Spring Break 2015--Hawaii!!!

The advanced Chamber Orchestra and Jazz Bands at Heritage Academy took an AWESOME trip to Oahu this year.  It was a TON of work to get here (fundraising and planning) but it was so worth it!  I was one of the first to volunteer as a chaperone--I didn't want Mr. Taylor to do all that work by himself:)  This group of teens are AMAZING and sure made my job as "chaperone" really easy:)

Here we are as we arrived at the Honolulu Airport--complete with a Hawaiian Lei welcome:)

Matthew, Carlie, Rebecca, & Melody

The whole group of 46!

Rebecca & Melody are 2 of Carlie's
best friends and were her roommates on this trip.

After a hectic early morning flight and bus trip, we made it over to our hotel and had the rest of the first day to hang out at the beach and relax.  The beach was right across the street from our hotel.  Carlie and I started right away on our sunburns--we both have to burn BEFORE we tan…no pain, no gain:)  Then we ate pizza at our hotel for dinner and enjoyed a night out walking around Waikiki.

I thought this sign was kinda funny:)
I guess it was only funny because we didn't get stung by any:)

Day #2 (Tuesday) of our trip was jammed packed!  Our first stop of the day was to the USS Missouri Battleship and the USS Arizona Pearl Harbor Memorial.  The kids had a performance right away.  Such a cool background for a performance:

The PROUD wind section!  All 3 of them:
Hope on flute, Carlie on oboe, & Rebeca on trombone.

Carlie & I in our cool matching shirts:)

In all of my visits to this place (this time was my 4th) I had never climbed all over the Missouri Battleship!!!  No idea why?!  But it was REALLY cool!

"LAND HOY!"

This marks the spot where the Japanese signed
the peace treaty that ended the war.

Then off to the ferry that took us out to the sunken USS Arizona:

The USS West Virginia was another ship that was sunk but
brought up again.  This ship is special to me because this was
my Grandfather's ship (my Pooka).  He got off his ship in Pearl
Harbor and boarded another ship headed to San Francisco
just days before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

I just LOVE it when a Survivor is at the memorial signing autographs and taking pictures.  Not very many of them left any more.

 

We finished out our day eating dinner at Hard Rock Cafe--Honolulu:

Day #3 (Wednesday) of our trip was once again JAMMED packed!  We hit the swap meet first thing this morning!  LOTS of shopping to be done!  We then stopped at Sunset beach:

Mr. Taylor on the far right!

We hit the Dole Plantation for a few minutes to get a pineapple whip and to take these FUN pictures:

Carlie, Melody, Rebecca, & Matt--Matt is the girl of course:)

Funny story with this picture (Melody, Carlie, & Rebecca in the huge pineapple):  I was taking their pictures and we were kinda in a hurry but then the cutest little Japanese woman walked up as I was saying, "Okay!  Let's go!"  She said, "NO!  NO!  Please stay!!!  SOOO beautiful!!!"  And then she proceeded to take another 4 pictures of the girls:)  They were good sports:)

Mr. Taylor and his BFF Mr. Kellogg

Antonio, Donovan, Raf, & Landon:)
EVERYONE wanted in the pineapple!

We hit BYU Hawaii afterwards for the students to do a music clinic with the percussion professor there.  And then the last stop of the day was the Polynesian Cultural Center!  I just LOVE this place!!!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE all the demonstrations at all of the villages and the evening show--"HA-The Breath of Life"--is absolutely amazing.

The Samoan coconut tree climber
doing his "Sports Illustrated" pose:)

The seminary teacher at Heritage Academy happened
to be in Hawaii at the same time and we met up with him
at the PCC.  He & his wife are on the far left.

New Zealand is my personal favorite village to visit.
I LOVE their Haka's most of all!

I always get my "ink" in the New Zealand village:)
Oh yeah…I look good:)

My "ink" up close--I texted this picture home
and Max was freaking out because he thought it was real:)
But he was really just jealous!

Carlie & Rebecca liked the Fijians:)

The CUTEST little Fijian there!

Our last full day in Hawaii started with another music clinic at the University of Hawaii and then we headed over to Hanauma Bay for some serious snorkeling (and more sun-burning:)

Gosh this place is GORGEOUS!  

