Monday I worked on getting Alice packed while the kids were at school. After homework, we drove to Ogden to get our Covid tests. The Walgreen there could only test three of us at a time, so while we waited for a bit, we got a car wash, vacuumed the car, then got ice cream. We got results back later that night and found out we were all NEGATIVE!! Adam stopped by after dinner and gave us some new Hawaii shirts from Grandma! Dan and I worked on packing more.

Tuesday I deep cleaned the basement... almost all of it! Around 2 in the afternoon, Nicole Boes and I visited Meghan Johnson for her BD! Ben, Anna, and Bethany, played up at Graces for a bit. I worked more on the basement then Bethany had dance and Ben had Backstage. We had leftovers for dinner in an attempt to clean out the fridge so no food would go bad while we're gone. We packed kids' carry on backpacks that night and I showered and painted my toes and finished packing! It felt so good to get so much cleaning done before we left!

Wednesday, Adam was so nice to be here by 4:45am to drive us to the airport. Getting through security went fine. Boarding the plane went fine. Then we sat on the plane and waited... and waited... Eventually the pilot came on the speaker and told us they got a "caution light" that wouldn't allow them to take off until it was fixed. We got off the plane and waited at the terminal until they told us our flight got bumped so late, we would miss our connecting flight out of Phoenix. They were very helpful in rebooking our flights for free. PS- this was our first time in the new Salt Lake City airport and it's really nice! Our original flight was on American Airlines. Our new flights would be on Delta (to San Francisco), and then on United (to Honolulu). We had a 5-6 hour layover in San Francisco and sadly, because of a mandatory 10-day quarantine for anyone landing and staying in that county, we were not even able to leave the airport to explore. We also had a little bit of a hard time tracking down our one suitcase that came with us from Salt Lake. It was eventually located and we hung out at our United gate for a long time. The kids watched movies, we napped, and we ate free food thanks to some food vouchers American Airlines gave us. The kids loved playing on the moving sidewalks. We also waited in line to show our negative Covid tests and get a wristband so we wouldn't have to wait in more lines once we landed in Honolulu and show the Covid test there in order to leave the airport. More of us slept on the flight to Hawaii and I decided even though it was a very long day of wearing a mask, I was thankful it covered my mouth hanging wide open while I slept. :) We finally landed in Hawaii around 10pm their time, which was 1am in our brains. Dan's parents rented a 15 passenger van which was so nice to have! We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house around 11:30pm and got everyone to sleep quickly. It was Such. A. Long. Day of travel, and I was very grateful I experienced very little motion sickness!

Thursday everyone "slept in" till 7am Hawaii time, which was 10am in Utah, so that was pretty impressive. We ate, took our time getting ready, gave everyone baths, and even colored with Grandma. Dan brought his Mandalorian sweatshirt he ordered and was too small for him, and it was a perfect fit on Grandpa! We left to hike to Waimea Falls. We loved seeing the beauty of driving around the North Shore as well. We saw a mommy chicken on the side of the road with her babies. The Waimea Valley is so green, and lush, and to me, shows the true beauty of Hawaii. The botanical gardens are so lovely. It's a nice paved walk to the falls and we took tons of pictures of plants and creatures (a giant snail, a gecko, beautiful birds). You can pay to swim at the falls, but we did not.

Next, we ate a picnic lunch at Waimea beach. We changed into swim suits and played in the sand and water and relaxed! We spent 3.5 hours there and only got minimal sun burns. The waves were just big enough that they were fun to play in, but not too scary. The best part was we even saw a whale! The kids loved the sand, Alice took a nice nap, and Dan was able to join a Young Men Zoom call where Harrison Bartschi called in from his mission in CA to talk about mission preparations with the priests quorum. We went home and got all cleaned up and had a spaghetti dinner. We played Skyjo with Dan's parents after kids were in bed. I felt so grateful for beautiful weather and an amazing first day!

The birds on our boogie boards were zebra doves.

Friday morning Grandma spoiled us with Hawaiian waffles (coconut syrup, chopped bananas, coconut flakes, chopped macadamia nut, and whipped cream toppings!). We saw my sunblock fails on Anna and Ben from the day before. We had a leisurely morning and then had a brief shopping trip to Halaewa. Alice was very concerned her "friend" (the mannequin) didn't have a face. :) We had lunch at a nice restaurant called The Beach House. The fries were amazing giant potato spirals. Then we went back to the house and took the 4 youngest to the park behind Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was so beautiful to play at a park with the Laie Temple in the background! Grandma and Grandpa were then nice enough to babysit Bethany and Alice while we and our older three went zip lining! McKenna, Ben, and Anna all said this was their favorite part of Hawaii! Anna looked terrified on the first line, but then it quickly turned into a huge smile! Again, we were spoiled with perfect weather! Our guides were Jordan, Lad, and Jen.

