Random April

We are loving the warm spring weather! The grass is green, the trees are full of leaves, and our lilac bushes are blooming, fragrant, and gorgeous. It's been so nice to let the kids go out and play in the yard again. Emily loves to join the boys in the dirt, so it's a nice change when she decides to pick flowers instead!

Emily has also had an even bigger fascination with shoes, bracelets, necklaces and all things girly. Her latest favorite is to take shoes, or anything else she can put around her arm and carry it around like a bracelet or purse. My shoes are some of her favorites.

Does this even need an explanation? Barely one and already posing in her boots.

Jeff has been the cub master in our ward for the last several months. This month he had his last pack meeting. We all went and enjoyed the activity that included roasting marshmallows and making s'mores.

Jeff was out of town again for a few days for business for his new job. I had a coupon, and decided on a whim to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese after their early release day from school. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. The kids all had fun again, but the funniest one to watch was Emily. Four months can do a lot for a child's interest and she was all into the games and rides. She'd tag along after the boys and watch and try to help with their games. And she loved the rides! She even started trying to hoard the tokens after she realized those were the little pieces of magic that made the rides work!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! You always hope for 'Kodak moment' worthy photos to commemorate Easter, especially because we finally convinced the boys to wear their pink (gasp) ties that Jeff (bigger gasp) found for all the boys. They weren't too keen on the idea. Maybe that's why we ended up with these photos. Emily pulled off her headband, no one wanted to stay still and smile, some kept running off the porch, Emily kicked Caleb in the face, and Matthew is sporting a mega bandaid from his run-in with a bench at the pool resulting in glue/stitches by dad. Not quite perfect pictures-and these were the best ones- but they make me laugh and I love them anyway.

It was still a great Easter, especially because we were able to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior.

Running for Risa

On Friday, Tami told me about a half marathon she would be running on Saturday to raise money for a girl who had cancer. I thought it sounded fun so I signed up. We left at 6am to drive to the race with her cute friend Melissa. I started getting back into running in February and March, but because of travel, trips, and injuries/illness my running has been on hold for a while. My total mileage for the month of April was about 10 miles, and the longest run I had done was 10 miles about 6 weeks before. Needless to say, it definitely wasn't a PR race, but I still ran it under 2 hours and had a fun, enjoyable run with friends along the rolling hills by the beautiful mountain lake. (I wasn't exactly loving the beauty of the massive hill that ran the entire length of mile 8 though!) It's been a long time since I've run any races and it was fun to be in that atmosphere again- I've missed it. I'm really looking forward to some upcoming races this year!

Visiting the Cahoons

Knowing we would be moving soon, we thought it would be fun to take a trip to visit the Cahoon family the weekend before Easter. It was so fun to see cousins we haven't seen in a while, watch talent show performances, and get the tour of their beautiful home. It was fun just being able to stay up late visiting together- probably not real smart since Tam and I ended up getting up at 5:30 to run a half marathon on Saturday, but still good.
Saturday, Jeff and CJ with the kids, spent the morning enjoying community Easter egg hunts and petting zoos. We were all back at their place around noon, and it was so fun to enjoy the gorgeous sunny, warm day. The kids were enjoying rides on the 4-wheelers, and big wheels cars, playing in the tree house and jumping on the trampoline. Tami and CJ have an amazing yard complete with open acres of grass and fields, and even a great little creek that runs through their property. The kids were in heaven!


We finished off the afternoon with another Easter egg hunt complete with prizes, and a yummy dinner outside on the back porch. It was so fun to spend time with the Cahoons.

KAUAI Final Day

On Sunday it was hard to believe our vacation was on its final day, but we had a wonderful time and were also looking forward to getting back to our kids again. We enjoyed another wonderful week at the branch in Hanalei.

After a yummy lunch, we went for a walk down to Queen's Bath that was about a mile walk from the condo. The ocean was still pretty calm, so the water level was pretty low and so clear. It was beautiful to see. We were a little bummed we couldn't swim, but it was still fun to see it. We saw a bunch of turtles as well. We knew it was time to head back when it started to rain.





Sunday evening after we finished packing and loading up all our luggage, we were able to visit some of the Forman's friends from church, the Isoms. They just returned from serving a mission in the Mexico City Temple. It was fun to see their beautiful home and listen to some neat stories.
At 7:30pm, we headed to the airport and were finally on our way home. The red-eye flight was a little rough- it was freezing cold, and we were on the non-reclining seats right across from the lavatory. We were excited when we finally got to Phoenix because they have airport chairs with no hand rails, so we were finally able to lay down & sleep before our next flight. We got home around 2pm and were so excited to see our cute kids! It was a wonderful, magical vacation and we were so happy that we were able to go- but we were so excited to be back home with our kids again!

Random thoughts about KAUI:

1- Hawaii definitely isn't the place for a great hair day. The humidity pretty much turned my hair into a big poofy frizzball for the whole trip. I only used my curling iron/straightener twice during our 9-day stay there & you couldn't tell anyway. The good news was that you didn't have to spend much time getting ready! I would pretty much wash my hair and pull it back out of my face. I definitely loved the quick & simple!

2- Sunburns cause swelling. I was pretty good about the sunscreen-but I hardly ever put it on my legs. Normally it's not a problem, I don't really burn, but the sun in Hawaii is strong! My legs were pretty swollen for the whole week- the swelling finally started to go down the last day. I wasn't loving the 'cankles' look. :) Next time, apply more sunscreen to legs! Another note- sunburns also cause cold sores.

