Maui Pictures FINALLY!!!

My goodness I suck....we have been home for a month (long depressing, rain filled month) and I haven't posted pictures yet. In my defense I spent 3 hours going through all the pictures about a week ago, just ran out of time to post them haha so here goes picture over load!!!!

His secret talent, bird whispering hehe

Vanessa VS. the waves....the waves won haha

She was telling me something important I'm sure

The sunsets were amazing

We were going on the road to Hana, but hadn't picked up the motorcycle yet, so we all had to squish into the back of my mustang, and when I say "we" I mean mom, dad, Vanessa and Matthew :) I was perfectly happy in the front seat with LOTS of room!!!

One of the many bridges that you cross hoping the other guys stops, the roads were crazy skinny

The ONLY waterfall we found on the Road to Hana

Mum and the Father Figure :) Love them!!!

We were walking to the Seven Pools and this park ranger guy was sitting there making things, everyone walking past him except my dad and Matthew :) We sat and talking with him for a few and found out he had family in Puyallup!! Crazy :) He gave us a couple flowers and a bird he made. They were so cool!!

Seven Pools

Matthew getting ready to jump!!!

Finally talked Vanessa into jumping :)

We started to walk up to a different part of the Seven Pools and look up and yep, there's a girl posing at the top TOPLESS!!! haha

Mom and Dad on the Harley

Haha NOT a one lane road!! 2 cars are supposed to be able to fit on this road!!

The views were AMAZING!!!

Taking a break from the SUPER bumpy road!!! The road itself was CRAZY/HORRIBLE but the views made it completely worth it...

My biker girl in a t-shirt haha

Mum's day dinner at Bubba Gumps :) Those are skinny fries on the top haha, soooo good :)

At the top of the volcano, FREEZING to death. At the top it was windy and 47 degrees!!

Luau, we had so much fun....FINALLY got LEID!!!

I kinda had an obsession with him hehe

Yeah, he was smiling at me :p dang he was yummy!! Thank goodness for a ZOOM lens lol

Matthew was liking all the girls hehe

Biggest smile, can't imagine why :)

Shopping at Whalers Village

The show that stated it all

We HAD to get tattoos :)

Boat ride out to Molokini for snorkeling, swimming with the turtles and seeing dolphins!!!

The water was amazing, couldn't get enough of it

Dad was walking on the rock and slipped and fell, cut his leg up pretty good

Playing at the beach

Hey look, I really was there!!!

I was watching Vanessa walk on the beach in front of our condo

Aunt Vanessa helping Che get comfortable in the water, she is so good with her cousins

This plant was HUGE!!

My beautiful daughter :)

The views on the drive up the volcano, the colors of blues and everything were undescribable

Kids trying to stay warm

Looking down into the volcano

Nana playing with the boys

I know it's A LOT of pictures :) but trust me I picked only a few...what can I say it was 2 weeks in Maui!!! We had so much fun. Driving up to the volcano, views were AMAZING. The road to Hana, was a blast. Mom and dad rented a Harley for the day, the road is crazy but the views made it completely worth it. Our condo was the perfect condo in the perfect place. The water was 50 feet off the lanai and the pool was to the left of us, so the kids could go play in it and I could watch them from the lanai.

Now that we are home, we have already started planning how we are going to move to Maui in the next 3 to 5 years haha Vanessa has decided she is going to BYU Hawaii and of course my lil girl can't be that far away from me, so I will sacrifice and move there to be close to her of course, not to be in the sun year round or anything like that!!! Our tans have faded quickly being in Washington :( I don't think the sun has remembered to come to Washington so we can have summer. It is June 24 and I had a jacket on today!! Oh and it was down pouring most of the day too.  Hope you y'all enjoyed the pictures!! Sorry there are so many :) 

Music

Words to certain songs have always struck a memory or a feeling, whether it be a good memory that makes you smile, a memory that makes you sad, a song you can't seem to listen to anymore because you don't want that memory anymore or a song that makes you long for something you try to forget that you want. As I drove home from work the other day, I wasn't paying much attention to what was playing until a few of the words snuck in. So that night I looked the song up on youtube and sure enough, I laid in bed listening to the song and just cried. I love so many of Lady Antebellum's songs, but at the moment this is one of my favorite songs.....

