14 months and 1 week old!

Hello little guy!

So, Mommy is sitting here thinking all about the great achievements you have accomplished this past month! I still can't believe how much you have been growing and growing and learning so many new things! Having kids could really never be boring I have decided, not if we as parents pay attention to every new thing that you learn and do because then it is always an example of what God has blessed us with through you! Daniel, you are 14 months old now (and 1 week, actually) and just growing and growing! You did lots of cool things for the first time this past month, including your very first plane ride (actually six different planes) to Hawaii and back, seeing and playing in the ocean for the first time, walking without assistance (even if it has only been two to five steps at once maybe a total of like 10 times so far), seeing and getting scared by your first guy dressed in a big animal costume (the State Farm bear at your friend, Connor's, birthday party), climbing ALL over the place (up on couches, chairs, boxes, tables, the stairs, etc.), climbing DOWN from things the RIGHT way (from couches, chairs, beds, stairs, etc.), opening doors all over our house (you love our door handles because they are the easy ones to open, although you still have to get on your tip-toes), sweeping (you will push the big push-broom all over the garage without any help!), saying "dog", "baby", "eat", "please", and various other words from time to time, and so many other things that I can't even think of right now! This has definitely been a big month of learning new things for you!

You love walking around all over the place with your walker and fire truck and holding onto our hands / fingers. You also still love to go on walks and play outside and you could swim all day and be okay with it because you LOVE LOVE water! A new thing that you have especially enjoyed in the past few weeks has been 'cooking' yummy 'food' for Mommy and Daddy! You will cook up a storm by measuring out puzzle pieces, dumping them into a big bowl, stirring them with a wooden spoon, and taking them out with the spoon or a spatula and serving them up on a plate. You will bring us 'bite' after 'bite' of this imaginary food knowing that we always seem to like it. :o) You also love to tickle people's feet, especially, which you got from your daddy tickling your feet. :o) You will touch their feet real fast and start to laugh, thinking that that must tickle them as much as it tickles you when daddy does it to your toes. Lol.

You eat anything and everything and definitely always seems to have quite the appetite! The other day you ate an entire half of a hamburger, fixings and all. You LOVE meat, bread, any types of fruit, and sweets, of course... :o) You will eat more veggies than you did before, but your favorites are definitely still sweet potatoes, steamed carrots, raw green pepper, and occasionally some others from time to time.

Oh! Yes! The other thing you have been very into lately is cleaning up stuff, which is a very good thing! Mommy sometimes has to get you started, but then you do such a great job picking up your toys and putting them where they go. Yesterday we cleaned up all your toys in the living room and then Mommy started putting away ones in your room when you disappeared back into the living room and came back with a toy and then an envelope that was left on the floor in there, very happily standing up and putting it on your bookshelf to help clean up. :o) Then, you continued on by bringing me one little piece of rolly-polly or trash or string or piece of carpet at a time from near the front door as you crawled back and forth back and forth cleaning up the floor over there. :o) You were so cute!

Daniel, you are GREAT at taking naps! Definitely one of the things you do best! :o) You take two great naps a day, usually at least 2 hours for each one, which is nice for mommy to be able to get things done, take a break, or nap myself, and I have really enjoyed it because you go down so much easier than ever before, sometimes playing with your teddy for awhile before falling asleep.

The other thing you have really been enjoying is dancing, which I actually just blogged about in my last post! You will dance and move to almost any song you listen to, even if it's just to a little rhythm and not even a song! The other night we were watching a Disney movie and eating popcorn (that was your first ever small bits of popcorn and you LOVED it) with some friends and you were dancing up a storm, moving your hips, bobbing your head, swaying, and raising your arms. It was way too cute! :o) Lol. You were cracking us up and I could have watched you dance all day!

Well, there is so much more I could say about you and what you have been up to, but I need to end sometime! ;o) I'm so excited for this next month with you, especially to see what new things you learn! Maybe you'll be walking more than the occasional steps when we trick you into them. :o)

We love you SOOOO much!!!

Love,
Mommy

Our Dancin' Daniel

So we have known this for awhile, but our Daniel LOVES music and loves to dance to almost any beat he hears! Right now he is sitting on his fire truck and pushing the buttons that make alarm and music noises and then he dances to it, bobbing his head back and forth and swaying his body as he sits on the truck. :o) He is so funny because even if he hears a little bit of music or a beat on a commercial, he will dance to that! Last night we were hanging out with our friends, David and Jessica, and because our little guy was really happy the entire time over at their place, we were able to eat a delicious dinner, hang out and talk, and then watch The Princess and the Frog. If you've watched that movie, you know that it has quite a lot of songs and singing in it, which Daniel LOVED! He stood up for awhile eating bits of popcorn (loved that) while he watched the movie, full on dancing whenever music was playing! We were all dying laughing watching him move his hips, shoulders, and head, and lifting his hands in the air as he danced it out. I so wish we had a video camera on us because it was super cute! I'm not sure where he gets all of his dance moves other than the one he does sitting down, which is just the small shoulder moves left and right as he bobs his head (that's from mommy - lol). Maybe he'll be our little musical boy!

