Worth Making Memories

A couple years ago Jason found out that the annual American Medical Society for Sports Medicine conference would be at the Dolphin Resort in Disney World this year.  Ever since he found out he's been wanting it to be a big family vacation.  I was reluctant for a couple reasons.  I'm not a huge Disney fan.  (Please don't stop reading until I explain.)  Disney does everything fantastic.  In fact no one does it better.  My complaint is how expensive and overcrowded it has gotten the last 20 years.  Gone are the days where we would go to Disneyland with minimal crowds for a reasonable price.  Instead I feel like I spend a boat load of money to stand in line all day while my kids get bored of waiting and start to fight. The other problem is that the conference always falls one of the last weeks in April.  It's always after spring break but right before AP tests, end of year testing, track season and the rest of the spring sports.  It's an awful time to drop everything and go on vacation.  For this reason Jason usually travels to these conferences alone.  But he was persistent in trying to convince me to take the family. I finally relented on the condition he fly out a few days before us and we make a quick trip so the kids only missed a couple days of school.

For the most part Disney turned out much better than I had anticipated.  Yes, we spent a ridiculous amount of money but the crowds weren't as horrible as they could have been.  I think we hit a nice window after spring break, before school was out and before the heat of summer hit Florida.  The weather was nice.  The few rides with extremely long lines we skipped but there was still plenty of things for everyone to enjoy.  And most of the time the kids got along really well.  It was some really great family time to spend together knowing things would soon be changing with Andrew preparing to leave for a mission.  However, it didn't take long before everyone was so exhausted tears were starting to flow, the money was all gone and it was time to go home.  Enjoy a few highlights of the trip.

Hawaii - One Last Family Trip

My request to my husband was that before Andrew left on his mission for two years I wanted a big family vacation.  When I asked Andrew if he had any suggestions he immediately asked if we could go to Hawaii.  It sounded perfect to me.  I was thinking Maui or Kauai.  My husband wanted to go to Oahu to tour Pearl Harbor.  But Andrew wanted to see an active volcano.  So I booked the trip and hoped the volcano would be active while we were there.  I got more than what I bargained for.  A few weeks before we were due to leave a major volcanic eruption started.  Not the typical calm eruption from the Kilauea Volcano.  This was a major lava flow that was destroying homes and evacuating neighborhoods.  New fissures were opening up daily.  Ash was spewing from the crater and earthquakes were a frequent event.  The National Park was shut down and the evacuation area kept growing.  Suddenly the volcano was too active and I worried about our safety and if there would be anything open that we wanted to do.  We decided the money was already spent and we might as well go to the island.  Kona was far from the volcanic activity and although the air quality was terrible due to the continuing eruptions we hardly knew anything was going on.  We had a fabulous time exploring the beaches on the Kona side of the island. We loved snorkeling with the fish and sea turtles, playing in the sand, watching dolphins, and body boarding.  The one thing lacking was some sunshine with the constant haze and cloudiness overhead.  We were even able to visit the Kona LDS temple.  It was Kaitlyn's first time being able to go inside a temple and do baptisms!

The last few days on the island we headed up to see the top of the mountain Mauna Kea.  It was crazy driving from sea level to over 13,000 ft in less than an hour.  We were finally able to get above the hazy air for a bit.  Then back down the mountain we went to the Hilo side of the island.  We decided to bail on our place to stay in the town of Volcano due to the daily ash eruptions.  Instead we found a charming little house to rent in Hilo complete with a pond the kids could paddle board and canoe on.  We loved the lush vegetation on the other side of the island even though there was a lot of rain that came with it.  We had fun exploring a lava tube and viewing all the waterfalls.

Other than the haze we still hadn't seen any action from the volcano.  I felt sad because that was the whole reason we had picked the Big Island.  We finally heard from some tourists that there was a company that had started doing boat tours out to where the lava flow was entering the ocean.  I had some hesitation knowing my tendency for motion sickness and the ridiculous cost of the boat ride but we finally decided it was our ONLY way to view the volcano.  We woke up at 3 am to catch the 4 am boat from Hilo.  We boarded the boat and headed out the bay in Hilo.  As soon as we were out of the bay I realized my mistake bringing Skyler on board.  It was a ROUGH ride!  Just minutes into the ride he was saying he wanted to get off and NEVER do this ride again!  But at this point we were stuck on the boat for the next 3 hours.  As soon as we had exited the bay we could see the glow in the night sky from the eruption even though we were still miles away.  It was incredible how it lit up the whole side of the island.  Fissure 8 was putting on quite the show spraying lava several hundred feet into the air.  After over an hour speeding up the coast we arrived at the area where lava had been flowing into the ocean.  It was incredible to see lava rock coastline that hadn't existed days ago literally being created right before our eyes.  The flow itself had slowed to a trickle and we couldn't see much lava actually flowing into the ocean but the smoldering fresh lava rock and the lava spraying from fissure 8 was a sight I'll never forget.  I was hoping when we slowed to view the eruption we would get a bit of a respite from the rough ride.  But instead the boat rocking back and forth on the big waves at a slow speed was worse then riding over them and crashing down at high speeds.  Many people on the boat were getting sea sick and soon Skyler and I joined them.  In retrospect I think I'm still glad we did it but from now on I'm keeping my sightseeing adventures on land!

