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.

   

The Happiest Place on Earth

A year and a half ago when I qualified for the Olympic Trials the Chicago Marathon gave me a generous cash bonus.  Since I knew I would be headed to California for the trials I decided I would spend my prize money on a trip to Disneyland.  My family puts up with so much with all of my marathon training.  The older kids help watch the younger ones a lot when I need to get a run in.  They don't complain that dinner is often late or the laundry hasn't been folded.  My kids are my biggest fans.  They deserved this. The ironic thing is that my parents have lived in Southern California for almost 20 years.  We would visit a couple times a year but never go to Disneyland.  It was usually a holiday weekend when we were visiting and I never wanted to spend that kind of money to stand in line all day.  A year ago my parents sold their house and moved to Utah so I realized we wouldn't be visiting California nearly as often.  My kids were sad because their friends were always taking trips to Disneyland and we rarely did.  Skyler wasn't even born the last time we went.  Unfortunately the Olympic Trials fell on Valentine's and President's Day weekend, the one week in February everyone tells you not to go to Disneyland.  It would be busy but we decided to brave the crowds and go anyway.

First we spent Sunday going to church and visiting my brother in Long Beach.  On Monday we spent the day at the beach.  Unfortunately my brother and his girlfriend were so sick they weren't able to go with us.  My parents were still in town though and we spent an amazing summer (wait this is still winter) afternoon at Huntington Beach!  The beach was packed with people on the holiday with such unusually warm weather.  It was very comfortable to sit on the beach in swim suits and play in the water as opposed to the usual trips in the winter bundled up in jackets.  I was surprised how homesick it made me to go back to Huntington Beach and realize my parents didn't live there anymore.  I know that is silly since they were sitting right next to me but it sure seemed like we should just drive up the street to their house after playing at the beach instead of to the hotel.  Even though I only lived in California a couple summers in college, my parents house felt like home to me and we have so many great memories there.  Still, we enjoyed a beautiful beach day and stayed until sunset!

My plan was to wait until we were on our way to Anaheim to tell the kids we were going to Disneyland.  I thought it would be fun to surprise them.  I also wanted them to feel like the point of the trip to Califiornia was the Olympic Trials instead of wanting to get the race over with so they could go to Disneyland.  They kind of figured it out on their own over the weekend anyway.  We got to our hotel in Anaheim late Monday night then had to drag everyone out of bed to get to Disneyland early.  I was hoping it wasn't a bad sign that we were starting out two days at Disneyland tired!  My biggest complaint the last few times we have gone to Disneyland is that the kids got bored waiting in line and started to fight.  This year they were so good and although the park was crowded, it wasn't quite as bad as I anticipated and the kids were patient when we did have to wait.  We spent the first day in Disneyland and the second day in California Adventure.  Tuesday was one of the hottest days yet.  We enjoyed escaping to the indoor rides in the heat of the day.  There were a lot of rides Skyler wasn't tall enough for but he absolutely loved Casey Jr's Circus Train!  (It was almost worth the 50 minute wait: the longest one the whole trip!)  He was wiped out and asleep in the stroller by evening.  The older boys (Jason included) all loved all the new Star Wars features that had been added since we were there.  I wasn't sure it was really worth the wait to see Chewbaca but at least it was air conditioned!

We were finally back to the hotel and eating some pizza at 11:00 at night and then up early again the next morning for day 2.  This was vacation?  I thought I was supposed to be recovering from the marathon?  I think Skyler enjoyed California Adventure even more.  Kaitlyn and Andrew loved the roller coasters and since the park was smaller we were able to take Skyler to Bugs Life instead of spending our time just waiting for the older kids to get off the rides.  But the highlight for Skyler was definitely Cars Land, especially his favorite, Tow Mater!

The morning started out hot like the previous days but by lunch time some cloud cover had come in.  We knew there was a storm coming and were hoping it would wait until the park closed but by mid afternoon it was cooling off and the rain was starting.  We were still waiting for our fast passes for Radiator Springs Racers and hoping all the rides wouldn't shut down from the rain.  The ride was shut down for a while and we wandered around Cars Land.  Skyler was delighted to just run up and down the streets.  The ride finally opened up but since everyone was waiting for it we had an hour wait to get on.  Skyler was just barely too short and sad not to get a chance to ride.  We were able to take advantage of some fast passes though and ride a few times with shorter waits.  It was really starting to rain hard and getting cold.  We had brought along some jackets but with the rain we were starting to get really cold.  Most of the people had left the park though.  And with the anticipation of heading home the next day and vacation being over we just toughed it out and fit in as many rides as we could.  Everytime someone said they were cold and wanted to go there was another ride someone loved that had no wait and so we went again. We finally made it back to the hotel late completely soaked and exhausted!  We all got home feeling like we needed a vacation to recover but it was back to catching up with school and work that had been put off while we were gone.  But it was so worth it!

