Day 1 seemed like week one. We slept until our bodies told us it was time to get ready for school, 3 a.m.. Luckily we were very tired so we tried to sleep until 5. We can't sleep much later than that because have some very helpful neighborhood jungle fowl that want to make sure we don't miss anything important. They are unbelievably loud and persistent. Red Jungle Fowl is the official name of this guy specifically:
There are wild chickens everywhere, but we have seen and heard lots of birds in our neighborhood:
There are hundreds of mynah birds, the black one. They are everywhere and I think we arrived here on the last day of their mating season, or else there was a mongoose in the plumeria tree outside our window because it was crazy loud the first day. Since then, and since my discovery of earplugs, it is just fine.
Kyle had to go to work, and the kids spent most of the morning making friends with our new dogs.
They love us already, especially Matty and Evan, who love them back, just as much. Matty already said she is going to miss Watson and Pepper when we have to go home.
I have always loved plumeria and we have a little balcony right off our bedroom that is just the same level as the blooming plumeria tree. We are going to make our own lei for Grandma when she comes. Emily took pictures of all the different flowers she could see just around our yard.
Here are just the highlights:
Every time we turn around we see something else that is just amazing. The eye candy is overwhelming. Just in our own yard, on the first morning. We also saw some geckos and lizards. We decided to head down the mountain in the suburban (we are so grateful for the big beach bus we have to drive. It is really great to fill with beach gear, kids and sand) and see what we could see. We stopped at the first friendly looking beach. The waves were not friendly today, There was a swell that came in over night that kept us out of the water, and kept the surfers out of their classes.
It was a good day to watch and learn about the power of the ocean. Every picture I took, I would think, oh the grandmas are going to have a heart attack when they see this. We are very careful.
OUR FIRST BEACH! A few months ago Matty asked me if there was sand in Hawaii....we really needed this. She also has told me she doesn't like brown people....we REALLY need this trip.
This is called petroglyph beach, in the winter you can see the petroglyphs under the sand. These rocks were a good little breaker for us to be able to play in the water but not get taken out to sea.
There weren't any surfers right here, obviously, but there were at the next beach down....Pipeline.
We went there and watched.
It looks like we are right at the waters edge here, but the beach sloped down sharply for about 15 feet in front of us so the water didn't even touch us. We got to see some pretty awesome surfing.
We had no choice but to get a shaved ice from the the North Shore Shaved Ice truck. I think it is mandatory your first day. And I think it is mandatory to pick coconut, blue hawaii, melona, banana and pineapple as your flavors too.
We drove on to Laie to meet Kyle at BYU Hawaii. We had about an hour 'til he got out, so we drove up to the temple grounds and went in the visitors center.
This looks just like the St. George visitors center, except the houses are little grass surf shacks!
Emily is not looking at a painting, she is looking out the window! Just amazing, it looks like heaven.
We asked the grounds-keeper how to say "families are forever" in Hawaiian, but he didn't know.
Kyle got us all annual passes to the Polynesian Cultural Center, not
because we are crazy but because they were on sale and were way cheaper
than a regular one day pass. We got there about 4pm, went to the IMAX
4D movie, took a canoe ride, had ukelele lessons, went fishing and ate
at the amazing buffet all by 7:30.
Emily was the only one that caught a fish, it was about 3 inches round (not long, it was so cute)! It is the blur at the end of the line. Look at the cute Tahitian in the shadows, she reminds me of Mahana.
This was a quilting/ukelele shop. What kind of a dream mission would that be. I told Kyle we need to request it now, so we can get on the waiting list. "You have hereby been called to serve at the Polynesian Cultural Center teaching ukulele lessons in English."
Matty and Evan both fell asleep while they were eating! It was really late. 7:00 pm! plus 4...
Oh yeah and then there was this little bit of heaven too...
We finally made it. We found out about 3 months ago that we would be moving to Hawaii for 10 weeks at the end of April. I started prepping and wanted to start packing right away. Initially Kyle was in negotiations for this exchange with BYU Hawaii to happen in January and then it fell through and I was so crushed. I wrote a talk about hope, for church and talked all about that experience. Anyway, in the Lord's time it happened and of course, the timing couldn't have been better for us.
I told Matty we were going to Hawaii after we went to Lehi for Easter to help give her a little perspective, and then every day after we returned home, she asked me if we were going to Hawaii that day.
On Sunday morning I went into her room and said- ask me Matty ask me! YES! Today we are going to Hawaii!!
It takes a lot of luggage to pack 6 people for 2 months, but we did really well and jammed 3 giant suitcases to their weight limit and 6 carry-ons and Penny dropped us at the curb in Vegas.
Finally made it through the line for our turn at security. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but it was stressing Kyle out terribly! Matty was very serious about her job of carrying the baggy of liquids in less that 4 ounce containers!
Even the escalators were exciting to them. Emily counted how many we got to ride and I think it was 6. They didn't even know about the tram they got to ride out to the D gates, so George video taped the ride...it was all so exciting.
We got settled in our assigned seats. 4 of us in the middle, the little ones in a parent sandwich, and then the two older ones by the window.
Matty struggled a little with the changing cabin pressure. She kept yelling, "Hello? hello! can anyone hear me? Mom, something is wrong with my ears. Hello?" We quickly bought the kids entertainment package for her little tv screen and she was good to go.
Everyone plugged in (Thank you for the new headphones Easter Bunny!) and we settled in. Only 5 hours and 40 minutes left! Yes, it was a 6 hour flight.
The highlight for Emily was the inflight meal! Another pleasant surprise since there was no meal on her previous flight from St. George to Sacramento a few months ago!
The cookies, I have to agree, were divine. Emily said hers was just too good and she couldn't finish it, so of course I helped her out! My kids will eat just about anything, so they all ate well, George even ate the cooked spinach which he hates. Good kids!
