Heaven: Days 1-3

Hawaii should be renamed Heaven. Seriously. This place is so amazing. Words cannot even describe, and sadly pictures can't even fully capture the stunning beauty of this place.

I wasn't planning to blog during this fabulous trip, but I don't want to forget any of the details of what we have been doing, and since this is my journal, I figure I must keep a record of all the amazing details.

Day 1: Monday

We spent most of the day on the airplane. We left our house at about 5:30 a.m. and got into Hawaii at 4:30 p.m. PST. A very long day of travel. We flew into Honolulu and had a couple of hours to kill until our flight to Hana, Maui. We had lunch/dinner/snack at the airport and just hung around. The Honolulu airport is not a great introduction to Hawaii. We caught our flight a couple hours later. The 1 hour flight to Hana was a great treat. Our plane was a 10 seat puddle jumper and we were the only passengers. Our pilot was great and gave us aerial tour of the islands between Oahu and Maui. We are staying in Hana, on the east side of Maui, a tiny little town that has virtually no tourist business and is completely untainted. The pilot flew us low along the eastern coast as we came in and we were able to see the spectacular beaches and cliffs along the way. It was truly the best way to see Hawaii for the first time. Charles and Mindy picked us up at the Hana airport and had lei's for us to welcome us to Hawaii (I had really been wanting a lei, so it was perfect!).

(Please ignore how lovely we are looking. By this point we had been traveling for 16 hours.)

Day 2: Tuesday

We woke bright and early on Tuesday morning and for the first time were able to really take in our surroundings. The house that Mindy's grandma owns overlooks the ocean and is surrounded by rolling hills covered with cows and wild horses. This is what we wake up to every morning: with a soft sea breeze blowing over us and the scent of wild tropical flowers occassionally filling the air (see, I told you this is heaven).

We had breakfast at the posh Hotel Hana The food was out of the world (imagine macadamian nut encrusted french toast with pineapple-papaya marmalade) and the view was amazing. We then spent the morning at Hamoa beach just enjoying the sun and playing in the ocean. The waves here are BIG and rough and take some getting used.

After lunch we went to Oheo Gulch (Seven Sacred pools). The pools were closed to swimming because of high water but we are planning to try later this week. We then hiked 2 miles through amazing tropical rain forest and fascinating bamboo forest to reach Makahiku Falls . The hike itself was amazing but seeing the waterfall at the end was definitely the highlight. Al and I decided we couldn't pass up the opportunity to swim in the waterfall. The water was SO cold but it was an amazing experience.

It was the perfect first day in Hawaii.

Day 3: Wednesday

Today we drove the Road to Hana. Most people who drive the Road to Hana are coming from the west side of Maui and doing it as a day trip. The road is 52 miles long and takes about 2 1/2 hours to drive because it winds so much and is single lane on all the bridges. But my goodness, what an absolutely GORGEOUS drive. Totally worth it. We spent the day shopping and eating in La'haina. We hiked through Iao Valley State Park. We finished the day eating at Mama's Fish House on the North Shore. Truly, probably the best culinary experience I have ever had. It was amazing. The food was art and was heavenly. Having been on the west side of the island, I definitely think we are staying in the most beautiful spot in Hawaii. The east side of the island (where we are staying) gets 300 inches of rain a year as opposed to the west side that only gets 30 inches. This side is definitely the tropical paradise you think of when you think of Hawaii.

What a strange week it has been.

Nothing earth shattering happened this week, but I've had an unusual week.

On Tuesday I had a doctor's appt. for some weird things that have been happening to me the last few weeks. My doctor was perplexed and I ended up having to have an EKG for them to check my heart. It ended up being ok and we're just chalking it up to bizarre reaction to seasonal allergies. It has been rainy and cold this week and the weird symptoms have completely disappeared.

On Tuesday night I broke out with what I thought were hives all over my both of my hands. Al looked at them and said that it looked like poison ivy to him. What?!? Last spring when we were putting our house on the market and doing lots of yard work both Al and I got poison ivy. Al's was pretty bad and he had to go on a strong oral and topical steriod to get rid of it. Occassionally poison ivy will flare up for no apparent reason. We still had some of the topical stuff so I took some Benadryl and used the ointment and the next day it was cleared up.

