Just as a warning, I am not adding more pictures to this blog, but HAVE added them to facebook, so if you are friends with me you can go check them out there! It's a lot easier for me to gather and edit photos at home, which I will do then, but for now it is late and I'm tired and don't have the energy to do it on my mom's computer. :-)
Early Tuesday morning my mom and I got up and drove to the airport in Lihue for a quick night's stay on Oahu. My mom has a good friend she has been in contact with for a couple of years who is interested in some religious text she has been studying, but has yet to meet her. They had arranged for a rendevous on this trip and I decided to come along for the ride so I could visit the Lai'e temple with them. When we got to Honolulu, we drove up to Ruth's house to pick her up. We visited with her in her modest apartment where we ate yummy cooked vegetables in a room surrounded with her incredible art. She is also a painter and has some amazing paintings of her late husband and other Hawaiin flowers and scenes- she is really very talented. Then we packed up our things and had a pleasant drive to the other side of the island to Lai'e- which means "gathering place". Did you know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints bought over I think 600 acres of land (maybe less than that, I can't remember) in the 1800's to accommodate the over 5,000 members that had come into the church in a few short years after missionaries were sent to Hawaii? They paid $14,000 for the land. Can you imagine how much that land would be worth now? Incredible. When we got to Lai'e, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center first for some wonderful presentations, DELICIOUS dinner, and breath-taking show into the evening. Ruth's son lives in Lai'e and had arranged for us to stay at their home for the night. Her son was instrumental in helping to construct the rededication of the Lai'e temple (there is a picture of him and his wife in the rededication book they made for the temple). They were so kind to us and very accommodating, we felt like one of the family. The next morning we went to a beautiful session at the temple- seriously, that made my whole trip. I felt so calm and at peace there and it reaffirmed the necessity we have for temples on this earth!! And I also felt some strong answers to concerns I'd been having and it was just a beautiful session. Afterwards my Mom and Ruth visited in the temple while I went out and skyped with my kids and took pictures of the temple. Then we all piled back into the car and grabbed some lunch at the snackbar at BYU Hawaii, then came back and went through the visitor's center at the temple again, before heading back to Honolulu to drop Ruth off. On the way home we stopped at a beautiful Buddhist temple up in the hills to take pictures and walk around. When we got back to the airport we were exHAUSTED! Good night sleep then for sure.
The next morning we had to pack up our things and move to the south side of the island, where we are going to stay until we leave on Monday night. We stopped in Lihue for a helicopter tour of the island. There were fantastic views and certainly a thrilling ride....maybe a little too thrilling. If I had thought for a moment that it would have been as tipsy topsy turvey as it was up there I would have taken some motion sickness pills beforehand, but I don't get airsick so somehow I didn't think I would get helicopter sick. Well I did. Let's just say it's a really good thing they put barf bags on the helicopters, they came in handy. But even with the sickness, it was worth the trip, the views were incredible!! We toured the whole island and saw some of the most beautiful waterfalls I've ever seen in my life, as well as a quick view of Kalalau beach where Addison and Rose stayed on their hike. After the helicopter trip we headed to Poipu where we found the condo we are staying in. A lot more tourists where we are...not like the northside at all, but it is beautiful here too. When we got to the condo, I skyped with Craig on my phone for a bit and realized I was seeing some weird things in my eyes. I used to get really bad migraines when I was a teenager, but I had like two total (I remember them both they were such a terrible experience) and the last one I had I was maybe 13 or 14. Well I reckognized the blurriness and spots as soon as I saw them and thought I better go lie down for a while. Within a half an hour I had a full blown migraine. I was nauseated extremely so and couldn't really down any water I felt so awful, even though I knew that was probably why I was having the migraine. I layed still in my bed and tried not to think about how the room felt like it was spinning with a pillow over my eyes. Eventually the nausea subsided enough that I was able to drink some more water and take an advil and that helped and it only lasted all of about 4 hours, which could have been much worse. Thank goodness it wasn't, it was awful.
