And Then There Were Six...

Monday, May 16, 2011

While Daddy Goes Grocery Shopping...

The way we roll...

Since Mommy does the cooking while we are on vacation...

Daddy had to go to the grocery store!

Isaiah is walking with Daddy! I love when he holds hands!

OK - so the entire brood was walking Daddy out..

because Mommy was going to take all the kids on a picture hunt walk.

(You know...when you are looking at the scenery, but you don't want a picture of the ocean so you add your kids?)

Of course I seldom get all 4 kids together...

Here is my group!

Love the water spraying up! There were little tidal/spray pools of water on the lava rocks..very fun!

Ashley and Isaiah were inseparable on this excursion.

I found it interesting that there was plant life among all the lava.

My 4 kids exploring...

Sister got tired of waiting for Isaiah to hurry so she just carried him.

Directing the music in his mind...

Mommy...the model...

or...not...

OK - first ~ glance at the picture...

Now, go back and really look at the picture.

What do you see?

Do you see the face of my 17 year old daughter on the body of one of my 3 year old twins?

Kinda weird huh?

I'm tricky that way!

Here is Aiden...

... and Ashley...

...and Tyler and Isaiah...

Remember ~ you're suppose to be looking at the scenery...

not the kid trying to smile, but mad at his mom because he is tired of taking pictures and doesn't want to smile anymore.

More...

Rock Climber Roth

She made it!

The kiddos and I...

Do you see that little cave to the left of Isaiah?

It is TINY...between Tyler and Isaiah..

Do you see it?

Aiden kept trying to get in it. We wouldn't let him because Ashley and I neither one would fit.

Boy was he mad!

I so appreciate the way God has blessed my life!

Nehemiah 9:5
..."Stand up and praise the LORD your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. " "Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Saturday Night Yoga

One of our resort people gave me a child yoga video for the kids to watch....

with grumpy people below me complaining about how noisy my kids walked I thought the yoga would be soothing...

It didn't work...

the yoga video had the kids jumping like kangaroos,

flying like airplanes,

running in place,

acting like an elephant...

it was not soothing nor was it quiet! I just new it was going to be a long week!

But hey! I discovered that two of my kids really enjoy yoga!

Awesome.

This was the sleeping arrangement for the boys...

pull out sofa bed with a couch shoved next to it.

They LOVED it!

We traveled with Tigger and the Thomas blankie...

I'm not sure life would continue if they were missing those elements.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Friday...Another Day in Paradise...

Since we had spent a restless night in our rental car...

we decided that Friday was going to be a day of laziness and relaxation.

(If that is possible with three active boys!)

Off to the pool!

Aiden refused to wear anything other than his long sleeve cowboy shirt, jeans, and work boots...

you have to pick your battles...this is not one worth fighting.

Look at the grin and dimples!

This kid was LOVING the water!

Isaiah...although he was in the water...he wasn't loving it like Tyler.

That's my man!

I love him!

Mom and Sister playing with the boys...

Here Ashley and I are wrestling...the water was a bit chilly...I'm not sure who started the wrestling, but neither of us really wanted to get wet yet.

Poor Aiden...he still didn't want to change, and he didn't want Mom taking his picture!

Tyler calls this "Surfing"

Finally! Peer pressure wore him down...or his desire to actually get into the water and play!

Isaiah was done! He came, he swam, he wanted to sleep!

This is how we vacation...

piled together on the sofa...

watching tv!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Our First Day in Hawaii...Oh the surprise that awaited us!

After we landed (on the golf course), switched planes, landed again, found the rental car place, found our hotel, and went grocery shopping....we got down to the business of settling in!

(The golf course story...all I have to say is this..."You know you live in AZ when your 4 year old says, Oh no! We are landing in a golf course! What is that pilot thinking?"...Yep, he saw the pristine green grass and automatically figured it must be a golf course!)

Here Isaiah (still wearing his headphones attached to nothing!) and Tyler found their bed, and the cable television.

(We don't have cable in our house...24 hour cartoons are cool!)

Want to know what we bought at the grocery store?

Our version of Hawaiian food...because we didn't really know what Hawaiian food was...yet.)

OK - so, we later found out that Maui style tater chips are actually made by Frito Lay and not on the islands...bummer, but the Kona Mud Pie ice cream...can I say I've never seen my daughter eat so much ice cream in her life! She went through 3 of these babies while we were there.

The Kona Hazelnut coffee...yum! Love it! I just found it at World Market...score!

The pineapple...not sure how many we ate while there...a lot. I've never had pineapple so sweet...and the mangos...yum!

Our first dinner in Hawaii!

Hang Loose!

After dinner, I went for a jog with Ashley...well, kinda. You see I struggle when jogging because my ADD kicks in BIG TIME! I jog...see something interesting...lose jogging focus and go check it out...jog...loose focus...you get the idea?

BUT....

While we were jogging...

Daddy and the boys made toe rings with the pipe cleaners.

Why can he have a pipe cleaner toe ring and I can't get another tattoo?

Then, since Mommy didn't let Ashley have a "True Workout", Daddy went jogging with Ashley...

and Mommy took the boys for a walk...

(Ashley never felt like she worked out because she couldn't find that spot where she would run so hard and fast that she lost her breath...guess that's what happens when you train at 3500 ft then go to sea level...)

