Hawaii in a Nutshell...finally

I would like to dedicate this post to those who made my 2 weeks in Hawaii possible.  First and foremost to my WONDERFUL hubby who works so hard and makes fun trips like this possible AND who took time off work to take care of the kids while I stayed in paradise. To LouAnne and Lindsay who took care of Reece for us while we were gone and to Torrey who courageously flew out to Utah to pick Reece up and then flew ALONE back to Denver with her.  To Mary and Roy who let Reecey hitch a ride home to Utah with them.  To Marilee and Adam who invited us to go in the first place and to Mom for giving all of us girls a week off!  It was AWESOME!!!!!!

So I know that its right after Christmas and I should be blogging about that but for posterity sake I need to blog Hawaii first.  Christmas/New Years will come next week!  So, here we go.  I'll try to keep the commentary to a minimum so you can all get through this fairly quickly!

For Thanksgiving we had the chance to go to Hawaii with my sister Marilee and her family, my parents and Marilee's in-laws, Greg and Marjane.  We took all the kids but Reecey, who went to Denver with Papa and LouLou!  A HUGE HUGE HUGE shout out and thanks you to Lou, Papa and Lindsay who took care of Reecey whilst we were away!  Love you guys and thank you thank you thank you!  So we were able to spend a week with the fam and then Greg and MJ, the dad's and kids all left and Mar, Mom and I were joined by Heather and Nicole for a lovely, relaxing GIRLS week!  So, without further delay here is the photo journal of Hawaii 2008!

WEEK 1

THE HOTEL

COUSINS

FAMILY

EXHAUSTION (notice how Jackson and Natalie are not in any of the following photos.  That is because those two can stay up FOREVER!!!!  They seriously are the last ones awake when everyone else is asleep.  Silly kids!)

BEAUTY

PEARL HARBOR

HANAMUA BAY

THANKSGIVING DINNER

A VISIT FROM A U.S. MARINE, MY COUSIN JORDAN (he's stationed in Hawaii and came for dinner)

AN ADULT NIGHT OUT TO JAMESON'S (we brought along a babysitter named Brigitte from Cardston so that's who the kids were with.  You may remember Bridge from the summer cabin pictures.  She's the best!)

OCEAN SWIMMING

POOL FUN

BEACH FUN

PEARL DIVING

BEST BUDDIES

DOLE PINAPPLE WHIP

We had such a fantastic week with the Christofferson's, Millers and Christofferson's.  It seriously was a dream come true for me to take my kids to Hawaii and I couldn't have done it without my hard working hubby and my sister who invited us to stay with them at their time share!  THANKS A TON GUYS!!!!!!!  It was a blast!!!!!!!

WEEK 2

MOM (isn't she cute?)

SISTERS and LEI'S

SILLINESS

POOL TIME  

okay, so I'm keeping the commentary to a minimum but this story must be told.  We were sitting by the pool on our second day and Nicole sat up and was just kind of looking around.  So I asked her what she was doing and she said she was trying to decide if she wanted to get in the pool, or flip over on her tummy, or sit for a while, or lay back the way she was.  After thinking about it for a moment I responded that I didn't know what she should do but wasn't it nice that that was the hardest decision she would have to make all day!  

BEACH TIME (if you look close you can see a surfer)

FOOD and LAVA FLOWS (I foolishly didn't take any pictures of Lava Flows but we did have them every day!  Also, please excuse that fly on the hamburger.  I didn't know it was there but I do think its HILARIOUS!)

SPA TREATMENTS (those are my freshly pedicured toes!)

SHOPPING

AND FINALLY...

SUNSETS!

So that about sums it up.

ALOHA

Couldn't Forget This One!

The following conversation took place in the car today between Brady and I...as we passed a field with sheep in it.

B:  Mom, sheep were there when Jesus was borned.

J:  (thrilled that he's actually retained something about the Christmas Story)  I know!  There were sheep there when Jesus was born huh?

B:  Yep.  That must be his home back there! (referring of course to the house next to the field where the sheep were!) 

Hahahahahahahahaha!

BTW--I'm very discouraged that no one is either looking at my blog anymore or not commenting on my blog anymore.  WTH????  

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

I got this idea from my cousin's blog and am copying it...even though she didn't officially tag me!

On the Twelfth day of Christmas my sweet life gave to me...

TWELVE hugs and kisses

ELEVEN  loads of laundry

TEN pounds to lose

NINE batches of cookies

EIGHT  baked potatoes (for YW)

SEVEN rooms to clean

SIX Christmas Movies

FIVE stacks of unaddressed Christmas Cards!

FOUR happy kids

THREE  days of snow

TWO bums to wipe

AND A HOUSE FULL OF CHAOS THIS YEAR!!!!!!

TAG to anyone who want to!!!!  Now I really have to go clean my house!

Why we Love Daddy's

We love daddy's because Daddy's turn Cup 'O Noodles/Ramen for dinner into...

Asian Noodle Night

And that is just one of the many reasons why

WE LOVE DADDY'S!

I'm Back...

from our trip to Hawaii and it was awesome...everything I hoped for and more.  The first week with the kids and TJ was a blast and the kids LOVED it!  The second week with my mom and sisters was FABULOUS and relaxing and filled with lots of sun, food and laughter!  We also saw Twlight 2 more times, which I LOVED, despite the low budget-ness of the film!  So I will update with pictures in the next few days so I don't get too far behind with all the seasonal craziness!  For now, I'm glad to be home with my hubby and kids even though I miss my sisters and mom!  TTFN!