Sunday, April 25, 2010

Long yet Short

It has been a long time since I have posted anything and now our life is running 3 hours behind! The time has finally arrived and Taylor is in school at BYU-Hawaii!!!! After many date switching for one reason or another we have been blessed to be able to move on to new adventures!!!!

Before school started on the 19th we had a few weeks free to enjoy ourselves in Arizona and a rental car in Hawaii.

The first slide show is Easter with my family in Flagstaff. We were able to leave my car with my sister which meant we drove from Seattle to Flagstaff!!!! (23 hours) Never having traveled with Brennan before we decided to leave when he went to bad for the night. It was wonderful until we hit Utah that morning and it began to snow. We spend some time with Taylor's cousin's family before making our way to our resting point, Mama Ririe's house (family friends from Flagstaff). Taylor slept as Brennan and I played and chatted. Meanwhile it had stopped snowing! After Taylor woke up we decided to leave before it got dark instead of waiting until Brennan's bedtime again. It all started great but as we got farther and farther down the road the thicker and thicker the snow. I began to notice that we could had no headlights and that is why it was so much easier to see when another car would approach. It came to the point that we were the only non SUV or Semi on the road. There was a sign that said 3 miles to Beaver and Taylor began to chant 3 miles, 3 miles, 3 miles, 2 1/2 miles . . . We tired all the hotels in the area and there was only smoking rooms available. Then we noticed in the gas station there was a Hotel check in, so we hurried over. There was one last room!!!!!! The worker told us that half of the rooms had never been occupied because it was so new, YEAH for us!!!!!!!! The next morning we continued on to Flag with clear skies and road!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While there, we enjoyed meeting the other 2 cousins born last year (5 total), 2 eggs hunts, family dinner with everyone but Ann and Tyrell (miss you guys!!!!! come visit Hawaii!!!!), coupon shopping with Sara, FHE with Scott's family, Grandpa and Grandma Skinner's early 1st birthday present to Brennan, dinner and games with Brian's family, the Aquaplex, staying with Sara's family and Brad's bedroom!!!!!!!!!!

We then returned to Washington via air (no snow!!!), packed all our belongings in storage or suitcases and headed for Hawaii all within 4 days!

The second slide show is of Hawaii. We decided to rent a car for 6 days before school started so that we could go place we might not get to otherwise, with no car. The first day we had to upgrade to a bigger car to make sure we fit all of out stuff in it from the airport to our new place. We ended up getting a 2010 Chevy Tahoe with only 1400 miles on it!!! It was so nice we were tempted to keep it for the full time but decided it wasn't worth the extra money per day!!! We returned it for a Nissan Pathfinder. This took a good portion of the day because where we live is at least an hour to the airport (the only rental car place on the island) so we stopped by the Dole Plantation on our way there. We wanted to take the scenic route home so we drove along the water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was beautiful which made it okay that there was traffic so we could enjoy longer! The next day we moved into our new place (the land lord got the days mixed up of when the other couple was moving out so she put us up in a vacation suite she has at her house for two days) walked around school and went to the beach. We were going to go to Pearl Harbor but while at school we found Taylor needed to get a few things done before school started so we stayed at school to get them done. In doing so we found out the do what they call a Circle Island Tour (Valley of the temples, Pali look out, Swap Meet and Aloha Stadium, Pearl Harbor, Walmart and Shaved Ice) for all new students for $10a person. Those were most of the places we wanted to go to went for much cheaper and with people that know history of the island to acquaint us better. Then on Sunday we were introduced to our new ward and began making friends!!!!! School started Monday and after class we took the car back which meant we had to ride the city bus back (a new experience for both of us). Lots of questions were asked and we made our way back, thanks to very friendly people we have run into everywhere!

Taylor has his work cut out for him this term but has a schedule he has stuck to for the first week! We celebrated this accomplishment with some Oreo's and he had a Dr. Pepper with dinner (I have been helping him to eat better and he did all week!!!). Brennan and I have been taking walks, watching softball games, going to the beach and trying to put our boxes of stuff away.

I am going to try to update more often so they aren't this painfully long! We have been extremely blessed in the last little bit and need to share!!!!!!!!!



Click to play this Smilebox scrapbook: Easter in AZ
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Click to play this Smilebox scrapbook: before school vacation
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