Hawaii Recap

Our week on the Garden Island of Kauai has come to an end and we are now back home. The trip was wonderful, to say the least! Noah is still going through the MANY pictures we have from the week, but for now, here are a some highlights...

We arrived in the late afternoon and spent a little time exploring the resort and grabbing some dinner on site. Here is a view of the outside grounds.

The ocean is just beyond those palm trees!

Keira exploring the grounds and so happy to be off the plane and out of the car!

View of the pool!

Other end of the pool!

Just beyond the resort pool--the beach!!

A tired and hungry bunch, but so happy to be in Hawaii!

The sun is setting

Beautiful!

More pictures to come in the next post!

Aloha!

After about 8 hours of traveling, we made it to Kauai! Keira did so awesome with the long flight (5.5 hrs) and the short flight (less than 1 hr from Oahu to Kauai)! She did not nap the entire day and was completely delirious and exhausted, but nevertheless, she did great and we were all happy to arrive safe and sound!

On board the first flight!
Ready to go!!

Snacks always help pass the time!

Spending quality airplane time with Nana and Uncle

Having fun with Mommy!

Whoa, that is a big sandwich!
Thank you, Hawaiian Airlines!

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of Keira and Aunt Laura reading, coloring, and snuggling on the airplane. I was too busy taking advantage of the break and I quickly took a nap!


Here's a quick shot of the resort.
Beautiful!

On our first full day of exploring, we went inland to Waimea Canyon.
It's nicknamed the Grand Canyon of the Pacific--amazing!

Overlooking the Napali Coast

More Napali Coast
(extremely rugged mountains!)

Back at the resort, we took a dip in the pool...

...and the spa!

This is just a very tiny sampling of the few pictures I've taken on my point-and-shoot camera. Noah has taken MANY more pics on his camera, but they aren't available yet for posting. More to come later!

We love and miss all our friends and family back on the mainland!

At the Car Wash

It has been a long, long time since I last washed my car. I'm sure Noah has washed it for me at some point in the last couple years (!), but I'm pretty sure I haven't washed it myself since before Keira was born (gasp!). (We don't ever go get it washed because we're too cheap, or maybe I should say "frugal"). :)

Well, I was recently inspired to wash my car and have Keira help after reading a friend's blog and seeing how much fun her two-year-old son had helping her. I've been a little concerned about the position of my car while washing it (out in the common driveway where our neighbors come and go) and didn't want to risk Keira being out in the driveway.

Nevertheless, we took the plunge this afternoon and had so much fun washing the car!!!!

This first picture is absolutely hilarious. I started the car-washing process by vacuuming the inside of the car with Noah's huge shop-vac. It's pretty loud and Keira stayed away and covered her ears the whole time while I finished vacuuming. Then, when I was done, she said "other vacuum" & "blue vacuum" (she meant the one we use to vacuum inside the house). I pulled out the other vacuum and she wanted to take a picture by it! After I took the picture, she wanted to see it and then just giggled. What a funny girl!!

She helped wipe down the inside!

Hard at work!

She stayed in this spot the whole time and washed it over and over! When I asked if she wanted to wash Daddy's car next, she said "Yes!!" Next, we'll be opening our own car wash business!

Here's a short clip of the car wash fun!

We Love San Diego Because...

Our life is very full of so many wonderful things: family, friends, church, exploring the many fun things around this great city we live in, and the list could go on! Although our life seems overly busy at times (and therefore somewhat stressful), I find myself continuously thanking God for the abundant life we have and for the privilege it is to stay home with Keira and explore life with her on a daily basis. These are a few of the fun things we love about San Diego...

The World Famous San Diego Zoo!
Every month we participate in a Mommy Meetup Program at the zoo with our playgroup. We get to explore a section of the zoo with zookeepers as our personal guides. Yesterday, we got to get up close and personal with this beautiful macaw.

We got to watch him devour all sorts of nuts with his razor sharp beak.

Next, we got to ride on the train--2x--for free!!!

That's us with the rest of our playgroup taking up the whole train!!!

Something else we love about San Diego is visiting the public library! I forgot to snap a picture of this, but Keira absolutely LOVES going to the library! She loves looking through all the board books in the kiddie area and she always helps check books out at the self-serve computer! Next time I'll be sure to get a picture!


And, finally, we LOVE Rubio's fish taco Tuesdays! Keira actually did a great job eating her own taco this time. She kept saying "your own" as she was eating it!

We love San Diego!

Back in the Saddle!

It has been 8 months now since I last posted! 8 months!! Where has the time gone?! Well, I basically thought I had given up blogging altogether, but then I recently had a change of heart.

Mainly, I find it very time-consuming to go through pictures, find ones I want to post, and write captions/stories as commentary; however, it finally dawned on me, that all that effort is not in vain! There are great websites like http://blog2print.sharedbook.com/blogworld/printmyblog/index.html where the electronic blog can be converted into print form and be treasured forever (as opposed to remaining in the abyss of the World Wide Web!)! I am highly motivated by having something tangible to hold and look at (and show Keira), thus, here I am again attempting to capture the essence of our lives on this blog, both to share with you our dear family and friends, but also as a record for ourselves! A friend who regularly posts to his family blog also pointed out that the great stories that end up on the blog will have otherwise been forgotten. Just one more reason why I WANT to invest my time in recording the events of our lives!

So, as it goes in life, when one new thing is added to one's plate, something else usually must be sacrificed. In this case, for me it will be Facebook. I don't have anything against Facebook and I actually enjoy it a lot and find it helpful to stay in touch with lots of family and friends. However, it is easy to spend 20-, 30-, and even 60-minutes at a time on FB and then not have much to show for it afterward. So, instead I am choosing to spend my time updating the blog. I still plan to stay in touch through FB to some extent and will not delete my account; however, I will not keep up much regular activity there anymore.

Well, that's the plan for now anyway!! Thanks for sharing the journey with us!

P.S. Here is a recent picture of Keira enjoying all things summer: sun, swimming, friends, etc!