Between Hawaii and LA... Picture Parade

Here are the pics that should have accompanied my last blog entry. Details about our last few days in Hawaii and our travel woes between Hawaii and Utah are in THIS blog entry. These are just the pics and quick captions are are what we call the beginning of an extreme catch up!

I forgot to mention in my last post what a great friend I have in Wendy! She and her husband
Carl pulled together an awesome going away party for our family at the beach near our
home. It was so fun to hang out together with people we love the weekend before we left!

Good food. Good friends. Good fun!

They know how to potluck in Hawaii!

The rebel part of the group who closed out the beach park
and had to be kicked out by beach patrol at sunset :) 

Last day of church with our Honouliuli ward congregation. Pretty sure having the congregation sing Aloha 'Oe and present us with dozens of leis was one of the most emotional things I've ever experienced.

Gorgeous colors and flowers.

My special little Tommy. I love this boy. He calls me "Auntie Mom".

One last beach trip the day before we left Hawaii. We went with the Cummings.

After the beach we had some good ol' Dixie Grill BBQ together.

My heroes and besties. They totally saved the night when they came and helped
do the final scrubbing in order for us to be able to turn in our rental house keys
without leaving a mess behind. And they did it late, late at night with me because
I was so stubborn and wouldn't accept their offers of help before then. Still came to
my rescue. Love these ladies!

Stayed with our best friends the several nights before leaving Hawaii. On our last night there I woke
up with Tommy curled up in bed next to me hehehe. Sweet little thing.

Our Hawaiian Ohana the morning we left Hawaii. When Ben and I were recently talking about the Cummings and I referred to them as "like family" Ben corrected me and said "They're not LIKE family Mom. They ARE family." It's true. We're so grateful for them!

This picture makes me cry. 

The incomparable Durretts. Love these amazing and supportive folks! They took us to the airport
the morning we left. Last of our church ohana to bid us Aloha. Mary is convinced that we'll return
to live in Hawaii someday. I (not-so-)secretly hope she's right.

 

Leaving... on a jet plane. *sniff sniff* (Brady sat next to Willy but didn't make it into the pic. Whoops)

Ben and Toby were seatmates on the long flight. He's not unhappy about sitting
next to Toby, by the way. He was just as emotional about leaving Hawaii
as Willy and I were.

Molly and I kept each other company on our flight.

My last glimpse of the turquoise water just off Oahu. I'm pretty sure the people around me at this point
must have been terribly, terribly concerned for the hysterically sobbing lady in 37H. 

Seeing Kalaupapa peninsula on the island of Moloka'i from the air as we passed over finally
calmed me down. When we'd left that island a couple weeks earlier I worried that I'd never see it
again. Seeing it, even just from the air, gave me some hope that I'd see it and O'ahu again someday
and helped me get a grip and relax for the remainder of the flight.

   

First stop in Los Angeles... In-N-Out of course,
for some burgers, shakes and Animal Style Fries!

The evening air in Los Angeles was so "cold" that Molly and Toby
kept tucking their arms inside their shirts. I had perma goosebumps.

Quick stop at the Los Angeles temple, even in the dark.

Hanging out on Venice Beach the day we had to kill time while waiting for our van to be available for pick up at the docks in Long Beach.

Fascinated by the man on homemade roller blades rocking out with his electric guitar...

There are just no words for some of what we saw
while walking along the beach...

Crazy cool sand sculpture

Climb boys climb!

Hanging out at Muscle Beach.

Molly acted as if she'd never played in sand before. It was kind of hilarious
to see how enthusiastically she played in the sand!

Not thrilled with having to hang out at the mall while the car
battery was replaced at the auto dealership after we picked up
the van from the shipping company at the docks only to find
the battery completely dead and unable to hold juice. What
a way to screw up our travel plans!!

 

Kids weren't quite as bothered by the car trouble delay...

 And that concludes the picture parade from Hawaii to Los Angeles. Next up? Family fun in Utah!! (Whenever I manage to get around to it!)

Bullet Point Update

I know updates without pictures are practically worthless, but my pics are on the computer with Willy about 1900 miles away and if I don't do an update soon everything is going to leak out of my brain and I'll never remember the whirlwind experience of our last few weeks. So a bullet point update it is!

