There's a conference in Hawaii?!

I just dusted. That's how far I'm willing to go to not do an update. I hate dusting. A huge reason I don't like cute stuff in our house is because I don't want to dust them. I was at the store with a friend and she picked up a wire ball thing and said I should get it. I asked what one does with something like that and if I would have to dust it. She just laughed and I'm not sure if it was because I didn't know what to do with the object or the fact that I asked if I would have to dust it. Either way it stayed at the store because I hate having stuff, especially stuff that I am expected to dust so that when people who like stuff come into my house they say,"oh I like your stuff." Instead of,"oh, you should dust your stuff." Anyway, all I'm saying is that I hate dusting. Blah, blah blah. Ok, so B needed to get continuing education stuff for work. Last year he just did it online and we stayed home and it was great. This year, he wanted to go to a conference in Hawaii! It didn't take a whole lot of convincing for me to agree to tag along. However, I was worried that A was going to freak out when grandma B came to watch the kiddos. A doesn't really like people. When we go to Costco and people talk to her, she bursts into tears. I was just a little worried about leaving her. I was worried that she would cry the whole time and B's mom would go totally nuts. Taking care of kids is hard, especially not your own and if one of them cries the whole time, it might lead to... swearing. Anyway, we prayed real hard that she would be ok and off we went. His conference was Monday-Wednesday until 1:00. So in the morning I went running and read my book. In the afternoons we hiked and swam and hunted for sea turtles.

We didn't know that there was a temple in Kona and so we didn't take temple stuff but we went to Target on Saturday after we landed  and of course B was wearing a BYU shirt. The cashier was a member and told us where church was and what time. We went and the temple was right behind the church. It was beautiful! It's always amazing to me that the spirit of the temple can be felt even on the temple grounds.

Of course when one is in Hawaii, you go snorkeling. The water was moody and there were some spots that weren't too cold and then you would feel like you were in the Arctic Sea. Truly, the freezing spots were shockingly freezing.

These yellow fish were fearless. Not that we gave them a reason to be scared of us but all the other fish in the sea would swim away. The yellow fellas would swim towards us. I think fish are freaky anyway but to be stared down by one is almost nightmarish. 

We went on a manta ray dive. At night. In the ocean. It was scary. Really scary. I had no idea that manta ray's are so big. You can't tell but they have an average wing span of  14 feet. They don't have a barb or teeth so they can't hurt you. We learned that to get a baby manta ray they lay an egg inside their belly. The egg hatches in utero and then the baby grows and is born alive. Baby is born wrapped with it's wings wrapped around itself, like a burrito. At birth, they open their fins and swim away, they are born totally independent. I thought that was pretty awesome.

The resort had a pretty sweet pool.I hate swimming because the water is always always too cold. B got me a long sleeved swimsuit. It's made out of wet suit material so it was a little warmer, but not enough to be in the pool for real long. Truthfully, I think I lasted about 20 minutes and 10 minutes of that was trying to get a good kissing under water picture. I may or may not have messed those pictures up on purpose just so we would have to try again 😉. 

We rented some paddleboards and from the top of the water, we saw sea turtles! We went and grabbed our snorkel stuff and tried to see them under water.

They were so cool!

Here's my question. Can they give off a film? We would be swimming  and then all the sudden the water would go really cloudy and when it would clear, the turtle would be pretty far away. We tried to give them space but when the water would go cloudy and we couldn't see them, sometimes when it would clear, there would be one right under us. I felt bad for crowding them out, so we didn't linger by them for too long.

See that beach waaaaaayyyyy down there? We hiked down to it. It's a mile down a 25% grade hill. You can drive it if you have four wheel drive. If not, you walk it. The walk down wasn't too bad.

Although I did feel like I was going to fall backwards if I didn't keep walking.

We made it to the bottom and touched the black sand. It was pretty cool. Who are we kidding? I hate sand no matter what color it is. I did everything in my power not to get my shoes wet so the sand wouldn't stick to them. 

Holy crap the mile up was so hard! We both feel like we're in pretty good shape, not perfect, but good enough.  However, walking up hill for a mile at a 25% incline the entire time was a lot harder than we thought it would be. We saw people walking down with their little kids. Taking kids on a walk on a flat sidewalk has potential to result in whining that they want to go home and can't take another step. I feel like the hike up would have been a true disaster with little ones. Like, call in FEMA we need some assistance, type disaster.

