Wear Sunscreen

I love this column by Mary Schmich -- written in 1997 and incorrectly attributed as a commencement address. I found a copy going through some old pictures of Lauren as a baby. Love the words of advice, love the memories it invokes (I guess I'm getting to the age that I wish I could go back and follow some of the advice that was given) and advice I would give to my kids!

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

Remodeling 101

So last August for Kenzi's birthday she got a new loft bed with a desk. Of course she really needed new carpet so we didn't want to put in the bed until we painted, put in new carpet, etc.

Long story short, 4 1/2 months later RC Willey will finally get me to pick up the bed.

We decided to switch Cameron and Kenzi rooms, repaint, patch some holes (ok... so it ended up being a drywall project as well), fix a door frame (thanks Barrett!!!) and we might as well get new blinds too!!!

The beds and dressers and mattresses are scattered throughout the house, Cam hasn't slept in his bed for a month (the other night I walked out of my room at 11:30 pm and tripped over something -- Cameron asleeping in the doorway of our room).

The carpet comes tomorrow so we can start to put it back together!!!!! Lauren asked if we could have a little fun with the carpet before they take it out.

Here are some pix of the kids "Plan of Salvation" drawings... it is Sunday so we thought we'd tie in the carpet destruction to our FHE lesson for the week. We jut traced their bodies and they are doing self-portraits now... I'll have to add those pictures later.

Happy New Yearzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Along with everything else this year, Cameron was so excited for New Year's Eve. He has seen all of the past pictures at the cabin with games, hat, jumping off the deck, etc. but he always sleeps through.

This year we went to the cabin with Grandpa and the Walls. With tons of snow and lots of games and treats we were ready for the big night. Lauren picked out blowers and party hats for everyone.

We played Mario Cart, ate pizza and played game after game after game. About 8:30 pm Cameron said, "Mom when does the party start." I explained that the party was already going and he was not happy. "No, this needs to be like a birthday party."

So he made a dart game with our party hats, set up a football game and added some zip to the party. With a wild candy bar game Cameron was finally convinced the party was underway... but he couldn't wait until we "shot off the guns."

About 11:45 pm he came and sat on my lap and within 10 seconds -- literally -- he was fast asleep. At midnight I tried so hard to wake him up. I stood him up, opened his eyes, walked out to the deck... nothing. The girls all ran outside banging pans, jumping off the deck into the snow, letting off poppers... still nothing. I finally handed him to Grandpa and he slept on his lap until I put him in bed about 1:00 am.

The next morning he came into my room and with big tears asked why we didn't finish the party. I explained that 15 minutes before midnight he fell asleep and that we tried and tried to wake him. He burst into tears and everytime anyone mentioned it for the next two hours he would burst into tears.

I told him when the Cottles came up he and Rachel could pop the poppers we saved him and he could do his celebrating.

There is always next year Cameron!!!

New Year's Day was packed with more food and hours of sledding. The Cottles brought the 4-wheelers so we went up and down the mountain for hours -- I think Jana and Lauren were out there for 3 1/2 hours before they finally came in. As usual, Rob hooked up a great rig and 6 or 7 of us would go up and down each time. Even Grandpa joined in the fun.

Kenzi, Cam, Katie, Rachel and I went iceskating and then we had a great time playing more games all evening. I think we had 17 of us at the cabin last night -- which lended itself to not a lot of sleep, but a lot of fun.

Merry, Merry Christmas!! Yawn, Yawn Yawn....

1:30 am -- I finally turn off the reading light and put down North and South (January bookclub book that just happens to be my new favorite sappy BBC love story -- thanks Katie!!). What a great Christmas Eve. Party at Grandpa's was the best! Trip to the cemetary to sing to mom, followed by the traditional Wall family teriyaki steak, stuffed mushrooms, 7-layer dip, artichoke dip, sausage rolls, fruit, veggies, shrimp and more.... Fiona and Bobby and Anna, Tamera and Cory all joined us this year (for a total of about 32 or 33 people!)

The new and revamped Manger Scene (thanks Brooke it was good and Rob your addition of Samuel the Lamanite was great as well) was wonderful! Cameron had been waiting for weeks to be a shepherd and he took his roll very seriously. Baby Jonah stole the show as they layed him in the great manger Anna made. (And Christopher and Adam fine acting!!)

Of course, Dave and Scott had to do one horrible piano/guitar duet and Adam and Dave grossed me out by wrestling and Dave getting desperate so they starting giving each other wedgies.

Cousin presents were fabulous -- the kids couldn't have picked out something they wanted better if they had done it themselves.

The Jammie dance/mambo line was fun as ever, with a pile on Grandpa to end the evening. I really do love our Christmas Eve tradition. It is a little wild, a little long (got home about 10:30 pm) but the kids love it -- I love it and it is so fun to be all togther.

3:30 am - 5:30 am -- "MOM, MOM, MOM... can we get up a open presents now? We are all awake." (We as in I just woke them all up!!) Who was this... our 4-year old... no it was Lauren who is 11 and has way to much energy and excitement at 3:30 am. So, for the next 3 1/2 hours every 20-30 minutes she would run upstairs and say, "can we get up now."