• Loads and loads and loads of Hawaiian Bucket List stuff accomplished between about April and July. Will update on each individually when I have access to pictures! Highlights include a trip to the Big Island, a trip to Moloka'i, a final hula performance, and many family hikes and outings.
• Our last Sunday in Hawaii was much anticipated and a wee bit dreaded. We'd seen other families move off the island and we knew what was in store for us. It happened to be the first Sunday of the month which at our church is Fast Sunday so I had the opportunity to go to the pulpit and share my gratitude and my testimony. My best friend spoke right before me and I turned into a blubbering pile of tears and tissues. One man in our congregation spoke and said that we would go to Louisiana and create a new family among the church members there. And while I believe that to be absolutely true, my church family in Hawaii is my "Ohana" and that's something extra special to me. Our family was invited to the front of the chapel and the congregation sang Aloha 'Oe to us (total waterworks - Ben and I were a complete wreck) and then all came to the front to give us hugs and love and leis. It was amazingly overwhelming and emotional. There simply aren't words to describe the feelings of that day.
• Yard sale after yard sale after Craigslist transaction after Craigslist transaction. That's pretty much how we spent our last few weeks in Hawaii - unloading as much of our furniture and random household stuff as possible. Probably our favorite transaction was selling our full size upright freezer. It was bought and then loaded... into the back seat of a convertible BMW. The guy that bought it had to push his driver seat so far forward to accommodate for the size of the freezer in his back seat that his seat wasn't even clicked into an official locked position. His face was practically touching the windshield as he drove away. I can't tell you how many times I've kicked myself for not taking a picture. It was quite a sight!
• Grateful for a family that had recently moved into our ward (church congregation) who could benefit from a lot of our unsold furniture and unused pantry and freezer items. They helped remove a lot of stuff from our home and we were thrilled to help them get better set up and settled with furniture they didn't have because they'd also left most of their stuff behind when they moved.
• Fifteen years of marriage and four children worth of "keep it" stuff condensed and packed into 20 flat rate priority mail boxes, a dozen or so Media Rate boxes, and a dozen or so Parcel post boxes (plus one bike box and one large frame box). All to the tune of roughly $1500 shipped through USPS and FedEx (versus $6500+ if we'd tried to keep a very small amount of our furniture and sent the same amount of boxes in a cargo container). We were surrounded by boxes, packing tape and bubble wrap for the last few weeks in Hawaii. We shipped allllll those boxes to an incredibly generous and supportive friend who lives about 30 minutes from the town we're moving to. I'm not really sure she understood exactly what she was offering when she said we could ship our things to her, but I'm so grateful for her generosity and willingness!! I can't wait to "meet" her for the first time face-to-face (we've known each other 10+ years online!) and thank her in person.
• Extremely grateful for a last minute fair price purchase of our piano! My best friend in Hawaii had wanted to buy my piano but didn't think it would fit in their home or their budget. When she heard that my original buyer had fallen through and that we were lowering the price one more time she couldn't resist. She wanted a real piano in her home for her children who are all learning to play and she said having my piano was a little like having a bit of me in her home. I couldn't have been happier about this new home for my piano!
• Our last trip to the dump was the first time I had a complete melt-down about moving. I'd had lots of moments of quick tears and then stubborn refusal to continue crying. But when Willy and I went to the dump with our final load, the last thing to go in the bin was an oscillating fan that we'd purchased at KMart for a whopping $15 or so within the first couple days we were in our first home in Hawaii. The fan had saved us on those hot and humid Hawaiian days and nights. As Willy hoisted the fan up and into the giant dumpster he rather ceremoniously said "Farewell old friend. You served us well." I responded with hysterical laughter which turned into gasping for air and the honest fear that I was going to pass out which turned into uncontrollable sobbing. It was such a silly "straw" to break my emotional back but that's what happened. The floodgates were officially opened at that point and trying to control the tears from then on was futile.
• I had to apologize to my two dear friends Michelle and Wendy (and Wendy's daughter Quincie!) who had offered multiple times to help with my purging, packing and cleaning in preparation for the move but whose help I had refused until the last possible minute when desperation finally struck me. I'm not sure if it was pride or stress that caused me to not accept their help sooner but when I finally realized I needed the help and that I simply couldn't do it alone they were there 100% for me. We cleaned late into the last evening that we were in Hawaii. Just like when we moved into that home and those three cleaned and set up my kitchen for me, they took it apart and cleaned it again in preparation for turning the keys back in to my landlord. They even hauled away the last random stuff deemed useful-for-someone and passed it along for us (or put it to good use themselves, I hope!)There just aren't any greater friends than these women. Saying good-bye was awful. Saying thank you was easy, but there weren't really words adequate to express the gratitude I felt.
• Spent the last few nights in Hawaii staying with our dear friends, the Cummings family. We squeezed all 14 people into their home and were as comfortable and happy with the time we had together as we could have ever imagined! It was a GREAT time! They treated us to our first taste of Southern cooking - Jambalaya for dinner one night and grits, bacon and biscuits for breakfast one morning! Delicious!We played and laughed and managed to squeeze in one last trip to the beach together. We cried together. They all woke up to see us off the morning of our flight, and their 13 year old daughter even played a gut-wrenching and BEAUTIFUL version of Aloha 'Oe for us on her trumpet. Clear and true and beautiful music while Michelle gave us each a farewell lei. We cried some more.