This is what all restroom signs should look like. By the time I get around to going, this is exactly how I feel. 

We saw Akaka Falls, the tallest free falling waterfall in Hawaii

We saw Rainbow falls. Not the tallest free falling waterfall in Hawaii.

We saw the glow from the volcano from a distance. We had scheduled a lava hike where we would hike out to the lave flow and see it up close, but our tour got cancelled because of bad weather. This was the closest we got to it. It's probably for the best because I want to touch lava so bad! I can't wait to get to Heaven and be able to touch lava and ride on a tiger and swim with a hippo. It'll be so so awesome!

We saw this cool sea arch. I was standing on the rocks reading the sign and some guy came over to me and said,"um, your foot's in my picture so you need to move." Got it. Sorry that my foot, on land, is going to be in your picture of a sea arch. What a weirdo. 

Hawaii sent us off with one last beautiful sunset. The week had gone by too fast and we were sad to leave but ready to be home. We loved being together and I loved having my boyfriend's total attention. It was cool to hold hands when we wanted to and make out on the couch before dinner. When B was at the conference it wasn't great but the time we had together was amazing!

Our visitors from the south came north and then more north

We love having visitor's. It takes a lot of love to make the awful drive from Utah to this ugly, smelly, boring place. There have been amazing people that have made the journey, and our hearts burst with happiness and thanksgiving when folks say they're coming our way. Welp, we can add some folks to the list. B J and S brought their little 'ens, D and L, and came for a visit! We were so excited to have them! I'm not much of a planner, especially when there isn't anything to do. We did have a great time playing in the church gym. I love having a key to the church. It makes me feel like I am part of an elite group. Now, If I could somehow get a library key too, that would beat all. When people find out I have a church key, their faces seem to light up a little and they ask in an almost reverent voice, do you have a library key too? When I tell them no, their faces fall and all the sudden they have a pressing matter that they need to take care of and they scurry off. I try to holler after them to wait because I have.... and then I can't think of anything to say that would compete with a library key so I just watch their backs as they walk away. I just seem to keep finding all the lines I should have stood in in Heaven, the boob line, the, not socially awkward line and the church library key line. I did muster up the courage to ask the executive secretary if I could get a library key and he truly laughed at me. No lie. He told me that that was not available for members of a presidency, but for presidents only. I can be part of the Costco club, I can be part of the no interest in  Harry Potter club but, I don't make the cut for the church library key club. Sad day. Anyway, I do have a church key and it makes me happy. We all had a great time playing basketball and throwing a football around.

Little B insisted on playing speed with a football. He didn't love that it didn't bounce as good as a basketball.

She was mostly interested in playing peek-a-boo.

A great time was had by all. Now, S and I did play a quick game of basketball which was a blast but of course when the picture takers are playing, no pictures are taken to document that it happened. It did. I lost. Big time. 

Bowling was next.

B got four strikes in a row. That's amazing! I get four gutter balls in a row. For some reason no one wants a picture of that.

We also saw a side of B J that we hope to never see again. We didn't know that S had taken this lovely picture, we just found it on the camera. The surprise was so big that it almost felt like Christmas!

We left our house and went way up north to Silver mountain. Ok, it's not way north, just three hours away. If we're being honest, ten minutes to the north feels like way north to me.  We had a great time swimming in the pool

Surfing on the flow rider with only one major fall that resulted in minor neck pain.

Doing the boogie board was a huge hit. K is so light that when he tried it the first time, the water pushed him right to the top and flipped him over. He got on again and loved it when he figured out how to stay in the water's flow.

The night was full of poking on B's veins and talking about how they are more like a hose than a vein. No joke that this went on for quite awhile. Mmmmmmmmk, weirdo's.

The real reason for the visit to Silver was so that they could go skiing. They loved it.

They loved skiing and loved having B J and D to ski with them. 

B loved having B J there to ski with too. These two are like two peas in a pod.  If you don't know B J and want to know what he's like, just think Kevin James. B J's  funny like Kevin James is and every time we watch something with Kevin James in it we laugh even harder because he reminds us so much of B J.  We loved having these amazing folk come and see us. We kept them up way too late playing games and talking. They put up with us like champs and we hope that we didn't scare them away forever. 

