April 2024

April started with visitors and more visitors came in the middle and ended with more visitors. So fun! Nanny, Lauren and Alex, Evie and Leto stayed for another week and we had the best time, as usual. Then we had Jill and Izzy Abbajay, then Ashley and Brook Peters, then Nicky, then Nicky left, then the Abbajays left, then Ash Brook and Claudia left. Then later in the month, Bri and Brian, and their 2 kids, Randy and Janet, and Geanie and Carrie (all Brackenbury's) came from Idaho!

I decided I didn't love the flowers. It may have been the color choices, not sure. I painted it plain white while I waited to be inspired for something new. 

Kitten cuddles. Love these two together.

We did another day at Hanalei with the Oregon crew. So fun, as always.

We have been getting so so many pigs in the yard, both day and night!

Mangos growing!

After taking some classes and learning more about short term rentals, we decided to buy a property in Memphis Tennessee. We got all the way to closing and the sellers backed out. We decided it was okay and also decided not to go forward with other short term rental investments at that time. It was a huge waste of time and money, but we learned a lot. Here are some pictures of our almost house.

Playing with the wax from Aunt Julie's candles is a daily activity. Everyone is mesmerized. 

Dinner together and playing at the house with cousins is so fun.  Lauren and Paul are so similar. It's fun to have that much energy in the house.

Beach trip to Tunnels. It is such a beautiful beach. Snorkeling, swimming, seashell hunting, swinging in the hammocks, and on the rope swim. Reading books, flying kites and making memories. 

Goodbyes are always so hard. We love you guys!

We heard noises in the backyard and peeked out to find SO many little piglets rooting around in our yard, what a happy surprise!

Another day another facial for me and this cute girl of mine. Aren't we just glowing?

More siding removal between house guests. We try not to work too much on the house while they are visiting so we can make memories (and take a break ourselves).

Silly Mousey Moo found a good sleeping spot on the back of my legs. Pumpkin and Whiskey have been getting along better and better and often share the same bed, although they will still hiss at each other if they give each other eye contact. Silly things.

Another wild sleeping position for Mousey. 

Getting the roofing for the healing hut. Woohoo!

Shots at Paul's old clinic. 

Got home to see some legs sticking out from under the car. Paul sometimes does our oil changes still. I love how capable he is. 

Bananas growing BIG!

Lullaby and Paul strung up a swing that goes out over the fence and then over the cliff. So fun, and wild and free. 

Pokelmon card pack opening. So fun.

Sweet Snow Baby is always sleeping somewhere. Usually in the sun. We love her.

Look at these handsome boys walking into church with their new suit coats. Adorable. 

More flooding on island.

Our friends on the Big Island sent us some of their honey. Nothing tastes better. Thanks Andersons!

Mousey Moo. Cute as can be. 

Paul and the kids and I worked on getting the doors put on the Healing Hut, and it's really starting to look great!

Out to eat with my favorite guy. Kung Pao Brussels sprouts for the win! Yum!

The metal roofing up onto the Healing Hut and good grief was that a LOT of work. Looks great though and it's done (with that part anyway).

Matix caught a lizard in the car and kept it safe until we could release it. Poor thing.

More Zoom meetings with the designers for the Memphis house (before the sale fell through). I loved the designs they came up with. So fun to see and give my input.

Another emergency alert. April was a very rainy month. 

Ash made a fun game of taste-testing lots of New Zealand foods. Some were strange, some were good. We had to try and guess the names of them and what they were eaten for... A snack? Breakfast? What?

Dinner time with visitors is so fun. 

Ashley has started getting gray hair, what!

Nicky came and when we picked him up from the airport, Lullaby jumped into the trunk to scare him. It worked. 

Out for shave ice with everyone. We have a full house! Jill and Izzy Abbajay, Nicky, Ashley and Brook Peters and Claudia Piano.  Plus our 6, wowza. 

Nicky is so sweet to play with the kids. They have the best time with him.

Back to the vet again with sweet Swishy boy. He keeps getting sick, and I know he's slowing down, but we want to make sure he's comfortable and happy as many days as we get with him.

Poipu and Brennecke's for some fun in the sun.

We saw some turtles mating, it was wild. 

Time with Avia is always happy.

Lunch out again, yum! Plus some extra Avia time for all my attention starved babies who love the Abbajays as much as I do.

Waimea Canyon is called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific and has so many amazing lookouts. How beautiful is our world. 

Grocery shopping for snacks after spending time in the canyon.

Walking around Kapaa town and trying all the foods. Yes please.

Solace cutting Paul's hair.

Hogging the Abbajays all to myself. 

Everyone loves to spend some time with baby Brook. She's so cute.

Ash made everyone write down what they wanted to do during their stay, and then we tried to plan and fit everything in.

Out to eat with everyone in Hanalei.  Holey Grail Donuts and others.

Isn't Solace so helpful? Here he is making sure the boards are loaded up correctly.

Brook is in love with Solace and cried and cried because he wasn't driving with her home from the beach at the end of the day. Sweet thing,

Getting cleaned up before bed. Brook is the cutest.

More Curiosity Kids fun. 

This sweet kitten loves Lullaby the best. She follows her around lots.

Shave ice and ice cream with Izzy and Jill.

Izzy is the queen of cracking peoples backs. If you turn the volume up, you can hear it. Wowza.

Reading with Avia. 

Matix wanted a trim, but didn't want to lose all the blonde. He looked like Zack Morris.

Shopping with Izzy and Jill is always a blast. 

We went for lunch with friends of theirs on the south side of the island who are building a house, and then we got to tour it. They have a spectacular view. 

Paul and I sleep in the office on mattresses on the floor when guests come, so that they can have our room. Swishy doesn't mind at all and sneaks onto the mattresses for a cuddle whenever he gets the chance. Sometimes he falls in the crack and gets stuck, sweet thing.

