At the beginning of January, Jonathon came home from work with the exciting news that he had been asked by his department to go on a recruiting trip to BYU-Hawaii to look for more potential grad students. BYU-Hawaii was hosting an Asian-Pacific job conference, so there would be a lot of potential students to meet and connect with. After digging into the details of the trip a bit more, he found out that his department would pay for his flights, a hotel room, a per diem for food, and a rental car. If any of the rest of the family went, we would basically only be paying for the plane tickets and our own food. When I heard this, I immediately knew I wanted to go!
We had originally booked a cruise for the end of February, but with Covid protocols still difficult for cruising, we decided to postpone the cruise until the fall. It was a bit of a pain to try to reschedule the cruise, but in the end, it will be nice to hopefully not have to wear masks and take Covid tests by then. Mom and Dad and Kym and Joe were nice enough to postpone with us so that we could all go together.
After the cruise was settled, we debated back and forth for a long time about if I should just go with Jonathon or if we should take the whole family. We worried about taking the kids out of school for a whole week, especially Christian as he has difficult classes in high school. We were also a bit nervous about the cost of plane tickets since we are already planning a Universal Florida trip in April. In the end though, we couldn't think of a better opportunity for our family. The costs would be significantly less than any other time, and we are quickly running out of time with all of our kids still at home. We decided that the memories made would be more valuable than the potential problems. My friend Michelle also reminded me not to let school get in the way of our children's education. While that sounds funny, it is actually so wise. There are so many things that can be gained by exploring different cultures, meeting new people, and bonding as a family. I finally felt good about taking everyone, so we proceeded to book all of our tickets.
One of the coolest experiences associated with our trip happened even before we left. My mom is remarkable in many ways, but one thing she is especially good at is creating opportunities for memories and spiritual experiences. A few years ago, she came up with the idea of doing BOB Grants (Bob is her nickname). She took the idea from Jonathon's experiences with applying for grants. These special BOB grants are given for things that she feels are really important, and they are very official. She writes up an official grant application and makes sure that the forms are filled out correctly and on time. In the past she has done them for things like food storage, trips to visit Grandpa and Grandma Ogborn in California, and buying new temple clothes. I love her generosity so much and really want to carry on this amazing tradition. Mom decided to offer our boys "Bob Grants for Hawaii." She offered them $50 each to use in Hawaii if they would complete 3 goals: 1) Print out and hang up a family history fan chart. 2) Complete one goal of their choosing from the Children and Youth program at church, and 3) Decide on one thing that would help make our home more peaceful and work on it for one week.
Can you get any better than that? Honestly, she continually amazes me! My boys were super excited to earn the $50, and got right to work. The first one was pretty easy. They just had to log in to their church account, find their fan chart, and then send a file to Jonathon. From there, Jonathon took them to BYU and got them printed at the family history center. They turned out awesome and look really great in their rooms.
The second task was a bit trickier because they had to come up with a goal. Christian had been dragging his feet on taking the driving test to get his permit, so I suggested that be his goal. He studied and took several practice tests, and then I took him to the DMV where he passed. Yay Christian! He is very nervous to drive (like I knew he would be), but we are just going to take it slow and make sure he feels comfortable every step of the way. Andrew decided to memorize the Aaronic Priesthood theme for his goal. I was thrilled with that idea. I love the values and vision that are contained in the theme. What a benefit it will be to his life if he can always remember it and say it when he needs extra strength. Hyrum decided to memorize the first four Articles of Faith. We were really good about teaching them to our older boys, but Hyrum isn't much of a memorizer, and it just kind of slipped through the cracks. After a bit of practice though, he was able to do all four.
Helping to make our home more peaceful was the hardest goal because it required a lot of effort for them. There has been quite a bit of fighting and annoying going on in our house for the last 2 years, so this was the perfect thing to work on. Christian decided he wanted to do everything we asked him to do without complaining. Wow, that was an awesome goal! He did great and really was super helpful. Andrew thought it would really help our home be less stressful if he helped with the cooking. He made 7 different meals to help out. He made muffins, orange chicken and egg rolls, homemade pizza, pancakes, and more. That boy really loves to cook and is always asking if he can make something. Hyrum decided to do one nice thing for each of his brothers every day. Hyrum is the one who struggles the most with being nice, so this was a really hard goal. He did well for a few days, got sidetracked and failed for a few days, and then pulled it together in the end. They each filled out their BOB grants, and we sent them to my mom. She sent them a beautiful letter back with their $50. I love and appreciate my mom and dad for all that they do to help teach my kids the gospel.
Preparations for the trip were fairly smooth. We asked each of the boys to choose one thing that they really wanted to do in Hawaii, and we told them we would make it happen. Christian picked snorkeling, Andrew chose hiking a volcano (Diamond Head), and Hyrum wanted to get pineapple whips at the Dole Plantation. With those activities in mind, we set out to plan an awesome trip. We could only find plane tickets that were a bit more expensive than hoped, but we saved some money by using the companion passes that Jonathon and I had earned. Then we booked tickets to all of the attractions and made an itinerary.
Although things were ready to go, I was still feeling very anxious before we left. I worried about the amount of homework the boys would have. I worried about me missing too much work, and I even worried about plane crashes. It seems like once you are in the grip of anxiety, all reason leaves, and your mind just races and won't stop. Luckily, our departure finally arrived, and once we were on our way, my fears were calmed, and excitement took over.
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