Happy Fathers Day! (x 3)

We celebrated Father's Day three times this year. Once the week before with my father-in-law (sorry, Dad, no pics.)

Then on the Wednesday before with Barry, since the kids and I were going to be gone on the actual day.

And then on Father's Day in Utah with my Dad.

Barry and my dad modeling the ties we gave them. They have a picture of the kids all over them.



I am grateful for such great fathers and priesthood holders in my life! You guys are the best!

Kindergarten Graduation

The momentous occasion! I have to announce that Kira graduated first in her kindergarten class. What that really means is that they randomly pulled her diploma out of the basket first and we had to scramble to get our camera ready. But it sounds good, right? :-)

She has enjoyed Faith North and learned lots this year!
Kira's teacher, Miss Megan, and her friend her friend, Bella.



Kira and Halle!

Our baby is A...

- Get Your Own

HAWAII DIARY- Coming Home

At the airport, we first had to send all of our stuff through agricultural inspections, then we were able to check in. This time they asked if I was pregnant, and since I am, would not allow me to sit in an emergency exit aisle. The lady was pretty strict aout it, but took compassion on Barry’s long legs and gave us a seat in the front row of the plane. Our bags were both a little over the weight limit, so we were glad to have the duffle to toss a few more things in. We then proceeded through security where they didn’t like Barry’s ziploc bags full of sand (geologist!). I thought it was because they couldn’t tell what they were, but really it was because it was so dense that they couldn’t see the rest of the things through it.

We had a bit of time and needed food so opted for the sit-down restaurant for our last meal in Hawaii. Food was pretty good, but we started to get nervous when it took a while to come. When we got to the gate, they were actually pre-boarding. We had just enough time to go to the restrooms and then it was time to get on board. We gate-checked Jared’s guitar (hoping it would get less dinged up that way) and settled in for the long flight.

I had the window seat again, because it really helps calm my nerves. We had a full moon which looked beautiful over the ocean. As we flew I could see some of the other islands of Hawaii. I now know we flew right by the island of Molokai (not a lot of lights), near Maui (some pretty happening places on that island) and in the distance could see the big Island. I love this stuff! After we got further out in the ocean, I tried to sleep. I know I dozed a lot, but I also woke a lot, too. I don’t think I could have slept more than 2 hours total. When we flew over California, there was thick cloud cover below, but I could still see the glow of lights beneath the clouds. It was just getting light as we got in to Phoenix. I think we were a little early this time, too. I called my Dad when the plane touched down and had him come to get us.
(Trenton loves his ukulele)


When we got back to the house, I found both children wide awake and already playing games, even though it wasn’t much after 6:00 am. My mom fixed us a nice breakfast (I needed that!) and then they started loading up to go. As excited as the kids were to see us, I think they were much more sad about their Papa and Lita leaving. We gave my parents some edible gifts from Hawaii, and then they were off, just a few minutes before the carpool came to get Kira to take her to school. She was still bawling about her Papa and Lita as she drove to school.

Barry and I took turns napping (he did go into work for a little bit) and trying to recover little by little that day. We are so glad we took advantage of this opportunity to go and see and do things we might never have experienced otherwise! Now back to the adventures of Parenthood!

HAWAII DIARY--May 30--Pt.II--The Black Pearl

After Pearl Harbor, Barry agreed to come with me to consider the pearl necklace, and decided that I should have some nice memento from Hawaii. Jared doesn’t like Waikiki, so he went to a parking lot to read his book and wait for us. The place I had been at the night before in the International Market Place was called Maui Divers Jewelry. There was another store just across the street of the same name, so I thought it would be good to stop in there and see if they had any more options for settings. We were greeted by a saleswoman named Cinderella (it was on her name tag). They did not do the oyster thing in that store, but she quickly ushered us over to the Tahitian Pearl jewelry. It was lovely, large, and expensive. She told us that these particular pearls with the greenish grey huge matched every outfit and looked lovely with my eyes (she may have been right about this) :-). There was one pearl necklace that was not too big and was set beautifully that was a little tempting, but it was 3 or 4 times more expensive than we felt we could go. We told her we needed to look around, but she promised to set it aside for us anyway. We went across the street to the place I had been the night before. The girl I had worked with wasn’t there, but the guy that came to help us, must have been feeling a little more generous, because he was willing to throw in some discounts that she hadn’t. I had liked the least expensive of the white gold settings the night before, but I wasn’t sure I was sold on it. When he told me that the setting was the Maile leaf which is used in Hawaiian wedding leis and other important events—it symbolizes love and honor—I was convinced that this was a good choice, financially and sentimentally. I told him that I wanted a black pearl. He wasn’t sure we would find one in any of the oysters he had available, but I wanted the oyster picking experience anyway. We chose an oyster and found not one, but two pink pearls inside. The pink pearls were pretty, but more gold toned than I liked. He went looking for a black pearl in their reserves and we decided to see if we could buy the pink pearls to save for Kira for when she gets her ears pierced in a few years. He threw them in for free (I think they make all their money on the gold). So I got my black pearl necklace on the maile leaf, and we have some special pearls for Kira for a special occasion. I agonized about this purchase, but am glad that we made the memory and have the jewelry.

