Where do I even begin with this precious family? I have known the Statons since I was two years old. Our parents met at church many moons ago… back when I was the only kiddo between the two families. Matt was just a twinkle in his parents’ eyes. 🙂 We grew up together celebrating holidays, birthdays, and vacationing together. As I grew older, I babysit for them and traveled to the mountains once to babysit…needless to say the stomach bug hit and they ended up taking care of me instead of me taking care of the boys. Needless to say, Matt was a stinky middle schooler when Kevin and I began to date and he was eventually the crucifer in our wedding. As years passed and Adrian joined our lives (they are high school sweethearts..in fact, we all went to the same high school) we instantly loved her too. She joined the chaos and stuck around because eventually it was our sweet Grace that was the flower girl in their wedding. We have all grown up and began our own families and have become successful…but more importantly…happy and BLESSED adults. We have a rich history of amazing memories, inside jokes, and funny stories. It is such a blessing to be able to watch their sweet family grow. They are so darn cute and we love them to pieces. Kenzie now has a tradition of coming to see our girls in the Nutcracker every year and Levi will soon get to see all the cool Marine stuff that Kevin has access too. It is so nice to still be a part of their lives and continue to make sweet memories with them.

PS….ok, I couldn’t let this blog post go by without telling you about the craziest experience we’ve shared with this special family. When Kenzie was little, we lived in Hawaii and these BRAVE parents decided to come visit us. She was a trooper and traveled like a BOSS!!! The only problem when they arrived was that we were in the middle of a tsunami warning because the massive earthquake off the island of Japan (Fukashima) had just happened and the buoys had picked up big waves heading to the Hawaiian Island chain. So they land, I pick them up….we were going back later that evening to pick up Kevin from the airport because he was traveling from California where he had been for a week training. We sat and watched the news all evening. I get ready to go get Kevin and the flight had been turned around back to Cali because they closed the airport due to the impending tsunami. OMG!?!?!! So here I have our three girls, three houseguests, and a hubby that can’t get back to our island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This had doom and gloom all over it. I did what all military spouses do….sucked it up and made a game plan. I started packing water, food, clothes for two days, meds, etc. so that if/when we were evacuated to higher ground, we’d be ready to roll. That movie about the East Coast being destroyed by the massive tsunami began playing through my head. I put everyone to bed and stayed glued to the TV waiting for reports of what size wave was to hit Kaua’i. As it got closer, the military police began knocking on our friends’ doors telling them it was time to go to higher ground. I immediately went upstairs to start waking our family and guests up…nothing like going to paradise only to be told you would be traveling to higher ground so you can survive. Really?!?!

Much to my dismay….Matt had picked up a stomach bug during their travels. As I went to tell Adrian to get dressed and get Kenzie ready…Matt looked me dead in the eye and said leave me here…I’ll crawl out on the roof if I have to but I cannot get in a car right now and travel anywhere. It truly was like a scene in a movie….what in the world were we going to do?!?!! So I calmly went back downstairs to pray, watch the reports, and wait for the MP’s to make us evacuate. It was such a helpless feeling. About that time….a small wave hit Kaua’i but posed no real threat. Our sea level on Oahu rose a little, but nothing drastic. The ending to a stress-filled day/night was spent watching the water on Waikiki be sucked out into the ocean and rush back in over the sea wall. We were so blessed and so thankful! Bless Matt’s heart that he spent that first night on the bathroom floor and then graciously shared his gift with everyone else throughout the week except for Adrian and I…. heehee But we did manage to see the sights (with only the people who weren’t sick that day) and by mid-week everyone was back to full health and their dreams of enjoying Hawaiian Paradise were fulfilled!!!

These types of experiences bond your friendship like nothing else can! We love you Staton family! And we can’t wait for another fun filled family vacay! 🙂