Family Pics

We had some family pictures taken the day before we left for Montana.

Here are a few of my favorites, which do you think I should have printed?

Life's a Beach

I know you are all missing my vacation updates, so here goes!

Since we didn't have transportation to church, we started the day out by making candy leis here at the resort. After our nice candy breakfast, we headed out to the beach. We just went out in front of the hotel and plopped ourselves down in the sand. The girls had fun playing in the sand and Troy and I read a bit. After a while, we coaxed Peyton out into the water for a little fun. She even willingly got onto the boogie board. Unfortunately she was sent tumbling in the waves after catching one a little too big for her! Too bad I didn't get a picture of that. It took a lot of convincing, but slowly I was able to get Ryan out into the water with the promise of just jumping in the waves with Mommy. Then we got her to lay on her boogie board so I could just pull her around. Not long later, she was cruising, catching every wave she could. I went back up to the sand and played with Peyt for a bit and Ryan made friends with another little girl down the way. When we decided to leave the beach, Ryan started complaining that she still wanted to "catch some waves". Ah, my surfer chick!

Everyone was hungry so I went about making sandwiches for lunch. Peyton wanted PB&J and while she was eating that I gave here a slice of cheese, next thing you know, she's opened her PB&J and put the cheese in it and put it back together. GROSS. She did eat the WHOLE thing.

We then decided to take a break from the sun so we headed on the bus to Lahaina to wander Front Street. We had some fun wandering in and out of some art galleries. While we were in one particular gallery we love, Peter Lik, Peyton decided she didn't need to wear her dress or shoes anymore. It didn't matter what I did, she would not put her dress back on. She at least had a cute flower in her hair!! It also showed how clean the beautiful wood floors were!

After we had all the fun we could on Front Street, we headed back on the bus over to Aloha Mixed Plate for some yummy Hawaiian food. This is our way of having Kalua Pork without having to go to a luau! We discovered this last year and it was one of our favorite restaurants. The food is cheap and good and it's next door to the Old Lahaina Luau, so you can enjoy some good music!

Another fun day!

A Little Healthy Competition

I'm taking a break from my vacation posting (because seriously we didn't do anything new yesterday, more pool/play time)!

Everyone knows that I was participating in a health competition throughout the summer. It was great. It lasted 10 weeks and helped me to lose over 12 pounds. I've decided to start this competition so that I can continue to improve myself and my health. Let me know if you're interested and feel free to pass the info along to anyone who might want to join. The last challenge had 40 people from across the country!

Feeling sluggish? Fat? Want to be healthier? Let’s work together, motivate each other, and have a little competition! I just finished a similar competition and loved it so much that I had to start this one so I could continue on a healthy path. It’s great motivation! Not only because you could win money, but you have to report your points weekly for everyone to see! You don’t want to look like a bum!

Here’s how it works: This contest is open to women only. All contestants will need to donate $20 bucks to the pot to be involved. There are 10 points to be earned each day, Monday through Saturday. Sunday is a free day, with no exceptions. The total you can earn in a week is 60 points. All points are to be emailed to Kim every Sunday and they will be posted by Monday on a blog (made specifically for this competition). For every day after Sunday that you send in your points, you will lose a point. So, make sure you email them over on Sunday!

Here is a breakdown of the points:
No Sugar – 1 point
No Unhealthy Snacks – 1 point
Healthy & Correctly Portioned Breakfast – 1 point
Healthy & Correctly Portioned Lunch – 1 point
Healthy & Correctly Portioned Dinner – 1 point
Take Multi-Vitamin – 1 point
No Food After 8:30 p.m. – 1 point
Exercise 45 minutes – 2 points
Drink 64 oz. Fluid (No Sugar!) – 1 point
Total = 10 points daily

You will also have 10 bonus points that can be used throughout the competition for those days where you are really struggling. You will need to report any bonus points used in your Sunday email. Any unused points will be added to your final score at the end!

There will be a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner. The first prize winner will get 50% of the money, 2nd place will get 30 %, and 3rd will get 20%. Everyone will get a healthier/sexier body!
The competition will start September 6th and will run for 10 weeks until November 14th. All money is due by September 2nd.

(if you want the info, leave a comment w/your email or some contact info and I'll give it to you.)

The blog I will set up is a place that everyone will be able to post to. Not only will you see everyone’s points posted there, but you can offer some suggestions on things working for you, recipes you love, motivation, thoughts, questions for the contestants, etc.

Pool Days

This is when Troy starts to get bored. We have literally spent the last two days at the pool ALL DAY LONG! However, this afternoon, Ryan was able to finally go on the "big" slide. I was talking to another family whose little boy had been going the whole trip and he is smaller than Ryan. So, we marched ourselves up to the slide, stood as big and tall as we could, and she PASSED!!!! She is so excited to have a wrist band just like all the big kids and she can do the slide when she is FIVE! Anyways, this is all very exciting to her, however, not so much for the two year old who isn't invited. Ryan kept going over and over, with myself and Troy joining her a few times. Peyton would jump off the side of the pool to Daddy, but that lost its appeal rather quickly after she realized what Ryan was doing. Oh well, someday! After a fun filled day, we hurried to catch the bus and headed down to Lahaina for some dinner. (What's with the eyes?)

