The first few days of August we were still in Utah. My mom took me and the kids (minus Ava) to the zoo and we met my friend Erin there. The kids got to examine this sleepy tiger up close:
Kai enjoyed the carousel! It was his first time to the zoo and he really liked looking at the animals if we were up close to them and they could get his attention.
My friend Erin has a cute little 3 year old:
Kai's first time on a water slide- he liked it!
Cowabunga Bay night is probably my kids' (and Brent's) top 2 nights of the year, along with Christmas. Haha.
Thanks to Haynie for a fun year as always!
Back home in Hawaii they had a tsunami warning due to an earthquake in Russia and everyone in Laie needed to evacuate either to an upper level of a building on campus or to the hill at the temple. Ava and Coen were sad to miss out since we heard it was a party until late at night on the temple grounds with our whole town there! We were glad that everyone was safe and no destruction happened. Audrey calls the tsunami wave, "salami" and is terrified of them. She asks me about them all the time since they have tsunami drills at school (where they practice walking to the temple grounds). Earlier this summer she told me she had a bad dream about a "salami" where her parents weren't home and Coen helped her evacuate to the temple but the wave got that high.
Sister Marshall's husband ran International Cinema for 25 years at BYU. They had to censor upwards of 5 movies a week, sanitizing content that violated the honor code. A group of students gave him this bell which represents the censor from the movie Cinema Pardisio who rang the bell each time something needed to be cut like a couple kissing. Jean Marshall and Brent have become close and she very generously donated the bell and plaque to Brent to display at BYUH. (Can you tell he helped me write this paragraph?)
We also went to visit Brother Rojas when in Utah County. He always loves on Brent and lays the compliments on all of us.
Our friends, the Tuutaos came to give us a couple things to take back to Laie. They lived in Laie for a year on our street and we are so sad that it was just one year!
Crazy runs in the family.
More crazy cousins! Not being able to see family for a year is one of the hardest parts of living so far away.
The kids had lots of fun playing on the swing set all summer.
Saying bye to everyone- the boys and the girls took a picture for fun.
I really like how Mark and Daniel are the ones holding babies in this picture:
All weekend I was stressed about having enough breast milk and formula for Kai. I had measured out the scoops and we were going to barely have enough til we got to Hawaii (plus maybe one extra bottle in case we were delayed on the flight). It was very much down to the wire, but Brent didn't want to buy a whole new container of formula since we were short on packing space. I was stressed about it all weekend because I didn't want my baby to run out of milk on the plane! On our last night before going to sleep, Brent opened up a cupboard and discovered a container of formula 1/4 full that we had forgotten about! Silly us.
We got home on a Monday and then the kids started school on Wednesday. Ava is in 7th grade this year which means a new school! The middle school and high school are combined on to one campus, which is a little sad for me to have her grow up so fast in one year. Her school is in the next town north of us, about a 10 minute drive from our house.
Video of me and my little buddy:
Another one of Audrey's favorite things is baby dolls. She has always been so nurturing and loves taking care of her baby dolls while I'm taking care of Kai. We got her a baby doll that looks like a real newborn, and got the baby dolls a few outfits at Kid to Kid in Utah.
We forgot how HOT it is here in the summer and fall. Our baby monitor showed the temperature in our bedroom upstairs was in the upper 80s or lower 90s all the time. It's pretty miserable! We grilled hamburgers and ate them on our balcony since it's much cooler outside than in.
We finally remembered to take Kai's 7 month pictures:
Audrey also needed to take a picture of her new baby:
Kai at 7 months- he rocks on all fours and can move a little bit, but can't crawl yet. He loves trying all the new food we give him and likes most anything. He doesn't sleep through the night, but he at least sleeps in his own crib now instead of in the napping pillow on my bed.
What a dapper little dude.
I about died of cuteness when I got him dressed in these suspenders for church.
Audrey finally got her first day of school! She was SO excited to finally start kindergarten. Because the cutoff in Hawaii is July 31, she started kindergarten as a 6 year old.
On Audrey's second day of school I brought her class treats to celebrate her birthday. Here she is, a little bit shy as they're singing happy birthday. Her teacher is Mrs. Yuen, who is our Bishop's wife. So both kids' teachers are in our ward!
Every Mon/Wed/Fri while I'm working Brent takes care of Kai until 10:15 before our babysitter comes from 10:15-12:45. Brent rides his bike to school with Kai in the front pack, and then puts Kai down for a nap in his office at about 9, and then Brent can grade. Kai gets so excited whenever he sees the front pack- it's like a dog seeing a leash, and getting excited to go outside!
The kids had no school on Friday the 15th for Hawaii Statehood day. We went to get a new car battery (had to drive to Autozone in town) and then we went to get Brent a new phone. Yay! He hasn't had a proper working phone in over a year. Then we stopped at Costco for some produce and then went to Waimea Valley on our way home. It was a very productive day!
