Hawaii (yes finally)!

Ok this took forever but I've been waiting to get the rest of my pictures before posting...

We spent the last week of July on the fantastic island of Oahu in Hawaii and loved every minute. Since I took a billion pictures (Click Here to See them ALL)(well just 300 if you count only the ones I didn't delete and Scott and Jenny's pictures) I figured I'd just give highlights of all the fun we had. These are my top 10 favorite things we did with pictures (in no particular order).

1. Waikiki- The first night we decided to stay on our own in a nice hotel. I really wanted one on the beach in the main area. We definately got that. Our view was amazing and we had such a great time. And of course there was The Beach... need I say more. It was amazing to be able to lay out in the sun and never worry where my kids were (since they were in California with my parents :) ).

2. The Poly Cultural Center- who knew learning could be fun?

The shows were hilarious and very entertaining. We got to see a samoan climb a palm tree.

Plus we got a luau and show at night. It was very cool.
The Luau...

Jenny and I loved the pina coladas... yum

3. Snorkling in Hunama Bay- Unfortunately we did not have much time. After watching the 9 minute video on how "NOT TO STEP ON THE CORAL" we only had about an hour or so to snorkel but it was very cool.

A little surreal to be so close to the coral with the waves crashing down on you but all good. My parents lent us their underwater camera and we had a blast taking pictures. Unfortunately you can't tell what you are shooting so you basically point it and click. Lots of the pictures didn't turn out at all. But this is what we got. The ones of Jenny didn't quite work out...

4. Golfing- Paul goes all the time with Scott but us girls never get to go so we decided to join them! Honestly, we were curious to see what the fuss was about but we really had a blast driving those golf carts around. It was awesome!
5. Pearl Harbor- Again, who knew educational stuff would be vacation worthy? We spent way more time here than we planned but it was amazing. I had no idea some of the stuff that happened. Plus we got some fun pictures!

We listened to the story of Pearl Harbor on headphones... Aren't we the coolest!

Jenny and I...

Drivin' the submarine...

The big guns...

6. Pipeline- You always see pipeline in movies so it was fun to see it. What a beautiful beach!

7. Sunset Beach- Since it was called sunset Beach, Paul just had to see it at sunset and get a picture of it. Isn't it pretty?

Scott had his own pose in front of the sunset...

Paul climbing a palm tree...

8. Our Beach at Bellows- Since Scott is in the military, we got to stay on Bellows Airforce Base. Not only was it cheap but the beach wasn't so touristy (Is that a word?). We had the best time!
9. Dinner Cruise- Jenny and I really wanted to do the Dinner Cruise so after some convincing the boys agreed and it was fun! We all got into it and enjoyed ourselves the last night we were there.

It was so windy but beautiful. Honolulu/Waikiki is behind us.

10. Shark's Cove- It was raining like crazy but in between, it was cool. We saw no sharks which was very disappointing but it was really cool. There was tons of people snorkling which seemed a bit insane to me. Who wants to snorkle (I'm sure you look like a fish of some sorts to a shark) for sharks... hmmm smart people...

Isn't this just precious? I don't think they even knew what they were doing.

11. The Hike to The Lighthouse- Now this did not make my top 10 since it made me get all sweaty and was just a whole lot of stairs (I swear it was like the stairmaster from Hell!) but we got some cool pictures so I included it!

A few of the stairs... Aren't they awful?


But the view was amazing!

Hawaii was amazing!! I can't wait to go back... maybe next year (hint hint Paul)!

Dance Fever

For months, the girls have been begging to take dance lessons! The lessons for their age start at 3 so once a week my day is super busy are crazy now. I have to rush home from work (I usually get home around 2:30-2:45) get the girls dressed, wake Blake up from his nap and go. Their first lesson was last week but since we were so rushed I didn't have time (or did it even cross my mind) to take pictures. I stumbled across one of the other girl's mom's blogs and saw she took some pictures at the lesson so I "borrowed" them from her (Thanks Tonya!)
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Since the girls didn't start kindergarten this year, they are in dance with kids that they will go to kindergarten with, so they really don't know anyone yet. A few of the girls are in our ward but are in the primary class just younger than Lizzie and Linnie.

Here are a few I took before their second lesson. Parents are only allowed to go to the first lesson of the month so I won't be able to get any of my own for at least a month, granted Blakeis a willing participant that day (two year olds tend not to be able to sit still for 45 minutes.)

1st Day of School

I've been back at school for a couple weeks now (hence the lack of blogging) and now Lizzie and Linnie are back at school too! Since their birthday was so close to the deadline for kindergarten we decided not to start them until next year. They are going to the same preschool as the last two years but will be in the same class this year, a fact that has them both very excited.

For some crazy reason (I attribute it to the stresses of starting back at work after 10 weeks of nothing, not just my own stupidity) I thought preschool started a week earlier than it did. So last Tuesday, we got the girls all ready then took pictures and were off to school. And I was informed school didn't start for another week. It was embarrassing but I really liked the pictures I got of the girls so I'm sharing my embarrassing moment so that I can share the cute picture!

On our way to school today, Linnie kept asking me if I was sure school really started today and how I knew that. Kids sure do have a way of remembering their parents mistakes...


Walking into school...