The Big Island

For our 10th Anniversary Jason and our friend Sean planned a trip to Hawaii. We waited until now so that we could get a bit of a reprieve from the winter. It was an amazing trip with so many fun memories. Here are some highlights:

Awesome GREEN Sand Beach
A bit out of the way and hard to find, but after some off-roading and a 2.5 mile hike we descended down the cliff to this gem of a beach. I've never seen anything like it before and the pictures definitely do not do it justice. There are actually tiny green crystals in the sand.

Delicious Food!
I'm a dessert junkie and we did our best to eat our way around the island. From chocolate covered macadamia nuts to a HUGE slice of ice cream pie, we definitely had our fill. One of my favorites was at this bakery just barely north of the equator that had the best Hawaiian sweet bread doused in thick, rich, chocolate fudge and filled with custard. Hmm, I'm making myself hungry! We were a little disappointed that the equator wasn't actually marked with a sign. I really wanted to take my picture with one foot on each hemishpere.
The Black Sand Beach in the Waipi'o Valley
We walked 1 mile down a 25% grade and all over before finding this amazing beach. Yes, we did have to walk back up too!

Here we are up above before the long walk to the beach below.

Here are the guys golfing and our view from our condo! Lucky for them, this just happened to be their best hole.

Sean, Heidi, Me and Jason after our whale watching tour.

Just a Question?

At what age do we finally learn that
LESS IS MORE?!

Enjoying the Little Things . . .

I've had a hard time keeping the blog updated, but the last several weeks have been great. We're making a huge effort to find joy and happiness in the little things this year. There are so many amazing things right around us each day, but all too often we get caught up in the craziness of life. At any rate, we've really been enjoying the winter and each other. We've given ourselves a challenge to come up with activities for the family that can cost very little, or better yet, nothing at all. Most of our adventures weren't caught on film, but here are a few:

Homemade Valentine's ~ A huge mess, but sooo much fun! This was made by Cambrie {all on her own} for a boy in her class. Needless to say, Jason is now having him investigated. Tatum & her friend Sophia ~Tatum would eat snow all day long if I let her. She got a snow cone machine for her birthday in June, but the new thing is to run out back and fill a cup with super fine snow and drench it with snow cone syrup. Jason pulling Cambrie and Tater ~The girls love the tube rides and Hershey loves to chase after them.

Snowshoeing & X Country Skiing ~ Jason retrofitted my bike trailer with skis so that we could take the kids with. An ingenius idea, but so much more of a workout than we bargained for.

Jake ~ Enough said. He's at that oh so fun age and everything that comes out of his mouth is just hilarious. For some reason, this is the only hat he will wear. I fear he'll be 12 and still insisting on wearing this same hat. He just makes my days so unpredictable. You gotta love it. I spared you the picture of him dancing buck in Cambrie's shoes. Amazingly beautiful days & views! ~ By the way, that's our teeter totter barely sticking out of the snow.

Cross Country Skiing

Soakin' up the sun on the back deck!

Movie & Popcorn night! ~ We used the air popper for the first time and the kids were so enthralled! Tatum tells everyone that comes over about our "magic popcorn maker."

Jake Working Out ~ As I've worked hard to get back in shape before our upcoming trip, it's nice to know that I have support from my family.

My favorite ~ Jake is obsessed with glasses and is always putting on whatever spectacles he can find. He wore these for dinner the other night. Like I said, unpredictable.

So many fun moments.

Joy is not in things; it is in us.

~Richard Wagner