This morning we woke up early and I was feeling much better and went for a kayak ride/hike up to a beautiful waterfall that is only accessible by kayak and hike. It was calming, slow, and beautiful. Our tour guide was very animated and friendly and even made me a bracelet with a chicken feather in it on the trail. We ate lunch at the falls, then hiked back and kayaked home. We checked out the geyser nearby (really just waves hitting rocks that have a big hole in it where it shot out), then walked to the beach for a bit. Then we drove 30 minutes to the most amazing Thai food restaurant we've ever been to that our tour guide had recommended. We were going to go to an art show nearby, but after a long day we were pretty much unanimously pooped and came home.
I am now ready to crash.
Goodnight!!
PS- 4 more days until I get to see my kids and hubby again!!!
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Day 4 and 5
Day four was a must needed rest. Addison and Rose headed off to their high adventure hike on the treacherous 11 mile Kalalau trail where they were going to spend the night on Kalalau beach. My mom and I headed to the Hanalei branch for church and had a very spritually uplifting meeting and spiritually uplifting day.
The next day instead of waiting around and worrying to make sure that they got home safe, we decided to do our own hike up to Hanakapi'ai falls- 8 miles round trip and beautiful! Stopped to explore Hanakapi'ai beach on the way back. The four miles up I had the energy of the universe. Two miles back to the beach I was still doing good, then the last two miles back to Ke'e beach kicked my trash. By then it was mid-day, the sun was blazing on the uphill portion of the trail, and I totally died. Made it down okay, but had to take my time. Then I came home and crashed on my bed for two hours without hardly blinking. The waterfalls were BEAUTIFUL- totally worth the hike, and although we had to cross the stream several times, which made some of the rockier parts more slick, we made it up just fine and enjoyed watching the waterfalls over our lunch. Thanks for packing the lunch Mom, it was great...
PS, I apologize for the picture quality, I made the decision not to bring my camera, even though I regretted it when I was up there. These are all from my iphone. :-)
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Hawaii, Days 2 and 3
Oh boy.
This place is just incredible.
It seems like every night so far I've gone to bed thinking there's nothing more I need to see, nothing could be better than what I've already seen, and then the next day comes and goes and it's even better than the day before. I'm so so so so grateful that I am able to take this trip. Who gets to go to Hawaii for a vacation for this long in my station in life? While in many ways I am dying to hold my kids in my arms and to be with my husband and share with them everything I've seen, I also am truly feeling blessed to be here...just wish my family could be here too. Going to look into internships on Kauai for Craig next semester, ha ha.
Yesterday morning we started off tending to our sunburns and lathering up again before going down to the beach, again. This time with the snorkeling gear in tow. For those of you who may have grown up putting on the mask and breathing tube and floated around the local swimming pool watching your little brother swim underneath you and flash you a dorky goggley face, this is not what snorkeling was intended for. Tunnels beach is what snorkeling was intended for. If I had known how many fish were so close to me when I got into the water on the beach, I probably would have freaked out and not gone in. But when you do it with the snorkeling gear, a whole new world opens up. It was AMAZING! I saw all sorts of colorful fish everywhere, big ones and small ones. I was honestly a little nervous that any second a big shark would come sneaking up out of the abyss beyond the drop off and chomp my arm off...but no such thing happened and I actually found myself relaxing and truly swimming with the fish. Really neat. No pictures to document that experience, although I'm going to look into getting a disposable underwater camera next time we run into town. After that I came up on the beach and tried to nap a little, but I was so scared of making my sunburn worse that I packed up and headed to the house. I sat down on the couch for a minute and before I knew it I was out and two hours later I woke up really hungry and feeling much better. Then Rose and Add and I hopped into the car and drove up the road to find some caves that a tour guide of Kauai had mentioned. We found two of the three and have a good idea of where the third one might be, but those were really neat too. The first one was called "Dry Cave", as it was just that, a Dry Cave. The dramatic lit pictures of Add and Rose below are from in there. The second was called "Wet Cave", as it was wet and had a big pool that stretched the length of it. You weren't supposed to swim in it or "linger" in there for too long as there was falling rock, so we just took a few pictures. On the way home we stopped at a rocky stream where some people were swimming and I took more pictures of the stream and lush vegetation and local flowers. We came back home after that and talked