We didn't see much before we had to catch the last bus, but we were able to walk through one of our favorite art galleries. We'll head back over again another day! P.S. This picture is for Jac!

Lazy Pool Day 3

We started out the morning with a little workout, then we hit the welcome breakfast for a healthy and delicious breakfast of muffins, pastries and orange juice. After breakfast, Troy went to join the group workout session and the girls and I headed to the pool for some fun. The girls had so much fun playing with all the kids and the toys. Ryan would spend all day at the pirate ship playing if we would just let her! Since we had to return the rental car by 2pm, Troy drove us over so Ryan and I could get our toes done. It wasn't the best pedicure I've ever had, but it is so much better than they started out!! Ryan got yellow toes with little white flowers to match her new "bikini". I know, I know, how immodest, but they were both so cheap and so cute, that we indulged our "little" girls! Besides, Ryan really needed a new suit and Peyton needed one that Troy could put on her that didn't take 10 tries. After returning the car, we came back to the resort, slathered on some more sunscreen and headed back to the pool. The girls swam and played and we happily read our books. Ryan loves to wear her snorkle and swim around. Since Ryan is STILL too small for the "big" slide (by less than an inch), we spent some time on the extremely, teeny, tiny slide! Peyton can't get enough of it. The three of them kept going over and over and over again. We finished off the night by grilling some steaks. We tried to go watch the movie out on the lawn, but since it's so windy, they had to have it inside and it was a really small room and both girls were tired. It's pretty pathetic when they are asking to go to bed!!!!

Big Beach

Day Two! Today we got up and rushed off to church. Us and the rest of our fellow tourists helped to increase the ward attendance at the Lahaina 1st ward. Parking was CRAZY with all of us invading. The girls were mostly good for Sacrament Meeting and Peyton made friends with the guy sitting next to her. At first I thought she'd be scared of him. He was definitely a local with his long hair, but sweet as can be. He kept pointing out characters in her books, turning them around so she could see them correctly, and he even started coloring Thumbelina with her. At one point he had closed his eyes and she turned to me and said, "Shh Mommy, he's sleeping!" Then she got very excited when he opened his eyes again. I thanked him after the meeting was over for entertaining my daughter, and he assured me it was the other way around.After church, we headed back to the resort for some lunch and then off to "Big Beach". Big beach is over on the South East side of the island, past Wailea. It's BIG! It's about 2/3 mile long and is a really wide beach, lots of room for anyone who wants to play. Only problem, the waves are CRAZY. Seriously, the shorebreak is very dangerous and will knock anything down. Troy took a few good spills, as well as Ryan. The girls loved playing in the sand and Troy loved playing in the water. I loved sitting in the sun and taking pictures of everything! We even found a little crab. Peyton had so much fun saying "crab" over and over and over again.After finishing at "Big Beach" we headed further along the road to the end. It ends out in the middle of the lava fields at the ocean. It's crazy to see.We then stopped in Wailea and walked around for a bit before heading to a favorite spot of ours for dinner, Maui Tacos. When we got back to the hotel, we jumped in the pool and hot tub before bringing the girls back to the room to crash. Fun times!

Hawaii Day 1

Well, since I'm a good 2 months behind in blogging, I figured I'd start where I'm at and then as I have time (or when we get home from vacation) I'll try to catch up!We arrived here in Maui yesterday for our annual 2 week vacation! Troy is very good to me!!! After our standard stops at Costco and Walmart, we finally arrived at our resort and got settled in. We even spent a little time at the pool.We all woke bright and early at 5:45am because of the 3 hour time difference! Since we have a car for the first couple days here, we decided to go ahead and take the drive to Hana. In all the times we've come to Maui, we had yet to make the drive. After a quick breakfast at a favorite spot of ours, we hit the road. We decided to drive all the way to the Seven Sacred Pools at the end and then slowly work our way back. I'm not sure how long it actually took, but it was quite a while! It's only 48 miles to the pools, but it's a lot of one lane bridges and turns so it takes FOREVER. We got to the pools and fortunately for us it was Free Fee day so we didn't have to pay the 10 bucks to get in. However, the majority of the park was under construction and no swiming was allowed due to the currents and dangerous water. Good thing we didn't pay!After a bit of hiking and a lot of mosquito bites, we got in the car and headed on our journey back. We then stopped at a beautiful water fall just off the road for a couple of pictures. Next stop was the blacksand beach. Ryan was so happy to finally be able to get in the water and play with her sand toys. After a bit of fun in the sun, we decided it was time to continue on. We stopped at a roadside stand for some ice cream and smoothies. We then tried to find the lava tube but by the time we got there it was closing. After another stop at yet another waterfall and a few more mosquitos (who would latch on to me the second I stepped out of the car), I was done.
We headed out of the rainforest and on to dinner at Mama's Fish House. This place is recommended each time we've been here, but we had yet to go so since we were in the area and it was dinner time, we splurged! It was a bit pricey, but the fish was outstanding. After we finally arrived back at the resort, we quickly got the girls ready for bed and it might have taken Ryan all of two seconds to fall asleep. It's hard to run and play all day and all night!
11 hours start to finish, Ryan has NO desire to do that again!!!
We'll see what adventures tomorrow holds.....