Hawaii Part II

I may or may not have mentioned that we went to the Big Island of Hawaii......Hawaii. It was a Christmas present from my parents to all their kids.....THANK YOU! We flew into Kona on the west side of the island. Everything is very dry and not at all what you'd picture Hawaii to be like. But its beautiful in its own way. There are old lava flows everywhere, the mountains are gorgeous, and the beaches are amazing. This post I'm going to focus on the resort we stayed at....the Hilton Waikoloa. Awesome!

The resort had a man-made beach area that connected to the ocean so we tried our hand at snorkeling. It was a little murky, but we still had fun.

My husband the jokester.......nice pose! Brian Daniels and Brennen are behind us.

Me and Cami trying it out with Rian in the middle.....we quickly went back to shore. :)

Beautiful Hawaiian sunrise. With the 4 hour time change we were easily awake by 5:30 or so in the morning.....but dead on our feet by 9:30 at night!

The view from our room

I took this picture from the inside of our rental van.......ha ha ha, the jokes on you guys that said I couldn't get a decent picture while driving! So there. :)

These are old lava flows that cover both sides of the roadways and go on for miles. So cool!!

Rian, my niece, being super funny in the car. She'd do crazy things so I'd take a picture, and then she'd want to see what she looked like in the camera. I miss her!

Our roomies: Brennen and Aimee

We had so much fun with them in our room. Believe it or not, we were so tired at the end of the day, we never once stayed up to talk or play games. Whodathunk?

More of the view from our room. Also the place were we snorkeled and rode the bike things (no idea what they were really called). If you look closely at the top of the picture is where the ocean feeds into the resort.

Our first morning there....and on our way to the BEST breakfast bar you'll ever eat at! Seriously, so delicious! The flower I've so stylishly added to my ensamble....plumeria. The scent that reminds you of Hawaii......mmmmm, yum!!!!

The black stuff is lava rock and the white stuff is coral. The two yayhoos in the pic....don't know about them ;)

Can you believe this resort......gorgeous! I never got a picture of the pool, but it was enormous. It had a couple waterfalls in it and a waterslide too....it was fun:) You're never too old right?

"Under" the waterfall

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Can't wait to show you the beach and our snorkel tour!...

Hawaii Part I

We're back. We had a FANTASTIC time and wish we were still there, but reality hits and life sets in. We missed the kids (surprised?) and we were glad to kiss and hug them. The phone calls home everyday made us really appreciate the sweet kids that they are. There will be a few Hawaii posts (after all, I took almost 200 pictures in 5 days!) and in no particular order, here we go.....

Akaka Falls

This post is the "Sunday" of our trip. We started off with church in Waimea, not too far away from our resort in Kona. What an awesome ward! It was fast and testimony meeting and the spirit there was so amazing! This picture is of my Dad and Brad in the parking lot waiting to change clothes and hike to Akaka Falls.

You can kinda see the waterfall behind us and it's more gorgeous up close!

See, I told ya! It's so hard to capture with a camera what you see with your eyes. That is a 420 foot fall! Crazy!

I love this picture! Aimee, me, Tyler, Cami, and Callie
Don't I have the cutest siblings?! :)

Looking east towards the ocean in the parking lot at Akaka Falls

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Kilauea Crater

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Much to our dismay, we saw no eruption. :)

The steam vents and two random girls. Yes, the steam is very hot!

Part of the crew. Some stayed back at Cami's place in Hilo while the rest of us went to the volcano and lava tube.

Coming back out of the lava tube. FYI: a lava tube is formed when lava flows down the mountain and the top cools and forms a tunnel for the still-flowing lava. When the lava ceases to flow, the tube empties out, and ta-da....a lava tube. Very cool.

On our hike back up the trail at the lava tubes. This place is beautiful. I think this is where my Dad hid behind one tree and scared (or tried to scare) the rest of our group coming up. :) C'mon, our day wouldn't be complete without some Christensen humor!

More still to come....

Ramblings

It's been a little crazy around here. The end of school is near, the weather can't decide if it wants to be spring or winter, soccer is winding down, basketball camp is in the forefront, Tball is exciting and hilarious, my back hurts from weeding and gardening, a dance recital is almost here, a family reunion is just around the corner, and if I'm being honest, a few TV shows have been watched:)

In just 2 short weeks, Brad and I (and my parents and siblings and spouses) will be hanging out in the gorgeous Hawaii sunshine! To say we're excited is a huge understatement.......we can't wait!!!! Brad's sister and parents are watching the kids for us, and we are so grateful for that. We'll miss the kids (probably.....at least we should.....cause it would be horrible to say we'd be glad to get away for awhile and not worry about getting dinner, refereeing arguments, listening to whiney, ornery kids....you get my drift). I seriously cannot wait!

