A candle's light to see us through the winter

One of my favorite parts of the day during the winter season is to light up the candles on our table during dinner. It's gotten so dark at dinnertime now and there is something so warm and reassuring about the candle light coming from the 4 candles that adorn our table. These are not just any 4 candlesticks that adorn our table. Oh no! These four candlesticks were made by the boys these past 2 years in school.


Here is Boy Wonder holding his candlestick that he made at Mtn. School last year. The candle was tall at the begining of the season. It will be time for a new candle soon.

Here we are in Bubba's class lighting this year's new candles in the pretty holders the children have made. Isn't it beautiful? I just love this tradition.

If you were to ask the boys what their favorite part of the candle tradition was they would probably say..blowing them out. Even Emily has learned to blow out a candle thanks to our boys. And that's no small feat for a one year old.

May this winter bring light in your life.

Happy New Year's Eve to all!!

Has Fall FINALLY arrived in CA?

We have very few deciduous trees on our property. But here is our lovely peach tree losing it's leaves. The boys are enjoying an hour outside while I unload the grocery bags from the car and make lunch. It looks like they have found some leaves to keep them busy. Raking up leaves. If that isn't a sign of fall then I don't know what is.

A boy and his chicken

At Bubba's school there are 3 chickens. They are free to roam the school grounds during the day. They are amazing chickens as they allow the children to chase them and carry them around. Bubba loves one of the chickens..the poppy chicken. Poppy chicken just happens to have the same name as his grandfather. Very sweet coincidence.

Here is my little boy and his chicken...

Now...I have to admit, in all my years at the school I have yet to be brave enough to reach out and pick up any of the chickens even though I have watched many children do so. Maybe this year I will be brave enough. I'm sure Bubba would help me.

Mother Nature's Boys...

I love being outside and could spend hours on walks lost in my own daydreams and filling my lungs with the scents of the outdoors. I grew up with the stories of my parents' childhoods filling my head. The ideas of playing in the creek, hunting for bugs, climbing a tall tree, picking a tomato from a vine and sitting down in the tall grasses to eat it. Running in packs with the neighborhood children, fishing, sneaking over the neighbor's fence to feed the cow, playing outside everyday and only returning home at dusk because you could no longer see and your tummy was a little hungry. This was not exactly the childhood I had but the dream of one I carried for my own children. And though we have had to tweak it quite a bit to get it to resemble something of my parents generations' childhoods, I hope my children will one day have fond fond memories of spending their childhoods outdoors. Of building mother earth houses, growing a garden, collecting leaves, studying bugs, playing in creeks, hiking, camping, climbing trees, spending summers at the ocean's edge, laying on your back and watching the clouds go by...just breathing and being still in mother nature's world. Life moves so fast with the constant bombardment of chores, meetings, deadlines, over extending one's self with so many committments that it can be hard to remember to make time to just be, to explore and discover what is in our own backyards.

Mother Earth houses created by Boy Wonder. I prefer the name Fairy House.. :-)

Bubba's 1st day of school

Here's my baby boy ready to head off to his first day of school. He was so excited especially after watching his big brother go to school the day before. We had a lovely first day. The weather was in the 100's in town so it was a very nice low 80's in the mtns. What a treat! It's quite a hike from the parking area to the outdoor classroom. Bubba had to carry his own backpack and it was little touch and go. I wasn't sure if was going to make it up the .5 mile incline in one piece. But when he made it to the top and the redwood grove came into view and he could once again see the sandbox and the teepee, the trucks and rakes and the kids playing he was all smiles again. He quickly handed off his backpack and settled into the sand. We later made our way over to the creek. Bubba had fun following his cousin and teacher over tree logs and navigating the rocky waters. So much steadier on his feet than last spring! He found two banana slugs and had his teacher move them so they could be together and out of the way of little rainboot covered feet.

The rest of the morning included snack time, story time, going for a hike, playing in the sand box, singing songs, circle time and lunch box time and meeting new friends. It looks like it will be another fun class with lots of great people.

I'm so happy that we are carpooling again with my lovely nephew and my sister. Bubba had a great day and I'm sure he will do just fine on Auntie's day to drive. Good luck to her!

Boy Wonder's 1st day of Kindergarten!!