Dan's parents were DOUBLE nice and babysat ALL the kids while Dan and I went on an early Valentine's date. We got dinner from Lei Lei's and then ate it on the Turtle Bay golf course. We walked to a nearby beach and sat and talked while the sun set. We had a bit of a tricky time finding a place open to get a treat, but we landed on Angel's Ice Cream in a strip mall. While we were gone, Grandma and Grandpa fed the kids and then took them to the temple grounds to run around. They were in heaven! They also watched "Moana" with popcorn. After kids were in bed, we played the golf card game with Dan's parents.

Saturday we were lucky enough to join by Zoom and watch Tanner Johnson's baptism! We had cereal and muffins and started some laundry. McKenna was the hero of the morning and babysat while us 4 adults went on a helicopter ride!! This was in place of Dan and his dad going sky diving. Our pilot was very experienced and even had a fun music going in our headsets. Unfortunately, for some reason, my headset didn't work. Also unfortunately, I felt very motion sick the whole time. I think the music would have been a nice distraction, but oh well. The views were amazing and the ride was about 30 mins long!

Turtle Bay Golf Course

We were home for lunch and then went to Temple Beach to play for a couple hours. When I told Alice were were going to the beach again, she said, "There won't be sand." I guess she wasn't a fan, but she warmed up to it quickly and thankfully. We found a coconut shell washing around in the water.

After the beach we showered and got cleaned up and then headed to the Polynesian Cultural Center. I LOVE this place! Good food and amazing entertainment is always welcome! We first went on a canoe ride, then visited the "village" of Samoa where the kids tried poi ball and we saw a fun demonstration and someone climb a coconut tree! Then we headed to the Luau. We got beautiful leis which sadly made Bethany's neck itch like crazy. The kids were amazed at the real pig being cooked for our dinner then taken back to the carving station. We all especially loved the purple rolls and purple ice cream made from the purple yam, ube. After dinner, we killed some time by walking around the shops a little and the kids played with more poi balls. The kind lady who owned the shop gave a set to Alice as a souvenir. Lastly, we saw the show, Ha! Breath of Life! The music and dancing is so wonderful and Alice even watched the whole thing. She loved the "fire spin" at the end. We hung our purple leis on the curtain rods in our bedrooms back at the condo. After kids were in bed, we did a little planning at home and Dan and his dad ran an errand to get diapers for Alice and gas for the van.

Sunday morning we had our usual oatmeal and Dan and McKenna joined their Zoom meetings for church. Grandma and Grandpa did their study time. I showered and kept laundry moving. The kids tried on their matching Hawaiian outfits! We held an at home sacrament meeting and loved singing hymns with Grandma and Grandpa. We left the house by 10:30 and headed to Pearl Harbor. Before we went in, we met up with Liv Mortensen who is a missionary serving on O'ahu from our Bountiful Stake. She needed us to take home her old ukulele since she bought a new one recently. It was so fun to see her! We walked around the museums and saw the history behind the bombings. We had a wait a bit to get on the boat out to the memorial, but the stand by line came through for us! We ate a picnic lunch in the parking lot while we waited. The kids were well behaved at the memorial and seemed to understand the significance of it.

Afterwards, we drove to the Punchbowl cemetery. We found the name of Dan's great uncle, John J. Webster. During the attack on Pearl Harbor, he drove to his plane at the Haleiwa air strip, got off the ground, and was able to shoot down some of the Japanese bombers. He was sealed to his wife a few days after Pearl Harbor in the Laie Temple as military families were being shipped back to the states. She never saw him again as his life was lost at sea in the Gilbert Islands. Dan's great grandparents moved back to Hawaii after the war because they believed he could still be alive.

After the cemetery, we stopped by the Pali Lookout which surprisingly had minimal wind. Back at the house, we had Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner. Alice loved the air conditioning unit blowing her hair. We took a walk around the temple while Grandma made cookies. We finished watching the "Lorax" and put kids to bed and played Golf again.