Our week has been really good, although it did seem extra long after getting back from Denver. I can't even remember everything we did right now... let's see. Monday we had small group that evening, which was great to see everyone again! We talked about what we wanted to study over the summer and decided to read through the book of Ecclesiastes, listening / watching occasional podcasts, DVDs, and talks that speakers have done on it. I'm excited because I've never studied anything on this book before, so it should be interesting! I'm also excited because our friends, Laura and Brandon (who are in town for the summer), are going to be joining us, so that will be extra fun!

Tuesday night I had my girls' Bible study over at our place because the regular host was out of town for the week. That went well - we had lots of good conversation on the book "Crazy Love" that we have been going over.

Daniel and I have been having fun during the days, too, which has been fun. He has been in a very big 'cooking' mood lately so I got down some bowls, spoons, plates, spatulas, and containers for him to play with and he has kept very busy cooking, serving food to me, and greatly enjoying the entire process! I just ordered a few books on Toddler Activities online which came in a few days ago, so I've been having fun reading through those and am working on adding to my craft supply and working on a schedule to keep Daniel busy with new activities and things each day. Makes me feel like a teacher again! He is still taking two naps a day, so it's a little hard finding enough time to do much, but even a few minutes a day doing something new and fun would be great! :o) (Oh, that also reminds me... my little boy is now 14 months old - I need to write a new 'letter' on here, updating everyone on his new achievements! How the months have flown by! Crazy!

Wednesday I had a chiropractor appointment at noon because my hips, legs, and lower back have been killing me ever since Hawaii, and was worse after all the walking and stuff in Denver. :o( While I was there, Daniel hung out with his Aunt Amanda and cousin, Vienna, which he LOVED! We are excited about getting together with them again sometime soon... maybe on Wednesday we can go swimming at Lincoln Pool with them since it's free day for kids! Anyway, that evening was softball for Scott, so we went to the game with him (they WON!!! YAY!) and then hung out with David and Jessica a little bit after the game at our place.

Thursday I just got ready for all my family to come over that evening for Father's Day, so that kept me busy enough. Scott grilled out burgers and bratz and between everything everyone brought to eat, we had quite the feast! We also enjoyed celebrating with all the fathers (Scott, Dad, and soon-to-be dad, Wayne!). Yep, Wayne and Lelia are pregnant and are SUPER excited!!! I'm really excited to be pregnant at least a little while with Lelia, also... it's been fun talking about everything with her, too.

Friday, Daniel and I went in to visit Lelia at Starbucks for lunch and otherwise didn't do too much all day until Scott got home and we dropped Daniel off with his grandparents while Scott and I went to Movie Under the Stars to watch "How to Train Your Dragon". We had a lot of fun eating, playing Phase 10, talking, and watching the movie, although we did leave a intermission so that we wouldn't be out too late for his mom, who was over at our house staying with our sleeping son. :o) It was so much fun and a wonderful evening out!

Saturday the big news of the day was that we bought a pop-up camper! We have been looking at them all summer pretty much and had been looking at older ones, until we talked more to my parents and thought more about it and realized maybe it would be better to spend a bit more and get a new(er) camper so that hopefully it'll last years for our family! We got one that is fairly simple overall (it was the cheapest one they had), but it has good space inside and will easily fit four adults and six total with kids! We should be able to go pick it up tomorrow and have a time where they tell us all about it and how to work everything, so we are super excited about that! Our plan is to go camping up above Paonia this weekend Friday through Sunday, so we are excited to try it out and see how Daniel likes it, especially. :o) I'll post pictures once we get it so everyone can see it!

Other than pop-up camper shopping which took much of the day, we also began clearing out Lydia's room, which was fun! We got the desk and filing cabinets moved into our room (we'll be getting rid of our entertainment center and TV in there so we'll have enough room) and moved all my scrapbook stuff into the dining room. So far everything is going well, but we still have the closet to clear out and some other things. We were going to put together her crib which we had bought at a yard sale awhile back, but realized it is a drop-side crib which we did NOT want. :o( Soooo, Scott spent awhile looking at the crib online and realized it had not been recalled for anything but there is a part that you can get for free from the place to convert it from a drop-side to a stationery side, so we ordered off for that. Hopefully it won't take too long to get in and then we can see if that'll work or if we need to buy a different one. I'm sort of bummed about that because I've been REALLY wanting to get the crib set up and start decorating so it looks like her room! Oh, well... I will be patient!

Yesterday we went to church which was great and had a relaxing afternoon here before going to David and Jessica's for dinner with them. I talked about that up at the beginning of this post, so I guess that's all the catch up I need to do! I hope everyone has a wonderful week! Daniel just went down for his nap so I should start getting ready for the day finally (since it's after 10 already) and then maybe I can organize my scrapbook stuff because I REALLY want to scrapbook!

Weekend in Denver with Hubby...

So we are back home from our awesome weekend in Denver! It was sort of busy, but overall very relaxing and SO nice to spend all that time with my amazing husband! I love that man so much and having this time with him definitely made me see that we need more times like these... Therefore I'm telling myself right now that it will not be over a year again before we have another weekend just us again! I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to, and not too many good ones of the both of us (since we didn't have anyone to take a picture of us mainly...), but I will post a few good ones that we took! Here is quick run-down of our time...

