February 2024- A Visit from Grandma & Grandpa!

 After the mowers come, these white birds called egrets like to come eat whatever insects get stirred up. 

Occasionally I let Rocket in the house with me while I'm working. Not too often though, because he is distracting! Also notice how I'm wearing jeans and a very light jacket? Sometimes in the morning it's chilly (like 68 or 69). Often by the afternoon I have to change into my shorts though.

Coen's basketball game- I got a video of him making a shot!

Beautiful flowers at the temple:

After exiting the temple I could see massive waves at Temple Beach. I told Brent I wanted to go check them out. It was so windy at the beach that we only looked for a minute. 

Brent had many rounds of interviews at BYUH for the full-time position equivalent of what he's doing now as a visiting professor. After interviews, the final 2 or 3 candidates do what is called a campus visit. Typically, the candidates and spouses are flown out to Hawaii where they will go to dinner with the search committee, go to the PCC, and the candidate will do a research presentation & teaching demonstration. This is a poster advertising Brent's research presentation and teaching demonstration (which was just one of his actual classes here). Brent prepared so much for this!

It's fascinating and slightly scary to me when it's time to trim the coconut tree:

Ava is in a cat phase thanks to Rocket.

Hanging out in Brent's office after we put the kids to bed. Sometimes Brent will ask me to keep him company at night while he's working. This night I brought my book, the Orphan Collector.

Coen got very into Wonka after watching the movie and also reading Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. He and Audrey put shirts on their head to make their hair brown and green, respectively. Haha. Then he asked me to film a tour of his chocolate factory. Ah this is the cutest age.

Coen got to go on a fieldtrip downtown. It's over an hour drive from here, so I gave him some Dramamine for his bus ride. They went to the legislature at the state capitol and then saw a play at the children's theater. Coen says, "the play was called Super Aunty and it was pretty boring. But there were funny parts. I got to meet someone who makes the laws too." You can see his little blond head in the front/left of this picture.

The 2nd graders at the legislature. They do some cool fieldtrips here!

February 8th was Audrey's half birthday. We put a candle in an orange for her :) Since she is a summer birthday, I asked her teacher if we could celebrate at her half-birthday. I brought cupcakes to her class, and Audrey was thrilled that she got to choose something out of the birthday box. After this she proudly tells everyone, "I'm four AND A HALF!"

We watch the unbirthday song from Alice in Wonderland on half/birthdays. Audrey wished that she "can play with Velzy every day."

My cute girlies. I left Ava babysitting the kids (having a movie night) while I went to a book club. The book club is with women whose spouses all teach at BYUH. It was so nice to be among people in my same boat! I got lots of good tips/tricks/advice, and met amazing women.

I was working at home, when I felt the ground moving. I looked over and saw the bookcase swaying a bit. I text Brent, did you feel that earthquake?? He thought his chair was just moving. I googled it, and sure enough, there was one centered on the Big Island. The kids were super sad they didn't notice it at school.

Audrey and Velzy going on a walk, with me behind them. I say this a lot, but oh to be a child in Hawaii. It is warm year-round, and the kids run around so carefree. 

Ava made Rocket a king, complete with a crown and everything. He enjoyed it. 

We left Ava babysitting for another night and went to hear Elder Rasband speak at BYUH. We sat with the Rappleyes, our missionary friends. It is so cool to live in this community and get so many opportunities to go to firesides, devotionals, etc. 

Sister Rasband spoke about following the prophet and having the courage to do the right thing. She told a funny story about an interaction she had with the prophet (where she arrived late to a meeting and he motioned to her to come take her seat up front and he wouldn't take no for an answer). While she was speaking, I looked at Elder Rasband and wondered if he's heard this talk many times before, or if it was still funny to him? It was so sweet, when Elder Rasband got up next he said something like, "Thank you Sister Rasband. She has been working on that talk for weeks, trying to get it just right for today. It is a joy to hear her speak." Elder Rasband then said he had prayed to know what to speak about and felt very strongly about what his topic should be. He spoke about integrity. He quoted President Nelson and told us to mark these words in our hearts: "Your precious identity deserves your precious integrity. Guard it as the priceless gift that it is." 