Family Pictures 2013

My kids (and husband) all grumble when it's time for family pictures but I do it anyway because I really want them.  Skyler was having a really rough afternoon with a molar trying to break through but we got some cute pictures anyway.

 

Earl's 60th Birthday

Last week Jason's dad celebrated his 60th birthday.  We were happy to have the whole family at our house to celebrate.

The Blackham Family

Earl with his brother, Darrell, sister, Jane and mom, Elna

We thought it would be fun to actually put 60 candles in the cake.  It was except the next day I found that Andrew had accidentally left three in the box so it's really only 57.  He managed to get them all out with the help of the grand kids, even with a few trick candles in there.

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A few weeks before Earl's birthday I started collecting some old pictures to put in a book for him.  It was fun to look back at the pictures over the last 60 years.  Here are a few of my favorites.

15 Years!

Jason and I celebrated our 15th anniversary on Aug 14th.  I was told we have now bested the national average by double.  It has certainly been an interesting 15 years.  The first 10 were spent with Jason in training and we have really enjoyed the last five years moving on with what we dreamed and hoped for 15 years ago although life is never perfect.  We have welcomed four beautiful children into our home.  We've traveled on three continents together.  We've moved six times (four of which were over 1000 miles.)  We've had our share of loss, disappointments and sorrow but there have also been many times of joy, fun, and accomplishment. 15 years is a big enough milestone we should have celebrated by traveling to Hawaii or something but with a new baby this wasn't the year.  Jason instead suggested we take all the kids with us to Salt Lake.  We enjoyed wandering around Temple Square and City Creek.  We had a fun afternoon.  Kaitlyn loved the flowers and I found myself wishing I could hire a maid for my house so I could spend all summer in my flower beds and have them look like the one's at Temple Square!  Jared wondered what we were going to look at when there weren't Christmas lights up but we were surprised to see they were already working on putting them up.  The kids were quite entertained with the rock climbing gear they were using to install lights on the trees!  Later in the evening Jason and I were able to get away for an hour to go to dinner.  (That's been harder to do this summer!)

60th Wedding Anniversary

This month my Grandma and Grandpa Daines celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. What a great accomplishment!  I know everyone thinks they have the best grandparents but I really do.  I always loved going to Grandma's house when I was little.  I really thought I had the nicest grandma and of course you could never leave without Grandpa giving you ice cream.  You can see how much my grandma loves these great grandchildren in this picture with Skyler!

Marriage isn't always easy and my grandparents are a great example of love and service to each other.  Grandma has had poor health as long as I can remember and Grandpa has always been so good to her! Grandma is an amazing pianist although her health has kept her from playing much as she's gotten older.  She is a wonderful cook and we could never go to her house with out being fed a fabulous meal! When Jason and I were first married she would love to feed the poor starving college students a meal.  She wouldn't let Jason out of the house until he had eaten at least three helpings!  I have wonderful memories of the best homemade Thanksgiving dinners at Grandma's.  In the past several years Grandma and Grandpa took up making chocolates for Christmas.  They would give a box to each of their children and grandchildren.  Jason asked Grandma one year to put coconut in all the chocolates.  He figures since I didn't like coconut that way he would get them all.  Grandma said the only problem with that is she doesn't like coconut either so I still got lots of chocolates to eat.  Grandpa is a wonderful gardener. As soon as it is late enough in the spring to start planting he's out in his yard until frost in the fall unless he's inside helping Grandma preserve the fruit and vegetables.  We've always been lucky to benefit from his huge garden since they grow way more than two people can possibly eat.  They are always sending us home with raspberries, corn, tomatoes, peas, really anything you can grow in a garden!  Some of my best memories of growing up are of their cabin in Island Park that Grandpa built.  He even built a Barbie house for me that looks just like the cabin he built that Kaitlyn plays with now.  One day a repair man was in my house working on something in the basement and asked about the Barbie house.  He said, "My daughter would love one of those!  Where can I get one?!"  Only Grandpa's granddaughters were lucky enough to get one of those!  I feel fortunate to be one of the oldest grandchildren.  My dad's parents were both older and had both passed away by the time I was starting college.  While it is getting really hard to watch my grandparents age I'm grateful that I have had so much time with them!  Thanks for the great legacy Grandma and Grandpa!

We celebrated with a party at my Uncle Clifford's house this weekend.  It was fun to see cousins I don't get to see very often anymore.  I suddenly realized my mom was sitting next to her three siblings and that I probably don't have any pictures of all four of them so against their protests I grabbed a picture.

The oldest girl in this picture is my youngest cousin Natalie.  She's only four years older than my son Andrew so they've grown up thinking of each other more as cousins.  She is such a fun girl and my kids love playing with her!