Hawaii Day 2

I was recently talking to one of the youth at church that had just returned from Hawaii.  She told me her favorite hike was Koko Crater Railway Trail.  I hadn't ever done that trail and so I put it on the top of my to do list in Hawaii.  We drove by it and told my kids we were hiking it and they all thought I was crazy.  It was a trail straight up a mountain.  I assured them that we could do it and off we went.  It is a very popular hike with at least a couple dozen of cars parked at the bottom of the mountain.  Most of the people I saw coming down from the trail looked like they were in their early 20's and in fantastic shape.  In fact, most said they run it.  The boys had no trouble.  They didn't run but they only rested as they waited for me a few times.  Eventually I just told them to go on without me.  It was tough and I had to rest every 20-30 railroad ties after awhile.  There are just over 1,000 of those ties going pretty much straight up the mountain.  It must have taken me about 45 minutes to get up it.  The kids probably did it in 25-30 minutes.  Mario was kind and walked slowly with me.  The views from the top were beautiful and I guess worth that torture getting up there.  It was only about a mile from our first house in Hawaii so it was beautiful checking out Hawaii Kai from so high up. Going down was so much easier, but my legs felt like jello for the next 4 days. These pictures don't do that hike justice.  It was brutal, I tell you!

After hiking, we headed to Pearl Harbor.  We had tickets to go out the Arizona Memorial, but we didn't want to wait any longer.  We were all hot and tired from our hike and I still had plans to go to the swap meet.  So we toured the museums and headed out.

The swap meet was exactly as I remembered it.  Here is what it looked like all those years ago.  Thank you mom for this picture.  That's Mario with his "Spam" shirt.

 It is located at the Aloha Stadium and it has booths set up around the entire outside of the stadium.  Almost all the booths sell the same things. So you technically could just walk a quarter of a mile and see about everything there is to buy and the prices are all pretty similar.  But there was one booth that I insisted on finding.  It was unique. It is called Toe Jam and it sells toe rings that are custom fit for you. So they aren't adjustable like all the other toe rings.  I had one when I lived there and when it broke several years later, I have never been able to replace it.  So we had walked 3/4 of the way around the stadium and then I spotted it.  I was so excited. I bought myself and early birthday present.  Besides the toe ring, we picked up a couple shirts and souvenirs for friends.

Everyone was desperate to find the car at the end and get into air condition and find some food. We were a long way from the cabin, so we decided to take the kids to one of our favorite pizza chains there-Boston Pizza.  It was a lot more expensive than we remembered but oh so good.

We returned to Bellows for another evening of swimming and BBQ.  It was a great day! But hey, everyday is a great day in Hawaii!!

Hawaii Vacation Day 1

I had promised our boys that I would take them back to Hawaii one day.  We moved away when they were only 18 months old so they don't remember it at all. When my visiting teacher, Pam Shumway, told me her son was getting married in Hawaii in late April, and the plane tickets were a good price, I begged Mario to go.  He reluctantly agreed after much persuasion and promising that this wouldn't delay us paying off our Venice home.  We felt bad because Eric wouldn't be able to join us because it was the week of finals.  But at the last minute, he was able to arrange his finals and go with us.  I'm so grateful it worked out for him or else I would have felt really guilty going without him. He had to come a day late to take one final but that worked out fine.

We left Monday, April 25 and after some delays, we made it to Hawaii around 7 pm.  We grabbed our luggage, hopped into a rental car, and headed to our favorite beach.  We had reserved a cabin at Bellow's Beach for the week.  Unfortunately it was dark by the time our plane arrived into Honolulu, so we couldn't really enjoy the beauty as we drove to our cabin.  We were exhausted because of the time difference (5 hours) so we went straight to bed.  There's nothing like sleeping in a cabin on the beach with all the windows open and hearing the waves roll in.  We slept so well.

The next morning, we woke up early and drove up to Laie to do baptisms with the boys.  It was about an hour drive.  I wish I had pictures and videos of the boys' wide eyes as we drove up along the two lane road squished between beautiful green mountains on one side and an amazing ocean on the other.  Th boys now knew why I called Hawaii, their birthplace, Paradise.

The Laie Temple is beautiful.  I still remember President Hinckley coming to Hawaii to dedicate the new entry into the temple.  After the very long prayer, Erin who was only 3 or 4, said very loudly, "Wow, that was a long prayer."  I'm sure even the Prophet heard her.  The boys weren't excited about starting their vacation off in a car for an hour long car ride to the Temple.  But it was important to me to show Heavenly Father my gratitude for allowing us to come back after so many years.  I thought it was the perfect way to begin our vacation.  I hope they agree with me.