• An amazing couple from our ward arrived early (5:30 a.m.!) the morning of July 4th to collect all our luggage and haul it to the airport for us. While Willy returned the rental car, Mary kept me calm and sane. She and Jon paid the porter to deal with our baggage needing to be checked and then waited with me and the kids until Willy got back. They were the last familiar faces to bid us farewell. Their early morning generosity overwhelmed us. Mary is convinced that we'll be back in Hawaii someday. She says we're truly kama'aina and that she expects to welcome us back in a few years. I don't doubt it!
• Once we were at the airport things went incredibly smoothly. Check-in was a breeze, we arrived at the gate just as they started boarding first class and families. We found our seats, got situated, went potty, and then waited (while I tried not to hyperventilate due to the harsh reality that we were leaving...) A flight attendant asked me if we'd had a good vacation and I burst into hysterical sobbing as I explained that we'd been living in Hawaii for four years and were actually moving to the mainland. Poor guy had no idea what hit him. He just kind of patted my shoulder and apologized for making me cry. I was mortified but couldn't shut off the tears. I was devastated to realize that I was on the wrong side of the plane and couldn't see the island as we flew away. I cried when I saw the turquoise ocean water getting farther away. I strained to see out the windows on the opposite side of the plane any time it banked slightly and gave me a glimpse of O'ahu. I sobbed. Ben sobbed. Willy sobbed. We were a wreck. I can only imagine what people around us must have been thinking. A few minutes and a few gallons of tears later we were flying over Moloka'i and I got to see Kalaupapa again. That was distraction enough to help me dry the tears and settle in for the flight. The flight was uneventful, and I finally shut down and slept.
• The boys (including and especially Willy) were giddy when we got to LAX and they got to see so many different planes from so many different airlines landing. Things like seeing billboards again, navigating FAST moving traffic, eating at In N Out, and having to drive two separate rental cars (significantly cheaper than renting a minivan for two days) distracted us from the sadness about leaving Hawaii and we settled into our two-day Los Angeles stay.
• We slept late on Thursday July 5th. It felt wonderful. We were exhausted physically and emotionally from the last preparations and final days in Hawaii. Sleep was welcome! When we finally woke up we headed to Venice Beach and spent the day enjoying street performers, fun shops, watching amazing skaters at the skate park, and playing at a park (where Toby hurt his foot and is still hobbling a week later because of it.) Molly played in the sand as if she'd never seen a beach before in her life. It was crazy but fun. We slept soundly again that night.
• Friday July 6th was the day we anticipated picking up our van which had been shipped on a cargo boat and had arrived a few days earlier. We were originally scheduled to pick up the van on the 5th but there was some west coast dock worker holiday that day ("Bloody Thursday"... I kid you not) and the port office was closed (would have been nice of our booking agent to share that with us at the time of our booking so we could plan accordingly! We weren't planning for 2 days of car rental and hotel. Grrr!) We had to return one rental car, drive to Long Beach and collect our van and then return the second rental car. Annoying but doable, even in LA traffic. But I forgot the paperwork with our booking # on it so we had a bit of a hiccup in collecting the van - had to call Ben (who was still sleeping in the hotel room) and have him find the info we needed. Phew! Then we had to wait our turn - the place was hopping since it had been closed for two days due to the holidays. We went to our van and inspected it for damage. No problems, it appeared. We took care of final paperwork and prepared to leave. But when we put the key in the ignition nothing happened. The battery was dead. Completely. We walked back to the office and they called the service guy to come jump the battery for us. The service guy took care of the battery and told us he has to jumpstart about 30 cars every day since most of the cars had been unused for about 3 weeks! Finally we had our van and headed to the hotel to get the kids and our bags and hit the road. But even after having driven about 1/2 hour to the hotel, the battery wouldn't hold a charge. When we turned off the van it refused to start again. Fortunately our car is under a year old and still under warranty, and fortunately there was a Kia dealership a few miles away, and fortunately we were able to get the van jumped again so we could drive it to the dealership and get in line to have it serviced. UNfortunately there was a several hour wait to have it serviced. So we took the shuttle trip to the itty bitty local mall where we ate in the food court and wandered through a few shops killing time while we waited for our van to be ready. Finally the van had a new battery, an oil change and was deemed road-trip-worthy. We returned the 2nd rental car and FINALLY hit the road... just in time for afternoon LA traffic. *sigh*
• Once we got out of the sprawling LA area and traffic our road trip to Utah was pretty uneventful. Driving such a long distance was a challenge after only ever driving an hour or so at a stretch on the island. We stopped more than most road-trippers do. But we finally arrived at about 2 a.m. in Cedar City to the goofiest welcome ever! My parents and three of my siblings and their spouses were outside standing in my sister's driveway holding signs that spelled "welcome" while doing a crazy little bouncing dance. I laughed so hard I cried. I come from a family of complete goofballs. It was awesome! Unfortunately all of our obstacles from the day had delayed us so badly that we missed all the family reunion fun on Friday, but at least we had Saturday to look forward to with my family.

