Hawaii 2016 Pt. 1

July ended with my parents taking our whole family to Hawaii. Best. Trip. Ever.

Maui

Darby: Our first day in Maui there were tropical storm warnings (storm Darby) so we couldn't do much. We ended up only getting a little rain. The rain turned out to be a good thing because when we explored the Road to Hana, the waterfalls were huge!

Road to Hana: It took us a few hours to explore just a fraction of the Road to Hana. We hiked through bamboo, stopped at some lookouts, crossed a river, and played in some waterfalls. So beautiful!

The condo: My whole family shared a VRBO find that was right on the beach at Kaanapali. Owen had a hard time with the time change but overall did great and he loved all the attention from my siblings. The place we stayed had a really nice swimming pool. One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was when we were at the pool with my dad and some of my siblings. We started playing the color game and we were all tricking my dad like we were 8 years old and getting a kick out of it! Makes me laugh just thinking about it!

Snorkel tour: My mom was so generous and volunteered to stay back with Owen and send the rest of us on a boat and snorkel tour to Lenai. She has done the tour before and wanted us to experience it, so nice! My family ended up being the only ones on the boat besides the tour guide and his sons and niece. The boat was so fast and fun, so even just riding that was a blast! He stopped the boat a few times for us to snorkel. We got up close and personal with some turtles, an octopus, sting rays, and of course cool fish!

To be continued...

Hawaii 2016 pt. 2

Oahu

Temple: Our whole "reason" for going to Hawaii was to take my brother Jake over to start his freshman year at BYU-H. We went to the bookstore and campus with him, and also did a session at the temple. My parents spent a lot of time helping get his apartment set up and stocking it with groceries.
Waimea: Waimea is such a pretty beach with a fun cliff to jump off of. The cliff is only about 20 feet high, but it took me a good pep-talk to jump every time! Owen got brave on our trip to this beach. The first time we took O to the beach he wouldn't even walk in the sand. By the time we were at Waimea we got him warmed up and he was letting us swim him around! 
Pounders: My family loves boogie boarding! I love it but I'm the chicken of my family. I will try and take a big wave every once in a while but my heart stops every time! Across the street from BYU-H campus is a beach called "Pounders beach". It's called that for a reason. Those waves are strong. My brother and I each took an underwater nose-dive-turned-front-flip, and I could make a whole hilight video of my husband being slammed. So fun!
White Plains Beach: My sister has a friend who lives on Oahu and he's a surf instructor. He was so so nice and met my family at White Plains Beach with his surf boards and he helped us all get up on little waves. We loved it! My husband stayed on the paddle board and loved that too. After our time at the beach we went over to his house and his parents did dinner for my whole family. They were the nicest!

To be continued...

Hawaii 2016 pt.3

My brother and I took so much video on this trip! If I used all my favorite clips, the video would be about 30 minutes long. I narrowed it down to this for the highlight film.

Hawaii 2016 from Madi McCleary Scott on Vimeo.

Thanks Mom, Dad, and family for a great trip!

Fish Lake and Capitol Reef

Gavin's parents booked a campsite with some friends at Fish Lake and generously invited us. We didn't think we'd be able to go but I got work off last minute and we headed down for a long weekend. Gavin and I slept in hammocks every night and enjoyed the stars while Owen bunked with "Mama Sue" in their camper.
Friday we drove a little more and spent the day at Capitol Reef National Park. We had never been before and we were so close to the park that we figured we'd check it off our Utah bucket list. We walked along the boardwalk, saw some petroglyphs, and hiked to Cassidy Arch. Supposedly the arch earned it's name because it was a hideout for Butch Cassidy. The park was cool and full of history. I'm glad we went.

Where's Waldo?

Gavin packed O the whole way up in the blazing heat! (Don't worry, we were prepared with lots of water, shade, and sunscreen!)

Does it surprise anyone that O's favorite thing to do was drive the boat and honk the horn?!

Mom and dad with the troopiest little camper.

Independence Day!

I'm breaking July up into a few posts because the month was jam packed of so many cool things! Starting off with Gavin's favorite holiday: Independence day! We spent time with family, bbq'd, watched the parade, and watched fireworks all weekend. 
When it came down to the night of the fourth, we decided just to spend it on our own. We drove to Herriman, which put Owen to sleep in the car, found a place to park where we could see fireworks in every direction, and sat on top of the car for about 45 minutes. I loved it. Then we saw a field catch on fire so that was an exciting way to end our night (no humans or homes were hurt, fortunately)!

 O watched the parade from "Papa Rick's" lap and was not sure what to think!

 Cousin time in "Mama Sue's" backyard.

 The kids LOVED chasing around these huge bubbles. We have some cute pictures of O participating, but this is a public blog and O is stark naked in those pictures, so we will just keep them for our viewing pleasure!

Converse sneakers,

 Freedom bike rides,

 Beautiful sunsets,

'Merica.

June

We love summer! My summer bucket list was about 80 pages long and I'm just now coming to the realization that we can't do all of it, but that doesn't stop us from trying!

We started off the month by fishing and cabining in Kamas.

Then we chapperoned the RHS graduation party. 8 years strong. M&A did fine, but Gav and I are too old for this. Both of us were trying not to puke all night. My problem was this thing...

The three of us hiked to Bells Canyon waterfall. Three miles up and three miles down and those miles were far from flat. Maci was a huge help but I packed Owen all six of those miles! I was feeling pretty good about my white legs by the end of it!

O is not a swimmer, but we spent a day at the water park anyways! He warmed up to it!

 We also hiked Horsetail Falls. This one I definitely did not pack O on my own. Maci conned her date and his friends to doing all the hard work. This is the hike where O was eating lunch in his pack (not on my back) and I let the pack fall over. O fell on his face and got a huge bruise. Worst. Mom. Ever.

We took a quick trip up to Battle Creek Falls,

 And celebrated Jakey coming home from his two year mission. This was the most exciting thing ever to have all my siblings home for a few weeks! Owen finally got to meet Jake... and they are so cute together!

We spent time in Salt Lake and American Fork with lots of cousins for a family reunion,

and of course we shot the tube! I don't know why "shooting the tube" isn't illegal yet because I guarantee one day it will be. Until then, I'm glad we get to enjoy this hidden gem!

 

We ended June with the rookie mistake of taking O on our date to Top Golf. We learned the hard way. Don't ever ever ever take a toddler to Top Golf. That place is sweet but we will need to go on our own sometime to get the full experience!

Blogging about this month has my heart full of gratitude for the people and opportunities that surround us every day. I try not to take any of these days for granted. Life comes with highs and lows and while everything is not perfect, we are definitely riding a high right now so I'm trying to take advantage of it and make the most of our current situation. I'm so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, our family, friends, our jobs, education, resources, and this beautiful land we live in.