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!!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Sunday, January 6, 2008
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!!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Enjoying Christmas
Here are a few photos of X-mas at our house.
The boys decorating the tree...
The boys unwrapping their presents at our house on X-mas day.
We also enjoyed visiting my grandma and aunt on X-mas Eve morning. And then in the evening we hosted X-mas Eve dinner for hubby's family. On X-mas morning we opened our presents at our home and then had breakfast and gifts at my parent's house with my side of the family. It sounds busy but boy was it a fun time!
When I have a few more minutes, I will be back to share more stories. Just wanted to get a jump start before the clock changes to the new year!!
The boys decorating the tree...
The boys unwrapping their presents at our house on X-mas day.
We also enjoyed visiting my grandma and aunt on X-mas Eve morning. And then in the evening we hosted X-mas Eve dinner for hubby's family. On X-mas morning we opened our presents at our home and then had breakfast and gifts at my parent's house with my side of the family. It sounds busy but boy was it a fun time!
When I have a few more minutes, I will be back to share more stories. Just wanted to get a jump start before the clock changes to the new year!!
Fast forwarding through Fall
Fall was lovely this year. The weather was just beautiful. Of course we really need the rain but it was hard not to appreciate the great weather. With fall comes pumpkins. Having 2 children in school gave us the pleasure of 2 school outings to the pumpkin patch. This is a great patch for variety of pumpkins. Who knew there are so many pumpkins and not all pumpkins are orange..they can be white, yellow, red, even green. The beautiful view of the ocean is also another perk of this patch. 
Here are the boys scooping out the insides of their pumpkins. They also drew their own faces and even used the saws to help cut out their faces. We were surprised at how long and hard they worked on their pumpkins this year.
After carving the pumpkins, it was time for trick or treating. The boys had a great time. We trick or treated with their cousin, my sister and parents. We decided to turn out our lights this year and just enjoy being with the boys. All three boys really got into trick or treating this year. We trick or treated in my sister's neighborhood. It was a lot of fun and the kids were just too cute. A lot of times when the door opened they were ready to just walk right in people's houses. They soon got the concept down of knocking, saying "trick or treat" and then "thank you" and running to the next house. BW and cousin leading the way. Bubba always had to stop to look at what he got. And then he would have to really run to catch up to the other two boys. Hubby, being a teacher wore the costume that he had worn to school that day. The theme at his school that day was 70's dress.
So..what did the boys end up being for Halloween? Even though the boys really wanted to be airplanes I just couldn't get it all done in 2 weeks. Especially since we were on the east coast for a few days meeting with our adoption placing agency and I was still scrambling around trying to get last minute documents inorder. So the boys...being the troopers they are very graciously and happily agreed to be something else. We looked through a catalog and they chose to be matching dalmatian dogs. Very appropriate I thought, as BW loves to play fireman. Actually Bubba first wanted to be a spider but unfortunately that costume was already out of stock. Geez, mom..get your act together. :-) BW says to Bubba, "Be a dog like me Bubba." And he said "okay brother." What sweethearts I have. So here they are in their costumes at another pumpkin patch. We have a tradition of visiting this pumpkin patch to take their photos in their costumes. It's quite a theme pumpkin patch with 2 trains, tractor and hay rides, haunted house, live bands, food booths, arts store and the beautiful background of marigolds.
Here are the boys scooping out the insides of their pumpkins. They also drew their own faces and even used the saws to help cut out their faces. We were surprised at how long and hard they worked on their pumpkins this year.
After carving the pumpkins, it was time for trick or treating. The boys had a great time. We trick or treated with their cousin, my sister and parents. We decided to turn out our lights this year and just enjoy being with the boys. All three boys really got into trick or treating this year. We trick or treated in my sister's neighborhood. It was a lot of fun and the kids were just too cute. A lot of times when the door opened they were ready to just walk right in people's houses. They soon got the concept down of knocking, saying "trick or treat" and then "thank you" and running to the next house. BW and cousin leading the way. Bubba always had to stop to look at what he got. And then he would have to really run to catch up to the other two boys. Hubby, being a teacher wore the costume that he had worn to school that day. The theme at his school that day was 70's dress.
Here are the boys' pumpkins all lit up. BW has the orange light and Bubba's is the green light.
**I had said I would post pictures from last year's Halloween decorations. I seemed to have misplaced a compact card or 2. I'm trying not to panic, as I haven't downloaded all my photos yet. I'm sure it will turn up and when it does, I will post them.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
I promise to update later today!
I can't believe how fast the days are flying by. It's been ages since I have had a chance to sit down and blog about the boys. Although good news...I've been scrapping again and working on Bubba's scrapbook for school.
I promise to sit down later today and do some updates. I have a lot to catch up from and want to share Halloween and X-mas pictures too!!
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!! Hard to believe we are just days from a new year! Looking so forward to that new year...so many exciting changes for our family is coming this year.
I promise to sit down later today and do some updates. I have a lot to catch up from and want to share Halloween and X-mas pictures too!!
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!! Hard to believe we are just days from a new year! Looking so forward to that new year...so many exciting changes for our family is coming this year.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
We just had an Earthquake!!
