I actually did get quite a bit of teaching squished into this summer. But we were busy. We finally got the house listed to sell. Behold:
I know you want to buy it now, but good news! You can!!!
I was even able to do a little science (honestly, without a club it is so hard to get the mojo up enough to do science. I feel bad we didn't do all of the physics I wanted to.)
We learned about Newton's laws of motion. We played tug of war and other fun things to show how motion works.
We also learned about centripetal force. We did a lot of spinning for this! Spinning pennies inside balloons and spinning cups of water. The inertia broke through the bottom of the cup in this photo!
But we knew it couldn't all be school. We needed to get away and have some fun before we left. We decided to go to Pele island and go camping. It was just what we all needed. Nothing but white sand, a bon fire, and playing the Ukulele.
One of the hardest things about leaving was leaving the school that I teach at. It's been such an education for me to teach them, and I hope I made a difference for them.
We at least went out with a bang. It was independence week when we left, so we were there for Children's Day. I helped quite a bit with it, including making a banner for them, but the best part of it all was Hyrum and Daniel dressing up like clowns and giving all the kids balloon swords and hats.
They even threw me a going away celebration and gave Daniel and I tons of leis and cards. I will miss them so much, and I am so grateful for such an amazing privilege to teach in this incredible school.
Thankfully, THANKFULLY this amazing family from Utah moved in a couple of weeks before we left. I can not begin to explain what a blessing it is that they moved in as we moved out. I felt like I wasn't abandoning everything. The husband is a paediatrician, and the wife is a teacher. If all goes well, this little school will become a school for an American-based ESL program that is organized all over the world. Wouldn't that be incredible!?!
That family even took our dog Tanna and gave her a good home.
Leaving our animals was a really hard part of leaving Vanuatu. I never thought I would say that. Rudy has be our guard dog. She was our peace of mind and our friend. I wouldn't want to live in Vanuatu without her.
Elsa was the best cat in the world. I love that cat, and I never love cats.
She didn't bother Denise who's normally allergic to cats, she lets the kids abuse her without retaliation, and she ALWAYS goes in her litter box, and she didn't hurt our nice furniture.
Of course we have friends that we will miss more than our animals. Specifically our neighbours, those who have helped the Salmon kids, Branch members, Mayline, the Masos, and most of all the Gaydens. I don't think I would have stayed sane without them. We really needed them.
But obviously, those that we are missing the most are those that I feel like are my family. My little Tahitian family is on my mind and in my heart constantly. There are so many worries and doubts, but most of all a desire for true happiness for them.
The branch put on a get together as we left, and Lacil had her daughter make us these cute outfits. I will miss my Vanuatu life, but we will be back!
We realized that the cheapest way home was a layover in New Zealand, but if you can have two hours, why not two DAYS? Yep, we stopped in NewZealand for a little hello.
I decided that we needed to go to Rotorua for our day there, and we spent the first half of the day at Whakarewarewa a Maori village on top of an active geothermal zone!!! They actually cook their food with the thermal heat, and have bathing spas, and there's geysers right outside their front doors. It was crazy! Crazy and amazing!
We then asked the boys an important question: Would they want to go to the movie set of The Lord of The Rings, or go down a mountain Luge ride. We only had time and money for one.
They chose the Luge.
Going on that Luge ride was very nostalgic for me. When I went to New Zealand as a teenager, I remember that exact Luge ride. It was really trippy for me to realize that I was on the other side of the world AGAIN but this time with a family of seven all enjoying the same thing I did when I was 17.
I was a little sad we didn't go to the LOTR movie set. I even made them all watch the first half of the first movie. (Maxwell has seen all the Hobbit ones...I think.) But after that, Abraham had nightmares and that was the first time any of my kids have had nightmares from movies, so LOTR was done. However, we did drive past the place where the Hobbiton Farm was and we played the movie soundtrack in our van, and it was almost as good as paying $500 bucks to see the round doors in those hills.
When we got to North America, we landed in LA and stayed in California. It saved us a ton of money, but also, we had our nephew's wedding to go to!!
We had come a couple days early, and my old friend Tom Barlow was an excellent host and let us stay with him. We went to science centres, had reunions with family, and I had my nails done with the bride to be.
I love the Okanagan Science Pass we have. Get's us in everywhere. My boys were especially drawn to the Legos since they haven't been able to play with them for a year. The museum let you display your creations.
WALMART people! We went to Walmart. We are not in Vanuatu any more! Crazy. We also already started buying things on Amazon. We're back!!!
How fun to see everyone for the wedding. I sure love Dailin. He was one of the first little people I ever taught homeschool to, and he will always be that little boy in my heart.
Then it was off to Arizona. That was so special. I was so happy to see Dustin's brother's family. My boys were too. I actually love AZ in the summer. I know that sounds weird, but there's AC and then the swimming pools are all so warm, and it's hot even after the sun goes down, which is kind of magical.
Hyrum is old enough to go to the temple and we did a bit of family history work in Vanuatu, and the temple he chose to go to was the Gilbert temple specifically because he wanted to go with his Arizona cousins. Ahhh...
Then we spent one day in St. George Utah visiting Nate and his family:
And then we saw my MOM AND DAD. Oh how I love them. They took my kids to the store and told them to pick out a present as a late birthday/Christmas present from them and that of course delighted my boys.
And then we also went to the Curiosity museum. My boys took amazing rocks from St George to the Rock exchange at this museum, and the lady working there said she had never had kids who knew more about the rocks they brought then my kids, specifically Maxwell who had basically written an essay about gypsum.
When we got back to Cardston our house was perfectly clean and the table was set, dinner was ready, candy was hidden throughout the house, everything was so welcoming and perfect thanks to the Smiths. What a blessing they are.
And soon, it was William's birthday:
And we were overwhelmed with seeing all our wonderful friends and family (seriously, Hyrum had a hard transition, he was way too excited to handle all of his emotions!)
We got some end-of the-year history in. We talked about the American Civil War. We brought out cotton as we discussed the Compromise of 1850 and the Dred Scott decision. I was so happy to let Daniel make actual yarn from real cotton balls, because when we were reading a book about Mr Luther King Jr earlier in the year, he had so many questions about how that was possible.
By the way, it's supper hard to get just cotton out of a cotton ball plant.
We also learned quite a bit about Abraham Lincoln and Clara Barton. Abraham is soooo dang cute as Abraham Lincoln !!! "I'm Abraham Lincoln. I'm not lying!" AHAHAHHahhahaha
And for whatever reason they made these "ninja turtle" stress balls as I was teaching them one day...HUGE mess.
And we talked about Sherman's march, and how devastated the South was, and a bit about the reconstruction of the South. We even made out own Southern city that we destroyed....yeah, that sounds weird.
My kids have been doing their own kind of crafts too. like Daniel who insisted on making Lego jello molds.
And Hyrum's had fun making movies:
One of the great thins about the timing of our homecoming was that Maxwell and Hyrum were able to go to Lyber Retreat. This is a highlight of the year for Maxwell. I was so happy that they had that chance. In our journeys we listened to "Secret Garden" and "Little Britches" in preparation.
They also had to read an essay that was about not seeing your self as a victim and not having any excuses to get what you want. It was good, but it had this in it "“One of the epidemics of our time is the fad of “learning disabilities.” If a child is labeled with some disorder, then everyone – the teacher, the parent and even the child – is absolved of personal responsibility.”
That was sooooo not okay with me, and I wrote a long letter to the camp telling them what I thought about that. They were really sweet and said they were already going to debate that with the kids about what was right and what wasn't in the article.
ANYWAYS.......WE'RE BACK
Home in Canada (for now ;P )
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