10th anniversary

For our anniversary, Clark and I take turns every other year choosing how to celebrate. This year was Clark's year and he chose Hawaii! I couldn't argue with that one. :)

We left Sunday morning to catch a plane in Salt Lake City. We flew to Seattle and had a 4 hour layover. We got to Kona at 9:30 that night.

Monday we kicked off the day with our continental breakfast which was papaya, hard-boiled eggs, and toast. 

We wanted to go to the beach right away so we headed that way when Clark saw a "surfing lessons" sign. They had an opening for the morning session and Clark suited up. 

We grabbed some food at Safeway and had lunch at Waikola Bay. We swam in the ocean and suntanned (15 minutes per side, Clark set his timer).

Then we took Hapuku Road to KealalaKekua Bay where Captain Cook's monument was supposed to be. It turns out you need to kayak out to it so we found some local-looking teenagers with several kayaks. Clark asked if they rented them out and they said they did. The boy pushed it into the water, threw in some snorkel gear, and had us put our camera in a dry bag. Clark asked if we could borrow some life jackets before we set off. We made it to the other side about 20 minutes later. We lifted the kayak onto the shore and noticed it was really heavy. We took a few pictures at the monument.

We heard from other kayakers there were dolphins nearby. We rowed in the direction they pointed to and found a family of dolphins. There were 10 of them and one jumped out of the water and flipped. 

Things went downhill from there though. We started rowing back and Clark said, "I think this kayak has a hole." I looked back at him and he was covered up to his waist in water. Clark asked me to untie the camera bag from the kayak and keep a hold of it. A minute later, we capsized! All the towels and snorkel gear sunk. Once the kayak was upside down, we saw several holes that had been patched with duct tape. We swam to shore and had to hike over large lava rocks more than a mile back to shore! What an adventure that was.

That night we went to "Quinn's" and had fresh ono and chips. 

Tuesday we rented stand-up paddle boards and spent the morning on them in Keahou Bay. The rental shop lady didn't tell us how to stand on them so we figured it was like surfing. We stood sideways while trying to paddle and we couldn't figure out how to stay on. Then an older woman who was snorkeling yelled to us saying we were doing it wrong. She told me to stand in the center of the board with both feet forwards. It was much easier after that! We snorkeled while we used our SUPs and saw a sea turtle.

At Kalahuu Beach, we tried Hawaiian Snowcones with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the middle.

 In the afternoon we visited Puo-ohonua o Houahua, a historical site with old temples and totem poles.

Here's Clark in front of a lava rock wall. They had them all over the place in Hawaii.

We ate dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Restaurant that night. It overlooked the ocean so we watched a sea canoe race while we ate supper.

Blogger won't let me upload any more pictures :(

Here's Wednesday's recap:

Donuts @ Holy Donuts - chocolate maple bacon and strawberry italian cream filled

Shopping for souvenirs in Kona

Drove North to Pu-ukohola Heiau (Shark Temple)

Saw black tip reef shark

Drove to Pololu Valley

Hiked down to beach

Checked in at Aloha Crater Lodge (Bed and Breakfast)

Dinner at Lava Rock Cafe - moco loco and teriyaki chicken

Changed into warm clothing and hiked to Volcano National Park

Visited Jaggar museum while waiting for the sun to set

Saw lava glow

Sat in jetted tub back at the lodge

Thursday:

Black sand beach

McKenzie State Recreation Park

Isaac Hale Beach Park

Mauna Loa Macadamia tour

Rainbow Falls

Kahuna Falls

Akaka Falls

Souvenir shopping at "Tinny Fishers"

Mauna Kea star tour

Friday:

Kau coffee plantation tour

Ken's house of pancakes

Honali'i beach time - surfing, suntanning

Baskin Robbins

We woke up at 5 on Saturday to head back home. We had a great trip but we were ready to be back to "real life".

homecoming weekend 2014

We went to visit family this weekend in Laramie. Saturday morning we went to the Homecoming Parade. There were draft horses, cowboy joe, burrows, two marching bands, Peter and Paula Johnson, and handfuls of candy.

Saturday afternoon some of us went to the UW football game. It was a riveting game, but the cowboys lost in overtime against the San Jose State Spartans.

Sunday morning Laura made a peanut butter chocolate reeses cake for our Dad's birthday. It was divine. The frosting was like peanut butter fudge.

For dinner we made beef stroganoff, a green salad, and fruit punch. Here is one half of the table.

And the other half.

And the kids ate in the kitchen area where spills are stress-free :)

After dinner we went for a walk around the neighborhood. Then we enjoyed cake and our Dad opened presents and letters.

Happy birthday Dad! We all love you so much!