Wow!! At 8:05pm we just had a 5.6 magnitude earthquake. I haven't felt one that strong since the big one in 1989 at 6.9. I had just walked downstairs after kissing both boys goodnight. The whole house just shook very fast and very strong. I almost lost my balance and just saw all the pots on my potrack swinging back and forth. I yelled out my husband's name and ran back up the stairs to grab my boys out of their beds. My youngest was face down in his bed...he thought he had caused it. My other son thought it was fun and wanted to do it again!! Ugh!! It's funny, I had so much to get done tonight and was thankful that the boys were in bed so I could get started. And now...still a little shakey, I'm glad we are all fine and we are huddled around the TV to hear more and wait out all the aftershocks.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
The Month of Halloween
I love Halloween. I'm not sure what it is about Halloween I love so much. Is it the pretending to be anything other than yourself? Is it the girl in me wanting to play dress up? Is it because deep down I just love to decorate? Or do I love to be a little scared? I'm not sure what it is but I love Halloween!!
We live in a small community that is made up mostly of young children and dogs. So you can imagine how busy Halloween is in our area. For the past 6 years I lived on a block that really decked it out for Halloween. Neighbors dressed up the yards, we would all hang out in our yards from 6-8pm passing out goodies, taking lots of photos, and just having fun. Our neighborhood was so popular that people would drive over in cars. Last year we had close to 500 trick or treaters in 2 hours. It was insane and oh so right up my alley. The theme of our yard was Alice in Wonderland. We had the spooky forest with the cheshire cat and the rabbit hole, tweedle dee and tweedle dum and the Mad hatter's tea party that included a 2 foot teapot with bubbles pouring out it's spout and a lovely set of chinese lanterns that were lit. We opted to hand out bubbles, mini flashlights, decks of cards, rings, nail polish, and other small games. It was oh so fun. I gladly played the role of Alice and hubby was the Madhatter.
So..here we are in my favorite month and I have done nothing to prepare for Halloween. No new theme, no costumes, no fun handouts, nothing, nada. To make matters more difficult, we have moved to a new neighborhood since last year and we are set back far on our property. It's not exactly at street level like last year, which presents it's own problem for trick or treaters. I have also been way too busy. I have been over the top totally and passionately involved with our upcoming adoption and we are traveling back east for 3 days next week to work on adoption stuff. I'm also still trying to get a handle on all of the craziness that is school...carpooling, schedules, fundraising, cooking projects and hosting this month's class meeting. I just haven't had any extra time or energy to focus on Halloween and I'm a little saddened by it.
The boys really want to be a jet plane and an airplane this year. I've been trying to figure out how to make this happen as they are very specific about how they want their arms to be their wings so they can run around and "fly" very fast. I'm a little worried I won't have their costumes done in time and this of course is much more important than my Halloween fun of decorating. What I wouldn't give for a little sprinkling of magic so that I can pull it all together.
And if time gets the better of me this year, and there is no chance to get to our decorations, to order our loot, I will survive. Perhaps there is a small gift in that for me too. The boys are older. I have a feeling they might really enjoy trick or treating this year. Maybe by taking this Halloween year off, turning our lights out and just being together to trick or treat as a family in our new neighborhood, I will discover an even better way of enjoying Halloween. At least for this year, anyways. I can always dream about next year.
We live in a small community that is made up mostly of young children and dogs. So you can imagine how busy Halloween is in our area. For the past 6 years I lived on a block that really decked it out for Halloween. Neighbors dressed up the yards, we would all hang out in our yards from 6-8pm passing out goodies, taking lots of photos, and just having fun. Our neighborhood was so popular that people would drive over in cars. Last year we had close to 500 trick or treaters in 2 hours. It was insane and oh so right up my alley. The theme of our yard was Alice in Wonderland. We had the spooky forest with the cheshire cat and the rabbit hole, tweedle dee and tweedle dum and the Mad hatter's tea party that included a 2 foot teapot with bubbles pouring out it's spout and a lovely set of chinese lanterns that were lit. We opted to hand out bubbles, mini flashlights, decks of cards, rings, nail polish, and other small games. It was oh so fun. I gladly played the role of Alice and hubby was the Madhatter.
So..here we are in my favorite month and I have done nothing to prepare for Halloween. No new theme, no costumes, no fun handouts, nothing, nada. To make matters more difficult, we have moved to a new neighborhood since last year and we are set back far on our property. It's not exactly at street level like last year, which presents it's own problem for trick or treaters. I have also been way too busy. I have been over the top totally and passionately involved with our upcoming adoption and we are traveling back east for 3 days next week to work on adoption stuff. I'm also still trying to get a handle on all of the craziness that is school...carpooling, schedules, fundraising, cooking projects and hosting this month's class meeting. I just haven't had any extra time or energy to focus on Halloween and I'm a little saddened by it.
The boys really want to be a jet plane and an airplane this year. I've been trying to figure out how to make this happen as they are very specific about how they want their arms to be their wings so they can run around and "fly" very fast. I'm a little worried I won't have their costumes done in time and this of course is much more important than my Halloween fun of decorating. What I wouldn't give for a little sprinkling of magic so that I can pull it all together.
And if time gets the better of me this year, and there is no chance to get to our decorations, to order our loot, I will survive. Perhaps there is a small gift in that for me too. The boys are older. I have a feeling they might really enjoy trick or treating this year. Maybe by taking this Halloween year off, turning our lights out and just being together to trick or treat as a family in our new neighborhood, I will discover an even better way of enjoying Halloween. At least for this year, anyways. I can always dream about next year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
