Family

There are many definitions of what a family is. In our own lives, we have many types of family: our little family of four, our extended families, families we've adopted ourselves in to (thanks Momma Marilyn), and ward (church) families. Yesterday, while at church, we saw a true example of ward family. Troy took Peyton with him to Elders Quorum for the 3rd hour of church while I was in primary. We've let Peyton wander a bit because it's either that or SCREAM. I guess she wandered out of Troy's classroom and after a "few" minutes (Troy gets the good dad award) he wasn't quite sure where she was and started roaming the halls to find her. Turns out she went to the High Priest class that was being held in the chapel, walked to the front, climbed up on Brother Tomlinson's lap and went to sleep. There are so many odd things about this, first, she doesn't know Brother Tomlinson. I think he is a very nice man, I worked with him on the activity we did for Christmas last year, but that's about all I know about him. Second, Peyton very, very, very rarely falls asleep while ANYONE is holding her. Turns out Brother Tomlinson didn't know who's kid it was, but she wanted up and he was happy to oblige! After class was over, Troy went to retrieve his daughter and all was well. Peyton was happily rested so that she didn't have to go home and take a nap! It's nice to have such wonderful people that I can trust with my children and who take us in!

Happy Birthday Sarah!

On Wednesday, we had the fun of celebrating my friend Sarah's birthday with her. After dropping the girls off at preschool, I went with Sarah to get our eyebrows threaded. She'd told me about it before and I wanted to try it out because Troy is ALWAYS complaining about my eyebrows and my good friend Reagan isn't living in my house, or even the same state, to keep them properly tweezed! It was at this little Indian place in Kent and it was only $6. It totally hurt, but it was well worth it, you should check out our eyebrows! After eyebrows, we ran to Target where Sarah needed some essentials, it's always fun to have a fun to wander on errands with. We picked the girls up from school and then headed to lunch at the Black Diamond Bakery. We had a yummy lunch and huge, messy, bright yellow cookies. After lunch we headed home for some afternoon naps. A couple hours later, Jake and Sarah picked us up for a pre-Phantom dinner at The Palomino in Seattle. The food was really good and it was a fun "adult" restaurant. Dinner is always more pleasant when you don't have to wrestle kids!After getting turned around a few times, we had just enough time to walk a few blocks to the Paramount, we arrived with only minutes to spare. Phantom was amazing of course. Having seen the show before, I feel I was able to relax and enjoy the music. Unfortunately we had a disruptive guy sitting by us, so I wasn't too relaxed. Seriously, no one should have to sit next to a drunk man during a musical. Aside from that the music was wonderful and the theater was beautiful!
While we were walking back to the car we passed Cheesecake Factory and decided that we needed to stop in for a quick slice of cheesecake. Your birthday only comes once a year so we needed to celebrate every minute possible. The celebrating ended at midnight when I felt really bad for keeping my babysitter out so late. Seminary didn't start until 6:15am. Sorry Melissa!! It was such a great day, thanks Sarah for letting us be a part of your celebration!!!

Preschool - At Last!

Ryan FINALLY had her first day of preschool. School actually started while we were in Hawaii and then she was going to have her first day on Monday. Unfortunately due to her ear infection, she got to go to the doctor instead. And now, school is canceled tomorrow, but at least she got one day in. I guess we're starting out slow!
Ryan seems to really like Ms. Camilla. Each week they are working on a new letter and this week it is A. When I got there to pick her up after school, she was still very busy working on her art project. She had colored a couple of astronauts and then cut them out and very carefully glued them on black paper. She was just finishing gluing when I arrived and still needed to put her stars on the paper. We did a few and then brought the rest home and finished them last night.
Ryan is so excited to learn and be a big girl going to school. I'm so excited for this new phase in her life and can't wait to see all the fun things she learns.

