Every time we leave my parent's house, my dad has to send us off with a fancy farewell, which involves waving arms AND legs. This is something that was started when I was a kid, and my Nana and cousins would wave goodbye like this in her driveway.
Brent went to Provo to meet a few important people. Here he's meeting with Sister Gray (a sister missionary that serves over artwork and preservation at BYUH and she comes each year). He found out that Sister Gray is best friends with Jean Marshall (whose husband is a former BYU professor who edited 2-5 movies a week for International Cinema). Brent had met her when doing his dissertation research.
Meanwhile, I was at home starting to organize all of our stuff that needed to be packed into suitcases for Hawaii. It's a major project:
We were going to go to Emily's house for dinner, but Audrey had tested positive for Covid. So I just met Emily for acai bowls, which was still fun to catch up.
Audrey told me she couldn't stop looking at this picture because it is SO cute.
Molly seemed to enjoy them:
Since the kids had grass all the way up to their backs, they all got in the shower in their swimming suits. Ava says it was super fun because we had one shower head really hot and the other shower head freezing cold, and when we said switch, we had to go to the other one.
Sadly, it was time to say good bye for a year:
Ava says: This is our secret handshake that we made up last year at the aquarium. It is Harry Potter themed, and since we had water balloons we kept the plastic part to be our friendship wands.
We had one empty seat in this group of 6 seats, which was sooo nice! We started off the flight like this, but eventually Audrey moved up in between Brent and me. This flight felt so much easier than when I flew out to Utah, because I wasn't sick, Brent was with me, it was direct, and it was during the day!
I kind of love the feeling of walking into a new house, and wondering what memories you're going to make there. Everything just feels fresh and new.
The next morning we woke up before sunrise due to jetlag. Here's the beautiful sun coming up from our balcony:
Ava- 6th grade.
Matching sisters!
Audrey- preschool for her 3rd year, since she missed the cutoff for kindergarten by 8 days.
Coen at his desk. There's no air conditioning in the school, so the windows open to get a breeze, and fans help too. The teacher told Coen to choose a special rock from her collection to put on his desk to hold his papers down from the breeze.
Ava's class. She has a homeroom teacher who teaches her English, and then she has 3 different teachers for science, math, and social studies. It's a nice transition to middle school.
Audrey's neck continued to swell. She acted like she felt fine, but the swollen lymph node was definitely sore.
A fire started in the hills behind the temple/BYU campus. It was slightly nerve-racking as it was so close, and it was one year ago to the day that the Maui fires happened. We watched helicopters flying back and forth with little buckets, having picked water up from the beach down the street.
We had so many neighbors stop by to welcome us to the neighborhood, offer to help move our stuff, and some brought us gifts. We live around many amazing people. All of our neighbors on Moana street are BYU professors (or staff), which means very smart, dedicated people. Not only is every house a member, but they need to be temple recommend holders to work at BYU. We knew most of our neighbors already, at least by name, since it's a small community, but it has been really fun to get to know our neighbors better.
Realities of island living- always battling the bugs! The ants were everywhere in our kitchen, including inside our dishwasher. (Which, can I say- I was so excited to have a dishwasher!)
Sadly I don't have any pictures of Audrey on her actual birthday (oops). I'm glad we had a party for her in Utah, because it wasn't the very best day. When she woke up, her swollen lymph node was starting to get red. She still went to school and brought popsicles for her birthday treat, but my mommy instinct told me it was time to take her to the doctor again, as she must have some sort of infection. Luckily our pediatrician is at the office by our house on Thursdays, so Brent took her to an appointment after school. The doctor thought it must be cat scratch disease, from the kitty Mowgli that we played with in May and the first few days of June. She prescribed two different kinds of antibiotics. Brent went to work in the temple that night, and before bed I tried to get Audrey to take her medicine. She thought they tasted gross, so I was only able to get her to take one of them, as I didn't want to force it down and traumatize her. She fell asleep exhausted, poor girl, before we could go get her shave ice.
Ava and her friends made a club called "the spectacular six" so they had a back to school swim party at one friend's house.
