Hawaii: Part 2--a day of hikes

We had each kid help plan a day of this trip.  This was partially done to help my relieve my stress level, but ultimately it ended up being a great way to make sure we got a variety of types of activities.  If one day's activities and food didn't suit your tastes, then you got to make your day exactly the way you wanted it!   It honestly was brilliant and I wished I'd thought of it before earlier trips.   It took a lot of the pressure off me trying to plan things to make everyone happy and I loved that the kids were good sports and never complained if something wasn't their favorite.   We are definitely doing this again for future trips!  

 Day #2 was planned by Cami and Garrett...and I hear Lucie may have helped a little too.  It included a sunrise hike, that involved getting up well before the crack of dawn, so we figured we may as well make this our first full day in Hawaii while our bodies were still confused about what time it is.   Spending sunrise and sunset on the beach was pretty awesome!  See below for Day #2's fun:   

TUESDAY, MAY 24

• Rolled out of bed at 4:30am.  Hawaii is 4 hours behind Utah time, so it wasn't as hard as it could have been.  However, we'd awakened at 3:00am the previous morning to catch our flight to Hawaii, so we were pretty exhausted! 

• Drove to Turtle Bay Hilton and hiked to Kahuku Point  (about 1-1/2 miles or so)

• Watched the sunrise
  
  
  
  
  
  

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•  After the sun rose, we just enjoyed being on an empty beach together, even if it was filled with sharp rocks that made nervous. 
  
  
  
  
  
• A few of the kiddos discovered some tide pools and started finding all sorts of great little critters.   Adam was totally in his happy place at those tide pools! 

• After thoroughly enjoying our first taste of a Hawaiian beach all together, we headed back to house to grab some breakfast

• Drove to Diamond Head State Park -- the hike wasn't that exciting, but there were lots of stairs and spectacular views overlooking Honolulu and the Pacific Ocean at the top.

• Eat lunch at Koko’s Northshore (great pork)  and shopped for souvenirs

• Hike to Manoa Falls (1.6 miles RT, rocky trail, sometimes muddy, elevation gain, but not too bad)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Dave’s Ice Cream at Rainbow Country—we had read good reviews for this place, but were a little surprised and disappointed to find it located inside of a convenience market (hence all the liquor signs behind us). 😂 The ice cream was a little above average, but nothing special.  
  
  

• After those adventures, we headed back to the house for a bit,  packed up our dinner and had a picnic at Waimea Bay Beach Park.  We just chilled there at the beach, watched the sun set, and then watched as someone brazenly was breaking into someone's car right in front of us.  (We called the cops, but didn't confront him).  For the record, Lucie likes Hawaii!  

• After a long day of 3 hikes and watching the sun rise and set, we were happy to head back to the house for showers and a gummy worm taste test planned by Cami and Ellie
  
  
• Thanks for planning an awesome day, Garrett, Cami, and Lucie! 

Our 50th State: Hawaii (Part 1)

I grew up in a family with a bit of wanderlust.   My dad, in particular,  really wanted us kids to see more of the world than  what was right around us.  We did zigzagging roadtrips across the country and when I was 14 he made a trip to Europe happen for our family.   During my childhood, I was able to visit 48 states and several countries.  State #49 (Hawaii) happened when I was in college and state #50 (Alaska) finally happened in 2017 ( more on that trip below).   

I'm  not as much a wanderer as some of my siblings who have been to well over 50 countries (and in my brother Nate's case, more like 80), but I definitely inherited the desire to explore new places.   We did a lot of the same kinds of zigzagging road trips across the country with our family over the years and once the kids were a little older have taken them to see more of  the world as well!   

One day several years ago, I decided to tally up the states and countries we had visited together.  I created a spreadsheet and still update it every time we visit a new place.  That was when we figured out how close we were to visiting 50 states together in our family.   That was also when we planned our spring break trip to the Deep South to knock off a few states for Glen and the kids and Alaska a couple months after that.  That trip to Alaska got Glen, Spencer,  and I to 50 states. 

But Hawaii remained elusive.  

We had gone to Alaska while Cami was on her mission (something she's a little sad about), so we decided to try and visit Hawaii with everyone.   The difficulty with that requirement meant that we were  working around Emma's and Adam's missions, Garrett's medical school schedule, Cami's nursing school schedule, Adam's BYU schedule, Ellie's high school schedule, and Glen's work demands.  Oh, and let's not forget that there was a worldwide pandemic thrown in there too.   

Finally....after a lot of back and forth on the dates that would work for everyone....we made it happen!   Now everyone but Cami, Garrett, and Lucie have been to all 50 states!    

