Hawaii

We went to Hawaii with my parents, both my sisters and their families for 2 weeks. Here's what we did.... (prepare yourself for a lot of pictures)

We got there July 10th after a 5 hour flight. The kids did pretty good on the flight. They didn't really sleep though. The boys didn't sleep at all and Kenzie only slept during take off and the landing. We were very lucky because it was a full flight, but the person next to us didn't show up so we were able to have Kenzie in her car seat, which made it a much better flight. She would have been wanting to get down and crawl around if she had been held the whole time. The boys colored, read books, and watched movies the whole time. The only problem we had with them was Jordan kept putting his feet on the seat in front of him and pushing.

The boys in the Hawaii airport. They were pretty excited to be in Hawaii.

Kenzie in the airport.

My parents rented a house for us all to stay at. It was so nice to have it. We were able to cook and eat here which save us a lot of money since we didn't have to eat out. It was great to be able to put the kids down and play games or read or watch tv at night.

The house and my parents.

We got there on Saturday afternoon and by the time we ate lunch, did some needed shopping, and drove to the house it was already getting late. So we didn't swim that day. The next day was Sunday. We went to church in the morning, put the babies down for a nap in the afternoon, and the rest of us (besides Doug who also slept) went for a walk to the Laie Temple. It was really close to our house. I forgot my camera so I stole this picture from my sister's blog.

Michelle, Ashlee, me. Ashlee is sure we have picture just like this from when we went to Hawaii when we were little so we had to take another one.

We spent most of the rest of time at the beach. The sand was so nice and the water was pretty warm so it was pretty much perfect. We went to several different beaches. The favorites were Hukilau, which was really close to us, and Waikiki, which was far away in Honolulu. The kids loved Waikiki because it was more like a lake. It didn't have big waves and they could swim and walk easily in it.

Jack and grandma at the first beach we swam in. I don't know what it was called.

Lots of the family swimming and playing. It was pretty sunny that day which made it pretty hot when we were sitting on the blanket.

My mom got these sand toys from someone and thought they'd be perfect for Mackenzie. She did like chewing on them.

Doug running in from the water.

Doug boogie boarding. I think he should have gone out a little farther. He probably would have had more fun riding on the water then on the waves :)

Kenzie looking good in her sunglasses.

The boy golfed. A lot. Way too much, if you ask me. 6 times. But they had fun. Doug said all that golfing made him want to golf more now. He even bought a new putter this week. And he bought a used golf club in Hawaii. Since only my dad brought his golf clubs with him, my brother in law was trying to find a cheap way to rent clubs since it's pretty expensive to do that every time you golf. So he emailed a lot of people that were trying to sell clubs on craigslist and asked if they'd be willing to rent them for 2 weeks instead. He found someone who was willing and that had 3 sets of clubs. So the boys only paid $20, I think, to rent them for the 2 weeks. And Doug bought one of the clubs.

My dad, Doug, Konrad. Richard wasn't there that day. He only golfed about half the time with them. The course they played was right by the ocean. Nice view huh?

Doug, Konrad, and my dad in front of the clubhouse. I think they look kind of nerdy here. Anyone agree?

We ate out a couple times. The first time we did we ate at Jimmy Buffets which was in Honolulu. I thought it was pretty good, but I'm not sure many of the others agreed with me.

Jordan and Kenzie

Doug, Jordan, Kenzie, me, Jackson

After we ate we walked around in the International Marketplace. I remember loving that place as a kid. They used to have tons of candle makers and spray painters along with a lot of little shops. This time, though, it was mostly just little shops and only one candle seller, who didn't make candles most the time. We walked though a couple times throughout the 2 weeks we were there and only saw them once, on the last Saturday night we were there. That was also the only night we saw the spray painters. There was a little pond with fish in it that the kids loves looking at.

Mackenzie, Doug, Jordan, Jackson, my mom by the pond.

my mom and dad on the beach.