Looking for fish in the Koi Pond at our resort...

"Cheese"

You can tell from their grins...

"We're smiling because my mom is making me stand in front of this stupid plant because she thinks it's pretty, but we see the pool and we really want to go over there..."

We found a lush field...look mom, no stickers!

Walking down the pathway towards the beach...

I was even able to find a small playground.

Back to the Koi Pond...

(I told you I am easily distracted!)

Aiden checking out the cool fish!

So our fun, interesting, kinda scary news...we were in Hawaii when the tsunami hit Japan and then headed to the Hawaiian islands...

At 11:00pm Thursday night we were told we needed to evacuate the resort. We packed our belongings, grabbed some peanut butter, jelly, bread, and bagels, snagged the pillows and blankets off the beds and loaded up our rental car. The six of us slept in the car in the parking lot of the community college. It was quite the adventure...

The morning after the tsunami warning...

it was 7:30am before the mayor gave the "all clear" notice.

You can see that Tyler slept well ~ he's not a pb&j kind of kid so he was VERY happy to be going back to our room. :)

This is a picture of the "Tunnel of Trees." It is a 1 mile stretch of trees that have grown over to reach each other. This particular picture does not do it justice...It was very cool to drive through it!

Off to begin a new day, and a new adventure.

Aloha!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

The Flight

We had an eight hour flight from Phoenix to Honolulu. I was more than a little nervous.
If you've ever actually met my children (well, the boys...) you would know why I was nervous.

Most of my friends actually started praying for safety, understanding, and guidance weeks prior to our departure! (I'm not kidding! Have you met the three boys?)

During the flight, we had the option of strapping car seats into the plane or checking them. We decided to strap them in. Our kids are usually good travelers, and they are in their car seats often so we felt familiarity would be to our benefit.

It seems we did the right thing. They jumped right into their seats and sat buckled up...the entire flight! (Well, ok ~ we did let them out to go potty!)

Tyler...always (well, mostly) ready with a smile!

Love those dimples!!

Since Tyler is 4 and over 40 pounds he is not allowed to have a car seat on the plane.

No biggie since he has a booster seat, but booster seats are not

FAA approved ~ we had to check his booster seat.

He was a little wiggle worm! I'm glad we had seats for the littles.

Aiden and Daddy

They are all smiles and ready to go!

Isaiah and Sister...

(yes, he adores his big sister)

Nope, she doesn't like to fly and she was nervous how she was going to get Isaiah to sleep during take off.

She always puts herself to sleep during take off and landing.

Don't ask me how she does it...

Ask about the Georgia trip...

Tyler and Mom

(Mom is looking a little tired and worn out...oh yeah...she only had 2 hours sleep.)

He read the safety magazine 3 times before take off...

asked specifically where the kid life vests were...

wanted to know where the rafts were...

when we would get to slide down the exit...

why there was water...

made me double check our safety belts...

had to move away from the window to watch the safety video (as if he hadn't already memorized the pamphlet!)...

tested the window shade...12 times before Mom made him stop!...

from there he moved onto the "in flight" magazines...

thank goodness they didn't have any catalogs.

That kid would have been a major shopper.

Note the blue mouth...

his headphones were not plugged into anything!

large sheet of stickers...check

crayons...check

paper...check

This kid was set...while sister slept!

Fortunately I was able to reach behind my seat to reach his stuff for him.

Aiden was not happy that Daddy slept...

I kept leaving my seat to get his toys...

candy...

water...

(see that water bottle on the left side? They are the best! I'll write more about them later.)

He actually got pretty good at waking his dad up. He would tickle him in the nose or ear with the pipe cleaners. :) LOL. That kid is a joker!

Aaaahhhhh......

Finally...

The Professor slept.

My kids are AWESOME travelers!

They each carried their own (age appropriately sized) backpack with toys and in flight supplies,

and

they had a pull along backpack with clothes, stuffed animals, and blankies.

(OK - I confess...they each some of my clothes in their pull alongs!)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Hawaii...Here We Come!

For many years we have been talking about going to Hawaii when Ashley turned 16. A couple years ago, after the twins were born (and placed with us), and Tyler was living with us, Ashley said, "Guess we won't be going to Hawaii." Tim and I talked and decided...lets just do it! So, we saved and saved and guess what? We are in Hawaii!

How do you travel to Hawaii with ...
a husband who hates to fly...
a 16 year old who hates to fly...
three toddlers under the age of 4 who either haven't flown or don't remember flying...
and
a mom who always overpacks...

You read A LOT of online suggestions, and ask your experienced FaceBook friends!

I was prepared...
1. We were not checking bags. We don't fly often enough to get the free luggage rates, and $35/bag was not in our budget. That meant one carry on and one personal item each. (Oh crud! How am I going to do it? I started panicing in October!)
2. I researched Hawaii's car seat laws...good thing too since they are way more strict than AZ!
3. Got the ridiculously high rental rates to rent a car seat and decided to take our own! It meant three bulky items to carry, but we saved $300!
4. I packed each boy their own backpack with: stickers, paper, crayons, blanket, stuffed animal, pipe cleaners, chapstick, and a ridiculous amount of candy.