Don't mind out neighbors stuff in the background, but our garden is planted, and with many fingers and toes crossed, we hope we'll get a good haul this year. Brad becomes "Crazy Brad" when it comes to corn....although it's not in the pictures, we have 6, yes I said 6, rows of corn. I think he wants to feed the ward this fall! lol

I'm not much of a green thumb (really I'm not, we've killed a couple trees since we've lived here) but I do like to try. At least with flower pots. They usually don't get weeds!:)

I can't wait for them to get big and explode with color!

My front door flower pot is always a little tricky. It faces the west so it is shaded all day until the late afternoon and then it just bakes from the sun. I'm trying a new plant, the big poky green thing in the middle. Hopefully it does well.

On Monday evening I was in my room folding laundry and could hear that every car that passed our house was honking. Hmmm, kinda weird, but we do live in a friendly place. I could hear the kids out front playing, but just kept folding laundry. I finished a load and went to check on them....this is what I found: The three oldest sitting on the grass with their knees scrunched under their t-shirts and my youngest with her pants off. I had to smile.....it's something I would've done on a warm summer evening too. (When I was a KID....not an adult....and definitely with my pants ON!):)

I mentioned that Tball has started. Oh the joy of 4 and 5 year olds! I was a little impressed with Tanner. Most of the kids (if they weren't up to bat) were playing in the sand, talking to friends, or staring off into lalaland, but he was "knees bent, mit ready, and eyes on the ball", the ENTIRE game! He had the biggest grin on his face too. I love me some Tanner!

Ellie has been a little Snow White-obsessed as of late. Its kinda cute.

This post seems a little "my kids are awesome" (puffing out my chest with pride) and all that, but we have our rough times too. Heaven only knows....and I'm sure my neighbors have heard a few naughty words being said. :o

Hope you are all getting ready for summer and enjoying the warm weather (about 50% of the week)!

Anyone have any cute ideas for end-of-the-year teacher gifts?

Pump-fake

My 4 year old son rocks! He is a sports fanatic already. As soon as Brad gets home from work the first words out of Tanner's mouth are "Dad, can you play basketball with me?" And every night after dinner he says, "Daddy, can we watch a ball game?" So cute.

Just a second ago Brad and Tanner were watching a basketball game and Tanner suddenly shouts, "Dad, he just pump-faked!"

Say what?! Really? Did he know what he was talking about? I skipped the game back a few seconds and sure enough...pump-fake.

Love it!

Ellie has a BIRTHDAY

My baby is 2!!!! How did this happen? How did time get away from me? I'm sure all mothers think the same thing at one time or another.....but still, its a bit sad.

Ellie LOVED her birthday and enjoyed every minute of it.

Anxiously awaiting her birthday presents

So excited about a beach towel.....so glad it was that exciting for her!

Loving the bubble-mower from Grandpa and Grandma C

Racing to her new scooter.....it really is adorable by the way

Smiling while we sang Happy Birthday to her (which she sang along with us)

It took her a minute, but she finally blew out those candles

.....a little tired after her party

Saying good-bye to Grandpa M

I told you she loved her towel. She insisted on eating dinner picnic style.

Smiling for the camera and LOVING her new jammies from Grandpa and Grandma M

Thanks for all the great presents and well wishes you sent our way on Ellie's Birthday.....she loved every thing about her day!!

Lots of love!

Still alive.....I think

I feel like I haven't been a part of the human race in forever! Maybe because I've been quaranteened to the house with sick kids! Oh my! My son somehow picked up Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease. I know my older girls got it when they were little, but Tanner has it B-A-D!! I'm not kidding. His throat is awful!

He started with a fever last Saturday morning so I ran (not really ran, just drove down to Ogden ;) ha ha) to the Kids Care. They tested for strep but it came back negative so they said to just keep him comfortable with Motrin/Tylenol and bring him back on Monday if it doesn't get any better. Monday morning as soon as their clinic opened, I was on the phone making an appointment. His fever had finally gone down (it had been 102-103 all weekend) but his throat was getting worse. We met with the doctor and she said he had Hand, Foot, and Mouth. He basically has canker sores all down his throat! I've seen them and they're everywhere! Oh yeah, she also said he's contagious until the sores are totally gone. Great. All week long he has cried (really, ALL week) and just says, "Mommy, it hurts!" He even cries in his sleep. I feel so bad for him, but at the same time I'm so sick of the whining! Is that so mean of me. I know he's not complaining just to complain....he really hurts! We've tried everything under the sun for him. Chloraseptic spray (we've even used it to gargle), cough drops, popsicles, yogurt, a cocktail of Benadryl and Maalox that he gargles (which actually worked SUPER well), Motrin/Tylenol every 3 hours (I've been through a whole bottle of each this week), and anything that he asks for!!!

Today, after a whole week of being miserable, I think he's finally rounding the corner. BUT my youngest, Ellie, started with a fever a couple nights ago. Great. So far so good with her though. She only had a fever for a day and a half and still feels good. Maybe a bit on the ornery side, but hey, I'll gladly take that over another sore throat! Its her 2nd birthday tomorrow, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that she'll be able to enjoy her day.

Things can only get better from here, right?