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.

   

New York with Jared

A few years ago we took Andrew to Germany to visit my brother.  We told the other kids that we would take them on a trip when they were junior high age trying to make it somewhat fair that we left them at home.  It was Jared's turn and with my brother now living near Albany, New York we decided to go visit him for a week and spend Memorial Day weekend in New York City.  We arrived in New York and stayed overnight before heading to the city.  It was great to see my brother and his wife again and see the beautiful house they own.  We met their beautiful but very large dogs but found them to be some of the gentlest dogs I've ever seen.  Once they get over the excitement of guests arriving that is.  If you weren't prepared you could actually think a small bear was running up to you.  Jared was delighted to try out Ethan's tractor before we left his house.

We tried to leave for the city early enough we could avoid rush hour traffic but either it's always rush hour in New York City or everyone was trying to get in and out of the city for the holiday weekend.  The drive in was a nightmare and for some reason Jared thought it was a great time to become the world's best (or I might say worst) back seat driver.  Needless to say I was thrilled to hand over the car keys to the valet and not touch them again until we left the city.  I think Jason was thrilled to drive Cecilia's "butterfly mobile" through New York City.

  We had just enough time to take a walk through Times Square before heading to the Yankees game.

We arrived back at the hotel late then Jason and I were up early to go for a run in Central Park.  We were surprised to find so many people out and about at all times of day and night.  It really is a city that never sleeps.  We felt a bit out of place running through Times Square to get to the park but as soon as we arrived at Central Park there were lots of other runners.  We enjoyed the views of the massive park and the city.  Once back at the hotel after a quick breakfast and shower we were off to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  We were finding quickly that lines were long everywhere and a lot of tourists were there for the holiday weekend.  We were glad we had bought our tickets in advance.  The Statue and grounds were incredible and we enjoyed the history on Ellis Island.

Later in the afternoon we made a quick stop at the 9/11 Memorial.  It was touching and a somber place to visit.  We would like to have visited the museum but were running out of time.  We walked over to the Brooklyn Bridge and found it as crowded as everywhere else.  We walked our legs off that afternoon since the subway didn't go a lot of the places we were going.  We finally just headed back to the hotel and found a nice little Italian place around the corner for dinner and were glad to be off our feet for a bit.

After dinner we walked over to the Lion King.  The show was fantastic and we all enjoyed it.  And Times Square all lit up at night was incredible.

It was close to midnight after the play but knowing that we would be leaving the next day we had to fit everything in.  Since nothing was closing down anytime soon we headed to the M&M and Hershey stores and then to the Emipire State Building.  Finally at the Empire State building we were late enough that a lot of the crowd had dispersed and the wait wasn't too long.  And the view of the city at night was pretty spectacular.

Before leaving the city Sunday we attended church in the same building as the Manhattan Temple.  Then we made a quick stop at Grand Central Station.  That was something I never would have thought to do that my sister in law suggested.  I was glad we did because it was quite impressive.  Then we took a quick walk down 5th Avenue and stopped for a bite to eat in Little Brazil.

We spent the rest of the week at my brother's house and planned on spending the time exploring the beautiful countryside but the weather didn't want to cooperate.  It rained the rest of the week.  We were starting to go a bit stir crazy and finally went to a movie one afternoon.  We enjoyed the time we got to spend with Ethan and Cecilia although they were under a lot of stress at the time and I felt like house guests weren't helping the situation.  We attempted to take them fishing one night but didn't have any luck.  Cecilia was quite happy the next day when it cleared up enough for Jason and Jared to try a stream and they brought home a nice trout to eat.  We were able to drive to the Catskill mountains the last day we were there and enjoy a hike to a waterfall.  We also just enjoyed the beautiful property my brother lives on.  Eight acres with a forest and stream.  Along with driving the tractor Jared learned to drive and ATV, played fetch with the dogs in the river, caught frogs in the pond and identified maple trees in the forest.

Sao Paulo

By the time we left Rio I was ready to go home.  Although I knew there was no way a four year old could have kept up with the schedule we were on in Rio I was really missing Skyler.  We were so close to Sao Paulo thought that we wanted to take the kids there and show them where Jason served his mission 20 years ago.  We could have spent a couple weeks touring his mission but school had already started at home, Jason needed to get back to work, and we needed to get home to Skyler.  So instead we did a quick tour in four days.  We were welcomed so warmly by people Jason worked with all those years ago.  Many I met last time Jason and I visited but it was great for the kids to get a chance to meet them.  It was incredible to me to see how much Jason loved the people he served and how much they loved him.  We were welcomed at the airport by Moises and his family and went to their home for a delicious meal cooked by Eliane.  Moises and Eliane were very generous to drive us around where we needed to go.  The older kids felt a little awkward at first not being able to speak to each other and used Jason to translate.  Kaitlyn and Pamela were best friends from the first moment!  They used an app to translate but mostly just spent the entire car ride in the back seat giggling and jabbering away even though they couldn't understand each other!  The next day we were headed to Gauratingata where we met with Juceli and toured the big basilica.

