Life Lately

Dallin is getting his 6th tooth(!) I didn't know kids got teeth that fast but once we're done with one teething phase we're on to another. 

He sure is my son because he loves peanut butter and loves spice. This kid's most recent love is this amazing African Peanut Soup (kale and all! Who knows how long that will last!) from Love Real Food cookbook (love that cookbook so much). 

He just learned to scoot forward dragging one arm in a sort of army crawl way. 

He still loves fuzzy blankets and continually wears them over his face while he sleeps. 

Austin has started playing in an ultimate frisbee league in Seattle. Absolutely loves it. 

I still go on mini hikes and walks throughout our area almost daily. The weather has been warming up so I can do that more. 

Austin is so good to let me have 'me time' once a week for an hour or two. I usually go on a hike and then journal or study the scriptures. This last Thursday evening I went on a new trail and I almost cried, it was so beautiful. I pinch myself thinking that I actually live here and I'm not just visiting. 

I've sort of binge making recipes from Faithful Plateful. Loved all the ones I've made so far! Carrot cake turned into muffins, madras lentils, chipotle bowls, hawaiian haystacks (not Austin's fav but I loved it), oil free granola (needs less salt next time), black bean salsa, mango quinoa salad, and no bake cookies. 

Finally started watching relative race from Emily's recommendation. I mean it only took us 5 seasons of convincing to finally get hooked. 

We also have been keeping up with 'Show offs' on byutv and Jk studios 'free lancer' episodes. Those both have been surprisingly hilarious. 

I've read some great books lately: The Faithful Spy by John Hendrix was the first graphic novel I did and it set the bar very high!

This Promise of Change by Jo Ann Allen Boyce is an excellent verse novel about her experience integrating into Clinton High in the 1950's. 

Radical Homemakers by Shannon Hayes-I'm still thinking about this one and it's turned my idea of homemaker upside down. Highly recommend!

A Light so Lovely by Sarah Arthur is about the spiritual legacy of Madeline L'Engle and it's very contemplated and moving.

I've been loving watching again and again 'The Sound of Music Live' British version that came out in 2015. Much much better than the Carrie Underwood version. It gives me chills at the end every time and I just want to clap when it's over! Plus the captain singing 'Edelweiss' is swoon worthy. ;)

In March I got two of my wisdom teeth taken out. Easiest recovery ever. I was so nervous but it turned out so much better than I expected. 

We continually love being here, especially grateful again and again for Austin's commute. It's been a life saver for us. He got commuter of the week for his company in March. 

Been to the temple several times in the last little bit thanks to a good friend who watches Dallin. Has been so wonderful!

We loved being in Oregon for General Conference with Mom and Dad Lewis, Ondalynn, Seth, and Viv's family. It was so fun and it went by too quickly of course! So glad to be there for Mom's birthday as well. 

Now for a ton of pictures from the last little while. Recent to later. 

 Dallin's sharp nails got in my nose and gave me a bloody nose haha

 Picture for his commuter of the week award

 Wisdom teeth post surgery-yikes

The battle is having to take away all the library books from his teeth. 

What I've Been Loving Lately

Prixm-this is a new app 'by the people, for the people' type app. It's all about telling your story. It's a way to connect with friends and family like social media but it's intentionally much different. They purposefully try to make it so you weren't caught up in the time sucking, comparison driven, advertisement overload that happens with instagram and facebook.

 I've been using it since September and really really like it. Hardly any of my family or friends are on it and I'm the only one who posts so it's not necessarily a way for me to see what others are up to but more as a great platform to keep memories and experiences alive. 

I love that I get to post a picture whenever and it will know the day that picture/video is taken so your story will show up chronologically no matter when you post. Or you can put a picture/journal entry there and select the date that it happened. You can upload a picture from your ancestor with a date in the 1800's if you wanted!

 I can put pictures, videos, audio, and journal entries on here. I can upload them and make them personal so only I can see them, private so only my private followers can see, or public so anyone can see. I also love that there is no numbers of followers that you have or who you're following. You also can't see that on anyone else's either. I haven't utilized the group function much but I think it's similar to group me and I think would be a fun way to connect as well. They are constantly uploading new features and I'm excited to see this take off. 

Brooke Snow: I'm a huge fan of Brooke Snow. I love her book and podcast and then she did this episode with Spiritually Minded Mom and I've listened to it twice. So so good. I've never thought of prayer the way she does. 

Minimalist Baker recipes-I have been making tons of her recipes lately. They are some of my favorite. Like this quinoa fried rice. 

Big Love, Small Moments by JJ Heller-another new song by JJ and its superb. 

