Ryan’s Birthday and Baptism

Today was the most amazing day! We met my friend Kevin (Bishop Schlag) at 7:30 am at Temple Beach Park, just down the street from the Laie, Hawaii Temple. We were lucky to have some other friends from here in Laie join us for Ryan’s baptism! For those of you who know the Marsh family, Kim’s husband grew up here in the Laie 4th Ward, and some of his family still live here. They were able to come to Ryan’s baptism, too!
The day was beautiful, sunny, and calm. We had the program in the park area first, and then walked down to the beach for Ryan’s baptism. Uncle Marc Inman baptized Ryan, with Papa and Kevin as the witnesses. It was a beautiful setting with a beautiful feeling.
After Ryan was baptized, we walked back up to the park area where Papa confirmed Ryan and we finished the program. We all had leis to give to Ryan. The whole thing was amazing. It was one of the neatest things that I’ve ever experienced, and I’m not just saying that because I’m Ryan’s mom. It was beautiful, happy, and peaceful…exactly what we were hoping it would be. A very special thanks to Kevin for all of his work in helping us put it together.
After Ryan’s baptism, we changed our clothes, and then headed to our favorite breakfast spot in Laie – the Hukilau Café – for macadamia nut pancakes. Nearby is Hukilau beach, where we spent a couple of hours swimming and playing.
We got cleaned up from the beach and took Ryan to the Schlags’ house to play with Kevin and Nan’s kids while Mom, Dad, Marc, Frances and I went to a session at the Laie Temple together. That was a great experience, too. We hadn’t been together in the temple since Marc and Frances were sealed. It was a very small session of only about 18 people, so it was also quiet and peaceful.
I had heard that from one part of the temple, you could look all the way down the hill to Temple Beach Park. I explained to one of the workers that we had just baptized Ryan there this morning, and asked if we could see that view. The temple worker escorted us to that area, and we were able to see where Ryan was baptized from the temple. That was also a very special experience to be able to do that.
We picked up Ryan from the Schlags’, and he said good-bye to his new friends. Another special thanks to Nan and the kids for helping make Ryan’s birthday a lot of fun. We changed our clothes yet again, and drove to the North Shore. We saw Waimea, where all of the famous surfing competitions are held. There were some pretty amazing waves going, and hundreds of surfers waiting to catch the perfect wave. We drove as far as Haleiwa, where we had a wonderful seafood dinner at Jameson’s Restaurant.

As we drove back to our hotel, we all commented that it was a wonderful day for all of us, not just our special birthday boy. We know he had a wonderful day, too, and will do everything we can to help him remember all of the special feelings of the day.

Aloha!

We’re here! Now, before any of you scold me for the time of this post, please remember the time difference.

My Uncle Ted makes fun of me for toting my laptop and BlackBerry on all of our vacations (“Who takes their laptop and BlackBerry to HAWAII?”). Well…me…and Marc. Some of you know that my BlackBerry saved us on our last trip to Hawaii. If it weren’t for my BlackBerry and Mapquest, we would have missed our flight to Kauai! But most importantly, if I didn’t have my laptop, I couldn’t BLOG!

We’ve had a great first couple of days.

Wednesday – We spent most of the day on the plane. Marc and Frances picked us up at about 3:30 Hawaii time. They came in a day earlier to spend some time with Frances’ former foster sister and her husband in Pearl City. We drove to Laie, checked in and got settled, ate, and then visited with Kevin and his family. Ryan has already made some new friends! :)

Thursday – The Polynesian Cultural Center opens at noon, so we spent the morning checking out Temple Beach Park and playing in the pool.

We spent the rest of the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Ryan enjoyed the spear throwing lessons…

getting tattoos…

learning how to dance with poi balls (not to be confused with the poi you eat)…fishing…

the canoe rides…

and meeting the BYU-Hawaii students who work at the PCC… As you know, Friday is a very special day. I will post pictures as soon as I can.

Soccer, Rocks, and Indiana Jones

What do these things have in common? They were all a major part of our weekend.