to the woman who lives in the apartment below the condo we are staying in, who was out walking her dog. Really friendly woman, she makes hats for the local markets around the area- apparently, though, a couple around here has a dog that came and attacked her dog at the beach recently, and she was really nervous because the owner of said dog had been walking said dog up and down the road by the house the last few nights and she was nervous that he would be by soon, so we continued our visit in the backyard where I met some friendly ants crawling in a line up the wall and got bit by a few too many bugs. Then Rose and I hopped into the car and took a trip down to Ke'e beach where I documented the sunset on my camera. Glorious. Also found a little stream coming out of the jungle that had a small pond pooling up before it emptied into the ocean and fraternized with the local tadpoles and climbed some of the low hanging trees. Rose also posed for some pictures for me and left her sunglasses in the pool by accident, we'll have to go back and find them soon. Then we came home and let Addison cook us some yummy pasta with parmesean chicken and/or veggie burger, and buttered toast on the side. Delish.
This morning my Mom and I got our tickets finalized for a trip we are taking next week to Oahu to visit the temple and Polynesian Cultural Center there, which we will leave for on Tuesday. Then we packed up our stuff and headed to the Hanalei farmer's market where I got a really yummy Acai berry smoothie with granola and bananas for breakfast and picked up some goodies for the kids and hubby while shopping around. Found previously mentioned couple with mean dog selling jewelery there- only reason I recognized them was because one of the owners was apparently a transgendered woman, and after I saw a pitbullish looking dog and examined the two women sitting there, one of them definitely had a more masculine physique. Avoided their shop. After that we went down to Hanalei Bay, which was just a picture perfect white sand beach from head to toe. We walked over to a covered dock with stretched into the water to find a bunch of people gathering together. Suddenly many of them were paddling to a spot beyond the dock or jumping into the water near a couple who were dressed in colorful shirts and necklaces on a boat. We couldn't hear what was going on, and finally we asked someone next to us watching from the dock, and she turned around and politely said that it was a funeral, they were spreading the ashes. I took a couple of pictures, but then immediately felt bad for intruding. However it was touching to watch as we walked away, the couple in the boat said a few words and then threw the ashes and large flowers into the bay and all the people gathered around in the water and on the dock hooted and hollered and splashed in the water making large waves. Took more pictures at the bay and passed by the house they used in the film "The Descendants", which I have not seen, but apparently was filmed on Kauai. Then we got back in the car and tried to go and find a place called "Queen's Bath" where there are some neat lava rocks with big pools in them for swimming, but it was in an obscure neighborhood and the parking lot for it was teeny tiny. We pulled in behind a man, who could have taken a somewhat differently positioned parking spot if he had wanted to and we could have pulled in next to him, leaving room for other cars to leave if they needed to, but instead he pulled in and parked perpendicularly behind two or three cars. The woman from the car got out and announced they were going to wait for a spot to open up. I tried to squeeze into the spot the other car could have taken, but the guy wouldn't move an inch, so frustrated, we decided to come back later. Then we went to the Princeville market were we picked up a few more groceries and looked at some of the shops there and I skyped with my hubs and my kids and talked with them on my phone where the cell service was good. And ached on the inside for them greatly. After we got home, we ate lunch- Add and Rose went back to Tunnels beach and try as I did to avoid another nap, it came upon me without permission (still getting used to the time difference). After I woke up and Addison and Rose had come home, the three of us went out to eat while my mom stayed home and rested and got some work done for the Oahu trip. We went back into Hanalei and enjoyed some yummy food at a small grill- I had the Blackened Ahi with rice and veggies. I think I could eat that every day of my life and be satisfied. We had to get back for Addison and Rose after that, though, as they had to get packed for their big trip- they are walking the 11 mile Kalalau trail tomorrow to Napali Beach and camping a night on the beach when they get there. My mom is worried sick and I have a mixture of jealousy and relief that I am not going. It's rated a level 9 out of 10 trail, very difficult with narrow paths on cliff edges plus crossing streams with potential flash flooding and very dangerous sections when muddy...but there are gorgeous waterfalls on the way and the Napali coast is supposed to be incredible. I wish with all of my heart that I was in shape enough to go or had experience backpacking at all, but I don't. Maybe someday...
