Welcome to our World

We feel so lucky that we got to spend our four day weekend with extended family in St. George.  Amylynn found a perfect vacation home where 36 of us could stay and play together.  Highlights included simply being around amazing people, meeting our grand niece, hiking at Snow Canyon and Pioneer Park, two pickleball tournaments, puzzles, games, and our own pool.  I miss them all (and Swig and Splash) already!  However, I will not miss the 13 hour drive both ways due to President's Day weekend ski traffic, snow, fog, and even I-70 being partially closed due to accidents.  I'm grateful we made it there and back safely but dang, when are we going to learn not to road trip through mountains in winter?

Certain days on the calendar are usually pretty plain, but the first Tuesday in February ended up being really neat. I took Danny back to the orthopedic and he was cleared to play basketball that afternoon. Then after getting him to school and doing some housework I got to work out with Michelle’s friend’s mom, K, for the first time. I was laughing at how much stronger I was on my right side than my left side. Was I like that before my surgery too?  I was able to go grocery shopping, eat lunch, and get ready for my evening before my high school girls got home. Since Hubby wasn’t feeling well, Michelle volunteered to make sure she and Natalie got dinner (I taught her how to cook hamburger patties) and walk with Natalie over to the middle school and I would meet them there after the basketball game. Hooray for Michelle stepping in!  She had already volunteered to help tune violas before Natalie’s orchestra concert and attend but I was sure grateful Michelle was willing to flip p...

Back to school, work, and basketball!  I was thrilled I got to watch Natalie play in her last couple of basketball games.  She looked like she was having so much fun out there! That same week I got to help out at Unified Club and watch her enjoy playing line tag. Hubby and I also got to watch Danny play basketball.  Sadly, he only played in a few games after Hawaii before we witnessed him fall and sprain his ankle.  The trainer had us go to the orthopedic urgent care to make sure it wasn't broken by the orthopedic believes Danny partially tore some ligaments so it will take a couple weeks to feel better.  To add illness to injury, the next night he started vomiting and was as sick as I've seen him in years.  It took him util Saturday to even feel good enough to start asking me for things more than once or twice a day.  But eventually he got better and has returned to school and to basketball but hasn't been cleared to play in games yet. And how did we ...

 After breakfast we disembarked (super easy with NCL) and took two Lyfts to Pearl Harbor.  Hubby and I joked that I always get the nicer cars and drivers, which remained true when we went to the airport later as well.  Since no baggage is allowed at the memorial, they had a neat little building we could check our luggage into for the day.  We signed up for everything since we didn't have to leave for the airport until closing time.  There was a shuttle bus to take us to the USS Missouri and our tour guide was actually in the movie Battleship .  Not many of the people on the tour had seen when the Mighty Mo had stepped in to fight the extraterrestrials but Hubby and I insisted on taking a photo with him.  His real name is George M. Arine but he played Admiral Hashimoto and said many of the tour guides for the USS Missouri were invited to be a part of the film. Next stop was the Pacific Aviation Museum, which my grandmother had donated to back when it wa...

When we woke up in Kaua'i it was raining so we were a bit worried about how that would affect our plans for the next two days but the weather ended up being much nicer than forecast.  A top priority for our trip was to try out surfing for the first time.  I chose Kaua'i Surf School at Poipu Beach and we can all highly recommend going to them!  Since only four surfers were allowed per lesson, they let us sign up for one group lesson and one semi-private lesson and then they took all of us on and 4 of us would take turns in the water for the duration of both lessons.  That worked out great because learning how to surf so sooooo much fun but sometimes you just need to take a breather too.  Worth every penny and I would totally go surfing there again. After returning to the ship to shower and eat, Hubby, Michelle, Natalie, and I ventured out to see Waimea Canyon.  We enjoyed the hour long drive, paid our $30 to park at the view point, hiked up the stairs, and s...