Whew... I'm wiped out and I've barely made it to Utah in my recap! That will have to do for now. I'll try to blog about all our fun Utah adventures within the next day or two!

To be continued...

I Heart Faces - Photo Challenge Entry - All Boy

I'm really lousy about updating the blog lately... but I've still been taking plenty of pictures. Happy to have an excuse to share this fun picture I took of Toby last weekend at the Banzai Skate Park on the North Shore. This little 6 year old is one seriously focused sk8er boi!

"Sk8er" by Ang Campbell

See more entries and submit your own photo for the challenge HERE.

Learning the real meaning of "aloha"

With a move off the island imminent* we've started attacking our Hawaiian Bucket List with focus and determination. When we left California in 2008 after living there just a little over a year and a half we left full of regrets. We'd never had any reason to think we weren't staying there in California for the long haul so we hadn't felt rushed to explore and experience Northern California the way we could have. Consequently, we left realizing that we hadn't even visited some of the most obvious and amazing places in that part of the world.

So when we came to Hawaii we were determined to make the very most of this adventure and make sure that if we ever left we would do so with no regrets, with nothing left on our wish list of things to experience. As a result, we have experienced the islands like many, many locals never even experience. I've met people who've lived here their whole lives who've never been to Hanauma Bay, never visited the Arizona Memorial, never hiked Diamond Head. We've embraced the adventure of living here and taken part in as many Hawaiian experiences as we could. The happy result is that our original list of things that we wanted to be sure to do while here have been done! But of course we've added things to the list while living here and learning more of what the island has to offer. Our current Hawaiian Bucket List isn't actually very long. It consists of just a handful or so of things we haven't yet done but would like to do. And it also includes a few things we simply want to do one more time before leaving. Things that we've loved doing previously, places that hold special spots in our hearts. So we're packing our weekends with a few new adventures and revisiting some of our favorites. It's a very bittersweet time. But I LOVE that our Hawaiian Bucket List is mostly things we want to experience again. We've taken advantage of this place that we've called home for nearly 4 years. When we leave it will be with no regrets.

