Ready for a change- time for a short cut

 After a few of the things that have been going on, I was starting to feel A little stuck. We weren’t moving so I couldn’t change that— I just got forced out of my church calling— couldn’t change that no matter how much I wanted to. And so I turned to what I could change— my hair. Honestly- I had had my long hippie braids and only wore my braids during the day for so many years. Pretty boring …

So I looked up a couple of images that I could show the hairdresser and Ben was like yeah you should do it in a very supportive way. But this was pretty impulsive idea and when I got there that day, lady didn’t even try to talk me out of it—and one thing I am a little frustrated about is I could’ve donated so much hair For locks of love, but she didn’t even offer…. She also asked how long I had been thinking about this style and I said 3 days— that’s not very long!!

And then she  just went right to it. I didn’t even have time to change my mind. It went short quick and there was hair everywhere. Three times they came in and swept up the floor!! She did a great job with the initial cut and styling it and helping me feel so free and fun with my new shortcut.

Ben has said it has changed my whole look to a more sporty type of lady!

I was feeling pretty good about the big change that had happened until Ben showed me the before and the after pictures —I couldn’t believe what I had done!! Major regret in a way but I also knew I couldn’t do anything to go back. So now I’m going through  another chapter and phase and it’s gonna me fun!

It’s just hair… right?

Family portraits

 

Waimea Bay for memorial day

 

One of my Hawaii dreams finally came true today!!

After seeing friends who come and visit for a week get lucky enough to swim with the dolphins in Waimea a huge pod of dolphins came out and was splashing, jumping spinning for the whole day we couldn’t believe it!

It was amazing how close they were and would get to the people out paddling in the bay or swimming in fact, my friend Val, and her daughter Olivia said Dolphins were just circling them and swimming right underneath them and they even touched their body touch their legs! They said a baby dolphin went right between their legs!!

It was an incredible show, watching these wonderful animals, jump, spin, swim, and splash for the whole day! Randall Kim said her has lived here his whole life and NEVER has seen dolphins like he did today. It was an amazing experience and one I hope the kids will never forget.

Of course - dolphins or not— the kids have the best time at Waimea Bay, especially when they have friends to jump off the rock, snorkel and paddle around with.

Ballet and surgery

Brielle has been taking ballet with sariah🌹 and (Mabel) for the last eight months and has really loved it. This was the end of the school year recital and it really was amazing to see the confidence and smiles on all the girls faces but especially Brielle!! the girls worked really hard And the teacher. Miss Alicia knows what she is doing to push them - firm but in a good way—so refreshing.

We were all able to be there and I’m know that her brothers were very glad to watch Brielle do something that she loves so much Brielle‘s last recital. Carol brought a date and they were dressed up after just coming from a wedding.

A few of the friends from church came to support Brielle sariah🌹 and (Mabel) Isa Wells and Sister Diane Alailima. Momma Petrice Rose is now one of the young women leaders so we wanted to get this group together :)

Cael is quite the supportive brother—  he and Brielle have a lot of fun together!

So after the dance we headed straight to triplet hospital to visit Cannon…

This guy Finally went in for surgery that morning to remove his tonsils and adenoids after having a sleep apnea diagnosis in December we were finally able to get him in. The doctors said everything went well for the surgery. His adenoids were so huge as they were taking them out that kept clogging their removal machine. No wonder that poor kid had a struggle breathing through his nose with a blockage like that!!

He had a cute little voice when he talked and was in very minimal amount of pain. In fact he started eating real food that night they gave him chicken and potatoes and broccoli. And when we would ask if he needed some pain or what his pain level was at, he would say “1 or 2 or nothing”. He did not appreciate the Tylenol or ibuprofen taste flavors. It was a bit of an ordeal to get him to take the medicine so after a few days we stopped trying and he was totally fine. The doctor said to plan for him being out of school for at least two weeks, which was the last two weeks of school, was totally fine if he never went back to school !! But the fun things and class parties and eventually when he had been out for a few days and had the weekend to recover, he was ready to go back for Some of the class fun at the end of school!

