Spring Happenings

 The girls came home in early March during Dordt's spring break. Anna and Joshua devoted much of that week to wedding planning. Lydia met Willow for the first time, and they became good buddies. 

Church Bunco night fell during the girls' spring break. Russ is wearing the Bunco hat; he ended up winning the prize for the most Buncos.

Seth's spring break was later in March and he just enjoyed relaxing and having Mom and Dad spoil him for the week.

Early in April, I flew to Denver to dog sit for Caleb and Mikaela while they took a short trip to Mexico on Caleb's spring break. I stayed several days longer, through the weekend, to spend time with them too. Unfortunately, it was during this visit that I realized my neck surgery had not been entirely successful in removing pressure from the nerve at C3-4 (more on that in a later post).

I faithfully walked this guy twice a day and even went to the dog park to play with dog friends a couple times.

Visiting Garden of the Gods

Manitou Springs

Summit Ministries where Mikaela interned

Towards the end of April Seth and I joined Russ at Dordt during his Board of Trustees meeting. Anna scheduled her senior organ recital this week, we watched the girls run an outdoor track meet at Northwestern, and we threw Anna and Emily a joint bridal shower. 

Russ' brother Nathan and cousin Jonathan came to Anna's recital.

Anna and Grandma and Grandpa

Favorite organ fans: Seth, Joshua, Josie, Nicolas, and Lydia

Anna will be sad to say goodbye to this organ. She spent so many hours practicing this beautiful instrument.

Anna and Emily with cousins: Rachel, Lydia, Reese, Nora, Brooke, and Dayle.

Anna and Emily with the aunts and Grandma: Lynn, Nikki, Shantelle, Cora, Laura

Anna with her roommates/bridesmaids.

Exciting News

 Nicolas and Josie announced in March that we were grandparents! The new arrival is expected in mid-October. Just recently they revealed that the "little Herman" is a boy.😊

Hawaii 2024

The first week after neck surgery was rough, but on post-op day eight I flew to Hawaii with Russ. This trip was gifted to me and Russ over a year ago and my surgeon assured me it was a great place to recover from surgery. Although I went with my surgeon's blessing, I did have restrictions which included no lifting and no immersing my incision in ocean water, i.e. no swimming or snorkeling. 

I wore my neck brace on the flight to Honolulu which helped immensely in supporting and minimizing painful movement. Being able to preboard on a Southwest flight was also a nice perk! Although I was not able to do everything I would have liked on this trip due to my surgical limitations, I can honestly say the trip to the warmer climate in February boosted my recovery as I was encouraged to walk and move more than I would have done at home in the colder weather. Since I also had a lifting restriction poor Russ looked like a pack mule while I looked like a travel diva carrying only my cell phone.

For the first five days, we stayed near Waikiki Beach in Oahu. We explored the beaches around the coast, visited the Dole plantation and Pearl Harbor, and hiked Diamond Head.

Waikiki Beach

Honolulu from our condo window

Sunset Beach

USS Arizona Memorial

Oil from the USS Arizona

USS Missouri

The guy on the left was wearing a Japanese military uniform. Is this sight common in the Pearl Harbor museums, specifically on the battleship where Japan surrendered in WW2?

Walking along the Ala Wai Canal in the evening

Honolulu and Waikiki Beach behind me

This is as far as I could hike at Diamond Head. Russ made it to the top and took all the amazing pictures.

Sunset back at Waikiki Beach

We worshipped at a PCA church in Honolulu on Sunday

Sea Turtles!

We ended our day walking down 30+ flights of stairs for a false alarm fire evacuation.

Day six we flew to Kona on the Big Island for a few days. I thought this picture of Diamond Head taken from the plane was so cool!

Our condo unit wasn't ready so we hung out at a coffee plantation (Kona Joe) for several hours--learning about growing coffee, browsing the gift shop, and enjoying the great coffee and view!

View from the deck at our condo in Kona

We ate a lovely oceanside dinner at Huggo's

Sunset at Huggo's

Sunset poolside at our condo

Sunrise from our condo deck

Hapuna Beach and Ala Kahaki Trail

I noticed the post-surgical pain in my neck the most when trying to wash/dry my hair, put a shirt over my head, and when sleeping. Because of the time change and my difficulty sleeping, we got up early--around 5-5:30 and were usually in bed around 9:00 pm. 

 Watching a cruise ship pass by while eating an early breakfast on the patio.

Early morning whale watching from the shore at Kapa'a Beach Park. We saw quite a few whale "blows"!

A coffee/zucchini bread stop before our hike on Pololu Trail to Pololu Beach.

I recovered sufficiently from the hike back up from Pololu Beach for the drive to Akaka Falls State Park on the northeast side of the Big Island. The vegetation on the other side of the island is so green and plush as it receives much more rain than the Kona side. In fact, it rained/misted the entire time we were at the Falls.

Various beaches along Kealakekua Bay

We didn't need to be at the airport until 9:00 pm on our last day in Hawaii. We checked out of our condo unit at 10:00 in the morning, went out for coffee/lunch, did some souvenir shopping, and signed up for a three-hour whale-watching tour.

Saying goodbye to the resort in Kona.

We saw several whale blows, humpback fins, and the occasional back as the whales surfaced. When the guide was asked if the whales ever breached she said not usually in Hawaii. The humpback whales swim south to breed, not to feed (which they do in the northern oceans) and breaching requires a significant amount of energy. No sooner had she said that when a whale breached in front of our boat! Shortly after the first, we witnessed a double breach (two whales breaching together)!

The spinner dolphins liked to show off for us.

Fish tacos at Umekes before heading to the airport.