Finally, by the afternoon of the third day, the doctors decided that Audrey was doing well, so they'd release her before they had her official diagnosis, yay! Brent told Audrey that they got to go home, and she said, "what?? why???" She wasn't ready! Brent took Audrey to Chick Fil-A at the mall to celebrate:
We went to the Ohana swim time at BYUH with Ava's friend (not pictured- that is Coen, who is sometimes her friend hehe)
Setting up a playdough restaurant/bakery, called "The Play dough Place"
That weekend was stake conference. Brent and I still get a bit giddy when we can go to something and leave our kids home alone! We had a nice Saturday date to that. Sunday's session is held at the basketball arena on campus since we have so many active members in our stake! Here's Audrey and I walking:
We went to go visit Rocket one evening (I wasn't soooo excited to go visit him earlier when the doctor had told us Audrey had cat scratch disease.) Rocket either didn't remember us, or was too busy with his life of chasing lizards and running around the yard, that he just didn't care about us. He let the kids hold him, but he wanted to get down and go do his own thing. Ava was DEVASTATED. Earlier that summer Brent had face-timed me from our old house and when I spoke, Rocket whipped his head around in recognition and ran to the phone and nuzzled it. So I was pretty surprised that he had already forgotten us a couple months later, but I feel like he served his purpose and was there for us when we needed him last year!
Audrey's neck- looking so much better!
Baby bump picture! 18 weeks
I took Audrey back into Honolulu for a follow up with the infectious disease specialist. They got the results back, and it was cat scratch disease! The doctor taught me a lot about it- most kittens carry it, but most people's immune systems fight it off. Kids 5 and younger are more likely to get it, and Audrey's immune system just couldn't fight it off for some reason. She said it takes months for the lymph node swelling to go down, and that her neck would stay red, like a scar, for up to a year. She gave Audrey a prescription for more antibiotics to keep fighting the bacteria, and then we were off. It was really nice to know exactly what it was, and that it was treatable!
I went to Sams Club after the doctor since we were in the area. Brent and I decided to get a card there this year, to have some more variety in our shopping other than just Costco. I was proud of myself for navigating the crazy downtown traffic and finding parking at Sams!
The kids played in the pool and made a water slide:
We finished packing and cleaning (as much as we could - thank you Tammy for finishing for us)! Then on Monday morning we were off for our flights to Hawaii!
My parents were traveling to Europe the same morning, and as I ran to get some lunch to take on the plane, look who I ran into in the B gates!
On our flight, we met a couple sitting next to us who also work at BYUH. After chatting with them for a while, they offered to take our suitcases home in their truck, so that we could fit more Costco purchases in the pickup truck that I had rented. We took them up on their offer and it is a good thing, because the truck I rented ended up being the TINIEST thing ever. We were hoping to buy a dining room table at Costco since we had a truck for a day, and it barely fit in (the tailgate had to be down, and luckily these new friends had also lent us straps!). We also loaded up on food at Costco, and each of us had to hold a bunch of food on the way home.
It felt really weird to me to be back in Hawaii- like, this place again? It still didn't feel like home. Although once we got close to Laie, it started to feel more comfortable and like home.
We arrived to our new house in Laie a few minutes before 6pm, which is 10pm Utah time. It was still light outside, and our friends offered to come help unload the things from our garage into our home so that we could have somewhere to sleep, so we all stayed awake and got it done!
Here we are walking up to our new house. Brent, Audrey, and I had been in it a few months before when our friends still lived in it, but Ava and Coen hadn't seen it at all.
I kind of love the feeling of walking into a new house, and wondering what memories you're going to make there. Everything just feels fresh and new.
A longer video Brent took, in case you want to watch a 2 minute version and see more:
Luckily our friends had some teenagers and everything got moved in that night, including all the stuff stored in Brent's office!
Looking out at our new view:
Brent took a load of stuff to the dump while we still had our truck, and the kids were excited to ride in the back afterward, like true Hawaiians:
Then it was time for us to get the rental truck back to the airport. Somehow we had left one of our checked bags at the airport when we arrived the previous day! We only noticed when we were home, and kept saying, where are the kids' pajamas? And Ava's watch? Luckily we had to go back to the airport anyway, and we were able to track that our bag was at the Honolulu airport. I drove our red car, while Brent drove the truck with Audrey in it, and we left the older two home. It's annoying to have to drive an hour to the airport, but at least this is our view for some of it:
On the way home it was a beautiful sunset so we pulled over at a beach to admire it. It felt nice to be back at a beach!
The very next day it was already the first day of school! I felt totally unprepared as I hadn't found and bought the kids school supplies, but away they went! It was actually good timing so that Brent and I could continue unpacking our house. Brent did most of the unpacking, as I would do a few things and then need to sit down. My back also was so sore from the airplane ride!
Here's Coen - 3rd grade.
Ava's friend invited her to help set up her mom's classroom at the high school. Ava says she got to hang up pictures, organize pencils, and eat candy. Here they are in front of the school mural that says "choose Aloha."
