Weddings are fun. Weddings in Hawaii are more fun. Part 3

There have only been a handful of times in my life where I feel small and helpless against the power of nature.  I'm sure if I were a tornado chaser, or a deep sea fisherman I'd have those sorts of feelings all the time.  But I'm not, and as such, I'm not quite used to the feeling.  The final full day we had in Hawaii was a Sunday, and after hitting a morning church (where they actually had the congregation sing Aloha 'Oe [Farewell to Thee] to a family who was moving - it was incredibly touching and left me in tears because it was different and I've come to love different over the past years - but that's another blog post), we spent the rest of the morning awed by the power of the waves on the far side of Shark's Cove. 

Shark's Cove is a beautiful place... a cove surrounded on all sides by jagged rocks and filled with crystal clear water.  We actually went back at sunset on this particular Sunday because I anticipated that the sunset over the cove would be breathtaking.  The clouds were a little too thick for what I was really hoping for, and my lens wasn't wide enough to catch the whole thing, but I'll share a picture from that hour anyway just so you can see what the cove actually looks like. 

So back to morning.  We crawled and climbed and jumped along those rocks until we reached the far outer rim.  Most of us were wearing tennis shoes (we had planned to go hiking instead, but those plans fell through at the last minute), so we were trying to avoid walking through the water, but after Brian's little brother Dave jumped and slipped into the water anyway, I ended up taking off my tennis shoes and walking through the water the rest of the way (it was safer to already be in the water than to fall in the water with my camera, I figured).  Climbing up onto the far jagged rocks and seeing the power of the water on the other side was incredible. 

I kept my camera out and snapped shot after shot after shot to try to capture the magnificence of it, but each picture fell embarrassingly flat.  It took my breath away and we all commented on the sure death that would await any of us were we to slip and fall into the currents below. 

Too soon it was time for us to head back home and meet the rest of the family for our afternoon excursion to Pearl Harbor.

We toured the USS Missouri where the Empire of Japan formally surrendered, thus ending World War II.  Our tour guide was knowledgeable and passionate and full of interesting facts that helped bring that day back in 1945 to life.  Most impressive to me, however, was the sheer power of that battleship. 

Do you see those guns?!  They can shoot 2700 lbs of shells TWENTY miles!  Maybe that's not so impressive for people who know about war ships... but to me, it's incredible. 

As I mentioned, we stopped back at Shark's Cove to watch the sunset that night and I was sorry to see the thick clouds blocking most of the color.  But even so, there's something tranquilizing about sunsets, don't you think?

That night we, once again, slept hard.

The following morning we didn't have much time to play as our flight left mid-morning.  So Brian and I spent the rest of our hours there driving the 'long way' to the airport, around the coast and stopped whenever we felt like it.  We spent a half an hour or so looking for the house I lived in all those years ago and I was absolutely delighted to find the bench in our backyard that my wonderful roommate, Becky, and I shared countless half-gallons of ice cream on.  All the talks we had - all the calories we ingested - all the laughter and memories we shared on that bench came back to me and I felt lucky, once again, to have been blessed with such terrific friends all the way through my life. 

It gave me hope that there will be more friends waiting for me in Vegas, too.   

But if not, Brian and I will just have to head to Hawaii every year to make up for it.  

Weddings are fun. Weddings in Hawaii are more fun. Part 2

It was one of those mornings where you stare at the sky and hold your breath for the beauty of it.  I wasn't sure if I wanted the gradient clouds to open their curtains and pour down their rain from the sky, or if I wanted them to stay. right. there, looking like that, breathtaking and beautiful, all day long.  Brian and I awoke early (I love it when the time change works in your favor that way) and drove over to the temple to try to get a good picture of it for Heidi and Adam.  In walking the grounds, we found an old cemetery.  Even though I believe that the spirits of those people buried in that hill are not really residing in that hill, I still can't help but feel happy for them that their bodies have such a nice and happy place to rest. 

After tromping around and admiring the weather-worn headstones, we drove back to the house to help the bride get ready for her big day.