(The end result)

Jared met us and took us to the nearest Wal-mart to get the last souvenirs/food stuffs we wanted to take back. We also purchased another duffle bag to carry on, since we were pretty loaded at this point (we had a suitcase half full of Jared and Suzy’s stuff since they are moving back soon, as well as all of our stuff).

Then it was to the airport where we said ALOHA to Jared and thanked him for a great week!

HAWAII DIARY--May 30--Pt. I--Pearl Harbor

Final Day!

This is the one day I really didn’t feel well for most of the day (headache, etc.) Maybe it had something to do with knowing I had to get on a plane for a long flight that night.

Barry and I spent our final morning eating an acai bowl on the beach. And stopped in the surfing shop by Jared & Suzy’s place. We finally bought me a sarong. It took longer than it should have to pack up all the new purchases and get everything ready for our flight.

We finally headed south to Pearl Harbor. We got there around lunch time and fortunately they had a snack bar where we were able to get some food to sustain us while we waited for our turn. We enjoyed looking around the museum, but especially the movie that gave us the history of the day of the attack. We took the boat out to the U.S.S. Arizona. It is a pretty somber place. It was difficult to see much of the ship below the water. The most surprising thing was the amount of oil that was leaking from the ship. At first, we only saw some small trickles, but then quite a bit suddenly came out. It was sad to see a few fish swimming right near the oil. It is hard to comprehend the magnitude of life lost that day. These kind of experiences make me feel grateful for those who are willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice for our defense, but they also leave me feeling pretty dissatisfied about human nature, that there are always those who want to fight and are willing to wreak atrocities upon others for their own purposes.

HAWAII DIARY--May 29--My Day!

I took Suzy to work by 7:00 am, so I could have access to her car. It worked great, except when I got back to her place, and tried to park, I realized I didn’t know how to get this version of a stick shift into reverse. I tried calling Suzy and the boys, but no one answered. Finally when I was trying to get to the temple I had the inspiration (or just common sense I should have had earlier) to consult the car’s manual. After that, driving was not a problem.

Between taking Suzy to work and going to the temple, I had a pretty relaxing morning (one thing I hadn’t done enough of yet). I posted a few things on the blog, did up the few dishes in the sink, and rested, until the Shark’s Cove Grill opened up for breakfast. I got my breakfast to go and took it to the beach. I relaxed there and caught up my journal until I knew I needed to get back and get ready to make it to the temple on time.

I was going for the 11:00 session. There wouldn’t be another until 12:00. The issue with reverse and the fact that I parked far away from the door of the temple had me worried that I wouldn’t make it in time. But even the temple seemed to function with a less stressful Hawaiian attitude about time, and I made the session with no problem. The temple is beautiful, but smaller than I expected. Our session was quite small, but probably not out of the ordinary. After the session, I enjoyed walking around the grounds and taking pictures. I also stopped in the visitor’s center for a minute to see if they had much that was different than what we have in Mesa.

I picked up Suzy, who was glad to have a good excuse to leave work a little early. We grabbed some lunch, then headed into Haliewa for a little more shopping. We went back to the surf store where I bought a short sleeved hoodie for me. I finally got the postcards mailed to the kids that I had purchased several days before. And Suzy was very patient with me while I agonized over other small purchases like jewelry I wanted to get for Kira or my mom or myself.

Before long, we had to head to the South side of the Island where Suzy had her last class. She dropped me off in Waikiki, to shop to my heart’s content. I also realized time was getting short to get some of the souvenirs I wanted before heading home. I went in and out of several shops (do you know how many ABC stores there are along that drive?) toward the International Market Place (from the Zoo parking where Suzy dropped me off).

(look at the size of this shirt on display at the market place!)

I was a little overwhelmed when I got to the Market place. I found some food there (important) and then started to tackle stores one at a time. I found one store where prices were pretty good, so I went ahead and picked up the Ukuleles I had been wanting to get for the kids. I also got Trenton a shirt/shorts outfit with surfboards, and a Hawaiian dress for Kira. They had some inexpensive shell jewelry with carved sea turtles that I got for her as well. A little later, I found a store where I got swimwear for both of them. I had also picked up a book of paper dolls for Kira and a coloring book for Trenton in a store in Haliewa earlier that day, so I decided I needed to stop buying stuff for them, and consider what I really wanted to take home. Kristin had come back with a gorgeous black pearl necklace from Hawaii just a month or so before and I wanted one too. We found out that they had gotten to pick the oyster and open it to get their pearl. All week we had seen people offering this experience, but they all seemed a bit pushy so we had avoided it. I finally called Kristin to find out exactly where she had gone. I went there and researched prices on settings and chains, and decided that this was something I was going to have to discuss with Barry. If he agreed, we would come back on our way to the airport.
Suzy was done soon after. She was willing to party more, or do whatever I wanted, but my body needed rest, so we headed back to the house.