Today was my baby's 1st day of his elementary school career. It was hard work getting all of us out the door. Boy wonder was excited but a little apprehensive. We arrived a few minutes early outside the kindergarten class and waited with all the other kinders and their parents. Boy Wonder knew a few faces from playdates he had over the summer and from the great pre-kindergarten party his teacher had thrown the week prior. Finally the door opened and there was his new teacher waiting at the door to greet each child and help them put their backpacks and lunches in their cubby and then sit down on the carpet while she introduced the kids to their new classroom for the year. We stood around for a few minutes and watched and then blew kisses and out we (emily, bubba & I) went. It seemed too easy. But I think he was just ready to go. He had been talking about it for a few days and yesterday he kept asking me to take him to school . So it looks like it was time. And of course in true Boy Wonder fashion at breakfast this morning he told me how he was going to teach his teacher how to make rockets out of water bottles.


Bubba and Emily and I went to a park around the corner and met quite a few kids and moms from Bubba's new class. We had our first circle night meeting last night where we got to meet all the parents and teachers and talk about the new school year. Bubba starts back to his beloved Mtn School tomorrow. He is so excited to go back as well. He will get to carpool this year with his cousin and can't wait to ride up and be at school with his auntie on her driving day. Looks like I will have a busy night dusting off the old rainboots and packing up for the mtns and creek for Bubba's 1st day tomorrow.

After our fun park day it was time to pick up Boy Wonder. Poor Emily was beat and had already fallen asleep twice and Bubba was teetering on the edge of his sanity. And it was a hot, HOT day. But back to school we went. The classroom door opened and in we all shuffled. BW was excited to see us. He came over, took my hand and lead me around the room showing me his new pencil box filled with supplies his teacher gave each student and his special paper cubby to keep all his work. He told me how he went on a tour of the school, had a snack, played with play dough, learned some sign language and got to play outside. Sounds like a great first day! I noticed how red BW looked and asked if he had remembered to wear his hat outside. He told me he did not think it was that hot so he had not put it on. He then said, "It looks like this is an inside school, mom. We were inside a lot." And he is right. What a change that will be for him after going to a preschool all outside in the mountains. But his new school does have a lot of outdoor time and a garden to work in, which made it a good find for our family. It was then time to go get some ice cream. In honor of the 1st day, his school was throwing an ice cream party for all the kids and families. The boys loved this part. BW and Bubba also met up with some of BW's new friends and just ran and ran around until it was time to go.





I love this shot. I always said Boy Wonder was so fast he just flew around. Here he is running with a new friend. Look at how his feet don't touch the ground!


It was a good first day! I hope the fun continues...

Boy Wonder's New School

My little baby is starting kindergarten in less than a week. I can't believe it! How is this possible. It seems like just yesterday I brought him home from the hospital and now he's old enough to go to elem school. The werid thing is, I remember my first day of kindergarten and that seems like just yesterday too. The tricks that time plays on us.

Today his new kindergarten teacher had a party at school to invite all her new kinder friends to come and explore their new classroom. Boy wonder was a little shy at first but he came inside and we slowly made our rounds around the very cool room. There was a building corner full of legos, blocks and other manipulatives, a dress up/drama area with kitchen set up, dolls and puppet theatre. There were three tables set up with watercolor painting, building a bead necklace and a snack table. There were two classroom pets, a huge goldfish and an even larger salamander. There was a book nook, a circle carpet, an art supply area and lots of orig art hanging everywhere, the ceiling, walls, etc. What a fun and colorful room! I can't wait to go to kindergarten again!! Boy wonder sat down at the watercolor table and for the next 40 mins created picture after picture. Taking an occasional break to get up and pour himself a glass of juice and eat a strawberry. Juice is a special treat in our house so it was big motivator for him to move over to the snack table and get that dixie cup of juice. The teacher even had a lovely bouquet of sunflowers on the snack table. Boy wonder eventually moved to the lego area and sat down and began building a vehicle of some kind. We met a couple of boys in his class over the summer so he would recognize a familiar face. He was happy to see them both there and shyly said "hi". The teacher seems wonderful. Very caring and she told us about a few special projects they would be doing during the year. She saw Emily signing to me. Emily was in the sling and she loves to be a part of the conversation as well. So she does her best to throw out words and signs to get my attention when I'm engaged in coversation with others. The teacher also knows sign language and told us they would learning signs in class and recognized the signs Emily was doing. Small side..Emily has created 4 new signs to communicate to me "twinkle, twinkle little star", "patty cake, patty cake, the itsy bitsy spider, and row row your boat.

