Aloha

Dave qualified for his work's President's Club this year-props to him!!  So, we got to go on a Hawaiian vacation.  In flew Dave's parents to attend to the little people who reside here and we were off.  It was a little stressful leaving because our air conditioner stopped working the day before and we did not want to leave with everyone melting.  Luckily, we got it fixed.  I didn't even want to tell my mom the a/c turned off, she wouldn't have come over for her 2 night shift! 

We went a day early to the Big Island of Hawaii.  We got there in time to stop by the Kona LDS Temple

 and eat dinner watching the sunset.   We went on this same ADP trip to the Big Island 8 years ago.  In 2008, we also stopped by the Kona temple.  But, I have to say, we are not looking like the spring chickens we did in the picture from years before.  Despite how unreal it seems, we are indeed aging.  Good thing we still know how to have fun!  

The next morning, Dave had arranged for me to get a massage and pedicure at the fanciful Four Seasons.  It was lovely.  However, for pretty much the entire month of July I was sick.  I believe I had walking pneumonia.  I was barely feeling up to anything right before we left.  Hawaii was going to be just the place to get the rest I needed!  Well, lying face down with congestion pooling in your nasal cavity is not a stellar idea.  I spent the first half of my massage trying keep the boogers from dripping right out of my nose on to the floor...yea, a couple escaped.  My masseur, Nicky, the man also thought my body needed a unique experience that involved stretching past the point of no return.  It was very sweet of Dave to pamper me.  He is awesome!

We checked into the ADP hotel after we wrapped my spa experiences.  They had arrangements at the same hotel we stayed at on the Big Island before.  It's a huge resort with a tram or boats to take you to your wing.  The first night was the opening party...pina coladas, food, fire dancers, hula dancers all sorts of island fun. We met up with Dave's coworkers and enjoyed the event.  

The next morning, Dave did the ADP 5k fun run.

He got 4th place...I think (in the old man division!).  Sam, his coworker got second over all.  I met him after his run and we had breakfast, followed by horseback riding.  The Big Island has extreme climates-where we stayed was always hot, dry and on black volcanic rock.  The ranch, only 45 min away, is green, on rolling hills and continuously foggy and misty.  It was a nice change.  My horse was somewhat of a horse brat and whenever I 'asked' it to go a certain way, she would stop.  Every time.  Naughty Bella.  

We made it back to our hotel in time to change for our night snorkel with Manta Rays.  That was pretty much a life bucket list experience.  So amazing.  We held on to a floaty that had bright lights attached below that shone into the water.  The lights would attract plankton, which in turn attracted manta rays.  We saw one or two and were in awe at their size-8 to 10 feet span.  Mid way into our snorkel, there were 4 or 5 just flipping around and skimming right along our bellies.  You would be watching one and another would surprise you and be right up along your face.  It was phenomenal.  

The next day we had a zodiac ride to a snorkeling spot.  It was super fun.  Our ride back took us through some lava caves.  As you can tell, our snorkel masks may have been a bit too snug!

Awards banquet was next.  Salt Lake was region of the year so all the office that qualified got to be recognized on stage.  That was neat for Dave.  

They had a hoppin party after with band, we were dancing, 

filming a slow mo video and getting glamified at the "Glamour Bar."  I felt like I was in the Capital from the Hunger Games!

Our last ADP day we ventured out in a rental car to an overlook 

with a hike to a black sand beach.  

 This section was really rocky, but there was a good stretch of soft black sand.  We brought some home in a bottle for the kids.  It made TSA suspicious at each airport.  I promise it was just black sand.  

ADP knows how to do a trip right! We were pretty worn out and excited to extend to Kauai for a couple of days and just chill.  Our first day we spent driving the island.  We did hike to Queen's Bath.  

We should have got in the water, but it was pretty rough.  I thought those boys were going to be slammed against the rocks or swept out to sea!

Kauai we focused on getting some recommended cuisine.  We ate at Verde, Puka Dog, the famous ice cream place I know can't recall the name of, Uncle's Shaved ice and Duke's.  Obvioulsy, food is a very important part of our vacations!

We shopped and spent some relaxing time at the beach.  

Our hotel was right at Poipu Beach.  

Saturday night we went on a dinner cruise up the Napali Coast.  That is breathtaking.  I don't take great photos anyway, but even a great photographer couldn't do it justice.  

There were lots of spinner dolphins out jumping around, putting on a show.  

 The coast was incredible, the setting oh so dreamy, so it was Dave's favorite part of Hawaii.  He is such a romantic! 