Too busy! Ahhh!

I am 31 and I still struggle to find a healthy balance between being busy and being so overwhelmed that my house is messy and we are eating dinner at 9 pm and no one has clean clothes to wear. With that in mind, here is a brief summary of our last two months.

Field Trip with Rosie to Murdoch's! We got to hold baby ducks, chicks, rabbits, and a gosling. She almost had me convinced that we needed a rabbit in our lives. I said we'll discuss this again when she's 10. Why 10? I'm not sure, but she was happy with it.

Playing firefighters at the Ronald McDonald house in Salt Lake City. Our dear friends have a 19 year old daughter who had kidney failure. After a long wait, they found out the mom was a match. She donated a kidney to her daughter and they've been in SLC for the past two months. We went to visit and they had this fire station there.

Will turns 8! He wanted to go to a trampoline park in Utah. We took along three friends, L to R is Cash, Fletcher, and Colt. We didn't think they could finish their massive milkshakes, but they proved us wrong!

Will learning how to cook a grilled cheese on the open fire. There is more to this story, but he had an adventure with some friends where they made a fire, cooked dinner, and slept under the stars with no adults (ahem, Clark was feet away in case of any emergencies!)

Clark and I celebrated our 9th anniversary! We went to Park City, rented mountain bikes, and biked the trails for the day. Then we ate at Red Rock and mostly talked about the kids :)

Amy visited us! She is done with her first year at BYU and working in Laramie for the summer. We sure loved seeing her!

Jake (Clark's brother) and Brittany got married! Steph (Clark's sister) made all the girl cousins matching dresses. Are they not darling? :) Back row: Rosie, Allie, Lucy. Front row: Addy and Shaylie

Will promised Sylvie a slow dance :)

The whole bunch, minus Monte (at a rodeo)

Will's chaps! It was a real sunny afternoon so I told him to close his eyes and then to open them when I said THREE but he opened his mouth instead.

And there's his handsome smile.

June 16th I kid you not it snowed! My kids loved it though.

Here's the fellas about to adventure. I guess these pictures are a little out of order. They saw wild horses, went skinny dipping, and ate cold soup. Their fire started shortly after dinner :)

Meanwhile Rosie and Addy had neighbor girls over for tea.

Hope everyone is having a great summer! Loves!!!

spring 2014

Happy Valentine's Day! I bought the tank tops and then sewed sleeves and skirts to match. Addy's skirt was way too long and Rosie's was shorter than planned. Story of my sewing life!

 

 Will is really interested in "Little House on the Prairie" and their lifestyle. He dreams of adventures in the woods with nothing but a pocketknife. Clark helped the kids make a house out of our tv box and they played "Little House" for hours.

 

For the 100th day of school, Rosie's teacher asked her class to dress up like they were 100. This is what we came up with. She had to leave her "cane" at home since it was somewhat of a weapon.

They also had a Dr. Seuss day and Rosie wanted to be Cindy Loo-Who.

Our waffle maker broke a few months ago and we never got around to buying a new one. Finally we have one and had waffles 3 times the first week. Will ate a 4 stack!

Rosie almost finished her 2 stack!

Will got a "managing me" award for being responsible. His teacher is the one in the white shirt, black and white sweater. We are so proud of him!

Our friends invited us to the Jazz game against the Orlando Magic. We had a great time! We bought popcorn, cotton candy, and 3-scoop ice cream cones. Plus the last two minutes were intense. We hit a 3 with 1.6 seconds to go for a 1 point win!

October

Our neighborhood put together a Halloween Party for all the kids in the cul-de-sac. We had a potluck dinner and games afterwards. Rosie and Addy dressed in their Halloween costumes, a leopard gecko and a princess.

Will wasn't feeling the Halloween spirit too much but he was happy to light fireworks.

Here's Addy with one of her good friends, Josie.

Look who started up piano lessons again! We took a few months off but Mom is fired up again to resume and practice, practice, practice.

 Addy isn't officially a piano student yet but she sure likes to be like her older brother and sister.

 We have a pet bull moose. Just kidding! But he does come by quite frequently. He's been to our back yard 3 times now. We like to watch him eat the leaves off of our tree until our neighbor throws rocks at him and makes him run away.

 Notice anything missing from this picture? The only problem is it is STILL missing. Clark pulled it out on Friday with some floss and it flew across the room and is still MIA. There's a 50 cent reward to anyone that finds it!

 We had some friends over for dinner and we busted out the chocolate fountain for the first time.

 This weekend we went up to Whiskey Springs and found a teepee.

 The kids enjoyed throwing rocks in the river.

Rosie has the coughs so I kept her home from school today.