We got to take a bus at the Honolulu airport to the luggage carousels and that completed our travel in every possible way to get to Hawaii. The kids were not impressed by that time though because it was 1:30 am Utah time, they were exhausted.
We finally found the suburban, finally got our stuff loaded and finally got to our new home away from home in Pupukea, Hawaii and slept, a little....until we heard the jungle fowl........
If you are a girl over age 10 in the Wells family then you are a very lucky girl indeed!
Jillyn planned a spring break trip to her current hometown of Folsom CA for the three oldest granddaughters during spring break and they did not let one minute pass without making a memory. It was the first airplane ride that Emily remembers (as she took two when she was very little). I let her take my camera and she did take tons of pictures but most of these I stole from Jillyn's blog because she is very nearly a professional photographer. I really wish I could just refer you to her blog, but I need to do some preserving of my own.
Their first day there they spent kayaking in Jillyn and Randy's favorite little lake near their home. Emily said this was the funnest thing they did the whole time.
She fell in at one point and that is why she is sitting ON the kayak in the last pic, instead of inside with Laynee!
They went to church and visited the temple grounds and visited some other sites nearby on Sunday.
Coloma Jail and the Beer Garden
In this last picture, Emily had fallen in the water, AGAIN :)
Monday they were off to San Fran
I was very jealous of all they got to do and see in Frisco,
Grandma really really spoiled these girls.
There was the aquarium,
Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39
A boat trip under the Golden Gate Bridge and out to Alcatraz
and Lombard Street!
They also got to see a magician, have sundaes at Ghiradelli Square and lots lots more.
It was a quiet 4 days at our house and we were glad to have our Emily back, but also glad she got to have such a great experience with her cousins. Thanks Jillyn and Randy!
I skipped a lot. The holidays happened and they were wonderful :) We
went to Lehi for Thanksgiving and again for New Year's Eve. Both were
very enjoyable trips and I felt renewed and ready for the new year.
Our Disney Christmas blog is there, just out of order, but apparently these are the only two pictures I took the entire time I was in Lehi.
Penny probably has some pictures I can steal of Thanksgiving....or not....
Well we had a baby shower for Ashley just after Thanksgiving and here are a few pictures of that and of Brad and his mustaches. He grew this crazy long mustache for Movember and he got so much attention from it that he wouldn't shave it off when December came. Ashley is a very supportive and patient wife! :)
I made that fantastic diaper cake! The theme was baby super heros, baby Superman had an H on his chest for SuperHenry and it was all SUPER cute.
Even grandma and grandpa got in on the shenanigans!
This was one of us playing kickball on Christmas Day. I hate kickball. Spencer's idea. He said I was the MVP for the other team!
CUT TO..February 12th
Henry David Shelton is born!!
He was in NICU for the first few days and their hospital had this fantastic 24 hr. web cam called NicView and we were constantly watching him.
Evan asked if he could do his homework with Henry!
We also took him to his first college basketball game!
CUT TO...March 2nd
Henry's blessing
We decided the day before the blessing that we should probably be there, and since Jillyn was in town, we took advantage of her help and left at 3 am with Joel and Penny to be in attendance at their 9 am Sacrament Mtg. in Fullerton CA. The picture below is of all the Priesthood holders that participated, so we were very glad we decided to make the trip.
Love this one. Grandma made that blanket.
Henry is a perfect little angel. He was telling me a story.
Of course Kyle could not let a road trip to SoCal pass without at least getting close enough to taste Disneyland, so we stopped by Downtown Disney for caramel apples and beignets before we jumped back in the van and headed for home.
Halloween was a blast from the past in many ways, and a blast to the future in one! Matty participated in Dixie State University's preschool this year and so just like the others, she got to dress up as the frog (just like the others) and parade around campus singing Halloween songs with Mrs. Provost.
Lift my lid and hear me shout.....BOO!
I love college preschool, and all the kids have loved it too. George is jealous he didn't get to go here.
We carved pumpkins, as is everyone's tradition, but this year I gave Kyle the idea of the power tools and he was in heaven! and it made the cutest Mickey Mouse-o-lantern ever!
Emily was a very cute minion from Despicable Me movies. The adults didn't do too much dressing up this year (Kyle wore his Indian pajamas to work-punjabis), and we told George he was too old,
but he did wrap his pants in Smarties so he could be a Smarty pants.
Kyle has this amazing, yet unlikely idea of getting Evan to shave his head and go as a grandpa. He wanted to do it himself but was afraid his hair wouldn't grow back, so after a few weeks of planting the idea and of bargaining ($20 bucks is not a bargain but was well worth it) He agreed!
One of the forces that swayed his decision was that his friend Hayden Wittwer agreed to be a grandma if Evan would be a grandpa. When I texted the above photo to Hayden's mom Kari, she about died.
She pulled out all the stops on Hayden's costume, and every time he balked she just said, "Evan shaved his head.....you can at least do this!"
They were the hit of the whole elementary school. If there was a contest, they would have won!
Their teacher said perfect strangers were stopping them to take their picture.They stole the show everywhere they went, and their presence was requested quite a few places. They went to Uncle Spencer's pain clinic, which was especially funny since 90% of his patients are grandparents. They went to Kyle's work and Shayne's work and to Lorraine Johnson's house (our favorite ward grandma-this is where Hayden decided to take a rest on the bearskin rug and we about peed our pants). Evan got twice as much candy as the other kids too, we heard more than once "Wow you deserve double, that is real commitment". My very favorite picture of them is this one:
It was a fantastic day. Kari said okay, come up with something they can do together next year!
These two are up for anything. They are hilarious, fearless little boys!
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