Adventures in Paradise Day 1

It's official...we aren't used to the time change yet. Utah is 4 hours ahead of Honolulu, so when we all woke up we felt like we had totally slept it.  It was only 6:30 am. We are trying to make sure we go to bed early so that we can get adjusted to the new time zone quickly.

Today we decided to have a 'beach day'. We headed to Hanauma Beach. This Wildlife Reserve is supposed to have some of the best snorkeling, so we decided to go. Scott took Kyra up to the swimming pool here at the hotel to practice. She did great, so off we went. Of course when we got to the Bay, Kyra wanted nothing to do with snorkeling. She takes after her mother. Snorkeling is a frightening thing. :) Tanner doesn't have any issues with it. He has always loved the ocean. 

These pictures were taken before Kyra's failed attempt at snorkeling. After she decided she didn't want to try it, Scott came and got me. I'm not a big fan of snorkeling, but I knew I needed to at least go for a little while to be an example to Kyra. So, Scott took me out and we saw a TON of fish. They were so pretty and right in front of us. Tanner went out on his own and he saw even more fish and a sea turtle. After Kyra watched all of us go I guess she decided she wanted to try. So, Scott took her in and she didn't stop. She swam all over the place. After a few hours of swimming, snorkeling and sunning; we decided to head to another beach. We drove along the coastline and enjoyed the beautiful scenery all the way to Kauha Beach. This beach had really white sand and the waves were better for body surfing and wave jumping. Which is EXACTLY what the kids did. 

After a VERY LONG day at two different beaches, we headed back to our hotel. What a fun day. We are all exhausted, sun burned and ready for another day. Tomorrow...Pearl Harbor!

Adventures in Paradise

Wow..I didn't realize that it had been so long since I had posted on my blog. I'm doing it now because I want to journal this trip. We've been looking forward to this trip for several months. 

Let me start by explaining how we got here (besides by plane). Tanner's club team did really well this year. Our final tournament for the fall season was the State Cup tournament. We fought hard and made it all the way to the finals. Our boys played their hearts out, but sadly we lost in penalty kicks. Our boys really wanted to win because the winner of the State Cup tournament got an automatic invite to the Far West Regional Tournament being held in Honolulu, HI. After we received our Silver Medals, we were told that there was a high chance that we may receive a wild card invitation to go. The down side was that we wouldn't learn if we did until January or February. In February we learned that we did in fact get the wild card invitation. So, Honolulu...we we come!

We left Salt Lake on Friday, June 14th. The kids have been very excited about this trip. Ok..we ALL have been very excited about this trip. It seemed so far away in February. It is hard to believe that we are already here. The beautiful, warm (and muggy) Hawaiin air greeted us at 2:30 pm Friday afternoon. We went straight to get our car rental. While we were there we met a family who was on our flight coming for the same tournament. We found our hotel and then decided we needed to head out for a grocery shopping trip. We found Costco and got some things there. Costco was a ZOO! We then enjoyed the food court and headed back to the hotel. 

It was a long day, but we are so glad to be here!

Ability Awareness

I had the opportunity to go to Kyra's school last week and participate in the 5th grade "Ability Awareness" day. I didn't know what it was I was signing up for, but boy am I glad I did. It was an amazing experience. The idea is to teach kids what it's like to be a child with a disability. It can be a physical, mental or learning disability. It is taught by PE teachers from the Special Ed school called Kauri Sue Hamilton. They have 18 "stations" that the kids rotate through with activities designed to teach the students how a child with that particular disability is able to function daily. Some of them were hard. I watched several students struggle with the station teaching about Multiple Sclerosis. They had to wear a thick pair of gloves and then try to stack some pennies or lace a card. The station that taught about Cystic Fibrosis had them put little bean bags between their elbow and body and between their knees and then try to do jumping jacks or push ups. It wasn't easy for anyone. Then they had the activities about learning to move around in a wheel chair or how to walk with a seeing cane with obstacles in the way. My favorite's were one where the kids had on a pair of goggles that distorted their vision so they couldn't get a sense of depth or any kind of perception. Then they had to toss a ball back and forth. The first ball was white and that ball was all over the gym because the kids couldn't see it coming at them. The other ball was red. While it was still all over the gym the kids were actually trying to catch it because they could sense it coming at them. My other favorite station was for the learning disability of processing disorder. It had a wooden box with a mirror attached at the end. Then there was a piece of paper in the opening that the kids had to trace the star on the paper only watching in the mirror. Your brain plays tricks on you and you can't get it done. It was really interesting to watch. I talked one of the PE teachers and she mentioned that they are getting ready to add another station for ADHD/autism disorders. It will be where the kids put on headphones and have to read a passage from a book with static playing in the headphones. That one will be interesting to witness. I had a good time watching each of the kids participate in this activity. I think it's something that everyone can learn from, not just the 5th graders.