 

Kicked out of primary 😭

I’m smiling in the outside but crying on the inside… okay I’m also crying in the outside too! 😭😭

 Honestly. I am sad. Getting Released from this calling is still fresh and has been hard. I’m Still recovering from really hurt feelings and how it happened . No one told me this was happening— in fact the last time Bishop met with me he said to keep going and make plans for the rest of the year. There was some weird comments and Ben keep asking if anyone had talked to me yet? What was that supposed to mean?? So there were clues but I didn’t really believe them. So right before church I sit down with Bishop - it was Sunday morning on mother’s day, I just started bawling— really couldn’t believe this was how it was going to happen— I did feel caught off guard- it felt like getting “fired” and that has never happened to me before!! And in the office as I’m crying there wasn’t any tissues- just rough brown paper towels. I felt awful! I am still in a delicate place emotionally. Still cry when it is brought up... I’ve been released from callings but for some reason this one is especially hard. I am crying a lot.

The main Reason it was explained I was getting released was that it’s difficult to have a family with both husband and wife in two “presidency and bishopric”- ward callings… it was one of the reasons why the previous primary President was released and I got out in— Her husband was a counselor in the bishopric. But I didn’t think that was necessary and firmly stated my position that I would be completely fine doing this calling for as long as he needed me to do it and if there was one of us that needed to be released, it would probably be Ben. He gave it a good try as a counselor for a few months, but I was very happy to be Staying in primary for ever.

So there you go….  It all went down and I’m going through the stages of grief 😢😭 some anger denial and mostly feeling sad —don’t mind me as I sink into this depression.

I guess it just goes to show for the amount of effort I spent thinking planning and trying to make primary a special place for all of the sweet kiddos… that’s why it hurts so badly. The amount of effort is equal to the amount of loss I feel.

 

Big Island for 3 days

Ben was traveling for a medical conference on the big island and I wasn’t quite sure if I should go but after what happened on Sunday, I was feeling like it was probably a good idea to get out of the house- so I could cry in a different location 🥲🥹

Ben would leave early in the morning and get home around lunchtime. In the meantime for me I went to free exercise classes and arts and crafts activities at the resort. Plus the pool and lagoon and beautiful sunshine. I walked around and ate some food and sat in the sun.

Our Monday adventure was doing the snorkeling with the manta rays. It was raining a little bit as we pulled up to the dock to the boat and I was nervous about getting cold getting into the water. I even asked for two wetsuits to try to help conserve warmth.

The water was pretty pretty good not too rough out there, but as the boat began to rock and roll, I knew I needed to either eat some of those ginger chews and luckily we had taken some motion sickness medicine.

It was pretty incredible to have these amazing creatures within an inch of my body as it came up to the board that we were holding onto and flipping and rolling right in front of my eyes. I would giggle in my snorkel and squeal with delight each time they came by me.

Two of the Monteray’s stayed by us for most of the evening and then there was a little lull where they appeared to have left, and that’s when I thought I was ready to go back to the boat, but figured I might as well stay until it was time for us to get out. Suddenly down along the bottom of the ocean floor  I started to count 1234 89! Nine Monteray showed up right there at the end!! 

When we got back to the boat, Ben went towards the front, leaned over the side and began to puke His guts out. Apparently he didn’t do good with the position stretched out in the water and was Feeling sick most of the time  🤢 

I knew if I stayed next to him while he was puking I would not do good either so I quickly took off my wetsuit, Grabbed my towel to dry off, And sat on the bench on the far side away from him on the boat and started drinking my hot chocolate 😂😂

this was our view from our room, pools, ocean and resort!

I would say the one downside of this place is the parking lot is a mile away from your room so get ready for over 10,000 steps a day if you try to leave this place!

Just up the road was this really cool petroglyph Trail, with ancient Hawaiian images in the middle of a lava field, the trees were gnarly in the trail was rooty and dusty. It reminded us a little bit of the forest in the princess bride.