5:30 am -- MOM, MOM, MOM... DAD please wake up. Finally Dave said everyone get in bed with us and go back to sleep. So all 5 Hess's tried snoozing away. As Cameron climbed in bed, with a huge smile on his face, he said "Dad, don't be mad.... but Santa left me a real gun... a real one!!"

6:45 am -- Meow!! Somehow the cat got out of his room and came upstairs to be let out. Ok, so we finally gave in and we all got up and mom working on 2+ 20 minutes here and there hours of sleep started the day. And yes, I am still yawning!

The next two hours consisted of screams of delight, excitement and incredibly excited/gracious kids. They loved everything so much they stopped along the way and played with things, looked at things, laughed and talked. Somehow with all of their excitement the gift opening lasted probably 2 hours.

The best mental picture I will always keep in my mind if Cameron in the shower using his new shaving kit Lauren gave him. He has already had two showers today so he could go lather up his face, hang up the batman mirror and act like Dave shaving in the shower.

And the new wii games -- if anyone ever said the wii is for our kids they've never watched Dave play the Wii.

(Kenzi is dying to get on Webkinz and try her new trading cards so I will write about Christmas day on a different post.)

Day 10: December 11 -- The Red Eye Home

No Personal Entertainment Devices, but within seconds of boarding the plane Kenzi and Cameron were sleeping. After a long 6 hours (somehow Kenzi got the best ride, her head on my lap and her feet on Dave) we were home.

Ok... talk about cold shock. We went from swimsuits and flipflops to snow and 30 degrees. Nice Sterling picked us up and we shivered all the way home.

We arrived back in Bountiful... the end of our vacation. Tanned, tired and longing to return we went inside to discover our wonderful friend Val and brought us a gallon of milk and a huge breakfast casserole with a note "We thought you might be hungry -- Merry Christmas!" Sweet Val made it feel ok to be home!!!

Day 9: December 10th -- Aloha to Hawaii

With much sadness (everyone begging to stay another day) we got up early, cleaned up and checked out. After a quick stop at the swap meet (we just had to go back and get a few more things) we went back to the north shore.

We stopped at Sharks Cove again and then met Bethany and Adam & Stacey at Hukilau beach. There were some intermittent sprinkles, but nothing big enough to spoil the day. Adam and Stacey and Lauren tried building a snowman in the sand, Kenzi boogy boarded until she was blue again and Cameron "high-yayed" Karate kicking the ocean for 2 hours. The kids found a big hole another family had dug in the sand and had a great time playing there.

Just as it was time to pack up a little rain storm came by... the result... the most beautiful double rainbow I have ever seen. It was a full rainbow that crossed the entire ocean and I got the most beautiful picture with Dave. As we watched the rainbow Dave told the kids "This is a sign from God. We are supposed to move to Hawaii." I must say, we couldn't have planned a better ending to our last beach day.

We sadly packed up and went back to the Cottles to shower and get rid of the sand. The girls and I got locked in the bathroom which added just a little more fun to our final hours in Hawaii. All of the Cottles then joined us for take out on Sharks Beach (yummm more shrimp and lunchables for the kids???). We all watched the sunset, ate yummy food and wished we could stay longer!!!! Does it get any better than this?

Reluctantly we said goodbye and headed back to the airport. Everything was smooth and after taking some pictures we left Hawaii.

Day 8: December 9th -- Temple & PCC

Dave and I got up early the next morning and drove back to the North Shore to go through the temple. I had done baptisms when I was at BYU Hawaii and had always wanted to do a session. Everyone was so gracious and kind and it was a beautiful session. It was cool to see the layout of that temple before the renovate it this January.

We picked up the kids and heard all about their sleepover with Bethany, movies, breakfast at the cafeteria and playing with Anniston.

It was time to head to the shrimp trucks (Subway again for the kids?!?!) and it was definitely worth the wait. Yummmm.... why didn't we just eat that every day?

Next... Polynesian Cultural Center. We loved this of course and enjoyed the canoe rides, shows, luau and especially the night show. They also loved the fishing and Cameron and Lauren got to be in the Tonga show. Cameron kept saying he didn't want to see the fire dancers, until we reassured him they wouldn't be throwing any fire on us. The luau was tasty and the kids loved getting leis. We were all fascinated by the night show (except for Cam who was zonked) but we did wake him for the fire dancers.

Day 7: December 8 -- The Perfect North Shore Day

If you could plan a perfect North Shore day -- this day would be it.

We started off early and headed to the north shore. We took one of the scenic routes (ok so they are all scenic routes) and stopped by the Dole Pineapple Plantation. We didn't really plan to do much of anything other than go look at some pineapples growing, but we didn't last very long there. We got out of the car, took a picture and went in the Dole store. The girls and I were buying a few Christmas ornaments while Dave took Cameron to take care of Mother Nature (Cameron's new favorite way to say he has to go potty "Mom, Mother Nature is Calling!"). When they got out of the bathroom Dave came up, hardly breathing... I thought he was having a heart attack and said we've got to go -- NOW! We got out to the car and he finally starting breathing. Let's just say Dave doesn't like things that are tourist set up type deals and the Dole store was too much for him to handle.

