Trip to Hawaii: Kauai

On Wednesday, May 23rd, the children and I set out on our journey across the country.  I was pretty nervous prior to traveling when I found out that Jesse wasn't on the same flights or even airport as us.  But after a few moments of trepidation, I took a deep breath and went into full scale planning mode on how we could make this work for us.  I lucked out that day and the kids were straight up awesome on our travel date. We rode the Dartmouth Coach from Lebanon, NH to Boston, MA and it dropped us off at our terminal about 1.5 hours before our flight left.  We struggled slightly with all our luggage until we hit the check in lines for US Airways.  Thanks to some really wonderful airport employees, we were checked in quickly and hurriedly unloaded our two checked bags and headed to the security checkpoint much lighter than before.  Again I had more awesome employees that allowed us to go to the front of the line and a very nice man behind me that helped the kids get their carryon bags up on the counter.  The only sticky situation we got into was when Eli first dumped his soda all over the chair and his happy meal while waiting at our gate and then him standing up with his Happy Meal container and having the entire bottom fall out because it was wet, causing his food to spill all over the floor.  Beyond that it was smooth sailing.  The children entertained themselves with games and movies on our Kindle Fires, playing games on my phone, coloring, matchbox cars for Eli, snacks, and complimentary soda.  It was perfect timing when Maddie announced she was finally bored right as we were landing in Phoenix. All in all, it turned out to be a great day and I am proud to say I'm no longer scared of flying solo with the three kids at an airport.  I would totally do it again in a heartbeat.  We had a crowd of people meet us at the airport and I will never forget the pure joy etched on my children's faces as they ran to greet the family.  Joanna, Abby, Nona, Papa, Grandpa and Grandma were all there right outside the security checkpoint with huge smiles on their faces! It had been ten long months since we had seen Abby, Grandma and Grandpa and it was exciting to finally be reunited.  I cannot even explain how badly I had missed my parents or how nice it was to finally see them.  It has been an incredible experience to learn how to live our lives independant of outside family, but also very difficult to go long time periods without my parents or sister around.  The first thing I did once we loaded in the car is head straight over to my sisters house to see my new niece Keira.  What an amazing experience it was to hold that sweet newborn in my arms and love on her one week old self!

The next day Jesse and I were up early early early and on our plane headed to Kauai.  We felt like it was a wonderful opportunity to spend one on one time with each other before he headed off to Baltimore for the summer. Here's a super brief synopsis of our vacation:

Thursday: Flew in, spent HOURS at the airport with the car rental situation, Adam picked us up, dropped us off at our rental property in Princeville, tried walking to Hanulei, ended up catching a taxi into town, ate at L&L Hawaiian BBQ, had a snow cone (wished it was a shaved ice), caught the bus back semi-near Princeville and walked the rest of the way home in the rain.

Friday: Jesse took the bus into Hanulei, rented us a scooter, we drove over to the GINORMOUS beach house next to "Secret Beach" and hung out with family. Stopped at the Kilauea Light House and snapped a few pics before arriving at the house. I paddled boarded in Hanulei while Jesse, Ryan, Josh, Gina, Kendra all went surfing. Came back and had an amazing seafood dinner complete with crab, oysters, lobsters----Uncle Vince had the seafood shipped from the mainland by one of his friends. T, J, Sarah, Kendra, Josh, Erin, Ryan, Michael all hiked down to Secret Beach and had a bonfire with smores. Drove Adam's car back to our rental due to rain and time of departure

Saturday: drove back to beach house, Tiffany went with Sarah, Kendra, and Gina to nail salon where they got mani's/pedi's. After we went to lunch with all the girls at ........... Jesse went spear fishing with Josh, Michael, Jeremy, and Ryan. Stopped for some local cold coconut at "The Coconut Experience" on or way to the hotel. Got ready for the wedding, drove in the RAIN to Tunnels Beach, soaking wet, watched the beach wedding then headed over to the Tavern for wedding dinner. Had some drama with keys and the scooter, ended up leaving it at the beach. Following dinner, drove over to the beach with it pitch black and followed J back on the scooter. Had some difficulties getting the top to Adam's jeep back on during another massive rain storm. Another late night :)

