, upgraded to a sweet suburban, and then went to Costco.  We grabbed some cheap dinner and some food to get us through the week.  The AirBNB we are staying in is on the North Shore in Turtle Bay.  It was a bit of a drive but so worth it.  The condo is really nice complete with air conditioning.  By the time we arrived it was around 8pm Hawaii time which is midnight for us.  We were all exhausted.  Cannot wait to explore and see Hawaii in the daylight.  Such an amazing experience!

Summer Sleep Over

It was a long time coming!  The boys wanted Kai to have a sleep over but it was difficult to find a time that worked for everyone.  Finally it worked out for a Monday night.  Kai came over after lunch and the fun began.  They decided that they would stay up all night.  Gray was the first to fall asleep around 1:30am.  For his punishment the boys continued their tradition of drawing on the face of the first to sleep.  So funny!  Nash made it until about 4:00 am and Kai fell asleep around 6 am.  Regardless of the lack of sleep, they were all up and ready to go around 8 am.  I love this friendship they have.  Such cute boys.

Beehive Meet

Our amazing fish qualified again for the Beehive meet.  So proud of them.  They both qualified in the 50 free.  For some reason they signed Gray up for multiple races.  So Gray started with the 50 Back.  He had never swam this event before in long course and did great.  His time was 45:41 and got first place.  The next event Nash and Gray actually swam in the same heat for the 50 free.  They both did so great.  Nash got a PR for long course with 35:23 which he also got 1st place.  Gray had his googles slip but even with that he got 3rd place at 37:90.  Gray's last even was the 50 Fly.  I love watching the boys swim this stroke.  It is so hard to do but so beautiful to watch.  They both did an amazing job!  I love watching them swim.

It's growing!

Several months ago we started a garden and I was hopeful but nervous.  Harlee and I have learned so much thanks to the help of Mindi.  At first we thought we just needed to water the plant itself but Mindi taught us to water all of the soil.  She also mentioned that we should buy miracle grow and feed the plants every 7-14 days.  These tips have really helped and I actually ate two very yummy cherry tomatoes that we grew.  It is so fulfilling.  The cucumbers are not doing so well but at least some of the plants are growing.  I cannot wait until I can eat more of the vegetables.  Next year- at least two more garden boxes and Gray wants us to try fruit.

Loving the changes

 It has been a few months in the making but we are almost done!  We got rid of the big entertainment center which meant we needed to do the tile where there was still carpet under the entertainment center.  We also had to repair the wall and paint.  Mindi was so nice to help us with that.  We then bought a couple of chairs and an amazing bookshelf.  Harlee and I did some shopping and decorated the bookshelf.  Joey suggested that we put my books on the shelf.  I was a little apprehensive but I really love it.  We hung the family up on the wall.  Mindi taught Har and I how to do shiplap. We worked together and did shiplap on both of the half walls.  I also sanded and repainted the top shelf of the walls.  We cleaned everything off and bought some cutes plants to have on the shelves.  Joey has been painting the fireplace and it is almost done.  I seriously love all of the changes.  It feels so bright, open and current.  I am so grateful for our beautiful home.  I am also so grateful that over the 20 years of being married to Joey I have come to love change.  These changes really make me happy.

Nash's Deacon Camp

On Wednesday Nash left to go to Deacon's camp.  He was so excited.  I was not as excited as he would be gone until Saturday afternoon.  We sure did miss him but he had such a great time.  The first night there they tie dyed shirts and did the low ropes course.  The rest of camp they had devotionals, gross food, swam, played games and hiked.  Nash's favorite activity was the high ropes course.  I am so glad that he gets to go and have these experiences.  Such a fun time.

Monday in our favorite place

This morning was perfect!  We had scheduled the boat and tube from 9-12pm.  We really could not have picked a better time to go.  We were one of maybe 4 boats on the lake.  The weather was perfectly overcast and the water temperature was perfect.  We spent the first hour and a half on the tube.  It was so fun to watch all of the kids. The smiles on the face were pure joy.  I may have screamed a bit when it was my turn.  It was the funnest! The second half of our boat rental we tried kneeboarding.  I was so impressed with how well all of the kids did.  We used the trainer board but most of the kids were able to pull the rope out and hold on.  It was so much fun.  Mindi was able to show us up with her tricks.  It was great to watch. We stopped at In and Out on our way home for some lunch.  When we got back Joey and Luke left to go home.  They both needed to be at work on Tuesday.  We decided to stay until Tuesday just to have a little more time.  We got the kids some dinner and then Mindi, Har, and I went to Don Pedros for dinner.  It was so yummy.  After we went to Dutchman's for some cookies.  It was a great night.  We plan on getting up to clean and hope to take off before lunch tomorrow.