HEFY trip - Fiji

Savannah and I had the greatest adventure this summer.  We joined the group HEFY and traveled to the South Pacific and helped out a school on Fiji and built a house for a family on Tonga.  It was an incredible experience that lasted 3 weeks.  We met some of the neatest people and made such good friends.  We worked really hard and played just as hard!  I would recommend it to everyone.  The group consisted of 19 teenagers from ages 16-19 and two parents (me) and Larry (a dad from Canada) and the two college aged counselors.  We all met in LA and took a 13 hour plane ride to Fiji.  You loose a day when you travel that far.  So we left on Tuesday and it was Thursday when we arrived in Fiji.  One of the kids Birthday was on that Wednesday, so he missed his Birthday all together.  Such a weird thing.  When we arrived, we were took a 1 hour boat ride to an island off the coast of Fiji.  It was called Waya Lei Lei.  It was beautiful.  While in Fiji we did some Crazy things.  First we hiked to the top of the island.  Parts of that hike were straight up and many times there were cliffs on both sides. Our Guide was from the island and wore flip flops.  Crazy!  The next day we went snorkeling.  It was so beautiful!  We headed out in a boat made for 20 - we had 35,  they didn't have enough snorkel equipment for everyone so you shared :) Germ aphobes will love that!  hahaha    We were out in the middle of the ocean, it was so beautiful and then as we are snorkeling our guide catches a fish and with his knife slices it open and SHARKS start swarming the area!  It was CRAZY!  Our guide is picking up these reef sharks and throwing them out of the water and riding them!   It was UNBELIEVABLE!  Sharks would brush up against your leg.  It was nuts!   After that grand adventure we went over to a school out and played with the kids and donated books we had brought to help their school.  All the kids live on that island or  surrounding islands.  If they don't live on that island they stay in a dorm for the week and then go home for the weekend.  These are small children just in elementary school.

We had to sleep with mosquito nets because there were tons of spiders, lizards, bugs crazy things!  Mitchell (our cousin who came with us)  was not feeling well the whole time we were in Fiji and continued to be sick for a few more days until they decided it was best for him to go home.  When he got home he ended up with Pneumonia and stayed pretty sick for a while.  Poor kid.  We left on Saturday night for a 2 hour flight to Tonga.  Fiji was beautiful and very kind people.

Our boat that took us to the island

Notice the gas cans.  That is how they run the boat:)

Waya Lei Lei

Great view of our island

This boat should not have this many people on it I am sure!

view from our island

This is part of that CRAZY hike

The view was worth it!

Sleeping with  lizards!

Snorkeling 

Beautiful water  with sharks!

The guides on our boat were catching lots of fish while we were snorkeling that became our dinner that night.

The kids at the school

Savy reading one of the books she brought

They were so cute!

Trek -6/17

Right after we got home from the Wedding Savannah and Steve headed off to Martin's Cove Wyoming with the Youth of our stake.  They had a great time.  Savannah was in the Adam's family and learned Latter-day prophets backwards.  We are not campers and so we bought a cot for Steve to sleep on.  It was too big for our tent so he slept with his feet out of the tent.  It was so good to hear all the great stories and experiences they had.  Savannah gained a new appreciation for our pioneer heritage.

Savy and her sister Shayla

Part of the Adams family

This is what we did while they were gone.  Still a little cold.

Taylor's Wedding Day

A beautiful day for a wedding!  It was so nice to see how happy Taylor and McKenna are!  We had a great time.  The reception was so fun!  With the Johnson tribe you don't need very much entertainment - We are the entertainment!  I'm not sure Mckenna knew what she was getting into before the wedding but now she is in it FOREVER!  hahaha  I love my crazy family!

Blake is on his mission so they made a substitute :)

Grandpa entertaining the groups!

Grace and Cade

me and my girl

my cute little mom

Newport beach temple had beautiful fountains

the Schwartz family

The Parkers

Johnson family

Gma & Pa Johnson

Lauren & Taylor

Derek & Savy

Two's peas in pod

 sS

Steve and his girls

Dancing the Night away

Turn

California

My nephew Taylor got married in the Newport Beach temple so we started our summer off staying in the Hyatt at Huntington beach with our cousins.  We swam in the pools, played at the ocean, ate Round Table pizza & played at the beach.  It was so fun!  It was Addison and Weston's first time to the Beach.  They loved it!  How could they not with Johnson blood running through their veins:)  

Baby Blessing

We have so much going on in the next few month we blessed baby Paden at home on Sunday June 9th.  It was their stake conference but we didn't have another weekend until the end of the summer.  Steve was able to fly down and the girls and I had driven.  David and Lauren came up from Provo.  It was a nice day and Justin gave a beautiful blessing!  All the girls got Pedicures because Taylor's wedding is next week!  Addi loved her first pedicure!

Lagoon

We the twins to Lagoon with my some sisters and  the cousins.  It was so fun!  Addison and Weston loved it.  Addison was so scared on the rides and would only go with Olivia.  She would hold her so tight we probably should have cut her nails before we went so Olivia wouldn't have so many war wounds!  Weston loved the rides!  He just kept asking to again, again again!

A New Grand Baby

May 12, 2013 Paden Guy Schwartz was born weighing in at 9lbs 2 oz.  What a cutie!  I went and helped take care of the Schwartz's for a week and then brought the twins home with me for a week.   We traded off with the other grandparents and then took them back for Memorial Day Weekend.  Both baby and mama were starting to to get bored with no one at home:)