I am still very much in recovery mode from traveling, so I don't have it in me to blog poetically, but I also really want to make sure this all gets written down while it's still fresh, so these posts will be simple recaps of each day we were in Hawaii--with lots of  photos, of course.   😀

 

MONDAY, MAY 23

• Left home around 3:30am--SLC- LV - SD - HNL -- For the record, San Diego airport is terrible and you have to leave security just to transfer to another gate.   That meant disposing of all our liquids again and waiting in longish security lines between flights.  We weren't impressed.
  
  
• What I read on the plane:   "Cured:   The Life-Changing Science of Spontaneous Healing" by Jeffrey Rediger, MD.   It's a fascinating book looking at some of the weaknesses of modern medicine's focus on treating symptoms and disease, rather than on prevention and healing. Highly recommend!   
  
  
• Arrived to Honolulu around 12:00pm, got our luggage, rented cars, drove to get lunch (Off the Hook Poke and a nearby ramen place for the anti-raw fish among us)

• Lyon Arboretum —short walk enjoying the beautiful and unique trees and flowers

• Walmart for groceries.  We tried really hard not to choke over the high prices of everything in Hawaii...even in Walmart!  

• Checked into Airbnb...this was the view off our back porch

• Chill night with some people playing pickle ball, a few who went to beach, we all played a family game

• Did a taste test of Hawaiian sour gummies with li hang mui powder, gummies were okay, do not recommend the powder  (planned by Emma)

• Went to bed early and very exhausted! 

Life Update (April 2022)

For years this blog was my place to post cute pictures and tell the world about the adorable or obnoxious things my kids were up to.  Now my baby is 17-years-old (as of a couple months ago) and kiddie antics have been replaced by teen angst and our mid-life woes. In other words, nothing very exciting, unless you're a therapist trolling for clients. 😂  That's okay though. As I mentioned in my last post though....my family loves this blog.   So here I am again, posting an old-fashioned and super boring life update that absolutely no one (including my own mother) will care one iota about.    

Glen--  Glen has recently passed the year mark of working at HS1 and, happily, he still enjoys his job.  It's one of the better functioning companies he's ever worked for and that makes the stress seem that much more manageable.   His mom has been in failing health recently, so we took a quick trip to Denver for Spring Break to visit and to lend a little help.      It's hard watching our parents get older! 

   

Lara--  Speaking of aging parents, mine have both had falls in the last month or two.  My mom tripped over an uneven part of the sidewalk and broke her pelvis.  My Dad got displaced from his recliner and walker by Mom's acute injury and, being out of place and off-balance, he fell and hit his head on the coffee table. Several staples later and both of my parents are quite hobbled currently.  On another note,  I am still very much in the throes of a mid-life identity crisis, where I've been for the last few years.  I feel like, at my age,  I *should* be working or doing something more productive in the world, but I also really feel like I need to be home for Ellie right now.   Now that she's in school part-time, I really need a creative hobby or a work-at-home job, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what that looks like. I keep hoping I'll find the "next thing" and get excited about it, but right now that passion seems elusive to me.  I really like to do things with design, but then I remember that I'm self-taught and really not that great at it, so I can't imagine anyone wanting to pay me for what's only been a church based hobby up to this point.    And no one here knows that I like to do it anyway, so I'd have to toot my own horn... something I'm not great at either.  I keep thinking I have a better chance at succeeding at writing for a job, but writing requires concentration and time, both of which are in short supply with Ellie's back and forth schedule at school this year.  Not to mention, I have no idea what to write about.   So there you have it...I'm aimless and lost...and stressed about getting older.   Feel free to inspire me! 

Spence-- Spence is working a job that pays his bills, but that's about it.  I think he wishes for something  with more growth potential, but he is still working on figuring out what that looks like and he has some exciting ideas up his sleeve.  His dog, Kiwi, is a year old now and she is very much attached to Spence.  She's mellowed out a bit, but she's still quite a handful and the house gets quite loud when they visit.  We love living close enough to him to see him regularly.   

Cami, Garrett, Lucie--  Garrett graduated from medical school a few weeks ago and he was matched with an internal medicine residency program at the University of Alabama--Birmingham.  We were disappointed that it wasn't in Utah, but we're happy that they'll be somewhere affordable and close to family (Garrett's brother and his wife and daughter are at the dental school there at UAB as well).    Cami  still has a semester of nursing school left after this one {yes, she's had a long circuitous path in her education!}.  Blah!  I'm trying hard not to be anxious for them living separately for 10 weeks while she finishes up.  I wish I could just swoop in and make it all easier for them, but, alas, I never have mastered the Easy button in life...plus I still have a kid at home that needs me here.    