Kenzie didn't mind crawling around in the sand. I didn't mind her doing it either, accept that she often tried to eat it. So I tried to keep her on the sheets and towels most the time.

Jackson jumping the waves with Doug's help. He loved playing in the water with Doug, or anyone else who would take him out there.

Kenna, Alli, and Jack playing in the sand.

Jordan

Natalie in the really big whole.

Jack and Jordan hated getting sand and water in their eyes. They often would come running to me crying and asking for a towel to wipe their eyes.

Jordan let Doug bury him in the sand. We were all pretty surprised that he sat still that long and let Doug bury him. Doug made him into a spider.

Kimber and grandma

Jack was cold and needed lots of towels. After being wrapped up so warm he soon fell asleep on my lap.

my dad body surfing.

This is how the boys often looked in the car ride. Needless to say, car rides weren't usually fun since they were filled with whining and crying.

Whenever we had Jordan sit in the middle he and Kenzie would fight. Kenzie would try to touch him, or take his blankets and he would cry (like he is in the picture). So we tried to make sure Jack sat next her instead.

Occasionally they were happy in the car too. But very rarely.

We went to the Kahala Resort in (or at least near) Honolulu. It's a super nice hotel with a swimming pool, beach, and dolphins. They let the public come in and see the dolphins for free. It was cool to see them so close. One jumped high and spun in the air. I was pretty amazed.

One of the dolphins.

Kenna, Sam, Shell, Kimber, Richard, Natalie, Konrad, Alli, Jack, Jordan, Ashlee, and Doug watching the dolphins.

me and Jordan watching the dolphins.

Kenzie

Jordan

Jack and Alli swimming at Waikiki. They could walk out as far as they wanted there. Cute story: Jordan didn't really like the water for most of the trip. But sometimes he wanted water in a bucket. So here he had asked Jack to get him some water and Jack did several times. On one of his time back to Jordan, a little boy asked Jack to pour the water on his fish and Jack said "no, this is for my brother."

Our family at Waikiki.

Jordan and Jackson. Everywhere we went people asked if they were twins or commented about it. They were usually surprised to find they're actually almost 2 years apart.

Jordan, Jack, Makenna

Me and Doug

Kenzie

Playing on the beach.

Jack and me.

I had put the graham crackers away in my diaper bag. They were in their normal packaging and an open ziplock bag. She had pulled them out of the diaper bag out of the ziplock bag and then out of their normal packaging and got a snack for herself. She was so proud of herself.

Kenzie on the hill. Notice the sky in the background? That's what it was like most of the time we were there. It was almost always cloudy. But it ended up being better that it was cloudy since the clouds helped it to not be so incredibly hot.

Doug and Jordan

Michelle and Richard

Kenzie, Natalie, Doug, Jordan, Kenna

Natalie sliding.

Everyone playing on the beach.

Family Photo at Hukilau:
Natalie, Richard, Michelle, Kenna, Sam, Konrad, Ashlee, Alli, Kimber, my mom, me, Jordan, Jack, my dad, Kenzie, Doug


On one of the last days we stopped at a beach that had huge sea turtles swimming right up to the shore. There were a ton of them and you could get really close to them if you wanted to. It was really cool to see them so close.

In the center of the picture is a turtle. It's kind of hard to tell what's a turtle and what's just a rock. But there is a turtle in the picture.

After seeing the turtles we went to Matsumoto's, which is the best shave ice place we found. And we tried several different places.

Kenzie, Doug, Kenna, Richard, Natalie, my dad, Michelle, Jack, my mom.

Jordan becoming one with the sand.

grandpa and grandma kissing.

Doug and Jack

Jack, Kenzie, Jordan. My kids are cute.

We went to Chili's on our last dinner out as a family. It was yummy. I really love the white chocolate molten cake. It's good.

Jordan was making Kenzie laugh by playing peek a boo with her.

me getting a kiss from a cute boy.

Michelle at the other end of the table.

