Hawaii

Well, since it's been sooooooo long since I've blogged I thought I'd jump in wherever I felt like it ! After all, there is lots to catch up on and maybe just jumping in with both feet will get me motivated. So without further ado here is a little post on our recent (sort of) trip to Hawaii.

This was the first time for all of us. And while it isn't my personal favorite vacation we've taken, we did get some good pictures!

We were on Kauai for a week with a bunch of Terry's family as part of his brother CJ's wedding. So here are some pictures (which, after all, is the important part :) )

One of the first things we did was head up to Waimea Canyon. It's basically the "Grand Canyon" of Hawaii. And they really aren't kidding. Crazy.


I have several other scenery pictures, but I won't bore you with them :)

My boys. Yes, they are quite strange now that you mention it. I have no idea what they are doing in this picture...

Me with two of my boys!



We went to a luau but we were clear in the back, I suck at taking pictures and it was rather dark. So here is a picture of Collin with one of the dancers. That's as good as it gets this time folks!

Here is a great picture of my father-in-law, Ray. He never wears shorts. Ever. Seriously it has probably been since he was in high school......if then. And sandals? I believe this is the first pair of sandals he has ever worn. Ever. Period. These are the two shots I got of him. The first one he is warning me not to take the picture and the second one is him trying to spray me with the hose. I got the hint and took the camera inside, but I didn't delete the pictures! HA!

At the Hyatt they had parrots. This was a demonstration where you listen to a short presentation about parrots then you get to hold the birds. Collin loved it, Liam not so much.



These are some dolphins that Terry and Collin got to see when they went on a dinner cruise. That's pretty much all I know so there are no other pictures from the cruise. Let's just say that Liam and I weren't invited, so we got to spend a....well, let's just say "an evening in the hotel" instead. Not exactly the high point of the trip...









The wedding was held on the private beach of a botanical garden on Kauai. It was a beautiful place. They had a great kids garden, which is all we saw, other than the beach. Lots of fun things to play on and in. Including a "wading" pool, which is of course why Collin is soaking wet from head to toe in the picture on the swing. Collin was also the ring bearer during the ceremony. He looks angry in this picture because the flower girl wasn't throwing the petals. He was trying to make her do it. Unfortunately for him, she has two older brothers and didn't think his "help" was necessary. :)








One of the best things we did was hang out at the beach just us and the kids. We went snorkeling but Liam promptly got sunscreen in his eyes, then minutes later got taken out by a wave. That was pretty much all the "fun" he wanted so he went to sleep instead. Even when he was awake we had to stay far away from the water if we had him because he was scared of it :)

Collin loved playing in the sand though and was only mildly annoyed with the tide ruining part of his creation.


This is a rooster. They are all over the island. Ferrel. So funny. I thought stray dogs and cats were irritating!

On the last day we were there we went on a train tour of one of the plantations. It was lots of fun and the boys loved it. This is a picture of Liam watching the pigs we stopped to feed. Apparently they are also a problem on the island and they are open season year round.

And here are a couple shots of the ocean from the hotel grounds. Pretty amazing!

Happy 6th birthday Collin!!

A month late....

But only on my blog. We celebrated it in real life on time!

Aunt Heidi has been waiting 'patiently' for the pics of the invites since she designed them from Chicago and all I did was put them together. So here they are! Thanks Aunt Heidi! Even from across the country you still are awesome at throwing parties!


As you can see we had dinner and a movie. But they had to have somewhere to sit so we made cars. That way it was a "Drive up movie". The boys loved it and had tons of fun decorating their cars and sitting in them for the whole movie. And we didn't even have anything get spilled! Wow! They all got a Capri Sun and popcorn to start then we moved on to pizza. It was great for me too as there was almost no supervision needed or much involvement from me! Lesson? Movies are good choices for 6 year old birthday parties!


Aunt Kimi made the cake. She does such an amazing job! Even the 6 year olds were impressed with the cake! The decorations are fondant which some of them thought tasted funny, but since there was a layer of frosting underneath we had no real complaints! The cakes were awesome and I couldn't have been happier with how they turned out. And it's free to have your sister make them....even better!


Collin had a great day and got lots of great toys. He was pleased and so was I! You can't beat that!

OK, fine.

I got yelled at today by my sister that I never blog. That I'm "A blog slacker". Yep, pretty much. I am. I *love* to read blogs....I'm just not always that into writing in *my* blog. It's not nearly as much fun to read!

So what have we been doing?

We went to our annual Spring Training Chicago Cubs game, of course! We had lots of fun and enjoyed our last year of it being so close to home. Next year the Diamond Backs and the Rockies will be moving their training to Phoenix as Tucson just hasn't been supporting them much anymore. Collin ate tons of junk food and was overall really good! Liam didn't get as much to eat and he wasn't quite as well behaved but he did take a nap for a while. It was pretty hot though so he didn't sleep very long.


We also started our year of swimming lessons! Sort of.... apparently they started at 1, not 1:30 so we were a half hour late for our first week.....for the 30 minute swimming lesson! Ooops! Good job mom! Then we skipped a week because of Easter and this weekend Collin had a birthday party. So he hasn't gone yet. He will be making up those two classes this week though and will be right on schedule for week three! Liam and I went this week and he did really great! He loved it and loved the attention of the coach. There is only one other baby in the class and she wasn't there so we had a private lesson! Not bad! He is such a happy baby overall that he wasn't any problem. Except the back float. He doesn't really like that. These pictures are from week one, before we figured out that we were late! Poor Collin wasn't very happy with me. Oh well!

