Making a vacation out of our roadtrips

Life has been so crazy lately but we extended our road trips. Our trip to St. George we decided to travel a little further and stay in Mesquite, NV cheap fun (hehehe) Get your mind out of the gutter this is a family trip.
Malulani HAD to take a picture next to a cactus-this is the best we could do. We were only traveling 65 mph on the freeway when we hit the brakes. No big deal!

The kids wanted to play at the park (as if we don't have parks at home) and swim, and swim, and swim! But who blames them it was 106 pretty much the whole time! Maile actually swam and swamMy cute nephew (aka water baby) and my little bro

On the way back we stopped to see my Grandma. Maile love Grandma Dean but from far away so this is huge :)

I {Heart} Grandma Dean ♥

My Grandma Dean is not in the best health and so she was unable to attend her daughters funeral. My Grandma is one of my hero's! She has out lived two of her children and her husband (not that I want to-that is one of my worse fears...to out live my ohana). My Grandpa died 21 yrs ago and she has carried on. She did everything on her own. She is amazingly strong and devoted. She is one of the best examples to me. Grandma Dean now lives in St. George so, we had a memorial service for my aunt for my grandma's sake. Man that's tough basically having two funerals. The great grand kids all ran to greet Grandma Dean! My cute Bree trying to keep Grandma Dean cooled off. It was only 101 in the shade! Yes this is my crazy brother! Most of the great grand kidsMost of the grand kids

I want to be just as cute when I get old :)

In Loving Memory of Cathy Marlow

After a week of hearing that my aunt was not doing good, we finally got the new that my cousin had to pull the plug and she passed away. She has been widowed about 15 years. As hard as it was to hear the news I'm glad she is with her husband.So my family and I took a road trip to Page, Arizona. She was cremated. I forgot to tell my kids that there was just ashes of her. So as Aubree and Dallin are looking at all the pictures my niece said, "She is in that container" my kid argued with her and then came to tattle on her. Boy that was hard to explain. Aubree started to cry because she got burned into ashes (even tho I told her she didn't feel a thing)! Note to self : Prepare your kids more and they won't make a scene.My Aunt T grand kids Tayor and AlyssaMy Aunt grew up in Hawaii but she wasn't Hawaiian. She had a great love for the culture. We had a luau after the service.

Funerals pull family together-I was able to visit with family I never knew and family I don't get to see very often. My little nephew that I have only seen one other time!My cousin has a Harley! He is younger than me and owns his own bike (paid for) :( So he took everyone for a ride. Something his dad use to do with us!Dave taking Maile around the block!

My cousin and I (wow what 15lb heavier looks like) Someday, someday I will have one of my own

Maile and two of her cousins-Makayla and Parker

Easter

Wow! I'm so far behind!!! Easter has got to be one of my favorite time of the year. The Easter bunny goes a little crazy. Our Easter bunny doesn't give candy. Our Easter bunny decided to give toys and stuff! Ahhhhh It wasn't too bad with one or two kids but with all four it causes stress on the poor Easter bunny. I couldn't decide on what dresses the girls got so they got two different dresses (yellow and blue).
Just about every year we have Easter egg hunt the Saturday before Easter at my parent's house. Here is cheesy Maile!
And then there is Ninja Dallin!Here is cute Aubree. Who let her out with out her hair done-What kind of mom does she have?

Of course I have to take some pictures all dressed up!Anyone have a recipe to stop kids from growing up? I will pay top dollar!!!!

Dirty Pictures :)

Camping with friends and lucky for us "our spot"

was not taken.
Camping would not be camping without guns. Here is Dave feeding Dallin's fire. Dallin has gotten to be a good mini Dave! Dallin shot the teenage mutant ninja turtle!!!

Maile was totally content digging in the dirt ALL DAY!

Yeah for me-its a good thing for wipes.

It's tradition to have a teeter tooter.

Not sure what this says about me but....I am on the other end of the teeter tooter. Four against one!