Sunday: T woke up late while Jesse went back to the beach house for brunch and to take Adam, Ryan and Erin to the airport.  J ended up being gone literally for HOURS that day.  Like until 2:30pm because there plane took off much later than anticipated. Once he returned we went on a little drive, took pics by some bamboo trees and I ended up getting attacked by mosquitos.  Like literally 40+ bites on my legs and arms....no fun. Also stopped at a beautiful beach called Waiakalua Beach, aka "pretty beach" and took some fun sunset pictures.  Ended up being a memorable afternoon full of beautiful, scenic pics.

Monday: Went snorkeling in the AM near "Queens bath" which included a swim/walk through the turtle cave. T ended up smashing her face into a lava rock with lots of blood and some nasty cuts, had a trip to the local grocery mart to get tools to dig the rocks out of my lip laceration. Debated going to the ED but ultimately didn't, had a yummy shaved ice and met up with Brad and Jackie & family at a noodle restaurant. Had fun visiting with friends, T's face/jaw/lip continued to ache :(

Tuesday: Hiked up along the Napoli Coast to the _________ waterfall and beach, was a beautiful 8 mile hike. J and I are a little competitive and probably ran halfway up and back. We were told that we reminded an older couple of a couple of billy goats...made us feel young. J swam in the waterfall water. Both of us slightly tweaked our ankle/foot. Ate L&L BBQ after, went to a farmers market and ate legue??sp?? and chocolate covered bananas. Got fancy ready, then walked over near Queens Bath at sunset to snap HOURS of photos thanks to the mister. Ate dinner at The Tavern.

Wednesday: Packed up place, checked out, then headed towards Lihue for the airport. Stopped and bought a few souvenirs on the way. End of trip and excited to see the kiddos again <3

Anticipation

Websters dictionary defines anticipation as "the act of looking forward; pleasurable expectation" and "visualization of a future event or state".  I have to admit that I have been doing both of those things right now.  Since we moved away from home, I have thought and thought about when I would be able to come back to visit.  Dates were reviewed frequently and when we received Jesse's cousins wedding invitation to be held in Hawaii the end of May, we knew exactly when we would be making travel plans to fly back home.  Now that most of the arrangements have been made, I have been hardly able to contain my excitement that I will get to see my parents and sister in one short day.  I cannot believe that it has been 10 long months since I have seen my family face to face.  To further cap off this euphoric feeling is that fact that my older sister just had her baby last week and I will get to hold this little piece of heaven in my arms in a mere 24 hours!  And I look forward to watching my children rebond with their uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents as they get to spend LOTS of quality time with those we love.  It is has been really difficult to see Eli pretty much not remember most of our family due to being gone for so long at such a young age, so I think this will be pretty great watching him reconnect with them again.  One of my most memorable things growing up was the vast amount of cousin time we shared at virtually every family get together.  I have always felt bad that my children haven't been able to experience this because they only have two cousins (now three!) and we moved so far away from everyone.  It will be really great to watch my kids hang out with Kaylin (5) and Zack (almost 3) now that they are all a bit older. So basically I will be away for awhile and consequently not blogging.  I'll see all of you in about a month!!

Sachem Bear

Back in May we started hearing rumors that there was a Mother Black Bear and several bear cubs roaming in our general forest area.  We didn't really think too much of it until we were woken up by Maddie screaming that a big bear was going through our trash cans.  Jesse and I jumped out of bed and ran downstairs in disbelief.  Sure enough there was a large black bear digging through our trash within feet of our house.  We watched and filmed for awhile until she finally decided to leave, dragging one of our trash cans with her into the forest.

Later that day we had our community garage sale and Jesse came running over saying that he could see all three bear cubs and the mother bear in our back forest probably only 20 feet away.  Needless to say we had dozens and dozens of people come over that day and spy on our friendly neighborhood bears.