Friday afternoon I took Daniel over to Scott's parents' around 3 right before Scott got home from work to change and start our trip! It was so sad saying goodbye to little Daniel because I knew I would miss him like crazy, but although he cried for a minute or so, I heard he stopped shortly after that, so that made me feel much better. :o) I had packed up and gotten everything ready before Scott got home (it's amazing how little you have to pack without a kid! definitely NOT used to that anymore!), so we were on the road by 3:45! We made it all the way to the gas station in Fruita where we filled the van up with gas and grabbed some candy bars and drinks (that's what I consider the start of a road trip, because otherwise I like NEVER get candy bars!) and then we were off! We went through KFC's drive-through in Rifle to grab some dinner and then went the rest of the way without stopping... Well, without stopping and leaving the car, that is. We got stuck in some crazy stop-and-go traffic in Glenwood Springs all the way through the Glenwood canyon because of lots of road construction, so it ended up taking us a good 5 hours to get to Denver instead of the normal 3 1/2 - 4 hrs. But, it's okay because the weekend was to spend time with my hubby, and we had some great time to just talk and listen to music and read our book on my Nook! (I can't remember the name of the book, but whatever it is, it's been really good and we've both enjoyed it!) We made it to our hotel, very thankful that it was in Lakewood which is on the west side of the Denver area, by 9 and checked in, brought in our luggage, and then changed into swimsuits and went swimming! That was fun because there was no one else there, so we enjoyed our time hot-tubbing and then hitting a big blown-up beach ball back and forth in the hot-tub and the pool, keeping score like volleyball. Lol, I felt like such kids making lots of noise and having tons of fun! :o) We also talked a lot about Daniel and Lydia and life and everything that's been going on lately! It was awesome!

Saturday I slept in until like 6:45 and made myself stay in bed until 7:30 or so when I woke up Scott (oops!). I seriously just can't seem to sleep in much anymore, thanks to my very consistent baby Daniel who likes to wake up by 7 or at the latest 8, usually! We got ready for the day and then headed down for breakfast there at the hotel by 9. Breakfast was great! We had sausage, egg casserole, waffles, orange juice, and coffee! Yumm! We left right after that and headed over to Babies R Us because I just have to go there whenever I'm in Denver since we don't have one! :o) We looked at a lot of things and ideas for Lydia's room, and bought a few things for her room a puzzle for Daniel since he doesn't have one and I've been working on shapes and matching with him lately. It was fun shopping! We headed downtown after that and walked for awhile on the 16th St. Mall. Scott asked me why I always want to go down there considering we don't really go into any of the shops... I don't really know why. I guess I just like to walk and hold hands with him and plus it's cool to be in a big downtown every once in awhile. Oh, and the food is AMAZING! :o) We stopped at The Cheesecake Factory and each got a slice of cheesecake (how can you pass that up?!?!) - Scott got some type of coffee/chocolate cheesecake and I got a Reese's Peanut Butter Cheesecake. Then we took that over to Noodles and Company where we ate lunch and then had our cheesecake for dessert. Let's just say we were WAY full after all that, but it was delicious! :o)




We headed back to our car after that and drove over to the Downtown Aquarium. That was the first time either of us had ever gone there and it was very cool! Definitely will have to take Daniel there sometime, because he will love it! We saw lots of really cool and interesting fish, shark, turtles, seahorses, and more! My favorites were the tiny little seahorses and the GIGANTIC turtles! I can't believe how big those get! I took tons of pictures there, so here are a few of them...














I was very tired and sore from all the walking (definitely need a chyro appointment this week... my hips have been killing me since Hawaii and I can't put it off any longer!) so we headed back to our room to rest a little bit and then got in the hot-tub and pool some more which helped me feel quite a bit better for a little bit at least. Then we drove over to Dave and Busters, which is a nice restaurant / bar with a really big arcade games area (like an adult Chuckie Cheese's). We had Philly Steak sandwiches for dinner and then played arcade games for almost 2 hours. It was a lot of fun, although we definitely have our favorite games that we play again and again - such as Wheel of Fortune, Deal or No Deal, this spin the wheel thing which you make lots of tickets on, and a game where you slice fruit on a TV screen with your fingers - lol. We played a few other ones, too, but those were our favorites for sure. We took all of our tickets to the gift shop area afterwards and bought Daniel a little soccer ball, football, and a blow-up golf club. :o) Then we drove around for awhile and got some ice cream from Baskin Robbins before heading back to the room where we watched a really stupid movie and I went to bed early while Scott finished the movie - I was worn out!