Hawaii - Part 2

Monday brought about a LAZY day at the pool. Peyton went down for an early nap and Ryan and I went down to the pool. She played at the pirate ship from probably 9am until 3:30pm. She made friends with a couple of little girls and they had fun running around and swimming all day. We went down to Lahaina and wandered through the shops and had some pizza. By the end of the nights, both girls were having complete meltdowns. Peyton slept so horribly that night that none of us got much sleep!
Tuesday was a day for napping. Peyton got up so early that she had to take a nap by 8am. After some cartoons we headed down to the pool and in less than an hour Ryan had her meltdown and we yanked her out and back to the room for a nap. Peyton and I spent some quality time together at the pirate ship. After a while, we headed back to the room for some lunch and Peyton's nap. Because both girls were sleeping, Troy and I decided to nap too! In the evening we took some pictures on the beach and had dinner at Hula Grill. Peyton screamed so much that a couple asked to be moved to a further table, a lady gave her a tin of mints to shake, and a couple offered to babysit for a day. Peyton even managed to attack herself with a red marker. Afterwards, the girls played on the grass and some Japanese tried to adopt Peyton. Wednesday was another lazy day at the pool. We were downstairs by 9am and hung out ALL day. When Ryan wasn't in the pool she was wearing her Giraffe print cover-up. She always kept the hood up and everyone that would pass her was cracking up! Later in the afternoon we wandered down the way to walk through the Hyatt. Peyton and Ryan loved the penguins and then sitting on some camel sculptures. We ordered some kabobs for dinner, and had a bbq. We finally came back up to our room at 8pm. We quickly bathed the girls and threw them in bed. Troy started out the day being completely bored and by the time we were sitting eating dinner, he was talking about what a fun day it was.Thursday started out slow. The girls and I took a walk to a nearby cafe to get some breakfast. We had REALLY good breakfast wraps and french toast. We were even nice enough to bring some back for Troy. We eventually made it down to the pool and hung out for a couple of hours. We got some tattoos and shaved ice. We then headed to Lahaina for some wandering. Monday night when we were on the bus there was a girl with a beautiful yellow hibiscus in her hair. It was so beautiful that I had to ask her if it was real. She said it wasn't, it was handmade from clay and she had gotten it from a little stand in some little shopping area. She said it was nearby Bubba Gumps, but that was all I had to go on. After an early dinner at Bubba Gumps, I headed out on the lookout. I finally found the little stand. The clips were GORGEOUS! Not covered in my usual bling, but something so pretty! I couldn't help myself that I had to buy two. After some chatting, we found out the couple who made the flowers was LDS. I was even more happy to be supporting a church family. The couple was so sweet that the man even threw in a plumeria clip. We slowly wandered our way back to Kaanapali and stopped in at Whaler's Village for some ice cream. Poor Peyton had been burning up all evening so we got her some gatorade and tylenol. Once we got back to our room and had her showered, she seemed to be feeling a little better and had perked up quite a bit.Friday morning Troy went off for a little scuba dive off the beach. The girls and I spent some time playing at the pool. When Troy returned, we headed upstairs for some lunch and Peyton's nap. Troy and Ryan went down to the beach to boogieboard. When Peyton woke up, we headed down to meet them. They were having so much fun and Ryan had a rash to match mine from surfing! After playing in the sand and water for a while, we headed up to "rinse off" in the pool! We played for so long that it was way past dinner time by the time we were ready to find some food. We finally headed over to a nearby Italian place, it was fine, but totally over-priced. After dinner we had a nice walk back to the resort and then everyone CRASHED!Saturday was our last day of fun. I took my turn diving while Troy and the girls played in the sand. It was kinda fun going off the beach because Ryan has never seen us dive. We always go off and get on a boat. This time she got to stand on the beach and wave to me as I was swimming off. The dive was nice. It was just me and the instructor and it was very relaxing. We saw a ton of fish and some beautiful coral. We saw a couple of eels and even an octopus. I've only seen octopus at the aquarium so it was cool to touch it and watch it ink. As soon as my head came up out of the water, Ryan was yelling hi to me and waving excitedly. After shedding all my dive equipment, we spent some more time playing on the beach. We then headed back up to the resort to get some lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging by the pool. There was a gorgeous sunset that night. For dinner we went to a local restaurant, Aloha Mixed Plate. They have all the typical Hawaiian luau foods without the prices! It was CHEAP and probably the best meal we had on the island! We had our kalua pig and lava flows! After dinner we wandered downtown enjoying our last moments of vacation (like the scary, big haired man)!Sunday was a LONG day. The flight was fine and Peyton was much better coming home than she was going, but still not very good! We got in about 25 minutes early and our good friend Jake came to pick us up. By the time we got home, everyone was exhausted and Ryan was complaining about her ear hurting. When we arrived at the house, we discovered we were LOCKED OUT! It was 10:30 at night and we couldn't get in our own home. Our keys were locked in our car. After knocking on my wonderful neighbors door at 11pm, they gave us a wire hanger and Jake was able to break into the Tahoe to get the keys. We were finally inside by almost midnight! Ryan was feeling miserable. The poor thing was running a fever and crying, she just wanted to go to bed. We threw both girls pjs on and threw them in bed.
Monday morning I made Ryan a doctor appointment to discover she had a really really bad outer ear infection. I guess that's what 14 days of playing in the water will do to you!
This was the BEST vacation. What more can you ask for, a wonder family, a loving husband, beautiful weather, a gorgeous resort, and 14 relaxing days! Thanks honey for providing this wonderful opportunity for us! I love you!