After that they seemed to get increasingly brave towards humans and the bear was found frequently digging through random trash cans and even near a barbeque looking for leftovers.

This prompted a mass e-mail to all of the residents in Sachem reminding us to not leave any food (trash) out and to keep our barbeques cleaned up.

After several weeks I was greatly relieved to find that the bears had moved on to bigger and better places.

Although it was fun to have such a large animal so close to us, I was more than ready for them to find another home.

Our Weekend with Papa

Whenever Papa comes in town, we know that there will always be fun things to do.  He is truly such a blessing in not only my childrens lives but mine also.  Some of the fun things we did with him included:

Riding around in his convertible

Fixing BOTH cars for hours a day (at least J and his Dad did this)

Hike to Boston Lot Lake/swim session with Daddy

I ran my 10 mile run with friends Saturday AM in prep for my half-marathon coming up!

Rocket Launchers in the yard

Moe's dinner for FHE

*the kids had ongoing argument/debates about who was sitting in Papa's convertible.  Robby told me that it went "so fast" and that he wants us to buy TWO of them.  I told him to talk to his father about this :)

 The water was freezing cold at Boston Lot Lake when we went swimming.  I did wear a bathing suit but after sticking one toe in the water, I decided to sit on my towel and soak up the sun rays.  My kids were a bit braver and with their Daddy's "help" {aka: pulling them out in the water with him} they all got in.  Eli was not too pleased to be stuck in the cold water and immediately voiced his concerns.....with lots of alligator tears and pouting.

We can't wait to spend more time with Papa (and the rest of the grandparents) coming up the end of May!!

Silly

Just so I don't forget, Miss M is pretty darn silly with a capital S.  On Easter I was trying so hard to capture a pretty image of Maddie in her new pink, frilly dress and all she wanted to do was make faces and strike funny poses.  Here are some of the many outtakes on our little photograpy session

These Days

As crazy as my kids can sometimes make me feel, they also provide an unbelievable amount of entertainment to my life.  I am constantly laughing at the ridiculously cute comments that my little E throws at me, or the sassy eye rolls and hilariously dramatic expressions that Miss M comes up with, or the intense excitement that Robby portrays as he tells me about his "totally awesome new tricks on his bike".  It makes me sad when I forget to write down these cute little phrases they tell me.  In the moment I tell myself to write them down, then the next day I think "I will never forget what he/she said", and finally several weeks later I can no longer exactly remember what was said.  In an effort to improve my severely lacking long-term memory, here is my most recent comments from our little Toronto clan:

Robby:

"Mom, for your birthday we are getting you something EVEN more special than presents......we are throwing you a surprise birthday party!"  ---oh really buddy :)

"This is completely ridiculous" (when asked to clean his room)

"Your just no fun anymore" (his new common phrase when he gets disciplined or doesn't like what I am asking him to do....I will TOTALLY take this one any day over being called stupid like before!)

"Mom, I looked down when I was in the bathroom and realized I have a REALLY big willy--(in reference to his boy parts).  Isn't that awesome?!".......me: "uh, sure that's great"

"If there were a hundred sornadoes (tornadoes) and water spouts, it would vacuum Jesus right out of heaven"

"Mom, smile really big, I want to take your picture so that I can always remember what you look like when you die"....wow, you are really making me feel young buddy

R makes me smile every time I hear him pronounce "lets" as "yets"......Mom, yets go to the store right away :)

"I have a one hundred appetite" --his explanation for why he is always so hungry

"Mom, I'm not mad at you I'm just disappointed because...."

 like I"ve always said.....I have a pretty cool five year old!