This morning I slept in a little bit later - until 7:50 - and then since Scott told me to NOT wake him up this morning, I fell back asleep until almost 8, when I did sort of wake him up I think because I knew we needed to get ready and get down to breakfast before 10. We had a great breakfast again and then packed up and headed to Silverthorne to go outlet shopping. We went to all three kid/baby stores (Carters, Gymboree, and Oshkosh B'Gosh) where we bought some really cute clothes and shoes for Daniel and Lydia and stopped in at a few other stores, too. :o) Then we went to Pizza Hut for lunch which was yummy and headed home! We were both missing Daniel so much by then, so we just wanted to hurry home! I needed my Danny hug! :o) We got back and spent time with my family who was all here where they had had steaks for lunch and then played games this afternoon. Daniel was very excited to see us and loved his new puzzle and clothes, so we played with him for awhile, tried to feed him some dinner (which he wasn't too interested in) and then put him down for bed by 7. He was exhausted! He did great for my parents all weekend, though, so that made me feel good. I'm so glad he has such great grandparents, uncles, and aunts who love to spend time with him! :o) He is definitely blessed!

Oh, yeah! Another exciting thing that happened this weekend with Daniel is he took two more sets of independent steps! :o) It's so hard because I know he can walk, but it's just that he doesn't seem to want to! Oh, well. I know that he will soon enough! :o) But, with those and the three steps he had taken towards me like three weeks ago, maybe we'll have a walker on our hands by July! :o) We will see!

Well, I need to go get the camera and load all the pictures on here so I post them on here with this. I hope everyone had a great weekend and I'll talk to you all soon!

Clean house!

I love having a clean house! :o) I have decided we need to have more people come to stay here, because I don't think I've had such a clean house in awhile. Lol. My parents are coming and staying with Daniel this weekend while Scott and I go over to Denver for a weekend away and to officially celebrate our 2nd year anniversary which was a few weeks ago! I'm SOOOO excited about leaving (just three more hours before Scott gets home from work and off we go!) although I know that I'm going to really miss little Daniel because I've only not seen him for one full day when we were in Hawaii, although we did still sleep in the same room with him (he was just asleep when we left and when we got back...). He is taking a great nap right now, though! It's already been two hours and I'm hoping he'll sleep even longer because then he can just have this one nap today. Slowly but surely he has been working on dropping one nap, although some days he still really needs two or he is grumpy! ;o)

Well, Scott just called and said he might try to come home a bit earlier, so I think I only have two hours left before he gets home. Time to go make some lunch and then get up Daniel, who just woke up. This is like my shortest blog ever and very random. Sorry... I'll write again after we get back from Denver and tell you all about our time! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Dear Lydia...

Dear Lydia,

Hi little girl! :o) I have been thinking of you a lot lately, as I have for over 20 weeks now, ever since your Daddy and I found out that we were expecting another little one! You are 28 weeks along right now, and it's so hard to believe that in just over 10 weeks you will be joining our little family! We are SO excited to see you face to face and see what you look like, how big you are, and to begin a new chapter of our life with two kids instead of just one! We have tried explaining to your brother, Daniel, that you are in my tummy and you'll be coming out soon, but I think he is a little young and has yet to understand much... :o) I'm sure he'll learn really soon, though, once he meets you! He does love to hit my big tummy, though, which always wakes you up and makes you kick like crazy. Lol. He just wants you to know he is here waiting, I think!

Mommy and Daddy have been busy thinking about what to do in your room to get ready for you! I think we will go with some type of nature theme, so we'll have to find lots of cool things with butterflies, flowers, and maybe watering pots and stuff to decorate with! Daddy is also trying to think of something special to make you like he made Daniel's bookshelf. Mommy is planning on sewing you a little quilt, which will be quite the accomplishment if it gets done because I've never done anything like that before! :o) Otherwise, I've just been working on crocheting a blanket for you, which Daniel really wants but I told him it's for his baby sister...

You have been such a good baby so far! You love kicking, but haven't hurt me at all with any big kicks, which is nice. :o) You definitely are up more in the middle of night than your brother was, though, which will hopefully not be the case once you get out! I'm able to sleep through most of it, I think, but almost every time I wake up at night you are there kicking away. I LOVE feeling you move!

We are so excited that you are a little girl, although if you turn out to be a little boy by any chance, that will be great, also! :o) That's because we love you no matter what! If you are a girl, though, your name will be Lydia Grace Slade, so we've been calling you that for awhile already. Your cousin, Vienna, is already calling you that, also, but she gets the name mixed up a lot so she has called you many other versions of "Lydia", too. Lol. She is VERY excited to meet you! She loves her little cousins!

Daddy, Mommy, and big brother Daniel love you SO much!!! Keep on growing and we'll see you soon!!

Love,
Mommy

Hawaii Trip!

We just got back home from Hawaii yesterday afternoon after an amazing time with family on the Big Island of Hawaii! I didn't end up keeping a journal or anything while I was over there of all that we did, so hopefully I can remember everything to tell you about it on here! I'll just start from the beginning and tell as much as I can right now before Scott gets home from his softball game. :o) Just to warn you now, this will probably be VERY long and might take me awhile to finish it...

