April / May Hawaii Trip 2019

David and I took our first trip to Hawaii - the Big Island.   It is every bit as beautiful as everyone says. 

We stayed in an amazing timeshare by Marriott that was gifted to us by my generous boss that I work as a personal assistant for.  We walked beautiful beaches, Pearl Harbor, hiked the inactive volcano, toured the Dole Pineapple facility, visited the Cultural Polynesian Center and the LDS Temple, took a day trip kayaking in the ocean (and David even swam with sharks - I stayed home that morning), and had a full day tour of the island in a little shuttle and met some cool people.  It was a nice break from the kids, but also strange because it would have been fun to share all these sites with them as well.  But mostly it was a nice break!

April 2019

Easter was late this year so we had beautiful weather.  Another succussful community Easter Egg Hunt in the books.  This year we did the eggs with some special prizes to earn t-shirts (which were a huge hit).  We also had pony rides, face painting, and a bounce house/obstacle course.  

Our spring break was also pretty late this year...April 10-14th.  Beatriz was so awesome to give us her beach house for a week.  I invited my family to come with us.  My mom flew in early and drove down with us.  

Here is Cache enjoying his enormous beef n cheddar at Arbys.  That was always one of my favorites as a kid...although I think I always had the regular sized one...this one was huge!

Can't beat the view from the house.

Clearly exhausted after playing on the beach for a few hours and needing a break to play ipads.

Xander's stick design.

We don't love the ocean water so much, but the hot tub speaks to us.

Mystery solved.  My family all hunts for seashells just like my sisters and mom do.  This was definitely an inherited trait.

My cute mom.

Marcy and her loot.

We were the first ones to use this cool new shade tent called Shibumi.  The realty company gave it to the beach house owners as a Christmas present.

Xander's cuteness strikes again.

Cache digging to China.

Easton's bucket of minnows that Aunt Marcy freed back to the ocean.

A little walk by the point of the island.

213 pictures later...

This guy loves walking along the beach and always finds the coolest shells and the most shark teeth.

Mom, me, Marcy, and Emily.  Sad Claire couldn't make it with her kids this time.

A stormy day...the waves were crashing and so were the chairs along the deck.

Inevitably someone things that storms are a great time to enjoy the ocean.  2 people ended up dying.

One of Xander's many love notes to me.  

Love pile.  

Cleaning out the fridge.  It struck me that this amount of food would feed a family in another country and never be wasted.  We are pretty wasteful people.

Showing off my new Costco shirt to Marcy.

MY NEW FRIDGE!  Love the french doors.  It is so beautiful.

Thank you Costco!

And my NEW STOVE!  May we have even heating and loving the double oven feature.

This is the leftover candy from Easter.  Yep, I think Target over-ordered just a bit this year!