Our trip to Hawaii, Part I

Our family reunion in Kauai, Hawaii was a couple of years in the making and a couple of weeks too short. Next time (optimism!) we are staying at least 10 days.

It was fun to be together as a family and see the ones who live far away and we rarely see. Our days were filled with beach time, fresh tropical fruit and family dinners. 

I wondered how the long flight (with layovers) would go, but the kids did amazingly well and we miraculously had meltdown-free plane rides. The hard part was coming home. Our week went by at lightning speed and we couldn't believe it was already time to leave. Ellie is trying to figure out what to do without her best-friend cousin by her side at all times and Clay and I are having beach culture withdrawals. 

Here is the first round of pictures from the trip:

On our way to the resort, we drove through this beautiful tree-lined road. Kauai had me at "hello."

 This is where we stayed. Thanks for the hook-up, Mike and Jen! It was awesome. 

(Partial) family pic. Why am I awkwardly holding my bag over my skirt? Oh, because Camden had the blowout of the century and it ended up as a basketball-sized spot on my skirt. Moving on.

On our way to the beach, we stopped to take pictures of these two admiring their
Plumerias and Hibiscus flowers.

So happy to be at the beach. 

Ellie started out being a little timid in the water . . . 

But in no time, she was fearless. She is the small speck next to her cousin in the red hat.

The little man was a fan of the beach too and took long naps in his little sun hut. 

We went to a couple of lookouts. This one was good, but just wait for the next one . . . 

These two, of course, were inseparable the entire trip. Whenever we went back to our own units, They would constantly ask where the other one was. Life was a breeze with these two entertaining each other and Camden being happy as a Hawaiian clam. Thus the vacation withdrawal. :) 

This was the most beautiful view I have ever seen -- just as my brother-in-law promised. Kauai has some breathtaking scenery. No wonder they filmed Jurassic Park and Pirates there!

 I'll leave you with this Hawaiian sunset until the next (and last) round of pics.

The Fair

 

When Clay's dad (who works for the state agriculture department) handed us our tickets to the State Fair, we were more than a little excited. It is one of our favorite annual traditions.

Here we are hickin' it up in 2011, 2010 and 2009.

 

 

All ready for the fair:

This lovely lady joined us too. It was fun to be part of her first ever state fair experience.

I'm pretty sure it didn't disappoint.

This year, they had a fun little farm village just for kids. It was so cute. They had a bunch of mini barns with activities in each one where the kid had to do a farm chore like shear a sheap, milk a cow and plant seeds. When they were done, they earned a pretend dollar to spend at a little store. Ellie loved handing her hard-earned dollar to the cashier in exchange for some "Cars" fruit snacks.

Here are our future FFA members. Camden is still getting used to the idea.

Then it was time for the rides. After the carousel, Ellie wanted to go in a fun house. Fun was a huge overstatement and a complete waste of our $3. We basically walked up some stairs then slid down a slide. I was laughing at how lame it was. But Ellie wanted to do it again, of course!

Little guy did a lot of this:

 

Haley and I had to pose by the Sideshow. So carnivalesque. Clay and I actually went into it a few years ago and were digusted by the real two headed cow, the albino turtle, etc.

It was actually pretty sad. Lots of mutated animals in inhumane conditions.

 

 

 

We had to hit the animal barns. The friendly goats are always a favorite.



 

All Haley wanted was a kiss.

 

The highlight of the fair for Ellie is by far the pony ride. I love that we have a picture of her pony-riding from the time she was not even 1 year old and that the tradition will continue until she is too big to ride a pony.

 

Love this not-so-little-anymore lady.

 

We had to take a shot of Clay by this sign, obviously.

Other fair highlights included our find-the-creepiest-carnie contest (sorry he's not pictured), checking out the produce contest and the live bee colony. If we had more time, we would have seen the butter sculpture and gotten a funnel cake. Next year! 

 

Man, we love the fair.

Where else can you catch a real cowboy sharing stories from the farm with strangers?

Blessed.

Today, we blessed our little Camden J. 

The blessing was so powerful. It confirmed to me what a special little spirit we have in our home and that he is going to do great things. 

I am so grateful for Clay and the incredible husband and father he is.

Family and a few close friends joined us for brunch at a park after the blessing. It was so good to be with them (and eat yummy food). 