You all know that Ryan has soccer games on Thursday nights. He is becoming an assertive little player, and LOVES scoring goals! Where are the pictures of said goals, you ask? Proud mom that I am, I was jumping up and down and cheering so much, I completely forgot about the camera around my wrist. But, hey…Ry knew his mom was proud!

When we reminded Ry’s coach that we will miss the next two games, his coach said, “Don’t remind me, I’m already depressed about it.” I’m not sure if he’s depressed that one of his best players will miss two games, or if he’s depressed that he’s not going with us!

Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks. Just a reminder - Ry's jersey is #1, and he wears red cleats. In the third picture, he is the goalie that has just booted the ball out of the box (he blocked the goal attempt). In the last two pictures, he came close to scoring again...but not quite.


You also know that my mom and I do “Fun Friday” every week for all 100+ second-graders at Ryan’s school. The past couple of weeks we’ve been talking about rocks. Last week we stayed in one large group and talked about the different types of rocks (complete with numerous examples of each). This week we set up four rotating stations. We had each kid bring a rock from home, and we did all kinds of experiments with them to determine what kind of rock they each had. It was a lot of fun to watch the kids start to understand things as they completed the checklist we had for them. It’s always fun to witness those “light bulb” moments. We also had a lot of fun talking about all of the things that we use in our lives that are made of rocks or minerals. It’s Ryan’s treat day next Tuesday (for his birthday). Guess what we got for him to take? Rock candy. :)

Today (Saturday) was Ryan’s birthday party. He is a big Indiana Jones fan, and is counting down the days until “The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is in theaters (34). So, obviously, we went with the Indiana Jones theme for his party. For the main activity, we had an obstacle course treasure hunt. Here are the clues/directions with photos of the kids at each spot…

To find the treasure, you’ll have to prove
You’re fit for Indy’s team.
The first test you’ll need to pass
Is walking across a beam.

Crossing scary, rickety bridges
Is a famous Indy feat.
Hungry crocs swim underneath
So pick up your two feet!
Indy doesn’t really care
If you have fortune or fame.
But when his back is to the bad guys,
He wants someone who can aim!
If you ever lose your guns
Indy wants to know
That when you’re escaping headhunters
You can use arrows and a bow!
Watch out!
Rolling boulders ahead!
You’ll need some fancy footwork
Or you can be crushed dead!
A motorcycle relay race
Is last for you to do.
Teamwork is important here
So cheer on your whole crew!
At last, to find the buried treasure
Go north from the basketball pole.
Turn west at the end of the house
Take fifteen steps, and dig a hole!
We buried a treasure chest with gold chocolate coins in it.
Ryan got a lot of fun presents! Since most of his friends know that we’re heading to Hawaii, a lot of them gave him things to take on the trip. He got a super soaker, two other huge squirt guns, rockets, the “20 Q” electronic game, and even a metal detector! Rara & Papa gave him Volume 1 of “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” (from the History channel) and I gave him the Indiana Jones “Temple Escape” Lego kit. It has 554 pieces. Hmmm…I wonder what we’ll be doing until we leave?!?!
For party favors, we gave each kid an “Adventure Survival Kit.” I made this sheet and stuck them on the bags in order to identify the contents…
And I LOVED the way the cake turned out…

It was a really fun party. Ryan had a great time, and I think all of the other kids did, too.

Naked Yard/Tree Haircut

For those of you who see our house and yard on a regular basis, you have likely already been somewhat alarmed by the transformation of our yard over the past week. For those of you who haven’t seen it, we chopped down three trees and did some serious pruning on two others. We had actually planned on doing all of this work after the Hawaii trip so we would have the time to make it look better fairly quickly. My friend Karl ended up having some time to help us with it, so we went for it.

The first time Ryan and I drove up our street and into our driveway after all of the work was completed, it was kind of a shock. Our yard definitely looked naked. Melissa, my friend across the street, commented on the “tree haircut” and thanked us for providing several hours of entertainment for her son, Jonah, standing at their front window. (Melissa then returned the favor by having backhoes take large boulders out of her yard, providing several hours of entertainment for Ryan standing at our front window.) My mom suggested (after everything was done) that we should have taken some before, during, and after pictures. Why didn’t I think of that?

