Jackson's baptism

My nephew was baptized this past weekend and I realized I still needed to do a post about Jackson's baptism!

Jackson was baptized on February 4 and it was a really great day. It was a stake baptism and Jackson was the only one from our ward baptized that day.

Sean's dad did a great job speaking about baptism and both he and my dad were the witnesses.

Jackson was fortunate to have lots of family come support him on his special day.

He also had some friends there and even his school teacher showed up!

After the baptism and confirmation we came to our house for lunch. We ended up catering Cafe Rio because it is a good option for the gluten free members of the family and it was so nice having it already set up and waiting for us!

We're so proud of this boy who is quickly growing into a young man. Jackson truly has a heart of gold and is such an example of love, kindness, and unselfishness. We often ponder how we are so lucky to have him in our family. We're proud of the decisions he's making on a daily basis, and the decision he made to be baptized. 

Hawaii: Day 7

Day 7

Somehow we were down to the final day of our vacation. It ended up being one of my favorite days of the trip.

Loved seeing these three all snuggled up. 

Final sunrise. This one was cool because there was a mist over the ocean from rain during the night.

Stop at Ted's bakery for doughnuts and pie on our way to Waimea.

I really wanted to go to Waimea Falls during our trip, but wasn't sure if it was going to happen. After the crazy rain storm Tuesday night, Waimea flooded and there was a ton of damage I guess. Waimea Valley was closed the rest of the week while they cleaned it up, but lucky for us, it opened back up on our last day there. I was so happy we got to go! I had never been before, so it was all new to me.

The walk to the falls was gorgeous. The valley was so lush and green and full of all sorts of cool flowers and trees.

Our entire family got in and swam! The water was cold at first, but didn't take long to get used to. Sean and Jackson swam over to the waterfalls and jumped in a few times.

On our walk back, Jackson found this cool flower sitting on a rock that looked like something from a cartoon. The part in the middle opened up like a mouth!

I couldn't get enough of these big, sprawling trees. Waimea was a beautiful place and I am so glad we were able to go.

Since we were taking a red eye home that night, we had a full final day to do stuff. After Waimea we headed back to Turtle Bay for one last afternoon at the beach and pool.

Molly thought it was hilarious to try and grab my sunglasses.

She loved playing in the surf and would laugh when bigger waves rolled in. 

As we sat on the beach this final afternoon and watched the kids play, I kept thinking about how much I didn't want to go home yet. It was such an incredible week and so much fun having the whole family there together. I'm not saying it was picture perfect the entire time-- sure there were still melt downs and kids got tired and argued, but that's real life. We made so many amazing new memories. I feel so grateful to be able to have had this experience together.

Hawaii, we will be back. And we won't wait so long this time.

Hawaii: Day 6

 Day 6

Per tradition, we woke up and watched the sunrise from our balcony. 

I never tired of the view. I loved just sitting out on the balcony. Our room was on the very end of the building so it was like we were right out on the ocean. A few of the mornings we sat out there and could see whales in the distance. So cool!

We headed to the swap meet in Honolulu after breakfast. The kids were itching for some souvenirs (and Bode couldn't wait any longer for a ukulele). I was hoping who I refer to as the "jam lady" was still there, and she was! 

In fact, her's was the first booth we saw as we walked in. I still remember sampling her tropical jams 15 years ago and it was fun to see her again. I brought a few jars home this time. Bode picked out a nice green floral ukulele-- as nice as $10 will buy that is ;) Jackson found some tiki men, Davis got a monster truck, and Molly got a cute little Hawaiian dress. Everyone left happy.

On our way back to Turtle Bay, we stopped at a pretty beach on the North Shore we had seen the day before to do a little snorkeling. 

Only Sean and Jackson made it out this time. They saw some fish but thought it was better at Turtle Bay. The scenery was pretty awesome though!

Back to Turtle Bay Beach we went, where we spent the rest of the day.

I will say, it was pretty awesome staying there and being able to swap our sandy/wet towels for fresh ones as often as we wanted. We took major advantage of that all week. The beach chairs were pretty nice too :) Molly was content just hanging out most of the time, which was nice, because her napping schedule was pretty much nonexistent all week.