Hawaii Vacation

We had a great trip to Hawaii this year, lots of fun on the beach and great times with family. This was our first time to see the kids since Paka & Mandy moved to Hawaii, so we were thrilled to be there! We only stayed for a week, we got all the tourist attractions out of the way last year, so we hit up all our favorite spots this summer!

Unloading the beach car- lots of work, but well worth it!

Shark's Cove- great snorkeling spot-we saw TONS of fish.

(Yes, we had a baby. Sorry we didn't tell anyone. Cute, isn't he?)

Ahh...fresh fruit at a fruit stand.

Happy Hawaiian Birthday to Kawika!

Hangin' out with the kids

We went swimming at this BEAUTIFUL swimming pool. It just shouts tropical!

Pearl Harbor- we missed this one last summer :)

And no Hawaii trip is complete without good food! (and lots of it) Kawika's favorite- Korean BBQ.

Haunama Bay in the evening

Aaaahhh.....

Summer vacation is finally here! School is offically over, and I am officially on vacation for 3 whole months. Ahhh.....

Elder Van Every

I met my parents up in Utah last month to take my youngest brother, Taylor to the MTC. He will be serving in Colorado. He has been in the MTC for almost 1 month now, and is doing great! . We have three missionaries out between both families now- Kawika's two younger brothers are also serving. Keke is going to Mexico and Kimo is also in Colorado. We'll have lot's of letter writing to do over the next two years :)

What was your excuse?

As you can imagine, being a PE teacher I get many "excuse" notes from students...trying to get out of any running that we do. Here are two of my favorites- so if you ever need to get out of running in PE, perhaps you could try one of these:

So apparently we all need to wear really great eye protective gear outside, as getting any kind of air in your eye really hurts. It just so happens it hurts even more on mile day. Maybe next time I would have more sympathy if she said she had the flu...

My favorite part on this one is- "any subject"... watch out, you may do some jumping jacks in English class. I love the P.S. part... since when do parents include a "P.S."? This student apparently forgot this was a note for the teacher and not the girl sitting next to her in science class. I guess she did sound somewhat adult when she said "menstrual cycle". And, we don't want any PE student tired- I mean you could almost die if you leave class feeling a little tired! Don't you worry though- I hold firm....actually, I try not to laugh when I read it, and then respond..."Nice try, go get dressed. You still have to run"
Guess it keeps my job entertaining :)

Grandma Van Every

My grandma passed away last month, and I was able to make it to the funeral. In fact, all my siblings and I made it up to Idaho, so we had a great time together. Just as with all funerals, there were many tender moments, but it was such a great family gathering altogether. All my cousins, aunts, & uncles were able to make it (except one cousin on a mission) so it was a pretty neat occasion. We still managed to have fun as a family while remembering grandma. She was a great woman, just as all grandmas are. Here are some pictures from the trip: (sorry they are backwards)

We love you and miss you grandma...

Christmas Part I

Here are some pictures from Christmas...I would post a lot more, but sometimes I get rather impatient with how long it takes to upload one picture. Anyone else feel the same? I don't know if it's my computer, but man it feels like it takes FOREVER. Hence the reason I am not the best blogger. But....here are some pictures from our Christmas in Austin!

The trail of lights. It was a rather chilly night

We went to a DNBA game- we had great seats up close...and the players were HUGE!

Ahhh....Bluebell Ice cream-what a treat.

Family Picture! One of my favorites!

Update in Order

Since I have been horrible at updating my blog, we'll get all caught up...but we have to go in order. In November, my parents came down for a weekend to help us with a few home projects, and it was SO great, we got so much done.

Project #1: Garage Shelves. No Van Every home is complete without shelves in the garage!

Ta dah! All done.

Project #2: Begin installation of wood flooring downstairs.

BEFORE:

PROJECT COMPLETE!

(We still have to get a piece of carpet installed in the square)

Just as many of you, we got snow too! For about the first time in 30 years, school was cancelled and we had a sinful city full of snow.

Backyard:
Christmas Pictures to come!