Another tradition is a buried treasure hunt!

X marks the spot.

We always see a lot of animals unfortunately this is the only picture captured of two chipmunks :(

We also spotted a deer, a fox, grouse, a beaver, and a sheep running through our camp.

One of our hikes we hiked down to the river.

All the kids loved throwing rocks into the river including the biggest kids....the dads!

Love the outdoors. I love that when you are in the mountains the worldly things and worries seem so far away. We had so much fun and the dirt was evidence of that-glad to home with running toilets and a warm bed!

This will get you up to speed with the Olson's

So my camera has been on the fritz and I have been unable to upload any pictures to the computer! It is time for a new one (It's been dropped one too many times)!!!

The girls started piano a few months ago and have been doing great. The girls love it and Debbie is an amazing teacher. Aubree performed the "Wedding March" at the recital and did it perfectly :)

And Malulani performed "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" tough song for just starting but she nailed it! Grandma and Grandpa came to watch the girls and brought them flowers. The great thing about the recital was that the girls got to see how great they can be. The more experience kids played some tough but familiar songs. Both of my girls said they want to play like them someday!

Her piano teacher has raved at how Malulani has progressed. The best part of it is that I don't have to remind her to practice. In fact she will play twice a day sometimes :) I just hope they both keep with it.....I wish I would have!

Since it is the end of our school year there has been a ton of field trips. But the best one (hands down) was Texas Roadhouse. Aubree only has 16 kids in her class so only two chaperons were able to go and lucky for me I was chosen.

Of course we have eaten there but a field trip with the kids was so-fun. We broke into small groups and we took a tour and saw behind the scenes. They taught us a line dance, played some games, smashed peanuts, made bread in the shape of their initial, and..............
They even waited the tables! Aubree was among the few that got to serve the drinks and food. The best part of it was the food! Texas Roadhouse fed all of the kids and the adults :P Then they sent them home with a goody bag and there personalized bread!

Then we have Miss Maile....gosh she is getting so big! She is finally able to look outside the window into the backyard. Where she spends about an hour a day watching her puppies play (okay they're not her puppies-they're the back door neighbors)! She is so smart! We have been signing to her from about the age of 10 mths and she is a smart pea! She can sign about 40 different things and understands about 100! We have signing time everyday for about 10-15 mins or until she has had enough. The great thing is the older kids love it and is helping with this process. I love that the screaming has calmed down and she is able to tell us what she needs.
Dallin is graduated from preschool-hooray! I love this picture of him :) We could not find any graduation hats for the kids (every store seemed to be out) so-Christa made these cute ones!

Dave and I decided to hold Dallin back from starting Kindergarten and we are so glad we did. He had a hard time with so speech and social things. We had a year to work it all out. He is so ready for Kindergarten to start. Thanks Kaycee and Christa for your patience with Dallin!!!!

This is a very big deal for Dallin and he is so proud! He is finally able to cross the monkey bars :D

YUMMY S'mores!

This is what we love to do! Roasting marshmallows in our backyard. Although is gave us an itch to want to go camping. This is the next best thing if we can't go camping. I love these next few months because Dave loves to cook in the dutch oven. Which lets me off the hook for dinner! So if anyone is up for a warm fire to roast marshmallows.... just bring your roasting sticks!!!

Kaila Ann's Baptism Day

Its great to be eight! Kaila is finally eight and she got baptized today!!!!

After the baptism we headed over to her Aunt Sherri and had some Hawaiian food and a little fun. Here is Aubree whacking away at a pinata.
And here is Dallin going to town!

Malulani had a HUGE swing. Watch out! The pinata broke off the string and so my brother just dumped the candy out-the funniest thing all the other kids are grabbing the candy that

has fallen on the ground and here is Malulani with her bag open catching all of the candy that was being dumped out! :D Smart girl!

These two are just so funny! They don't get to play much together but they are best friends! Aubree can't wait until she turns eight!!! I can.