Monday, May 30th

This was our 2nd anniversary and we spent it flying to Hawaii! The destination was awesome, but the day was VERY long! We left our house that morning at 7:40, waking Daniel up and feeding him in the car on the way over to Amanda's to pick up her and Vienna. We met Mom, Dad, Nanny, Lelia, and Wayne at the airport by 8:30 and spent most of our time before boarding getting tickets, checking in luggage, going through security, and getting last things done before boarding our first plane. That was the quick 45 min. flight to Denver, and Daniel sat back in another row with Scott while I sat with Nanny and enjoyed my only super relaxing flight of the day. :o) (Amazing how it is to travel with kids!) We spent three hours in Denver where we had lunch, rested, and watched as Vienna used up all her energy by strolling Daniel around and around our chairs. (He LOVED that!) We were a little late getting out of Denver for some reason (I think it was because of the wind, but I can't remember for sure), which meant that although the 2 1/2 hour flight to San Francisco went pretty well overall (Daniel didn't really sleep at all that flight, but Scott, Vienna, and I just kept him entertained as much as possible...), we were all a little worried because we knew that our 45 min. layover in San Francisco was getting shorter and shorter... They told us on the plane before we landed that there were 23 of us on that flight that were supposed to be on the flight to Kona, also, so they said that they were going to hold the plane for us. YAY! That was very nice to hear! Scott, Daniel, and I had to wait to get his stroller and car seat that we had gate checked while everyone else rushed over to our other flight, and after we finally got the stuff (after almost leaving the stroller there because it was taking so long), we ran over to our other gate just as they were about to close the door. SO glad we didn't get stuck there by ourselves! It was then time for our 5 hour flight to Kona. Daniel slept maybe 30 min. total on that flight near the very end, and needless to say that was just a LONG flight for us all, especially not being able to move around much for me and trying to keep Daniel entertained and not crying as much as possible! We were SO glad to get to Hawaii finally around 7:15 their time, which was 11:15 CO time. We were EXHAUSTED!


*Our sleepy Daniel*

The airport was so cool there! It was a bunch of hut type buildings with the security / gates / check-in areas / etc. underneath them in the open air. It was sweet! We stocked up on brochures while the guys got our luggage, and then headed over to a shuttle to our rental cars. Oh, yeah, we also found out that our handle had COMPLETELY come out of our luggage which meant we had a BIG hole in the top of it. So far I haven't noticed anything that was missing, though, so I'm hoping that nothing fell out. (And, yes, we just bought new luggage in Hawaii! Good ol' Costco!) Anyway, we ended up having to wait at the rental car place at least an hour before getting the keys to our Dodge Caravan and Dodge Caliber. We were sooooo tired by the time we finally got into our cars and headed the 25 minutes to the Hilton Grand Vacations Club in the Waikoloa area. Then it was to bed after looking around our awesome suite that we were sharing with Mom and Dad. (The others were in a suite upstairs from us.)

Tuesday, May 31

Tuesday was our day to just look around the area as much as we could... I'll try to remember as much as I can about what all we did. :o) First of all, that morning after waking up at 4 or so with Daniel (he slept with us in our big bed for awhile after that), we spent some time outside our room enjoying the beauty around us!

*Pictures of the scenery from our room...*




Then we all went to the golf course restaurant nearby to have a delicious breakfast of pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, and OJ (at least that's what I had). Then we went back to the room real fast before packing up in the cars again and heading to Kona to go grocery shopping. We went to a Natural Grocers, Safeway, and then Costco to stock up on food for the week and then us girls all headed home with Daniel to rest and have lunch while Dad, Scott, and Wayne went to check out some stuff for Dad and Wayne's scuba diving the next day. Once they got back we took a nap with Daniel before joining everyone else down at the pool for swimming! Daniel had SO much fun with that, especially with all the people to swim around with him! We also enjoyed Mai Tais (my virgin one was amazing - just fruit juices mixed, but yummy) and enjoyed the beautiful scenery while we swam!







We ate pizza for dinner before we put Daniel down early to bed and we all hung out on our back patio enjoying the amazing weather and the beautiful palm trees! It was a great and relaxing first day in Hawaii! :o)

------ (okay, this is going to take me awhile to write if I only get a few days written about each time... oh, well, here I go again!)

Wednesday, June 1

Dad and Wayne left early this morning to go scuba diving for most of the day, while us girls, Scott, and Daniel all rested at the rooms that morning until we left around 10 or so to head into Kona for shopping. Yes, Scott wasn't too excited about this, but I'm glad he went because we were actually able to get quite a lot of our shopping done this day at the market! :o) And, it's always good to have my husband's opinion on souvenirs! We went to the outdoor market area, first, and shopped around there for awhile in the super hot, humid air! We got some amazing pineapples (goodness, they grow the good pineapples over there!), and Amanda bought passion fruit, mango, papaya, and guava for us all to try. (I liked the guava alright, but the others I could pass on. I could definitely just live on the pineapple over there! The passion fruit was DISGUSTING! That was the sourest thing I think I might have ever tasted!) Then, we shopped around and bought an "Aloha Hawaii" sign for our house with a pretty picture on it, some amazing wooden, painted wind chimes for our backyard (just put those up today and I LOVE them, although if it was only a bit greener around here it would look a little bit more like Hawaii), a musical instrument thing for Daniel (which he LOVED playing there - we checked all the ones out to see what was his favorite), and a fan with a painting of a sunset on it for Lydia. We also bought all of Scott's families some small gifts and then just looked around for awhile at all the booths while we waited for the others to finish shopping. After the market, we spent a little bit of time at the rocky beach nearby, which was Daniel's first really good view of the ocean. He LOVED it! Scott took him down to the water and put his feet in it and boy did he ever not want to leave! He also sat down in the rocks for awhile and played with the sand until we left for a bit more shopping. I got a coffee milkshake (amazing!) to help me cool down before Amanda and I each bought a necklace / earrings set at a jewelry place. Mine are SO cute! :o)





