Together in Island Park

Adam returned from his mission on August 21st and  fall semester at BYU was starting  September 4th, which meant we had a whole lot of things to squeeze into a little less than two weeks' time.  In addition to needing to let Adam decompress for a minute and have some time to go through his stuff, he needed to write and give a homecoming talk and we hosted an open house, we needed to get Adam settled into his new apartment before the semester began, we needed to do a little shopping for him to update the shoes and clothes he'd been wearing for 2 years straight, and, most important of all, we wanted to be able to gather all together as a family for the first time in 2 years. 

Whew!  It makes me tired just looking back and thinking about all the things we squeezed into those couple of weeks!  

I touched a little on the first few days he was home in this post, and now this post will be dedicated to capturing our family gathering we held in Island Park, Idaho the following week.  We picked Island Park because we wanted to go somewhere within a reasonable driving distance of home and also because our family has made a lot of good memories there over the years.  

We had a loose schedule for things we wanted to do while we were there, but we tried to leave some flexibility built in, so we could allow the kids (who are actually all adults) the freedom to help plan as we went along and also to allow the actual kids (Lucie and Oliver) time to take naps most days.   One of the spontaneous activities the kids got excited  about was choosing t-shirts for each other and then wearing them all at the same time. We drew names and spent a few hours wandering around West Yellowstone shopping for each other, which is where these pictures were taken. 

 The results were hilarious and we laughed as we went to dinner at the Gusher in these, then onto see Anastasia at the Playmill.   Both the Gusher and the Playmill are traditions for whenever we visit Island Park/West Yellowstone! 

 

Don't ask me how or why this next part developed, but Emma, Cami, and Adam somehow decided they were going to run a 1/2 marathon together in Island Park.   Adam was fresh off his mission and clearly hadn't trained at all.  The girls had a little more running under their belts, but it was a stretch for them as well.   They wended through cow herds and through the beautiful scenery and all three accomplished their goal.  Glen, Denali, and I met them along the way to bring them water, and to cheer them on! 

We also had an ongoing quest to eat as many s'mores as possible, which meant we had a campfire going  most nights. 

We toasted and ate a lot of marshmallows and just enjoyed the opportunity to sit around the campfire together.

Then campfire time would usually morph into appreciating the night-sky time.  The stars were amazing! 

We did some exploring in the area, including this trek to Big Springs to see the ginormous fish and gorgeous scenery. 

We saw some wildlife...

We hung around the cabin (which we'd rented on VRBO) and sent some postcards (of course)...

We took Lucie on a little nature walk and she filled a bag with all sorts of interesting things she'd found while wandering around the cabin. 

We  wandered into Yellowstone on the  last day of our Island Park adventures, including visiting Artist Point and Old Faithful.  The kiddos were very tired this day and we'd checked out of the cabin, so we kept things as easy going as could this day before trekking to Idaho Falls for the night. 

All in all, it was a great five days together and we very much enjoyed lots of good food, gorgeous scenery, and time together.  The only downside was that Spencer didn't end up being able to come.   We hoped that by picking somewhere somewhat close to home (a 5 hour drive), that he'd be able to come for part of the week at least, but, in the end, it ended up being too hard finding care for Kiwi, so he stayed home.  😢

And, no,  I'm not done yet with the late August/early September updates.  Stay tuned....

May the 4th Be With You!

I just thought I'd take this opportunity and say, "May the 4th be with you!" to all of you dear blog readers!     

And since Lucie might just make for the cutest "May the 4th" greeting ever, I think I shall inundate you with lots of pictures of our favorite {and only} grandbaby! 

Glen just spent the last week there and had an absolute blast getting to play with sweet Lucie all week while Mommy and Daddy went to work! 

He was basically Lucie's servant for the week and whatever Lucie wanted, Lucie got.  She wanted to go on a walk; Papa would take her on a walk.

  She wanted to read books; they would read books.

She wanted to see the animals;  they went to the zoo. 

Lucie wanted to try out a cheesy new hair-do; no problem!

Lucie wanted ice cream..er....actually that might have been Papa wanted ice cream, so Lucie got ice cream too!  

He  brought Cam and Lucie fishing....

and taught Lucie how to say, "fish".

It's hard to say who was more enamored at the end of the week..Glen or Lucie!   This is an actual picture of  Lucie when they dropped Glen off at the airport.  She'd been happy up until the moment when she realized Papa was walking away from them.   Glen is happy to be home, but felt the same way about leaving them behind.    

How did I celebrate my May the 4th?   I just bought Ellie and I tickets to visit Lucie {and her parents} next month!  Yay! 

For the record {in case it wasn't abundantly obvious}, I am rather fond of this grandparenting time of life. 💗

Hawaii: Part 3--Snorkeling and a Bus Ride

This day was Adam's and Spencer's to plan.  They started off with a morning of snorkeling and their original vision for the afternoon included an activity a little higher on the adventure scale, but, alas, the ATV tour they wanted to do ended  up not being available, which is how we all ended up on a bus tour of Kualoa Ranch instead.   In all honesty, it was probably for the best since Lucie wouldn't have been able to come on the ATV tour, meaning that we would have to split up otherwise.  I was happy to stay together and I loved seeing behind the scenes at Kualoa Ranch.   