Robby outside during March's "mud season"-----YUCK

Eli:

"I need my helmet on ALWAYS so I protect my head"  (his rationale for keeping his new Spiderman helmet on literally all day)

"My eye is not hurt, it just has purple color on it" (when asked if his black eye still hurts)

"I'm not a baby big boy...I am a little big boy"----in response to Robby telling him he's not big enough to do something

"Mom, I'm not a 'Jose', I'm just an Eli"---when I tell him "No-way Jose"

 

 the boys were spinning each other on the office chair and Eli kept telling Robby to go "faster and faster".....this was the end result :(

 *We had some seriously fantastic weather for one week in March with highs in the 80's; defninitely didn't last but we sure enjoyed that week with multiple play dates at the park*

Maddie:

"this day is the worst day of my life" (when Robby tattled on her ladybug she had hidden in her room and I made her take it outside)

"You would be the best Mommy ever if you bought us all the ice cream and treats we wanted"

"I'm pretty sure I was the cutest girl at church today.....now if only I could have some of your make up Mom"---silly girl 

--Maddie's favorite song right now is Taio Cruz's "Dynamite", it cracks me up when I watch her singing and dancing to this song.

"Mom, I feel like I'm being tortured and am your servant"--while working on her chores.....me: "so does this mean I am your servant every other day because I am constantly doing chores around the house"....Maddie: "I guess so" (with a smirk on her face)

 picture of my "servant girl" and our turtle power boy.....what is Robby doing? Why, laying on his bedroom floor because he is "just too tired" LOL

 My super cool first grader; always rocking her very own style!

 Maddie is in love with her new purple sneakers that she got from the Easter bunny

--our little gymnasti post-meet (intersquad).  She had a lot of fun and did really great

A few days ago our neighbor's Huskie, Granite, got "fixed" and has been wearing the "collar of shame" since then.  When Maddie came and saw Granite she asked the owner what happened.  He said "Oh, he got fixed and will be wearing this for the next week or so."  Maddie in return said "I need to go over and give Granite a hug and tell him I'm sorry that he has ticks".....LOL

Easter Twenty Twelve

I hate to admit it, but I think I get lazier and lazier with each passing Holiday. I have turned almost into a grinch and tend to not want to put any effort into decorating, celebrating, and doing over the top activities.  It's a good thing we have family that sends us fun holiday crafts, snacks, and games to play otherwise I might have completely bypassed Easter this year (other than the fact that I DO have a child that remembers each and every holiday and reminds the other two as well).  Easter this year was no exception to this general rule of laziness that I have going on.  I swore that I would bake roll out cookies and stamp them into fun spring shapes, make fun Easter cupcakes, go on multiple egg hunts, hide baskets with a fun riddle to locate them, and decorate hard boiled eggs.  Did any of this get done?  Not a chance.  Somehow the week went by way too fast and all of a sudden I had Saturday evening breathing down my neck.  I finally went to the store the night before Easter after all kids were nestled in their beds, got home around 10:15pm and was so exhausted I fell asleep on the couch.  When I woke up, I realized with a start that it was already 1:30 in the morning and nothing had been done.  I hurriedly threw together our Easter arrangement and dumped each basket in a random spot in our house.  Then it was off to bed for me, at least until Jesse got home from his trip to NYC at 2:30 am which meant I was up for another 45 minutes or so.  Let's just say the Sunday morning came way too quickly for us.  I was too tired to shoot any pictures of Easter basket discoveries or any of that nonsense.  In fact, I completely spaced taking a few pictures of our Easter outfits before church. 

On the way to church we looked back and Eli threw up all over his clothes while driving down the freeway.  He had been a tad bit questionable in the few minutes before we climbed in the car and clearly a jostling ride didn't help things at all.  Jesse dropped me and the older two kidlets off and then headed back home with mr E.  We had a pretty enjoyable time at church and I have to admit that Robby and Maddie behaved almost as good as I can imagine.  When we returned home, Eli greeted me by throwing up all over my brand new dress :)  What a way to be welcomed home. 

Although I never actually hid all the Easter eggs that were stuffed full of candy and money, I think the kids were sufficiently satisfied with the supply of treats in their baskets.  And Eli love love loves his new Spiderman bike from the Easter Bunny as well.

