renewed

valentine's was my very favorite day in hawaii.  

i rolled out of bed and threw on my exercise clothes.  dave was going to spend the morning in his conference so i decided to walk him there and then go for a run.   we joked around saying maybe we should renew our vows since the hotel had advertised 'renewing your wedding vows' on the beach that morning.  we thought it would be funny and memorable.  as we got closer, i was not prepared for what i saw.  so many couples, microphones, a news crew, and a really pleasant polynesian minister.  tons of couples and almost all fit two requirements: 

1-over the age of 50 and 2- wearing matching shirt and mumu.

we took it in for a minute and then decided to skip out, but not before they gave me a lei (beautiful, but later ditched in the trash...way too itchy and difficult to run in!)  and we had someone take our picture.

as we walked along the path, dave realized i was slightly disappointed, which seemed silly, but something about the idea of it sounded memorable.  he told me he refused to let me feel disappointed and joked around that he would renew vows with me anytime.  he sat me down under these palm trees on this little rock fence next to some little white flowers, and took me by the hand to renew them right then.  i thought he was joking around, but then i realized he had a seriousness in his eyes as he promised me some things.  even though we laughed, it was real, and i once again felt the deep love i have for this awesome guy. 

we looked up, and a little surprised, realized we had a "witness".
this giant statue sitting right in front of us was one big dude.

i went on my run, and dave went to learn more about emergency medicine.  

we met up for lunch.

i ordered this amazing drink, which luckily dave remembered, as the waitress was walking away, to request no alcohol- i didn't even think about it- haha!  i don't think about those things where we hang out in utah.

it rained the rest of the day!
dave and i spent the afternoon sitting in different hot tubs in the pouring rain, talking--for fun.
we played in the rain on the beach.  everyone else must not have thought the rain was as pleasant as we did.  we had the beach all to ourselves and we had an awesome time racing in the sand, swimming and exploring.  well, we thought we were alone-  as we headed back to the hotel, a couple called us over to them.  they had been watching us and jokingly said they thought dave was a jerk for leaving me in the dust during our race and was so happy to see me attack him in the water....haha!

we drove up the coast and got out to watch some kids surf.  we were lucky enough to see three whales swimming together and blowing water.  pretty cool.

we ate dinner at a thai restaurant--dave's favorite.  they had music videos from thailand on a giant tv.  they were hilarious!  we couldn't understand what they were saying, but every single one was a super sad, dramatic, love triangle- highly entertaining!

my favorite valentine's day ever.  i feel renewed:)

fun stuff

 here are a few random pics of stuff that made me smile lately:

abe got an instagram.

he discovered someone started a "cutest couples" page for his school and look who it highlighted.  abe...and some girl he has never talked to:)  haha! 

the boys got creative one afternoon...

 i found 45 movie clips on my phone and they were pretty funny.  can't wait to see the final product.

vivian learned how to take selfies... more where these came from:)

the plant at the dentist office that vivian walked over to, studied for a minute, then took a pretty good bite out of one of the leaves...we need to stop reading 'a very hungry caterpillar'!  abe and i got a good laugh.  i wish i had a picture of her face as she spit it out.

best fan club ever...these little people are troopers.  

they have been to their share of ball games!

vivs went with me to the church to rebound for sadie.  sadie would shoot and vivian would smile  and happily jump or clap and say, "nice!" or "nice shot!" 

 went with kai to his scout klondike.

 super cold but fun.  i was happy to spend the morning with kai.

i went home and tried to get warm and kai turned around and went skiing with dave for the afternoon.

 sling shots and snow sculptures

we went to church.  

vivian refused her coat...couldn't cover up her sparkly dress! 

 i really love church.  

i know that might sound weird, but i love watching abe pass the sacrament, i love serving in the primary and the ladies i work with, i love watching vivian get excited about nursery.  it is a good boost for me spiritually each week.  sadie bore her testimony about her seminary class.  she was put in a seminary class with the special needs kids in the high school and it was neat to hear her thoughts about helping them learn the gospel and the thoughts she had lately about focusing on other people,  not just herself.   she also was put in the mia maid presidency and was set apart after church.  her priesthood blessing was so nice.  it also talked about reaching outside of herself and promised if she put Heavenly Father first then she would be blessed in all her activities.

 abe painted self portraits every day after school for about a week.  a good relaxing thing to do before basketball practice and homework.  this was my fave.

 sadie and some friends went to the byu game together.  fun for her to introduce them to her cousins and family.  after games, it's kind of like a mini family reunion.  it's great!

life is good.  this is just a glimpse.  i feel so grateful and i want to post a million more moments that make my life happy!  

enjoy your day!

back at it

dave took me to hawaii for a week.  he has been begging me for years to go and i just couldn't see how it would work out, but it did.  he took the initiative and planned it and it was wonderful!  there are so many things i want to write about and capture to remember forever.... but life is moving fast.  i got home yesterday, spent an hour with the kids and then headed to basketball camps.   it was nice to be on vacation, relax and connect with dave.  i loved it.  it is also nice to come home and be with my awesome kids and jump right back into real life with a more relaxed perspective.

vacations are a good thing.

thanks dave!  i truly love you.

"buuu-ful"

got a little too quiet around our house the other day....

serenading

 dave is good at serenading the girls he loves.  

i remember when he was sixteen, he came to my bedroom window to serenade me.  unfortunately, i was asleep in the other room and he had to wake me up and then try again.  i think he got about half way through a couple songs before he climbed in my window and we talked for hours.

he has also been known to serenade sadie until she gets out of bed.  something about it gets her up and moving pretty quickly...

and vivian, well, she set herself up with a pillow and her blanket and was happy to have a little serenading before dave was off to work.

right after she snuggled and chatted with him through her binky.

she loves this "daddy"!

he's a good one.

optimism at it's best

max is the most optimistic kid i know.

at church on sunday, he was drawing a picture.  

my elbow bumped him while i was trying to contain vivian.  

he looked at me, smiled, then said, "mom, thank you for elbowing my pencil.  

that was actually helpful." 

 i must have looked at him strangely because he followed up with, "what?!  it was! it was exactly the way i needed the line i'm drawing to go."

i am admiring his example today as i am super frustrated with the major water leak in my roof....of our brand new house...which the builder says is not under warranty.  which does not surprise me at all considering our experience with them.

deep breaths.

maybe when it's all said and done, i will say thank you to them for helping me learn how to be more assertive and a better problem solver.

the thing is, i can't even worry about it today, because i have 30, yes, 30 thirteen year old boys coming over for a birthday party tonight. 

so, i'm thinking of max. 

wish me luck!

lucky thirteen

abe's thirteenth birthday took place in our car.  we drove the entire day.

abe was surprised...instead of a birthday table, we partied in the car!

 he gets super excited about peanut brittle.

 i love watching him, when he thinks something is funny.  

 we stopped in flagstaff at his restaurant of choice.  burgers and ice cream for brunch are the best.

 we also stopped at dave's favorite pizza place because he'd been craving this pizza ever since we moved from flagstaff.

 pizza party in the car about 15 minutes after we ate burgers....gross and happy all at the same time.

we tried to make birthday in the car as fun as possible and it was great to be all together.  more b-day celebrations still to come!  

happy thirteen abe!!!

(HUH!  i just noticed the green bottle of shampoo right behind sadie's head that the boys in the back must have been playing with...that just happen to be dumped out all over inside the suitcase when we got home....interesting!)