Wednesday morning as I was walking out the door to meet some friends for lunch I ventured into my laundry room to put some stuff away and realized that the pipe that drains the dirty water out of my washing machine had become disconnected and I had a full laundry cycle's worth of water all over my floor. It was such a mess and I had to do 4 extra loads of laundry to handle all the towels. Such a pain but luckily quickly resolved.

Last night I had another major poison ivy outbreak. This time on both hands and up my arms. As we were trying to figure out what could be causing them, Al remembered that you're supposed to stay out of direct sunlight if you have poison ivy. Well, I have been tanning a lot getting ready for our trip and my outbreaks have both happened within an hour of getting home from the tanning bed. Ugh. Not sure how my 8 days in Hawaii are going to go if I'm not supposed to be in direct sun.

Today I took the kids to the Children's Museum. As I was walking in I noticed a little boy standing all alone very close to the busy parking lot. Another mom joined me and we were trying to figure out where this boy's parent/caregiver was. The boy was probably about Makenna's age. We stood there for about 5 minutes looking for his mom (he was little enough that he could not communicate where she was when we asked). Finally, a lady got out of her car (about a football field away) and yelled for the little boy to come over to her. Hello, walking through a huge, busy parking lot by himself. I was mortified!! So I packed up my kids and grabbed the boys hand and walked him to his car. Stupid, irresponsible parents.

Other than that we are just getting ready to go on our trip! This weekend we are having the kids' Easter pictures taken and getting our legal documents updated/notarized in preparation for our trip. I cannot believe I will be in Hawaii in 3 days!!

Tis the Season...

For:

1. Jelly Bellies - Al loves Jelly Bellies so I bought him this 4 lb. jar at Costco a few weeks ago. Every night after dinner (if the kids eat well) we let them eat a few JB's. Al loves the butter popcorn flavor the best (gross). They love trying to figure out what flavor their bean is.

2. The wearing of the green! This is the kids after Carter's preschool St. Patty's party last week. His fabulous teacher had the cutest party. The kids made some crafts and then she had a leprechaun hunt. They followed a trail of gold coins, candy and shamrocks made by the leprechaun and baited him with Lucky Charms. They love, love, loved it. I am totally going to steal the idea and do my own hunt next year.

Favorite Things

A couple mornings ago I heard Makenna whining in her room. When I got in there, she was trying to pick up and carry all of these toys at the same time. I watched her struggle for a good five minutes before she finally got them all. These are her favorite things right now: Her bitty baby, purple flower purse (with 3 play phones, which she calls Hellos, and a picture of the SLC temple that she carries everywhere), her pink Little People mini van (do you remember giving this to her Jenni?) and her stuffed dog that she calls Ruff. So cute to see her with them all at once. I can't wait to scrap this picture!

The shower, Boise and Gratitude!

Wow. I have tons and tons of pictures to post. This weekend was a whirlwind and I'm just barely recovering. Thank goodness for that stinking tent that is still up in C's bedroom - it has kept the kids occupied for almost an hour allowing me to unpack and get reorganized for the week. But man, we are tired. I held the baby shower for my friend on Friday night. It went great and we had about 25 people show up. I almost ran out of places for people to sit! So here is my cute friend Tracy and I at the shower. Allen was a great help, as always, and took the kids to the McD's playland for dinner and play! (PS - can you tell that I chopped my hair a couple weeks ago - I love it now that I get how to style it).

We drove to Boise early on Saturday morning. The assumption was that if we got the kids up early, they would fall back asleep in the car. WRONG. Yikes, they were both awake for the entire eight hours. You would think we would know better by now. The weather in ID was amazing - in the 70s both days we were there. We spent the entire afternoon at the park and even ate dinner there. This is my SIL Meghan and daughter Lauren with the kids at the park.

My SIL Laurie made this cute shirt for Carter. He literally wore it for 2 days straight and sobbed when we wouldn't let him wear it to church. He even begged us to let him wear it under his church clothes. Laurie thinks it is hilarious that we all have pirate names in our little family and made these shirts of Carter. Carter's pirate name is Knobs because he is so stinking knobbly and skinny. Finally, here we are with the handsome missionary himself, Al's brother Jake. He did a great job at his farewell and we know he'll be a great missionary. We're so proud of him!

The gross/funny part of the trip is that we ate at McD's every day for 3 days. So gross but it is the only place to take kids when you are traveling. We chose the outdoor play area over the food. Yuck-o!

