Oh To Be Home!

  

It's been just about two months since we left the beautiful island of Hawaii.   We've heard the same questions over and over.  Do you miss Hawaii?  How is it to be home?  Are your kids happy to be back? Are you ready to go back?  My answer is, we are all so happy to be home! Yes, we'd like to go back but not for awhile, we love Idaho. We are enjoying the comforts of life: our dishwasher, air conditioner, more space, our yard, and many more little things we missed while we were away.

Hawaii was a great experience that we'd never trade for anything. The mission was so amazing with many sites to see and we learned a great deal about the culture too.  At the same time though, it was difficult in so many ways. As we neared the end and began to analyze all that we'd been through we had a realization that we've changed a lot. Before we left we had an exit interview with our stake president. He asked us two questions. What are the top 3 things we learned from our service?  How has this experience strengthened our marriage?

It was interesting that he chose these questions because we had been discussing these two questions at different times throughout the month of May. We were preparing for the interview without even knowing it. I've written all about what I've learned in my personal journal and there are stories that I want to keep personal. But I do want to share the three things I learned here.

The top three things I've learned are:

1-I will never please everyone. I never need to worry about what others think of me; I only need to strive to live my life in a manner that pleases the Lord.

2-A better understanding of true humility.  When we can really personalize the love our Father in Heaven has for us and the how atonement affects all aspects of our life we realize we are nothing without them it helps us stay humble. It's okay to have confidence in ourselves and the fact that we are on our way to exaltation. But, we must be doing all that we can to live our life for the Lord and see that only through Christ's Atonement will we ever have a chance to return. He is the only way to overcome Satan in our lives.

3-I can do more than I ever thought I could but only through the help of the Savior.  At a point while we were in Hawaii I was so overwhelmed with every part of life and I didn't know if I'd ever feel good about anything again. But, through a lot of prayer and in the Lord's time I finally felt like myself again but stronger.

Overall I understand better how much the Lord is there in my life, in our marriage, and in our family. He is everywhere all the time. The only way to realize this is to open the door we put up between ourselves and Him. We all chose to come here and live. Heavenly Father gave us the agency to choose for ourselves while we are here. The Lord isn't going to invade our life to show us he's there because that would take that gift of agency away.  The only way to see His hand in our life is to look for it.

While in Hawaii, any effort I put into seeking Him out was returned with peace, help, comfort, or anything else I needed at the time. I'm grateful for the knowledge I gained while away.  I know it will help me throughout my life. I'm grateful for the opportunity we had to serve and hope to do better to live my life in a way that is pleasing to my Father in Heaven.

...Until We Meet Again...ALOHA Hawaii!!!

On our final day in Hawaii we decided to visit the Polynesian Cultural Center one last time to fish and see a new addition.  Brayden caught a fish!  He was super excited!

 The excitement was in the air as we packed up the car and backed out of the driveway for the final time.  We made a final stop for shave ice in Haleiwa and got to the airport.  I won't sugarcoat it.  We were at the airport two and a half hours early. Getting our bags checked and passing through security was a NIGHTMARE.  It took forever and by the time we got to our gate we only had abougt 15 minutes to board.  Not enough time to get food and use the potty.  But, somehow we made it on the plane and the kids did AWESOME!!!

 Our flight left at 9 PM and landed at 7 AM (3 AM Hawaiian time).  But, we were going on pure adreneline.  You can see in the next two pictures that the kids are exhausted.

 We were welcomed home be my parents and great friends.  Bo posted this on Facebook and it is exactly how I felt:

Celeste and I want to thank everyone for the incredible welcome home we received yesterday. I'm sure we'll never fully know just how much was done to help us feel welcomed but it was a huge load off to come home to our lawn mowed, boxes moved from our storage unit to our house, basics already unboxed and put away, meals in the fridge and a huge surprise welcome home party that waited for us even after we stopped for lunch in IF and took a detour through Rigby on our drive home.

We felt so loved and that was just what we needed when we got back.  Thank you to anyone who did anything to help while we were away.  I'm sure we will never know everything everybody did.

