Hawaii with Mom

Two years ago my youngest sister Brett was at BYU-Hawaii for the spring term. Towards the end of May my mom decided to go visit her. Soon Stephanie was going too. Then Christy. Brooke was 7 months prego so she couldn't go. Not wanting to miss the party I started looking in to going. I could see it was going to be complicated since we had a camp trip and it was going to be the last week of school. I knew it would be crazy to go but I was feeling like I definitely needed to do it. I could tell my mom really wanted me to go and with her cancer back I wondered how many trips would I be able to take with my mom. So I booked a flight and this is more or less how it went: We camped out friday night at El capitan with friends and on Saturday morning Kade and I left the camp ground late, of course, and barely made it to the airport. We arrived in beautiful Hawaii that evening and I remember vividly my mom greeting me at the airport. She was so lit up and excited to see us. She was wearing this straw hat. I also remember feeling a little uneasy at the sight of her so thin and having lost her hair. I think I somehow sensed in these first moments with my mom that her time was short--even though at the time her prognosis was good for the time being. That sense of sadness stayed with me throughout the entire trip but we had an amazing and fun time--I'll give more details later. SO....fun times for five wonderful days and then a red eye (with an 8 monther on my lap--and straight to the school for Carson's Kindergarten graduation. I say this because it obviously was a little crazy to decide two weeks before the fact to leave my family during one of the busiest weeks of the school year to go to Hawaii for five days. It was so worth it! I'm so glad I have those memories with my mom. About 2 weeks after being home from Hawaii my mom was in the hospital and never back to her active, normal self. Lesson: sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind and do things you might think are crazy. Lesson 2: I could not have gone without the help of my friends. I learned how great it is to have supportive friends to help with my kids. It's so nice when we help each other out. Anyways, We had so much fun. I'm so glad I went. I would have always regretted it if I hadn't.

So...lucky Kade. He got to go to Hawaii. He was so good and we just dragged him all over the Island. He loved it. Just him and the ladies.




Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. My mom loved the snorkeling. She was in there forever. We would just take turns going out with her. We had no trouble spotting her bald head out there when we needed to find her.

Mom and Brett

Brett gave an amazing talk in church while we were there. She talked about her experience with mom's cancer and how her faith was able to help her through it. My family has been an amazing source of faith and strength as we've gone through all of this together.


For some reason I like the image of this picture.

This one too. I think we all had a lot to think about. I wish I could go back to this moment just for a few minutes and re-live it.

We loved the shave ice and so did Kade. In fact food played an important part of the trip as we are all food obsessed. We would eat out and all order something different and then share. Mom loved this--and she said so a few different times. We also made food in the condo and mom would always pack a really good picnic when we would go out for the day. We ate a lot of macadamia nuts and chocolate macadamia nuts and mom picked out a seeded watermelon that was the best I've had since a little kid. I loved the banana pancakes from the hukilau cafe--with coconut syrup--yummy!

We were able to go to a temple session with my mom. It was great.

Like I said--we loved the shave ice.

Polynesian culteral center where Brett worked.

One of my favorite memories is sailing with my mom. She loved it.

My mom was so full of life on this trip. I can't believe she was so close to being completely bedridden. That is my mom, though. To go, go, go until the end.

Since my mom's death I think about this trip with longing more than any other time. I would love to go back to it and sit with her one more time. I have so much I want to talk to her about. We shared a bed (with Kade I might add) and I would wake up in the morning and watch her sleep. I know it's a little sappy but that's how it happened.

I miss her.