Gratitude: I really can't think back on this weekend without being so grateful for Allen's wonderful family. I feel so blessed that not only is his immediate family amazing, but so is his extended family. Many of his cousins live in the Boise area and it was so great to see everyone. I have to say that the Litster family (Al's mom's side) are some of the most generous, giving and supportive people I have ever met. It is a huge blessing to be part of this family!

26-30, Repost and Reasons

Good light today so I thought I would post my next few Layouts. I'm almost a third of the way to my goal and the year is only 1/4 the way over so I'm ahead of myself. But considering that I scrap almost daily, it makes me realize that I can't slack one bit or I won't make my goal.


1. Seriously Silly. Just a LO with some cute, silly pictures of C. This one is Ok to me. But the key is that it is DONE!
2. Soak Up the Sun. Fun pictures of M at the waterpark last summer. Love all the fun, summery colors and papers on this one.


3. Kachow. Love, love, love this page. It took me FOREVER to cut out, ink and then adhere all the circles to the page. But I love it. This one looks much better in person (well all of my LOs do).


4. Sweet Baby Girl. M at 3 months. I've kind of sworn off the single picture layouts. However, Makenna (poor Makenna) was born at such a busy time in our lives that I just don't have tons of pictures of her. I probably have at least twice as many of Carters first year as I do of Makenna's. I hope she doesn't hate me for it later :)


5. Friends. Another kind of Blah layout to me. This is Carter with some of his best friends from CT. He had such a cute, fun group of kids his age there and still talks about them all the time. So cute to see them all a couple of years ago in this picture from Mother's Day 2005.
Repost: This is one from the last batch but my lighting was so crummy and I love this LO so much that I thought I would repost. That is a newsprint flower right in the middle there. It is so cool in real life. And, I did buy it premade-- not even I am that crafty/orginal.

Reasons: So, I know that very few of my loyal Blog readers (all 10 of you) are actually scrapbookers. You may wonder why I even bother posting my layouts. It's not because I am looking for validation for being a good scrapbooker (I'm Ok, at best). It is because I am using this forum as a way to remain accountable. I made a goal and the best way to keep it is to remain accountable to someone. And "you" are the lucky someone. I don't post my layouts in any other public forum. It's about what scrapping means to me. The scrapbook world has gotten way cut throat and people do it for any variety of reasons. For me, scrapbooking is just that, for me. I don't care who sees or loves my pages. I love creating them and I love having a record for my kids. And my kids love looking through their books. Blogging to me is much the same. You may have noticed that I removed the blog tracker from my blog. Because really, I don't give a hoot how many people are or aren't looking at my blog. I blog for me and my family and if anyone else wants in on the action, that's cool. If no one looked at my blog but me and my mom (my mom loves this thing), totally cool with me.

So there you have it. And with that, I'm off to the park with my kiddos.

Edited to Add: I hope I haven't offended anyone with this post. I love that people like to keep up with my family. I seriously wish everyone I know had a blog because I love reading and commenting on my friends' blogs. And I love that there are a ton of inspirational scrapbookers out there that I can copy :) If I were ever enticed over to the publishing side of scrapbooking it would definitely be the free product that pro scrappers receive. Anyway, everyone has their own reasons and motivations, these are just mine.

Suddenly Feeling Overwhelmed

Wow. I'm just looking at my schedule for the next few months and I am feeling very overwhelmed at the moment. Here's what's coming down the pike for us:

This Friday - co-hosting baby shower for my friend at my house (40ish people invited)
This Saturday - Drive to Boise for Al's little brother's mission farewell
This Sunday - Attend farewell and drive back to Seattle (yes, we are insane)

March 25-April 3 - Hawaii

April 5- Huge Enrichment Night that I'm in charge of - Musical Easter program and dinner for 70 women - 2 days after my trip - I have a ton to do and it all has to be done before I leave

April 18-23 - My dear friend Lizzy is coming to visit Seattle. We are planning a trip to Oregon during this week to visit our mission president's wife (our mission president is deceased)

May 1 - 5 - Watch my sisters 5 kids while they are on a Carribbean Cruise - (we are trading kids for trips)

May 18-19 - Stake Women's Conference that I'm on 2 committees for and have been asked to teach a class (YIKES)

May 25-28 - Girls weekend with my mom and sisters in Victoria, BC. We are celebrating my sisters 40th bday.

Throw in the mix the fact that we *might* have to squeeze in a house hunting trip sometime during these next few months and potentially get ready to move. Holy cow. I'm stressed!

