Craft Day at Aunt Hayley's!

Cute Aunt Hayley planned a craft day for all the cousins.  She got everything together and luckily it was such a nice day that we could be outside!  She planned a clay heart project for each of the kids to do.  They were able to roll out the clay and then cut out a heart.  Then each heart had their thumbprints in it.  So cute!  They went in to the oven to bake then the kids each painted their own heart.  It was so so fun for the kids and they LOVED that they got to do each part on their own!  

 While the hearts were baking we all frosted sugar cookies - then ate them!

This was such a fun day for the kids and so nice of Aunt Hayley to plan it all for everyone!

Beck

Keen decided to help Beck get ready today.  After I got him dressed, he added the hat and the backpack.  I love how he just sits there not quite sure what to do!  This is the best boy!

Goose Egg

Liev got a pretty good bonk on his head today.  He was standing on a chair and it tipped over backwards while he was on it.  On the way down he hit his head on a table the was right next to him.  He cried pretty good for a minute but then was really tough.  He looks so cute just trying to be a big boy and not cry!

Liev turns 4!

Mr. Liev is 4!  What a fun year we've had with this oldest boy of ours!  He decided on a train birthday so that's what we did!  I had such a fun time making this cake of his.  He wanted all the colors so it turned out cute and bright!

 We had the regular group over of family and close friends.  We love celebrating birthdays around here! And the best part of all is opening presents!

My favorite things about Liev at age 4:

1) Liev has always been such a sweet boy.  He willingly gives hugs and kisses whenever I ask and is always concerned about how I'm doing.  If he can see that I'm sad or having a hard day, he takes a minute to make sure he gives me a hug.  Long ago Josh taught the kids to say "We love you mom!" whenever I get into the car with them.  Liev has become the ring leader behind this and I always get a very warm welcome when we are all in the car together.

2) Liev is all boy.  He loves to jump, climb, throw things, wrestle, hit and fight.  I didn't realize how different boys and girls can be even at a really young age, but he has shown me the other side of things after having the girls first.  We love the change of pace around our house!

3) Liev looks so much like Josh to me and I love seeing those 2 and their similarities.  I imagine that Liev is much like his dad was when he was a kid.  Sweet, kind and loving and tall, skinny and cute.  All those things are present in both Liev and Josh and I am so glad Liev has such a good role model to look after.  

Happy Birthday my sweet Liev!  We love you so much!

3 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:

Weight: 37.7 lbs - 65%

Height: 42/2 inches - 87%

BMI: 14.9 - 24%

Shopping cart

Now that Beck is a champ at sitting up, he loves to ride in these cute car carts at the grocery store.  Just like one of the big kids!

Lincoln Logs

We have started collecting sets of Lincoln Logs for the kids to play with.  We have a huge bin full of all sorts of pieces.  The kids have loved them and like to build all the time.  Today they decided to make a Lincoln Log village.  They worked hard on all the different buildings and even labeled them for all to see!  I love their creativity!

Hawaii - Day 7 and 8

Friday morning Josh, Garrett, mom and dad got up early and left for Poipu to go on an ATV tour.  They were gone most of the day and said they had a really good time.  Although Josh and Garrett were a little unhappy with all the rules and the fact that they couldn't go as fast as they wanted.  I think they got frowned upon a couple times during the day.   I'm not surprised.

While they were gone Hayley, Chad, Britt and I went to the beach.  Justin and Steph dropped us off and took the other car to do some other things.  So we were at the beach with no car and waited until the ATV trip got home and could come pick us up.  We were happy though to just lay around and soak up a little more sun before our trip ended.  We played on the boogie boards a little bit and read a  lot while we waited.  It was a nice relaxing day for us.  Dad came and picked us up about 4:30 and we all headed back to the condo for dinner and Chad and Britt packed up to go home.  They left late that night and we were sad to see them go.

 Saturday was our last day so we checked out of our condo and went to Hanalei one last time for some last minute shopping and to fulfill our vow to eat at least one shaved ice every day.

We stopped at this beautiful spot overlooking Hanalei to take a few last minute pictures before we headed back down south to the airport.  We crossed this one lane bridge many times in our week in Kauai.  Such a lovely little town that we have grown to love!

