Hawaii - Day 3

This morning we woke up and headed straight for the beach. Today we went to "A Bay" (Anaeho'omalu Bay) right by our condo to do some more snorkeling. There were only a few other people there, I guess because it was so early in the morning. Drew had so much fun in the sand...just being a boy. Emily wanted to get a little sun. Lauren is our little fish and wanted to snorkel with Andy. It wasn't nearly as good as the first place we went because the water was more cloudy and not as many fish. Lauren was out with Andy and looked up and had a HUGE sea turtle in her face. She loved it!!! The kids had so much fun on the beach today. We found a sea cucumber. It was neat but yet gross if that makes sense. Soft and mushy but shaped like a pickle. YUCK!
After a few hours at the beach we headed back to the condo to eat lunch and shop. We ended up going to the Kona International Marketplace and a little Farmer's Market in downtown Kona. Lauren completed her shopping list, Emily found a few things, Drew wanted EVERYTHING. I was holding out for my Brighton Hawaii bracelet. I was determined to find it! The cutest gifts were for my nieces that mom bought. The CUTEST coconut purses. I sure hope they like them because they were so stinkin' cute!

Mom gave Emily her birthday gift tonight. My sister and her family and mom/JD gave Emily a cross necklace from Tiffany's. Her first (and maybe only) real piece of Tiffany jewelry. I think she is afraid to wear it! It looks so cute on her! I can't believe our Emily is almost 16 years old. Happy early birthday Em! You are a very special girl.
Tonight we took my mom to the airport. Sad to see her leave but she wanted a day of rest before she went to my sisters. We loved having her around. After we dropped her off we headed down to Keauhou Bay to watch the manta rays at night. The hotel shines lights int the water so you can see them. Unfortunately we only saw one manta ray but it was still so neat to watch him swim around. I could have stayed there for hours just watching the waves crash into the lava.Here are some nightly shots from "A Bay" by our condo.

Another great day in the BEST place in the whole wide world! What could be better! We definitely found our favorite place to visit!

Hawaii - Day 2

Today was simply AMAZING! The kids woke up at 5:45am and it was still dark outside. We left the condo around 7am and drove down to Kahalu'u Beach Park to go snorkeling. It is supposedly one of the best on the island so it was worth the drive for us. The beaches are so different here.....mostly lava. This one had black sand. It was amazing! But one small problem....Sea Spines were everywhere, in every crack. Of course Drew was the first casualty and had a bleeding toe. It went down hill from there. He wanted nothing to do with the water after that. This was maybe 5 minutes into being there. UGH! I jumped in the water to start snorkeling and quickly RAN out of the water when an eel swam right next to me! I offered to tend to Drew since he didn't want to be in the water.
One small snag when we went snorkeling.......Lauren's toe got split open on tube coral. It bled and bled. We debated on taking her to get stitches to close it up or not. Decided to put on a band aid and call it good. It is just her foot right?Just want I wanted to see and came to the beach for...SEA TURTLES. Four of them came up to shore. They are so beautiful and HUGE! I was shocked at how big they were. I tried dragging Drew, literally at one point, to go see them but he wouldn't move. So I left him on some of the rocky lava crying so I could go see these turtles. Great mom huh!
Andy and the kids snorkeled for awhile and then Andy made Drew get in the water with us and we snorkeled for about 2 hours. There were hundreds of fish LITERALLY! We used an underwater camera so the pictures aren't the best but they are still good. Drew loved it! So glad he got comfortable and wasn't afraid of stepping on the sea spines! Made the morning so much easier! At one point a sea turtle swam up next to me! That was SO AWESOME!We got back to the condo, showered and my sweet mom had lunch ready for us! After lunch we left again to go whale watching! This was NOT cheap but so worth it (if you see a whale). This experience was so much fun! You have to picture a large raft with and engine. That was the boat we were on literally. We were a little late leaving and my mom said they were probably patching up the raft! You sit right on the side of the boat and it is going super fast in the ocean. I kept asking if Emily was still in the boat. We were so sore from the waves but so worth it. We only saw one dolphin after being out for 3 hours. Kinda sad but even being on the boat was worth it!We did see the Kona temple today!Today was so amazing......so much fun do to things we have never done before. Love my family, love the memories we are making!

Hawaii - Day 1

Today was a great day but a long one! It started at 6am getting ready and then heading to the airport. For some reason I still hadn't gotten "stressed" about flying but I was sure it was still to come. We headed out to the airport around 8am and were SO lucky we didn't have to wait in line for security. They had a family line so that took at least 45 minutes off our wait. Just a mental visual of me and the kids going thru security since Andy was parking the car....4 suitcases, 3 backpacks, cosmetic bag, 2 laptops and a camera & video camera bag! Emily is such a big help gathering everything up...I couldn't have done it without her! Right before it was time to board I took some sleeping medication and some anxiety medication....whoa....that hit me quick! I was asleep before we took off! My kind of flight. The flight was 6 hours 49 minutes....my longest so far but so worth it. I did manage to sleep for almost 4 hours of the flight. It really wasn't that bad. I wish I could get over my fear of flying but only if all flights were this smooth!
We were descending it was so beautiful seeing the island, waterfalls, crystal blue water and even a few whales. I knew this was going to be so much fun!

