On April 3, 2012 we officially left Hawaii.  The last 10+ weeks are like a tornado in my mind.  I know what moving is like, even across the ocean.  I've done it before.  Even with mental and physical preparation you just really can't be fully prepared for it.  In some ways moving back to the mainland was harder than leaving the mainland.  We lived in Hawaii for almost 5 years.  That is more than 1/3 of our marriage.  We arrived with a barely four year old and a 10 month old.  We left with an 8, 5, and and 2 year old.  Our family has grown, we learned more than we ever expected to learn, and we put down roots that weren't easy to pull.  We started pre-packing more than two months before the move.  We pared everything down to what we considered the essentials, with a substantial garage sale pile.  We had an initial garage sale and followed that up with several trips to the thrift store and sold several items on craigslist.  Still, in the end we felt like the world was spinning out of control.

We started the move with a final 4-H meeting.  We ended up with double the cupcakes that we needed so we decorated 1/2 of them as planned and I pulled out 6 bags of frozen candy and let the girls free-style the rest of the cupcakes. After we cleaned up the parents arrived and we had a little awards ceremony.  The 4-H coordinator came and presented the girls with ribbons for their record books.  She also gave me a clock and Kauai picture book.  The girls gave me a book with a picture of each of them and a little note that they wrote to me.  I gave each girls either a pair of pants with cupcakes on them or a shirt that said "I want (picture of a cupcake)'s."  We ate the decorated cupcakes and had drinks for refreshments. I think all of the girls had a fun year and I look forward to being involved with 4-H somehow in Idaho. 

Our first good-bye party was a girls night with Laverne Silva and Tasy Burley.  On the invitation they wrote for "our Holly and Mandie."  That made us feel so special.  It was a great night with about 25 ladies and enough food to feed twice that many.  They had everyone sign a Kauai picture book for us and later gave us the book and a little picture album full of pictures from the party.

A second party was at Shaun's house.  It was no secret that Shaun thought we were crazy for leaving Hawaii so he had a dumb and dumber party.  Everyone was invited but he made it clear that he was not catering to the ladies.  He had "man food," and we watched the movie dumb and dumber. 

We also had a day of meals with the Keeps.  Debbie was so excited to have us over for breakfast.  She fed us a huge smorgasboard including cinnamon rolls, waffles, bacon, eggs, juice, etc.  That night Shaun cooked us tri-tip with salads, potatoes and other good food.  Debbie painted all of the girls' fingernails.  They were so excited.  As a fun bonus, Ridge decided he loved Debbie, too.  Even if he didn't get his nails painted.  He kept giving her hugs and saying "Bebbie."   It really was nice to have someone else cook for us when we were down to the last of our food supply and working day and night to be ready to go.  Plus the company was great!

My mom mentioned having a party for the kids on the phone to me one day.  She reminded me of the party she had for me before we moved from Glenns Ferry to Arco.  I was only a year older than Kyleigh is now.  She had all of the girls sign a t-shirt with fabric paint.  I kept that shirt hanging on my bedroom wall for years.  What the heck, why not have a crazy party in the middle of moving madness, right?  I sent out an evite to all of Kyleigh and Katelyn's friends.  We threw a huge sheet of black visqueen on the lawn for a slip and slide.  I bought some dish soap to make it a little faster.  I also bought a couple of gallons of bubbles and supplies for everyone to make their own bubble wand.  We got lucky and had a beautiful sunny day.  I stole the Kauai picture book idea and had all the kids sign one for Kyleigh and another for Katelyn.  We also served pizza and ice cream.  Everyone had a great time.  One funny thing.  Bryant Keep wanted to jump on the trampoline but all of the bigger kids were on it.  His mom, Genevieve, didn't want him to get hurt.  I thought it was just because of the older kids so I told them they only had another minute until the smaller kids were going to jump.  Then she mentioned that he hadn't had his tetanus shot.  I thought that was so funny.  We had been saying for some time that our yard was a tetanus shot waiting to happen.  We kept holding on to the trampoline and swingset because we knew we were moving and didn't want to buy new ones.  It was just funny hearing someone else say it.  Also, Jesica Silver took Riley out of school for the party.  He didn't have early out at island school so she had to check him out.  I thought that was really cool of her.  I'm so glad we went ahead and had a party for the kids.

Our good-bye to the Petersons was especially hard.  We tried to fit in a little of everything before we left.  They boys got in a last bike ride.  We had one last day in Kokee.  We had a few last dinners, including one at the Herr's house.   Dawn even helped us get our extremely massive load to the airport. 

The Sunday before we left we spoke in our ward.  Because of the timing all four of us spoke in the same sacrament meeting.  Kalaheo ward is set apart in so many ways, one of them being good-byes.  After the meeting the ward stood and sang aloha oi to us.  I pretended like Ridge needed me so I could avoid looking up for the majority of the song.  It is pretty emotional to leave the people who have really become your ohana. Then there was a reception line.  You may think I am joking but I am not.  The line went to the back of the chapel.  Everyone put leis on us and hugged us good-bye. 