Well, that seems screwy

This is just a talking post. Unless I add a random picture, which I might do. Ya never know folks! As most people know, the wonderful state of Washington that we live very close to and drive into to go to wonderful Costco, has some strange laws. They legalized marijuana a couple years ago. Or maybe it was just last year. Anyway, of course it's all about money and they made some disgusting amount like 2 billion dollars off the taxes. Legalizing it in the first place is a horrible idea and the general public tried to tell the people in charge that. Of course they didn't listen and now are shocked that the number of DUI's has gone up. That just makes me shake my head, sigh and mutter under my breath that people in charge are truly idiots. The next law they passed, very recently is that you are not allowed to drink any fluid or have snacks in your car while one is driving. They say that eating or drinking is too much of a distraction. If a police man sees you drinking water or eating a snack in your car, said law enforcement officer can indeed pull you over and give you a ticket. The only time I don't have my water bottle with me is on fast Sunday. I hope that if I ever get pulled over for drinking my water whilst driving, that I will have enough courage to ask in a very polite and innocent voice,"Why officer, you're telling me that I could be smoking a joint and it's totally legal but because I took a drink of my WATER I am getting a ticket?" There are no words to describe my annoyance. That's it, that's all I have to talk about. Human's that run things are stupid.

Happy Birthday, again!

January is jam packed with birthday's around these here parts. M's birthday comes first followed just three days later by little miss A.

This tiny human turned one. We can't believe that the year went by so quickly. She is small but so so loud. Truly. We thought K and little B were loud, which they are. They pale in comparison to her. She is the loudest when she's tired. Her sounds change from happy loud sounds to mad loud sounds. If  I am on the phone when she's awake, it's not uncommon for people to ask if I need to go because they can hear her in the background. She loves to play peek-a-boo and will do it as often as anyone will respond to her.

Sometimes, she doesn't cover her eyes all the way

But the end result is the same. She also likes to do this

She'll laugh and laugh with whoever is doing it with her.

 She loves books and yogurt melts.Her one year check revealed that she's still tiny. She only weighs 14 pounds and is in fact allergic to almost everything under the sun. The list includes but is not limited to, peanuts, eggs, wheat, milk, chicken, apples and soy. Just in case you were wondering, every gluten free recipe calls for milk and eggs. Most food products have milk, wheat, soy and eggs in them. Not. Great. The pediatrician told us we can feed her everything she's allergic to except for peanuts and eggs. Those two are her anaphylactic  allergies. It seems weird to us that her Dr said we could feed her foods she's allergic to. We are taking her to an allergist but they can't get us in until the end of March. No rush, it's not like we live in constant fear that whatever we feed her is going to kill her or anything.The Dr also said that taking her off all those foods would help her grow. That has proven false. Here we are five weeks past her check up and she hasn't gained any weight. Annnyway, she had a birthday and we shouted hooray!

The thing about turning one is that your day isn't different from any other day. She still wanted a nap and wanted to be in bed by 7. We hadn't found out about her long list of allergies, so we gave her a cupcake.  We thought that she would like it, she didn't. She wouldn't even try it.

She picked up and then put it back down. We thought it was because it was so big so we broke it up for her.

That wasn't it. She didn't want anything to do with it. Who can blame her? Cupcakes are nasty. To say that we love this little thing is a huge understatement. She makes us laugh and sometimes we can't help but squeeze her even though she squawks and pushes you away. She has never been one to cuddle and so a tight squeeze is not something she loves.  We didn't take too many pictures on her birthday but we did take some cute birthday pictures a couple days later. Without further ado, the little ladies photos.

We are totally enamored with our feisty and loud little A!

Happy Birthday!

Would you look at that. January has already come and gone. Crazy! The first week of January is kind of a big deal around these parts. Why you ask? Because someone has a birthday!

This little lass turned 12. Twelve! Not great. Well, it is great and exciting and sad at the same time. I remember when she was a baby and was screaming her head off, because that's all she did. I would look at her and think, I can't wait to be a grandparent. Then I get to send the screaming baby away. Thankfully, her screaming stopped and my days for longing for grandparent status have decreased significantly. Now M, is in YW. She really likes it and comes home from church and the weekly activities talking about how funny the girls are. She lived through her first bishop's interview. She is truly terrified of..... humans mostly. Fact- she won't knock on anyone's door unless someone is standing next to her. She blinks back tears if someone wants to talk to her on the phone rather than just texting. Even when her friends wants to facetime her, she'll answer but put the phone on the counter so all her friend sees is the ceiling. So the thought of talking to the bishop was enough to make the color drain out of her face and the tears to almost spill out. But, She was so brave and came out conqueror! They forgot to call her up in sacrament meeting to say she graduated from primary. When they did it for the girl that turned 12 a few weeks after her she looked at me with huge eyes and said,"They better not do that to me!" I don't know why she is so shy but she's better than she used to be and hopefully can accept the fact that humans probably aren't going anywhere for a while and talk to them from time to time. 

