Easter

 Of course we painted some eggs then we were off to the community egg hunt at Gun Stock Ranch..

 The little boys were ready for some fun!

 It was really quite the event,a petting zoo and free pony rides.

  The Easter Bunny made a grand entrance on his horse at the top of the hill and zigzagged his way down to the kids.

  Even when the bunny is on a horse, he does not look any less scary, its almost scarier!

The Easter egg hunt! The area they had to hunt in was huge, probably two acres and there was horse poop everywhere! YUCK! I made sure my kids wore their tennis shoes and didn't eat any of the eggs, but only in Hawaii do you see this...I just kept thinking how dirty this boys feet were getting!

"T" found the silver egg which got you $3.00. Yippeee!!

Living the easy going life on the Island

Living the easy going life wasn't easy to get used to..

Especially for me, now that we have been here for a while I can admit it to all of you . I kind of had a hard time with it. We came from California where the kids were in sports year round (all four of them on different teams),church etc..

we were really, really busy. 
and I liked being busy!

I had a hard time getting used to not always having to be somewhere or having to do something. It was really kind of hard to adjust to. I had to come to terms with the fact that it actually was ok to just "be", without having to go and do something.
 It was kind of soul searching time for me.

That being said, I have adjusted quite well, the kids have to. It took only about a month or two. I think we have adjusted almost to well. I am so used to not having to be anywhere at night or do anything that I savor it. You see what I mean, I think I have adjusted to well.. I am becoming a home body who loves to be home with the family. . Going to the beach whenever we please, taking hikes with the family, playing board games, watching movies.  And I am totally ok with it!


It really has been a fabulous year. Yesterday I was laying in my bed, on a lazy Sunday afternoon as the kids all piled in at different times during the day to snuggle and laugh and talk, it got me to think about how  important this move was for our family.  I think I have gotten to know each of my kids much better and grown closer to them, especially the older ones than ever before and I love it! I LOVE that they want to be with us, that they talk to both D and I. I know it won't last much longer but I hope we can continue to keep the closeness we have built this year forever. I vow never to be as busy as before! hahah, It's probably going to get busier isn't it??

My handsome "A" . 

Visit from Uncle Chris!

 Uncle Chris and Ashley came to visit!  We brought out the tight rope and had Chris show us his yoga moves on the thing. Usually the kids are floating in the air when he comes due to his amazing skills at acro-yoga this time they were floating due to the tight rope. What he is doing in the picture above is quite hard. We were all very impressed.

Ashley :)

 B giving it a try.

 Chris showing another amazing skill.. Then everyone tried to do it on the  ground with a  little success.

 We were having our own little yoga session on BYUH's lawn.

 Ashley helping lil B with his yoga moves.

Chris says hes not Poly but look at those tree climbing skills! 

Thanks for coming to see us!! 

The Flood!

On the first day of Spring Break early in the morning, we woke up to pouring rain, well not just pouring it was raining BUCKETS! I took Dan to work at about 7am. Our street is known for flooding so I was relieved when I saw that it looked pretty clear. But BYUH was a mess. I've never driven in rain puddles that deep.  I was going to go to the gym but was afraid to drive any further so I  drove home went into my room to workout and a half hour later I get a phone call from neighbor asking if our house was flooding??! Sure enough we looked outside and the water was almost into our front door!. PANIC! Dan was stuck at work, so it was the kids and I. We ran to the room in our house that was ground level and sure enough water was coming in through the garage. So we had to hurry move everything up to higher ground, luckily some sweet boys from the neighborhood came and helped with dressers and heavy items. I was seriously blow away by the generosity of the whole community. People I didn't even know where walking around seeing what they could do to help. Dinner was brought to us. Sand bags delivered. 

 Front of our house. We keep our slippers (flip flops) out on the front porch and sadly we lost a couple pair:( That was our only loss, thank heavens!)

 Our street, driveway, and front lawn.

 We were told two more storms were expected that same day and the water on our street was not draining due to clogged drains and  it was beginning to rain again. Three years ago our street had so much damage from a flood that everyone had a foot a water throughout the house, they lost their cars and had to move out for 6 months while the repairs were being done. So needless to say every one was in panic mode. The picture below is our Stake Presidency and others from the neighborhood in knee length water offering prayer. After the prayer it was quite powerful how the rain stopped and drains opened, the street was drained within the hour.

 BYUH was at our house one hour after the back room drained and had the wet carpet pulled out and cleaned up. They decided to put tile in the back bedroom that flooded. Probably a good idea!
So all in all it was kind of a  crazy exciting day.. But it ended up being not to big of a pain. Thankfully!! Oh yea I got on the news too! Laie families work together after rains flood their homes

Frogs and frogs and more frogs

 The boys were on a frog catching mission.. They caught 17 in all one day and then their mean mom made them go and let them go where they caught them:)

 This A and his friend in the neighborhood who looks alot like him! 

Can you tell who is who?

 T and B with their friend, they convinced me to let them bring their frogs home as pets..

 B's ran away up our storm pipe never to be heard from again.
So sad for me.. I don't care for them one bit! 

Grandma Colleen and Grandpa Rick..YIPPPEEEE!!

Have I ever told any of you how much I LOVE my in-laws?

 ( I probably have because I honestly do!)

My mother in law is a SAINT.. in all aspects of the word.

saint

   [seynt] a person of great holiness, virtue, or benevolence.

She is there for anyone and everyone.. and no, she's not excepting applications:) 

SHE has gone out of her way to come and help me with all my babies. 

  Grandpa is a saint for always making it possible for her to come.

My father in law surprised her with a trip  for her birthday to see the grand kids and

 the pouring rain of Hawaii. 

It has not rained this much since we moved here. 

 On her actual birthday we went to a Laua at the Polynesian Cultural Center in the pouring rain..

Notice we are all in sweatshirts with the leis.

                                             The BEST part of the meal! The pineapple drinks!

JENGA had to be played!

Pearl Harbor!

USS Bowfin submarine...

 man that thing is so small, but pretty amazing..

One of the workers on the Bowfin was pushing and pulling (yes literally pushing) T and B into photo poses.

 If they look a little frightened its because they were!

SO of course I had to push and pull B and Grandpa into the correct photo poses as well!

LIL "B" thoroughly enjoying his headphone submarine tour!
Not sure what hes listening to on his headphones, mine was not this exciting!

"A" ready to fire!

USS Arizona tour. Love this pic!

AWWW

Grandpa giving a history lesson, and "A" is actually listening.

USS Missouri Battleship

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! 

We sure had a fun visit! We miss you already!

Gavin

                                                                     
                                                                                  Laie Boyz






         He is my friend,
         he came to hawaii to visit.

        he got sick

We went to the PCC.

      We went to the beach,
            we ate food.


  Shannon and my mom and jalynn were loud

     Shannon kept doing a creepy laugh.
         It was loud and annoying!
          They thought it was funny..

      We went snorkling,
         boogie boarding
           and surfing
          it was fun.


We slept in a tent in our garage.
My mom kissed Gavin,
it was creepy.
Gavin is scarred for life.
Cool story Brah..


A post by Addison