In February I flew to Arizona to visit my good friend, Adrianne. She and her family bought a house on our cul de sac the same time we did and we hit it off right from the start. In many ways she is the friend that keeps me sane. They moved to AZ two years ago so we decided it was time for a visit. It was so awesome to talk and talk and talk and to see the sun and palm trees in the middle of winter. I used to make fun of the people who went to Hawaii in the middle of January for a pick me up, but now I get it! It truly was a pick me up.

Adrianne took me to all kinds of cool places and we barely scratched the surface. I never thought I would find Phoenix beautiful, but I did! I would love to go back. We finished off my fun trip at my favorite restaurant-only found in big cities-Maggiano’s! Sorry, Meldrum boys, you’ll have to share Adrianne with me now on a yearly basis! 😉

In March Rock and I traveled up to McCall for a ski weekend getaway in the mountains. I was finally good enough at skiing to tackle Brundage Ski Resort. We stayed at the legendary Shore Lodge which I have wanted to do forever! It was beautiful and romantic and Brundage was awesome!

I worked hard to be able to take this picture. I skied every week all winter to be able to be good enough to get up here. It was scary a lot of the time, but I am proud of the progress I made this year. I actually cried tears of joy my first time down a blue run I was so elated! I bought myself skiis and boots to celebrate! I can’t wait for next year!

Some people go to warm places for Spring break, but when your spring break is the middle of March, you go skiing! We took the three kids who like to ski up to Brundage for a day of skiing. It was really fun to be able to go on so many of the runs with the kids. They are usually bored with my level but right now Libby and I are at about the same level. She is a little braver and goes down faster than I do, though. It was a great day and an awesome way to end the season.

Some wanderings closer to home this winter were Libby’s first time at the temple,

And her Half Birthday date at Joe’s Crab Shack.

Cade went to the Sweethearts dance

Liberty had her winter ballet recital. She has graduated to 2 days a week and two dances at the recitals.

Before I wrap up this post, I have one more story to tell. Liberty might prefer I leave this out, but it is a story she will remember for the rest of her life, so I have to immortalize it on the blog. You might have noticed that Liberty’s hair is rather short in many of the pictures in this post. Well, when I was just getting back in the car after eating dinner at Maggiano’s in Phoenix I got a phone call. All I could hear were sniffles and tears on the other end of the phone. Liberty was calling to tell me that her attempt at a shorter haircut had failed-miserably. She was hysterical. She had wanted to cut her hair a little shorter than normal, and her barber, Rock, obliged. He tried to dissuade her from going too far, but she was excited to try something new and so they kept cutting. I felt so bad. There was nothing I could do from AZ. I wouldn’t be home before church the next day to help her do it so she wouldn’t be mortified. Sigh. She survived, of course, but alas, it is something all women have to experience at least once in their life. She hated it so much, she refused to wear anything but pigtails for 2 months straight. Once it got long enough she was able to get it all curly for the first time ever and was much happier. It’s been a long winter, though.

A few pre-Christmas events worth noting:

Libby got her first job working as a lunch helper at school. In December she got her first paycheck!

Levi and Alli celebrated their birthday.

Alli and I went skiing at Bogus for a day. It was an awesome day of skiing and so nice to ski with someone who is at the same level as me. We conquered Silver Queen that day!

Christmas Eve

Levi and Rock have been learning how to play the guitar this year so they played Silent Night for everyone at our Christmas Eve family breakfast. It was AWESOME!

The LEGO Christmas Day

I thought my kids had outgrown LEGO’s but Santa apparently knew something I didn’t.

We thought it would take them a week to finish their creations, but it only took them a day! Hopefully it is a day they will remember forever.

Possibly Liberty’s favorite Christmas gift was a set of earrings and permission to pierce her ears. We had to go out as soon as we could to do it and the aunts got to go along.

After Christmas Rock’s parents came to visit.

They wanted to see Reagan in action at work, so we took a trip to Fred Meyer Jewelers and he sold them some beautiful jewelry!

And that was Christmas 2021!

Cade was in Into the Woods this fall. He was Prince Charming and was fabulous! He hammed it up and sang his heart out. It was so fun to see my kid up there being that amazing! I wish I could post a video of him on stage, but we weren’t allowed to film it. So after pictures will have to do.

This year was Libby’s first time at Pie Night! Our ward gets together every November for one night of pie making. We donate over a hundred pies to the local homeless shelter. It is one of my favorite things about November!

Also this month, Rock and Levi ran a 5K. Levi won 2nd place overall and Rock won 1st place for his age group. What’s really funny is the size difference of their trophies.

Rock says the best feeling in the world is when your son is better at something than you.

Well, turns out I still got to take all four of my kiddos to the Pumpkin Patch one more time. Love this tradition. Someday I will make a book of all the Halloween blog posts and pictures to put out just at Halloween to show the history and growth of our family.