I am a procrastinator

And as usual it bit me in the butt. Here it is Monday and I didn't do my Monday Motivator. Damn. Now I'm going to have that stupid room looming over my head for another week. And I was so excited about moving on to my bookcase! It makes me a little grumpy but the books will have to wait one more week as I beg for an extension. I promise that by next week it will be done. (I hope)

Imagine you're a basset hound...

....and you wake up in the morning to an overcast sky and rain. Lots of rain. You've been hearing the rain since the middle of the night, so you know how wet it really is. Your person is awake so you try to be as quiet as you can inside your warm dry crate, hoping she won't make you go outside. It works! But only for a while as you soon become aware of the fact that you've been in the house for nearly 12 hours. You really really need to go to the bathroom. Finally you give up and whine to be let out. When she opens the door you are confused. Normally she puts on her shoes and walks you to your kennel. She puts food in your bowl and she gets you water. But she only opens the door and kicks you out onto the patio. Oh dear! Now what? You stand there confused looking in the house. She is saying something to you. Go potty? What does that mean? Finally you wander away, at least as far as the patio furniture. You lift your leg then run back to the door. She is still there! She opens the door! You race through the house as fast as you can. You chase a cat and knock a small person over. You find the cat food and eat it all! The whole time they are chasing you and yelling and haveing just as much fun as you are. You are going to stay dry! You don't have to go outside today!

But then it happens. Your person starts doing weird things. She gets a pitcher and takes it to the bathroom. Then she finds some old towels and puts them in the bathroom too. Then she puts water in the big white thing in the bathroom. You are starting to feel nervous. She calls you to the bathroom and you get so excited that she is talking to you you forget your nervousness and run right to her. She picks you up and puts you in the big white thing. It's horrible. There is water in there. Has she lost her mind? She let you stay in. She let you stay in the house so you didn't get wet and then she puts you in water on purpose!



You are dejected and wet. You hang your head while she leads you back to your warm dry and now clean bed in the crate. At least in here you are safe. At least in here you stay dry. She shuts the door and walks away. You think that maybe you'll never be able to forgive her. Maybe you'll never love her again.



What's that? Do you want a treat? Your tail goes thump thump thump and she opens the door and hands you some treats. You love her! You love this person! Isn't she wonderful?

A day at the zoo!

I feel like I haven't blogged about my kids in a while so I made sure to take lots of pictures at the zoo today. Well, a lot for me - 66 - my sister takes that many a minute but still. The weather was beautiful, in the high 60's, and it wasn't too busy!

We started off by grabbing some lunch at the brand new indoor food court. It was pretty nice. It used to be really small and outside. I didn't even know they were doing this so it was a great surprise. Collin got to have a kids meal that got him a bear head lunch box. He has a monkey from years ago that lives in the backyard for collecting rocks, so I know he'll find a use for it somewhere. I brought some fruit for Liam to eat, but he wasn't interested. All he wanted were some french fries. The kid loves them. The only problem is that he hasn't figured out how to open his fist to get the piece inside out. So when he is done eating there is always a little pile of french fries the size of his fist on the floor. After the fries were gone he did eat the fruit though.

Double fisting the fries!

Lunch is also when Collin and I had the following conversation:

Collin: This place has the best food ever. They are really good cooks.
(you should keep in mind the kid was eating a corndog)

Me: Really? It's that good?

Collin: I think you're the second best cook ever though Mommy.

Me: Thanks!

Collin: Well, maybe third.....or fourth. Behind Grammy and Aunt Kimi.

Me: Oh, well....

Collin: Wait, but Aunt Heidi is good too. And Grandma Terry. So maybe you're really just fifth or sixth.

Me: I guess I'm not that good then.

Collin: No, not really. You might even be tenth. I just don't know, but there are lots of people ahead of you.

Not exactly a big confidence boost for me. But I didn't throw a fit because we had just gotten there and I wanted to have fun at the zoo.

It was a lot of fun and both kids were great! Here are some pictures, hope you enjoy!

The bear lunch box



Collin brought his own quarters and pennies so he could crush them. I guess he figured that way he wouldn't have to ask me and risk being told no. I wasn't heartbroken about it.

It's not real grass.

But this is! And it was really deep and thick.


This is a shot of Collin making an elephant out of clay. He planned this and brought his clay from home. He wanted to sit in front of an animal so he could make the model look just like the real thing. I told him he couldn't do that because the other people wanted to see the animals too. So when I stopped in a grassy spot to feed Liam this is what he did. If you're wondering where the finished product is, there isn't one. He needed a break and then he stepped on it when he came back. Then he didn't want to start all over. But it's the thought that counts I guess.


The next series of pictures are by request of my very strange five year old. He wanted me to get pictures of him "hatching" out of the egg. I stood there dutifully taking pictures while this took place. You're welcome for only posting this many, I have lots more.




Here is the art that was in the bathroom. These cracked me up and there were probably 10 of them in all. These two were my favorite. And you should have heard the boys in the mens room cracking up while they read them. Definitely a hit!


After the zoo we had to ride the zoo train. Well Collin had to ride it. Liam and I just waited.

This is Collin waiting to leave.

This is what Liam and I did while Collin was away. So cute!

One other thing I was incredibly entertained by was the polar bear. I was holding Liam up so there are no pictures. The polar bear was swimming in the water. You can stand right at the window at water level and watch it swim. I thought that Liam might actually pay attention to a large white bear swimming just inches away from him so I got him out of his stroller and stood him in the window. We stood there while the bear swam by THREE times. Did Liam see it? Even once? No way! Every time the bear came that close all the kids would get so excited and Liam would get so busy watching them that he missed the bear every.single.time. Then he would look intently into the window like he was trying to figure out what they were so happy about. It was the funniest thing. So maybe next time he'll actually look at the animals at the zoo!