We headed home after that because Scott and I had an appointment for a massage and spa time at the nearby Waikoloa Village Resort! Mom dropped us off there and we hurried to the spa area, looking at the amazing resort on the way! (It was crazy big and SO beautiful!) We had a couple's massage, and it was SO relaxing, although my hips had been killing me from sleeping on a new bed (they didn't have memory foam on the bed, and I think that's why I'm doing so well during this pregnancy so far at home) and from walking so much more than normal (not to even mention the long plane ride...). After enjoying that, we stayed in the spa area for awhile and hot-tubbed and relaxed before joining back up and walking around the resort. We walked down to the ocean and saw all the dolphins in their 'pool' area and watched all the swimmers swimming in the pools. The ocean was beautiful and it was so much fun to just walk and talk with my hubby. We got on their tram after walking awhile and road that til the very end and back so we could see what all else was in the resort. Then, we took the shuttle back to our room in time for an amazing hamburger dinner that Dad had grilled up for us! We ate out on the back patio again and didn't see Daniel that evening because he had been asleep since 4 and didn't want to wake up again until morning! (Tired little guy!) We all tried to go to bed a bit earlier that night because the next day Nanny, Amanda, Scott, and I were flying over to Oahu for a long day of touring!

Thursday, June 2

Dad drove us over to the airport in Kona at 5 am so we could make our 6:15 flight out to Oahu. After a quick 40 min. flight, we arrived in Honolulu and met up with our tour guide and bus to begin our Discover Hawaii tour of that island. We drove over to Pearl Harbor first. We had about 20 minutes or so to walk through a small museum about the actual battle there which was really cool. I love museums anyway, so reading different eyewitness accounts from kids who watched Pearl Harbor being attacked and all was really cool, although sad at the same time. Then we watched a 25 min. program about the entire battle and afterward of Pearl Harbor which was good to touch up my history on the entire event. After watching that, we went with a big group on a boat out to the USS Arizona Memorial which is the one that was built over the sunken ship in which over 1,000 men died. It was so crazy seeing that some oil was still leaking out of the ship over sixty years later! We were also able to see the various markers for the other ships that were attacked that day, showing where they were all at in the harbor. We didn't get the chance to go anywhere else or see any of the other memorials, which was sad, but we could have easily spent a day or two there and just didn't have the time!






We drove up to the north side of the island next, and stopped off for a quick visit to Dole Pineapple Plantation. That was where most of us stood in line to get some soft serve pineapple ice cream which they are very much known for around there! We ate our ice cream outside looking at all the beautiful plants and seeing how pineapple grew. (Both Amanda and I were pretty certain that they grew on trees, so we were quite shocked seeing how they grow from the ground! Always learning new things, I guess!) After a short time there we drove on and stopped for like ten minutes at Sunset Beach where we were able to take a few pictures, walk barefoot in the white sand, and enjoy the scenery a bit! Then, it was off again to make it to the Polynesian Cultural Center in time for lunch!






The Cultural Center was AMAZING! We walked past some amazing waterfalls, water, plants, flowers, etc. as we walked to the lunch area and then enjoyed the most delicious lunch of BBQd chicken, rice, salad, veggies, various fruits, corn on the cob, and dessert. It was amazing! :o) Especially since we were very hungry! Then we moved along with most of our group from culture area to culture area to watch short programs on each culture. It was so cool to see all the different cultures that make up Hawaii! No wonder it's such a diverse place! We watched a guy take a coconut, break it open, drink the water, and then make the coconut milk come out. Oh! and we also saw another guy climb up a coconut tree which was super cool and FAST! Then we watched a group sing and dance to different songs that showed how music had changed over the years. The third program we each had a bamboo stick and the guy from Fiji taught us some different rhythms and then sung while we did the beat with our sticks. That was a lot of fun! We had a few minutes to shop and get something for Vienna and Daniel before we sat down by the water area and watched a canoe performance in which there was a canoe of people dressed up for each culture, dancing. That was really cool and just made the entire time even more enjoyable!







We left there by 3:15 and began our slow drive back to Honolulu, making various stops around the way. We stopped off at a Japanese Buddhist Temple which was extremely fancy and beautiful and drove by a very pretty cemetery and learned about how the Hawaiian people will drop off food and drinks (we saw McDonalds, chips, sodas, Starbucks coffees, etc.) at their families' graves so that they have food to eat and something to drink wherever they are! Our tour guide, who was telling us stories the whole time, said that as a boy he used to go with his friends to the Chinese cemetery because they always knew they could have a free Chinese meal there! Lol. ;o) We also drove by some different neighborhoods to see what the houses looked like and were shocked by how expensive some of these small houses were! (Some towns everything was selling for more than $700,000!) Our final stop before Honolulu was a look-out point to see some beautiful scenery where the last battle was fought that brought all the Hawaiian islands under one king and to see Gilligan's Island. That was the very first time it had rained on us all day, though, and it was POURING! So we waited in the bus for awhile while the brave ones went out to see the look-out (one of who was Scott) and then once it stopped raining the rest of us joined them.




