April 2018...

April was crazy and weird for me, but there were some great things too.

We started the month out with spring break.

Kenna was off visiting Saige in Connecticut.

Her Christmas present from us) 

She had an AMAZING time and was such a help to Saige at the busiest time of her life.  

I even let her extend for a few days to help Saige more... she ended up being there 10 days.

Saige's boss, Jackie, headed back to work that week and Saige was caring for the kids 24 hours per day + finishing up Spring semester. She NEEDED Kenna there!

And Kenna... she LOVED every second of it!

Together they explored New York City.

This is the Manhattan Temple.

Brooklyn Bridge

Other random artsy NYC stuff

played and pretty much took over with the kids.

And loved being with her Saigey.

She got to go to work with Jackie and spend the whole night learning all about Fox Studios.

Jackie wanted to keep her... I said no.

They ate New York food...

These five went on a road trip to Massachusetts.

It looked fun right???

Yep, Kenna did NOT want to come home!

Lydia and Jadyn and I did some fun stuff during spring break too.

An afternoon @ the Fun Park.

Baby Animals Days @ the American West Heritage Center.

 

There was a beautiful Easter day... complete with General Conference and family time.

Kenna started cheer practice.

Gosh she's cute!

A night with our friends @ a comedy show.

Kenna was killing it on the Green Canyon Golf team, I love watching that girl play and improve every round.  She even played varsity for one match... so she lettered as a freshman.

Nice job Kenna!

Activity Days for Jadyn...

 and activity days for Lydia.

A class party for Lydi.

Three dance competitions... (saving that for another post).

Our first Shave Ice of the year!

The weather was wonderful ALMOST all month.

(They're so cute!)

Kenna went to the Chalk fest.

But the big news of the month was that we finally broke down and got this girl a bunny.

She's been begging for at LEAST a year.

"Pip" the bunny is now an official member of our family.

The truth is that Jadyn, Lydia and Kenna are all still a little nervous of timid, easy-going Pip....

Jadyn is MUCH better now (as of June) and LOVES her like crazy, she cares for her meticulously and changes her water more than I change mine... but the picking her up out of the cage part is NOT her favorite.

Tayler on the other hand... LOVES everything about Pip.

She comes to visit Pip more than us.

It's her 'baby".

Ironically Big Jaden doesn't have "One Feeling" for Pip. ;););)

I'm so grateful for my girls!

They made my April a pretty good one.

And Spring always feels better to me than winter!

Tahiti

A not-so-big job in the Papeete Tahiti Temple meant Shane and one other guy could get the job done in approx. 3-4 days.

For obvious reasons he picked Joe... the obvious part being that we love to travel with the Astle's and the fact that Joe is willing to pick up a new trade means Lisa and I get more vacations.
Win - Win!
Thanks Joe!!

The flight was long...
but NO ONE was on it.
We each had six seats to ourselves, I can handle flights like that.

We learned a few things about Tahiti...

They prefer SMALL vehicles.

To illustrate we rented a SUV... apparently not the type of SUV we have in the US.

Picture this...
Approximately 5 full size suitcases, 2 toolboxes, 4 carryons, 4 backpacks/purses PLUS 4 adults in a compact car.

OUCH!

Shane was comfortable in the driver's seat, Lisa and I shared the front passenger seat...
and Joe rode like this on top of the luggage for 45 minutes to our hotel. 

The 9 hour flight was more comfortable!

We also learned Tahiti is beautiful!

They have delicious food.

We ate at food trucks almost every night.
Huge portions, super reasonable prices etc.
We ate lots of Steak and frits, pizza and Chinese food haha

We learned some french... especially "Jambon and fromage" (ham and cheese)
these pastries were delicious!

They have the best juice... EVER.
We drank lots of delicious mango and pineapple juice.

The island isn't big... but bigger than it seems.
We drove all the way around the island, it took several hours with stops.

