Sunday, August 6, 2017

June has been a very eventful month.  It feels like I have taken more vacation days than I worked during the month.  It was a month with a lot of emotions.  We started with Emma graduating High School.  We had the ceremony at UVU.  Mom and Dad made it to the ceremony.  Bingham had their graduation right before Riverton did so Mom and Dad spent the day at UVU.  It was great and we got good pictures.  It feels weird having a daughter old enough to be done with High School.  I still feel like I'm 28.  Well, I feel 28 mentally.  Physically I feel much much older.  Tiffany has been struggling with the idea of Emma moving on.  Whenever it is mentioned she has a bit of a meltdown.  I'm very proud of Emma and all she has accomplished.  It will be fun to see what she does next.

Tiffany has been saving her Orchestra and Landscape money for our vacation fund.  Years ago she decided she wanted to go to Hawaii.  We had thought we would take the whole family until we saw that is would cost around 10K to take us all and do what Tiffany wanted.  We decided that Tiffany and I would go.  We went to celebrate our 20th Wedding Anniversary.  Mom and Dad were celebrating their 50th this year and were considering a trip to Hawaii to celebrate.  We went together.  They asked us to plan it all but dad made three requests.  He wanted to see Pearl Harbor, visit the temple, and go to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  Dad went online and purchased the most expensive, deluxe, mega package the PCC offered.  It came with a private tour and a DVD.  We were surprised at the purchase.  We thought we would get in the door and roam but Dad had other ideas.  We teased him about it for a few weeks building up to the trip.  We decided to spend our time on the North Shore on Oahu.  We were told it was like old Hawaii before it got all touristy.  We wanted to avoid the South side of Oahu and all of the traffic.  It was prefect.  We had a blast going all over the North Shore.   We absolutely feel in love with Haleiwa.  We ate very well.  We hit a lot of places between Haleiwa and Laie.  We had many Acia Bowls.  We visited the shrimp trucks.    Had the best burger I have had at Seven Brothers.  We visited the temple.  We made it down to Honolulu to visit the Bishop's Museum and Pearl Harbor.  the traffic in Honolulu was crazy.  If it was moving it was very fast and felt dangerous.  It easy to see the rules of the road in Honolulu.  Whoever had the worst car did what they wanted and everyone else tried to get out of their way. The North Shore was a great way to introduce us to Hawaii.  We went to Oahu thinking when we brought the kids back we could go to a smaller island.  It will be hard to go back and not take the kids to the PCC.

Soon after we got home Hyrum and I went to scout camp.  We went for 3 days to the Green River.  We had a guide take us up 9 mile canyon to search for petroglyphs.  We were there for 5 hours.  It was very hot.  It was interesting but I think we got to a point where the guide was having fun and we were humoring him.  We camped next to a golf course.  We ate well.  We went cliff diving and witnessed a girls break her leg.  We ran the river and got a little carried away when a scout dove from one raft to the other and pushed our river guide out of the raft. We earned some merit badges.  When we were done we were happy to be home.

The following week we went to Youth Conference.  we were there as support for the Lehis and Saraihs.  It was a Book of Mormon Youth Conference.  Tiffany and I were able to implement a skit around the Anti-Nephi-Lehis.  We reenacted the burying of the swords and massacre that followed.  the mothers raising their sons and eventually forming the Army of Helaman.  It was a very special experience.  Being support meant we had a lot of downtime.  It was interesting to not have any connections with the youth .  We held a reunion and asked for feedback we then sent to the Stake to include in the next BoM Youth COnference they do. 

June was a fun month but I feel I had more days away from work then I had work.  I hope it does not cause too many problems for next quarter.  I keep telling myself that when I'm old a gray I will not wish I septn more days at the office but will rely on these memories.