 Now in theory, the idea of redoing things that have been particularly special or important to us is a lovely idea. But when we started carefully planning our weekends to include each item on the list and then we actually started executing our plan I realized it was going to be brutally difficult to let go of this place. Ever since Willy lost his job in January I've known we'd be leaving the island, but I've been very selfishly in denial. When I truly think about leaving this place that has such a firm grip on my heart I weep. Every. Stupid. Time. My approach to dealing with the weepiness that results from thinking about the move is to... not think about the move. But we're running out of time, so I've had to think about it. And we've had to get serious about crossing things off our remaining list before we run out of time here.

So two weekends ago Willy and I took a trip to Waimea Valley to "hike" (aka walk up the lovely paved trail hehehe) through one of the most spectacular botanical gardens on the island for Willy to take pictures to his heart's content and for us to enjoy some time in the pool at the base of Waimea Falls. The first time I swam in the water below the waterfall I remember thinking "This is one of the most amazing things I've done in my entire life." The setting is spectacular. The waterfall is breathtaking and powerful. The experience is therapeutic and almost spiritual. I absolutely love Waimea Falls. It's one of my favorite places on the island. And somehow it became the first thing we crossed off our list of do-one-more-time experiences.

It also became the first place I had to say good-bye to.

We stayed in the 65 degree water much longer than we should have. We swam from one side of the waterfall to the other. We let the waterfall current push us across the pool of water and then we swam back to the base of the falls enough times that I lost count. We played together in the water and talked about how amazing the place was. We floated quietly and soaked in the experience. We postponed getting out of the water for as long as possible. But eventually it was time to leave.

As the sun dried and warmed me I studied my environment, trying to memorize the details. I didn't want to forget the beautiful cliff walls surrounding the water at the bottom of the Falls. I didn't want to forget the color of the rocks. I wanted to remember the greenery and vegetation of the valley. The temperature of the water. The slippery rocks under feet as you enter and exit the pool. The blue sky backdrop you see when you're floating on your back looking up at the Falls. I didn't want to forget a single thing.

But then it was time to go. And the most overwhelming feeling of love and appreciation for this place, one of God's most amazing creations, washed over me. How do you tell a location good-bye? How do you express to a place just how much you love, admire and appreciate it? "Aloha" means hello, good-bye and love. For the first time since moving here I think the full depth and meaning of the word reached my heart. I pressed my fingertips to my lips, blowing a kiss of sorts, while looking at the falls and whispered "Aloha".

And I wept. Because that's how I roll.

Waimea Falls, O'ahu, Hawaii

 

And a few of Willy's beautiful shots from the day. Is it any wonder that I'm emotional having to leave this amazing and gorgeous place?!

* Imminent move.... no formal job offer yet so no official relocation destination. But we're anxiously awaiting news from a company that has indicated that an offer is in the works. If the offer is right, we'll most likely be leaving at the end of June or very beginning of July. As bittersweet as it is to leave Hawaii, it will be a huge relief to get out of this limbo state of being that we're in right now and actually know where we're going next!

I Heart Faces May 2012 Photo Challenge

Doing my best to get in the groove of entering the I Heart Faces monthly photography challenge. This month's theme is "Hey Girl". You can't help but see a Ryan Gosling image in your head when you read that phrase, can you? I'll add a few of my fav "Hey Girl" images at the end of this post. In the meanwhile, here's the photo I'm submitting for the May 2012 I Heart Faces photo challenge. I took it a few weeks ago at Pyramid Rock Beach in Kaneohe. Molly was having a blast jumping the waves as they made their way up the beach. I love a well-captured action shot and this one simply made me smile, from the sand flying off her legs to her hair lifting off her head, this was a Molly moment I was so happy to catch through my lens!

This photo was submitted to the I Heart Faces photo challenge – www.iheartfaces.com

And here are a few of my fav "Hey Girl" Ryan Gosling images...