I am overwhelmed with love and gratitude for my little family today.

Two little monkeys

 

I am still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I have two children.

Honestly, a lot of the time I feel like I am just a kid myself.

 

The transition to two has had some ups and downs, but mostly ups, aside from the week when Ellie completely stopped napping, which happened to also be the week I had committed to working a lot. Naps are mostly back, and I am a happy mama.

 

Our mornings can be more than a little hectic because Ellie is so energetic and wants to play, play, play right when Camden wants to eat, eat, eat, so she gets sad about the attention diversion.

 

I am still learning to just chill out when Camden is crying. It is such a sad cry! I mean, look at that frown in the picture above. Add some genuine whimpers and I am ready to give the boy anything he wants. Luckily, all he usually asks for is milk.

 

But there are moments when I feel like we are adjusting well.

I'll tell you what has made a world of difference for us: Having a baby in the summer.

Being able to get out a lot and enjoy the sunshine has been great. Like, I'm-going-to-try-and-have the-rest-of-my-babies-in-warm-weather great.

 

As for these two as siblings, they are so cute. Ellie really loves Camden. When he is crying she says things like, "Mom, baby is crying because you left him alone. Don't do that." or, "Can you go talk to Camden and make him happy?" or she plugs here ears and says, "I want him to be happy." The best is when she runs to his side and says, "I'm here, I'm here buddy!" and shares her princesses with him and asks to hold him. She has said to me several times, "When I get older, I can have my own baby." She's only two and a half, but I already know she is going to be a good mom. And an incredible big sister.

Camden is such a sweet baby. He is generally pretty content and easily calmed, and his tummy troubles are getting better. I pulled out Ellie's baby calendar today and it was encouraging to see that she got better with sleep as each month passed, so I know Camden will too. He is SO smiley. If you can get him to make eye contact with you, he unleashes huge melt-your-heart grins and the ocassional squeal.

It's incredible to me how I can love two little people so much.

Tired Quotes

Extreme sleepiness can do crazy things to you. One of those things includes nonsense words coming out of your mouth at any given time. So, Clay and I started writing down the foolish things we catch each other saying. Here are just a few. Careful, some of these gems might catch on to the English language.

Clay: That was weedle.
(He started to say "weird," but we don't know what happened after that.)

Kim: Stop light, green light. Stop light, green light.
(I was showing Ellie a traffic light visual aid I was going to use in Sharing Time. Someone else needs to be teaching this kid.)

Kim: Where one might be?
(I was thinking too hard about where the closest burp cloth was to worry about the words exiting my mouth.)

Kim: Just throw it in the flender.
(This one popped out during an explanation to my sister on how to make yummy green smoothies. The mishap had something to do with flaxseed.)

Ellie: I want one like Piolet has!
(She morphed two of her cousins' names: Piper and Violet, then used it to refer to her cousin Ali. Apparently Clay and I aren't the only exhausted ones.)


I have a feeling there's gonna be a lot more where that came from. Is my brain going to get foggier with every kid I have?

Draper Days

One of the activities we look forward to every summer is Draper Days.

There is just something comforting about celebrating your hometown,

and all the activities for kids make it worthwhile.

Ellie had the time of her life, especially because her cousin Kate and her friend Beck were both there.

Ellie is a cowgirl at heart. She loooves pony rides.

What would a fair be without a little train ride?

After the fair, these two splashed around in the waterfall at grandma and grandpa's. So happy to be together.

When Katers comes to town

Ellie and her same-age cousin, Kate, are separated by the vast deserts of Arizona.

So when she comes to visit, Ellie is in pure heaven.

No wonder the first couple of weeks of our transition to kid no. 2 were freakishly easy.

(Times have a changed.)

Katers celebrated her 3rd birthday with a party at a children's gym.

We are totally stealing the idea for Ellie's 3rd.

It was a blast!

Ellie, Katers and baby Drew

These are just a couple of the activities each kid took turns doing.
They also did singing, dancing and playing with balls.

Hide and seek behind the mat

Check out Ellie's cheeser face. Classic.

I told the girls to make a silly face and that they did.

This girl likes to eat all the frosting and move on to the next cupcake. Oh and she eats butter by the spoonful too.

We brought one-week-old Camden along too. Apparently, he thought the party was a snoozer.