Hawaii - Part 1

We arrived here in Maui on Sunday afternoon and have been having a great time. The plane ride here was tough. We were seated on the last row of the airplane, next to the bathroom. Aside from all the people who come and stand there and lean on you, you get to also listen to the toilet flush CONSTANTLY. To make matters worse, the flight attendants were HUGE! Every time the lady would come by she would ram into me. Once again, to make matters worse, the two 30 minute naps we got Peyton to take were rudely halted when she would knock Peyton's head or foot. I'm not a small person, but I believe that if you can't fit up and down the aisle of the airplane, you probably shouldn't be a flight attendant. That's my politically incorrect opinion! After we couldn't fit any more into our car, we headed off to our resort. We got to the resort and gotOnce we got here, we quickly got our bags and we got our car. We headed with the rest of the tourists to the Costco across the street from the airport and loaded up on a few groceries. Since checked in. We headed upstairs, threw on our swimsuits, and headed out to the pool. I seriously LOVE this place. It makes me wonder why we haven't been back here for 4 1/2 years. Yes we've been to a lot of other great places, but come on, this is MAUI!!My parents arrived later in the afternoon and we had a great time swimming and enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather. Everyday has been a lot of the same. We've been swimming and Ryan would be happy to sit at the pirate ship all day long. She makes friends with any little kid she can and pretends all day long.Ryan and I learned to make leis down at the shopping center nearby. The lady who taught was kinda crazy, but in the end we had a great time. Ryan made a beautiful Plumeria and Lavender crown for her head and I got to make a beautiful necklace. The fresh flowers don't last long, but they're fun while they do.We went snorkeling at black rock down the way. We saw lots of fish and my parents even saw a big sea turtle. By the time we got back out, the turtle was gone. The snorkeling didn't seem like as much work now that I've been scuba diving.Thursday my dad and Troy took a surfing lesson in the morning. They both got up really quick and did a great job. My dad has been talking about surfing for years so it was fun to be around when he finally did it! Who knows, maybe I'll go out one morning and take a lesson!
Friday we wanted to go scuba diving, but the South Swell (whatever that is!) came in and it churns up the water and makes for not very good diving. So then, we planned to go snorkeling down at black rock again and by the time we walked all the way down there, we realized the waves were HUGE and the water was really strong. Everyone was standing on the beach staring out at the ocean and I kept wondering what they were staring at. We walked down the sand to the water and realized they were watching the waves. There were warning signs all up and down the beach to not enter the water because of the strong water. There's no telling how long it will last, so we'll see what the next week brings for diving.After spending all day at the pool, we took the bus to Lahaina to wander around. My parents wanted to take pictures at the Parrot man. The six of us took pictures with five beautiful birds. I held Peyton in hopes of not having to hold a bird, but "unfortunately" I got one on my HEAD instead. When the guy put the bird on my head, Peyton started to freak, but luckily she got it under control. Ryan got to hold a little green bird named Peanut. Ryan was standing next to Peyton and at first the bird wasn't to happy to be close to Peyton, but luckily she warmed up to it and Ryan had a great time holding this beautiful bird. We got some great pictures and we go back tomorrow to pick up the prints. When we were done we took a few pics of Ryan alone with Peanut. We then got kisses from Tango, the bird Troy was holding. Ryan couldn't get enough and Peyton even got one!Saturday morning, Troy woke me up bright and early and told me that I needed to get down to the surfing lessons. I hurried down and there were only three of us in a lesson. I got up quickly and had a GREAT time! It was easier than I thought, but it was also much easier with a professional teaching me and pushing me into the waves. Seriously, it was so much fun! The current was really strong and I had to paddle long and hard to get to the instructor. By the time I got up and rode the wave in, I then had to spend forever paddling back out. I got some serious rash on the inside of my elbows and on my knees. By yesterday afternoon, I thought my arms were literally going to fall off. I couldn't even carry Peyton around. When I woke up today my arms just felt like they were really sore from working out and it also spread to my legs and abs.In the afternoon, we got a car and drove up to the Iao Needle in one of the state parks. It was gorgeous and just like a rain forest. We "hiked" around a bit and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. Afterwards we went over to Kihei and had dinner at an old-fashioned diner where they had a little classic car show going on for my dad. We even went down the road and walked on a beach that had some tide pools. Unfortunately there was nothing in them.Today, Sunday, we woke up early, got checked out of our room so that we could move to the next room and went to church. My children are HORRIBLE in church. Peyton screams the whole time and Ryan won't sit still and be quiet. Peyton finally fell asleep during Sacrament Meeting, but she would only stay asleep if Troy was holding her in the back of the chapel. Ryan refused to go to Primary, so we left my parents to finish out church and went for a drive. We drove back by some places we went on our honeymoon. After church, we drove over to Kiehi and had Maui Tacos for lunch and then over to Wailea to wander around. We wandered through the Grand Wailea Resort and it is probably the most gorgeous place EVER. If I was getting married on the beach, it would be there!My parents leave tomorrow for Kauai and we are going to spend some more time at the beach and pool here on Maui. Another week in Paradise!
We're having a great time and will keep you posted on what else is to come!!!