It was interesting how watching Heidi get ready for her wedding stirred up so many memories of my own.  One of my cleanest memories is of applying my own mascara on my wedding day.  Which is a strange thing to remember because of the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times before and since that I have done that exact same thing.  You would think that Getting Into My Wedding Dress would be a little more of a standout memory because, you know, that's kind of unique thing.  But, nope.  In a way, it does make sense, though.  Eyes are our windows to the soul, right?  So being close to a mirror, staring into my own eyes on my wedding day stood out as a very special thing.  My soul was happy - I knew that because I could feel it - and during those few seconds of applying mascara, I was able to actually see it, too.

Anyway, originally, Heidi had asked me to take the wedding pictures as well as the engagement photos, but I was relieved to find out that her co-workers chipped in and bought her one hour with a professional right after the ceremony.   Engagement photos are one thing because it's possible to do a re-shoot if they don't turn out right.  Wedding pictures, however... you have one chance... I was happy to stay in the shadows and take behind-the-scenes pictures.  It left me free to explore the details and not stress about getting that One Shot that will be framed in their home.

Details like how sweet it was to watch him play with the buttons on the back of her dress...

And hold her shoes through the sand...

We spent about 30 minutes around the temple grounds.

And then another 30 minutes down on the beach.

You know how sometimes in a quiet moment, like just as you're falling asleep or waking up, you realize that one of your recent memories is swelling inside you and taking up more space in your heart and mind than it should?  Following Heidi and Adam around that afternoon, watching them interact with each other and the photographer is one of those memories for me.  It took me a couple of days to figure out why it touched me so much, but I think it's for two reasons.  1) It was inspiring for me to see a professional photographer at work, and 2) I realized that afternoon just how much I love Heidi.  And Adam, too.  And how happy I am to see them so happy together.  I think I won't forget the way I felt that day.

After pictures, we went to the wedding luncheon.  And then, in a flash, Heidi and Adam waved goodbye and left the rest of us to enjoy our last day and a half on the island without them.

We wasted no time and (after changing out of our Attend The Wedding clothes) drove straight to the Polynesian Cultural Center where we sat at the Island Buffet and talked and laughed and ate together.  I really lucked-out with my in-laws.  Over the years they've each woven their way into my heart and I love them. 

We went straight from the buffet to a show that included big men throwing fire.  Photography was not allowed, so you'll have to take my word for it.

That night we all slept well. Day 2 of our trip was finished... Heidi and Adam were married... and we had one day left to enjoy the island before returning home to kiss our kids.

Weddings are fun. Weddings in Hawaii are more fun. Part 1

I think it might be weird how much I love that these two just got married.  Brian's sister, Heidi, and her boyfriend-at-the-time, Adam, came to stay with us for a few days during Christmas... and we just fell in love with them.  With him, with her and him, with him and her... there was a lot of happiness and celebration when they ended up engaged.

We don't have much experience with in-laws.  Of course, I have all of Brian's family, and Brian has all of my family, but 'being' the new in-law to the family feels much different than 'accepting' a new in-law to the family.  So, when we called Brian's mom on Mother's day, and Adam was there with Heidi, it was happiness all over again to realize that he will always be there.  He's one of us now.  An uncle to my kids, a brother-in-law to Brian and me, and I couldn't be happier about that. 

I also couldn't be happier about their decision to get married in Hawaii, and to invite us.  I was shocked that the beauty of the Hawaiian ocean was so much grander than the beauty of my own backyard ocean (though, let's be honest... this backyard ocean is awesomely grand, too).  I guess I had forgotten that all oceans are not created equally.  The depth, the colors, the power... they're different out there.  I mean, I don't even have to TRY to get beautiful pictures... they're just sitting there in all their beauty, waiting for me to snap the shutter and take them home.  I mean, these are with my phone guys!

The next one isn't my favorite picture in and of itself, but do you see that color!!!  You know which part I'm talking about... oh my heavens.  Favorite, favorite, favorite.

