Mexico Cruise

I won't  go into a lot of details about talking Mario into a cruise to Mexico.  He kept saying no until I asked him for a trip to Hawaii instead.  Then he agreed to the cruise thinking that would be much cheaper than Hawaii.  Little did he know that the prices for Hawaii would come down and he would eventually agree to both trips. The cruise to Mexico was so much fun because it was with friends.  Greg and Lindsey Anderson were going with Deven and Britany Dicus.  They casually mentioned that we should go too.  I jumped on the chance because I needed a break from our cold winter in Nebraska.  I promised Mario that I wouldn't ask to go on any expensive excursions and I held true to my promise.  We did take a cheap bus trip to some Mayan ruins and we actually really enjoyed them.  It was so interesting to hear their history and see how it fit so perfectly with the Book of Mormon.

Little Pooh Bear has made many trips around the world with Mario and I.  We bring him along so we can send pictures back to Nathan.  He loves it.

I looked through my pictures and haven't found any of the women together, but I have a few of the men.  We laughed so hard that I thought my sides were going to burst all week long.  We played hand and foot about a million times.  I thought we would never want to play it again after that week but we even continued to play it in the airport on the way home and have played it many times since.

I can't help but think this water is the Waters of Mormon.  It is exactly how I picture it in my head when I read about it in the Book of Mormon.

Nathan's Broken Arm

I'm having a hard time keeping up with my blog.  So I am having to go back a few months and update it.  One significant 2016 event happened in February while my sister, Melissa, and her two boys were visiting along with my mom and Nonnie.  The boys were all playing outside and Melissa and I were inside making some homemade pizza.  Nathan came in and complained that his arm hurt.  He had fallen off his Ripstick because he was riding downhill very fast while an unknown adult was walking up hill and not moving out of his way.  He swerved to not hit the stranger and ended up falling on his arm. One look at it, and we knew it was broken.  I called Mario who was just leaving the gym and told him to meet me at the emergency room.

The doctor confirmed what we thought and Nate would need surgery the following week to set and cast it.  We had a slight problem with that because Mario and I were flying out Sunday night to go on a cruise out of Texas Monday morning.  We quickly called a friend who is an attorney and had him draw up power of attorneys for my mom and Sister Pat Flynn so they could take care of Nate's medical needs while we were gone.  It was hard to leave him and we thought about canceling, but we believe that the Lord works in mysterious ways.  We think this happened at this time so Nate can prove to himself that he is strong and can do hard things.  It wasn't easy for anyone, but Nate made it thru and was able to get his cast off a few weeks before flying to Hawaii.

Hawaii-Day 7

It as Monday, our final day.  Everyone begged to extend except Eric who was anxious to get back to his busy life for some reason.  We started the day with some boogie boarding after I watched the sunrise.  But our fun ended when Mario got stung by a jellyfish.  He ran into the cabin to take care of it and the kids and I decided to go in also.  We were scared to get stung as well.

We packed up and barely fit all our luggage back into the SUV.  We said our goodbyes to Bellows and headed to the east side of the island near where we lived before. Saying goodbye to this beach wasn't easy.

Mario wanted to hike down to Eternity Beach.  There are signs like the one below posted but it didn't look dangerous as long as we didn't go in the water.  I'm sure we are bad parents missing good teaching opportunities by ignoring these signs.  Oops.  

The water was way too rough to swim. Even the locals weren't swimming that day.  I didn't remember hiking down there before, but Grandma sent me this picture of the big kids inside a cave down there:

After hanging out there for a few minutes, we headed to Hanauma Bay in Hawaii Kai.  It normally costs $7.50 a person but they let us all in free for military. That was great because I wanted to give Nathan another chance to snorkel.  He was so excited (and scared) because he saw an octopus.  He started to swim really fast away from it.  So fast, that I thought he saw a shark!

After snorkeling, we headed to the Boston Pizza by our old house.

Then we went right next door to 7-11 for Slurpees. We would walk by that 7-11 after school every day when Eric was in kindergarten.  We stopped every Friday if he didn't get in trouble with his school teacher all week (stayed on green.)

There's his old school.  That is his kindergarten pod.

And here's our old town home. What a beautiful place to call home for a year.

After touring our old town for a few minutes, we headed to the Hale Koa to swim and take showers before our flight that night.  We then rushed to the airport, turned in our car, checked our luggage, and took a walk down the street to one of our favorite restaurants there-The Big Kahuna.  The location moved so it wasn't the same.  But the food was just like we remembered.  Even Eric remembered their sandwiches.  It was with much reluctance that we boarded our plane for home.  Red eye flights are horrible and we didn't get much sleep.  It gave us plenty of time to wish the plane would turn around and return to Hawaii.  We had a wonderful week and I look forward to the next time.  This time, I'm not waiting 11 years to go back.

Hawaii-Day 6

The next day was Sunday.  Sundays are always a little tricky on vacation.  Serena and Katie had to take Kayla to the airport early Sunday morning.  They wanted to get together with us afterwards.  The best activity that I could think of for trying to keep the sabbath day holy was to do a short, easy hike up to Manoa Falls.  We had done this hike many times in the past.  Zach had told me several times that he wanted to visit the rainforest and this was his best opportunity.  He was excited to hear that part of Jurassic Park was filmed here.  I can't even describe in words how beautiful the scenery was on this hike.  I'm sure my family was sick of hearing me constantly tell them how beautiful I thought it was there. At one point I thought of Erin and wished she was there with us to enjoy the beauty.  But I felt at peace knowing the veil is very thin and she was probably right there with us.  I also had the feeling that what we were looking at couldn't hold a candle to what she is experiencing everyday.  So that eased my mind.  But I could tell that Mario was sad throughout the hike.  He thought of Erin the entire time.  It broke my heart.  She is sure loved and missed. What comfort to know that we will be together as a family one day.

Here's a picture from the falls many years ago:

After the hike,we returned to Bellows to rest and shower up before Sacrament meeting.

We decided to attend church near Bellows and it was very different than our military ward we attended when we lived here.  I loved the spirit of that ward and they were very friendly to our family.  We left after Sacrament meeting and spent the rest of the day playing games and taking walks on the beach. It was by far the most relaxing day so far which is good since it was the sabbath.

Only one day left before we fly out the next evening. Those trees with the beach behind it was our view from our cabin.  Unbelievable!