Hawaii Part 2

Okay, the more I look at these pictures the more I realize there's no way I'm going to remember what we did each day. Other then main events (ie Christmas and wedding) these pics are going to be kind of random. Most of our trip consisted of hanging out at the beach and so that's what most of the pictures are.
The boys FAVORITE night time activity was crap hunting. Not out looking for a meal (they were too small), just the sport of catching them, seeing how many we could gather then letting them go again. All three of the kids were terrified of actually touching a crab but they had fun searching for them and running after them.
Getting ready for a hunt with the cool flashlights Grandma got them

Searching for crabs

Tavita checking out what we have so far

Look at Tavita's stomach. He wanted in the picture but was so scared the crap was going to reach out and pinch him

Brayden being brave and making an attempt to dig a crab out of the sand

By the end, they'd inevitably end up in their underwear because their clothes would get splashed by waves and they didn't like wet,sandy clothes.

Another aspect of the trip. Kalei and Jenson were constantly at each others throats. Kalei would let out an ear-piercing scream every time Jenson walked by her. Jenson thought it was a great game. However, there were a few rare moments where these two had a great time together
Both stinkin cute



If they fought too much, we just locked them in a bucket

If Jenson wasn't around as a partner in crime, Kalei found plenty of trouble on her own.

Here are some pictures from the kids FAVORITE beach "Alligator Pond." Named as such because the rock fromation in the water looks like an alligator half submerged.

Since Tavita had to keep his head dry, he liked sliding around as the waves lapped up.

Little Island Boy and his board

The boys LOVED to do "cliff jumping" off the rock.
Brayden went over and over

Even worked on his dive

Surprised by a wave while they were out exploring

Tavita still jumped, we just had to catch him on his way down to keep him dry

Just grabbing a quick snack of rocks and sand

Tavita couldn't resist and had to play in the waves, Junior held him steady to keep him from falling off.

Playing on the rope swing


Brayden trying to paddle out.

Ignore me and see if you can spot Brayden after being slammed by a wave

Hawaii Part 1

SOOOO, we've been home from Hawaii for almost two weeks now and I have purposely avoided this blog like the plague. Why you ask? Well...month long vacation+2 cameras+camera obsessed mommy+2 budding photographers= 600+ pictures. No, I'm not posting them all on here (though it may be close) but the thought of covering a month of partying and sorting through all these pictures scares me.
Finally decided 1. skip the final few weeks before we left (baked lots of goodies, went to lots of Christmas gatherings, had a little family Christmas so we didn't have to lug presents on the plane etc)and 2. break the trip down into parts. No particular stopping points, just go at it until I have to stop. Try to put up a new "part" each day, or every other day, or something along those lines. So here's part 1....
EARLY morning Dec. 8th drove through a blizzard to drop Junior and Kalei off to the airport. SCARIEST experience ever, pretty sure I aged a good 10 years on that drive. But off they went and despite the fact she'd been up ALL night the night before with a fever (no worries she cut 6 teeth in the time we were there)thanks to Cheetos and a lot of entertainment on Daddy's end, Kalei enjoyed her first airplane ride.
And in no time at all they were relaxing and enjoying a beautiful winter's day in Hawaii.

Meanwhile, back in blizzardy Provo, I dropped the boys off at preschool, picked up a rental car, came home and loaded er up. Picked the boys up from school, finalized things at home (aka procrastinated until the storm was far out of sites) then we were on the open road, destination VEGAS (we had frequent flyer's with Hawaiian Air and that was the closet place they flew from).
Luckily we had some wonderful friends who let us stay in their very fun house (the downstairs is a little boy haven complete with a mini basketball court) for the night. Despite the fact the boys had talked about our trip daily for the past year, they wanted to stay at the house for "just one more day". Alas we were there long enough to get some wiggles out and crash. Awoke the next day at 4:30 am and were on the open road again to catch our 9:00 flight.
The boys favorite part of the whole trip was the bus ride from the rental place to the terminals.