In addition to Getting Awesome Pictures of Awesome Scenery, we crammed a ton of stuff into the three short days we walked the Hawaiian land.  Check out what we did in just the first day:

Morning Walk

Brian and I kept saying 'Remember those days before we had children?'  Because we were remembering those days before we had children.  Our life sure was simpler... but much less interesting and full.  I loved walking alone with Brian without thinking about the kids in the back of my mind, but I was sure glad that they were there in the back of my mind if I wanted to think about them.  It made me feel lucky.  Anyway - that's not seaweed up there... it's some kind of coral.  Incredibly interesting and teeming with life.  

  Goat Island

 
 Goat island is my favorite place on Oahu.  I'm not sure if it's because I have such great memories of it (Becky...) or if it's because it truly is an amazing place.  I'm pretty sure it's both.  Looking at the above picture, you can see the main island of Oahu in the distance, and the only way to get onto Goat island is to walk through all that ocean water on a coral barrier.  It is amazingly fun because the ocean wraps around one side of the island and sends waves at you from the right, and wraps around the other side of the island and sends waves at you from the left, so as you walk you get bombarded by waves from both sides.  Which, on a calm day, is very fun.  (On a choppy day it can be scary, though... especially at high tide.)

This picture shows a bunch from our group just heading back to the main island.  They haven't reached the deeper part yet which, at mid-tide, reached our chests with the waves.  Also, the coral is sharp... so since Adam's brother-in-law didn't have footwear, Adam graciously piggy-backed him the whole way.  I do enjoy that coral/sandy beach you see up in that first picture of the island, but my favorite part is the rocky backside where there are usually all kinds of sea life swimming in little pools (though, we didn't see much this time).  Those first two pictures at the top of this post (after the ones of Heidi and Adam, of course) were taken looking out over the backside of the island.

Skydiving

We did.

You know, there's nothing like jumping out of a plane and free-falling for 60 seconds to get the pre-wedding jitters out.  (For Heidi and Adam, of course.  I, personally, didn't have any pre-wedding jitters to get out.)

What an awesome experience!  I'd done it before (Becky... how I missed you during this trip!) when I lived out there for a spring semester at BYU-Hawaii, but this time was different.  The excitement and atmosphere and nervousness and craziness were way better the first time I did it... the actual fall was better the second time (I think it's because the first time we chose to fall for 20 seconds, and this second time we did the 60 second version)... but the breathtaking scenery when you're floating through the silent sky after pulling the parachute was equally captivating and awe-some in the true sense of the word.  If only they had allowed me to bring my phone to get some pictures of it.  It was fun to share it with Brian this time, too.

Engagement Shoot

Heidi got brave and asked me to take her engagement photos.  I was actually quite nervous because, not a professional, but then I decided to just not be nervous and do the best I could.  I know there is a learning curve with everything and, since I'd never actually taken pictures of a couple before, I knew that I wouldn't love everything that came out of my camera... plus, I knew that if they didn't really like the way they turned out, they could always hire a professional to get some couple shots of them at a later date.  I ended up being totally right that I wouldn't love everything that came out of my camera, but I learned so, so much and ended up being so happy that Heidi had asked me and that I had said yes.

Pre-Wedding BBQ

Somehow I managed to go through the entire evening without taking a single picture of the barbeque that Heidi and Adam threw for the family.  It may have had something to do with the fact that I had spent the whole previous hour and a half doing nothing but taking pictures (and really thinking about taking pictures).  My picture brain was probably just as tired as the rest of me and went to sleep for the evening.  It was a lovely barbeque, though.  It was fun to get to know Adam's family a little bit more and feel this strange, distant connection to these people that I may just never see again, but that are, in a small way, family now, too.  One of Adam's brothers and I even talked about this strange connection that night.  "So, like, do we ever really see each other ever again?" he asked.  "Good question..." I replied.  "I guess, maybe, like, for baby blessings?"
"And funerals?"

This is a bit stressful for me because I do not remember details very well... and names are details. So, someday - far in the future - I'll run into these people again and remember that we spent a couple of days together in Hawaii years ago, but that might be the extent of my memory.

Well.  Hopefully they'll feel the same way about me...

We went to bed exhausted that night and hoped for a good nights rest.  Because the next day: wedding.