3- Kauai is covered with CHICKENS! Apparently back during a hurricane, chickens were blown all over and to this day they are everywhere! Seriously! They're at every beach, and even at the top of the Waimea Canyon! The roosters are beautiful, and the baby chicks are so cute. At church, they told all the visitors- "do us a favor, take home a chicken!". It was pretty entertaining to watch them all over the island.
4- I've heard many other people say it, and I agree- Kauai is my favorite Hawaiian island. I know I haven't been to all of them, but Kauai is the least populated so there really aren't tons and tons of people. There is so much to do-even with 9 days, there was still a ton of things we didn't see and do. And the entire island is absolutely gorgeous- Waimea Canyon, Napali Coast, I could go on and on. I sure hope we can go back some day, I would love to take our kids!

KAUAI Day 8

Saturday morning we headed out to see the Kilauea Lighthouse that was just about 15 minutes away from our place in Princeville. We'd seen it from far away, but wanted to see it up close. Unfortunately they're doing some restorative work, so part of it was covered and you couldn't go inside, but it was still really cool to see it and see the view from the cliffs.

From the lighthouse, we headed back to Tunnels Beach where we spent most of the morning and afternoon. It was a perfect day to be at the beach, hot and sunny with almost no wind. It made the water feel great! The ocean was actually very calm the second half of our trip- usually the waves are just crashing, but the ocean was really pretty calm. Not as good for boogie boarding, but great for snorkeling. We were able to go out along the reefs and see tons of fish and turtles again. He probably shouldn't have, but Jeff even caught a little ride with a turtle. :) I thought I was imagining things when I felt stinging on my arm, but I wasn't the only one. There must have been some small jellyfish in the area- everyone felt a couple stings and had some little sting marks afterwards, not too bad and definitely not enough to keep us out of the water. It was my favorite snorkeling of the whole trip.

More than anything it was nice to just soak up the warm sun. We quickly realized the waves would come up pretty far, some nearly took away some of our supplies, so Dan, Joseph, Jeff and I built a nice wall of sand in front of our spot to keep the waves out. It was put to work, and did pretty well!
Before we took off, Joseph & Daniel took us to see the cave right next to the beach. It was pretty much just one big room, but they were able to go back pretty far- I was impressed! It was pretty cool.



We enjoyed the afternoon at the condo, then went that evening to the little shopping center in Princeville for some dinner. There were some cute little restaurants and we were able to sit out in a big commons area enjoying our food and live music. (best taco salad of my life!) More than anything, it was so fun to spend a few days enjoying the company of the Formans. Whether it was scripture study in the evenings, conversations while driving, or busy with activities, we just thoroughly enjoyed being able to spend time with them. We were inspired and uplifted and feel so fortunate to call them our family. We were so glad to have the chance to enjoy the trip with them.

KAUAI Day 7

Friday we were out of the condo by 5am so we could take a boat ride out of Lihue along the Nepali Coast. Dean and Linda have done this particular tour for years and say it's their favorite. They have a giant raft style boat that can hold up to 30 people and go up to 50mph. It was a great way to get a close up view of the Nepali coast, we were even able to go in and through a bunch of the caves! Our captain has been doing tours for 15 years and absolutely loves what he does. He and his first mate Eric really made the trip fun.

I don't know if I can say it enough, the island of Kauai and especially the Nepali Coast is gorgeous and simply amazing. The captain kept referring to the color of the ocean along the coastline as 'Windex Blue' and I really can't think of anything to describe it better-it's almost unnatural. It's also crystal clear so you can see right to the bottom of the ocean. We saw a ton of dolphins, turtles, and whales. It was pretty amazing to see them jumping clear out of the water.
We went around the coast looking at the cliffs, listening to the histories of people who lived there years ago, going in and out of caves, watching dolphins and whales jump, and just enjoying the beautiful surroundings. It did get rainy towards the end of the coastline, which made it a little chilly-we were glad we had jackets! But it stopped raining as soon as we turned back the other direction. We finally stopped at one beach, (which also happened to be a location of shooting for the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie with Jonny Depp aka- Captain Jack Sparrow- in fact when I saw one of the previews for the movie, I recognized the beach with the cool rock archway that he walks on. :)
We stopped here for a while to go snorkeling. It was beautiful! There were so many amazing fish, but what was really cool was the huge group of sea turtles. It's so funny to watch them under the water- these giant animals just floating along. It was such a cool experience. After some of my previous 'freezing-in-the-water' experiences, I thought it would be nice to have extra layers to keep warm so I could enjoy the water longer-tropical water- I know, I'm a wimp. We found a great little rash guard at Costco in the kid's section for about $10 and it did the job perfectly! We were able to go out and snorkle for about half an hour before we had to head back. The ride back to Lihue was pretty fun, we were going pretty fast and really caught some air on some of the waves.



By the time we got back it was about 1pm and we were all starving, so we stopped at Brick Oven Pizza for some yummy pizza. We were also able to stop at Poipu Beach to see 'Spouting Horn' and walk around some of the little gift shops on the way home.

When we got back, Jeff and Dean played some tennis together, and everyone kicked back for a while. We did an easy dinner at home, and then had a movie night- The Chronicles of Narnia- Voyage of the DawnTreader. Seemed fitting since we had spent most of the day out on the ocean!

This was a pretty common site- the boys camped out in Joe's room watching Futurama. You could hear them laughing from upstairs.