We did attend our church's Easter egg Hunt Saturday during the day and the children had a grand time collecting their 18 eggs and then looking through their spoils of the day.  It was quite a pleasant day to be outdoors and Eli was even able to wear his beloved Cars flip flops to the event :) 

The most 'normal' picture of Maddie in her Easter dress.  I need to post the outtakes of this endeavor to truly portray how silly our little girl is. 

Robby looking handsome in his Easter suit (never mind the fact that he quickly ditched his shoes after church) 

 Eli in heaven with his new bike and helmet

My Birthday

This year has been a hard one for me in regards to my BIG day.  Even though my life is far from care-free due to being married for almost an entire decade and mothering three little ones, I have always felt like I fit into the "younger group" of adulhood.  For the first time I am being forced to come to terms with the fact that I am now in the 30's group instead of the girls in their 20's. In some ways I haven't really felt young in a very long time (since Robby was born five years ago), but nevertheless I could still claim I was young in theory.  Now all of a sudden in my head I no longer sound like some "young thing" anymore. 

 Since I moved to New Hampshire in August, I have felt a renewed sense of young as I have celebrated multiple friends hitting thirty right alongside with me (and some have already proudly marched through this phase of life several years prior).  I feel like we are all still young at heart when we get together for girls nights; we can laugh hysterically at the ridiculous things that happen in small towns, share funny stories about our kids and hubbies, as well as enjoy "teeny bopper" movies while the husbands stay home with the children.  So of course I should have known that these friends would not let my birthday pass by without making sure I experienced a special evening out.  My goodness, did they ever deliver.  They threw me a surprise party that was veiled as a "Pinterest Party" the night before my actual birthday.  I walked into it excited to have a night out with friends with my official Pinterest fruit pizza in hand, only to realize that these girls had gone ALL out and decorated the community center with balloons, banners, cake, yummy treats, and the BEST coconut lime slushes all color coordinated in typical, perfect Maren fashion.  I was shocked and surprised and immediately gratified to know what great friends I have made here.  I truly feel so lucky to have gotten to know all these women over the past nine months and I am sure happy they will all be sticking around with us for another year longer!

 From left to right: Catherine Pyfer, Maren Layton, Kristie Barlow, Liz Igoe, Tiffany (me), Michelle Holbrook, Jen Fogarty, Ashley Kostle, Brittany, Andrea Dance

LOVE THESE GIRLS!!!

On my actual birthday I woke up and immediately joined several friends on the first of our "long runs" as we have begun to train for a half-marathon that will be coming up in middle May.  It was the perfect morning to go on a run and the first time I have ever really run without my Ipod blaring in my ears.  I have never realized how fulfilling it can be to just visit with friends while we go on a relaxing run together.  All in all, it brought out my running bug in full force and further motivated me to keep on training hard.  When I returned home, Jesse and the kids had decorated our front porch and downstairs with banners, streamers, and balloons.  The children were so excited to yell "Surprise....Happy Birthday Mommy" when I entered our house.  In came another influx of love into my heart.  In that moment, nothing could take away from the swelling in my heart of love.  I felt so loved and needed by my family.  And in that instant I was reminded of how close the five of us have gotten, since moving far away from our extended family and for that I am grateful. 

The presents soon followed and included new running clothes and shoes, and a brand new NINJA blender.  I have thoroughly enjoyed preparing tons of smoothies since then, anywhere from healthy green smoothies to ice cream infused fruit treats.  Not to mention how much better my feet feel in my new shoes; I can almost feel a palpable difference between running in old shoes and new ones.  The only downer to my birthday was that immediately following our "surprise party" I started to feel somewhat sick to my stomach, achy, and had some lovely GI issues.  I pretty much felt under the weather the rest of the day, that then translated into the whole weekend.....yuck. Jesse was so great with taking care of me, and allowing me to rest on the couch while we watched General Conference.  Even though he had to leave later that evening for Priesthood session, I still felt like it was a great day for me.