We got internet so I was able to start working. We set up my office in the corner of Ava's room. My view is our driveway that we share with our 3 other neighbors, and I can see the top of BYUH buildings, and green mountains in the background. If I open up my window, I hear the drums beating and chanting from the PCC, which is just across the street from our backyard neighbors.
The redness didn't start going down-
We were able to go get shave ice the next day with Dad. Ava would like to say "Coen and I always get the same shave ice: ice cream + blue raspberry+strawberry+watermelon = purple pizzazz- try it, it's very very good!
We hadn't been to the beach except for our quick stop after the airport, so Brent went on a walk to "our beach" on Friday night.
Audrey was still in very good spirits, feeling great, thank goodness! I was so worried about her though, since the antibiotics didn't seem to be doing anything. We bribed her with a coin every time she took her antibiotics so she could buy herself a prize at the end of her 10 day course.
The fire wasn't going away behind BYUH. It seems crazy that we can get wildfires here, with how humid and green everything is.
Audrey made fast friends in our neighbors two doors down. She swam a lot with them in their pool and they play constantly at one of our houses.
Sorry if this is gross for you- I kept taking pictures to document this for the doctors.
Holding her Piglet stuffed animal while watching the Piglet movie.
They had to put an IV in, and started antibiotics via the IV. I felt so bad for my little girl, getting poked, and doing different tests. I was glad Brent was there as he is braver about our kids being in the hospital than I am.
I later asked Audrey if the doctors gave her something to smell [like through a mask] before she fell asleep, and she said, "no- I think I just fell asleep because I was so tired watching the movie."
We finished unpacking everything on Sunday. On Monday we had a virtual follow up with Audrey's pediatrician in the morning. She took one look at Audrey's neck and said, "Dang. You're going to need to take her to Kapiolani [the children's hospital in Honolulu] to have that drained. It's being resistant to the antibiotics. Go right now."
Luckily Brent wasn't teaching yet, so he was so kind and said he would drive Audrey to the hospital, which is a little over an hour away from our house. I wondered if they might keep her overnight, so I packed her a change of clothes, a stuffed animal, and her special pink blanket in case. Brent thought for sure he'd be home that night after they drained it, so he didn't take a change of clothes.
Here's the cutie, getting checked in and in her hospital gown.
Throughout the day, the doctors were trying to decide what to do, and what this could be, and why it was resistant to oral antibiotics. They asked Brent a million questions, drew Audrey's blood. They also were trying to decide if they should drain her abscess with her being sedated or not. I had suggested to Brent that morning that she be sedated somehow, as her neck was extremely sore, and I didn't think she would let anyone come near it, let alone with a needle. Finally that evening around 5:30, they decided they would drain it, and they'd do it in a surgery, as the doctor said she's only five and he didn't want to traumatize her.
While eating dinner with the older two, Ava asked me what it means to put someone's name in the temple. I explained it to her, and then said good idea, I'll put Audrey's name in! So I put it in right then on my phone (how convenient now!)
Brent said Audrey was so brave being wheeled off to surgery. She just smiled and waved. They let her hold her pink blanket, which I was so glad about, since that is extremely comforting to her.
When she woke up, we were able to Facetime, and Audrey was still as happy as ever. She was making faces and giggling, and making us laugh. I think this is one way our prayers were answered- Audrey stayed happy.
Back at home, the kids went fishing with a few neighborhood boys and they caught a turtle in the sewer drain. We think it was someone's escaped pet:
Day two for Audrey and Brent in the hospital- they didn't want to send Audrey home yet until she got more antibiotics through her IV, and they could figure out what she had.
and go to the children's room that had lots of fun activities. 
A video of the girls jumping in:
Day three of Audrey being in the hospital- they warned us that it could be a few more days before they got the results of the biopsy to know for sure what Audrey had. We made a plan that Brent would drive home and we'd hurry and switch, and I'd drive back to be with her. This was two nights and three days of Brent not sleeping well (he only had a little couch), not having a change of clothes, eating at the hospital cafeteria, etc. He was a trooper! Luckily Audrey kept having lots of fun.
The worst part of everything for Audrey from the hospital was changing her bandage. She cried and was scared of the tape or bandaid coming off. So at home she also cried each time I changed it. Other than that, she got right back into playing.
The next day our pod arrived from Oregon.
Brent, my unpacking pro, had our bedroom (and much of the other house) set up by the afternoon of when our pod arrived. Our bedroom is so large that we decided to put our bed on one side of the room, and create a little suite with a couch, TV, and desk on the other side of the room.
