Monday was back to school and back to normal routine life. I did laundry and cleaned the laundry room, caught up on my friend Marco Polo chat, and worked on making a picture collage for Dan's parents as a thank you. When I picked McKenna up from school, she told me she had one of her weird episodes where her eyes go blurry, her hand goes numb, she had eye pain, headache, and nausea. This the 4th time she's had this in about a year and a half time. So I called the doctor and we got an appointment for the next day. In the afternoon after homework, I listened to my homework and made a double batch of lasagna. Afrer dinner we ran our envelope of thank you cards to David who was heading to Hawaii the next day. We also got courtesy cones from Arctic Circle. After kids were in bed, McKenna and I went over her Jr. High class registration stuff.
Tuesday I took McKenna to the doctor and after our discussion and Dr. Wirkus testing her reflexes and strength, he said he was 95% sure McKenna's weird episodes were migraine related! He said due to the fact that she makes a full recovery and that these episodes are not picking up in frequency, made him think it was migraines. He suggested what to take the next time she feels it coming on (300mg of Ibuprophen and Acetaminophen, and some caffeine. Thank goodness it wasn't something more serious! After lunch, I started another 6 week personal history story writing class with Sarah Moulton. Unfortunately, I had a bad internet connection. Ben went to rehearsal and Bethany had dance. After dinner, I went to book club at Jacquie Cloud's house discussing the Magnolia Story. We're missing some people in this picture, but I sure love these friends!
Wednesday morning Alice gave McKenna's squashmallow, Flash, her binki and blanket. Alice has also been very into playing with Mrs. Potato Head. I volunteered in Bethany's class, the kids had piano and McKenna and I had a virtual meeting with a counselor at South Davis Jr. High to help talk about her classes. Bethany had a make-up dance class and Dan had a late work meeting while I did baths. After kids were in bed, Dan and I started watching "Master and Commander" with Russell Crowe because someone in the ward said Dan looked like him from that movie. :)
Thursday was crazy hair day at south campus and McKenna could dress for her favorite decade at north campus. She chose the 20s. Bethany wanted 10 braids in her hair and Anna and Ben had butterflies and stickers in their hair. This was my first day back to exercising after a long break and it felt really good. Alice seemed to be more recovered as well from our travels and was nicer and more pleasant. I called Jonathan and took the kids to their activites. Dan did a Nerf gun fight for YM and McKenna made a murder mystery movie for YW.
Friday after homework we had Desi, Mabel, and Brittana here and Bethany went to Mia and Adam's house. I picked up Bethany, Ellie and Clara around dinner time and as we dropped them off at their houses, we picked up the boys to take them to a boy cousin movie night for Eli's BD. McKenna babysat the girls at home and Dan and I went on a date to Blue Lemon and then shopping around Farmington Station. Then we picked up groceries and watched Jojo Rabbit after kids were in bed.
Saturday after breakfast, I cleaned the vacuum and the laundry room. Dan and Ben cleaned Ben's bathroom and went through his clothes. I took McKenna shopping and got some new Easter decorations. Anna had a play date with her school friend Zoe Martineau. Henry Alexander came to play with Ben. I had some computer time. Dan did baths and we had tacos for dinner. We watched "A Wrinkle in Time" in the theater room and sweet Bethany cried at a particularly sad part where a sister thinks her brother is dead. After kids were in bed, Dan and I finished "Jojo Rabbit."
Sunday we went to church, Alice sat with Dan for some of the time again. We did primary at home. After Zoom lessons and lunch, I got dinner going in the crock pot. I watched "Don't Miss This" and had my conference call. McKenna also had her book club with Mickelle and Kaitlyn. After dinner we watched "Relative Race" and I worked on the blog.
Feb. 2021- Part 4. Hawaii- Part 3.
Kuoloa Ranch, sleeping grass, Ben and Dan at Hukilau Beach, Avitarify
Monday after breakfast we went snorkeling at Pupukea (Shark Cove). It was a little busier than we thought it would have been due to the President's Day holiday. The kids and Dan did well with it. I, on the other hand, felt like I was going to hyperventilate every time I put my face in the water and breathed through the snorkel tube. We saw tons of fish and Ben even took some pictures with his underwater camera! Grandpa held Alice for a while and she loved dipping her finger in the ocean water and then licking it. She liked the saltiness! We picked up some lunch on the go from Haleiwa and then headed to the airport to pick up the Stewarts. We drove to their hotel and then went to Ko'Olina to swim and play for the rest of the day!
Brynn took these fun cousin jumping pictures! When we arrived at Ko'Olina, there were signs and ropes up around a large Hawaiian Monk Seal. That was cool! Our kids loved having some cousins in Hawaii now to play with! Alice liked playing in this water more than other beaches because the waves were pretty minimal. Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to buy hot dogs, grilled cheese, fruit, chips, and salad for dinner that night. We ate on the beach and managed to catch a lovely sunset. We got home to the condo by 8pm and got kids to bed then we played Qwirkle with Dan's parents.
Tuesday Dan's parents needed to do some mission stuff, so we left by 9:30am to meet the Stewarts for a hike! We hiked to the Makapu'u Point Lighthouse. (We wanted to hike Diamond Head, but it was closed.) To the lighthouse and back was 2.5 miles on a paved trail. It had lovely views of the ocean, but was quite hot! The kids did well! I'm also so thankful there were no signs posted to wear a mask. We also saw a couple whales out on the ocean!
(An old dormant volcano)
We had lunch in the car from Jack n the Box, then we met everyone at the Dole Plantation. We took the train ride around the farm and enjoyed a very refreshing Dole Whip treat.
