Family!! Part 1

 I'm still a year behind on this blog. BUT...I have every intention of catching up! It might take me a while, but at least I'm making progress. :)

After Hawaii, we had a layover in California, and then went to Utah. We stayed at Stephanie and Adam's house in Mountain Green. I cannot explain how wonderful it felt to be in the states. Technically we were in the states in Hawaii, but we were still on an island in the middle of the ocean. I had lots of anxiety with our move and everything that was going on, and it felt good to my soul to be in Utah, surrounded by mountains, soft grass, and lots of family. Taylor was meeting almost everyone for the first time. It is crazy how little he seems in these pictures! That's what happens when you don't journal until a year later.

I have to include Scott and Denisse in our family post, because they feel like family to us. And those mountains behind us! I'm telling you, it felt good.

 We met up with lots of Heaton cousins for a picnic lunch. Derek and Julianne were in town for their Move Live tour, and it's always fun to see them as well.

 We went to their show, which was super entertaining. It was exciting seeing them up on stage and the huge crowd that came just for them. We're so happy for them that they have been able to be so successful.

 I loved that I got to see Denisse again too!

 After our Utah fun, we piled in the car, with no room to spare, and headed to Idaho to stay at Bob and Denise's house. There, we had more time to relax, play and just enjoy being with family.

 I checked in on Taylor and found him sleeping so cute and perfect. Part of me wishes he was still this little.

 One day was spent at Rexburg Rapids. It's a small water park, but just right for all of the little kids.

 We drove by the Rexburg temple. I love this temple. It's so pretty up on the hill with the gorgeous Idaho skies that never seem to disappoint. 

 After church, we gathered everyone for a few informal family pictures. It seems like it's always such torture for the kids! Why is that?

 Grandma and Grandpa Heaton

 McKenna. I can't say enough about this girl. She loves my kids so much and is the most loving and helpful cousin ever. All of the little kids adore her. She teaches them games, plays with them and is just plain helpful. She's going to make a great mom one day.

 Ugh, there's that baby that I don't even recognize again! I want to squeeze those cheeks and that fluffy baby chick hair is killing me. We love our Taybug.

 And we can't go to Idaho Falls without feeding the ducks by the temple.

It made my heart extremely full to see our kids rekindling their friendships with all of their cousins.

Hawaii- July 2014

After our crazy Japanese exit, our first stop in the good ol' USA was HAWAII. It was a perfect combination of the tropical island we just left, and the country that we love and missed. Our hotel was directly across the street from Waikiki beach and the kids could not be any more excited. All we had to do was throw on our swimsuits and walk over. 

When we were organizing our suitcases in Okinawa before we left, realized that in the craziness of the typhoon and all the rushing around, half of the boy's clothes got left at the Fryar's house and we couldn't go to their house to get them. So our first order of business was to buy the boys a swimsuit. Luckily there was a Ross just around the corner with two $5 swimsuits. Sweet. Problem solved.

It was so nice to be in Hawaii, relaxing and spending time together now that all the hard part was over. We were back in the states, all of our paperwork, checklists, cleaning and everything else we had to do to get off Okinawa were done. Now we could just have fun!

It was so funny to think that this was Taylor's first experience in the US. Our little Japanese baby was clearly enjoying himself. He did so good through all of the craziness and we were grateful for that.

One of our days there was spent on the other side of the island. We saw BYU-Hawaii, the temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center. The kids were a little sad to not be running around on the beach that day, but we all ended up enjoying it.

This temple and the grounds are amazingly beautiful.

If you have never been to the PCC, it is a must see. There are so many fun cultural experiences to be had. I would love to go to Hawaii with just Justin some time, but even with the kids, it was really fun.

They had little stations where you could get a temporary "tattoo" stamp. We all went to get one, except for Anderson. He could not understand why we would want to do that. We even put one on Taylor to show him that it wasn't a big deal, but he was not having any part of that.

Another must see is Pearl Harbor. Justin and I both enjoy history, but war history is one of Justin's favorites. So this was right up his alley. It's an emotional place to visit, when you realize all of the devastation that happened there.

The boys loved all of the ships, guns, missiles and submarines. It was all very fascinating for them.

This is the spot where you can go and look down at the USS Arizona that is still in the water. There is still a drop of oil that will float to the top every few minutes. They leave the ship there as the resting place for so many that died inside the ship.

This was our view from our hotel room. Pretty crappy, right?

Lots of our time was spent just playing on the beach or in the pool. We bought these little floaties for the boys and they went back and forth on the waves for hours. Honestly, they could have done this all day.

This was making us contemplate getting on the plane to leave. How do you ever get sick of that view??

We went to church close by our hotel. We ate lunch out on the lawn after and did a little swinging on the tree vines. 

Justin was having a little too much fun. :)

Then we took one last drive up to a view point before heading to the airport. We were a little disappointed that it was cloudy but the lush green hills were amazing nonetheless. And even though we were sad to leave this amazing vacation spot, we couldn't wait for what was coming next... FAMILY! Our next stop was Utah.