My new favorite place in our house:
We had a few really windy days. We were laughing at our neighbors who were riding on a skateboard and using a sheet as a sail.
Baby bump picture, taken one week after the previous week's pic, and I feel like I grew a lot! I am almost 20 weeks in this picture which is when I typically start to pop.
Audrey's neck healing nicely. The infectious disease specialist had warned me that it could swell and need to be drained again, up to three more times, but luckily it never did! Her neck still looks like this (with the red scar), now two months out as I'm writing this post.
Brent and I attended an orientation and "welcome to Laie" for the new BYUH professors. We attended it last year and liked it! We were invited this year again since Brent is now officially a new full time hire. We went on a tour around Laie on the PCC tram, with a local giving us history and stories of this special place. After, we had a delicious lunch of typical Hawaiian food. My favorite is Kalua pig and rice.
The kids "flossing"
School open house- here's Coen in his classroom.
Library book club:
When I got back in the car to drive back to the car shop, the car magically went into reverse on its own. The only thing I can think of is it took our car computer a day to recognize that the brakes do work, with our new brake lights from the day before. What a blessing! We were going to have to take our car into the Kia dealership to get it fixed, which isn't so easy when it's an hour from our house and we only have one car. After getting my new tires and safety check, and doing some grocery shopping while I was in town, I drove home just in time for dinner- an all day event!
Besides the door being jammed closed due to stuff shifting against the door, everything was in perfect condition. Nice packing Brent! Brent got right to work unpacking. I'm so glad Audrey's hospital stay was the previous week!
I took the kids and friends to a book club our library hosted. I'm glad I did, because they were the only kids there! The next week Ava invited more friends and had a bigger friend group there.
Ava was invited to a friend's house for a back to school party. He invites the whole class plus a few other friends!
That afternoon we had temple appointments, since the temple was about to close for 7 weeks for some renovations.
Appointments at the dentist- Ava and I were unlucky ones who had cavities. I have only had cavities in my life when I'm pregnant! The dentist said it's because the baby takes all the nutrients from me.
The kids play outside so much - there are so many kids their age all around us. It took just a little bit of getting used to living here, it feels like we're in a commune :) Kids come and go through each other's houses and yards. The houses are so close together and windows face each other, and we were still waiting for BYU to come put in our curtains, so we didn't have much privacy. But the community we feel here, and everyone making us feel welcome and at home, makes it all good. We have a facebook group for Moana street, and people will post in there to borrow a grocery item (since we live far from stores where we shop), or random favors/questions, etc.
I took this picture of the kids outside because they looked so cute waiting for their turn to see how many steps they could take up the coconut tree after a running start. Coen is in the red shirt taking his turn, and Audrey's in a blue shirt in the middle of the line.
I went to pick up Audrey from preschool one day and I couldn't get the car to shift to reverse. It was completely locked. I tried everything I could think of, and then called Brent. He scootered home from campus to help me, but he also couldn't get it to shift. By this point it was pick up time, so I called a friend and she was able to get Audrey for me.
Another friend came over later that night to see if he could figure out what was wrong with our car. Our brake lights were out, so he went to the auto store behind our house and bought new brake lights and switched those out for us. (so nice!). We thought that would solve the problem, but we still couldn't get the car to shift without using a screwdriver to manually put the gear into reverse. The next day I was scheduled to go get our safety check done for our car- what timing! He encouraged me to go since that shouldn't make it fail the safety.
So the next morning I drove into Kaneohe (45 mins away) for my appointment. They told me I was going to fail the safety check because we needed new tires. So I had a few hours to wait while they brought my tires in from Honolulu. I drove over to the nearby mall (getting it into reverse using a screwdriver). I shopped at the mall, worked at a Starbucks, and bought myself lunch at a Hawaiian shop. This is chicken long rice, and it's so yummy!
Saturday we went to the kids' favorite beach, Kahana Bay. The kids hadn't played at the beach since we had been back from summer break because we had to wait for Audrey's neck wound to heal before she could get in the water. It felt so nice to be at the beach!
You know these two are getting along when they decide they want to match.
"Mom, take a picture of us drinking our same drink, in matching cups, with matching clothes, while watching Curious George."
And that concludes August! Looking back, it is amazing to see how many kind friends stepped in to help us this month. We are surrounded by wonderful people!
Her neck looked so sore. Poor baby girl. The caption for the last pic cracked me up. The house looks spacious!
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