Give Thanks

Good morning Hawaii. Here's Peter's bed on our floor (he doesn't like the pack and play) - 

There was another rainbow this morning! Natalie wanted a picture with it - 

And then she took my camera and took some pictures of it - arching over the lagoon where we went to swim this morning.

Looking down off our balcony at the bbq grills below. 

She's an up and coming photographer, like all my kids. 

After soaking in the rainbow, we started this morning by listening to our living Prophet, President Nelson. It was all over facebook that he was going to share an important message at 11 am on 11-20-20 (8am here in Hawaii) so it was a great way to start the day. All the kids gathered around with us and we watched it on the tv together. 

I loved the invitation he gave us (and the story behind it!), and I loved hearing him pray: 

Our Father in Heaven, as fellow passengers on Thy planet Earth, we humbly pray unto Thee. We thank Thee for life and all that sustains life. We thank Thee for the beauties of the earth, for order in the universe, the planets, stars, and all things of eternal significance. We thank Thee for Thy laws that protect and guide us. We thank Thee for Thy mercy and loving watch care. We thank Thee for our families and loved ones, who fill our lives with joy.

We are grateful for all who are striving to combat the COVID pandemic. Please bless them with protection and inspiration. Wilt Thou help us end this virus that has plagued so many of Thy children.

We thank Thee for the leaders of nations and others who strive to lift us. We pray for relief from political strife. Wilt Thou bless us with a healing spirit that unites us despite our differences. 

Wilt Thou also help us repent from selfishness, unkindness, pride and prejudice of any kind, so that we can better serve and love one another as brothers and sisters, and as Thy grateful children.

 We love Thee, our dear Father, and pray for Thy blessings upon us, in the name of Thy Beloved son, Jesus Christ, amen.

Isn't that beautiful! And the invitation he gave us for our "therapy"! So this will be great! 

Tonight I posted to facebook my gratitude for Corey and the wonderful father he is. With it I shared pictures of him here in Hawaii watching over the kids at the beach (Three Tables) and on our date night tonight. 

"I am so thankful for

Corey

! I am thankful for the amazing husband and friend he is to me and the great dad he is to our children. I am thankful for years of Friday night date nights together" #GiveThanks

We went to the restaurant here at the Marriott, called Longhi's Ko Olina. While we waited for our food, we soaked up the moment of our last weekend here. 

Our reservation was at 8:15. We left the kids around 7:30 and walked around the resort, sitting and talking at the "Reflection Pool" 

We never went swimming there, since it was a "quiet pool" and our kids wouldn't do that! It is a really pretty pool though!

I took pictures of it earlier before sunset. I went on a walk around 5 to get pictures of all the amazing flowers here. I'll post them on my glorious earth blog. Here are a few though - this one of the Bourgainvillea Glabra at the Reflection pool -

And I love love love the Plumeria trees, these flowers smell sooo gorgeous

These fire red bushes - I love those "fall" colors!

You get the idea. I could take pictures of nature and plants all day, which is why I had to make a separate blog for that hobby, so I don't overload the family record here. This is a shallow pool outside the check-in building and that is next to the restaurant. 

We had a lovely view of the water and the fish (and a bird that we think was trying to hunt) on our date. Oh and this one is called a Crinium Lily. Isn't it amazing?

Ok, last flower. I don't know what these ones are called, but those pink "petals" are actually leaves! And it just grows in this fractal form that is amazing - some of the blossoms look like one flower... others are three or four! So pretty.

So enough about flowers... Back to gratitude (I'll be doing flowers as my gratitude social media post soon!) - this will be fun to use social media in this positive and uplifting way. I've been using it more this week anyway, cause I've been posting pictures of our trip, the first one was of all the kids sitting in the airport in Salt Lake. And it will be great to keep posting gratitude stories after this week is over. The kids at the room when we left - watching some movie, I don't remember

Natalie and Sophi earlier today, laughing as they read the blog - 

Cute girls, I love my kids, and I keep this blog for them. They are my target audience. 

Doing homework earlier today - 

Today was just a chill at the hotel and enjoy the resort day. After listening to President Nelson, we all went down to the lagoon at 9. 

Corey came too, they went swimming in that darn salty ocean water. 

It's fun to see the big white waves every now and then.

Sophi and Lily playing in the sand. It's hard to get a good castle here, the sand isn't very firm so the water easily washes it away with one wave.

The only complaint about Hawaii that the kids have voiced is that the ocean water is too salty. We think that's funny. I held Peter with one hand. He fell asleep as I was digging a hole for our feet. Then I used my free hand to reach across my body and dig a hole for Daniel. 