I'm so excited for Boy Wonder to begin school. He has such a great opportunity of exploring his whole self in this class. And even though I'm very sad to see my lazy and warm days of summer slip on by. I am looking forward to cooler weather, new school supplies, being back in the mtns with Bubba and working in Boy Wonder's new classroom. Oh and don't forget apple picking. I'm really looking foward to visiting some orchards with the kids and picking yummy, juicy apples. So I guess I'm ready for you Fall. Bring it on!!

Brothers for Life...

I'm always amazed how well these two can play together, work together and just be together. Yes, they have their unsibling moments of hitting, yelling, taking each others toys, throwing things at each other. But for the majority of time they are great friends. I love listening in on their play. As I'm typing this they are playing in BW's room. I have a video monitor with sound on my desk so I can see what they are upto during their "nap" time. I think they forget that even though I'm downstairs I can see one boy sneak out of his room and join the other boy. They are being super silly right now. BW helped his younger brother take off his shirt as that is the one article of clothing that Bubba can't get off. BW talked him through it while he pulled and yanked if off. They have stripped down to nothing and are flying around the room being super naked heros. Jumping off the bed and just laughing so loudly. Anyone else have boys that prefer their own skin to anything else? Their belly laughs dominate much of what they do. They are so silly together and can entertain each other for a long time. They seem to bring out the best in one another. I see that when they are together they support one another and help one another. It's amazing to me they do get along so well and have so much fun as they really are as different as night and day. I do hope that their relationship continues to strenghten with age. How lucky they are to have one another...brothers for life!

It's been awhile...

More updates about the boys coming soon....

Much needed time off...

It's the small things in life that make life great. And for me it was having a week off of school. It was such a needed break just to recharge my batteries and take a breather. As much as I love school it pretty much has consumed me this year and I know next year will only be that much harder with having two in different schools and one at home. But for this year it feels like I live at the school, esp since I have 2 at the same school, which means double everything, 2 carpools, 2 requirements for being the cooking mom, lots of laundry, 2 times a week I spend driving groups of kids to school and then watching them at school, multiple clothing changes in the woods and at the creek. Our preschool is an outdoor school in the mtns which is a 30 min drive from our house. I also have double the nighttime meetings, the writing assignments and 2 culimination projects looming in the back of my head. And last week I spent everyday at school just trying to get caught up with all my makeups this semester from missing school time because of Hawaii, Russia and the flu that hit us. And next week my hubby is off (he's a teacher, so they have a week off too) and we will once again be at the boys school all week trying to get ahead on makeups for our time off for our 2nd trip to Russia. We know we will be making one more trip to Russia and I have no idea how I'm going to be able to finish the year off once our daughter comes home. Don't get me wrong...I love our preschool and I'm glad for the opportunity for my boys to be outdoors and all the great friendships our family has made.. but it's a participation school and it's really tiring with 2 in school and an adoption at the sametime and then there's just the rest of everyday life and the workload that goes along with that.

These past 2 months have really taken their toll on me and I have been a roller coaster of emotions. We traveled half way around the world and back in one week and met our daughter for the first time!! I have been exhausted from all the prep required to get there and then the jet lag, adjustment to life and the make ups once back. We also lost a beloved pet and the weeks we spent prior getting her to all her appts, and special medical treatments and watching her not responding to anything we tried and losing her so much more quickly than we had planned was painful. I also spent March touring kindergartens and frustratingly fighting immigration for an important document for our adoption and finally after 6 months getting it. We found out that our son made it into the only kindergarten that I wanted him to go to. No pressure there! What a happy moment that was..boy that took off a lot of stress. He had to go to an assessment at the school and I had to attend a few meetings. The assessment was a little stressful for me as I tend to worry and I wasn't allowed to be present, so I didn't really know how he did until I went in for a meeting and found out he had been accepted. Yeah! And shortly after we came home my aunt past away fairly unexpectedly which has been very, very hard and left me raw to the bone both with her passing and the anger that seems to consume my extended family. And now we are hearing that we may be traveling once again to Russia for our daughter maybe before the end of the month. The highs and lows of these past 2 months and just being exhausted all the time trying to meet all of these various tasks...it has been so hard! And then to have all our birthdays in these two months...my daughter's, my hubby's, mine, both our sons...it's crazy!