Tomorrow my mom and I will be attending the local ward in Hanalei for chuch and praying our hearts out for Addison and Rose's safe return. And also letting my wicked sunburn on my back have a day of rest as well. Here are a few more pictures in random order, looking forward to going through all these when we get home too.
G'night!
This place is just incredible.
It seems like every night so far I've gone to bed thinking there's nothing more I need to see, nothing could be better than what I've already seen, and then the next day comes and goes and it's even better than the day before. I'm so so so so grateful that I am able to take this trip. Who gets to go to Hawaii for a vacation for this long in my station in life? While in many ways I am dying to hold my kids in my arms and to be with my husband and share with them everything I've seen, I also am truly feeling blessed to be here...just wish my family could be here too. Going to look into internships on Kauai for Craig next semester, ha ha.
Yesterday morning we started off tending to our sunburns and lathering up again before going down to the beach, again. This time with the snorkeling gear in tow. For those of you who may have grown up putting on the mask and breathing tube and floated around the local swimming pool watching your little brother swim underneath you and flash you a dorky goggley face, this is not what snorkeling was intended for. Tunnels beach is what snorkeling was intended for. If I had known how many fish were so close to me when I got into the water on the beach, I probably would have freaked out and not gone in. But when you do it with the snorkeling gear, a whole new world opens up. It was AMAZING! I saw all sorts of colorful fish everywhere, big ones and small ones. I was honestly a little nervous that any second a big shark would come sneaking up out of the abyss beyond the drop off and chomp my arm off...but no such thing happened and I actually found myself relaxing and truly swimming with the fish. Really neat. No pictures to document that experience, although I'm going to look into getting a disposable underwater camera next time we run into town. After that I came up on the beach and tried to nap a little, but I was so scared of making my sunburn worse that I packed up and headed to the house. I sat down on the couch for a minute and before I knew it I was out and two hours later I woke up really hungry and feeling much better. Then Rose and Add and I hopped into the car and drove up the road to find some caves that a tour guide of Kauai had mentioned. We found two of the three and have a good idea of where the third one might be, but those were really neat too. The first one was called "Dry Cave", as it was just that, a Dry Cave. The dramatic lit pictures of Add and Rose below are from in there. The second was called "Wet Cave", as it was wet and had a big pool that stretched the length of it. You weren't supposed to swim in it or "linger" in there for too long as there was falling rock, so we just took a few pictures. On the way home we stopped at a rocky stream where some people were swimming and I took more pictures of the stream and lush vegetation and local flowers. We came back home after that and talked to the woman who lives in the apartment below the condo we are staying in, who was out walking her dog. Really friendly woman, she makes hats for the local markets around the area- apparently, though, a couple around here has a dog that came and attacked her dog at the beach recently, and she was really nervous because the owner of said dog had been walking said dog up and down the road by the house the last few nights and she was nervous that he would be by soon, so we continued our visit in the backyard where I met some friendly ants crawling in a line up the wall and got bit by a few too many bugs. Then Rose and I hopped into the car and took a trip down to Ke'e beach where I documented the sunset on my camera. Glorious. Also found a little stream coming out of the jungle that had a small pond pooling up before it emptied into the ocean and fraternized with the local tadpoles and climbed some of the low hanging trees. Rose also posed for some pictures for me and left her sunglasses in the pool by accident, we'll have to go back and find them soon. Then we came home and let Addison cook us some yummy pasta with parmesean chicken and/or veggie burger, and buttered toast on the side. Delish.