 Sunday we went to church, and it was great as always.  Visiting wards while we are on vacation is one of my favorite parts of travel.  It gives me perspective on the universality of the gospel, of God's love for all his children, how we are all connected, the endurance of truth across lands and the ultimate joy the gospel is.  Plus we got to sing that Aloha Oi song at the end...so, pretty great Sabbath.  We finished our time driving to Waimea, the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.  

It was a stormy, cloudy day so we had a very brief view!  But it was pretty cool. I told Dave I was not ready to come home, but boy did I wish I hadn't said that.  Delta airlines had a computer system shut down just as we were trying to leave Honolulu.  We had connected from Kauai to Oahu ok, but as we were on the tarmac to come to SL, we sat for a couple hours on the plane, then more hours in the airport, only to find out world wide Delta was down.  We were given vouchers for a hotel, taxis and we were stranded for a day in Oahu.  If we hadn't been up all night and then had to take a red eye the following night, maybe it would have been cool to have extra Hawaii time.  But, then we barely made it home, had another delay in LA, saw people screaming and melting down in the airport.  We were so grateful when we made it back.  Hawaii is fabulous but nothing beats home sweet home.    

Hopping in the Heat

Many parents worry how everyone will cope with summer vacation-it just seems so long. But, the fact of the matter is, it flies by every year.  We are getting the back to school emails, and running around this way and that with activities, there have been very few boring times around these parts! 

Right after we returned from Yellowstone, Katelee and I got to see Newsies!  Paige and my mom joined us and it was pretty much the greatest thing ever! 

Katelee played on a volleyball team for the first time, and apparently has fallen in love with that.  So, for now, she is quitting diving and moving on to team sports.  No pictures of her grass volleyball team-but I will take some in the fall.  We arranged to have a cousin swap this summer-our girls would stay down in Arizona with their cousin Karly and we would have her brother, Max, here to hang out with Grant. The kids were so excited to do this, and I dare say it lived up to their dreams-except Max got sick and ended up in the Instacare with strep throat.  Before the strep hit, we did do some fun things.  They went to Seven Peaks and got burned to a crisp, we went to Snowbird, to the Salt Lake Arts Festival-

where we channeled our inner artists,

did crafts, and partied!

Dave took Grant and Max to the air show at the air force base that is 45 min away from us.  The traffic was so crazy, they were in the car for 3 1/2 hrs before they parked, but they said it was awesome.  

The girls tried to not melt on the surface of the sun aka Arizona.  They were in heaven with Karly having a pool in backyard.  It was a full week of swim, swim, swim.  

We have had some water time at home this summer, as well.  Brenna did swimming lessons, we just went to Cowabunga Bay last night.

We've hit the splash park, and our community pool with the fun aquaballs...

When we went a couple of weeks ago, we were driving home and Brenna turned to Grant's friend and said, "My dad is so strong, he is not squishy at all."  Then, she went on to say, "My sister is a little more squishy than me, but my mom she is the QUEEN of squishy." Bwahaha!  Guess mom in a swimsuit is pretty much the queen of squishy on display!  Dad, on the other hand, is holding up nicely as you can see from his birthday pic from last month...

Right after Dave's was the 4th of July.  Our silly city decided to do fireworks on the Saturday before the holiday-bug.  But, we got an extra day to celebrate, I guess.  We had a festive meal and then went to the park for the firework display.  Once the terrible band finished, we had a great time.  It's so fun to go with little kids and see their reactions.  Harrison was hilarious.  

He kept yelling, "DANG!"  "Oh my gosh!" The actual 4th of July, we went to our street's annual pancake breakfast, where Dave busted out his signature dance moves.  

We went to dinner at Amy's 

and made it back to our neighborhood for quite the street displays.  People went all out.  Way to celebrate America! 

The kids have been busy playing-night games are a regular occurrence and a summer necessity.  Grant has been volunteering at the special needs school a couple of the weeks and really enjoyed that.  Katelee had a week long theatre camp at Hale Center Theatre and once the tears stopped about the early wake up calls, she was in heaven.  

We've gone to movies and museums.  We love the children's museum downtown.  We spent nearly 4 hours there.  Harry was obsessed with the helicopter.  I can't blame him.  It's spiffy.  He is all about superheroes these days.  Although, Star Wars still has a small piece of his heart, as he displays his choke hold on a regular basis.  He uses the force to choke us and when we do it in return, he grabs his neck, struggles for air and falls over dead.  It is so funny.  

Other yearly events we always look forward to are the community health fair with the best face painting in town...

and the 24th of July float preview party.  We got to go with Grandma, Grandpa, Paige, Jason, Caleb and Grace.  