The Story of a Carolina Beach

If the old adage is true that a picture is worth a thousand words then I have a novel of pictures that if converted into words would total approximately 530 pages describing our recent vacation to Topsail Island.  I will not share them all with you (you're welcome), but it's been very difficult to choose because I tried, this time more than others, to only take pictures that told the story of our deep love for these Carolina beaches.  Each picture that was kept reminds me of a priceless moment spent in a priceless place and, after taking this week-long vacation eight times in the last eight years, it breaks my heart that these quiet beaches are going to be much harder to visit from now on.  I do pray that we will fall in love with our new home as deeply as we have fallen in love with this one.  And I'm not just saying that... In fact, it's been the central topic of many prayers.  But, I'm actually still trying to maintain a certain level of denial so that I don't spend my last couple of weeks here acting like a wet noodle.  So - let's move on, shall we?  Allow me to tell you my story of our beautiful North Carolina beaches.

The week starts quietly.

It ends quietly, too.  And somehow the points between that beginning and that end string themselves together ... quietly. 

I don't mean 'quietly' in the sense of noiselessness.  In fact, at no point in the entire week is there a complete cessation of sound, what with the 8 bedroom beach house full to bursting with busy bodies and the ocean consistently breathing out its crashing song.  Instead, the quietness comes from a feeling inside... deep, and real.  A quietness that dulls the pecking worries of the world and releases me from the stressful barriers that must be maintained to keep a social tactfulness.  What I mean by that is that there are no awkward excuse me's when my boogie board bumps into a stranger... and no trying to explain to my children, again, that unfamiliar towels are not for drying sandy feet and no reminding them that strangers have a much bigger personal space than do friends.  These things do not happen because there are no strangers here.  We are all friends.  Dear, dear friends.  Which makes it easy to be myself.  I can let the good in me shine through our conversations and I can be unafraid when my bad comes shining through, too.  I am loved here, with these people.  And we have the beach to ourselves. 

The mornings start early.  Someone wakes up with the sun by 6:30am, and usually that someone is small and loud and excited to wake up all of their other small and loud friends who are sleeping next to them.  They are called children and are quite unable to understand the value of falling-back-asleep or the even more coveted value of letting-the-other-sleepers-stay-asleep so, soon all of them are awake and running through the hard-floored, echo-y house, calling for adults and for breakfast.  The adults are much harder to pull from their beds.  Mostly because they went to bed just a few hours earlier after a fun-filled night playing games, or chatting, or hot-tubbing, or watching a movie, or eating the after-kids-go-to-bed snacks.  Or all of the above.

But, sleepy or not, the duty of parenting calls. So half of the adults kindly tell their partners to keep sleeping, and crawl out from under their warm, somewhat sandy sheets.  They shake the sleep from their heads and trudge downstairs to say hello to the other parents who are slothfully pulling down boxes of cereal.  The bed-headed kids are then bribed by screens of all kinds to stay quiet until the other adults awake.

The whole house is awake and moving by 9:00, and the first of the children begin appearing in their swimming suits.  The swimming suit fashion catches like fire and soon everyone is sporting one.  The smell of sunscreen floats through the air and the sliding glass doors out to the beach are opened 153 times as the eager children run from the deck to the living room to the deck to the living room, checking to see if an adult is ready to take them across the wooden bridge over the sand dunes.  The sound of the waves and the smell of the salty air excite me and hurry my pace. Sometimes I'm the first adult ready, usually I'm not, but the children do not care.  At the sight of any adult walking through the sliding glass doors the children burst out and sprint to flood the beach, dragging their boogie boards behind them. 

While some kids boogie, other kids fly kites.

(I love that the kite is upside down here... it just seems so... Miles)

 

(I watched Claire fly this kite for probably 20 minutes before I reached for my camera.  She just stood there, in that exact spot, the whole time... flying her 'tiny kite' and watching the blue tails blow in the wind.  She is one of my very favorite three-year-olds.)

While some kids boogie and fly kites, others play in the sand.

Or snuggle.