Weekend Pictures

We took advantage of the spring weather to the fullest here this weekend. On Saturday we spent part of the afternoon flying kites. It wasn't very windy but it was still really fun for the kids. Carter chose a Spiderman kite (what else?) and has been begging to go back out today. I'm planning to keep the kites in the car and go out whenever we have a windy day.

Last night Al set up his little one man back packing tent. We couldn't believe how long it kept the kids entertained. Carter asked to sleep in it last night but he chickened out at the last minute. It takes up a lot of space in his room but he's having so much fun with it up that I think we'll let him keep it up for a couple more days.

Today we took our normal Sunday afternoon walk. The blossoms are bursting on the trees everywhere around us. One of my favorite smells in the whole world is blossoming apple trees. I had a tree right outside my bedroom window growing up and it reminds me so much of home. These trees here aren't very fragrant yet but they sure look pretty. It started to drizzle while we were out and we came home looking like drowned rats.

Spring Organization!

I've been on a bit of an organization streak this week. I've cleaned out each and every closet in the house. I unpacked all the kids summer clothes and took stock of what we still need. I got rid of all the mismatched hangers in their closets and bought 100 new white plastic hangers and everything is now hanging. I love it.

I also organized my scrapbook closet. I'm always looking for ways to keep my supplies better organized and more accessible. It's hard with the teeny tiny space I have allotted for my stuff. So yesterday I went to Costco and bought a 2nd rolling cart for all of my patterned paper. I spent all of the kids' nap time yesterday and a bit more of the afternoon separating all my patterned paper by manufacturer and then putting it into alphabetically split up drawers. In an ideal world with endless space I would have a drawer for each manufacturer -- maybe some day. So the cart of the left is for all my patterned paper. The cart on the right has a drawers for all my chipboard, rubons, letter stickers, 2 monthly scrapbook kit clubs that I belong to and a drawer each for patterned paper scraps and cardstock scraps.

The best thing is that they are on wheels so I can wheel them out when I'm ready to scrap and quickly stow them away when I'm done. I am really tempted to buy a third cart and use it to store the kids art/craft supplies.

And of course, I have to give a shout out to my label maker. I love that thing. I use it ALL the time. It makes everything look so neat and tidy. And yes, I know I'm a freak.

How Many have you Read?

I came across this list of books compiled by Time Magazine of the 100 best English language books written since 1923. Being the avid reader that I am, I am slightly embarrassed to say that I have only read:

Animal Farm by George Orwell
Are you there God, It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume (and it completely cracks me up that this made the list - I've probably read it dozens of times)
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (one of my all time favorite books - I try to read it every summer)
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Housekeeping by Marilyn Robinson
The Lion, the witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wo0lf
Neuromancer by William Gibson
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I guess I need to get on that.

Speaking of reading, I'm about 350 pages into New Moon and I LOVE it. Better than the first, I think. I'm planning to finish it tonight while Al is at Guys Night Out (AKA Video Games and pizza). AND I just found out that Shannon Hale has a blog (all the cool kids Blog. Heh.) And she has a new book coming out at the end of May. It looks like a bit of a departure from what we're used to reading from her. This is going to be a great summer of reading with the new HP and new Stephenie Meyer book!

Think Spring and 21-25

Just some things I've been working on this week. Here's my revamped spring wreath. I actually change this out seasonally but love how cute this one turned out! I keep the square wreath and change the middle hanging thing and the embellishments on the outside.

1. Day out with Thomas! Yay! I'm finally getting some 2005 pictures done! I need to add journaling to this one but ran out of the blue cardstock.
2. All boy. Pictures of C on his preschool fieldtrip to the pumpkin patch. Here he is playing in the worm dirt that he loved.
3. You are my life, my future, my everything. I actually made this exact same LO for Makenna's book (but with a picture of her, obviously). I took the journaling idea from the Buddy Jewel song "There Goes my Life." If you've never heard it, it's such a beautiful, touching song. The pics I used were taken on Thanksgiving Day during the annual Turkey Bowl.
4. Pretty Pink Butterfly. Makenna Halloween 2005. Love these pictures of her so much. 5. True Love. A picture of Al and me on our wedding day. I haven't dared scrap our professional prints but I love doing these snapshots. Doing them with six years of perspective is fun too. The journaling reads, "Six years ago, if I knew then what I know now, I would do it again in a heartbeat."Sorry for the lousy pictures but you get the idea. The sun is back behind the clouds today making it extra hard to get good pictures in my house.