So...selfishly I'm grateful for this week off and have done very little to get ready for anything beyond this week. Which I'm sure I will regret on Monday. But for today, I have this week. And what a beautiful week it has been. Thank goodness! Time off has been so great! A chance to break from the everyday routine and mix it up. So far this week we have gotten to have a playdate with a friend, sleep in and have a pj day where we stayed in our pjs all day and hung out at home, camped in the living room with our lanterns, made pb and banana muffins together, and worked in the garden planting our veggies and flowers, gone on bike rides and stroller rides, played in the sand and water and tomorrow we will have an early b-day party for me. The kids are looking forward to playing with their cousin and the ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. And the best part? I went to bed at 8pm everyday so far. That never would have happened in a regular week.

It has been so fun just having this time this week just to be together and really be together presently in the moment and enjoy. The boys are changing so much. My oldest has outgrown all his pants and shirts. He has been especially kind to his brother this week and has helped him in so many ways. My youngest is telling the most amazing stories. It's been so fun to hear what he comes up with. It's hard to believe that at the end of April and the beg of May they each will turn a year older...I will then have a 3 year old and a 5 year old. The boys play so well together. Their laughter has been my greatest medicine..that and sleep. I'm so happy they have each other to grow up with. And I pray that they remain close and kind to one another throughout their life. We are hoping to bring our daughter home soon and I'm excited to see the 3 together and watch them all grow up. I think each of them has so much to bring to one another and I hope that they will all be the best and closest buds that siblings can be.

And the one thing I hope to take from this week is to appreciate the small things that make life sweet..to take deeper breaths and to overall do less and just enjoy being for awhile. Now how I can incorporate that into my crazy life I still need to figure out.

Here's my beautiful boys this week....

Playing Catch up...

Here are a few of my favorite photos from our trip to Hawaii. The first few show the view from our hotel condo.

Here is Bubba comfortably whale watching from our boat.

BW riding on the sugar train. He loved riding this train!

The view we had at the wedding reception. Amazing!

This was taken as the sun was setting right on the beach infront of our hotel.

Sweet Dreams Baby Girl

Our sweet Mandy Blessings left us on Wednesday afternoon. She was a gentle and sweet girl who was born with as hubby said..the short end of the straw. Her body just never worked right and in the end it was her liver that failed her. She was one of our first children. Before Hubby and I were married I wanted to get a dog. I finally talked him into getting one dog. We did research like crazy to find the calmest and most gentle dog, as he was really unsure of dogs after a bad experience he had as a child. We chose the cavalier king charles spaniel because they were so sweet and lovable. They were a little harder to find back in 1998 and finally located a litter in Southern Ca. We drove to Southern California in one day to pick her up and drive back. When we got there, there was 2 puppies left, one female and one male. Just seeing their little faces...we were sold and home came the terrible twins. We would joke in the begining that if things didn't work out we would each take a dog. Mandy was mine and James was his. Mandy and James were inseparable and would cry if one was without the other so bad that we never separated them. If one had to go to the vet, they both went and I always worried how the other would survive if somthing happened to one of them. James is handling it very well.

Hubby and I miss Mandy terribly and only hope she is now free to really run and play as only a dog should. James, her brother has been looking for her and has taken to sleeping in the spot in the office where she liked to sleep. I haven't the heart to vaccuum the office yet and late at night the last few nights I thought I smelt her there and had to look behind me to see. Since Mandy spent the last few weeks sleeping all the time in the office the boys have not noticed that Mandy's missing. We had talked with them on Tuesday that it was getting close to Mandy's time to leave us and they were handling that well. We are dreading talking with them about Mandy actually being gone and hope to do so on Sunday after BW's assessment for kindergarten. We are a little thankful to have had a few days to grieve for her before having to talk with them about her death. Keep us in your thoughts on Sunday.

Here are a few shots we have of her with the kids and her brothers the last 2 weeks.

Day 11 down and counting...and other odd thoughts

We've been hit with the cold bug. I have tried to be so careful this winter season since we didn't get our flu shots. I've tried to avoid being out in public and have washed our hands like crazy. But there must have been a crack in our defense against those pesky cold bugs because they got in. We are going on 11 days now of dripping noses and wet coughs. And while I have really enjoyed slowing down to a snail's pace and just being content to be inside all day with my boys..doing snuggly things as Bubba says. I'm still slowly going a little insane. I love my house but I can only take so much of the same four walls. I miss school. I miss visiting with other adults. I had a meeting last night at preschool. Who thought one little simple outing could make me so excited. We had a great speaker too..on the topic of raising resilient children. Lots of good, insightful tidbits to raise strong, self confident kids.