Every day is remarkably the same.  Time follows along a seamless and predictable path and one child felt proud to have it figured out by mid-week.  "I get it, Mom," he said.  "We wake up and eat breakfast, then kill some time, then go out to the beach, come in for lunch, then kill some more time, then go out to the beach again, come in for dinner, kill some more time, and go to bed."  Well, when your week consists of only three things – eating, killing time, and beaching – I see no reason to change it.  Of course, using a soup analogy, the predictable flow of the day is simply a broth.  The unique people and conversations keep things interesting and add an unpredictable array of spices and meats.


I thought 'killing time' was an interesting way to describe our down-times.  And, for a kid, I suppose it probably feels a bit like killing time.  For me, however, I like to think of it as a 'rest time'.  The kids are usually involved in one of the following:

1) Screen Time.  Large, large quantities of screen time.

2) Foosball tournaments.

(This was Miles's absolute favorite... he made himself a force to be reckoned with, and it was fun to see the older boys seek him out for a game).

3) Playing games.

4) But mostly screen time.  Large, large quantities of screen time.

The adults killed time by reading books, checking e-mail, dozing on the couch, preparing food, talking, talking, talking and laughing.   So much laughing.  This trip, we laughed away an entire afternoon taking pictures of ourselves after I kindly demonstrated the difference between taking pictures from below vs. taking pictures from above.   (Taking these kinds of pictures is a skill I learned from my dear friend, Melissa)

I'll refrain from posting my friends' ugly pictures... for now.  Leverage, you see.  Anyway, they're not as lucky to look so eerily like John Travolta when he's all dressed up like a woman in Hairspray.  (Look again - you'll see it.)

Lunch is always delicious.  So is dinner.  Four out of five meal-times, I simply walk from the beach into the house and am met with fantastic new smells as one of the other families puts the finishing touches onto the meal that they've been preparing for the house. The other time, I get to prepare something myself... always picked carefully to balance deliciousness with ease of preparation.  We sit together to eat.  More talking.  More laughing.  Always complimenting the chef.  The beach menu is always one of my favorite things. 

After lunch clean-up and a little more 'killing time', the ocean starts calling again.  This time we might catch some sand crabs, get buried in the sand, or build sand castles.

Maybe we'll find the jackpot of sea-clammy-things and fill up a couple of boogie boards.  (Lily, while throwing handfuls of the creatures to the pile said "Looks like we're eatin' well tonight!"  I laughed.  Hard.  Mostly because... gross.)

  
Or scour the shores for shark teeth.

 
We ladies might sit in the sand and chat with each other and the babies while the men play a game of Frisbee 500.

And we might laugh when they lose their frisbee in the surf because they look so much like sad little puppies,

but we cheer extra loud when they find it again.  We watch them play and we comment, every single year, on how lucky we feel to have such great, great men in our lives.  I feel secretly lucky to have the greatest one out there... and I know that each lady feels she has the exact same secret about her own.

Eventually, someone gets cold and pulls the party back inside.

So we eat some gourmet dinner and then, maybe on a special night we might go back out to the beach in our pajamas to play a life-sized version of foosball.

Or, on an extra special night, the adults might take shifts out to eat at a local sea-food restaurant.  Half the adults go out while the other half feed the children, then they swap and the late group goes out while the early dinner crew puts the children to bed.

(Brian and I went in the late shift with these crazies.  We spent the drive out there belting out the newest hit pop song and belted it out even louder when we realized we were all just a little embarrassed to like it so much...  and then, can I tell you just how much I love this picture?  First of all, Kathleen's mad-eye-Moody eye makes me laugh but then, at the same time, these faces almost make me cry because I just love them so, so, so much.)

(We tried a lot of new foods... some good... some not so good.  Take a closer look at Merrill's face... I couldn't crop it out when I realized he's 'helping' Cami eat the crab.)

 Or, on an extra extra special night, we might let just a couple of the kids stay up past dark to look for ghost crabs with the adults.

(All four of these faces are priceless... excited boys and proud daddies.)

Yes, this beach is a special place.  Are Carolina beaches more special than most?  I don’t know.  All I know is that this is a very happy place for me.

And for my family.

We will miss you.

But, at least we left our mark.