Hawaii Day Four

Today we went to the swap meet, played in the sprinklers, and did Germaine's Luau. It was a busy day. Little Princess is chilling before we went to the swap meet. We bought some pretty cool stuff, most of which we will have to ship home :) We got 5 people here in 4 carry-on bags. Hopefully we'll be able to take it all back with us.

Sprinklers were a great idea. We still got the water and the sun, but NO SAND.
Germaine's Luau was great. It was about 45 minutes from the air force base. It's amazing how many different views of the ocean there are here and how different all the beaches look.
Taking the pig out. It was yummy.

We only got to watch part of the show before the kids started freaking out. I think the time difference and lack of sleep is starting to wear on them. They've been really good up to this point, but tonight was enough. Hopefully they'll sleep good and be happy tomorrow.

Hawaii Day Three

Today we hit the Dole Pineapple Plantation and Pearl Harbor (not in that order-my pictures upload backwards). There were so many pretty plants, trees, and flowers and Little Princess would not hold still to get a good picture.



We took a boat ride at Pearl Harbor out to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. The kids loved the boat ride. They didn't quite understand the whole memorial thing, but it was pretty neat.


You can see the U.S.S. Missouri in the background. Apparently it just got a multi-billion dollar makeover. Thus the big cost of riding out to it.


Little Princess had to catch naps when she could. She's been such a little troooper

Hawaii Day Two

Some of these pictures are from day one. We hit the beach at the air force base. It was a little bit cold, but the kids loved it.

Day two we went to Hanauma Bay. It was fun snorkeling and playing on the beach. It was quite interesting letting six kids play in the sand.
We also went to the International Marketplace. It was fun. This is before we went to dinner. My first time at The Cheesecake Factory-it was yummy.
The kids had fun playing in the common area outside their house. It was good wind down time in betwen activities.

Hawaii Day One

It's really day two in Hawaii, but yesterday was a travel day. Today was our first day playing. We had a fun busy day. Today we spent time up at the North Shore. We hit the temple ground and visitor's center.






We also went to Waimea Falls Park. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was about 3/4 mile hike. The kids did OK :)
Once the Falls came in to view, Big Man yells 'my first waterfall'. It was pretty cool. The kids all had fun swimming.




We had a fun and tiring day. The kids were worn out. Let's hope they sleep good tonight :)

Creativity at Work

While I was doing the dishes the other day, Big Man decided he wanted to make some lemonade. He did all of the work making the lemonade. One idea turned into another which ultimately led to this-a lemonade stand. I thought it was pretty funny. Do you love that it's on our front porch and not the sidewalk? They ended up taking the lemonade around to their friends and not selling any. They make me smile. You'll notice the suitcase in the background. We're starting to pack for our trip and that thing goes everywhere with us.

We woke up the other morning to snow. It's been quite a while since we had a good snowstorm. The kids could barely finish their breakfast before they were pulling out the snow clothes. Big Man only stayed out about 5 minutes, Little Man came in shortly after. Little Princess probably would've played out there all morning if we would've let her.

Jeff has some pretty cool hats. The other night while we were getting ready to go out the boys decided they wanted to dress up as Indiana Jones. This is what they came up with. The 'whips' didn't last long because they kept hitting each other with them.

I walked down the stairs this morning to find these three playing the Wii. Looks pretty cozy huh? So cute.

Weekend Pics...

Here is Little Princess on her new bed. She loves it. She had no problem going down either of her first two nights. She's such a sweetheart. Tomorrow we're picking out fabric for a new bedspread. The cover that's on there was mine when I was a little girl :)

Jeff's I-phone pictures are a bit small, but you get the idea of the fun Little Man had on the farm this weekend. He got to hold and play with a baby lamb. He thought it was great fun. Little Man and Jeff had a boys day out on Saturday. Big man was home sick :( I'm glad we're getting our illness out of the way before our Hawaii trip.

What a week...

This week's lesson has been patience. It's not a lesson I learn well, so apparently I need to keep learning it over and over. Little man was sick ALL week long. He started throwing up last Sunday night and had a horrible fever. The throwing up lasted only one night, but the fever stayed all week. It was manageable with medicine, but he had no energy. He laid on the couch or my bed all day and even took naps everyday-which never happens. He'd get little bursts of energy, but they wouldn't last long. I felt so helpless as a parent. I was doing everything I knew how, but it still wasn't enough. It was one of those times that I was reminded that life is fragile. My dad and Jeff gave him a blessing on Thursday morning and I think it helped a lot. He's on the mend, but extremely ornery about it.

In addition to being housebound with sick kids, I was without a car all week. What was supposed to be a one-day repair, ended up being 4 days. I've always taken for granted having a car available to me whenever I need it. I admire families that share one vehicle.

There were some good things that happened this week as well. We're one week closer to our Hawaii trip. We're going to visit Jeff's sister and family on Oahu. They're in the air force over there. The boys are thrilled. They ask every day to see a picture of the airplane and the beach. I made the mistake of showing them their seating assignments when I booked the flights. It will be a fun trip.

Also, today Little Princess got a big girl bed. She's only 17 months, but that is the age the boys got their beds too. she wants to much to be like her brothers and do what they do. I will post some pictures of her new bed later. I found the bed on KSL. It's really cute and girly. We're going to go pick out some material next week and Grandma Susie has agreed to make her a cute quilt that will match her room. Her first night she went down remarkably well. She didn't quite understand why we were reading stories laying down instead of in the rocking chair. It took her a minute, but she didn't get out and she went down quickly. She's such a cutie.

This week has been full of ups and downs, but we made it. I hope that next week is back to normal on all counts.