This morning my Mom and I got our tickets finalized for a trip we are taking next week to Oahu to visit the temple and Polynesian Cultural Center there, which we will leave for on Tuesday. Then we packed up our stuff and headed to the Hanalei farmer's market where I got a really yummy Acai berry smoothie with granola and bananas for breakfast and picked up some goodies for the kids and hubby while shopping around. Found previously mentioned couple with mean dog selling jewelery there- only reason I recognized them was because one of the owners was apparently a transgendered woman, and after I saw a pitbullish looking dog and examined the two women sitting there, one of them definitely had a more masculine physique. Avoided their shop. After that we went down to Hanalei Bay, which was just a picture perfect white sand beach from head to toe. We walked over to a covered dock with stretched into the water to find a bunch of people gathering together. Suddenly many of them were paddling to a spot beyond the dock or jumping into the water near a couple who were dressed in colorful shirts and necklaces on a boat. We couldn't hear what was going on, and finally we asked someone next to us watching from the dock, and she turned around and politely said that it was a funeral, they were spreading the ashes. I took a couple of pictures, but then immediately felt bad for intruding. However it was touching to watch as we walked away, the couple in the boat said a few words and then threw the ashes and large flowers into the bay and all the people gathered around in the water and on the dock hooted and hollered and splashed in the water making large waves. Took more pictures at the bay and passed by the house they used in the film "The Descendants", which I have not seen, but apparently was filmed on Kauai. Then we got back in the car and tried to go and find a place called "Queen's Bath" where there are some neat lava rocks with big pools in them for swimming, but it was in an obscure neighborhood and the parking lot for it was teeny tiny. We pulled in behind a man, who could have taken a somewhat differently positioned parking spot if he had wanted to and we could have pulled in next to him, leaving room for other cars to leave if they needed to, but instead he pulled in and parked perpendicularly behind two or three cars. The woman from the car got out and announced they were going to wait for a spot to open up. I tried to squeeze into the spot the other car could have taken, but the guy wouldn't move an inch, so frustrated, we decided to come back later. Then we went to the Princeville market were we picked up a few more groceries and looked at some of the shops there and I skyped with my hubs and my kids and talked with them on my phone where the cell service was good. And ached on the inside for them greatly. After we got home, we ate lunch- Add and Rose went back to Tunnels beach and try as I did to avoid another nap, it came upon me without permission (still getting used to the time difference). After I woke up and Addison and Rose had come home, the three of us went out to eat while my mom stayed home and rested and got some work done for the Oahu trip. We went back into Hanalei and enjoyed some yummy food at a small grill- I had the Blackened Ahi with rice and veggies. I think I could eat that every day of my life and be satisfied. We had to get back for Addison and Rose after that, though, as they had to get packed for their big trip- they are walking the 11 mile Kalalau trail tomorrow to Napali Beach and camping a night on the beach when they get there. My mom is worried sick and I have a mixture of jealousy and relief that I am not going. It's rated a level 9 out of 10 trail, very difficult with narrow paths on cliff edges plus crossing streams with potential flash flooding and very dangerous sections when muddy...but there are gorgeous waterfalls on the way and the Napali coast is supposed to be incredible. I wish with all of my heart that I was in shape enough to go or had experience backpacking at all, but I don't. Maybe someday...
Tomorrow my mom and I will be attending the local ward in Hanalei for chuch and praying our hearts out for Addison and Rose's safe return. And also letting my wicked sunburn on my back have a day of rest as well. Here are a few more pictures in random order, looking forward to going through all these when we get home too.
G'night!
Friday, May 18, 2012
Hawaii, Day 1
I've decided that it will be a lot easier if I blog some things now instead of wait until I get back and have a bazillion photos to download and two things to say about it because it was too long ago to remember all the details.
