A Day At The Park

It was a beautiful spring day and we all needed a little "outside" time!

And with Avery "out of commission" with the cast...we had to take it easy.

So we decided to head to Hovander Park!

It was a great day to take a walk along the river and check out the upcoming spring gardens!

I love these girls!  We are so lucky to have so much time together as a family!!

It's a Fracture

The week after Hawaii Avery was anxious to get back to soccer!

At her first practice back, she fell and fractured her arm.

Just above the wrist.

We iced it and gave her ibuprofen that night....we called the doctor and tried to see if they could get her in...."just in case".  But....she seemed totally fine...it wasn't really swollen and ibuprofen seemed to knock out the pain.  So...I gave her another ibuprofen and sent her to school in the morning.  

The doctor could see her at 3:00...that seemed reasonable.

It was fitness testing day in P.E. for Avery.  She told her teacher that she had hurt her arm at soccer practice the night before and that she didn't know how many push-ups she would be able to do.  Turned out it wasn't any....it hurt a whole bunch.

Then....at the doctor later that day....

she confirmed it was fractured.  Mom of the Year Award!!!

We would be going back in the morning to get the cast.

Avery was hoping for pink.

She had to settle for her second choice.....

And the kid is STILL smiling!!!!!!!!!!!

(Well...until the NEXT day when we went BACK to the doctor to get the cast re-done...her thumb was all wonky and she couldn't bend her elbow the entire way.  Apparently the new doctor made her wrist "look like a club".  She wouldn't let me take a picture.  There were a lot of tears.)

The novelty of the cast wore off fairly quickly!!!

Luckily it was a quick 3 weeks!

Cama Beach

It's been 2 years since we've been to Cama Beach.

I can't believe we waited so long!

It's such a COOL place!!!

We got the same Happy Campin' crew to go back.

We arrived on Friday night...it looked like we were going to be there for a week.  

Nope...just the weekend.

 The sun was starting to set as we were waiting for the shuttle to take us down to the cabin.

So pretty!!!

The next day the weather was UNBELIEVABLE!!!  We truly lucked out!  

The sun was shining and it was amazing!

We hung out by the cabins a lot.

We were lucky enough to see LOTS of marine life swimming by in the water....gray whales, porpoises, seals and even a pod of orcas.  So AWESOME!

We went and did some more boat building, too!

The masterpieces!! (The little boats, not the big one! ;) )

And they even float!!

 

We headed back to play on the beach, have some dinner and hang out by the campfire.

We were all tired after such a fun and busy day!

Another great trip to Cama Beach!  We're definitely not going to let another 2 years go by before we go back!  We had a wonderful weekend!

Spring Swimming Lessons

We thought it would be a good idea to get Annalise in the water again before we left for Hawaii, 

so we signed her up for swimming lessons at the YMCA.  

These are the same lessons Avery took when she was Annalise's age at the 

Super 8 Hotel in Ferndale.  

It's a weird place for lessons, but it seems to work okay.

And by the end of 8 sessions, she was doing pretty well!  Putting her face under and jumping right in the pool.  She was ready for some pool time in Hawaii! Way to go Annie!!!

A Little Catching Up.....

I've been slacking on the blog posts!!!!  

It's so easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day activities and chores and leave the "extras" behind!  But whenever I pull up the blog it makes me smile....seeing all the pictures and remembering what we've done.  

Needless to say...posting to the blog shouldn't be an "extra"!  

So....here's a little catching up.....

We had a quick weekend visit from Geoff and Robin at the beginning of March!

Robin was a good sport and let Annalise "do" her hair.  Gorgeous!!

We even got to have some of the Happy Campers over to play with us!

It was great to see everyone!!!

The girls finally had a day with not a lot going on so they opened up the Science Kit Annalise got for Christmas and did some experiments!!!

It was a little goopy feeling......ewwwww.....

Still fun though!  A good day for a little science!!!

Kauai--Spring Break 2013

We spent 10 lovely and wonderful days in Poipu, Kauai.

Our plans changed early in the morning when our flight was delayed....by several hours.  Needless to say....the girls got their first TAXI ride since our planned ride to the airport had to be to work by the time our flight was rescheduled to take off.  At least Annalise was thrilled.....