This is the southern most point of the island and the surfing waves here rank in the top 10 deadliest.
No big waves when we were there, but Lisa and I would have opted for "this type" of surfing pictured anyway.

We stopped at a gorgeous fern grotto and underwater cave.

We spent lots of time at the beach.

Saw gorgeous sunsets.

Went to church in a Tahitian ward (although I can't remember it may have been French).
We got there 2 minutes before it started and I was immediately asked to play the piano for the meeting. haha
We had the missionaries sit behind us and translate.
They did a great job and it was a super spiritual experience and day for me.
Lisa wanted to go to Primary so we sat in on their lesson, so cool.

We found this cool Chinese cemetery set into the hill.
We could see it from the road and wondered what it was.
It was fascinating!

We went on a hike to a waterfall... Lisa was adventurous.

But not AS adventurous as when we signed up to take an hour long Tahitian dance class at the resort...
Turns out we were the only two that signed up. hahahaha
Private lessons...
That was super intense and funny!

Our teacher gave me the thumbs up and then pointed at Lisa and gave her the so-so. hahaha
We were definitely tired after an hour of Tahitian dance intensive! ;)

Tahiti has every cool "houseplant" we have ever seen in the US growing in the wild.
It's gorgeous!

From the looks of it Shane and Joe were with us the whole time,
but they actually weren't.
Lisa and I relaxed at the pool, chatted and enjoyed Tahiti while the boys worked for 3 long days.
We were stuck there with no car, but it was NOT a bad place to be "stuck".

One day we took the shuttle from the resort into the city and basically just walked around for miles.
There wasn't much to see first off, second it was amazingly hot, third we got lost and wandered aimlessly to find the patisseria by the Temple.  It didn't help that we don't speak French or Tahitian and that we couldn't remember the name of the patisseria haha.  We found the people so helpful and friendly even with the language barrier.

We eventually DID find the restaurant but other than that... this was about the coolest thing we saw in Papeete.  Lisa and I were SOOOO glad we had opted for the more expensive resort NOT in the city.  The city was dirty and NOT how magazines portray Tahiti. haha

The luau at the resort

We stopped by the Temple for some pictures and to drop off some of the tools.

Then caught a ferry (with our car) to Moorea.

Not THIS is what we think of and see when we hear about Tahiti!  Crystal clear water, gorgeous fish, over water-bungalows etc.

PARADISE!

Our resort Sofitel Moorea la ora Beach Resort was...

DREAMY!

Our own bungalows, we didn't go for the ridiculously priced overwater bungalows and we were plenty happy with ours.

Everything about Moorea was beautiful.

Granted we were there for the purpose of work, but for those just traveling to Tahiti... one or two nights on the island of Tahiti and multiple nights on Moorea or other islands is the way to go!



Lisa is always great at finding us fun excursions with the locals.
This was a day with just the 4 of us on a tiny boat with our 2 guides.

We were on our way out to snorkel with the sharks and stingrays.
What a crazy experience in that gorgeous water!

That was the coolest.
Our guides were so cute and it was awesome not to be with a big group.

We had another great Sacrament Meeting, with willing translators and the kindest of kind people.

We did a TON of snorkeling both in Tahiti and Moorea

More great food!

A visit to the Rotui Juice Factory, we packed LOTS of juice cartons in our luggage. yum yum

The guys WISHED they played here. ;)

We had to say goodbye to this beautiful place.

Nice driving Shane. haha

We looked like COMPLETE idiots with our luggage strapped to the top but admittedly the ride was a little more comfortable.

Tahiti... WOW it was beautiful.

Words can never express how grateful I was to have Joe and Lisa there with us.
They are some seriously amazing friends, travel buddies and confidants.

Also thanks to Josh and Kayla + Tayler and Jaden for taking such great care of our kids.  What a relief it is to know that they were being so well cared for.

The flight home was long... and completely full. (bummer)

But this was a trip NONE of us will EVER forget!!!!!!