The kids are doing well. We had lots of pj days in the beginning when we were really feeling the effects of the bug and the weather was miserable with lots of rain. Now that the weather is nice and the boys have a bit more energy back we were finally able to get outdoors yesterday. We took a spur of the moment trip to Happy Hollow Park and Zoo. They are gearing up to totally remodel this park. Already the parking lot has been fenced off along with most of the old front entrance. And though I agree there could be something done to revitalize this great,old park, I'm more than a little sad at the changes they will ultimately make. The quaintness of this cute park holds a few childhood memories for me. I can remember my grandmother taking me there and riding the Neputune's carousel and climbing up to the top of the crooked old house only to slide to the bottom of the crooked old slide. Watching the puppets theatre, running through the maze and riding on Danny the Dragon. I have enjoyed being able to share in these memories by bringing my children there as well. What will be come of this lovely little park? I fear it will just become another modern, commercialized place and all that is lovely and childlike will be lost only to be replaced with large modern shapes and lots of steel. It's enough to make me teary eyed on such a beautiful Friday. It reminds me of what is happening to our local library. I loved that it was an old one story brick home and now it has become some modern monstrocity that no longer resembles it's former charming building or the rest of the cute little town. What an absolute shame that "new" needs to be "big" or "modern" and can't be "lovely" or "simple".

A Breakfast story..

"Do you remember the storm? It was a big storm that hit the fireplace and broke out all the lights. And (BW) was scared."

My youngest, Bubba has quite an imagination. I often fantasize that he might become a writer. He talks all the time and lately because I have so much going on I tune him out a bit. I know...what a terrible thing to admit! It's just when Bubba is occupied and content, which is generally when he is talking out loud to himself. Well that's the perfect opportunity I have to get something done...throw in a load of laundry, pack for the day's outing, or make a list of somekind. Because as we know the flip side..when Bubba is not content neither is anyone else within a 5 mile radius. He is dare I admit...a bit loud, dramatic, stuck to you like glue and very hard to calm back down once he has hit those high notes.

So, I've decided as a goal for myself to stop more frequently and just observe my kids. And also jot down a few more stories and observations of both my children. You just never know what they are going to do and say. It really can be quite funny what they come up with and also insightful. At the very least, it may also make good blackmail material for when they have reached the age when they are all knowing or better known as the teen years.

Homeward Bound

Our traveling day home was so unbelievably crazy, I just had to share it. Warning...this is very, very long and yes...I promise, all true.

So we woke up the day we were to leave Maui all packed to go home. It was a pretty uneventful morning our last day in the condo. We cleaned out the fridge, had breakfast, threw the pjs and kids sleeping bags in the luggage, showered, checked out, drove to the dollar car rental place 5 mins away and had a very nice woman drive us to our teeny tiny airport at Kapahula West Maui another 5 minutes away. The entire time all of us dragging our feet because no one wants to go home today. It is another beautiful day in paradise and as BW put it.."It's a great day to be on the beach." We all agree. Even the views of the water are breathtaking from the airport. Our driver congratulates us on choosing this airport to fly out of, as it is so small there will be no headaches with traveling today. Like what others would be going through at the other larger airport on Maui, the main airport and a 45 min drive from us. I of course had already secretly congratulated myself on our luck at flying out of this airport. It will be a breeze checking our bags all the way through to Cali and only going through security once and basically just enjoying ourselves on this very long travel day. As it was only 9:30am and we wouldn't be getting in until 9pm that night CA time. I had thought ahead and packed the kids their pb and j sandwiches and apples for lunch, plenty of snacks to tide them over during the flights, even had their dvd players, stuffed toy, books and pjs all ready for them on the flight. The idea being, that when we got back home we could carry their sleepy selves right up to their beds. Yes, I was quite proud of myself and only winced once, the superstitious person that I am, that our driver might have just jinxed us.

Never the less, we walk into the outdoor airport. We are the only passengers there...we were a little too early for our 11:15 am flight but that's okay. We chat with the security guard who puts all our checked bags through security and then we hand deliver them to the TSA guard who will put them on the plane for us. We check in at the counter for our flight and the agent hands us our boarding passes for this flight and for our connecting flight and lets us know that when we get to Honolulu an agent will meet our plane and walk us around security to our next gate. This is such a relief because the Honolulu airport is a nightmare. There are long lines esp. for security and it's very confusing as they have many terminals some which require riding on shuttles to get to other gates. Ahh...this is going to be so easy in comparison to when we went through Honolulu the first time. We each just have a backpack and a child sitting in a Britax marathon seat on wheels thanks to our Go-Go attachment piece. Basicially, it looks like a carseat with a luggage handle and wheels attached. Who knew how handy this little piece of plastic would become to us later on in the day.