This picture was so awesome to me.......just the complete white blanket of clouds out the window!We got our leis when we landed...oh they smell so good and are so beautiful. They were actually real flowers! Just like I pictured.While we were waiting for our rental car we saw these awesome lizards. I am sure they have to glow in the dark!
We ran to Costco to pick up some food for the week, checked into our condo (Waikoloa Resort), unpacked, ate dinner and then off to the beach. The sun already started to set so we missed the best part but the kids loved it! The food is definitely more expensive here.....$4.09 for a 6 pack of Coke....$9.99 for a case of water. This makes me appreciate our prices at the grocery store so much more! Here we are eating dinner on the patio of our condo. I would love this set up on my patio!
Off to the shops down the road. Lauren has a LIST and I don't mean short one of things she wants to buy people. She is so sweet and doesn't want to forget anyone. Emily.....always my more practical child. Just something for a friend or 2. Got a few souvenirs tonight and made our reservations for our whale watching trip tomorrow. We are so excited for that.....stay tuned to see what tomorrow brings. I hope we see a whale or two!

The kids were so tired after along day. It was only 9:00pm here but MIDNIGHT at home! Long day for everyone but they were great trooopers!
Andy said to me tonight that he wants to start a tradition of coming here every 6 months to see all the islands and for pure relaxation! I am so glad I asked him to come with us since this was suppose to be a girls trip! I hope sometime soon my sister, her family and JD can come too! Santa comes to Hawaii too right?

Love the scenery here! Flowers EVERYWHERE!! They are all so beautiful and smell amazing! Here was one I saw that I loved! They would be so cute in the girls hair!

Boys Will Be Boys

Drew loves to make a mess! Any day, all day, everyday. Some days I don't mind a HUGE mess but other days I just don't have the energy. Here is Drew playing with shaving cream.....dinosaurs are playing in the snow!

My Favorite Christmas Gift

Andy and I don't exchange gifts. He says....if I don't have it, I can't afford it! I guess that is kind of a true statement but this year I got the best gift I could have ever asked for. My Aunt Stacey is so good to my family. She is my aunt from my dad's family and doesn't seem to ever forget us for holidays/birthdays. It really does mean a lot to me since I don't have a lot of contact with my dad's family. This year she sent us a package. When we opened it I found a Longaberger basket that was my Grandmas! I have it sitting on a side table in my family room where I can see it all day long and every time I do, I think of my sweet Grandma that did so much for me when I was growing up! Then Drew opened up his gift and in the box was a jacket. It looked like one I had seen before but I wasn't sure. It was too big for him when he tried it on and then I read the card. It was a jacket of my dads! Oh how I will treasure this jacket. Drew loves it but I quickly took it from him so it doesn't get ruined. Aunt Stacey said it was special to her because of how much he loved my dad and loved it on him! When my dad passed away I didn't get much to remember him by so I will treasure it hanging in my closet! This is a gift that has no value to many others but to me is priceless!

Happy Anniversary

Dec 24th is our wedding anniversary. A word to anyone thinking of getting married.....don't get married on a holiday because you will NEVER leave your kids. Really??? Christmas Eve...... We will NEVER EVER not be with our kids in some way around Christmas. Looking back on our marriage we have accomplished a lot with YEARS more to finish up our list.

- Baby #1 (March 1994)
- Baby #2 (Oct 1997)
- Moved 1700 miles from our friends & family
- Started our life in Arizona in (Feb 1998)
- Bought our 1st house (Nov 1999)
- Baby #3 (Sept 2003)
- Bought our 2nd house (Dec 2004)

I am grateful for my husband even though some days I wonder if he is my 4th kid! He provides for our family, loves me when I am unlovable. Andy isn't home a lot during the week but he doesn't miss anything with our kids on the weekends, even if it is driving and hour to a soccer game, driving an hour home to see another one play, straight to Drew's t-ball and then drive another hour to watch another soccer game. I just wish our kids knew how lucky they were.

Happy Anniversary Andy - hope there is many more to come! We only get better with age!

Where did the holidays go?

WOW! This year has flown by especially these last few months.

Thanksgiving was so nice and quiet for us. It is nice to be able to relax and not have to go here, be there, stop by here. I really enjoy being simple at the holidays. When we were in Illinois with our families it was always so stressful because everyone demanded our time and just didn't get it....we are our own family. WE need to make our own traditions. It seems that every year my mom has to work so we are so glad to have JD over for dinner. The kids love having Grandpa eat with us. Andy cooks the traditional Thanksgiving food. It is so YUMMY! I am so glad he enjoys cooking.....way more then I do! That night Andy I went out shopping at midnight! YES...we got up at 11:30 (well he got up because I never made it to bed) and left for our annual black friday shopping. Oh what deals we got. I LOVE shopping on this day for some reason. We try to get all of our shopping done in 1 day! This year was no exception and we got everything we wanted! I love this tradition for us. There is definite strategy when we go in some stores. We came home around 11:00, picked up the kids and went out for lunch as a family then quickly came home for a much needed nap!

Where did Christmas go? It came and went so fast this year. Unfortunately Andy had to work this year so we had to get up at 6:00 so the kids could open their presents. This is the only downfall to him working for the airlines but you can't have it all good. There is sacrifice with everything in life and this is no exception. We had a good Christmas. It feels so good to be able to say after the holidays are over that I am not in debt to pay for it. Something we have tried really hard to do the past 4-5 years, pay with debt or cash....NO EXCEPTION!

While I enjoyed having my kids home for 2 1/2 weeks for Christmas, it was so nice to have them back in school. I may be one of the ONLY moms to admit it but I know many feel it!