Memorial Day

Our last beach day was on Memorial Day.  We went to Kailua Beach in Kailua and it was one of our favorite beach days of the whole year.  The weather wasn't the best but we went with some of our best friends, Jackie and Paul Ramma.  Here are some photos of the highlights!

I LOVE this picture!  It encompasses all the fun the kids had that day. 

Jackie and Paul

  Thank you Ramma's for being great friends to us even though you knew it was going to be a short time for us in Hawaii!  It's nice to know you visit Idaho often though and we had a great time hanging out here in Idaho!

Our Last Sunday

Our last Sunday in Hawaii started on Saturday evening with a tender mercy from Heavenly Father.  We had a great day at the beach and then Caleb began whining his ear hurt in the late afternoon.  I didn't think much of it because I figured he had water in his ear.  But, he continued to whine and then both of his ears began hurting.  It being Saturday, the hospital was our only option and Caleb had just been whining for a few hours I decided to wait on it and hope he'd get better.  I gave him some IB Profen and put him to bed.

It was only a half hour later and he was crying again.  I got him back to sleep only to have him wake up thirty minutes later again. I thought to myself this is going to be a long night.  Plus Bo and I had to speak in sacrament meeting in the morning at eight.  I asked Bo if he'd give Caleb a blessing.  We called one of our missionary friends Craig Earnshaw and he came over to help.  After the blessing Caleb slept through the night with no sign of pain and was better in the morning.  It was such a blessing to have him better and the whole family at church for our last Sunday.

In Hawaii on your last Sunday the ward sings "Aloha Oe" to your family after the closing prayer in Sacrament Meeting. Afterward some people in our ward brought up some lei's to say good-bye.  It was fun and we have a whole lot of lei's on display in our home now.

We also went on a walk out to Laie Point for the last time.  A nice couple offered to take a picture of us.  So here we are at the end of our street with those beautiful mountains and ocean behind us.

My Birthday

Bo planned a night out in Honolulu to celebrate my birthday.  We went to P.F. Changs and then for a walk on Waikiki to see the fireworks they have on friday nights.  It was nice to get out.  Thanks Bo for planning some time away for us!

Empower Your Dreams Competition

The Empower Your Dreams Competition was outstanding!  All of the finalists did an amazing job.  It was pretty inspiring to see all of the presentations.  Click here to see all of the presentations of the winners.  

The judges this time we great and we had a fun time with them.  Here are some pics from our couple of days together.  We ate at the Luau, Pounders, rode segways around a beach.

Elizabeth Smart was one of the judges.  She gave a fireside while she was here and did a great job:

click the link to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja1gH9L9VIo

A Few Last Small Adventures

Toward the end of our Hawaii adventure we made a few more trips.  We went back to some of our favorites and tried out some others.  Here are some pics from our last few:

This was our favorite lookout.  We drove up and up and up a mountian and walked out to this:

I loved the rainbow that showed up for us. :)

 That volcano below is Diamondhead.  The pictures after that are of our third hike of Diamondhead.

 View from the top of Diamondhead:

The kids LOVE climbing this tree at the bottom:

 One last trip to Matsumoto's Shave Ice

 Playing at a beach house of on the the other missionary couples.  It was our final get together before we all left.  It was in Wailua and the kids swam near the turtles.  Pretty cool!

 This was a one last motorbike trip with Bo's friends from the School.  Martha and Perry Christensen.  While they were motorbiking Martha took us to a really steep, fun hill to play on.  The kids LOVED it!

I'm sure I'm missing some of our last outings, but this should do.

Jack's Baseball Season

Baseball in Laie is different than here.  They stop leagues after age 9 so Jackson was the only one who got to play.  Conrad was a bit bummed but we had a great time watching this season.  Jack's last game was his favorite.  He was able to hit a single, double, triple, and home run.  He has really gotten more aggressive and into playing since last year.

A typical Hawaiian after game snack: lei, drink, fuit, crackers, musubi (spam sushi)

This game just poored and poored.  They ended early.  But, I think the kids had fun.