Maui was amazing, I have so many pictures to post...I will have to find a time when I have at least an hour to blog them :) Since we have gotten back, I have dreamed that I couldn't take the rain any longer and picked my kids up from school and bought plane tickets and we moved to Maui!!! It was a great dream.....

MAUI!!!

We have finally made it to Maui. Not without a few hiccups but we are here and having a blast. We have all had the flu since we got here and it poured rain for the first 3 days, but other than that, we have been loving the weather and enjoying being here as a family!!!

Here are a few pics, trust me I have a butt load more, but since its 2 am, these are all you get for now :)

These are all from the first day or two that we were Maui. We are all toasty marshmallows and we still have a week to go!!! Vanessa says we aren't leaving, that we need to move here. I said I thought you didn't want to move away from Yelm because of all your friends? She smiled held up her cell phone and said, Mom, I have a phone AND facebook!!! She makes me laugh :) 

Oh one other thing, spending Mother's Day in Maui is the GREATEST!!! My kids gave me a beautiful ring....

~Aloha~

Happy 8th Birthday Matthew!!!

I still haven't gotten over the fact that Vanessa is now 12 years old, 

 when April has hit and my lil man has now turned 8!!!

 He has been so excited for today to come. He gets to be baptized on Sunday and he got to start cub scouts tonight!!! Last night on our way home from his birthday dinner he informed me that he needed to bring cupcakes for his class at school, its now 7:30 pm, so I said ok we can stop at Safeway on our way home and pick some up. But my AMAZING mom stepped in and said she would make him some cupcakes when we got home. Now I had surgery on Saturday, so I haven't been able to do much and my mom, she is the best...I really couldn't have asked for a better mom. She has been helping me so much with the kids and helping me get around. So when we got home at 8:00 pm she started on the cupcakes, only to find out we were out of cupcake holders!!! So in her creative mode she decided to make ice cream cone cupcakes!!!

I so extremely impressed!! I don't think I would have been that creative and thought of using the ice cream cones that we already had, maybe it was the lack of brain power or maybe the pain killers I am on haha, either way, they turned out great and Matthew was so excited. She even got up early before work with enough time to frost them for me!! What can I say, I love my mum!!!

I kept asking him what he wanted for his birthday? All he said he wanted was money, so he could buy a DSI XL, but he was so worried he wouldn't get enough to be able to buy it!! Like I would let that happen hehe....when he got home from school Vanessa gave him his first gift....

MONEY!!! He was quite excited if you can't see it in his HUGE smile :) Really they do love each other LOL

Then his gift from Mommy, Nana and Grandma Pinky...

As you can see, he got MONEY :) Last night at dinner he got a gift card from Aunt Jessica and Eva...

He got enough for his DSI XL and a game....him and Papa left early for Cub Scouts so they could stop at the store and buy it. When I got home from work, I quickly made his birthday cake. Unlike Vanessa's birthday cake last year, this one didn't end up on the side of the road in a big heap of yuck :)

I am so proud of Matthew, he is such an amazing, caring guy. Can't wait for Sunday to see him get baptized!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUG!!!

18 years ago....

April 1st has always been a memorable day....18 years ago today my parents took me to the hospital at 8:30 am for back surgery. The whole time I was hoping the doctor was going to come in and say APRIL FOOL'S you don't really have to have surgery!!! But yeah he never said that LOL :) 

Although now I will say I am very grateful I had the back surgery, it was still a very depressing, hard, frustrating, lonely time for me as a 13 year old girl. My parents weren't too thrilled with the next year and my oh so loverly attitude they claim I had, but I deny ever being nothing but the most pleasantest child ever!!! hehe :)

I have the greatest parents ever to have put up with the "Ice Princess" back then...every year on April 1st I always come to them and say....18 years ago today I had back surgery, they roll their eyes at me and laugh and say "Happy Anniversary"