Our first stop along the beach was Hailiua -- home of Motsomotos shave ice -- with vanilla icecream of course! When I went to BYU Hawaii this was one of the places our totally cool surf instructor took us so I had been dying to go there. It was everything I remembered and still just as cool. What a great little town!!

Next stop -- Turtle Beach. Brutus the turtle was conveniently lounging in the sun on the shore while we were there and another guy was bobbing in the ocean. The kids loved seeing the huge turtles up close and personal.

Waimai Bay was the swimming/relaxing beach stop for the day. This is the beach my friend Anne and I went to a lot. It was beautiful, not crowded at all, and as usual, relaxing. The kids had a great time finding miniature sand dollars on the beach. The Cottles joined us for a while and the kids loved having Anniston there.

We were then off to Sharks Cove to play in the tide pools -- we didn't actually know about this in advance and just happened to stop when we saw them. It was low tide and we couldn't have hit it at a better time. We saw tons of tropical fish, a miniature eel, a "peeing" sea cucumber, tons of sea urchins and crabs. Oddly enough, Kenzi the one who generally loves creepy crawly things, was a little freaked out by everything swimming around her ankles and being so up-close.

It was time to head to BYU Hawaii and drop off the kids for a sleepover. Adam and Stacey offered to let the kids stay over night so we could go have a nice dinner and go to the temple. The kids thought this was one of the greatest adventures of the trip. They got to eat at the cafeteria and then came back and made movies with Bethany. I am told there was hysterical laughing througout the night. (And... Adam got some practice with changing poopy toddler boxers -- thanks to Cameron.)

Dave and I headed off to a perfect little place on the North Shore called Jamesons. We sat right in front of the ocean with tiki torches and dined on seafood and macademia nut cookie pie with fudge. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day!

December 7th -- Day 6: A Relaxing, Beautiful Sunday

When we booked the trip I was a little worried about Sunday, but it turned out just great.

It started at 4:30 am with Dave and I both being awakened by cars, yelling and quite the scenes below. We went out on the patio and just laughed. A few blocks down from our condo are some "not so nice" bars -- that only come out and open their doors at night. (Lauren was just dying every night when we walked by... fortunately Kenzi was totally oblivious and Dave and Cam stay at the condo when we go out on our nightly ventures). But it was a wild Saturday night and people had had a little too much to drink. Watching the police down the street break up a fight, the drunk guy pass out at McDonald's and more we were just so happy we have Word of Wisdom! When the girls woke up in the morning I made them promise not to ever taste a drop of alcohol or touch any kinds of drugs.

So... off the church went. It was really cool! We slipped in a minute late (only got slightly lost for a minute on the way) and they were singing the sacrament song. I'd say 3/4 of the ward were Polynesian and I just loved looking around at the shapes, sizes and accents of everyone. As they passed the sacrament I could feel the spirit so strongly and was so happy that we know the life we know... what a contrast from what Dave and I saw the night before. (Ok so a few more tears that morning.)

It was testimony meeting so we got to hear from the soldier returning from Afghanistan, the lovely islanders who were so sweet, the cute investigator who talked about Revelelations and looked like "Ignaya Montoya" from Princess Bride and the sweet little girls who had their testimonies written down so they wouldn't forget anything.

It was cool to see the Sunday School schedule where they teach Gospel Doctrine in 6 different languages!

After church another bit of bad news. We were home changing getting ready to see the other side of the island and Kenzi announces she isn't feeling well -- I'm guessing from what she said another case of strep. I can't complain too much because so far any sicknesses have come with as "perfect of timing" as we could ask. After some calls to our nice Dr. and some mix up on prescriptions, we ended up just putting Kenzi on Cameron's prescription.

Again, thanks to Ibuprofen we headed off to a Buddist Temple at Beautiful Valley of the Temples. It was so beautiful! There was a bell you would ring before entering the temple and we took off our shoes and lit incense in front of the 18 foot gold buddah.

The kids again found a penny squisher and loved feeding the fish and the birds that would eat out of their hands.

A beautiful drive around the island, with some stops and picture taking along the way, and we went to see the Cottles. We sent Kenzi to sleep in the spare room so we wouldn't share germs and had a fun lunch with them. Cameron and Lauren had so much fun playing games and playing with Anniston. We then headed over to the Temple. I forgot how beautiful it was over there. The grounds were gorgeous and they had trees decorated from all of the stakes on Oahu with a scripture theme. It was fun seeing the visitor center adorned with surf boards.

We had a beautiful drive home and the kids came home and crashed! Since it was Sunday and everyone was dead we didn't do our nightly walk, but I did do a trip to the pharmacy to load up on more Ibuprofen.