Aloha and Mahalo

For historical context's sake, this month has been a rough one. 

• Assassination at our alma mater, UVU. Unbelievably horrific.

• President Nelson died.

• Attack/murders targeting an LDS church service in Michigan the following day.

It's been heavy. Feels like it's time for Jesus to come, but until that happens we just gotta do our best to be good and make a positive difference as much as we're able, and mourn with those who mourn. There are plenty of people in our small sphere of influence who have suffered tremendous loss and tragedy unrelated to these well known tragedies. Anyway, just wanted to acknowledge what feels like a sad state of current affairs in the world.

Okay, so here's some of what's been going on with us:

Anders continues to do good work for LRN2DIY, hang with friends, be frustrated by girls, and enjoys coming up with creative photo/video shoot ideas, such as the one pictured below:

Addie has finished the outdoor pool season and has been a bit of a hard time grappling with what comes next. She's decided to try substitute teaching for now, so that's fun. She does like to teach.

Also hangs with friends, crochets, enjoys a good movie marathon, and loving on Pip. 

Aani is nannying a couple times a week, still cranking on cosmetology school, hangs out with Aidan as much as possible, and was called as the Primary music leader. Absolutely crushing it. 

Ava finished the totally insane tennis season, and is enjoying a little time to breathe for the first time in awhile. 

Aani and her little nannying client- they rode the escalator at the mall many times.

Aidan seems to be okay with all of us wanting to hold his hand.

So Aani was prescribed Wellbutrin for anxiety, and the person who prescribed it was either unwell themselves or not thinking correctly, because they prescribed her 4x the normal dose. She had some really weird symptoms for a couple of weeks until I looked at the bottle and realized what was happening. I should be a doctor, I swear. Anyway...on the correct dose she's doing much better. Good grief. 

All of the girls have gone to the mountains in the last couple of weeks, so I don't know who took these pictures. Good job, ladies! 

Ava went to homecoming with Chase and had a good time. When he arrived to pick her up, Pip had a seizure. Ava picked Pip up, and Pip peed all over her homecoming dress. Fortunately, big sis Aani was right there and saved the day. She quickly took Ava downstairs and helped her find a new dress and Ava looked very pretty. 

Addie and Lia on a mountain adventure. 

Pip struggleth. She's happy when she's not seizing. 

Ava and Harper

Aani and Ava at MTECH

First HS football game- our team actually won! They never win! 

Aani teaching the primary kids what's what. 

So Nils and I ran away last week to Hawaii. We haven't had a vacation by ourselves in a long time- we travel a lot together for work, but those are trips that are typically very busy and worky. 

It was time. Plus it was our 25th anniversary in April, and we took the kids to Japan, which was amazing. We're calling this Hawaiian vacation our 25th anniversary vacation, baby. 

Have we loved it? Yes. Yes we have. 

Sitting in the Honolulu airport as I type, about to board our flight home. 

Things we did:

• Stayed in a studio apartment on Waikiki. 

• Rented a sweet hybrid Toyota Corolla on Turo, and for the entire 8 days of driving all over this island, gas cost us $32. 

• Ate breakfast and lunch every day from our grocery stash. We've been so dang thrifty and had no kids to whine about it. 

• 4 trips to Costco. 🩷🩷🩷🩷

• Met friends from our ward on the first night here for dinner. We overlapped coincidentally and that was pretty fun. 

• Endowment session at Laie Temple

• Snorkeling and beach lounging at Shark's Cove

• Diamond Head Crater hike

• Dole Plantation, aka gift shop. Ate Dole Whips. They tasted like a Dole Whip. 

• Polynesian Cultural Center. We had no idea what this entailed. Probably don't need to do it again, but the fire show at the very end was cool. 

• Snorkeled at Hanauma Bay

• Ate at Cheesecake Factory because we like to branch out. 😏

• Spent Saturday going on a long walk and chillin'. We took naps. It was awesome. 

• Went to church at the Makiki ward. Alooooooha!

• Hiked the 3 Peaks, but only to the first peak. It was SO HARD. Think you're in shape? Do this hike and you will never think that again. Do this if you enjoy feeling like you're going to die and your calves are going to burst. 

• Took an ATV tour at Kualoa Ranch and saw some beautiful mountain scenery and some fun movie sites from many productions. 

• Went to Waimea Valley and walked around the botanical gardens. Beautiful. 

We've driven all over this island for 8 days and have been blown away by its beauty. We've also loved having all the conveniences available. We are Costco people, you know. And we are also the people of Walmart. 

Nils got this sweet tat at the PCC. Too bad it was super water soluble and washed off. 

Shark's Cove sunset. 