Jordan in his "sand seat."

Jack drew this foot print in the sand. I was impressed that he drew it on his own. He usually doesn't do that.

Cute Kenzie-girl

Jack and Jordan in the sand.

Mackenzie falling off the boogie board.

Doug getting the water out of his ear.

Kenzie and me

Jordan with his blue slush from Chili's the second time we went... They don't have Chili's here so we had to go again so I could eat the dessert one more time.

Kenzie

We went to the California Pizza Kitchen the last night we were there. By that time it was just my parents and us since my sisters had gone home the day before. They split us into 2 tables so we could sit down faster. Jordan sat with my parents and Jack and Kenzie sat with Doug and me. As we were sitting there waiting for our food an older couple came over and told us that our children were very well behaved. We decided that if Jordan would have been sitting by us they likely wouldn't have said that :) Although he was bring very good with my parents. He really likes to have one on one attention though.

Our well behaved children.

That night we got a call from Hawaiian Airlines saying that our 10:50 pm flight was going to be delayed until 1.55 am. As I'm sure you can guess, we weren't very excited to hear that. We had to return our rental car by 10 and decided we might as well just go to the airport at that time anyways. When we got there they told us that the plane wasn't likely to leave until 3. They told us they could put us on the 1 pm flight the next day. I thought that sounded like a good idea kind of, but Doug wanted to stay. So we did. After Doug returned our rental car he checked our bags in. Then we tried to go through security and they told us they were closed until 12. I have no idea why they would close, but they did. That was actually the first time I was really frustrated, which is rather unusual. Flying generally stresses me out enough that any changes result in me being grumpy and not talking to Doug... So we went and sat down near the place where you check in and started to wait. It was only 10:30 so we would have had a really long time to wait out there, but one of the security guys came over and said it was going to be crazy out there and that they'd open up for us. I was so grateful. They probably felt bad for us having 3 little kids at the airport at that hour. So we went through security and found a nice carpeted area that wasn't too close to other people, got some blankets that a worker got for us and put a movie on for the boys. Jackson fell asleep. Kenzie fell asleep after a long while. She was crawling around and I could tell she wasn't going to just lay down to sleep so I had to rock her. We didn't have any warm water to give her a bottler with so I just had her put her to sleep with out one. She cried for about 5 minutes then slept. So it wasn't too bad. She woke up a little while later, but then fell asleep again after some rocking and then slept until a couple hours into the flight where Doug gave her a bottle and she slept some more. Jordan didn't sleep at all at the airport. He had a lot of energy and just wanted to run around. He also wanted to do things he wasn't supposed to do and would cry when we tried to stop him. But as soon as the plane started moving he fell asleep and slept until I took his buckles off after we landed in Seattle. That's my dream flight. I would love to sleep through the entire thing. Jack and Kenzie slept through most of it. Doug and I slept off and on. We were so happy when we landed and were able to go home and sleep in our beds that night. We were exhausted.

Jordan with his endless energy.

Jack asleep on the floor.

We moved Jack to go to our gate before it was time to board to make sure that Kenzie would be able to sit in her carseat on the plane and I put Jack down standing. He said was tired and I told him he could sit. The next thing I knew he was sleeping again.

So overall we loved Hawaii. Jackson said he liked our "new house" better than our "old one". He loved playing in the water and the sand and being with his cousins all day. He also liked playing the wii and watching tv whenever he wanted to when we were home. Jordan loved playing in the sand and liked the water towards the end. He was a very needy boy during the 2 weeks. If anyone tried to talk to him, touch him, play with him, or help him, other than me, he would usually run to find me saying in a fast, worried voice "mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy" until he found me or the other person left him alone. It was hard to go with all our little kids. They were tired and grumpy a lot. But really they weren't grumpy on the beach most the time. They were mostly grumpy in the car. Kenzie was kind of hard on the beach just because she wanted to keep eating the sand. If I ever laid down she was just crawl all over my, pulling my hair or choking me. I think next time Doug and I will just go ourselves... :)

If you've continued reading this far, sorry it's sooo long...