Hanalei with the crew. 

Brook likes to help.

Card champion, Jill

These three got the most sun, and came home looking like lobsters!

Out to eat with everyone, so fun. We took up two tables and the kids roamed back and forth.

Waiting for our tables to be ready for dinner. Brook wanted Sully to hold her. She really loves him.

Down to Poipu for snorkeling, shave ice, turtle and seal spotting. So fun. Nicky was on Big Island for a wedding and puddle jumped for a couple days. We were so happy to see him! 

Nicky took the kids to the falls for one last adventure before he left. It was so nice to see him, and the kids for sure loved it too.  (Sully is warming up in the sun in the picture, FYI)

Driving over the bridge and you can see they are still clearing out all the logs. Wow.

Always sad to say goodbye to the Abbajays. They are so kind and lovely and just the best people. We are so lucky to have them in our lives.

One last adventure before the last of this round of guests leaves. Always one last adventure for Ashley and her crew. So fun.  Brook road her bike most of the way to the falls, then the kids all jumped, then a hike back out.

Saying goodbyes again, for the second day in a row was hard! First the Abbajays, then Ash and crew. 

Matix filled the glass so perfectly full, we had to take a picture. Wowza!

Look how big the mangos are getting! So exciting!

The boys were ready to get their hair cut, so we went to The Fix to have the professionals do it. I'm so glad we did, because the results were perfection.

We found more banana milk just after Leto and those guys left, so we bought some in his memory and texted them the pictures. Banana bros forever. 

Why do they love to take these silly face pictures on my phone...? Don't they know I will keep them forever and post them here?

One day we heard the LOUDEST birds outside. We're used to noisy birds with all the chickens, but this was surprisingly loud. These Myna birds had so much to say!

Out to eat at a vegan place, so yummy.

We love to play a board game. Sometimes everyone gets into in. This Risk game took 2 days. 

After all the storms, the beaches had piles of drift wood in some areas, so we went to work building forts. So fun.

Friends over for video games is always a good time. 

The kids went on a field trip to the Community College to learn from their senses labs. It was Willy Wonka themed and so much fun. They went into a room with yellow light (although the pictures make it look more green), and had to decipher the colors and follow prompts to color their papers based on what color they THOUGHT they were looking at. Everyone was wrong. They also did a candy bar look test, without smelling or tasting or touching it, figure out which candy bar was which.  Then they did a sound test and had to try and emulate the different musical notes they heard, almost like Simon Says. 

Plans for the closet... 

A screenshot from Aunty Robyn, Matix's seminary teacher who loves him so much. I'm glad he has her for a teacher. She's super kind to him and really loves him.

Spoons is a little wild for this family. We took a long break from this game after some people got hurt going in too aggressively for a spoon.

Kealia fun. Sully made a flag with Hawk's shirt. We are loving all the driftwood!

Kite flying at Kapahi Park.

After Ash and Brook got back to New Zealand, we FaceTimed a few times and she only got excited like this when Sully came on. She loved him.

Back to Kealia to work more on the forts.

We went to a preparedness fair that our church, along with other organizations put on. One of the things we could watch, was how scent dogs worked. They are search and rescue dogs and Solace hid while the dog was around the corner and then he found him. So cool. Then Matix tried too. I as so impressed. Matix also won one of the raffle prizes.

To Kealia with Brian and Bri Brackenbury (relatives from Idaho) and their kids. Always fun to have visitors.  They came to the island, along with Randy and Janet, Carrie and Geanie and we had so much fun with them. Randy is Great Grandma Berg's nephew.  The kids played together and cracked open coconuts to eat. 

She dyed the tips of her hair turquoise, and I love it. Also, see that she's wearing my dress for church again. A favorite pastime of hers. 

Building a 4 square court on the driveway to play with the Idaho cousins.

Matix loves a cookie, or a sugary drink, or plain sugar. He has the biggest sweet tooth in the family. Good thing he is also pretty self-sufficient too, and can bake his own treats. 

Face masks always look crazy. So much fun.

We went to Poipu with the Idaho family visiting and had a blast on the playground, and in the waves, and on the beach eating shave ice. Matix took them over to Brennecke's for some fun boogie boarding too.

Sully got a fat lip playing on the playground with the Idaho cousins. Poor guy.

Church is always way more fun with visitors there. We love living in a vacation destination and getting to see so many people we wouldn't normally see so often.

Poor fat lip Sully. It healed fast after this though. Looks rough.

Taking down sections of the fence in the back yard. 

Shave ice stop in Hanalei after the beach and before dinner. Yes please. 

Out to eat with the Idaho family. So fun. Kids played chess, read books, and played while we waited for our food. 

I brought a million pieces of driftwood from the beach for the kids to make art with. I loved seeing everything those creative little brains came up with at Curiosity Kids. 

My Uncle Carl and Aunt Pandora live in Minnesota, and I hardly ever hear from them. Never, in fact, other than Christmas cards. But then one day out of the blue I got a text about Grandma Evie's rock. She had promised it to more than me, and I had it for a few years, but Pandora really wanted it. In fact, it was the only thing of Grandma's she did want.  So I took a few pictures of it, and mailed it off to its new home. If they ever don't want it, they will send it back. Who would have thought that a rock would become so loved. :)

The parking lot at Poipu was so flooded, it looked like a lake!

We had a good time with all the Brackenbury's at Poipu, in the sometimes sun and sometimes rain. 

Game playing at home gets highly competitive sometimes. This Catan game got wild, but of course, not as much as soon as I picked up the camera.

Good bye to the Idaho family. These Brackenbury's are so lovely. We had so much fun with all of you!