Trying to walk with bean bags between her legs

Trying out the wheelchair (I know..picture's kind of fuzzy..she wouldn't slow down!)

Walking with the bean bags

Having to use hands to move around on scooters

Trying to lace a card with thick gloves

Cousins

Over the last few months I have had the privilege and honor to see cousins I haven't been able to in a LONG time. It all started with my cousin Joe getting married and being able to see his siblings. Then just this last week, I was up in Vancouver, WA and able to see those cousins up there.

I LOVE this quote I saw about cousins: "Cousins are usually the first friends we have as children. No one will ever understand your crazy family like your cousins do, even if you haven't talked too much lately."

w/Kristin

w/Joe and his new wife

w/David and Nancy

w/Trevor, his wife and new baby (Trevor is David's oldest son)

w/Natalie and Rachelle

w/ Natalie

w/Julie

w/Matthew & Clarissa and Robert

w/Clarissa

w/Robert

w/ Bob & Rachelle

w/ Nathan

Not pictured: Time in Logan with Michelle and Ryan and our girls dinner with Rachel, Marci and Kayla (Marci's daughter). I guess it's time to go to Arizona and see those cousins.

Uncle Ron

Two weeks ago I got a phone call from my parents that my Uncle Ron had passed away unexpectedly. It was a shock to hear. I know that his health hasn't been very good the last few years, but I never thought I would get this call. Right after I got off the phone from my mom, I felt an immediate feeling of "I need to go to his funeral". I started looking at airfares and there was no way I could afford to fly to Portland. Driving wasn't much of an option either. I am grateful for family that work for an airline that could get me a buddy pass to fly to Portland. The only catch was that I had to fly through Long Beach, CA. I left on Thursday (trying to avoid the Friday flight crowd) and made it all the way through with no problems.

As soon as I got to Vancouver on Thursday, I was immediately put to work. I helped by scanning pictures that had been gathered of Ron throughout the years. It was the goal of the family to have these pictures put on a computer to show as a slideshow during the viewing. Friday, I had the opportunity to spend the day with my cousin Julie. I went over to help her prepare for the family dinner that was to be held at her house that night. It was so nice to be able to help and also visit and get re-acquainted again. She is experiencing similar behavior issues with her cute little Matthew as I have already gone through with Kyra. It was nice to be able to give her some counsel and share personal experiences that I have had with Kyra.

One other thing that I had been asked to do for the funeral was to prepare a special musical number. Before I flew to Vancouver, I threw together a medley of 3 songs. I really hadn't practiced it much before I left. After Julie and I were done preparing the soups, etc for dinner I realized that I hadn't had a chance at all to practice my songs for the funeral the next day. So, I spent a little while practicing. I thoroughly enjoyed playing on her baby grand piano and having her boys clap for me while I was playing.