I thought I would be totally asleep before the boys got home, but they made good time on their flight back, and I was trying to research the price of white gold chains on the internet, so they made it back and then we all went to sleep.

HAWAII DIARY--May 29--Barry's Big Island Adventure!

May 29

BIG ISLAND TRIP!
Unless Barry wants to get on here and type up his experiences I will have to give the very abbreviated version of his day, since I wasn’t around for any of it. Between the elevation and the dangerous vapors coming out of the volcanoes, we decided that most of the activities that he and Jared wanted to participate in on the Big Island of Hawaii, were things that a pregnant woman, could not, or should not do. Jared had taken my in-laws there in April and the whole time they were all thinking of Barry and his love of things geological. It was proposed that the boys make a day trip to the island to show Barry the highlights. He had a great day!
They first went to Volcanoes National Park where Kilewea is currently erupting. The things they saw there include:
Steam vents
Calderas
Great rift
Lava tubes
Lava flows that have blocked traffic completely

The other big adventure was to the top of Mauna Kea, which is (at least arguably) the world’s tallest mountain. It is not the highest in elevation but since the base of the mountain sits far below sea level, the total height is believed to be the greatest. The elevation up there is about 13,800 ft. above sea level. You can drive nearly to the top, but all visitors are advised to stop at the Visitors Center at 9000 ft. above sea level for at least an hour to try and adjust to the elevation (pregnant women are advised to go no further). When they made it to the top, they took a short hike to the highest point where the benchmark of the mountain lies. Barry loved this! You can see in the pictures that there are several observatories up here and that this point is high above the clouds. Barry thought it was crazy that you could see clouds and planes passing below, but that you could also see the ocean, right there.

They got back to Oahu late that night and tired, but very excited about the experiences of the day.

HAWAII DIARY--May 28

MEMORIAL DAY!

We got up pretty early so that we would reach our destination at low tide. Our first adventure was an expedition to Goat Island. We actually walked through the ocean’s rocky floor to reach the island that isn’t too far off shore. It is supposed to be a bird preserve, but we only saw a couple of birds on the island. The fascinating thing about Goat Island were the tide pools. There were hundreds of small tide pools filled with coral on one side of the island. We enjoyed looking in each and trying to find interesting creatures and shells. We found lots of sea cucumbers (that is what I am holding in the picture I posted while in Hawaii) and collected lots of shells and pieces of coral.

We walked around to the beach side of the island. The boys went out to try spear fishing. Suzy and I tried to snorkel, but the visibility was poor so we headed back to the beach. Barry did manage to spear the state fish of Hawaii. (If you can’t remember the Hawaiian name, it is also referred to as a triggerfish.) This thing was tough. It didn’t want to die. Sadly, Barry later determined that he had damaged it too badly in the struggle to be able to cook it up for us. Jared didn’t mind.


The tide was higher for the walk back to shore. We got tossed around a bit in the rocks. We came back to the house, took care of the fish/shells, and changed (dried off).

We stopped at Ted’s Bakery for lunch and their famous chocolate/Haupai (coconut) pies. We took our food to a beach. This is the area where some of “Lost” and the most recent version of “The Bachelor” were filmed. Right off the beach is a dense forested area where The “Turtle Bay Resort” brings people on horseback rides. We walked out to an old military bunker on the beach, and through the forest to the most enormous banyan tree/trees? I’ve ever seen.

The boys wanted to surf again, but the waves just weren't there. One fun thing came of our excursion to search for waves. As we drove by one of the beaches, Jared could see that there was a turtle on the beach. We walked down to see it. There was a conservation group that had placed a rope in the sand around the turtle to make sure none of us tourists got too close. The turtle on the beach hardly moved, but there were two big ones in the shore thinking about coming up on the sand. We got some good pictures before we were asked to back away and give them some space.

When we got back to the house the boys wanted to rest, but I was still dissatisfied with my snorkeling experiences, so far and was hoping to improve my luck, so Suzy and I went to Shark’s Cove. The surrounding rocks are very jagged and it was difficult to get fins on and get in the water. As soon as I put my face in the water I realized there were fish everywhere. It is a protected reef area so there were fish of all shapes and sizes. We swam out pretty far and had to fight a strong current to get back. The only problem was that I kept getting water in my tube, somehow, which was pretty frustrating, but all in all, this was pretty good snorkeling. At one point I swam into the middle of two HUGE schools of fish. They were everywhere! I guess it wasn’t quite as breathtaking as my experiences in the Galapagos Island, but I don’t expect anything ever will be.

We got some laundry going, then headed into Haliewa for dinner by way of Jared & Suzy’s favorite surfing store (Surf & Sea?) that was having a sale. We went to their favorite place for Thai food. The food was very good, but I think they made my curry medium instead of mild like I asked and I couldn't eat it all in my wimpy pregnant state.

The boys got ready for their trip to the big island while I fell asleep. I have been so tired each night by bedtime!