As we were waiting to board the fun began. Tavita started complaining his ear was hurting. Great! I had sent the Tylenol with Junior in case Kalei started feeling yucky. Now I had Mr. Ear Infection Prone complaining of a sore ear. Of course about 2 hours into the flight Tavita was in tears because his ear was hurting so much and he was getting a fever (meanwhile Brayden was done with traveling and WAY to anxious to get to Hawaii and I had 2 kids in tears) I asked the flight attendant for some Tylenol but apparently it's a HUGE ordeal for them to administer drugs of any kind. He offered to start the emergency procedure (it involved notifying the pilot, calling a doctor, filling out paperwork blah blah blah) because he felt so bad for Tavita. I told him to give it some time and I'd try to put them to sleep. Luckily I was FINALLY able to get him and Brayden both like this

It didn't last near long enough in my book but at least gave them and me some sort of a break. Oh, as for Tavita's ear, I get the mother of the year award. I was really dragging my feet about taking him to a doctor (we have great coverage as long as we're in network with Intermountain which is only in Utah and Idaho outside it's pretty useless unless it's a major tragedy). Was trying some earache relief drops and some garlic oil. Decided to take him in the next morning but it was too late. In the end he wound up with a ruptured ear drum, was at the doctors, on antibiotics and ear drops and was out of the water for a chunk of the trip (toward the end we cheated with ear plugs)
Anyway after a VERY long and whiny trip (luckily they were very polite to others and whined for my ears only) we at last were enjoying the view they ask to see all the time when they web cam with Grandma and Grandpa

The boys were there long enough to drop their luggage, pull out their suits and change then they were off and running. Here's a series of pictures from our first trip to "Grandma's Beach" aka Clissolds Beach.
Brayden and Vita playing with their cousin Jenson

Kalei's first time at the beach, wasn't sure what to think of it

Tavita trying to tip toe through the coral (they were TERRIFIED of eels because Uncle Jonathan got his toe chomped on by one a few months back)

Little Beach Bum action

Little blurry but Brayden as always had NO FEAR of the water. This kid would live in the ocean if he could. Became quite the accomplished swimmer while we were there.

LeiLei starting to feel a little braver and stood up in the water

In the end, she decided she liked sand best

Boys on the other hand didn't want to leave the water, even when it was getting dark.

Meanwhile, Junior and Jenson where busy hunting down some dinner

The next day Ryan went and grew up on us and graduated from college.
Brayden giving Uncle Ryan a lei (made of Reeses of course, he knows his uncle)

Group pic

Twinners

All the traveling finally caught up with Tavita

Just wanted to show off Brayden's photog skills. He LOVES to take pictures

Congrats Grad!!! (another piece of Brayden's work)

After graduation, we wound up where else but...THE BEACH (no worries we were there EVERYDAY but Sunday, the wedding and one or two others).
Junior relaxing, enjoying the fact he's here instead of in the 2 feet of snow Provo was being hit with at that time

Lei Lei got buried

The boys had chicken fights (their standing on a log

Vita played for awhile then his ear started buggin him, then he went back out again. That is why I was so slow to take him in. One minute he was saying his ear hurt, the next he was off playing like there was nothing going on. He's too tough for his own good

When uncles are around, you get to go out to the deep blue sea (actually by the end of the trip they were going out farther all on their own)

Going on a log ride

Well, that about does me in. I'll have to save the rest for another time. I know I only covered 2 days and no, there won't be 15 more post like this. Most days were just spent lazing around on the beach and I don't know one day to the next. In fact,
for some reason when I uploaded the pics from one of our cameras it scrambled them up so can't guarantee if they're in order or the right day but at least we know what beach.
Few updates on what else has been going on:
-Bowzer chewed up the carpet on our top step while we were gone (he had someone visiting him ever 2-3 hours but was still lonely)
-I'm no longer in the primary presidency. I now teach 13(9 are boys) lively 12 and 13year-olds Sunday School. To say we have a mix of some strong personalities is an understatement. By the end of the year there'll be 17 of them. It's crazy, it's loud but we have fun and believe or not manage to get a gospel message.
-The boys are no longer in preschool, doing it at home instead. It's been going pretty well. For some reason they are filled with a desire to call me Ms. Sam (apparently it's a very good preschool teacher name, at least that's what they say). We do real educational stuff like have science lessons on hot and cold and the effects it has on different things. Like butter melts faster then marshmallows because marshmallows are more solid. And if you mix them together it makes a great coating for rice krispies. Then if you get them cold it turns into something you can cut and eat. We also got some counting in there counting out 40 marshmallows, 4 T of butter and 6 c of rice krispies.
We do other lessons too but the rice kripsy treat ones are the kind they talk about. It amazes me how they have related it to so many other things as well. Guess they learned something.
-The boys are now doing Tae Kwan Do instead (we now pay $60 a month instead of $290 a good trade). They love it and we love the entertainment of watching them do their moves
-Kalei has decided she knows how to use a toilet. She has yet to actually use it but she refuses to wear a diaper for hours at a time and says "ShiShi" over and over again while she sits on her little toilet. Carries it with her every where she goes. Also loves to say "stinky" when she's left a present in her diaper. Is OBSESSED with "babies" and "shoes" and talks about them often. Loves to eat "gawkgoos" (crackers) and "nannies" (bananas)