I won't go into the details....but we spent a good amount of time at the Bellingham airport and FINALLY got on a plane to Maui. 

(We were supposed to fly to Seattle, then hop on a plane to Kauai with Geoff and Robin.... 

:(  unfortunately that didn't happen!)

The girls did GREAT!!!! PHEW!  After the last plane ride with Annalise I was a little worried!!!!

We also had a long layover in Maui...then we hopped on an island jumper....when we left it was POURING down rain.  Annalise still had Tilly by her side! :)

It was all soooooooo worth it when we got there!!!!!

Geoff and Robin beat us there and were able to get the mini-van and make a Costco run!

The house was AH-Mazing!!!!!

And our view....

We felt like royalty!!!  In fact....Avery's "suite" was so far away from ours that she insisted on sleeping with Annalise all week.  (Yes....it was THAT big!!!)

We spent a LOT of time at our INCREDIBLE pool!!!

We were there for Easter....

Did you know that if you plant magic jelly beans,

when you wake up on Easter morning, there are lollipops in their place?

We had a GREAT day!!  We did an awesome Easter egg hunt in the yard....

 

 

 We spent some time playing at the beach....

 

 

And we had a GREAT Easter dinner!!

  We took an after dinner walk....it was gorgeous!

 

 

 

 The next day (April Fool's Day), the boys decided to take a surfing lesson....

we girls decided to hang out at the beach and watch!

 

Mark had a rough day....the board beat him up pretty good....

Then it was off to a luau at the Smith Family Plantation.....

We watched as they dug up the pig....

 

The food was great.....

And the show was pretty cool, too!

We were just getting a little tired waiting for it to start!

The story was easy to follow....the music was cool and the dancing was awesome!

The girls thought it was great!

Our next big adventure took us to the opposite side of the island.

Hanalei....to kayak the Hanalei River.

We took a short detour to check out Lydgate Park in Lihue....well worth the stop!

The park was super cool!  And the chickens roaming freely was kind of crazy! 

(Although....chickens are EVERYWHERE on the island!)

 

It wasn't the sunniest day.....and actually....it was a little chilly....but the kayak trip was SUPER awesome!!! Our guide, Gabe, was super laid-back!

 We headed down the river and out into the ocean where we stopped for some snorkeling!

Avery was gung-ho to get her snorkeling gear on and head out!

She did awesome....only paused once for a minute when she realized just how far from shore she was...but she took a breath and just kept on going!  

They got some GREAT shots from the underwater camera!!!!

They even saw a school of sardines!!!

The north side of the island was BEAUTIFUL!  

I can see why they call Kauai the Garden Island!  GORGEOUS!!!

Our house was just up the hill from the Grand Hyatt Kauai....we took a stroll through the resort.  

It was pretty awesome!!!

 

And if we left our house and went in the other direction we were right at Poipu Beach....

A little further down from Poipu Beach was Spouting Horn.

Ancient Hawaiians believed this coastline was once guarded by a giant mo'o (lizard) named Kaikapu. Everyone was afraid of the mo'o because it would eat anyone who tried to fish or swim in the area. One day, a young boy named Liko entered the ocean to outwit the lizard. Kaikapu attacked him, but Liko thrust a sharp stick into her mouth, swam under the lava shelf, and escaped through a small hole to the surface. The moo followed Liko and got stuck in the lava tube. To this day, you can hear the lizard’s roar and see her breath spraying from the blowhole.

(It was super windy while we were there so it's really hard to hear the "hiss"...

but you can sort of get the idea!)

We took an afternoon drive over to the west side of the mountain and headed to Waimea Canyon.  

We had to stop along the road a couple of times because Annalise was getting carsick.  

But...it was beautiful and well-worth the drive!  

(Well...the adults thought it was worth the drive....

both Avery and Annalise wondered why we left the house and did we realize 

we were missing out on quality "POOL TIME"!?!)

We had some great food....

And some YUMMY frozen drinks!!!

(Annalise tried a LAVA flow!)

And Avery LOVED the virgin pina coladas!!!

We had an AMAZING vacation!!!

We spent some good quality "hanging out" time!  The island pace is definitely much more laid back than the mainland!  We fit right in after a few days of unwinding!

We felt so relaxed and refreshed when we came back.

The spirit of Aloha stuck with us!