Kauai, Hawaii Day 1 and 2

 This was truly a trip of a life time. I am so glad that I planned this trip over the last year.  My family had a great time and a much needed respite after the death of my mother.  

We left early Wednesday morning for the airport.  Packing for this trip was a little difficult because I am not sure I really had the emotional capacity to think through what I needed for a trip in Hawaii.  In the end I only brought bathing suits and some shorts.  That's all I needed.

We arrived in Lihue around 2:00 in the afternoon, which was perfect!  Our rental car company picked us up and drove us to the costco parking lot, which again, was perfect.  Our first stop on our trip was costco!  We got pizza, hot dogs, and a smoothie as our first meal in Hawaii and then went shopping for all the food we would need for the week.  

We checked into our condo and then made some delicious costco dinner.  By then it was dark so we headed down to the beach to touch the water and get some Hawaiian shaved ice.  Roosters are EVERYWHERE on this island!  It is so crazy how many we saw even in the shops! 

Our second day in Hawaii was spent in the pool.  We signed up to learn to scuba dive in Hawaii for our entire trip.  So the first day we trained in the pool for six hours.  It was a really long day.  We had to do five days of learning compressed into one day.  I don't think any of us were ready for that.  It was really cool to put on the scuba gear for the first time and swim around in the pool.  

Once we finished up our pool learning, we drove to the west side of the island and hiked around a bit and then stopped by the beach before we drove back to our condo for some much needed rest.  

The 10th Grade

 

You know what I love? School photos!  And this one did not disappoint.  Edward is officially a sophomore in High School at Albuquerque Aviation Academy and he is loving it!

Burial for Mom

 This weekend we drove to Mesa, Arizona to bury my mom.  I feel like the last two weeks have flown by with very little respite.  I was surprised when the funeral home said we could have the burial so quickly.  It is probably for the best.  I am glad that we had he funeral the Saturday after my mom died and I am glad we drove down to Phoenix to bury her now.  It didn't really go as planned but that is OK.  We were all a wreck with out my mom to guide us through this tragedy.  

 

I picked up my dad on Thursday when Stephen got off work and we drove down to Phoenix.  I dropped my dad off at Emma's house and then Stephen and I drove to the airport to pick up Kendra then to Chandler to stay with Chelsea.  I am so grateful for her in my life.  She has been a true help and joy for me during this terrible time.  

I woke up early on Friday and went for a run.  I have been training for a 10 mile trail race in November so I didn't want to skip a training run.  We realized we needed a speaker for our song and had to stop at Walgreens on our way to the cemetery.  Kendra ran in and bought the speaker and I tried to charge it as quickly as possible.  That actually didn't end up working and I had thought to bring a back up battery that I used to play the speaker while we sang.  

We got to the cemetery and it was already 100 degrees! I can't believe how hot it was for an October day.  There were maybe 30 people who came to her burial and I am glad we had some familiar faces in the crowd.  We basically did the same program from the funeral.  I changed a few of the songs and Craig didn't speak.  My dad tried to run the burial but he didn't really know what was going on. HA!  We sang "How great thou art" again and it went fine.  

After the burial we went to a nearby church and had lunch.  My dad's sisters hosted the lunch for us and it was very kind.  I as so grateful to get out of the heat.  We chatted with family for a few hours then went our separate ways.  

 

I picked up dad around 3:00 and we went to Western Memorials.  We had them draw up a beautiful gravestone for mom and dad.  It took a little while to figure out what we wanted but once we got it done it looked great.  Dad will be buried on top of mom so we have to use the grave stone for both of them. 

 

After our meeting we went to dinner and chatted with everyone for a few hours.  Stephen, Kendra, and I went back to Chelsea's and hopped in the pool.  Then we turned on a show and we all fell asleep on the couch.  Chel was so kind and let us stay in her bed! I am not sure I would give up my bed for anyone.  

Saturday, I went for a long run around her neighborhood and then we went golfing.  It was actually very fun to golf together.  We played 9 holes then headed back to Chel's house and got in the pool.  It was a fine weekend, indeed.  Sunday, Kendra went home early and I picked up dad and we drove up to Snowflake to pick up Susan.  She is watching our house while we we are in Hawaii next week.  

 

This was a good weekend and just what I needed to bury my mom.  I am still so extremely sad.  I will miss her forever. 

A wrecked truck

 You know when things aren't going great and they just keep getting worse?  Well that was today.  Stephen finally went back to work after being sick and then on his lunch break he wrecked his truck.  He turned left in front of someone.  This was Stephen's first car accident of his whole life, so he did pretty good making it 44 years!