Reason number 8 we bought this house

When we were in the process of house hunting there were several things that attracted us to this house. Liked the layout, it had a basement apartment for extra income, close to work, close to shopping, secluded (people always get lost trying to find us), thought it had character and with a little work we could make it our own (how ignorant we were to the amount of work it needed!), great view etc. On the list of things that caught our attention was the backyard. The majority of it is a little hill, some of it is a hill with a steep drop off (well like 4 feet) and then there's a decent enough flat area (nice patio and enough room to play catch if you're under the age of 8). For summer activities it holds nothing spectualar, though the large amount of shade provides for great BBQs but for the most part summer playing takes place in the front yard in sprinklers and on the slip n slide. However, in the winter our backyard becomes a killer playground. The hill is HUGE in the eyes of the little ones and they have the time of their lives sledding/tubing down it. As for the steep drop of part, it's become a tradition to build a sled run going from the top of the hill all the way into the front yard. The greatest part of it all is we don't have to go anywhere to take part in the fun, a HUGE advantage when you spend 1/2 hour getting ready to go out, but then reach a freezing point all too soon. Those that want to stay out to play can and those that want to come in and sip on hot cocoa can.
With all that said, we had our first real big snow on Sunday so on Monday the tubes and sleds came out. The sled run is in the process of being built but there wasn't enough snow to build it all the way up over the rocks to make it a smooth ride. That didn't stop Brayden and his friend Carson, they just went sailing over the edge and endured the now 2 foot drop. We thought we were being slackers but not getting all the bags of leaves out of the back (see previous post for an idea of the insane amount of leaves we get) but boy have they come in handy. They make the best bumpers in the world. The kids would sled down hit the bags that were protecting them from the patio and continue down and slam into the ones protecting them from the steps. They looked like ping pongs, it was great! WE managed to escape with only one minor injury (I hadn't properly bumpered far enough across the steps and Tavita managed to hit right next to the last bag, flew up and slammed into the patio post. There were tears but he was good to go a few minutes later)
I mostly took video but did get a few pictures in.
LeiLei's first time actually playing in the snow, she wasn't sure what to think

But after Daddy sent her flying across the patio a couple times she was hooked

She was on this tube for at least an hour having Jr push her around or even just casually walk around pulling her.

3-way collision and a dog

Snow angels (a lot of the snow had been scrapped up to use on the sled run)

Brayden gunning down the hill

Tavita making the trek up

Brayden being a gentleman and pulling Emma up the hill, man did he work hard at it!

Then of course I have to end with some randoms.

LOVE this pic of the boys helping Junior with the dishes

A few weeks ago the boys came up PLASTERED with blue marker all over their face and bodies proudly proclaiming they were "haka guys". Junior decided the damage was already done and turned their random scribbling into some fine art work.

They nailed Kalei as well which she was NOT happy about. She came up with the most disgusted look on her face.

Lastly, a fine way to end the post is with this beauty.

This is what is left of poor Kalei's pinky after it had an encounter with the treadmill. It got stuck between the belt and the side of the treadmill and just sanded away at the skin. If you look closely, you can see where it almost reached the bone. We've been keeping Band-Aid (use about 9 a day) in business but it's healing up well. The doctor took a look at it during her 18 month check, said she'll definitely have a scar (obviously) but as long as we keep it clean and it doesn't get infected (has to stay covered til all the white and gray is gone, only pink skin allowed) then we should be good. Our main worry now is keeping her finger mobile. With so much scar tissue that is going to build up we need to make sure that she stretches her finger regularly so she can bend it once it's healed up. She's a little trooper though!