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Carlie, Hope, Hope M., Matthew, & Mireya

We spent our final evening having dinner together and then hanging out at the beach by our hotel together.  Carlie & I were pretty sunburned so we went back to our rooms a little earlier and popped some ibuprofen and smothered ourselves in aloe:)  

This was such a fun trip.  I have made this trip 3 times before but I ALWAYS find something new and fun to do.  This group of kids was such a great group to be around and I loved getting to know all of them better:)  I mostly enjoyed just hanging out with my daughter.  She didn't ditch me all the time on this trip--she actually looked for me most of the time:)  I definitely plan on chaperoning next year's trip as well:)

On our final day in Hawaii, Carlie and I were sitting in McDonalds having breakfast when I saw this guy standing outside with his sign.  AND PEOPLE STOPPED AND PAID $ TO TAKE A PICTURE WITH HIM!!!  I just snapped this picture from inside McDonalds--gave me a good laugh.

Ethan's Eagle Project…DONE!!!

My husband is a very passionate (and a little CRAZY) about scouts.  And I guess if he wasn't, I wouldn't be making this post right now so thank goodness he is:)

Ethan JUST turned 13 on Tuesday, Feb. 24th, and then had his Eagle project completed by Saturday, Feb. 28th.  He chose a project at his school in Mesa--Heritage Academy.  The school's basketball court desperately needed some cracks repaired and freshly painted lines.  So Ethan decided to repair the cement, re-paint all of the lines, and then to paint school logo in the center of the court.

Ethan really did this project on his own.  He visited MANY Home Depots, Lowes, Shermann-Williams, and Dunn-Edwards asking for donations for this project--my husband seriously sat in his car while Ethan went into the stores by himself!!!  Ethan was such a pro!  No fear at all!!!  I would have gone in WITH him but I'm really glad that I was not involved in this portion because he really did learn a lot.  And he did secure all the donations he needed.

Here are some of the "before" pictures of the school basketball court:

There used to be lines:)

He also re-painted the fire curb in the parking lot.

This project required some serious preparation on our part.  We had the logo printed and then projected onto our garage wall where we traced and then cut it out with Exacto knives.  We then printed out each letter by hand onto card stock and cut them out again by hand to make a more sturdy and exact stencil.  All the prep work was totally worth all the effort because by the time Saturday rolled around, we were 100% ready to go with everything already planned and plotted out.

EVERYONE helped on this!

The main part of the logo--the letters were printed on card stock
and cut out later.

We also had some help the weekend before repairing the cracks in the sidewalk so they would be nice and dry by the time we painted:

One of Ethan's deacon buddies--JD

Chris, Papa Frank, and Ethan headed up to the school on Friday afternoon (the day before) to get all the lines chalked in and the center circle painted before everyone came on Saturday.  So on Saturday morning, we just had to tape and paint:)

My older brother, K.C., is currently deployed for the US Coastguard.  His wife has sent out a "Flat KC" to keep him involved in all the state-side family adventures.  So I took some pictures of "Flat KC" helping us out this weekend to share with his family who is missing him terribly at this time.  It was fun to post them on Facebook for everyone to see:)  We miss you KC!!!  I will now mail him to his next destination:)

Ethan with "Flat KC"

"Flat KC" helping with the logo.

Papa Frank feeding "Flat KC" a donut:)

"Flat KC" helping tape

There was a 30% chance of rain that we watched ALL week long.  We also prayed ALL week long that the rain would hold off long enough for this project to be completed as this was the ONLY weekend we had until June (because of Chris's work/travel schedule).  Well, our prayers were answered and our hard work and preparation paid off.  We had plenty of help and everything ran amazingly smoothly and the finished result was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G if I do say so myself!!!
We had plenty of help show up and we are ever so grateful for everyone who took time out their Saturday to help us.  I forgot to get an entire picture of everyone but in total, we had 23 people show up to help which was just right--everyone had something they could do and it ran smoothly.  

Dane & Daniel cold but sweeping:)

We kept the deacons away from this
part of the project:)  This was
Laura & Daniel who are students
at Heritage who came to help us out!!!

Brand new basketball nets!!!

Beautiful fire lane:)  Thanks Bro. Schoenberger:)

Nice new lines:)

My personal FAVORITE part!!!
Looks AMAZING right?

FINISHED!!!

The entire project on Saturday took a little under 2 hours.  It was the PERFECT project for Ethan and one that he will be able to see everyday.  I think he will really enjoy showing his friends at school his finished project:)  Way to go Ethan.  HUGE check off the list for sure.  We are proud of our Eagle Scout!!!