We go inside the very small one room waiting room with the one security checkpoint right in the middle of the room still closed as we are the first flight of the day. So we make ourselves at home and soon the airport fills up with the other 15 passengers all on our flight to Honolulu. They announce that we can now go through security and make our way to the gate which is in the middle of the room sectioned off by those detachable belt lines. They remind us to use the bathroom first as the bathroom is on the perimeter of the room and once we are in the middle of the room we would have to go through security again if we leave the center of the room. We all hit the bathroom. We all go through security effortlessly, jokingly with the TSA agents, everyone is happy, calm, no one is yelling at you to quickly take off shoes have id's and tickets ready, laptops in separate containers, to hurry, hurry. We sit down and wait. We see our prop plane outside ready to board. The preboard is announced. We are the only ones with small kids so we move to the front. A few mins pass, there is an announcement that it will be a few more mins now. We all watch, passengers and security as they suddenly take all of our luggage off the plane. Pilots and others are walking around the plane. They start up one then the other propeller and then the captain boards the plane and taxi's down the runway and flies off into the sky. Hmmm...we all wonder. Where's our plane going? Announcement: "The plane is experiencing mechanical problems..your flight has been cancelled..please return to the ticket counter." Well, I'm not panicking yet...we still have an hour and half to get to Honolulu before our connecting flight takes off for CA. We all file back in line. Our agent helps each person figure out what they are going to do as we were all making different connecting flights out of Honolulu. To her credit, the counter agent stayed calm and worked so hard to help us, as did everyone there at that airport. One of the security guards even offered the boys her lunch as it was now lunchtime and there was no food at this airport. Luckily the boys had their pb and j sandwiches, apples and carrots and were busy munching down. The agent could get another plane back over to us in an hour but it would be too late for us as our connecting flight would have left by then. She calls everywhere to figure out how to get us on a flight back to CA. She gets us on 2 flights neither of which is the airline we were flying on. And neither flight is flying into our airport at home but one is the next closest airport to our house and the other is a 3 hour drive away from our house. Naturally, we are hoping for the first flight with the airport only an hour away from our home still getting in around 9:30pm in Ca putting us in our beds around 11pm. The only problem, that flight departs at 2:40pm and it's now 1pm and the kicker..it's at the main airport on Maui 45 mins from here.

We are ready for the challenge. A taxi is paid by our airline...our luggage is quickly loaded into the taxi, my hubby quickly gets the carseats in and we are off. The taxi driver is a little stressed that we won't make it. In fact the entire drive he says, "there is no way..you just won't make that first flight." You see in Maui at the main airport you have to put all your checked bags through agriculture inspection which is a lot like regular security screening. Plus we didn't have boarding tickets so we would have to then take our bags and kids and go stand in line at the counter and then go through security to get to our gates and this is in addition to the 45 min drive. Think positive I say, we are going to try to make it. "I am thinking positive, he jokes, positive you are not going to make it." Finally he settles down and helps us with a plan. There is a porter service at this airport. You pay the porter 2 dollars a bag to get you from curbside to the gate. The plan is to find a porter and pay him to help us. We arrive at the airport...2:04pm..it is a busy day...long lines...crazy people, lots of luggage...your average crazy airport. I look around. The Agriculture line is very long, the counter line for our airline is double and securityline wraps around the corner of the building. It does look impossible. My hubby works to get the carseats out of the taxi and the wheels back on the carseats so we can wheel the kids and our 4 pieces of luggage through the crazy busy airport.