 It was a beautiful stay on the big island and we really lucked out with the weather apparently It had been raining the whole time back here On Oahu!

Sadly, I had to cut my trip short because Cannon had an appointment on Thursday afternoon regarding getting his tonsils out and apparently they needed the adult there to fill out the paperwork 😢😩 oh well. 

Mother’s Day Hike Kolekole

Connor is such a good sport! When I told him what I wanted to do for Mother’s Day he said he would Go with me. Kolekole is a hike only opened on certain weekends and I knew this was my chance to make it up to the top again or at least try.

Headed up The trail it starts off pretty easy, but then you reach a point where it really is a steep ascent with ropes, scrambling and loose rocks. I kept saying how I wanted to really see if we could make it to the top and Connor continued to express how he was nervous and didn’t want to die especially because it was quite windy that morning.

So we kept stopping at certain landmarks, a little bit further up the trail just to get a better look and honestly, I was hoping that he would change his mind and agree to make it to the top with me. I didn’t want him to feel unsafe, but he really was saying let’s go back. Let’s go back…

Right when I told him we could turn around— but look how close we are… If we didn’t quite make it to the top and so I’m gonna have to come back and do it again. He finally agreed to keep pushing forward and it really we were almost there… we just needed to go a little bit further and higher!

Yay!! We made it!!! Here’s the view going off to the west side and my smile because we got where I wanted to go

Headed back down the mountain… a smile of relief. We really were trying to hustle because we needed to get home and hurry and get ready for church

And here were a few posts that Connor shared on Mother’s Day that really Made me smile! He is a good boy that loves his momma! 
 

Durtschi Dean and Platt OAHU 2025

It is so fun when friends come to visit me! I get to enjoy being on vacation and still going home and sleeping in my own bed! I really do love these ladies that make traveling and adventuring so easy and fun! Every day was filled and the time just flew by!

 we had a great day at the PCC the shows were amazing and The weather was practically perfect!

Snorkeling at electric Beach in the evening no one else was out there but us.

Judd trail and ginger pool. I decided to go down the slide a couple of times and then jump off the far rock. There’s something about being with your buddies that you just start doing crazy things

Our first day sunrise hike because everyone was up early super windy, but also gorgeous way to start the day!

Durtschi  Dean and Platt

Hawaii adventure 2025

Thursday - arrive and pick up rental

Head up to Haleiwa

Dole plantation- dole whip

Beach park

Farmers market dinner sandwich to share 

Eat and walk around 

Jodi crashes at 6

Friday - everyone awake at 4- we leave the house at 5 for 6 am sunrise 

Makapuu Lighthouse sunrise 

Breakfast Over easy yum yum!

Set up at Bellows 10:30-2:30 swim, play, walk & rest

Ho’omaluhia botanical garden to the lake

Byodo-In buddist temple peaceful walk

Paia fish tacos

Double 3 ice cream in Kailua

Saturday- Jodi and Rachelle leave for the day — I was coaching my volleyball team at our end of season tournament. A fun, but emotionally draining day. 

Pearl Harbor

Swap meet

Waikiki 

Leonard’s Malasada brought home 

Monday

Judd trail and swimming hole 1 mile

Lulumahu waterfall 2mi 

Pali lookout - super windy

Guieb lunch- burger, prime rib and purple sauce on French toast 

Electric beach snorkel- out to the pipe hot water and fish all over

Paradise cove beach for sunset 

Tuesday- Haleiwa and Laie

Paddle river Anahula river Haleiwa

Kono’s breakfast with Ben

Aweoweo beach snorkel with turtles

Polynesian cultural center

Meat pie ice cream and cookies for dinner 

Wednesday - west side 

Rise and shine yummy burrito waffle and Kim chee fried rice

Mermaid cave jump swim

Beach and sunshine time

Snorkel with turtles Kalanianaole beach 

Taste buds sushi taco 

Shower, pack, and drop off at the airport 🥲🥹