Happy Halloween!

We were back to school for real this year! Here’s the first day of school pics:

Levi was the best in his school at Cross Country this year and 3rd at Districts. Several times he won the meet he was at and it was super exciting! He had a great season!

The Spirit of Boise-Balloon Stampede

We haven’t been to this in years and it was fun to watch all the balloons inflate and take off into the air. No matter how old you get, it’s still exciting.

Homecoming 2021

Liberty ran for student office! Personally, I think her slogan was the best. She didn’t win, but I am so proud of her for being brave and trying!

The school year is off to a great start!

We asked the kids where they’d like to go for possibly the last whole family trip we take before Reagan leaves home. They all voted for Washington. They wanted to do go back to where we lived, played, ate, etc. when they were tiny. And Liberty wanted to see it for the first time. So that was our big family trip for the summer of 2021. Washington State to our old stomping grounds.

First Stop: Duvall

We had to eat at Ixtapa, of course! Our very favorite-still to this day-Mexican restaurant.

We often picked blackberries in Duvall, so we had to do that too!

We also went to visit Reagan’s favorite playmate from when he was little. I am so sad we didn’t take a picture of them together. It was a blast to visit with her and her mom-she was my favorite playmate too! 🙂 Since I didn’t get a grown up picture, here’s a little one.

Next stop Mount Rainier National Park!

It was a great trip down memory lane. The best part might have been staying in this Airbnb in Redmond-where we would love to have lived could we have afforded it back then! The backyard was amazing and just the right place for my evergreen loving boys. It was bittersweet for Reagan especially to take this trip. He has so many happy memories from Washington. He now thinks he wants to live there someday.

The Luau was awesome! The waiters were a riot, my Lai was perfect, the music and dancing and food was magical and I loved every minute!

Our last day in Maui was pretty low key. We walked on the beach boardwalk and found a few more beautiful flowers. We found the perfect spot on Kapalua beach to lounge in the sand under a palm tree, right next to the water. Rock snorkeled again, I read my book. We ate lunch at our favorite place-we loved the coconut syrup French toast with strawberries. Yum! We relaxed the rest of the day and watched one last sunset from our balcony.

Goodbye Maui. It took 20 years to get to you, but I will remember you forever and if I can convince my husband to go back to the same place twice, I’ll visit you again. Aloha!

Day 5 was another amazing day! Started off the day early out on the balcony all by myself. The resort was empty and quiet except for the birds and the breeze in the palm trees. Then we went on a walk along the Kapalua Coastal Trail. It was gorgeous!

We signed up for a helicopter ride over Haleakula but the winds were too bad so they gave us the better ride over Molokai! It is mostly uninhabited, very few people even stay there. It was amazing and other worldly. It made me sick, but it was worth it!

Next time I’ll take Dramamine because I almost didn’t make it to our Luau that night I felt so sick. But it was worth it. Stay tuned for the Luau and our last day in Maui.

Day 4 was our anniversary. We took it easy that day, went shopping in Laihaina, relaxed and then went to a magical dinner at the Plantation House-an amazing restaurant that is impossible to get reservations at, but we called at just the right time on the day of, and happened to get one! We watched the sunset over a beautiful golf course, listening to live ukelale music. It was perfect.

Day 3 The Road to Hana

If you are reading this in an email, you should always click on the title of the blog so it takes you to the blog. The formatting is not messed up that way.

This day might have been my favorite day in Hawaii. We drove the road to Hana and it was truly amazing. We got an early start to avoid the traffic and we were alone at several stops for most of the day.

Nahiku Beach

These next several pictures are from our walk to Nahiku Beach. This was so awesome! We walked through a lush jungle out to a black rock beach where we were totally alone. It was magical and beautiful and unforgettable.

As we stood on the rocks, Rock pulled this out of his pocket! He bought these aquamarine stones on a beach on his mission over 20 years ago! He’s been saving them for a very long time. He designed the infinity setting himself. It was the perfect moment to give it to me! The sun was shining, we were alone and the water was beautiful.

As we headed back to the car the clouds came back, other people came to the beach and it poured down buckets! We walked back to the car in a torrential downpour. By the time we got back to the car we were soaking wet and had to maneuver around huge puddles just to get back in the car. But as is always the case in Hawaii, the rain stopped after a short time and the sun came back out.

Just past Hana, there is a state park with some beautiful falls and the Seven Sacred pools-terraced waterfalls into the ocean. We took an amazing hike through banyan trees and a bamboo forest. Again it was like being in a different world.

Next we went to a little town called Kahaena where the people tried to build a church a hundred years ago. They prayed for help and the next day coral and rock washed up onto the shore-never to be seen again. They built their church and then years later a Tsunami wiped out the entire village, except for the church, which is still standing today. I never got tired of watching huge waves crash on the black volcanic rock.