 This day turned into what felt like the longest day ever since it started at 3 am and we were taking the red eye flight home.  We went back to the house and packed up then headed to the south side of the island to drive back to Kona and see some areas we hadn't seen yet.  We spent most of the afternoon at a black sad beach which ended up being one of my favorite outings of the whole trip.  The beach was gorgeous with the black sand, coconut trees and sea turtles resting on the sand.  Skyler thoroughly enjoyed playing in the sand.  We all had fun watching the turtles and the teenage boys kept entertained trying to break open coconuts.  As I sat on the beach watching everyone having so much fun the tears started to flow.  It was all over.  Not just the vacation but it suddenly hit me that Andrew would be leaving in a matter of weeks.  Almost 19 years and it was gone in the blink of an eye.  Although our trip didn't end up much like we had originally planned it really was perfect just to spend the time together knowing we won't have that for a while.

   

Spring 2016

Here are a few random pictures from all of the spring activities.

My mother-in-law celebrated her 60th birthday this spring.  She hasn't wanted to celebrate her birthday with a big party the last few years since it reminds her of when Vance passed away.  We figured we needed to do something to celebrate the milestone birthday though so we threw a surprise birthday party at our house after the kid's piano recital.  Everyone came and set up while we were at the recital.  We actually pulled it off and completely surprised her! This cake Tiffany's mom made for her was perfect!

Andrew on the  podium at the region meet!

Andrew had another successful track season.  Here he is pictured at the region track meet.  He placed 6th in the 3200.  He ran a 4:41 1600 at the BYU invitational and 10:00 in the 3200 in St. George.

Andrew at accolade with Teal Christensen

Andrew had a great time at prom and accolade!  His dates were beautiful!  We had fun hosting his prom group for dinner at our house.

Skyler had his preschool graduation at the end of the year in Miss Erica's class.  He loved Miss Erica but he hated being in front of everyone at the program!  He sat in his chair and stubbornly refused to participate!  He wanted nothing to do with singing songs, saying his part or even wearing the graduation cap.  You can tell he didn't mind the treats though.

I helped coach the youth track club again and Kaitlyn enjoyed running.  She's gotten to be quite competitive and you can really see in this picture how hard she is trying.  She made it to district in a couple events and her relay team even made it to state!

This was just too cute of these three cousins.  We were at the Noble family reunion on Memorial Day.  The food had all been cleaned up and it was about time to go. This watermelon had been brought by someone but no one had cut  it up. Skyler was determined to get some to eat even though we kept telling him no one had a knife.  Well, you can see these cousins found a way to open it and enjoy it!

Jason spoiled me one evening with dinner at La Calille.  It was my first time there and I loved it!  It was like stepping inside a French Chateau.  It was a beautiful spring evening.  The food was amazing and the atmosphere was incredible.  We loved wandering around the beautiful grounds.  This has been one of our busiest years ever and it seems like there is never time to spend together anymore so this evening was wonderful.

Birthdays!

Well, all four of my children have had a birthday while I've taken this long of a break from blogging.  Here's a quick update on a couple of them.

Kaitlyn turned 10 in May.  She had a field trip to the migratory bird refuge that I was able to go to with her.  It was fun to spend the day with her.

Here's a look at Kaitlyn at 10:

Things she likes.  American Girls Dolls, playing with friends, soccer, basketball, winning, scoring goals/baskets, running 5ks, dancing, school, singing, teasing, ice cream, talking, watching TV, reading books, and activity days.

Things she doesn't like: homework, practicing the piano, cleaning her room, getting her hair brushed, when she doesn't get a perfect score at school (yes she's a perfectionist), being teased by her brothers, and going to bed.

Things I love about Kaitlyn:  her happy personality, her smile, how helpful she is (she loves to help me in the kitchen), she still loves to hug me and talk to me, how friendly she is, and how fun it is to have a girl to do things with!

Skyler celebrated his 4th birthday in June.  It kills me to watch my baby growing up so fast.  He's still every one's favorite at home and can cheer anyone up!  He spent the spring digging up my vegetable and flower gardens with his tractors so Jason decided to build him a sandbox instead.  Skyler had a great time helping him build it even though he didn't know what he was doing.  He loved the finished project as well!  We went to the Dinosaur Park for his birthday.  He wasn't so sure about the dinosaurs at first until we convinced him none of them were real.

Here's a look at Skyler at 4:

Things he likes: trucks (he can name every kind of truck/tractor and is frequently correcting me as we drive around town), trains, books, play dough, playing in the dirt, swinging, playing with his brothers and sisters and his friend Ivan, singing the ABC's, going to preschool (once he's there, he still likes to cling to me when it's time to drop him off), and running (especially away from me).

Things he doesn't like: attention from people he doesn't know, being in front of a crowd, getting woken up from a nap, "scary" movies, and being alone (he went through a stage earlier this year where he refused to sleep alone in his room.  He would always sleep in the bunk bed in Jared's room so we finally just moved him in with Jared.)

Things I love about Skyler:  his laugh, his smile, he's the center of attention at our house and knows it, and having him home with me all day.  Sometimes I think about all the things I will be able to accomplish when he is in school all day but I just can't look forward to it.  I love having him home with me all day and think I will be terribly lonely without him!  I sure wish I could find a way to keep him from growing up!

Family Pictures 2015

Family pictures almost didn't happen this fall but we finally found a weekend to squeeze them in.  I'm so glad we did!  I just with these kids would stop growing so fast!