After our container arrived and was loaded we stayed at Koloa landing for a few nights.  I'm not sure if ironic is the word, but we moved to Kauai to build Koloa landing and left Kauai from Koloa landing.  We loved staying there.  The girls were ecstatic when they got a room with their own TV AND their own bathroom.  We were ecstatic that we didn't have to sleep in sleeping bags on the hard floor of our empty house while trying to keep it spotless for three days.  Riley didn't have school while we were there so he came over for a day and swam in the pool with us.  We had the Petersons over the last night we were there and they brought us pizza.  We left the kids with Jeffrey keeping watch after we put them to bed and the adults went to get ice cream one last time at Lapperts.  Before we left Koloa landing two people from our ward that work there brought us gift baskets.  Robert Anchetta and Lovey Britton left us with snacks for the plane.  We also had a late night visit from the Pau family.

The next morning we left for the airport.  Now that was an adventure!!!  17 (yes, that is seventeen) 50 pound bags, 10 carry ons, 5 car seats, 2 strollers, 2 huge boxes packed with bikes, 1 dog in a kennel, 4 adults, and 5 kids tramping through the airport make quites a scene.  Deann Pau and Dawn came to our rescue.  Dawn helped us get to the airport and Deann (who works at Hawaiian airlines) helped us get everything checked and us through security.  It would have been so much easier with a direct flight to Boise, but NOOOO.  We flew into Seattle.  We got there late at night, rented two cars and hauled all that goodness through the airport in Seattle.  For some reason the Seattle airport doesn't care if you park your car and wait for arrivals.  There were 3 lanes full of cars waiting for arrivals.  There was a break just as Mike and Rusty pulled up in the rental vans so they made it into the second lane.  There was no other option except to shuttle all of our gear from inside the airport (it was cold outside and we couldn't wait out there with the kids).  Holly stayed with the kids, while Rusty and I ran back and forth about 10 times each to get everything and then everyone to Mike, who got it/them into the vans.  Absolute mayhem. When we finally got to a hotel around midnight we unloaded it all from the two cars and into a hotel room.  We spent a quick night there with hopes of getting on the road early the next morning.  That was not to be.  We all loaded up in the a.m. and headed to the port where we were to pick up our cars.  We had all four cars to pick up.  We picked up the first two cars and the boys headed off to the uhaul place to rent two trailers to tow the other cars back to Boise.  It was just supposed to take an hour or so and they were going to meet us back at the port, load up the cars and we would be off.  Ha, Ha, Ha.  We left to get the kids some breakfast.  The port area was a madhouse.  It was a combination of crazy traffic, active railroad lines, and tons of construction with detours everywhere.  Holly and I went in a few circles and ended up in front of a huge, moving piece of construcion equipment before deciding to let the GPS lead us to a McDonalds further away, but in a different direction.  The boys had luck about as good as ours.  The uhaul place had the wrong type of trailers reserved and they had to wait to get another type brought in.  They were going to be too late to pick up the cars at the port before they had their 1 1/2 hour lunch break.  They called us and we tried to bust it back there to get the cars out in time.  But alas, we got lost again and made it just minutes too late.  So we ended up trying to entertain five little kids in a parking lot with large trucks zooming by.  It may have been easier to leave them in the car with a movie, but we had a 10 hour drive ahead of us and didn't want them sitting to start it off.  It ended up that the boys got to the port just minutes before they reopened so we would have been playing in the parking lot regardless.  Once we did get the cars we took some time loading them up and then unloading and reloading all of our stuff. and made our way back to the airport to return rental cars. And...... FINALLY we left for Boise.  Our early morning had turned to mid afternoon.  We stopped a few times on the road to play in the snow.  It may have been dirty and nasty but it was snow.  When we stopped for dinner we decided to make it a night.  We got some hotel rooms in some town in Oregon.  So we hauled all that stuff one... more.... time.  But atleast there was a pool.  We played in the pool and called it a night.  The next day we arrived.  BOISE! 

Is this the end?  Nope, just a beginning to an end, we think?

The girls watching Russ work on a tree in the yard.

Kyleigh caught a chick

Kyleigh caught a chick just a few weeks before we left Hawaii. She caught it on a rainy day while she was playing indian in the front yard. She quickly returned it to it's family but loved it for the minute she had it.