On the way home to the condo, we stopped at the Hukilau beach. Since we were only going to be there for less than an hour, we thought the kids would just dip their toes. Well, it didn't take long for everyone to get in wearing their clothes! We also stopped at a roadside fruit stand and bought a mango, a dragon fruit, and a breadfruit. We didn't really know what a breadfruit was, so we never ended up preparing it, but the others were delicious!
We got cleaned up at home and had dinner together. The kids did funny face swap pictures. After the Stewarts left, I showered and went to bed.
Wednesday we met Stewarts at the Chinaman Hat Beach. There weren't any waves, but we still had fun. The kids found a dead fish which they buried. Brian, Joe, Katie, and McKenna started trying to make it across the water to the Chinaman Hat island, but McKenna turned back about a 1/3 of the way there. We ate a picnic lunch on the beach then changed into our matching shirts for the Kualoa Ranch tour!
The Jurassic Movie Tour we went on was amazing! The kids loved how bumpy the jeep ride was. They loved seeing places where movies were filmed! And once again, it was so green and beautiful!
The Gyrosphere ride launch pad from Jurassic World movie.
Lifting a log made of foam.
The bone yard from Kong: Skull Island.
The Indominus Rex Paddock from Jurassic World.
Bethany's hair was so curly with the Hawaiian humidity and she loved it! :)
That evening the older cousins babysat while the adults went to dinner. Due to Covid restricitons, most restaurants could only seat 5 people together, so we opted for food from the Elephant Shack food truck and ate outside. It was delicious Thai food. Later that night, I stayed home with Alice and Bethany, and Dan took the older three, and everyone else, to go net fishing with the Bishop of Dan's Parents' ward and the priests quorum. The Bishop lays the net in the water, then on his signal, everyone runs into the water splashing and yelling scaring the fish which then swim into the previously laid net. They caught about 17 fish and then the Bishop and his wife had hot chocolate and french bread. Ben LOVED it, and McKenna hated that her hands still smelled like fish the next day. :) Anna was just happy to be with Dan the whole time.
Thursday morning after breakfast, we visited BYU-H and saw Grandma and Grandpa's office as well as the bookstore. Even though I attended BYU in Provo, being on this campus brought back so many wonderful memories of my college years.
We stopped at Ted's Bakery for some pies, then went shopping for souvenirs in Haliewa. I also got some Acai and we ate lunch at Teddy's Burgers.
Next, we went swimming one last time at the Hukilau beach. Clara and Charlie joined us while the rest of the Stewarts went zip lining. It was a little colder than other days and it even rained on us a little, but it was still fun of course. Towards the end, Dan got slammed to the ground by a wave. Thankfully he rolled on his side pretty quickly so he landed on his shoulder instead of his head. We headed home to the condo, got cleaned up, packed, had dinner, and left for the airport around 8:45pm. We returned the rental car, rearranged some stuff in our luggage because our bag was too heavy, and our red eye flight left at 11:30pm. The big kids watched shows and I finally had to tell them to turn them off and try and sleep some. Alice thankfully slept the whole time!
3 generations of Webster men!
We landed in Phoenix at 8:30am and barely had time to make it to our next gate, so no breakfast for us... yet. Also, Anna picked up a cold while we were in Hawaii and was coughing quite a bit. Not great during Covid times. Every one of us slept on the way from Phoenix to SLC. Adam was nice enough to pick us up again! We unpacked, did laundry, put stuff away, and ate a McDonald's breakfast for lunch time here. We "watched" Harry Potter #1, which meant Dan and I slept the whole time. Around 4 we did more laundry and unpacking and had dinner. After kids were in bed at normal Utah time, Dan and I stayed up also until our normal 11pm bedtime.
*We're SO thankful to Dan's parents for hosting us for 8 days! This trip could not have been possible without them and their generosity! "Thank you" seems inadequate. We're thankful for their example of missionary service as well!
Saturday morning I remember looking at my clock at 7:15am, then going back to sleep until 9:30!! Everyone slept in until the 9am hour! It felt so good. At 10am I woke up Bethany and Alice. Alice cracks me up! If you ask her what time she woke up, she makes up a time. For example, this particular morning she said , "I woke up at two eights o'clock." After eating we watched the Churchwide "Friend to Friend" broadcast. I took down Valentine's Day decorations, Dan gave himself a haircut and cleaned out our shower drain. After lunch, Dan picked up groceries and we worked on writing thank you notes for Grandma and Grandpa. I worked on my Primary singing time video then we decided to take advantage of all the snow that fell while we were gone and we went sledding at Lewis Park and took Henry and Desi Alexander and Mabel Yeats with us! After dinner and baths, Anna went to Mabel's for a movie night and the rest of us watched "Godmothered" in the theater room. I recorded my singing time video and we went to bed kind of late.
Sunday it was announced that we no longer needed to divide the ward membership into attending every other week, and that we could now attend EVERY week in person as long as we stay below 150 people! The streaming option is still there, but this is overall great news! Also, Alice actually took a brief turn sitting with Dan. She was being a punk and Dan noticed and texted me to send her up. So I happily did so. For at home primary, we watched my singing time video. During lunch we tuned into my dad's Sunday School Lesson. I did my usual things in the afternoon of watching "Don't Miss This" and my family conference call. Alice had a hard afternoon asking for many many snacks and I eventually said no, so she cried and cried. That evening, we had dinner at Dave and Laurie's which was also a surprise BD party for Eli. It was great to be with everyone!
After kids were in bed, Dan put new screen protectors on our phones and I went through my phone pictures.
Feb. 2021- Part 3. Hawaii- Part 2 Videos
Temple Beach, PCC, Alice is Mona, Snorkeling, Ko’Olina, Hike, Dole, Hukilau
