next year

I had good intentions of entering a photo in the fair this year.  I struggled with not knowing which one to enter.  I actually got a few different ones printed, but they didn't turn out as I planned so I said, "next year."

Well, I was reminded of the photo I wanted to enter by a friends comment I just got.  I don't know if it's blue ribbon material, but I'm thinkin' it's a good runner up.  What do you think?

Jonah now shoots with his eyes open.  In fact, just the other day he saw some deer outside and he took off to get his gun.  Then I see him running across the porch, with only one shoe on, holding the gun up ready to fire.  I think he may have actually took his shot mid-run.  The guy's an animal with that thing now!  He's come a long way ... still doesn't hit anything, but he at least looks like he knows what he's doing. :)

I love him.

our 2 days at the fair

I'm not sure why I combined these posts.  It's late, and apparently that's the way my brain is working tonight.   So if you've already commented, I love you for it.  If you comment again, I'll love you even more. :)   Here's a peek at our two days at the fair....

2 days of pure fun for the kids

According to Stella, "fair week is the best week of my life!" 

2 days of corndogs 

Jonah is getting after it in this picture.  He looooooooves corn dogs.

Ava likes them too.  The second day we went she said, "I want corn hot dogs for dinner."

Jonah really likes them.  It looks like here that he has a special way of eating them.  Awesome.

2 days of rides

Well, more like one day of looking at all the rides and deciding which one they would go on first the next day.  Then one day of riding on as many of the rides as their hearts desired from 12-5pm, thanks to the trusty pink bracelets.

Since the kids are getting older and wiser (we can't get away with just "one ride fair days" anymore), we decided we'd try the bracelets. 

We got our money's worth.  Even if they wanted to ride on the same ride over and over and over... again, it still was a good deal.

Hands down...or up, this was Jonah's "bestest" ride!  You may recall from my fair post  last year that this ride wasn't his favorite.  I'm happy he likes it now, it makes going to the fair a little more fun.

Tilt-a-Whirl was Stella's favorite.  She would close her eyes and lay her head to the side while the ride was going.  She looked like she was sleeping.  She later told me, "I closed my eyes so it would help me breathe through it."  :)  It was a little intense for her, but I'm glad she learned to breathe through it.

2 days of looking at the biggest pig I have ever seen!

These pictures don't come close to doing this pigs size justice.  It.was.HUGE!  Like so huge, when-it-sat-on-a-few-of-her-piglets-she-squished-them, huge.  Poor baby pigs.  You can see some in the far right-hand corner.  She had 13, but now there is only 10.

Crazy big pig.  Wow.

2 days of eating junk

Elephant ears are the reason I go to the fair. 

It was a fun 2 days.

Be My Baby. a stolen title.

One of my favorite photographers, Sheye Rosemeyer wrote a blog post back in march titled, Be My Baby. I love all her posts, but that one really hit home and pulled greatly at my heart strings; her pictures and her words... I get teary whenever I read it because I am so there and it's exactly how I feel.

I know I'm like a broken record when I keep on saying I don't want my children to grow up, but it's so true.  Sure, there's a part of me that looks forward to their different stages.  I do love watching them grow and learn new things, but if I could freeze time I would.  I would keep them younger longer.  I really really would.

My Ava is growing up, but today and tomorrow and the next day... I just want her to be my baby.

She'll tell you she likes pink cake and then ask "what kind you like?"

She calls toothpaste, pooftaste.

She's gone from calling herself "Wava" to "Eeeeva."

When she says Uncle Darrin it sounds like Uncle Dinner.

She still has a strong passion for gum and still runs everywhere she goes.

Without fail, Every.Single.Time. she talks to her dad on the phone she asks him if he'll make waffles. Every time.

She calls her grandma on the phone every day and when grandma asks her what she's doing she says, "just nothing."

If she likes what's for dinner she'll say, "mmm, tanks mom it's lishious (delicious)."

She likes to wear her swimsoup (swimsuit) all day around the house.

She still licks her sheets and will even lick your shirt when she's tired.  She'll say, "I go nigh nigh on your shirt."

She copies her big brother and can wrestle and do "kung fo" with the best of them.

She makes me laugh.  At times she makes me a little crazy.  I love her with all my heart.  I'm so thankful she's my baby.

All photos edited with Sheye Rosemeyer's eye candy actions.

from one island to the next

Side note...does anyone know why blogger is making my pictures look all wonky?  I never noticed it being this bad before???   Anyway... on to the post...

10 years ago, on July 29th, Sean and I were saying our "I do's" and getting ready for our honeymoon in Hawaii.  Last year, in a blog post I did ,  I mentioned we were going to go to Hawaii for our 10 year anniversary.  I was totally joking and dreaming and just being silly.  I can't believe that dream actually came true!

This year on July 29, 2010 we were on a plane flying high above the clouds, on our way to Maui.

We left behind the cloud covered city of Seattle and headed towards sunshine and blue skies.

I'm pretty sure that plane ride was the loooooongest plane ride ever.  Sean and I were both so excited to get there that it felt like it took forever and a year.  Throughout the plane ride we'd look at each other and smile.  We couldn't believe we were actually on a plane going to Maui.  The flight attendant called us "love birds" she could just tell there was something magical in our eyes.  She had know way of knowing it was our 10 year anniversary, or that this was the first real vacation Sean and I have had in 10 years, or that we were without our 3 crazy children for a whole WEEK!!!   eeekk!!!! 