Best of the Weekend

We had a really fun weekend. Here are some of the highlights:

Best Conversation: Between me and Carter in the car while listening to "Island in the Sun" by Weezer. I turned it down a little when the guitar solo came on.

Carter: Mom, is this the rock and roll part?
Me: Yes Carter
Carter: Turn it up mom, I can't hear it.
(I turn up the volume slightly)
Carter: Rock on Mom!!

(All the while, Makenna is Doot Dooting in the background)

Best Date: Al and I went with friends to Jazz Alley to see the fabulous Ann Hampton Callaway . She is quite amazing and we downloaded her album as soon as we got home. It was so fun to get away from our normal out-to-dinner date night routine. Visit her website for a sampling of her music - she does a lot of jazz classics that we love! I can't say it enough, Seattle has the BEST cultural opportunities of anywhere we've ever lived.

2nd Best Date: On Saturday night we met up with some friends to do Bush League Racing. It's like video game racing except that you're sitting in a race car that moves and rocks as you race and you're all racing against eachother. I actually got a little bit sick from all the movement and was a pretty miserable racer but Al LOVED it and can't wait to go back. I'll let him go back with his guy friends who overall seemed to enjoy it more than the ladies in the group.

Best Primary Moment: I got to sub for Carter's primary class on Sunday. During sharing time the teacher was telling the story of Zacchaeus, who is little in stature. The teacher was telling the kids that Zacchaeus was very short. One of the 5 year olds raised his hand and said, "Was he short like Yoda?" You should have heard the teachers all try to hide their laughter at that one. I loved it.

Best Book: So I finished Twilight. It was really, really good. I can't stop thinking about it. I am dying for my library to get in a copy of New Moon for me. Or for it to come out in paperback so I can justify buying it! I highly recommend it. And yes, I did know that Stephenie Meyer is a BYU Alum. You can actually read an interview with her in the BYU Alumni Magazine Winter 2007 issue (page 60).

The weather continues to be fabulous here. It is in the SEVENTIES today. Glorious. I almost feel guilty making my kids take naps on a day like today. We'll be back outside as soon as they wake up, I'm sure. We even BBQ'd last night!

Good News, Bad News

Bad News: Snow, again. Yuck.

Good News: School is only postponed 1.5 hours, not cancelled. We actually get preschool today. Hooray!

Good News: Lost was on last night.

Bad News: Lost is rapidly losing my interest. Anyone else think that was the lamest episode ever? Luckily, Sawyers humor saved it last night for me. Skeletor. Oh my, hilarious. But seriously, they'd better get it together soon or they're going to lose viewers.

Good News: I have this book just sitting here begging to be read. I'm so excited to start it.

Bad News: I understand that it is SO good that I won't do anything else until I'm done. (My friend Mindy read it and likened it to crack.)

Good News: Taxes are finally done. It took us forever this year with all the relocation and unusual circumstances.

Bad News: Can't really find the bad in getting money back from the government :) Oh wait, here you go - we could have been earning interest on that money all year.

Good News: I'm all about keeping it real this year.

Bad News: I deleted my post from yesterday morning. If you were one of the lucky few to see my post, you got some REAL stuff from our house. If you didn't see it, call me and I'll tell you the story. Pretty dang funny.

Good News: Al has interviewed for a few jobs at Honeywell in Phoenix and a couple of groups are quite interested in him.

Bad News: As of last Friday the entire company is on a hiring freeze. I'm slowly adjusting to the fact that we might be here (in WA) longer than we orginally expected.

Good News: As of yesterday I can wear the jeans that I wore my senior year of college. Whoop!

Bad News: They're really out of style. Not that I'm planning to wear them though, they're just my little measuring stick.


Good News: My baby is STILL asleep


Bad News: This is probably due to the fact that she woke up at 4:00 a.m. wanting to play in bed with us. Ugh. She is the WORST sleeper ever. Such a stinker.

Good News: This post is almost over

Bad News: Not quite yet, I need to add some pictures from last week.

Makenna with two of my cute nieces. My kids cannot get enough of their cousins. I will be so sad when we don't live close to any of them.Us at the Seattle Aquarium last week. I was shocked at how much the kids loved it. We are considering getting an annual pass (depending on how long we're here). I have a ton of pictures from this day but they need some photoshop help since it was so dark at the indoor exhibits.