  That evening we spent in Lorena where the members of the ward hosted a Brazilian churasco for us.  The food was amazing and Jason was brought to tears by the number of people who kept coming to greet him.  Herma Maloo insisted we stay at her house instead of going to a hotel and treated us as guests of honor.  Even though the kids there couldn't speak the same language they had a great time playing together. They used their phones to translate and spent the evening playing hide and seek.  We even had a suprise visit from Bira and his wife who live in another city.  We had been planning on meeting up with Bira the next day but he was suddenly called out of town to work so he drove to Lorena for a chance to see us before he left.

The next day Andrew, Jason and I went for a short run in Lorena.  Jason loved showing us around the town, the church and where he lived.  We left Lorena later in the morning with lots of tears.  On the way back to Sao Paulo we stopped in Guara again.  We drove up to the mountains to try to find some waterfalls that Juceli had told us about.  We got lost and ended up finding a small restaurant where we asked for directions.  They wouldn't give us directions but offered for us to hire a guide.  We finally decided it was the only way we would ever find the falls.  He looked like a guy straight from the Austrailian Outback and we were soon bush wacking through overgrown trials down a steep mountain side.  It was a fun experience in the lush forest and the views were worth it!

After the hike we stopped at another friend's house, Bruno.  He owned a pizzeria and made some delicious pizza for us.  After pizza at Bruno's one of the cars headed back to Sao Paulo because Natalia had an appointment but Eliane, Jason, Kaitlyn, Pamela and I stayed in Guaratigata to visit with Herma Ruth, Juceli's mom.  She had been waiting for us all day.  It was late and we needed to get back but we just couldn't leave without seeing her.  She was delighted to see Jason.  She kept jabbering away in Portuguese to me then she would stop and laugh and look at Jason and say she forgot I couldn't speak Portuguese.  Then 5 minutes later she was doing it again.  She adored Kaitlyn and it was obvious she was delighted to see us and made the late night worth it. 

The drive back to Sao Paulo was an adventure to say the least.  Eliane was driving and Jason was in the front seat helping to Navigate.  I fell asleep but woke up at one point and realized even though they were speaking Portuguese we were lost.  Apparently at some point we were headed towards Rio instead of Sao Paulo.  We eventually made it back to Moises's apartment and Omar was waiting for us.  He had found the biggest car he could find but the 5 passenger vehicle was not big enough to fit all of us and the luggage we had brought along for two weeks.  In the end, we left a couple large suitcases with Moises and then we crammed in the vehicle the best we could.  Omar and his family welcomed us into their beautiful home for our last couple days.  They treated us like family and his mother made us a delicious meal.  Kaitlyn didn't get along so well with one of the cats who scratched her.  Omar showed us around the city the next day and it was such a better experience than my first impression of Sao Paulo five years ago.  Omar lives in a very nice neighborhood and knew how to get us around to the best sights.  It wasn't at all the dirty, scary city I remembered from last time.  We went to the top of one of the tallest buildings and enjoyed the view from the top of the massive city.  We wandered through the central market where vendors were anxious to take advantage of American Tourists.  We left some pricey but very tasty produce.  We walked through Japan town, the largest Japanese population outside of Japan.   When Omar had to go close up his shop he dropped us off at the big park in the city center.  We were planning on walking around but then spied some bikes to rent and decided we could see a lot more of the park that way.  We had fun zipping around on the bikes and the kids found some of the best climbing trees ever.  The last stop was Avenue Paulista, somewhere Jason had wanted to take me last time but we hadn't made it.  It is the high end shopping area and happening place in downtown.  We had fun strolling through the malls and the city streets after dark.

On Saturday morning we went to the Sao Paulo temple with Omar and Moises' family.  What a perfect way to end our time in Brazil!  Over 20 years ago Jason had the opportunity to baptize Omar and Moises.  Before he left to come home he was able to attend the temple with them.  In our church one of the most joyful beliefs is that through temple work families will continue beyond the grave and those who have passed on can still accept and receive saving ordinances such as baptism when we perform them for them.  It was so wonderful to have our children and Moises' children with us.  Moises and Omar both served missions and have influenced so many lives for good.  It was such an amazing experience for Jason to see the fruits of his labor.

After the temple it was time to start saying goodbye but the kids convinced us that we had to get some ice cream first.  I guess some traditions don't have any culture boundaries!  It was so hard to say goodbye knowing it will be quite some time before we will see these good friends again!

After the farewell with Moises' family we headed back to Omar's to say goodbye to his family and get everything packed up to go to the airport.  We had just enough time to take a walk around the park near Omar's house.  His brother lent us a bigger car and it was still a tight squeeze but we managed to fit with all the luggage.  It was time to go home but we left our with our hearts full and precious memories.

Photo credit to Andrew for this last shot and many others during the trip.  He had a great time developing his photography talent while we were there.  I love this glimpse of the city he got as we walked around the park just before sunset.  Goodbye Brazil until we come again!