Grandma and Grandpa Riding

My Grandpa Riding passed away on July 20th. It was unexpected. He definitely had been getting weaker, but he still seemed pretty healthy. I'm still not really sure how he died. It may have been from a heart attack. Although, I will always miss him, I know he is happier now. His body isn't hurting anymore. He's with his wife. They're happy together, I'm sure.
My Grandma Riding passed away September 12, 2003. Since I didn't have a blog back then, I want to write about them both. I want to remember what they were like and the memories I have with them.

This is them in 1952 in San Fransisco. Aren't they cute?

Grandpa and my dad in 1962 on Easter Sunday, I think.

My dad, me, Cousin Darcy, Michelle, Ashlee, Cousin Michael. We used to play games a lot when we went to my grandparents house. We played scrabble, canasta, and pay day the most. I don't think my either grandma or grandpa played with us though. But they were always around.

This picture is of me, Michelle, and Ashlee in front of my grandparents' dining room table. When I started couponing almost 2 years ago, my dad told me that my grandma used to coupon. She collected all the money she saved from using coupons and bought this very nice dining room table.

My grandpa lived on the same land his whole life. He grew up in one house and then after he was married he bought a book called "How to build your dream home for $3500." (or something like that.) and built a house next to the old house. He built the house himself without any outside help.

My grandpa was a pretty grumpy old man. He was very short tempered and didn't really try to hide his anger. But despite that you knew that he really loved his family. He would help any of us anytime he could. He bragged about his children and grandchildren to anyone who would listen, I'm sure. One of my favorite memories with him his sitting on his lap in his chair in the living room listening to him read book after book after book. I loved reading with him.

My grandma was a really sweet lady. She used to wake up everyone morning and make breakfast for my grandpa. She always made pancakes for breakfast for us when we came to visit. I was always so excited to eat them, even though it was always so early. She was a great cook. I loved eating her turkey and potatoes and gravy on Thanksgiving. She loved popcorn. I remember always having popcorn when we were at their house. I remember going to the store with her to buy things to keep me entertained on the airplane ride back to Seattle when Michelle and I visited Utah alone. She was also a very nervous person, like me. She refused to get on an airplane. We went camping with them to Florence, Oregon when I was little and both her and I didn't want to go on the dune buggies or the boats that everyone else was going on. She was also very proper. My mom said the word pregnant in front of her and grandma was shocked.

When we lived in Utah we used to have a huge Easter egg hunt with the Riding side of the family. The adults would hide eggs with money in them in the desert somewhere in Stockton, and then the kids would all run around to find them. I don't really remember doing it then, but it's a tradition my parents have kept with us. Although we just do it at their house since we don't live by any deserts.

Grandma got sick around 2002, I think. Grandpa took such good care of her. I think that was the first time I really could see that he loved her. I also could see how loving and caring he really was under his outer layer of grumpiness.

My grandpa's name is Richard Shelton Riding. My Grandma's is Florence Anna (Kading) Riding. I miss them.

Dance Family Reunion 2010

We had the annual Dance family reunion over the 4th of July weekend this year. It was at Candis' house. It was really fun. I liked being at a house because it was easy to put the kids down for a nap and to bed when we wanted too. Plus it was nice and cool in the house. Candis and Ryan did a great job making this reunion happen. Thanks guys!

On our way to Candis' house we stopped in Salt Lake City to see my dad's side of the family. We saw my grandpa, 2 aunts and their husbands, and one of my cousins and his girlfriend. The kids had a blast playing with Alex (my cousin) and Ashleigh (his girlfriend). They entertained them downstairs for a lot of the time. It was good to see everyone. Grandpa was excited to hold Kenzie again since she sat with him for probably an hour the last time we saw him in March. She didn't want to sit as long this time since she can now move. She wanted to get down and play. Grandpa brought some stuffed animals for each of the kids. My boys love them. Jordan decided he was done playing and sleeping with his puppy and now only wants his new doggy. I tried to let him sleep with both but he just kept throwing the puppy out and saying he only wanted his doggy. And he still only holds his new doggy. He's a funny boy.