Kualoa Ranch is an amazingly beautiful 4000 acre private nature reserve on the Eastern coast of Oahu that has been owned by the same family for many years.   They've pledged  to keep it private, though the land is estimated to be worth over $1billion today.   They use it to film movies, grow sustainable crops, and bring people on tours.  There weren't any movies being filmed there currently (that we knew of), but we very much enjoyed getting to appreciate that lush, rich beauty up close and personal. 

Here's a recap of our day.  

WEDNESDAY, MAY 25

• Adam had a  zoom call with a temple worker from the Hawaii Temple to touch base and make sure  he was ready for his appointment for live endowments later that week. 
  
  
• Ate breakfast and gathered our snorkel gear

• Snorkeled at Shark’s Cove.  We had heard that Shark's Cove was the cheaper/less crowded alternative to snorkeling at Hanauma Bay.   For the most part, we agree with that assessment, however with a few caveats from someone who's never been to Hanauma Bay.   The fish and turtle viewing was pretty spectacular at Shark's Cove, however the shoreline is pretty rocky and I think it would have been better at high tide. I definitely recommend wearing neoprene socks or some kind of protective gear for your feet whenever you go.   Even still a few of us got a little scraped up, though I think it was well worth it for the experience and it was very nice that it wasn't overly crowded.   

 PS  for the family record:  I have a slight phobia of oceans and rivers (moving water), so my snorkeling session lasted all of 5 minutes after which I was scraped up, a little freaked out, and ready to be on Lucie duty!  

• Shark's Cove is literally 5 minutes from our AirBnb, so we just headed back when we were done snorkeling to grab lunch and to get ready for our bus tour. 

• While we were there, we did a taste test different flavors of Hi-Chews.  If you haven't noticed a trend yet--we decided to do a taste test per day in Hawaii.  As a family, we really like food and and it was fun to take turns choosing and planning what to taste test each day.    

• Beautiful drive to Kualoa Ranch along the north and west coast--we hadn't been to the windward side of the island yet and we were amazing by the extra gorgeous scenery through there. 

• Bus tour of Kualoa Ranch--we especially enjoyed seeing the sites for a few well-loved family movies--like Jumanji, 50 First Dates, Jurassic Park, and Jurassic World 

• After the ranch tour, we drove to Halaweia for dinner at Halaweia Joe’s --it was pretty expensive, but the food was excellent.  I highly recommend if you're looking for a nice place to eat on Oahu.
  
  

I got the grilled salmon.  😋

• After dinner, we walked to Scoop of Paradise for some ice cream.  It wasn't the best ice cream ever, but it was decently good and the perfect way to round off a lovely day!

• After we got back to the AirBnb, we played a few rounds of Pit, I wrote some postcards, and enjoyed the sunset! 

Hawaii: Part 2--a day of hikes

We had each kid help plan a day of this trip.  This was partially done to help my relieve my stress level, but ultimately it ended up being a great way to make sure we got a variety of types of activities.  If one day's activities and food didn't suit your tastes, then you got to make your day exactly the way you wanted it!   It honestly was brilliant and I wished I'd thought of it before earlier trips.   It took a lot of the pressure off me trying to plan things to make everyone happy and I loved that the kids were good sports and never complained if something wasn't their favorite.   We are definitely doing this again for future trips!  

 Day #2 was planned by Cami and Garrett...and I hear Lucie may have helped a little too.  It included a sunrise hike, that involved getting up well before the crack of dawn, so we figured we may as well make this our first full day in Hawaii while our bodies were still confused about what time it is.   Spending sunrise and sunset on the beach was pretty awesome!  See below for Day #2's fun:   

TUESDAY, MAY 24

• Rolled out of bed at 4:30am.  Hawaii is 4 hours behind Utah time, so it wasn't as hard as it could have been.  However, we'd awakened at 3:00am the previous morning to catch our flight to Hawaii, so we were pretty exhausted! 

• Drove to Turtle Bay Hilton and hiked to Kahuku Point  (about 1-1/2 miles or so)

• Watched the sunrise
  
  
  
  
  
  

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•  After the sun rose, we just enjoyed being on an empty beach together, even if it was filled with sharp rocks that made nervous. 
  
  
  
  
  
• A few of the kiddos discovered some tide pools and started finding all sorts of great little critters.   Adam was totally in his happy place at those tide pools! 

• After thoroughly enjoying our first taste of a Hawaiian beach all together, we headed back to house to grab some breakfast

• Drove to Diamond Head State Park -- the hike wasn't that exciting, but there were lots of stairs and spectacular views overlooking Honolulu and the Pacific Ocean at the top.

• Eat lunch at Koko’s Northshore (great pork)  and shopped for souvenirs

• Hike to Manoa Falls (1.6 miles RT, rocky trail, sometimes muddy, elevation gain, but not too bad)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Dave’s Ice Cream at Rainbow Country—we had read good reviews for this place, but were a little surprised and disappointed to find it located inside of a convenience market (hence all the liquor signs behind us). 😂 The ice cream was a little above average, but nothing special.  
  
  

• After those adventures, we headed back to the house for a bit,  packed up our dinner and had a picnic at Waimea Bay Beach Park.  We just chilled there at the beach, watched the sun set, and then watched as someone brazenly was breaking into someone's car right in front of us.  (We called the cops, but didn't confront him).  For the record, Lucie likes Hawaii!  

• After a long day of 3 hikes and watching the sun rise and set, we were happy to head back to the house for showers and a gummy worm taste test planned by Cami and Ellie
  
  
• Thanks for planning an awesome day, Garrett, Cami, and Lucie!