Philo-a streaming service like Netflix that has all three Hallmark stations on it. It was the way we watched all the Hallmark Christmas movies (our favorites were The Christmas Secret and Once Upon a Christmas Miracle). But we'll probably keep it because it's Hallmark, duh. ;)

Dallin's favorite picture books right now: The Pout Pout Fish, Jamberry, Barnyard Dance, Pajama Time, and Barnyard Banter. We read these every.day. 

Hawaii Part Two

After Mere and Bryan got back from Oregon, Austin and I went out right away to Lanikai beach and hiked up the pillbox hike there. Bryan said the hike was so easy that Hudson even did it barefoot. So Austin only took his flip flops but because his feet got so sweaty, they became more of a nuisance and so part of the time he also went barefoot. What we realized is that we were way more out of shape than Bryan was and our energy level is not like Hudson’s so yes “easy” for them, but tiring for us. We felt like whimps! We were happy to lounge on the beach afterwards and take in the amazing blue water before us. It was a tad cold to jump in but we walked the small stretch of the softest sand we’ve been on. 

Friday we spent all day up in Laie visiting the temple visitor center, getting the famous coconut macadamia shrimp from Seven Brothers, and then spending the rest of the afternoon and evening at the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was so fun! We got to go to pretty much all the islands (Tonga and Samoa were our favorites), got to experience Hawaii through their movie which shot mist and water at you during the presentation, and got to enjoy a luau right before the evening show. 

We were told to get the pineapple mango smoothie. It did not disappoint.  

On Saturday, we hung out with the fam and went to Sophie’s pizza and went to Bellow’s (military base beach) and enjoyed hours of surfing and boogie boarding. The waves were perfect for boogie boarding even though I got flipped over several times. I’m so impressed with these kiddos who are pros at surfing and boogie boarding and skin boarding. It’s so fun to watch them. 

Bryan showed us this cool area (it was actually off limits but it was worth seeing!) The current was so strong, it was a little scary.

Koko Head

Bryan also showed us this cool tunnel under the road. It looked out over where we were before. 

This is what happens when you follow through on a ripstick challenge by Bryan. 

Sunday morning before Church, Austin and I went to Pearl Harbor, just a ten minute drive from Mere’s place. Wow, that was quite an amazing place. It was so reverent and peaceful. They do a 20 minute video presentation on what happened that day and then we took a boat ride out to the memorial over the USS Arizona. I guess I didn’t realize or had just forgotten that over 1,100 men are still down there. The ship was their tomb. I came away with more of a love for our country, for those who serve, and a desire to learn more about this part in history. I’m actually reading a memoir of a survivor on the USS Arizona and it’s incredible and heart breaking. 

So Jocelyn wasn't cooperating and going outside to play so Bryan made her do chores and she was happy to comply. :) 

Monday they took the two oldest out of school so we could all go on Mere’s favorite hike, Kalalua ridge. It’s an incline up this mountain ridge. At first it’s just switch backs through the forest areas, then you overlook the southern part of the island where Waikiki, Diamond Head, and Koko Head are. Then it’s about another 200+ steps (don’t worry we counted so it would take Evelyn’s mind off of how hard the hike was), and then you are on this ridge overlooking about a 1/3 of the island. It was breathtaking. It’s about a 5 mile round trip and all the kids did it! They were such troopers. Lots of stops to eat M&M’s sure did help. We were all pretty freaked out (except Bryan of course) about kids wandering up there because it’s a drop off so we were holding on to their hands for dear life. I’m sure us being frantic about it didn’t make it any better. ;)

I can't remember what triggered this but our CTR 6 class loves to play the rock game, which is basically sitting in a position so still that if you move you're out. It worked for 5 minutes with them. :)

Me and Mere. She is amazing!!

We went back to Sophie’s pizza and then Austin and I went to Sandy Beach (a very touristy beach) and hung out during the sunset. We’re pretty sure we saw a whale in the distance. The waves were huge for being so close to shore. We were watching as people were being plummeted left and right. But the view of the ocean and how quiet it was where we were was amazing (I feel like I’ve been saying that word a lot here) but it really was. 

The panoramic view

It was also fun to play games with Mere and Bryan and have some great chats. They were so nice to let us use their car and stay at their house. It made the trip a lot more affordable. We were so sad to leave. We miss those kiddos so much! I especially miss Jocelyn’s voice and cute antics and Hudson’s hilarious logical conversations. I know I put this one up on instagram but Hudson has never lived in cold weather. He was born in Arizona and then they moved to Hawaii. He was telling us at the dinner table that Santa is not real. “Because Santa lives in the North Pole, and the North Pole has snow, and snow DOESN’T EXIST!” We were laughing so hard! 

The timing of the trip was perfect too as we were on our 5th anniversary and we knew we were going to move as soon as we got home. We might not have been able to make this trip otherwise so we count it as a blessing that it all worked out the way it did!