Grant has had a couple of camp outs and he got to go on a date with Dave to the shooting range.  I dare say it was the best day of his life.  

The boys got out of the house while the girls celebrated Paige and baby boy Sohm who will be here in less than 2 months! 

Shannon did a spectacular job with the decorating and the wild animal/jungle theme.  We had a lot of fun putting it together. 

Katelee won the baby food tasting game, not too shocking when one of the other players (Emmalee) guesses banana cucumber as a flavor! 

 We all are anxiously anticipating this baby's arrival-even Harrison talks about asking Paige to hold her baby.  Brenna just jolts Paige's stomach, so that will be nice when she doesn't assault a pregnant person anymore.  

Last weekend, Dave and I went to the Piano Guys with Amy, Mark and Lauren.  It was phenomenal!   

Memories in the making going on over here!  I sometimes reflect as my kids are all gathered outside, barefoot, riding carelessly (and dangerously) around the hood and I think of how they will remember their childhood.  How they will look back at their summers and activities.  I know I am living the days I will miss.  I can feel (even with the tantrums and lack of sleep and sunburns and arguing and sleep deprivation from late nights) that these are the  best days.  Hopefully I still feel that way in about 4 weeks when summer is officially over! 

Experiences with a Super Volcano

While that title may suggest I am going to do an entire post about our terrible two year old (or our sassy pants 6 year old), it actually a travel report of our vacation to Yellowstone!  Just a couple days after school wrapped up, we packed up our car and headed to Jackson Hole.  

We always have a bit of reservations taking road trips with Miss B, who asks how long it is going to take us to get to any destination we have to go to-the grocery store, the library, school etc.  So, spending hours in the car was a bit daunting, but everyone survived.  Can I say how grateful I am for modern technology? Ipads for the win! We did feel a bit out of place sneaking into a church in our grubbies to use the bathroom, but that was necessary to prevent a toddler accident!

We stayed in a really nice hotel that was larger than our townhome we used to live in.  Pretty spoiled.  We felt pretty fancy.  We loved walking around the city, running through their main park, going to dinner and enjoying the sights.  

The next day, we went to Jenny Lake.  We took the ferry across and Harrison talked about 'the green boat' for the duration of the trip...apparently a highlight.  

The Tetons are gorgeous!  We did an easy and fabulous hike to Hidden Falls

and since we had plenty of time, we thought we'd try another short-ish hike.  Well, turned out it was a bit more than we were prepared for, but still we conquered.  Harrison became dead weight as he fell asleep in our arms, the kids (one small girl) in particular may have thought we were torturing her with the walking, but we survived.  

The next morning, we took our small circus to Yellowstone.  Chris and Co. were having a vacation in Yellowstone the same week, so we met up the first day at none other but Old Faithful.  All of us were impressed with the geysers and hot pots and that smell is just something you can't replicate!

One of the prettiest sites in Yellowstone is the Grand Prismatic Spring.  The colors are amazing! 

After we separated from the Petrick bunch, we went to dinner and drove around the lake to our hotel.  The Yellowstone hotel had buffalo wandering all over, sat on the edge of the calm water, and NO tv or wifi!  This caused a mild heart attack for certain members of the family.  But, we ended up loving it.  We played games and walked around.  It was camping in a nice hot room with a bathroom and shower.  

The next day we really explored everything we could.  There was a sad situation with someone passing away at Norris Geyser Basin the previous day, so we had an interesting perspective as we walked around observing the thermal area.

 

 We met up with the extended familia again and Dave loved hearing about how great their cabin was compared with our hotel!  ha ha!  Dave entertained everyone with plank challenges.

We traveled to the Canyon area to view the falls.  Seriously, this part of the world is breathtaking

We finished up our time with Chris and Leslee and family in Mammoth.   We walked up the terrace ourselves after we said goodbye.  

It's nice to have big kid helpers and it's the best when siblings are kind to each other.  I have to document the momentous occasions...

 We went to some hot pots and mud pots after Mammoth and finished up the West Thumb area the following morning.  It had been a good 18 years or so since I had visited Yellowstone and it is so incredible. It is just a place like no other in the world.   Dave and the kids loved their first visit, well, all except the smell!

We saw lots of wildlife, but no bears in their natural habitat, so we cheated and stopped at Bear World in Idaho on the long drive home.  It is pretty unreal to just drive the little path and have bears walking along your car.  Some bears were dancing (must have been circus performers before!), some rolling around, lots sleeping.  Our trip was overall, fantabulous and we hope these little critters of ours remember our time in the wild!