And...have no fear, there are still plenty of trees in our front yard to house all of the birds. They were a little mad at first (and expressed their feelings quite loudly), but they seem to have adjusted well.

Speaking of birds, you all know that Ryan “talks” to the birds in our yard every morning before he hops in the car to go to school. Well, his new morning comment is “Good morning, naked yard,” followed by hysterical laughter. Truth be told, I think he enjoys the fact that he figured out a sentence in which he can use the word “naked” without me giving him “the look.”

Give me a few weeks – I promise the yard will all look better shortly.

What Spice Are You?

As I was finishing up some homework tonight, I checked my email and had something fun from my friend, Jessica. It's a little quiz called What Spice Are You? Jessica's "black pepper" results are absolutely descriptive of her - especially in recent situations. Right Jess? :)

I thought you'd all find this amusing. Here are my results...

You Are Basil

You are quite popular and loved by most people. You have a mild temperament, but your style is definitely distinctive. You are sweet, attractive, and you often smell good.

Isn't that funny?


(A special thanks to Bath & Body Works for their contributions to the "you often smell good" part.)

Scout-O-Rama

Ryan and I had a fun weekend. Thankfully, it was considerably better than last weekend. By the way, a BIG thank you to all of you who helped us through the challenges of last weekend. A special thanks to Kristin and Abby for the awesome “ladies’ (and kids) night out” distraction on Saturday night, and to the whole Ulmer family for your perfectly-timed visit on Sunday. We know we are very lucky to have all of the great family and friends that we have.

So…today was the much-anticipated Scout-o-Rama at the South Towne Expo Center. Some of you know the drama of last year’s Scout-o-Rama – Ryan went with me, as he has to most scout events for the past two years. However, even though he participated in all of the booth activities, he was not able to earn any of the awards (including some that were given on the spot) because he was not an official scout. As you may have guessed, to a seven-year-old, that seemed very unfair. He has been looking forward to this year’s Scout-o-Rama ever since. Needless to say, we spent the WHOLE DAY there today! Imagine…thousands of enthusiastic cub scouts and longsuffering leaders and parents as far as the eye can see from 9 am to 4 pm. Isn’t that how you’d choose to spend a whole Saturday?

Our pack had a booth – we taught everyone who came by about the scientific method, the properties of solids, liquids, and gasses, non-Newtonian fluid dynamics, colloids, and polymerization. In order to illustrate all of those – my teacher friends will all know what we did – we made ooblek and glurch with the scouts as they visited the booth. It was obviously very messy, which 8 – 11 year old boys (and their older and younger siblings) LOVE! We helped each boy that visited our booth complete the requirements for the Science belt loop.

Ryan was quite motivated all day. There were a lot of booths that offered either all of the requirements for a belt loop or most of the requirements, with just a couple of additional things to do at home. Ryan wanted to do ALL of them! He got so excited every time we rounded another corner and there was another belt loop booth. It was really cute. He earned eight!
There was also a pack that had their own “sport court” created. Ryan did the football throw and got five out of five! He did the basketball throw and got ten out of ten! I stood there absolutely amazed! You should have seen his grin! He also enjoyed digging for fossils, panning for gold, golfing, and a variety of other fun activities.

I had a fun experience there, too. We ran into the family of a guy that I dated for quite a while about 18 years ago. I haven’t seen them for a long time, but, interestingly, had just been thinking about them the past couple of days. Ryan and I were walking along, and I heard a very loud, “Is that Melanie Inman?” (You know not many people refer to me that way these days.) It was great to see them and catch up with them. I always enjoyed being with them and traveling with them, and always thought very highly of them. And I'm not just saying that because they may be reading this. :)

It was a long day, but it was a lot of fun. It will be exciting for Ryan to receive all of his awards at next month’s pack meeting.

Oh, yea…and Ryan pulled another tooth!