Saturday was the funeral. We woke up to cloudy weather and there was a slight drizzle. Because of a conflict, the cemetery couldn't let us have a graveside service until 3:00 pm. Therefore, we had our lunch right after the funeral service. The service itself was beautiful. My Aunt Sandra spoke about Ron and his trials that he endured during his life. She spoke about his kind heart. Uncle Steve also spoke about Ron's trials and what a kind hearted person he was. Uncle Reed spoke about the plan of salvation and gave a great spiritual talk. The spirit was so strong during the service. I think the highlight of the funeral, however, was the eulogy delivered by his daughter Clarissa. She was so nervous about delivering this. She did a beautiful job and truly invited the spirit into the rest of the service. She concluded by adding some personal memories of her father. A personal experience during the funeral service happened to me. I was feeling VERY unprepared for my musical number. As I sat on the bench listening to the talks, I was saying a prayer in my heart that I would be ok doing this number. I prayed that the nerves that I felt would go away and that I could just play from my heart. As I got up to play, I was shaking. I sat down and took a deep breath and started to play with faith that the nerves would eventually go away. As I was only a few seconds into the song, I all of a sudden heard some clapping. I got a huge grin on my face and realized that Matthew and Liam were helping me calm down so that I could play from my heart and not be nervous. I talked to Julie afterward and she said that Liam wasn't clapping and that it might have been Matthew. I realized then, that Heavenly Father had heard my prayer. Whether or not it was Matthew clapping, I heard the noise that made me feel the peace that I needed to continue on with my song.

Miraculously, the rain stopped for the graveside service. As son as it was over and we were getting in our cars, the rain started again. It was a true miracle. Ron was a very quiet, humble man. He was large in stature and large in heart. He probably would've been embarrassed by all the attention he received for this service. However, I also believe that the service was done "just right" (as Grandpa McAllister would say).

I am so fortunate to be born into this family. I am the oldest grandchild and have always felt such a responsibility of that. As the oldest grandchild, I'm not that much younger than my dad's youngest siblings. Uncle Ron was one of those. There was only 8 years between me and Uncle Ron. I have fond memories of going over to Grandpa & Grandmother's house and he being there. I looked up to him like an older brother. I am glad that I had the inspiration to tell me to go to the funeral. It was something that I felt right about. Getting home was an adventure, but what I was able to feel while there made it all worthwhile.

FHE at Salt Lake Cemetery

While my parents were on their mission on Temple Square, my dad would take groups up to the Salt Lake Cemetery and go on a tour of different gravesites. They were the final resting place of many of our former prophets. He also had located the graves of many of our ancestors from both the 'Farr' side and the 'McAllister' sides. My brothers and I have often asked Dad about the tour and how interesting it would be to be able to actually participate in the tour. My parents were in town for awhile, so we made arrangements with my brothers family and our family to get together for FHE and go on the tour. Dad took us took us to see the graves of several of our ancestors and also of some of the prophets. The most amazing part was how interested the kids were. They were mesmerized by the stories my dad told us about our prophets. We saw the grave for Harold B Lee, David O McKay, Brigham Young, and Gordon B Hinckley. We also saw the grave for our own ancestors: Karl G Maeser, Duncan McNeil McAllister and Willard Ballantyne Farr. It was a great FHE for all of us.

Tuacahn

We had the opportunity to go to Tuacahn in St. George to see "The Little Mermaid". My parents had made arrangements to get tickets for myself and Kyra, Spencer & Susie and their kids, and my parents. I drove down to St. George with Kyra and Sydni. We had some good laughs and made it safely. After Spencer & Susie arrived, we went to dinner. After dinner we headed out to Tuacahn. We had great seats and when the show started the girls ALL were entranced. They enjoyed the whole play. It was a very well done show. It started late (8 pm) and so it ended kind of late (11:30 pm), but the girls were real troopers and stayed awake the whole time.

We are so blessed to have these opportunities. I love having special mommy & Kyra moments like that. She was really good the entire time. Thank you mom & dad for creating some special family times.

The other play that was showing this summer was "Grease". Of course, Kyra and Addi couldn't walk past the cut outs and not stick their heads in.

Kyra, Addi and Lilly in the cutout for "The Little Mermaid".