I'm immediately approached by a porter. The porter service is through the airport. They have a podium outfront and wear matching uniforms like the normal sky cab service for your airlines. Except there is no sky cab/curb service in Maui, everyone must go to the counter. He asks if he can help. I explain our situation, cancelled flight, time crunch, not technically on any flight at the moment. He agrees to the challenge of getting us to the gate of the first flight ontime. He loads our bags on a cart and pushes them to the front of the agriculture line. Comes back with the luggage and then takes our old tickets, our id's and runs to the counter. A minute later he calls us over. You are on the flight. The ticket agent will walk you through security, I will run your bags to the airplane. The plane is now boarding, the gate agents know you are coming but you still will have to hustle as they can't keep the plane waiting for you. Good luck. Hmmm...what happens if we don't make this flight but our luggage does? This is no time for idle thoughts...focus. Now with 4 bags gone, carrying very heavy and electronically filled backpacks and pushing our kids in their carseats we run behind the agent all the way to the end of the airport to security. We cut to the front of the massive long line and she hands our tickets to security. She tells us, "this is as far as I can get you..the rest is upto you." We begin the crazy prep for security..take apart the carseats as the wheels can't fit through the scanners. Empty backpacks of laptops, dvd players, take off shoes, have id's and boarding passes out and ready...etc. The security guys says, "we have some good news and bad news. Good news, you made it this far, bad news your family has been randomly selected for a complete security search." Can you believe it? Can you imagine how stressed out I am in this moment? They take all our stuff aside to dump it all out and then they take us to the middle of the room where there is a clear enclosed box wall. I'm briefly separated from my wallet, phone, tickets, id's as I wait to find out what the search of our family involves. Totally unbelievable so far, right? What happened to my nice calm easy traveling day. Where I read my book and wait to board the small cute prop plane at the nice and quiet airport? We get through the search...and yes they did pat down my 4 and 2 year old separately. And the most amazing thing is...that through this entire last crazy hour and a half my kids could not have been any more angelic and patient than they were. Still in quick and crazy mode we make it back to the belt to smash all our stuff back in the back packs, put on shoes, put together the carseats and wheels, put the kids in the carseats and then run up the escalators with kids, backpacks etc. We are trying to make it to gate A5. All the while a security guard yells at us to take the elevator. I feel like a fugitive. At the top of the escalator is gate A15. We run the next 8 gates as fast as we can go as we were told back at the counter the plane was already boarding. I honestly thought I was going to have a hard attack running and pulling my 30 pd kid with 20pds of electronics and stuff on my back. We get to gates 1-7 and there's ...are you ready for this? An additional agricultural security check for our carryons. Earlier we just had to go through the agriculture security scan for our checked bags not our carry ons. Guess who still has 2 apples, and 2 bags of carrots and brocolli in her back pack. I practically had to dump out my backpack again, because of course nothing was where it was after the security checkpoint. I'm allowed to keep the carrots and brocolli but the apples are confiscated. Still at full speed we continue on running down the straightaway and around the corner and make the A5 gate. The agent is waiting for us. She calls us by our last names. YES!!! WE MADE IT!! I'm not really sure how. "Yes, that's us"...breathing very, very hard now. "Boarding passes, please"...oh man...let me think. The slightly irritated agent, "You just had it at security how could you have lost it already?" Aren't some people just so funny? At that point, I'm not sure if I was going to laugh or cry. I'm not even wearing my backpack anymore I've got hubby's...I'm not even sure if I have my wallet anymore or my youngest son's shoes as he was still barefoot and I just realize I've been running fast since security and half my very full backpack is unzipped. Who the heck knows what I've lost along the way. I amazingly find the tickets. The agent sees we have kids riding in carseats. It's a law that carseats have to go in the window seat which means we need 2 window seats and 2 middle seats. The plane is already boarded and we currently are not sitting together...none of us. She works her magic and gets us almost the last 2 rows on the plane, same side 2 middles, 2 windows. I'm assuming some people on board are being moved at this moment. The boys pop out of their carseats and walk with me down the gang way while my hubby carries two britax carseats over his head all the way down the very crowded and did I mention small airplane aisles to the back of the plane. Just a side note...We rode on a very plush 767 on the way to Honolulu. 2 aisle seats on both sides of the plane and 3 middle row seats...40 plus rows with 8 bathrooms in the coach section. We were going home on a much older and much smaller plane; one aisle 2 bathrooms, 3 seats deep. Yep, me and my still newly potty trained son wearing underwear. Whose smart idea was that? Would be spending the next 5 hours climbing over our aisle mate to use the potty. Not to mention how totally sweaty I am and how self conscious I feel having to be crammed in next to my new aisle mate. My poor hubby had to climb over in both aisles to install our carseats. The kids and I hid out in the galley with the flight attendants..my younger son already using the lavatory. That's one less trip to the bathroom I will have to make. And the toliets due flush even when the airplane is not in flight. We finally take our seats. The captain announces we will be departing soon just waiting for them to finish loading the aircraft with some last minute baggage. As we look out the window, yep, there's our 4 pieces of luggage getting loaded on. At least we know our luggage made the flight too. But on the bright side...we were seated at the back next to all the only other kids on board, the captain announced that due to our late departure we would be shaving an hour and 20 mins off our flight so we would be arriving still at the 9:30pm arrival time. The kids were angels on the flight. The flight attendants were so kind and the flight was very smooth. And as for my seat mate..she was a little under the weather and spent the whole flight asleep totally covered under a SpongeBob blanket. That made it so much easier to climb over her the 100 times we had to use the potty. And since we were back by the bathrooms and there were only 2 bathrooms the aisle was pretty much always filled with bathroom waiters so we had lots of company to keep us entertained on our short flight to CA. We were able to change the boys into their pjs and I was able to get a hold of my dad who was so kind to pick us up at the airport in our car and take us home and now was graciously meeting us at an airport an hour away instead of 5 mins away as originally planned. In the end, it all worked out..we made it home that day, the kids did fall asleep in the car and we were able to transfer them to their beds. And most importantly, I learned that I can operate gracefully under crazy conditions as can my hubby and kids. Maybe we were built to be a traveling family after all. Nah...who am I kidding...we are couch potato homebodies all the way...but on occasion we can arise to a challenge if needed.

