Hawaii - Day 3

Hayley, Dad and I got up early the next day for a run.  We ran about 3 miles down to the end of the row of condos and timeshares.  The weather was perfect and it was a beautiful run.  

On the way back we found this hidden trail that took us down to the beach.  We followed it and found a secret little beach that was totally secluded.  We did see a bunch of surfers come and go so it must be a local secret surfing spot.  It was a great find though and super fun to watch the surfers out there!

 We got back and Chad and Britt challenged us to a game of tennis.  They are both really good and we got smoked...but had a great time!

 We wanted to spend the rest of the day on the beach, so we packed up and headed into Hanalei which is just a short drive up the road.  It's a cute little town and we got a little shopping and eating done before we went to the beach.

 We had the best time playing on the boogie boards and just enjoying the beach.  

 It was a little overcast but a perfect day and we enjoyed being outside so much.  And Hanelei Bay is beautiful!  We were there the rest of the day until it started getting late enough that we were hungry for dinner.  We packed up and headed home to get ready for dinner.

 That night we celebrated mom's birthday.  We drove down to Lihue and picked Garrett up from the airport then went to a nice restaurant on the beach called Dukes.  Here is the birthday girl at sundown on the beach.

 We had delicious seafood and had a great time together.  All of us kids had made a memory book for mom and we gave that to her at dinner.  She seemed so happy to have it and loved looking through all the pictures and memories that everyone had contributed.

 It was such a fun night celebrating our mom and her 60th birthday!

Hawaii - Day 2

We woke up Sunday morning and went to the Hanalei branch.  It was a beautiful little chapel with great members.  There was a couple from the Czech Republic that had moved to Hawaii that spoke in sacrament meeting.  They spoke about following the promptings of the spirit and how that led them to Hawaii.  It was a great meeting.  There were quite a few visitors as I'm sure there are all year round.  

After church a group of us took one of the cars and went on a drive to Waimea Canyon.  So we are directly on the north side of the island in Princeville and Waimea Canyon is on the west side.  It would have been a quick drive if the highway went all the way around the island.  But it stops just a little bit west of where we are staying so we had to drive all the way around the island to get to the Canyon.  It was about a 2 hour drive but we had fun looking at all the scenery along the way.  We passed through the city on the east side and then open land and farms on the south and west sides.  It was pretty cool to see it all.  By the time we got to driving up the canyon it was a steep winding road that made a couple of us car sick.  And Chad's crazy driving didn't help.  But we made it and stopped at a few lookout spots once we were there.  It was a beautiful view of the canyon!

 We spent an hour or two looking around and checking out all the scenery.  

 On the way back we stopped near some red dirt and rocks where a stream ran down the middle.  It was so cool and pretty to see the contrast of the dirt against the clear water.  

 We got back to the condo that evening just in time for dinner.  Chicken Alfredo from Costco and it was yummy.  We stayed up late playing games that night.  Tenzi was the favorite and Hayley was the winner!

It was such a fun relaxing Sunday and a good drive to the canyon.

Hawaii - Day 1

Mom is turning 60 this year and she said that instead of a big party she wanted to do something with just the family.  So we decided to go big for her 60th and booked a trip to Hawaii!  We've been looking forward to it for months and now it's finally here!!! We left our kids with our wonderful friends Melissa and Jordan and boarded the plane to Kauai.  Oh man we can't wait to get there!

Airplane pictures are always the best.  Dad, mom, Hayley, Josh and I flew together and Justin, Steph, Britt and Chad flew together and we all met up in Lihue.  We were so excited to finally be there after our long flight.

We rented a Jeep Grand Cherokee for the week and stopped at Costco when we got there to fill our car with food and supplies for the week.  We ended up driving up to Princeville where our condo was with piles of boogie boards and other things on our laps.  

We made a quick lunch stop on the way and mom chose this little taco place called Tiki Tacos.  It was a good little place and mom vowed we would be back before our trip was over.  

 We got up to our timeshare condo on the north side of the island and checked in.  It was a nice place with 2 big pools and hot tubs.  They gave each of us a lei when we checked in and we felt very Hawaiian.  We had a few hours before the others got in so we played games and got our rooms all set up.  By the time they got there around 11:00 pm we were all exhausted and went to bed.  It was a long day of traveling but we were so excited to be in Hawaii!

6 months

Oh how we love our Beck!  Josh and I are getting ready to take a trip and I snagged this picture the night before we left just so I could see this sweet smiley face whenever I need to! I love this toothy grin of his - those two little teeth are just new to his smile and I love it. 

6 month stats:

Weight: 18.61 lbs - 63%

Height: 28.15 inches - 91%

Head: 18.5 inches - 99%

Rhen's picture of the family

Rhen loves to draw and color.  She draws the best pictures of the family.  This was the latest one she did and I love it!  She is such a sweet girl this Rhen!

Dishwasher

Rease and Rhen have started unloading the dishwasher for me as one of their jobs and rotate weeks of doing it.  Rhen has her own unique way of unloading.  She opens all the drawers and cupboards before she starts so she can put everything away easily.  She's such a funny girl!  I don't care how she does it - I'm just happy they are my helpers!

Josh's work party

This year for the True North Logic yearly party they did a casino night.  It was at a hotel downtown and they had a bunch of dress-ups to put on for a picture.  We got decked out for our picture!  We had dinner and then played casino games the rest of the night.  Whatever we won we could put toward raffle tickets for a bunch of cool prizes.  We didn't win any prizes but we had a fun time!  

Rease's Goals

Rease made goals for the new year in school.

Sitting up

Beck has officially learned how to sit. What a guy - can't believe he is getting so big!  Now comes one of my favorite stages - sitting and playing with toys but not able to crawl yet!

Staples

Today Rhen had a little accident and we ended up at the instacare.  She was standing up on the edge of the couch and slipped off and hit her head on the baseboard of the wall.  Rhen's pretty accident-prone so I didn't think much of it when she fell and started to cry.  It wasn't until I saw all the blood that was coming from the back of her head that I realized she had a pretty good gash.  We headed off to the instacare and they took really good care of her.  She was a trooper and didn't hardly flinch when they numbed her and put 4 staples in her head.  Crazy girl!

Instacare

The same day that we were at the instacare for Rhen, we took a trip back for Mr. Liev.  He hasn't had an ear infection since he got his tubes out, but today he has been really warm and complaining about his ears.  Sure enough it was just what we thought.  He is super great about getting his ears checked now though and was so cute laying there waiting for his turn.  Hopefully a quick round of antibiotics and this will be the end of it!

Skiing

One of Rease's Christmas presents this year was a skiing pass to Park City.  She was so excited to be able to go with her dad again.  The two of them headed up right after the new year and had a fun day together.  Josh said it took her a couple runs to get comfortable again but then she was great.  He told her that if she could go down the bunny hill without falling then they could go up to a bigger lift.  She did it and they continued up the mountain.  She is doing great and loves being with her dad!  This is the first of many ski days this winter!

Rhen's calendar

Rhen made this adorable calendar for 2015.  I love all the cute handprint pictures on each of the months!

Rease's Calendar

Rease's calendar made at school for the new year!

Josh's Birthday

Josh turned 36 this year!  What?!?  We're old.  

Anyway, we had a fun day with the annual panini party.  It's always a fun day to get together and celebrate our dad and husband.  We love him so much!  These girls are the best and love their dad to pieces.

 Josh got a helmet for skiing this year.  He was pretty excited about it!

 And Rease wrote him this sweet little note.  Love her!

Happy Birthday my dear sweet man!  I wouldn't be me without you by my side.  Thanks for being my best friend and always making me laugh!