All About Us: April

April is always a busy month, but we made it especially full this year.

We kicked off the month with our anniversary/April Fools.

Chet printed off a nail through the finger do-dad to try to prank me. They decided I would believe it more if one of the contractors pretended he had it through his finger. They asked if I could give him a ride to the hospital and I was a little confused and wondering why he was freaking out so much, but said I would. Needless to say, I didn't give them the reaction they were expecting. Obviously they were unaware of all the traumatic injuries that come from growing up on a ranch. A nail through the finger is nothing.

Tanner and I didn't do much for our anniversary because we were preparing for our big trip later in the month.

We had our Passover meal,

And celebrated Tanner. He's such a good sport with the craziness that is around his birthday.

Easter Eggs were decorated.

We went to the community Easter egg hunt and I was able to convince Vivi and Asa to wear their bunny suits. It was freezing outside so I think they were happy to be wearing them. We met up there with the cousins and everyone gorged themselves on candy through conference.

That night we celebrated Mariah's birthday.

I forgot to get candles so we did a little arithmetic to get to 14.

Tanner was on call Easter morning, but we still did the scavenger hunt and made resurrection rolls. It didn't go quite the way I had envisioned, but that doesn't take away from the joy that comes with knowing that Jesus Christ lives!

We got to go to the Rathbun fish hatchery for a field trip. It was way more interesting than I thought it would be. Fish...who knew? Vivi gets excited when her buddy Emmett is there.

I took the boys to Scott's shop and they were geeking out about all the 3-D printers. I was just trying to not have a nervous breakdown figuring out all the things in the house.

Tanner and I were able to go to Hawaii for our 15th anniversary. It's the first time we've gone on an extended trip since I was pregnant with Eliza. We were due.

Grammie flew out to watch the kiddos. They had a tea party, made cars for a drive-in movie, had a mystery dinner, went to the movie theater, the skate park, and Snack Shack. The chicks hatched too so it was basically the best week ever for the kids.

Tanner and I weren't miserable either...

We had such a wonderful time! Shipman's beach was one we had to hike out to but was so beautiful. There was one spot where the river came into the ocean so it was a little bit of a shock to go from icy water, to warm water and then back to icy. Very therapeutic though and it was free...can't beat that. But in all honesty, I'm a wimp when it comes to cold water so I didn't participate in the "therapy" for very long.

We went to so many beautiful beaches...

This was a favorite of Tanner's on the southernmost tip of the United States. Instead of sand, it was just coral. and on the other side there were cliffs. We could see dolphins off in the distance.

While walking to the bathrooms at this beach I saw that a wedding ceremony was talking place. I was confused, "why would they pick to get married right by the bathrooms?" Then I walked around the bathrooms and saw the view. Now I'm wondering, why would they build the bathrooms right in front of the most beautiful view?

Chad, Kaisa, and Esther joined us.

Jared and Kiersten were so wonderful opening up their home to us. They were the most amazing hosts. They took us to so many amazing beaches.

One of Tanner's favorite parts of the trip was trying all the fruit.

The Paniolo was a favorite...Kaisa got this photo with no time to spare (Tanner wouldn't slow down... rude) But Kaisa nailed the shot. Such a cool picture.

I loved the boogie boarding, even with the pound of sand in my suit...totally worth it.

We opened up fresh coconuts on the beach like the locals.

My highlight was probably cleaning frog eggs out of the Weicher's pond...I'm an easy pleaser. But seriously, they felt so cool and there were so many! Also, swimming with the manta rays. That was such a surreal experience. The rays seemed to really like Tanner so they kept coming right up on us. Thanks Tanner for being an animal whisperer.

We had a Poke bowl, snowcones, acai bowls, malassadas and lots of spam musubi.

On our last full day on the island, Tanner and I decided to hike Captain Cook Monument Trail to do some snorkeling.

This was us at the beginning of the hike, so fresh, so energized. The snorkeling was amazing, we were so glad we didn't pay money to take a boat to the cove, the hike out was going to be nothing!

Here we are after the hike out. Needless to say, we were humbled. The trail was only 3.8 miles but with an elevation gain of 1,269 ft, it was beasty. But we had lots of water, and after a sno cone we felt refreshed enough to hit the beach again for some more boogie boarding.

We finished the night with a beautiful sunset. It was so good to get away from the stresses of life for a while with my favorite person. Here's to more amazing vacations with this man!

I am so grateful for my mom! She made her time with our kids so fun that they didn't even have time to miss us. Vivienne let me know that Grandma is her favorite. Me too Viv.

Vivi had been planning an "adventure on the property" for a while. She had even drawn maps of where we were going to go. We packed a picnic and followed our fearless leader. We had to leave our picnic spot after discovering ticks, they are everywhere this year! But Vivi was ready to move on to her next spot anyway and we didn't see any ticks so we stayed there for a while.

Eliza had her tumbling show case and she has improved so much. She works on new skills at home and loves to show people what she is working on. One of her coaches wrote a really nice note about how Eliza's "kindness, composure, and willingness shines bright." Couldn't be more proud of her!