We made it back to Honolulu by 6 and then jumped on another shuttle to take us to the airport. After getting stuck in bad traffic because of an accident and getting the airport late, we tried to rush through everything as fast as we could and made it to the gate just as they were boarding the plane. It was a great day although very tiring at the same time! I'm so glad we did it, though, because just seeing all the beautiful scenery and how green it was over there was well worth it!! We made it home, tried to eat something but I was so tired I didn't eat much, and then went to bed!

(Okay, so we have now been home for five days and I'm still trying to get this finished... Only four more days to write about - I can do this!)

Friday, June 3
Let's see... Friday was so much fun because we were able to go to the beach for the first time to just hang out, play in the water, and enjoy sitting in the sand! :o) We got changed into swimsuits and made lots of sandwiches for lunch and then loaded up in the cars for a short drive over to a beautiful beach just north of where we were staying. After hiking down to the beach and finding a place amongst all the people to put all our stuff, some of us took Daniel down to the water and he spent awhile just standing (while Dad, Wayne, Lelia, Scott, or I was holding onto him, of course) while the water rushed up on him again and again. He only got a face-full of water once or twice, but goodness did he ever love that! I think he probably just thought it was the biggest bath he had ever seen! :o) Lol. He stayed in the water and played with it for quite awhile while I took pictures, watched, and then sat down with Amanda, Nanny, and Mom for awhile before they brought Daniel back up because he was getting tired. We then sat him down in the sand and he played with that for quite awhile until he was SOOOO dirty and COVERED head to feet in sand! He didn't even mind that until he began really getting tired and rubbed his eyes before we could stop him, getting the sand all in his eyes. :o( Poor little guy! We took him over to the outdoor shower-off area nearby and washed him off as best as we could before drying him off with towels and letting him eat some lunch. After that, I ate my sandwich while Daniel played in the sand with Pappy, Scott, and Vienna, filling up a paper cup with sand again and again. He had so much fun! :o) Dad and Scott ended up burying him in the sand as he was sitting there and he didn't even realize what they were doing until he tried to move near the end. We hung out there for awhile until we had to head back to the rooms for the next thing of the day!







Vienna had hula dance lessons at 2:30 and Dad and Wayne left to go on a night scuba diving thing. I went and watched Vienna with the other girls while Scott stayed at the room with napping Daniel and was very impressed by how well Vienna did! I'm amazed again and again with how good her memory is... she can see or hear something and remember it SO well! She was super cute and even did a dance by herself! :o)



After Daniel's nap, all of us went to Kona for dinner. I had been wanting to eat at a nicer restaurant on the beach somewhere so I could see a sunset over the ocean (not knowing that the best sunset would be the next evening at the luau), but we were so hungry and most of the ones we knew about were very expensive for us all. So, we ended up just going to a seafood / burgers / sandwiches / chicken place at the harbor near the boat docks. It was beautiful, there, though, and we did get a pretty good sunset even though there were lots of clouds. I had yummy chicken fingers, fries, and a salad, and kept very busy feeding Daniel his children's meal of mac n' cheese and chicken nuggets. :o) He LOVED those!






We went to Costco to get a few more groceries after dinner and got back in time for relaxing on the back patio after putting Daniel to bed and then heading to bed ourselves! It was a great day yet again!

Saturday, June 4
Saturday morning, Wayne, Lelia, and Amanda all went ziplining up north on the island (they had a wonderful time!) while the rest of us hung out around Waikoloa where we ended up shopping around one of the shopping areas nearby and then Dad, Vienna, Nanny, and I went down to the Waikoloa Village Resort again and watched Vienna swim for a little while before we showed Nanny around that place. We all met back at the rooms by 3 so we could get dressed and ready for the luau that night!