Oh how we love our M! She is working so hard on mastering her backhand spring. She can do it on the trampoline but doing it on the ground is really scary. She loves all things smelly and has bottles and bottles of lotions and body sprays and perfume and hand sanitizer. She wanted those smelly plug in things for her birthday so that her room can smell amazing without her having to spray half a bottle of body spray. Her favorite color is hot pink and she is quite the fashionista. She told me two days before her birthday that she wanted a CC beanie. I asked her what that was and she very patiently explained to me that it is, in fact, a beanie. What makes is so cool is the small piece of leather on the side that has two c's on it. I still don't really get why that's cool but she was so happy that she got one. She loves sparkly things and curling her hair. She is amazing with little A and loves to take care of her. She is very mild mannered and it takes a lot to ruffle her feathers. She's a smarty farty pants and although she says she doesn't like school, she does amazing and has shy little smiles as her teachers sing her praises. Sometimes I miss when she was little and would sing with me, loved buses and called a motorcycle a motaseeka. Sometimes I cry when I think of how fast time goes and how soon she's going to be done with high school and moving on. It makes me want to make good on my threat of putting heavy books on her head so she'll stop growing and just skip her birthday every year so she doesn't get any older. But then I look at how amazing she is and get so excited to see what she does with her life. Then my heart almost bursts with happiness and pride that she's ours forever. Now, for your viewing pleasure, her birthday pictures.

We love her and feel so thankful that she's our smelly fashionista forever!

It's time

It's time to bite the bullet and update the blog. Updating this is like dusting. I put it off until I can see, from a distance, that it really needs to be done. The thing is, folks, that I don't feel like I have anything to say. I could talk about my love of cookie dough, sweatshirts and jackets but all I have to say about those is that I love them. I could talk about my dislike of holes and dusting and cleaning bathtubs but, why? So, what can I talk about? I can say that I am truly shocked that it's been since November 28 since I did anything with this. That's crazy. Let me look at our December pictures and see what I can come up with.

It snowed. Before we moved here people told us that one of the great things about living in this stinky, boring place is that it doesn't snow. Ever. The first year we were here, winter happened just like they said it would. No heavy coats, no closed school for bad weather and no snow. Then last year it snowed. A ton. It was terrible. So far this year it has snowed more here than in the mountains of Utah. One lady at B's work was so excited to spend Christmas in a ski in, ski out cabin in Park City. When they got there, zero snow. Not great. I don't love the snow. I don't love that it's cold and wet and makes the house a mess what with melting snow all over the floor to plague one's sock's. I do however love the hot chocolate that follows being in the snow. Now when I say I was in the snow I mean that I was standing on the little slab of cement outside the garage door so that I could take the pictures. I didn't actually touch the white stuff.

As soon as B set her down in the snow, she toppled over. She laid there with a really confused look on her face. We don't have any snow stuff her size. Her snow pants are a 2T. So we folded them over and secured them with rubber bands. It made her look like a double amputee but, we wanted her to stay warm. Her hands hit at about the elbow of the coat. She would try to touch the snow and couldn't figure out where her hands were. 

Dark pictures are the worst! She loved it for about one minute and then she wanted to be picked up. 

M was very pro,  take A outside. She thought it was adorable that her snow gear didn't fit and she about died laughing when A toppled over. She was quick to remind everyone not to throw snowballs in their direction. She wanted her to stay outside with them the whole time the big kids were out there. Unfortunately A only lasted a few minutes. Then I was very pro, take A inside. It was a fun day if playing in the snow is your kind of a thing. In other non related news, doesn't the shed back there in the background look amazing? Yeah, Costco built it and B painted it. I would like to say that I helped paint it. If you call spilling paint on my jacket and dropping great drops of paint on the cement due to too much on the brush a help, then I was. But when B told me in a very nice voice that I could go get little B lunch and he would finish, I knew I hadn't been as much help as I had wanted to. Rats! Thankfully he was able to fix my blunders and the shed looks great! I will try to be better about making updates but, I make no promises.