 We are so sad to go but will always remember our family trip to Kauai.  So many memories that we will never forget!  And most of all we will remember our mom who turned 60 this year!  Happy Birthday mom!

Hawaii - Day 6

We got up early and headed to Kapaa to rent bikes and ride along the beach.  It was a perfect morning for it and we had a blast!  The view along the beach was amazing.  We rode on a trail for about 3 miles and turned back when the trail ended.

 We stopped a couple times along the trail to take pictures and also do some whale watching.  January is whale season and we were able to see a bunch of whales jumping out in the distance.  It was very cool.

Stopped at Tiki Tacos (mom's choice again) for lunch after our bike ride.  

 After lunch we drove down to the beach in Poipu.  Started out at Shipwreck Beach and ended up at the Grassy Beach to snorkel.  Josh and I set up our hammocks to rest and relax.

 While we were at the Grassy Beach we saw a couple get married in the water.  And not just on the beach or standing in the water, literally underwater.  She had her white dress on and he had his slacks and shirt.  They all had their snorkel gear on including the priest who married them and they said their vows under water.  It was very interesting and we had fun watching.

We all had snorkel gear and had a great time snorkeling and seeing all the underwater wild life.  This was the one thing mom really wanted to do so she was in heaven!

 We saw so many beautiful flowers while we were there and this is just a sample of some of them.  Gorgeous.  

 We were all tired after our day of biking and beaching, so we went back to the condo and ate and lounged around for the rest of the night.  Such a fun trip so far!

Hawaii - Day 5

We stayed around the resort today and relaxed in the morning.  Josh went to the little gym they had and I went for a run again.  Ran down to the St. Regis at the end of the road that had a great view of Hanalei Bay.  

 When I got back they were organizing a doubles tennis tournament that was really really fun.  Even for those of us that didn't have much tennis experience, we had a great time!  It was a perfect morning to play.

 Mom made lunch for us at her condo and we sat around and chatted and ate for a while.

 After lunch we packed up and went back to the beach.  We were starting to fall in love with Hanalei and they beach there.  It's a cute little town and so close to where we were staying that it was easy to get there.  We got used to eating a shaved ice every day in Hanalei and love Bubba's Burgers.  It was our quaint little town!

We spent the afternoon at the beach again.  Played frisbee, built sand castles, boogie boarded and soaked up the sun.  It was a perfect sunny day with blue skies.  We all got lots of sun but enjoyed every minute of it!

 After the beach we got back to the resort and sat in the hot tub for a while before we headed to dinner at a nice restaurant in Hanalei called The Dolphin.  Delicious seafood and we had fun chatting with each other.

 Like always, we ended the night playing games until late.  Tonight was Quirkle and I'm pretty sure I won at least one game!

Hawaii - Day 4

We got up bright and early to hike the Na Pali Coast.  We've heard it's quite hike and wanted to get an early start.  We packed our camelbaks with water, sandwiches and snacks for the day and headed out.  We weren't going the whole way along the coast just taking the trail to a waterfall that was about 4 miles up the trail.  It was a beautiful but difficult hike.  We all started out with walking sticks and they ended up really helping along the way.  There were lots of ups and downs and we walked through the water and crossed the river back and forth the whole way.  Garrett somehow managed the hike in socks and slip on sandals - not sure how he did that, but he did.  

 We stopped a couple times for snacks and rests throughout the day and just enjoyed being together.  We played 20 questions all the way up to the waterfall to pass the time and had fun.  

 We were happy to get to our destination and glad for a chance to sit and relax.  We ate our lunch and then decided to jump in the water and cool off.  The water was FREEZING.  Seriously.  I couldn't be in for more than a minute.  Just enough to get a couple pictures then I was out of there.  The boys decided they wanted to swim all the way across the pool and underneath the waterfall.  I don't know how they could stand the cold water but they did it.  There was an older lady there too swimming around like it was a swimming pool - the cold didn't bother her at all.  The rest of us were happy to sit and watch and rest up for the hike back.  

We got back around 4:00 in the afternoon and stopped in Hanalei for a shaved ice then back to the condo.  We played some games for a little bit but mostly we were exhausted from the day we had.  It was such a fun hike and I'm so glad we got to see that beautiful scenery!

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.