We went to the Naia pool after that. We rinsed off the sand from our feet and went swimming to get it all out of our hair. Funny story here - Daniel had to go to the bathroom and wanted to be done swimming, so I took him back to the room where Corey was working. He was on a call out on the balcony, so I didn't bother him but I left Daniel there with some food and told myself to text Corey once I got my phone back at the pool. But I forgot to text Corey to let him know D was there. I thought D might escape the room. And he did. I don't know how long he was gone, but as we were getting ready to go back up, a nice lady brought him to the pool to look for his parents. Luckily I was right there and he came up to me. That is why he's in his dry shorts and the rest of us are in our swimming suits in this sad attempt at a family photo. Daniel had just returned from possibly being lost for an hour. 

We didn't get a picture yesterday before Joseph left, so here is our lovely group. We look like a disheveled bunch. Lily's not here cause she took off mad at Abi, I told her to stop and come here THREE TIMES and she looked at me and ran the other way. I was a bit shocked. Nice face Daniel, such a character. PETER looks Adorable!!! With that bush perfectly placed in the background, doesn't he look like the Ghost of Christmas Present in A Christmas Carol?! 

Oh my, Peter you are TOTALLY ADORABLE. Back at the room, I shared my sadness with Corey and Lily that she wasn't able to be in our pool picture. So then we all went back to try again. Wes kept Peter warm and kids gathered their towels and flip flops again...

(Peter's little toes!!)

Hmm, this pic is too dark for my phone camera with such a light background. Corey took a lot with his iphone, but I didn't know if I'd be able to get those from him, so I made them do one more next to the building.

That will have to do. Good enough. Hey, let's take an elevator picture!!

Elevator selfie!

Front door of our room pic!

I can hear Hyrum in the back "Mom... stop..." Well, I'm just trying to capture these last few moments, before you know it we'll be back home, remembering when we walked down the long hall way to our corner room and how fun it was to just throw off our shoes and leave our towels on the floor. Good times, good times. I am very thankful that we've had this wonderful vacation, that it all worked out, thank you dear Lord.

School, Surf, and Bye Joseph

We are enjoying one of our last few days in Oahu. Today was just a take it easy at the hotel day for most of us. We went to the Naia pool during the day when the kids could go on the slide. Peter opted to do some pool side yoga - my little yoga baby. 

After a morning swim, we came up to the room to do school work. I helped Abi with math, and she struggled, and I struggled with her. Seems like we've been here before... 

Owen's already tuckered out. Natalie is a good sister. 

Reading to Peter earlier this morning (Peter slept in his swimsuit jumper) - 

Lunchtime Check in - 

Corey snuck out with Joseph, Wes, and Sophi to go to Waikiki so Joseph could surf. Corey stayed with Sophi and watched her climb the cool banyan tree - 

They went to the same place and rented the surf board from the guy we rented from last time. 

(Yay! I got some photos off of Corey's phone!) 

Just know that Corey takes more photos and videos of the kids than I do. So future family historians, this blog is just our family's history from my point of view, except for the occasional photos I send myself when I happen to grab his phone. 

So, you're welcome Joseph and Wes, your surf and kneeboarding outing is hereby documented. 

After surfing, Corey asked Joseph if he had any other last requests before his vacation ended. He wanted to eat a Hawaiian meal. 

So Corey took them to the mall and they ordered some Hawaiian BBQ.

And then they dropped him off at the airport - BYE JOSEPH!! 

He actually left without me saying goodbye or giving him a hug, since they snuck out when we were doing homework, but it's ok. I trust we'll see him again soon. Bye Joseph, it was so great to have you here!

Back at the room - those that were done with homework came to the Lagoon Pool with the little kids and me. We chose umbrella 22, which I didn't notice the significance at first, but when I told Owen what number umbrella, his face beamed! Yes Owen! It's your 22 from school! 

22 is here in Hawaii too!! Owen was very happy. Peter was very sad. He'd been in a mood most of the day, ever since I put him in his swimming suit and handed him over to Abi to swim. He didn't like that and let me pay for it the rest of the day. I was sentenced to hold him non stop. Ooh Peter, I'm sorry. Please don't be grumpy.

So we (P and I) didn't get in the water or dig in the fake beach at Lagoon, I just held him while the kids played. at 7pm we headed back to the room. My arms were relieved when Peter willingly went on the luggage cart, yay, and I pushed him down the long hallway on that. 

We were on the 11th floor, room 31138 and 31140, alllll the way down at the end of the hall. The only exercise I've really gotten this week is when I occasionally try to sprint/run down the long hall instead of walk when I don't have kids with me and no once else is in the hall. Corey, Wes and Sophi came back. Wes missed Peter. Peter tried to tell Wes about all the scary things that happened today. 

(if you couldn't tell, Wesley is spoiling this kid...)

It's not Wesley's fault. Peter is pretty helpless and adorable, we're smitten too. 

Oh Peter! Are you so cute!

Our pretty baby.