During the reunion we went to the Scera water park a couple times. It's a great water park for little kids. Jackson loved it, especially when Doug was there. The first time we went, the boys went golfing while the wives took the kids to the water park and then the boys came after they golfed. Jordan liked the water the first day, but the second day he refused to go in the water above his ankles. There's also a sprinkler section and Jordan loved playing in that.

Eva

Kenzie loved the water. I was lucky that the bottom of the pool is scratchy so she didn't want to crawl around too much. Otherwise she would have kept going until I grabbed her.

Isaac, Carinn, Eva, Ashton, Alyssa, Mckay, Kenzie, Anna, Brooklyn, Preston, Xavier, Jordan, Jackson

After the Scera (and after dinner) Candis, Tina, Rose, and I went to see the new Twilight movie. It was fun to have girl's night with the sisters in law. The next day we went to walk around BYU with Tyler, Brian, and their families. Tyler's family and our family went bowling after walking around while Brian's family went to the Bean Science Museum, which looked really cool after I saw the pictures. It was weird to be back at BYU with all my kids. I felt old. I remember seeing families visiting with their kids when I went to BYU and they always seemed so old. Now I'm one of them. I didn't bring my camera, but I found this picture on my sister in law's blog and decided to steal it.... Hope you don't mind Tina :)

Alyssa, Doug, Kenzie, me, Jordan, Jack, Brian, Ashton, Carinn, Rose, Tyler, Avery


That night we had a family softball game. It was pretty fun. The kids loved hitting and running around the bases. And so did the adults.

Jason pitching to Mckay.

Isaac hitting.

Alyssa hitting.

Xavier hitting.

I played right field. This is the view I had. There were tons of bugs out there.


We did fireworks on both the Friday and Saturday nights. We let Jack stay up Friday night, but put him to bed right before them on Saturday because it was late and he was whining a lot from being so tired.

The kids watching the fireworks.

The kids still watching the fireworks.

Preston

Carson

The fireworks. Doug's family does big fireworks. The second night we went to the big field next to Candis' house and did really big ones. One shot off towards the spectators which was a little crazy.

Doug using a sparkler. He was too busy having fun that he used up all the fire before Jackson had a chance to use it. They were supposed to be sharing. Doug wasn't being a very good sharer though.

On the Saturday we had family time. Each family gets up and talks about what's going on in their lives and kids can do talents.

Grandma Dance singing with the primary kids during half time. The kids were getting restless so we decided to have them get up and sing to help get their wiggles out. Candis designed these cool dance shirts for everyone.

Grandma always prepares a fun activity for the kids when it's her and grandpa's turn. This year everyone was given their name and the date they joined the family. Then starting with the year Joan and Blaine got married we went through each year and added the names of the family members that joined that year. (sorry if that didn't make much sense...)

The kids waiting for their turn.

The final project. Together we build a strong family.

The reunion was so much fun and as always went by way too fast. Besides the things I mentioned here we also ate lots of yummy food, the kids jumped on the trampoline and played with water balloons and water squirters, some of us adults stayed up really late playing mafia and talking. I love getting together with the Dance family. I wish we lived closer to each other. You should all move up to Seattle... It's a great place to live :)

Summer

We finally had some nice weather here the end of June. Before then it had been cold and rainy or at least cloudy almost everyday since the middle of May. We took advantage of the nice weather and went to a sprinkler park that has a new park right next to it. The new park is pretty cool. It's different than any other park I've seen. Here's some pictures of us enjoying the warm weather.

Jordan at the sprinkler park. The weather was pretty hot, but the boys still didn't want to get in the freezing cold water. They must take after their mom.

