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Ben's birthday got off to a good start.  Brian and Nick took him to Denny's at midnight and we all had some good laughs! 

Brian let a stinker

Who has the most chins?
Brian won without even trying

Early the next morning Ben got Krispy Kreme's and chocolate milk in bed, followed by some gifts...

Ayzha found this cute little "Hope your day is Dynamite idea"
The dynamite is filled with m&ms, his faves. 
Say "cheese" Qyntn.

Later in the day we went Flo Riding at the Lindon Pool.  I was so proud of my brave girls who gave it a go, and I think Ben had fun too.  I, myself am pretty sore, but Ben enjoyed watching me wipe out over and over again and if it made Ben happy it was well worth it!

Afterward we went to dinner with family and friends, took everyone to see our new house, watched a short slide show I put together about Ben, had mud pie, since Ben hates cake, and played a game of "Things." 



Happy Birthday Ben, I'm super glad you were born!

Hangin Loose in Hawaii

Because Ben travels for work he accrues a lot of skymiles which makes it possible for me to travel with him on occasion.  When he told me that Hawaiian Airlines had invited him for a visit, I had hoped he would want me to tag along, and of course he did... he invites me on every trip.  But this time Jenny volunteered to watch my kids which made my decision a no brainer.

On our flight over Ben gave up his seat so I could fly first class.  Then the guy sitting next to me offered to trade with Ben so we could sit together...what a sweet guy!  We flew first class to Hawaii!

Our first two nights in Hawaii were spent in Honolulu.  We ate lots of yummy cuisine, and I got fried on the beach (bummer).  Waikiki beach isn't my favorite beach in the world,  the sand is pretty coarse, and it was crowded, but I'm not complaining...still loved it!  And a nice lady asked if we were honeymooning.

Selfie on Waikiki Beach

love this handsome guy!

Disclaimer...I only wear bikini's on romantic getaways
with Ben (don't judge me)....and I only added this picture to the blog
so I will remember that I didn't look too bad at 40.

We hiked to Manoa Falls (parts of Lost and Jurassic Park were filmed there) and got soaked in a torrential downpour which made the hike even more awesome!

Manoa Falls

Our next two days were spent on the north shore.  On the drive up we dropped in for a session at the La'ie LDS Temple.  It was lovely!

We were fortunate to find a good deal online for a room at Turtle Bay...

Sunrise at Turtle Bay



View from our room

We enjoyed a delicious shave ice at Matsumoto's, saw some sea turtles..

spent some time at Waimea Bay, waterfall and botanical gardens...

Lily Pads at Waimea Botanical Garden

watched the sun set at Sunset beach...

and we found our favorite Hawaiian beach on the north shore- Pounder's Beach had the best sand and best waves by far for body surfing...




Pounder's Beach

Our last day on the Island we explored the windward side...


Kailua Beach looked gorgeous!

"Enough pictures already!"

Halona Blowhole

Thanks babe for taking me to Hawaii, and thanks Jenny for watching my kids so I could go! I'm a very lucky gal!

We're Building a House!

Divorce takes its toll in many ways, financially things have been rough, but finally, after years of renting and being crammed into tiny living quarters, we are building a house.  It isn't our dream home by any means, but it will feel like a mansion to us.  I think I'm most excited about having a garage so I won't have to scrape the snow off my car windows all winter and won't have to lug my groceries through the ice and snow up a flight of stairs to our apartment.  Hallelujah!

Piano Recital

 

Alyssa and Holly participated in their first piano recital on Thursday evening and did a fantastic job.  It's been a long hard road getting to this point.  I am very happy they haven't given up!

 

Without a Shower for 5 Days!

It's been a long time since I had the chance to go to girls camp.  I had forgotten how awesome it is.  I loved not really caring about how I looked, and not having to do my hair or makeup.  I didn't have to cook all week, I didn't have to worry about my kids, or referee any fights.  I received a tear-jerk letter from my husband, we sang songs, hiked, canoed, played volleyball, told stories, made up a skit, pondered the things that are really important in life, and sat by the fire.  It was great for my soul!

This year was Ayzha's first year at camp.  I loved watching her interact with the others and loved watching the unity that was built between all the girls.  Much of the time was spent sitting together at a table doing crafts, talking, and there were a lot of laughter and smiles.  Our challenge this week was to memorize the Articles of Faith.  The girls worked together to get it done and we were the first ward to have everyone pass them off (day 2).  There was very little drama from our girls, the only tears I saw were during testimony meeting, which was a powerful finale to our week. 

Canoeing was one of the highlights of the week.  We got to go twice!  The first time out I stayed relatively dry, but the second time I got soaking wet.  Some of the men, including the Stake Presidency ambushed myself and Angela (the YW President) and it turned into a water brawl.  After that we decided to get everybody else wet, it was a blast!

 

 

Another highlight was our skit, which was the best by far.  The day before our skit, during our hike, Stephanie and I had started rapping "Ice Ice Baby" and the girls thought it was so cool so they asked us to do it as part of the skit, we became the intermission.  Everybody seemed to love it, the crowd went wild for us.  Apparently we became the "cool" leaders because we could rap and were asked by some of the other girls to do an encore at lunch on our last day.  It was fun!

 

 

I'm so glad Ben was able to work from home all week and take care of things so I could go, it was such a wonderful blessing!  Yesterday I was released from YW so I don't know when or if I will have the chance to go to girls camp again, but I sure hope I do...soon!



We Sang in Church!

A few weeks ago sister Wirth asked if I would put together a musical number, so I asked my family if they would be willing to sing with me in sacrament meeting.  They were reluctant at first, especially Ben, but said they would.  I let the kids pick the song we would sing, they chose "A Child's Prayer."  Since we have been trying to teach our kids Spanish, I thought it would be cool to do one of the verses in Spanish.  Holly volunteered right away and Reyn said she would sing it with her.  The next few days were incredible.  I gave Holly the primary song book in Spanish and during reading time each day she and Reyn worked on learning the first verse.  They practically learned the whole thing by themselves in just 2 days.  I was super impressed. 

Yesterday our big moment arrived.  I was a bit nervous, I thought Holly and Reyn might chicken out, but they killed it!  I was kinda struggling to hold back the tears.  Then half of us sang the first part, and Ben sang with the others on the second part, and then we put the two together.  I was so proud of my little family.  I looked out at the congregation and saw many in tears, and I couldn't hold it together, which made Ben get a little teary too.  It took a me few words to compose myself but it turned out beautifully!

Afterward we had so many compliments, one gentleman said it was one of the best musical numbers he had heard in his entire life.  I asked Ben how he felt about it and he said "it was pretty awesome."  I'm so glad we got to do it, it was a great experience!

Tiago's Baptism



What an awesome day, Tiago was baptized!  Ben and Tiago had both been looking forward to this day for a long time and it was so sweet.  Lots of family and friends were there to support Tiago and Ryan and Angie invited us into their home afterward, it was lovely.  Love these handsome boys!