After the baptisms, we headed to our favorite breakfast spot, the BYU Hawaii cafeteria.  Mario and I would trade off with the kids while the other went to the temple when we lived there.  One would take the kids to eat and the other would take the kids to the beach while we waited on each other.  The boys loved their giant pancakes with strawberries and whip cream.  Mario loved his local breakfast that included rice, a meat patty, egg, and gravy.  

After breakfast, we headed down to Waikiki for Mario and Zach to take a chartered fishing trip.  Nate decided at the last minute to join them.  I had to pick up groceries and get Eric from the airport, so I didn't go.  They said the fishing wasn't great, but they did see a whale so I would call it a success (even if they look slightly grumpy in that last picture.)

With a trunk full of groceries and Eric with us now, we headed back to Bellows for a BBQ and evening at the beach.  Mario and the boys were in heaven and would have been fine not leaving that beach until time to fly back home.  But they have me for a mother (and wife) and I had a plan to see everything.

Two Rivers Camping

We took our first camping trip of 2016 this weekend.  The weather was in the mid 70's during the day and the low was in mid 40's overnight.  So with my heater blanket, I was toasty warm.  Eric agreed to join us but decided at 11 pm that he wasn't excited about waking up as early as the Boy Scout troop next to us.  So be headed home to sleep in his comfy dorm bed.  But we still loved our time with him until he headed home.

Mario, Nate, and Zach enjoyed their usual tin foil dinners filled with hamburger, sausage, potatoes, and green beans.  Eric and I went for some filet mignon and ribeye with corn on the cob.

Becky Jones came out with her three younger kids and joined us for s'mores after her ward talent show.  Zach and Eric went fishing.  Nate hung by the fire and wrote our names and initials into the wood.

Mario made a big pancake and bacon breakfast.  It took me just as long to boil water for the hot chocolate as it took him to make the entire breakfast.  Apparently I need to practice my hot chocolate making skills.

Nathan's Memories From 2015

I'm sure 2015 is a year that my family would like to forget.  But Nathan's teacher asked the whole class to reflect on their year and this is what he came up with:

Zachary's Self-Assessment 6th Grade

Heart Attacks for Valentine's Day

Last night for FHE, the four of us wrote out little messages about the things we love and appreciate about one another.  Of course we included Eric, Erin, Buzz, and Sophie too.

Passing Time Until We Could Leave Spain

We had to stay in Spain about 10 days after Erin's passing.  Those 10 days felt more like 3 months.  We were so anxious to leave the place that we were so excited to move to just 2 months before.  Everything about Madrid started to irritate Mario and I, especially the traffic and very slow government.  Some things became a nightmare, like waiting for a judge to sign off on the release of Erin's body to the US government.  I was determined to pass the time as best I could.  Mario and I forced ourselves to get out of the apartment even though we would have preferred to crawl up into a ball and cry.  We needed to get out and live for our three boys.

The first place Nate and Zach chose was the castle in Segovia again.  They were anxious to show Eric since he wasn't in Spain yet when we went the first time.   So just 3 days after her passing, we made our way to the castle.  It was a tough day, but we made it through.

The US Ambassador to Spain came to our home and offered his condolences.  He was very kind and gave our family a very nice apartment to stay in downtown while we waited to fly out.  From our window, we could see the Real Madrid soccer stadium.  Again, the kids and I forced ourselves out of the apartment and took a very expensive tour of the stadium while Mario took care of work stuff.  The boys got to see Ronaldo's locker and got to sit in the players seats down on the field.  It was pretty cool to walk out on the field.  It was a little disturbing to us how much the people there worship their soccer players.  It seems that everything in Madrid revolves around their soccer.

Frank Torano and his wife (who Mario was replacing in Spain) were the most amazing angels to us in Spain.  They took care of everything so we wouldn't have to.  I mean everything!  We were so blessed to have them with us.  The boys really liked Frank.  He was so much fun and often came with gifts. One night, he showed up at our apartment with his hair clippers and asked the boys if they would cut his hair.  There was some huge smiles on their faces.  It provided a needed distraction for our family.

The day finally came that we felt comfortable that Erin was in good hands and that we could finally fly back to the United States.  It was hard to leave Spain without her and I remember coming close to tears several times on the flight back.  But we were anxious to be reunited with our extended family so it was good to be going home.