Jackson's freezing.

There's a big sand box for the kids to play in. Jack buried his legs.

There's a fake grass hill that Kenzie liked to play on. At the top of the hill there's a slide.

Jordan preferred sliding down the fake grass instead of the real slide.

274

Kenzie is 274 days (or 9 months) today! I can't believe she's already this old.

She can feed herself when she's laying down. This is a great help when we're putting the kids to bed. Or anytime I need to do something else.

Here's a few things about Kenzie at 9 months:
She crawls all the time now.
She's starting to pull her self up on everything.
She's very interested in the stairs.
She's incredibly smiley.
She almost always smiles when I pull out the camera.
She loves kisses and being tickled, especial from her brothers.
She doesn't love being wrapped up anymore, but she lets up do it to put her to bed, but she gets out of her wrapping most nights so she can sleep on her belly.
She doesn't like baby food that much. She's my first baby that's had this problem.
She likes food she can chew. She loves bananas.
She doesn't like getting dressed or having her diaper changed. She just wants to play.
She picks everything up off the floor and tries to eat it. She's also my first kid that's had this problem. My boys were never as bad as her.
She loves cords and playing with anything she's no supposed to already.
She loves following her brothers and hates to be left alone. She gets excited when either Doug or I come home from somewhere.
She's cute.

Jumbled Update

At the big garage sale day I found Jack these Super Mario Galaxy pajamas. He loves them.

Last week the kids and I visited my sister Michelle and her kids in Oregon. We had a great time. Her husband was out of town so it was fun to just have us and the kids. We went to the zoo, the doctor, the Children's Museum, out to eat, to the park, and did a little shopping. Kenzie had her first ride in a swing and loved it. I wasn't sure if she would like it or not since Jordan hates them and always has. I think he's only ever let me put him in one a couple times and usually wants out after 1 or pushes. But Kenzie sat there happily for a long time. We also just had fun hanging out at her house. I've never gone by myself with the kids, because I've never wanted to drive the 3 hours to get there. But the drives weren't too bad. Jordan cried for at least 45 minutes the way there but eventually fell asleep (we drove late that day). But they were all really good on the way home and all slept for at least an hour even though it was the middle of the day. Jack even slept for 2 1/2 hours. He was wiped out from playing hard all week. It took us almost 5 hours to get home. But despite the fact that it took an extra 2 hours it was actually a rather enjoyable drive since the kids were so happy. Kenzie was amazing and didn't need to eat while we were driving. She didn't even want to eat when she got home. She must be like me and doesn't really feel like eating when she's traveling. I didn't take many pictures during the week because I kept forgetting to bring my camera with me.

Here's Natalie at the zoo. We thought it would be warmer then it was and so Shell didn't have jackets for her kids or herself. The zoo store was out of kid sweatshirts and jackets so we decided to have her try to wear the extra pair of pants I brought for Jordan on her arms. She didn't really like it, but when we asked if she wanted her binky she said was ok with it.

Jack and Kenna in a safari truck looking for lions.

While there we did some sewing. I've been wanting to make some hooded towels for awhile, but my sewing machine is broken, and I'm not sure how to fix it. Since Michelle likes sewing and is good at it I figured she could help me figure out how to make them. It took us a lot of time, and several needles were broken in the process but we did get them made. And I really liked how they turned out. Here's 2 cute pictures of 2 cute boys modeling them for me...

Although Jackson looks way tinier than Jordan in this picture, it's just my poor model arranging skills. Jack's just back a little farther and he's kneeling. He really is a little taller. He is skinnier though...


We also cut the boys hair last week. Jordan's was getting a little crazy. It looked really cute sometimes, but most the time it looked more like this:

Jackson's wasn't very long, but he did have a tail growing in the back... I didn't get a picture of it though. Sorry.

He chose this pose on his own.

And here's the after shot:

Cute matching boys.

This is them today eating lunch.