Planting Pumpkins

Sister Flynn asked the boys if they would like to plant some pumpkins and gourds with her.  She has a great apple orchard and recently started planting some Christmas trees.  She thought it would be fun to grow pumpkins this year. She has never grown them so she did lots of research and bought all the necessary supplies. The boys went over yesterday and planted a few of each of the four different kinds of pumpkins and 2 different kinds of gourds.  She's hoping that they can grow enough of them to have a little business and sell them for Halloween.  She is so good with the boys.  She has a lot of patience and love for our family.  I love that she is teaching them to work hard and it's the perfect project for her to do with them since I don't have a green thumb.  

6th Grade Field Day

It occurred to me this past week that I should be getting really sad.  It's my boys' last couple weeks of elementary school. Maybe it means a little less because I thought last year was their last year since they were going to be in middle school in Spain.  But nonetheless, it started hitting me yesterday as Mario and I sat in the stands and watched our boys compete against other sixth graders around the district.  They set up a track and field day at the high school and had the kids each sign up for 4 events.  Of course Zach was all over this.  He loves competition.  Nate didn't want to go.  But I told him that he should wear Erin's lucky basketball shorts and just go out there and do his best.  Erin would be proud of him no matter how he did as long as he did his best.

He signed up for the 50 meter, 100 meter, the long jump, and the cross country race.  Zach signed up for the 50 meter, 400 meter, long jump, and cross country.  He was also chosen to the A team for a relay race at the end.  He had to try out for the team and was the second fastest. 

Nathan finished first in his 100 meter heat and went on to the semifinals.  We were so proud of him.  He ran hard.  

Zachary made it to the finals in the 50 meter race and came in second place overall.   So that was very impressive.  There were some fast kids out there.  His team took third in the relay so he was slightly disappointed.  The girls A team took first and so did the boys B team.   So their school did very well overall.  

It was so fun to watch these boys hang out all day with these friends they have been with the last four years.  It made me sad to move away again.  One highlight from yesterday was watching the last boy come around the corner in the cross country race.  He was from our school.  A whole crowd of kids from Trumble Park ran out on the field to help him finish the race.  It made me tear up.  These kids love and support each other when it really matters.  They made us proud.

Eric is Home

Eric moved back home for the summer and we couldn't be more thrilled.  We love having him home.  He even pops up to do dishes without being asked after dinner.  He enjoys playing with his little brothers too.  

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.