We arrived in Maui at 11:15am their time (2:15pm our time).  We went and picked up our rental car and then we were off to our final destination, Kihei, Maui's sunny south shore.  When we got to the place we were staying, which was right across from the beach, we were told our room would be ready at around 4pm.  Since we had some time on our hands and we were both starving, we decided to head out west to Lahaina and make a pitt stop at Cheese Burger In Paradise.

I ordered the Black and Blue burger....YUM!  As you can tell, my focus point was on the bacon. :)  I shared some of it with Sean.  It hit the spot.

The beach that is right across the street from the place we stayed is called, Kama'ole beach.  We would go down there to watch the sunset almost every night.  The sunsets in Maui are so beautiful.

Here is one of the two photos of Sean and I together.  Please excuse the quality, it is a noisy mess.  I should post the unedited version just so you can see how bad it REALLY was.  I had it in full auto and it was awful.  This is the best I could do to salvage it.

We spent most of our days on the beaches in Wailea.  They weren't as busy as Kama'ole.  Ulua beach was one of our favorites.  The last day we found this beach, pictured below.  It was just past Wailea and I think it is called the Po'olenalena beach.  There was hardly anyone there and it was super nice.  

Liz tried to trick us and told us we had to try Little Beach.  We were all set to go one morning, when thankfully I got a text from Karen filling us in that Little Beach probably wasn't for us.  Rumor has it that they forget to wear their swimsuits at Little Beach.  Phew!  I would have DIED. Haha!

Then there was Big Beach....

This photo of me makes it look very calm and serene, right?  Don't be fooled.   I'm pretty sure a wave, much like the one in the photo below, got me.  Big time.  Pummeled and tossed around.  Hahahaaa  I'm still laughing about it and I think I still have sand in my hair from it.  There were flags out warning beach goers that the undertow was extra strong that day.  Pssshh, I could handle it...or so I thought.  Oh.My.Goodness.  I came up after being tossed by the wave with my swim suit everywhere it shouldn't be and the sand, oh the sand, it was everywhere it shouldn't be too.  You should have seen Sean's face!  Hahaha...it just makes me laugh thinking about it.  I made it out eventually with the help of my Sean. :)

Big Beach is a good spot to go if you want to people watch or watch people get worked over by the waves. :)  Here's Sean making his way out of the ocean.  Seriously, you had to high knee it to get out of that water!  Hahaha...I'm still laughing.

Earlier in the week we made a trip up to Kannapali.  It was really nice there.  If it was closer to where we were staying I would have come back to this spot every day.  You could lay on the grass and just be a few feet away from the ocean.  That's the best of both worlds.  Beaches are great, but they're sandy. :)  It was so nice to lay on the grass for a change but yet still close enough to jump in the water when you got hot.

We ate pretty good in Maui.  We got shaved ice a couple times.  The first time it was just your normal shaved ice, the second time it was Hawaiian style with ice cream on the bottom.  It was good.  Both times. :)

Our place had a kitchen so we bought breakfast food from Safeway and ate breakfast at "home" almost every day.  Although one morning we went out to Kihei Cafe.  On our morning jogs down Kihei road we'd pass this little cafe and we noticed that it was always busy.  We figured it must be good so we better try it.  It was good.  Those little ladies at Kihei Cafe can make a sticky bun that will knock your socks off... or make your bottom bigger.  Probably the latter of the two.  Yum!  We ate it too fast to get a picture, sorry. ;)

Another favorite was Fred's Mexican Cafe, which I think they have in CA also.  Their chicken tacos were out of this world good.  We ate there twice; Friday night and then again for Taco Tuesday. :)

We like chips and salsa.

Our last night in Maui we went to Mama's Fish House in the little town of Paia.  The food was amazing!  Kind of spendy, but worth every last penny.  The atmosphere was really fun.  Next time I want to go when it is lighter out; it gets dark quick in Maui.  I definitely recommend going to Mama's if you're ever in Maui.

(image credit - a guest at mama's fish house)

This photo of us is taken outside of Mama's Fish House.  If it was lighter out the view would have been amazing.  It was cloudy and dark that night and was starting to rain.

On Monday, Sean and I drove the road to Hades Hana.  It wasn't my favorite.  Don't get me wrong, the scenery was beautiful, but the road...the road was AWFUL!  It was only a 50 mile drive, but it took a total of 6 hours on super winding roads.  I could have done without the roads.   But hey, I can buy the shirt that says "I survived the road to Hana" and have it be true. ;)  Here are the photos from our little day trip.

The first stop was the Twin Falls.  You had to wade through a little stream to get close.

That's Sean out there swimming.

Liz told us about this little gem on mile 48.  This is called the Venus pool.  It was beautiful.  Sean considered jumping in.  The water would run into this pool and then make it's way to the ocean.  So gorgeous.

I think the photo above shows lava rock that has made it's way to the ocean.  

It was crazy, on the drive to Hana it was lush and green, then on the way out it was the dry and barren land.  Seriously it was the longest drive.  I think the fastest you were able to go was 20mph and that isn't because that's what the speed limit said, it was because the roads were that bad.  On the way back you also had to watch out for the random cows that lived in the dry and barren land. :)  I was so happy to have two more full days on the beach after that drive.  We needed it.

Our trip to Maui was so wonderful.  To have that quality time with just my husband was so so so special.  I loved every single second.

Bright and early on the morning of August 5th, we left our island of paradise and went back to the island we call home.

We were a little sad to leave, but very excited to see those 3 little children of ours we left behind.

Dear Maui,

 I can't wait to come back to you.

The End.