Here they are giving us a heart:

Saturday morning was Coen's basketball game- I dropped him off, and then dropped the rest of the family off at a beach park for a stake party. Only having one car in Laie works out 95% of the time, but occasionally we have a conflict to work out! After dropping the family at the beach, I went back to Coen's game and saw he had played his very best friend. 

The stake party at the beach was fun! They had jumpers as they call them here, and a BBQ. When I say party at the beach, I mean the party was at the green space above the beach- not on the actual sand. Although Ava and her friend did go play in the sand.

The kids liked doing this tight rope:

We got to try 'otai, which is a Tongan drink. Ohhhh man it was good. It is a cold drink made with water, coconut milk, and pulped fruit (watermelon pineapple, and coconut in this case).

Audrey had a playdate with her friend Jake. They made a fort and played under there for a really long time!

Brent and I went to the adult session of stake conference and left Ava babysitting yet again! I just had to take a sneaky picture to document that some people really do wear no shoes to church here. It's not too common, but it does happen. More common, is people will wear their sandals and then walk around the room barefoot.

 I just got a special reminder from the kids' school that the kids do need to wear footwear to school. The kids don't need to wear their sandals in their classroom, but they do in certain places like the lunchroom and PE.

Stake conference is held at the Cannon Activities Center on campus (where we go to devotionals). I took this picture at the end after many people had left, but we have so many active people in our stake that we have to hold it in the arena!

We were invited to dinner at someone's house that used to be a gymnastics teacher, and the kids really liked playing in her garage turned gymnasium.

Coen drew the characters from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory- see earlier comment about him being obsessed. 

He watched a video on how to draw the characters and wow, he really impressed me! Looks just like the book!

Rocket Loves.

I went on a walk to the beach by our house and watched this man fillet all of the fish that he had just caught. He would cut off their head and tails first, and was working so fast that bits of fish were just flying every which way. 

Later, I was telling Brent about how fascinating it was to watch this man, and I wish I knew what kind of fish he had caught. Brent said, "Why didn't you ask him?" I said, "I'm not going to talk to a stranger and bother him!" Brent laughed at me and told me I was a creeper, just watching the man instead haha. If Brent had been there, he would have 100% talked to the man and made a friend.

I don't remember the offense, but Coen was a stinker and being disrespectful to me, so Brent made Coen write me an apology note. Coen was obviously not feeling apologetic yet, because the note says, "Dear mommy, sorry for doing that thing." 

Every night I look out our back door to see if it's a good sunset night. This was a good one! 

I like to leave the door open so we can see the sunset while we eat. 

The kids' bedroom- they clean it, and then it's dirty the next day. Ava & Coen always say it's the other's fault.

Valentines Day fell on a Wednesday, when Brent teaches from 5:30-6:45pm, and he usually isn't home until 8pm or later. So we met at the beach to go on a walk before class. A mini Valentines date!

Audrey came along with us. It's hard to see in this picture, but she's holding a ritz cracker wrapper. She learned at preschool that it's very bad to litter at the beach. She told us that she saw a video of a sea turtle that was hurt because it got garbage in its mouth. She was very concerned about this piece of garbage and held it our whole walk, and then found a garbage to throw it away in. I love how the Hawaiians revere nature as sacred.

Audrey's preschool celebrated Valentines with a party and jumpers!

Bob & Tammy arrived on a Thursday, which is the day Brent is in the temple until 9:30pm. So Audrey and I drove to pick them up (and go to Costco) and Ava and Coen stayed home on their own. By the time we got home, it was time for dinner and bed.

Friday - Brent gave his parents a tour of his campus. During the mornings when Brent's parents were here, they went to the beach or the temple. 

Rocket discovered it's fun to chase and fight with lizards. He had this one in his mouth and was carrying it around the yard, and flicking it with his paw when he set it down. At one point the lizard bit Rocket's paw and wouldn't let go, making Rocket cry. I wasn't going to touch the lizard, so I yelled for Bob to help. By the time Bob got there there though, the lizard had let go, so Bob threw the lizard out into the grass. A few minutes later, Rocket found the lizard again and the game started over.