That being said, welcome to day one of our trip to Hawaii! Well, technically day two. Yesterday was traveling, drive to the airport, two hour flight to L.A., two hour layover, six back breaking hours to Lihue on the island of Kauai (seriously, it was way worse than I thought it would be, six hours is a long time, I don't know how people who fly all over the world do it...), then an hour drive to the house we are staying in. We oggled over the beautiful drive to the North side of the island like little kids. "WHOA, look at THAT! Look at that waterfall! Look at those trees! Whoa, look at those birds! Look at the waves!" and so on all the way into Hanalei. Then Rose and I stayed up ridiculously late talking and catching up and everyone else went to bed.
Today we checked out the nearby beach, Tunnels Beach. Gorgeous. I didn't realize how soft my feet have gotten. By the end of the day I couldn't walk in the sand anymore because it was too rough on my bare feet. The water was amazing. We saw a seal on the beach (a monk seal, they roped it off because it's an endangered species, they didn't want people harassing it, and he just sat there and basked in the sun with a little smile on his face) and a turtle in the water. And also lots of birds I don't recognize and little lizards and frogs. And CHICKENS. Roosters and chickens everywhere. They were walking around the airport when we got there, they are like Colorado's magpies or ravens. But the scenery is definitely amazing and beautiful and wonderful. God definitely made a paradise here, there is no doubt about it. Such a perfect place. Here's a couple of pictures of today's adventures:
That being said, welcome to day one of our trip to Hawaii! Well, technically day two. Yesterday was traveling, drive to the airport, two hour flight to L.A., two hour layover, six back breaking hours to Lihue on the island of Kauai (seriously, it was way worse than I thought it would be, six hours is a long time, I don't know how people who fly all over the world do it...), then an hour drive to the house we are staying in. We oggled over the beautiful drive to the North side of the island like little kids. "WHOA, look at THAT! Look at that waterfall! Look at those trees! Whoa, look at those birds! Look at the waves!" and so on all the way into Hanalei. Then Rose and I stayed up ridiculously late talking and catching up and everyone else went to bed.
Today we checked out the nearby beach, Tunnels Beach. Gorgeous. I didn't realize how soft my feet have gotten. By the end of the day I couldn't walk in the sand anymore because it was too rough on my bare feet. The water was amazing. We saw a seal on the beach (a monk seal, they roped it off because it's an endangered species, they didn't want people harassing it, and he just sat there and basked in the sun with a little smile on his face) and a turtle in the water. And also lots of birds I don't recognize and little lizards and frogs. And CHICKENS. Roosters and chickens everywhere. They were walking around the airport when we got there, they are like Colorado's magpies or ravens. But the scenery is definitely amazing and beautiful and wonderful. God definitely made a paradise here, there is no doubt about it. Such a perfect place. Here's a couple of pictures of today's adventures:
At the end of the day after we had gone to visit the lighthouse, we stopped to get some groceries again and saw this magnificent rainbow erupting out of the ocean on the drive back. Since I was driving, I immediately pulled over so we could all get some shots. It was lovely. 
Currently I am the last one up, listening to the crickets and the rain dripping off the leaves outside, tending my sore feet and sunburns. It seems surreal being out here and I wish I could share it with Craig, really. I keep turning here and there wanting to point out things that he would like and he's not there. I also am immediately drawn to any child within a 50 ft. radius of me. If I can't have my own kids here, apparently I must be interested in everyone else's. I was able to talk to the kids on skype today from my phone- Odell still calls me Momma, that's a good sign. It looks like things are in order out there, thank you Craig for being the best Daddy in the world and manning the fort for us. It puts my heart at ease and I promise that I'm enjoying myself.