And as additional side note...the next day when I went to unpack our four suitcases that we had checked, I found a letter on top of the clothes in each suitcase from TSA letting us know that our bags had been chosen for inspection. Well one thing is for sure...the security at the Kahului Maui airport is top notch! They certaintly checked us very carefully. And, we have passed all security checkpoints even after I tried to sneak on my 2 fuji apples..and therefore can I conclude from this that we are upstanding and terrorist free citizens? I think that is something I may be able to brag about on my son's kindergarten application.

Aloha from the Islands

We made it to Maui. What an adventure we had and the boys were so good on our very long day of travel. We wanted to fly out of our local city so we could only get a flight to Honolulu.
We then rode a small prop plane to Maui. That was a lot of fun. There was probably just 15 people on board. It was 25 mins up and down. And what a lovely view of the islands from up above. The flight attendant even served guava pineapple juice. The Kapula Maui airport is very small. Easy to navigate after the tricky airport in Honolulu. The best part was it was only a 5 min drive to our condo which was great.

Our week here is way too short! We are staying in Kaanapali. What a great part of Maui if you have kids. Easy access to the beach and lots of condos and fun pools for the kids. It's been great to be able to cook and do laundry if needed. I think I have done a load everyday with all the sandy clothes from the beach. Our condo has the most beautiful views from every window. The weather has been in the 80's all week. I have loved taking strolls on the beach and the boys have loved splashing in the waves. I will have to publish photos when I get back. Come the evening time we have been too exhausted! The 2 hour time difference and all the water and warm weather just wipes us out in the evening.

We are within waking distance to Whaler's Village. Our favorite restaurant there has been Leialannis. Got to love those mango daiquiris!! If you ask BW what his favorite adventure has been he will say riding the Sugar Cane train. Definately a must if you have kids. There are 3 stations all in Lahinia. It's quite a fun ride.

We also went on a whale watching trip with the wedding party and both sides of the family. They rented a 100 foot boat for just us and we had live music and foods and drinks. The whales are everywhere here right now. We can even see them from our room. The boat ride was wild and fun. The boys loved it, my hubby not so much, he was white as a sheet! How amazing to see the whales out in the ocean. We even saw a mama and baby together. Waving their tails, spouting up water, jumping out of the ocean. Amazing!!

On Friday we watched hubby's brother and wife renew their vows in front of their children and family. What a beautiful ceremony that was! The bride wore a beautiful gown and the children all looked very hawaiian in their matching clothes. The views of the ocean where they wed was breath taking. We even got to see a few sea turtles. The food was delicious the toasts were all touching. We rode a shuttle with his wife's family from Lahaina to Wailea and then back. About a 45 min ride. There were lots of kids on both sides and the ride was a lot of fun with the kids. What a fun day we had.

Okay, enough for now. Will fill in more of our trip later!

Aloha!!

We are off to Hawaii!

I have been doing laundry and packing like crazy to get ready for our week long trip to Maui! The boys are so excited for the plane ride. I hope after 2 hours they are still excited. 5 hours and 2 wiggly boys is going to be a long trip!

We headed out to the office supply store last night to pick up a few odds and ends to keep the boys entertained on the trip. Hole punchers, mini calculators, colorful stick its, stickers, scotch tape. Along with some fun snacks, new books, mini playdough, matchbox cars and a dvd player we are hoping to keep the boys entertained. Wish us luck!!

We are really looking forward to this trip. Hubby and I have never been to Hawaii together. The boys will love playing on the beach too!

Maui here we come!!