Emma--What can I say?   It's been so much more lively and fun around our house since she returned home  from her mission.   Ellie is in heaven to have a sibling home again and I love how the house is filled with loud singing, much giggling, movie nights, and better food!  She's been working part-time and recently finished a phlebotomy certification training, so now she's looking for a job to put that to use.  She plans on taking a class or two at BYU this summer before she starts full-time in the fall.  . 

Adam--Adam finished up his freshman year at BYU, got hired as an FSY counselor for the summer, and received his mission call to Portland, Oregon.   He made some great friends at BYU and is super excited  about the other adventures he has coming up.  He is in the middle of FSY counselor training right now (June 2022)  and is loving it.  He may have been a tiny bit disappointed that his mission call wasn't to a foreign country, but that disappointment was fleeting and he is very excited about serving in Portland starting in August. 

Ellie--Ellie finished her junior year up at a local private school.  I wasn't sure about sending her to school after so many years of homeschooling, but it seems that it's  been a good fit for her and I'm frankly not sure I could have handled another lonely year like we'd had in Pennsylvania.  Finding  homeschool connections is NOT easy and I didn't have it in me to put the effort in to start from scratch yet again.  She went to prom with a friend and  Ellie is looking forward to an exciting summer ahead with a week at FSY and two weeks in Malawi for an HXP trip.

In other happenings-- My sister, Kristina, and I  flew out to Birmingham to househunt with Cami.   We were hoping to find a house that would be our first foray into owning an investment property that Cami and Garrett would rent, but, alas, while  the market is much more affordable there, it is still insane.  We did enjoy spending the time together exploring their new city. 

A couple weeks later, Cami and Garrett surprised us with a visit to Utah.  They had come for Garrett's sister's graduation from BYU, but we were happy to be close enough to enjoy the visit as well.  We were excited to introduce Lucie to my parents and grandmother, meaning we had five generations gathered together in the same place!  

We love our little Lucie! 

We Love Lucie!

I started this blog back in 2007, which means I've been keeping this up for  FIFTEEN YEARS now!   Wow, that seems like a long time.  I haven't been that great at it over the last few years, but, whenever I think about giving it up altogether, I remember what a treasure this photo-journal has been for our family.  My kids will still go back and look up stories they kind of remember, so they can refresh their memories.   I will use it when I write talks and sometimes I just like to reminisce back on simpler times when the kids were young.   Now 4 of the 5 kids are high school graduates and off having their own adventures, which weirdly don't usually include me. 😂😂 With a much emptier house and kids that do way less cute things I want to document, sometimes I don't feel like I have that much to write about.  Then I remember something....  

Now I am a grandma!   

Sweet Lucie is 3-1/2 months old now and I've decided that this blog needs waaaaaaaaaaay more pictures of her, so this post is an effort to get that started! 

Lucie still lives in Austin, so we don't get to see as much of her as we'd prefer, but Cami is good at sending pictures our way.  This post is a mix of shots that I've saved from our family group text and ones I took when I visited in person last month.   

She is getting so smiley and interactive now. 😍

 Most of Cami's pictures are taken in the "live" mode, so sometimes I'll watch them again and again and again to watch her in action and feel more connected to her. 

I visited Austin in mid-February to help them with childcare while they finish school.

I really, really enjoyed the opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with Lucie...

And I had fun pulling out old outfits my kids had worn when they were babies and trying them on Lucie. I don't know where any pictures of my kids wearing these plaid overalls are, but I have very sweet memories in my head of them wearing them! 

This picture of Cami (on the left) was in her baby book, so that was an easy find.  

We did lots of snuggling...

...as much snuggling as possible! 

And we played lots too, so I could eat up that sweet smile...

This girl is so loved...

And I can't wait for my next visit....

In the spirit of this being a photo-journal of our lives, here are a few tidbits about Lucie, so we don't forget: 

1.  She is a good eater and is quickly growing chunkier by the day
2. Her body doesn't seem to like it when Cami eats dairy products, so she's cut them out of her diet completely while she's breastfeeding
3. Cami and Garrett are back to school this semester.  This is Garrett's final semester of med school, so his schedule is very light.  Cami has one more semester after this, so she's been very busy. 
4. She is a great sleeper--waking up just a couple times a night to eat, then going back to sleep.  I hardly ever noticed her in the middle of the night, even when sleeping in the next room.
5. She is just barely beginning to figure out how to use her hands.  She swats at things and loves to suck on her fist.
6.  She doesn't love her tummy-time. 
7. She LOVES being outside.   It's an instant soother for her when she's fussy. 
8.  She also loves being naked, which is a little funny considering this little blurb Cami wrote (at the end of the blogpost) when she was young.  
9. She is starting to grow attached to her special blanky and will hold onto it when she's stressed or upset. 
10. She's got a pretty easy-going personality.  Basically, if she's crying, then she needs something.  



Stay tuned for more Lucie updates in the future!