Giles come to visit

In early March the Giles came back to Kauai to visit. They stayed with us for the first 5 days they were here and stayed with the Keeps for a few days also. Unfortunately for them it wasn't a perfect trip. They started their trip with a 24 hour delay. They arrived to the airport in Las Vegas on time, spent about 8 hours in the airport with their kids waiting for a flight and were then told that their flight wouldn't leave until the next morning around 10 a.m. The only solace I can think of in that situation is that they left their 2 year old with Grandma. We were disappointed on the other side waiting for them, but that just doesn't compare to being stuck in an airport. When they finally did make it the weather was a bust. The island was flooding. It rained the entire time they were here. We did have one fairly good morning at Poipu beach and the rest of the trips to the beach were a freeze out. Besides all the not so good things, it was still great to have them on island. The girls had a great time. They played their brains out. When John and Wendi left they brought us a ton of stuff they didn't want to move. One of those things was three bottles of wash out spray color for hair. We still had it in the closet and didn't want to move with them ourselves. The girls took them outside one afternoon and had a fabulous time spraying each others hair. We also had muffin madness morning, which is always a hit. Every morning the girls were playing with the fuse beads. I swear that was the best $16 I've ever spent in my life. They even set up a roadside stand and tried to sell them to people passing by, with no luck. The Keeps had a barbeque the last day they were here. It is kind of ironic that the night they left after the bbq was a good-bye party for us (mostly Mike and Russ) at Shaun's house. We watched dumb and dumber. Shaun made it clear that was in honor of Mike and Russ. Dumb or not, we are on the mainland now and the Giles are only 5 hours away. Yeah!

See above. All kids know Russ is super fun. Here he is being the horse for 5 kids at the same time. It's not his record.

Ridge's Walk

Every day at about 10:00 a.m. Ridge gets restless. He has had enough of his cars, balls, and books. He needs to run. So we go on a walk. We call it Ridge's walk. Usually it is just Ridge, Katelyn, and me. Kyleigh stays at home and does schoolwork. I think she likes the alone time. Our walk starts in the yard where we play with the hila hila. This cool little weed closes up when you touch it. We all love the hila hila. We stop to say hello to Sandy and Annie, the dogs that live next door. Chickens like the next house so we are always on the lookout for chickens in that yard. They also have a row of flower bushes. We always have time to stop and smell the flowers. Then Ridge and Katelyn race up the street. We go around the corner and head down the hill. Ridge collects rocks on his way down the hill. At the bottom of the hill we can usually find a puddle of water. He throws his rocks into the puddle and usually splashes through it for a minute. If there is no puddle he throws his rocks into the storm drain. As we head up the hill there is a house that has rocks on the front of the lawn. The put them there so noone will park on their lawn, which is an area that is widely considered a parking lot here. They are also perfect for jumping. Ridge climbs up all of them and jumps off. One of the rocks is particularly wide and flat. That is the stage rock. Ridge stops on that one to dance while he sings either a song about Santa or red solo cup. On the way up the street he stops to collect more fun things like dirt. At this point Katelyn gets bored and runs home. I can usually coax Ridge up the rest of the way with the promise of checking the mail. We currently have two rocks in our mailbox that he left there this week. We have found other great things to do on our walks like talk back to the birds and name the noises we can hear. One day we saw a piece of fruit sitting on the curb with bugs eating out the inside. We pointed and said ewww. Ridge stops at that spot every day, points and says ewww even though there hasn't been anything there in months. This week we spotted a spiderweb on someones roof with a string attached all the way down and on another roof. That was kind of cool. It might be "Ridge's Walk" but we all like to get out.

Murder Mystery Party #2

We have wanted to have another murder mystery party since the last one, but we wanted to wait for the Giles and they finally came! It was a murder luau. I got the part of the Nadia, the swimsuit model shooting in Hawaii. My first thought on that is, really??? I live in Hawaii, everyone has seen me in a swimming suit. Well, I couldn't be a swimsuit model without the right equipment, hence the large balloons under my shirt. I didn't even know how to fold my arms with those things. Under or over, that is the question. Rusty was Chief Wikiwiki, a native Hawaiian chief who had been accused of stealing artifacts from the museum. You can't see it in the picture but he is wearing a towel around his waist. Holly was Holly, the wife of an older, jealous husband. They were living on a houseboat off the shore. As it turned out, her husband had been dead for four months. Mike was a scuba diving instructor who had recently saved the eventual victim from drowning after he had been pushed off of Holly's house boat. Dawn was Leilani, a hula dancer who had "accidentally" pushed her fiance off a cliff the year prior. Jeff was the victims right hand man, a die hard surfer who was ready to branch away from his boss and start a business of his own. John was a tourist. A tourist who had just broken out of prison and was making a quick stop in Hawaii before moving on to Australia to avoid the law. Wendi was a golf pro. She happened upon the murder just after it happened while coming off the golf course.

We attempted a 4 course meal. We started with pineapple spears, then had coconut shrimp with sweet dipping sauce. Our main course was kalua pork from Da Imu Hut, along with hawaiian haystacks (Hawaiian haole food). For desert we had lava cakes. Yum, that makes me think of lava cakes and I want one right now.

We had so much fun with everyone. I can't wait to do it again.

By the way, Jeff was the murderer. I am 2/2 on guessing "who done it."

Update

Our root beer tasted more like just beer. We were supposed to refridgerate it as soon as the bottles were inflated and tight. That should have taken about 4 days. I forgot and left it atleast double that. It smelled a little fishy and tasted just like beer (Oh wait, I don't know what that tastes like). It tasted like what I think beer might taste like. I'll watch it closer next time.