June 2019

Malachi is learning to love the beach!

I took the boys to Bellows beach after dropping off the girls at girl's camp.  They had fun playing with their friends.  There were a ton of Portuguese man of war jelly fish there, so we didn't go in the water much.  Our friend's little boy got stung twice, so sad.   

Girl's camp 2019

Joseph is 18!

I used some of my piano lesson money to buy the little boys an indoor jungle gym to keep them busy and hopefully get them to stop climbing on the furniture and walls, it didn't really work, but they still enjoy climbing on this!

We hiked to Waimano Falls.  Travis says this was his favorite hike so far.  He really enjoyed the rope swing and jumping into the water below, both Caleb and I did it too.  

Joseph is a good big brother, and was wrangling Gideon during Sacrament meeting

This haircut is ridiculous on Caleb, in fact as soon as we got home I gave him a haircut.  We were at VBS (vacation bible study)

This is one of Gideon's favorite things on the cruise ship, he got ice cream several times a day

Plate spinning on the cruise ship

Malachi's face when I told him Grandma and Grandpa were here on the ship!

Our hike on Maui

beautiful flower and a gecko

Going down and up this road in our 4wheel drive 15 passenger van was quite an adventure.  We were all scared for our lives, and holding our breath at quite a few tight spots.  But Travis drove like a pro, and got us to and from the waterfall safely.  I think this was his favorite part of the trip, and Betsy said it was her favorite too.  

This is the waterfall at the end of the crazy road, I tried to get a good family picture, but couldn't get everyone looking the same direction with a nice face at the same time.  

Travis ordered these stuffed mushrooms for his dinner, he couldn't believe how tiny they were.  

Hawaii has the coolest trees to climb

Malachi threw a major temper tantrum when we boarded the cruise ship after one of our excursions.  He was running off after swiping his card (that you need to get everywhere) and acting like he was going to throw it off, so I chased him down, and grabbed him and took the card away.  He was upset I caught him, and then didn't want to go up the stairs, so having to try and get him up the stairs, and he was not calming down, just kept crying and screaming.  He was making such a huge scene, that the captain of the ship came over and tried to calm Malachi down, he was really nice, but Malachi wasn't calming down, so he eventually left, and I was able to calm Malachi down finally.   

Samuel had the cruise ship on the palm of his hand

Going shopping in Kaui was fun

This was a very short hike, but Betsy had a hard time with, and didn't like it, Travis carried her up all the stairs.  

This was towards the top of Mauna Kea.  We were planning on leaving the little kids at the visitor's center, but it was closed, so we tried taking them all the way to the top.  We had almost gotten to the top, when I noticed Gideon was looking sick, and Malachi's eyes started rolling into the back of his head, and he was starting to have a seizure.  So we quickly drove back down.  Then I realized my phone was missing, so we dropped these guys off here with Grandma and Grandpa and drove back and got my phone from our last stop.  

Malachi was excited to be a pirate at the splash academy (kid's activities on the ship)

This was a hike we did in Kuaii

Betsy and the Na Pali Coast line

Malachi and Caleb doing a show with the splash academy.  Malachi was a cute tiger!

Betsy with her new dress she got from Grandpa on the cruise!

June was a busy month as well.  We had girl's camp for Austin and Betsy.  They camped in an open grassy field near the beach at Bellow's Air Force Base.  Betsy did not enjoy it, because it was too hot, and she felt sick most of the time.  I think Austin enjoyed herself more.  Samuel and Joseph had YM camp, Travis and I did cub scout camp with Caleb, we had VBS (Vacation Bible School) I volunteered in the snack room, and helped with the food.  The younger kids all were in groups and the older kids except Betsy (who didn't feel good) all volunteered as group leaders or a helper (In Samuel's case).  Then we had our Big family vacation, a 7-day cruise around 4 Hawaiian Islands, that my parents came with us on.  Everyone had a good time.  Everyone enjoyed the food on the cruise ship, especially Joseph and Samuel who could eat all they want!  We ended up in three different cabins on the ship and we were all in different areas of the ship.  Joseph and Samuel were with Grandma and Grandpa.  Travis had Malachi and Caleb, and I had Austin, Betsy, and Gideon.  Both of the girl's dealt with some motion sickness, but were given gingerale to help.  We got to explore on each Island and got to participate in a lot of fun activities on the ship.  The Magician and Comedy shows were really good, and Samuel and Austin got called up on stage during the magician show, and had fun helping with his act.  I enjoyed being able to drop off the little ones at the Splash Academy for a few hours so we could enjoy some shows and nicer dinners without the kids.  Although they ended up calling us to get Gideon a lot, and by the last few days he wouldn't go at all.  But Malachi and Caleb loved it, and had a great time!  We went on several different hikes and a couple different beaches on the different Islands.  Austin, Grandpa and I got to go snorkeling on a special excursion and saw beautiful tropical fish and turtles and had a lot of fun doing that.  We drove to the biggest mountain in Hawaii and almost made it to the top before we had to turn around due to sick little ones, and drove down a crazy narrow, steep, bumpy road to get a really tall waterfall.  We got some shopping in too, and ate at a few places, but mostly ate on the ship.  It was a really good family vacation, and was worth the cost, as our kids will start leaving home, and this will probably be our last vacation as a whole family.  It was a great way to explore a lot more of Hawaii.  Joseph turned 18 years old on June 9th, I can't believe my tiny baby has grown up and getting ready to leave home!  My birthday was the 12th, I got to go on a hike and then have a yummy vegetarian dinner with Travis, and came home to a clean house (thanks to Austin).  We also had father's day where we took care of Travis for the day.