Audrey and Coen scooter with our neighbors the Packers every morning. They leave the house at 7:30 am to give them plenty of time to get to school before the 7:50 bell. They usually play on the playground for a bit since I think it only takes 10 minutes to walk to school.
Brent took Kai to meet Rocket one day. Rocket comes running when Brent rings the bell on his bike.
Cute pictures from Brent's office:
Video- Kai is officially a fake cougher:
Everyone had been to Waimea Valley and the falls when my parents were here visiting, but I had stayed home with little baby Kai. So we needed to go! I realized I had forgotten our sunscreen, and the falls were closed to swimming (not enough water). So, we walked around the botanical garden areas and tried to stay in the shade!
We learned about Ancient Hawaiian culture and how the native people lived with replicas of their houses in the gardens, which felt appropriate for the holiday.
Look at this curtain of leaves on this tree!
The next day Brent and I went on a little walk to our beach and took Kai. Oh this baby loves the beach so much.
Audrey loves sleeping anywhere but her bed. She sleeps on the floor in anyone's bedroom, in the hall way etc. We usually let her sleep wherever for the night but we didn't let her sleep on the stairs for long!
I overheard Audrey and her friends playing. Audrey had a doll stuffed under her shirt and Claire had a blood pressure cuff around Audrey's arm and said calmly, "K, you're going to have your baby in about 5 minutes."
Kai loves food! He usually has to be holding his own spoon or else he tries to steal the one I'm feeding him with.
The fan in my room blowing on me while I'm working- it says 88. It is so hard to work in this heat!
Brent and I decided to go to Costco on a week day while the kids were at school. Brent hadn't started his semester yet so was preparing his courses and syllabi all month. It was so nice to go without kids (except Kai) and make it a date instead! We first went to a car shop and got our safety check for our car. We have to do that each year and it's a pain since we live far away from all car shops. We try to go to Costco every 3 weeks, and do the vast majority of our shopping there, so we buy quite a bit at once. It is a project to put it all away! Here's what we bought this week:
Brent and I discovered that we were wearing opposites! This picture pretty much describes us- yin and yang. The perfect opposites :)
Back to school night- Audrey was excited to show me her classroom.
Here's Coen's classroom:
After the elementary school open house I went to Ava's open house. We followed her schedule and each class period we spent about 10 minutes with each teacher. It was fun for me to step into her life for a little bit! Here's a prettier part of her school. All of the hallways and entrances to classrooms are outdoors.
I worked on gathering documents and preparing the paperwork for all four kids and me to get a passport. It was quite the process. All four of our kids were born in a different state and all of their birth certificates look so different! Kai won the cutest passport picture award.
A video of Kai enjoying the beach:
Coen wrote a talk about using the gifts we are using. It was Coen's idea to talk about Andrew. I had to cut off a little bit of the video at the end to fit on this website:
We had our eye appointments at our not so favorite place nearby and got new glasses.
A back to school dinner that was made fancy with the presence of sparkling cider and frog gummies:
Kai loves to jump in his bounceroo:
Audrey is so crazy about KPop Demon Hunters and listens to the music almost constantly. I wish I could get a good video of her doing the dances! She got camera shy. But this will have to do:
A video of his spoons:
We had the Campbells over to dinner- he retired from BYU Provo and is a visiting professor in Brent's department here and is living on our street.
My friend got together a group of ladies to see Freakier Friday at the movie theater in Kanehoe. I went a little early and went shopping all by myself at Target! It was fun to have a girls night out and we laughed so much at the movie.
It was a fun date!
A video of all our food:
A video of Kai loving bananas:
A Marco Polo (I think to Karen?) that turned out pretty funny so I saved it:
Brent and I discovered that we were wearing opposites! This picture pretty much describes us- yin and yang. The perfect opposites :)
Coen picked flowers for his teacher's birthday and put them in a little cup. Brent helped him take them over to her house (she lives around the corner from us). I thought that was so sweet of Coen!
While we were waiting for Ava to arrive from school for her passport appointment, Audrey and Coen were getting so bored. I stood them in front of the wall and told them to make a face for ____ emotion. I think we have nervous and proud here:
Audrey wanted an Elsa birthday party. Because of the timing of her birthday, she's never had a birthday party with friends. So we did it at the end of August once we were settled in.
We played pin the nose on Olaf,
Had a freeze dance party
Made olafs out of marshmallows and pretzels, and colored. Had cupcakes & sang to her. Audrey says: "I was happy I turned 6. I was glad my friends comed."
I love to look at the sunsets each night while we eat dinner. This one was a really good one!
Our ward sometimes has linger longer since we are the last ward in the building (we're at 12:30). Too bad for me it's always ice cream!
And that concludes August- it felt good to get back into a routine and have the kids all happy in school!
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