Coen's basketball team pictures- four kids were missing!

Bob & Tammy were able to see Coen make two baskets! It was a good game to attend.

This is what Audrey was up to while Coen played.

After basketball, we got in the car for our adventure of the day- destination: the beach in Kailua (Lanikai) an hour away. But first we stopped at the macadamia nut farm on the way there.

We had been wanting to go to Lanikai since Christmas, so this was a good opportunity. The water was so spectacularly clear and turquoise here! 

The problem with this particular beach is that there is no parking, and there were signs up that we couldn't park in the neighborhood until 3pm. So Brent dropped us off and then graded in the car for about an hour until he could park and join us. When he joined us, he went snorkeling in the water and swam with a giant sea turtle!

Burying children:

Sunday we had the Rappleyes over to dinner which was fun since they live on Bob & Tammy's street at home and are old friends.

Monday was a PCC day, and they did just the islands during the day. Ukulele lesson:

Juggling:

Audrey looked so cute at tumbling class:

On Tuesday after school we all went to Shark's cove which is on the North Shore, and is a great snorkeling spot.

Shark's Cove doesn't look like too much, but once you get in and snorkel here, there are so many different kinds of tropical fish! The water comes up to about your waist.

All of us together!

It was such a beautiful sunset, and it kept getting better and better. We stopped at Ted's Bakery where Bob bought a strawberry guava pie that was SO delicious. 

On the way home I asked Brent to pull over because I could see the sunset was ahhhh-mazing. These pictures are not filtered!

Dinner at Seven Brothers.

On Wednesday Brent and I had interviews for his BYUH position. Our first interview was with a General Authority (Elder Sikahema) on zoom. We interviewed with him last year, but this year I was so much more nervous because I knew how much was at stake. Last year I think I was of the mentality of, "this is all fine and nice, but we're not actually going to move to Hawaii." Our interview went well though, and was an uplifting experience.

Later that day we interviewed with the President and Vice President of BYUH. This one was a little harder to tell if it went well or not, but it at least did not go horrible :) This capped off Brent's interview process- in total he had 7 interviews plus his teaching demonstration and his presentation on his research. 

That evening Brent's parents and I went to the kids' school for a reading carnival. They had fun reading/learning games and prizes for the kids. At the end of the night they gave everyone a hot dog dinner and a book to take home. Here's Audrey in the yellow shirt playing a cake walk game.

On Friday Brent's parents went to the PCC for a second time, and this time saw more shows and the evening show. I stayed at home working, and wasn't feeling so well with a cold. I lost my voice completely so I was glad that happened after our interviews!

You can see from the jackets that we had some chilly (for Hawaii) weather!

Here's Coen's class at school. You can see him on the second row, second from left. I love how there is a mix of races.

Saturday adventures- botanical garden and the beach. I was not feeling so well still so I stayed home and did our taxes.

That evening Brent and I went on a date to the PCC Gateway for dinner, as part of his "campus visit" interview. Bob & Tammy were babysitting so we got to go to the night show with no kids. This made two nights in a row for Brent to watch it :) And probably his 7th or 8th time overall?

We went with Velzy to feed horses near our house. The girls didn't quite dare to let the horses eat out of their palms so they threw blueberries for the horses over the fence.

Sunday morning- I showed Brent's parents one of my favorite beaches near our house. It was windy!

Audrey was not liking the wind, haha.

Before Brent's parents had to go to the airport, we celebrated Ava's birthday. Brent and I got her a gizmo watch, which she can use to text and call. She was excited!

Saying goodbye- they stayed for 10 days but it went fast!

While I was cooking dinner Rocket didn't want to just be near me, he wanted to be touching me. 

I found these two fell asleep like this- a rare moment of sibling love!

We went to our friend's house for dinner- the Phams. He is from Vietnam and she's from Oregon. It's his first year teaching at BYUH so we have a lot in common and have fun with them! Yay for friends!