I must be getting off to bed myself, long day tomorrow too. G'night neverland.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Luckiest Woman on Earth
I love Chloe's big bear hugs. I love it when I come into a room and where I thought there was previously a mess, she has organized it without being asked. I love it when she laughs so hard she can't help herself, especially when I get stern with her. Nothing sets the giggles off like when she's in trouble. I love her long beautiful blonde hair and I love it when she lets me play with it. I love that her eyes look double their size in her bifocal glasses. I love that she makes friends so easily and I love it when she reports to me when someone is being immodest, then reminds me that we love immodest people too. I love that she loves God and Jesus and Captain Moroni. I love when she takes care of little things like getting Odell's shoes on for me when I'm in a hurry and need to get the kids out the door. I love it when she tells me how yummy my meals are. I love it when she tells me I'm the best mommy ever, and I love it when I hear Linus concur. She's the best little five year old know-it-all I've had the privilege to call mine.
I love Linus' giggle. He has the best hearty giggle you will ever hear. I love his wet little kisses on my cheeks before bed. I love it when he wakes up from his nap and is still groggy, but comes and gives me a big hug and tells me what a good boy he was for taking a really long nap. I love it when he talks in his sleep. I love his sense of curiosity and adventure. I love that he has the same getup that he wears inside and outside the house everyday: his cowboy belt and orange gun (just one gun, even though the belt has two holsters), a black and white sweat band around his head, and a purse filled with a bunch of his toys from his drawers, and I love that he didn't care a bit when another boy in the neighborhood told him that boys don't wear purses. I love when he runs through puddles, he'll pull his shorts up to his thighs and skip through them as fast as he can. I love when he has no clue what is going on, but gets really excited about what we are doing anyway. I love when he sits on the counter and "helps" me with dinner. I love when he smiles at me. I love Linus' smile. He is the best almost four year old little monkey I call my son.
I love Odell's chubby little legs. I love her whispy hair. I love her big blue eyes. I love when she points to all the parts of my face, sometimes digging a bit harder than a face should really handle, and calls them out by name. I love scooping her up in my arms and placing her where she fits best in my lap. I love hearing her laugh when I tickle her. I love her toothy little smile. I love hearing her point to me over and over and over again and saying "Momma," as though just to reaffirm that I'm still here and still her momma. I love the way her arms swing and skirt bounces when she walks. I love her "Mmmmma!" kisses and I laugh uncontrollably when she tries to kiss me on the mouth. I love waking up to find the gifts of small toys that she has lined up on my side of the bed as good morning presents. I love that she carries her sister's baby doll with her wherever she goes. I love her little words that she learns everyday. I love that she knows who Jesus is and points to him in pictures. She is the most angelic little toddler girl I get to cuddle with every day.
And I love Craig, my best friend and eternal companion. I love his goofy smile and corny jokes. I love watching him when he sleeps and he looks so peaceful. I love sharing scriptures and discussing gospel topics with him. I love listening to him pray and love to hear him pray for me because it reminds me that I am loved. I love when I pray for him and things work out in his day that otherwise wouldn't. I love his hugs. I love watching movies with him on Friday nights and I love that we reserve that time for each other each week. I love sitting in the temple with him each month. I love when our kids do ridiculous and embarrassing things when we are in public together and we just look at each other and laugh. I love when we share stories from the day about the kids with each other. I love what a good father he is and love it when he finally gives in and let's the kids play "'TACK DADDY!" (attack daddy) with him. I love what a good housekeeper he is, especially when I fall behind and I come home after a busy day to find everything in order. That brings a lot of peace to a woman's soul. I love his manly-man beard. I love watching him serve other people, even when it's inconvenient for the rest of us. I love our pillow talk, even when I'm left the last one talking after he's drifted off. He is the one for me and I am the one for him and I'm so grateful Heavenly Father lead me to him and I have such a beautiful family with him. He is my home and I feel safe with him around.
I love being a wife and mother and would not trade it for anything in the world.
And I know I'm going to read this over and over again while I'm in Hawaii and cry my little eyes out. Note to Hawaii-trip-Chelsea: close the laptop, get your camera out, and go take some pictures and then read a book on the beach and stop moping!
Goodnight. :-)
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