The luau was AMAZING! Definitely one of the top times of the entire trip! We took a shuttle over to where it was held, and then got in line where we all had professional pictures of us taken. We had a big group picture of the entire family taken and then individual family pics. (Later on we got the chance to buy some prints and get the digital copy of it, which we did for ours and Mom and Dad did for the whole family picture. They all turned out so great although I wish Daniel had been smiling!) We had a cocktail hour until 5 or 5:30 when we were allowed to be seated at the round tables by the stage. It was so beautiful out! We were right by the ocean. We got a table two rows from the stage and hung out for awhile drinking drinks (it was nice having an open bar... I got all the juice that I wanted - lol) and Vienna learned a hula dance with all the other kids because it was family / kid luau night. A group of guys sang and played Hawaiian music for us which was sweet and right before we started eating, we went over to watch our smoked pig being uncovered from it's 'pit'. (They smoke a whole pig all day which had been wrapped in sheets and plants of some sort and then covered with dirt. It was quite disgusting but interesting at the same time. And, yes, I did try the pig even after seeing it like that...) We went through a gigantic buffet line of amazing food (I got SO much food!) and ate while watching a beautiful sunset. Scott took a lot of pictures of the sunset for me and they are AMAZING! I want to blow up one or two of them because they are so awesome! :o) After dinner and dessert the program began and we were entertained by a lot of Hawaiian dancers and singers and flame throwers, etc. For one dance they asked any of the young men to come up on stage and join them so we convinced Scott and Wayne to go up and they were taught some dance moves. It was hilarious to watch them and we were quite proud of our men! :o) Then, later on near the end of the program, some of the dancers came down to pick out partners from the crowd and Lelia was chosen to go up and do a hula dance with one of the guys up on stage. She did awesome, and I'm just really glad that I wasn't chosen considering I was sitting right next to her and it was dark at that point so they wouldn't have known I was pregnant. Lol. I'm NOT a dancer and it wouldn't have been a pretty sight at all! ;o) There is so much I could say about the luau but I should probably stop for now because I still have two more days to write about!










Sunday, June 5
Sunday was our day to drive up north and see more of the Big Island. We drove up through some beautiful scenery on the way to a black sands beach up at the very north of the island. We were able to see it from up at the parking lot, but knew how much cooler it would be to be right on the beach, so we all hiked down to the beach where we played in the water some more and took lots of pictures - you know us, we LOVE the pictures! :o) It was a slow hike for me because of all my lovely hip pains with the pregnancy and all, but Dad helped me take it slow while Scott held Daniel on his shoulders almost the entire way down and back up again. (Daniel LOVED his hike!) I was EXHAUSTED on the hike back up, though, so had to rest a lot more but finally made it back to the cars!








We then drove further and were able to see a lot of the pastureland part of the island where the big cattle ranches are. That was SO beautiful, especially seeing all the rolling hills of grass and trees with the ocean in the distance. We stopped for lunch in a small town at a Mexican food restaurant and had some amazing food there before heading on. The last place we stopped (other than to fill up the cars with gas in Hilo) was at the Akaka Waterfall. That was a short quarter of a mile hike up and down a lot of stairs to take us by an overlook for another waterfall and then by a great place to see the big Akaka waterfall. That was an amazing walk among some awesome flowers and green, green plants and trees! We took SO many pictures there and took awhile just enjoying all the little details of God's beautiful creation!









After stopping off at Hilo for gas, we headed back to our rooms on the other side of the island and got changed into swimsuits to spend one last hour swimming at the pool there before going to bed. It was our last night in Hawaii.

Monday, June 6
Dad was able to delay our check-out time until noon which made it able for us to get all packed up and Daniel to take a nap that morning. We all packed, ate breakfast and lunch, and loaded the cars before stopping at Starbucks there in Waikoloa on our way to Kona. We drove through our first big rainstorm there on the Big Island as we drove up above Kona to an Organic Coffee Farm. It was so cool to see all the houses up there. They were BEAUTIFUL and overlooked the city and the ocean beyond. Definitely a great place to live! Nanny, Dad, Scott, and Vienna joined a tour of the coffee farm when we got there and I stayed for a little while with Daniel before taking him to a different area to sit and relax some while they finished. Once they were done with the tour and everyone had gotten samples of delicious Kona coffee, we headed into town to go to the International Market where we did our last shopping trip in Hawaii! I got a bracelet, Christmas ornament, and Scott finally got himself a Hawaiian shirt after looking all over for the perfect one. :o) It is awesome and definitely all Scott! :o) We then ran by one more store before dinner where Amanda and Lelia needed to get some things and I was able to find myself a dress! Yay! I had been wanting one the entire time we were there, but was finding it very difficult to find any maternity dresses or any type of clothes, for that matter. But, that is what sisters are for, because Lelia made me try on this one dress that I was sure wouldn't work, but it did and I LOVE it! :o)

We went to dinner at the Kona Brewing Company and had some amazing pizza and a wonderful ice cream / brownie / macadamia nut dessert. It was a great last meal there in Hawaii! :o) Then we headed to the airport where our plane left at 8 something that evening. Our first five hour flight to San Francisco went really great because Daniel actually slept on Scott the entire time! YAY! I was able to sleep off and on for a little while and watched a movie the rest of the time. We rushed a bit once we got to the S.F. airport before boarding our next flight to Denver. Daniel decided since it was now light there he didn't need to sleep anymore, so although Scott and I were exhausted, we stayed awake with him. In Denver we had another almost 3 hour layover (good times at DIA!) before leaving there. I was SO tired while we were there, though, and was getting pretty dehydrated after throwing up twice already that day :o( so I had to rest, try to stock up on fluids, and was DEFINITELY ready to get on the last plane home by 11:40! I was able to sleep some on that short flight and felt quite a bit better by the time we got into GJ. We were home and took a long 2 hour nap that afternoon! It is great to be home and enjoy all this amazing summer-time weather we're having, but I definitely miss Hawaii already! We had a wonderful time and I'm so thankful that we were able to go! :o)