Part of the 3 Peaks Hike. It was shady the whole time, which was really nice since we were sweating to death and our heart rates were like 185. Well mine was. Nils' was probably 70. 

My lover butt with a huge leaf. 

Kualoa Ranch

Our new ward building

Hanauma Bay

Homemade dinner- "pasta lasagna" as Aani calls it. GF, don't worry folks. 

Laie Temple: Smaller IRL, but still effective. 5 Stars.

We were forced to do the Shaka by the man taking the picture. We don't think we're Hawaiian, don't worry/

This is the view from the top of 3 Peaks. Worth dying for. 

This actually happened when we were at the top of Diamond Head Crater! What in the world? 

This is what you have to do on that hike! What am I, a mountaineer?? Nay, I am not at mountaineer. 

Mahalo, Oahu! We 💖 You. We had the most fun. We still love and like each other. We like being with each other, even after all these decades together. 

T'was a Summer

What. Is. Up.

Don't know if I mentioned this before, but for a few weeks at the very beginning of the summer, Ava had tennis lessons early in the morning, which meant that I got to take her to tennis lessons early in the morning. She has a coach that has helped her a lot with her game, so it was worth it. She didn't have much time mid-June through the beginning of August to play tennis- this summer has been a very busy one for her with work, FSY, camps, family reunions, etc. She had to try out for the high school team at the beginning of August, and we didn't know what to expect. She made the team! Wahoo! 

Little did we know that it would completely dominate her life for the next 8 weeks. I know practically all sports are life dominating, but it's been a minute since we had a kid do high school sports, so we forgot. This is nuts. Tennis all day every day, she's missed lots of school because of away matches like 3x/week, a tourney in St. George, etc. The season only goes for another month, so it's quick, but boy it's intense. 

At a YW activity a couple of weeks ago, a couple of these girls were talking trash about Taco Bell. When I confronted them about it, they confessed that they had either never been, or hadn't been since they were like 8. We took them to Taco Bell after the activity and they were converted for life. Baja Blast forever.

Ava got asked to Homecoming by a boy in our ward- should be an experience to remember! ;) 

Aani's been busy with school, friends, and Aidan. Her friends have all gone away to college, including Aidan, but he's just in SLC and comes home for the weekends. But we've kinda liked seeing her again sometimes! 

They painted each other, and I think we can see who the gifted artist is... (Aidan, obviously)

Aani went to Europe with some friends in the ward- spent a week in Rome, Palma de Mallorca and Barcelona. They had all the fun and saw all the things! 

Addie got a li'l matching tattoo with a few of her friends, and now like 2 weeks later it's totally faded, but here it is all fresh. 

Then she blew this blue pool ball into the pocket for like 5 minutes so Aani would win the game or something. What a good sister. 

Anders went to Alaska with some friends for 10 days. They hiked a lot, saw lots of nature, ate lots of sandwiches, drove all over the place, and made memories. 

Soda fridge is stocked, don't worry. 

Basement is coming along! Drywall, paint, electrical fixtures are in. Flooring, bathroom, kitchen, trim, doors, and everything else is next. No biggie. 

Nils, Addie and I did the Lord of the Rings extended edition marathon last week. 12.5 hours at the Megaplex. It was way less terrible than I was expecting, I actually kind of enjoyed it. 

YM shootin' activity. These kids have it good, and they probably don't even know it. 

Zeppe's Italian Ice is in town now. They had this peach custard that was YUMMO.

The Telluride got fixed! The back was cracking pretty bad- we bought it as a salvage title, and the original repair job was falling apart. 

Nils requested Giordano's Pizza from Chicago for his birthday. They sell it online, and it was everything he was hoping for. :) 

This owl was just hanging out one night when we were on a walk. It looked fake! It also looks a lot like a cat. 

Saren and Randy came to town and we had a fun day at Snowbird. 

Before picture of the Telly.

Took the youth up to Heber Valley Camp for the Look Unto Christ Walk, and it was really spectacular. 10/10 recommend. 

Denim insulation has been the theme for videos for the last couple of weeks. Made a short video that got over 400k views, made a long form video that got a lot less than that. Good times. 

Zoom shot of the Provo fire from our backyard.

What it looked like IRL. 

Ava started 10th grade! What the heck! 

Summer is drawing to close. It's been a busy one! We haven't traveled anywhere for the last couple of months, which has been nice. We've had several nights where we got to hang out by the fire pit and roast s'mores and enjoy the gorgeous summer nights. We've gone on a lot of walks. We still go to Costco all the time. I also drive Ava everywhere all the time. Then there's all the worky worky stuff. Sometimes I have to take a nap. I love naps. 

Life is good. It's full and feels like a lot sometimes, but it's good. Right Nils? Right?