I have to admit that I am kind of a nerd when it comes to birthdays, including my own.  I look forward them with little child excitement and this year did not disappoint.  Although I cannot wait to be showered with more love next year on my birthday, I can wait awhile before tacking another year onto my age :)

Today

I have found out that there are two main things that must be incorporated into my daily life, in order for me to be happy.  The first is sleep (not a ton, at least 6.5 hours and not waking up until 7am), and the second is working out (not necessarily on a daily basis, but definitely at least 3-4 times a week).  I discovered just how important the second item on that list was this winter when I went through a monotonous winter filled with being cooped inside and snow/icy weather.  I ate my way through those days and came up feeling frumpy and blah.  About three weeks ago, I decided that a change was needed and registered for a 5K race.  Then I traded my pajamas and slippers for running gear and sneakers and out I headed.  I can safely say I haven't been happier in quite awhile and feel so much more energetic (like my old self).

Today was a really good day.  I was able to sleep well and go running this afternoon.  After surviving the first two semesters of J's school which included long days of classes and group projects and long nights full of studying and homework, I can confidently say I LOVE the third and final semester of this year.  He is home more, less stressed and able to help around the house like before.  He is really trying to be supporting of me training for my upcoming race in May (half-marathon....yikes).  Today he proudly announced that he felt pretty caught up with his studies and that I could go running if I wanted.  The internal debate lasted less than a second and I was out the door in a flash.  I feel like I am slowly returning to previous running shape and my lungs are getting stronger with each run.  Now I just need to learn how to tackle hills.....

Some other things that made today such a great day include:

*watching Robby at gymnastics this morning
*shopping at BJ's with my boys
*having Maddie proudly announce that there are only FOUR days until MY birthday (and yes I have trained her well)
*Going running
*Date night with Catherine to the movie theaters to see Hunger Games! (loved it)
*coming home to a clean kitchen with children nestled in their beds
*and last but not least, watching my boys play for HOURS with their new swim goggles on.....seriously was one of the cutest things ever :)

Shamrock Shuffle

This year for St. Patricks Day I headed out to the Lebanon green and ran a fun 5K race with some of my good friends here in New Hampshire.  It was the perfect race to participate in after a long running hiatus this winter.  It sort of kick started my workouts again and got me motivated to register for Half-Marathon that I am doing in May....yikes.  We all wore fun festive socks that Maren picked up from her Target trip and off we went.  I didn't end up running side by side with any of the girls but had a great time and was pleased to even have Jesse and the kids come at the end.  My time wasn't great (approx 30 minutes), but I was pleased to finally be out there running again!

*and Maren was amazing running at 31 weeks pregnant!!! She is sort of my hero :)

 Tiffany, Maren, Michelle, Ashley, and Kristie

 Me after the race with my "bigger two kids"---that is somehow how I seem to refer to Maddie and Robby when I am talking about my children :)

Maren, Tiffany, and Michelle

*I am seriously so lucky to have been blessed with such good friends that are living the same life as us right now*

Winter with Papa

My kids have been lucky enough to have their Papa come out multiple times to visit us.  Every time he comes they have so much fun together; this time did not disappoint.  Although he was only here for a few days, they built snowmen, went sledding, had a hot chocolate stand, cuddled, etc.  Thanks so much for all the time and attention you give to our children Papa......I know that they won't forget this.  XOXO

 Maddie is obsessed with food/drink stands where she earns money and is constantly come up with new ways to do this.  This winter she decided that she would do a hot chocolate stand to warm everyone up.  She made her sign, dragged the kid table to the corner by our house, pulled out a change jar, styrofoam cups, and lukewarm-semi watery hot chocolate.  Unfortunately there weren't too many customers lurking around to buy off of her, however she was excited that our neighbors the Dance's came outside and each bought a cup from her. 

 Eli was excited to get his own cup of cocoa and even sat out by Maddie for part of the time and helped "sell" with her

 Our poor pitiful snowman.  The crazy part is that this is literally the ONLY snowman that we made this year.  I guess we are officially Arizona wimps when it comes to the snow.  We have promised ourselves that next year there will be many more snowmen built.

 Papa was a trouper and slid down the hill over and over without any snow pants on.