Catching up......again :)

Once again, I am catching up. I'm hoping to recap the highlights of our 2010 so that I can feel updated and ready to document 2011 as it happens( we'll see how that goes). One of my earlier posts showed that we began our year with a trip to Hawaii,(well, John and I did anyways). In late February we flew from South Bend, IN to Scottsbluff, NE with the two youngest boys to look for a place to live. We were successful and found a house to rent. The boys definitely enjoyed the trip and especially enjoyed wrestling on their hotel bed, running "very" fast up and down empty hallways, swimming in the hot tub, going out to eat, and of course getting to ride in an airplane! Here are just a few pics from that trip. I have to say, as I was looking back through these, I could not believe how much Kian, especially, has changed in the past 10 months. He has a diaper and a pacifier in these pics and that seriously feels like a lifetime ago already. It is truly amazing sometimes the pace at which life changes. More updates to come.....

Growing up...

Today I cried. Kian and I sat down during some of our alone time to read some books from the library. He especially enjoyed the first one and requested that it be read twice. After a marathon of six books, I told him I needed to go fix some lunch. He asked me to read the first book another time and I told him, "maybe later." As I walked into the kitchen and I heard him say, "fine, then I'll read it myself." He picks up the book and opens it to the first page and begins to "read" the story fairly accurately page by page. I had never seen him do this before and the moment swept my emotions as I realized that my "baby" is growing up. It's funny how little happenings can shake you and seem so paramount. This was one of those moments for me. I watched the scene unfold and stood there crying. I can't imagine what it will feel like as the milestones progress. How will I watch him trot off to Kindergarten and leave me there ALONE? Or get baptized and so begin his life of independence and responsibility? Or graduate Primary and become a priesthood holder? Or go to High School? College? Mission? How is it possible that my baby can grow up? Well here I am crying again so I guess I should finish this post and go hang out with my little ones.....while they still are little ones.

Kauai,Hawaii baby!!!!

At the end of January of this year, John had a CME conference in Kauai, so, I of course wanted to tag along! I have wanted to go to Hawaii since I was as little as I can remember. I actually used to say I would get married there ( I learned later that it's a little expensive for all the guests!) John thought it would even add to the fun if we had some buddies, so he called up my brother Bret and his wife Alisha and asked them if they might want to join us. They apparently weren't a hard sell and the planning began! We decided to rent a condo together which turned out to be cost effective and way more fun than staying in a hotel! This trip was amazing and actually exceeded all my expectations! It truly was paradise! This first pic is on our first morning there. We had flown in the night before and we were up before the sun was, so we decided to watch the sunrise while walking along the beach.

This was called the tunnel of trees. It was so neat!

One of my dreams for Hawaii was to find a secluded waterfall like you always see in the movies. We did some research and hiking and found this awesome place! Just after you walk through these trees in the picture above.....

You find this!

I was so excited!!! I contemplated jumping off the waterfall, but since I am not the most coordinated of people, I did not fully trust my abilities for a sure takeoff. My brother however trusted his, and proceeded to jump a few times!

The rope swing looked like like a lot of fun and slightly less dangerous. It required some work to get the rope to start. It was very entertaining to watch though! So John and Bret worked together and the swinging began. We thought John should have the first swing since he had got the rope.

Here he goes.....

And there's his splash!. We didn't get good pictures of Bret and I swinging. Oh, well, it was a fun experience!

John and I tried Scuba Diving and I will sum that up by saying, we will never do that again. We saw some cool things, but the stuff we saw snorkeling was actually cooler and did not require feeling like one's life could end at any moment. John did not find it to be quite the traumatic experience that I did, but did not really enjoy it either.

This is a view of the coast as seen from our Sunset dinner cruise! Check out how BLUE that water is!

Yep, that's a whale tail! It was so hard to get a good picture because every time one came I was too excited to remember to shoot a picture!

These dolphins swam and played alongside our boat for about 10 minutes!

This pic is out of order, but it is a shot from our Balcony of the main living area of the condo. It was so nice!

This was actually the day before the cruise. It had rained most of the day, but in the late afternoon the sun came out while we were exploring a rocky coast and geocaching, and we got this beautiful pic with a rainbow!

Here's some neat coast picture with all the black Lava Rocks.

Can you believe the color of this water? It was unreal to me.

The rain had made the waves pretty big which made for some cool crashes!

Bret actually got wet while venturing a little close to the edge!

That evening since the rain stopped we figured the waves would be pretty good so we went to the beach and did some boogie boarding, which is soooo much fun, by the way! Here is John and Bret going out to catch another ride!

I took this pic while Alisha and I were sitting on the beach watching the boys board in the water.

More boogie boarding.

We took this pic earlier on the rainy day while we were geocaching. It was so fun to just walk around in the rain because it was warm enough to! It kind of felt like being a kid! Plus, we weren't going to let the rain stop us from enjoying this beautiful piece of the Earth!

Now back to the Sunset Cruise, here is a panoramic of the coastline. Awe-inspiring!

out of order again, but, after the sun had set you could still see the last of the colors and the night moon! It was breathtaking!

The crew members would come around and ask to take pictures of us with our cameras. It was very convenient. This was taken just at the peak of Sunset and was a moment that I will never forget. I could almost hear the music from "Titanic" playing.... it was perfect.

Heading back to the port...

These are some of the crew members helping us on to the dock. They were so funny and great to talk to.

This was a park across the street from one of the beaches and I was thinking my beach house would look really good in the middle of that clearing surrounded by those trees which I LOVED! Unfortunately, the land was not for sale, so that dream will have to wait. And those tree's? They can't survive in climates where the temperature ever dips below 40 degrees, so I guess that counts out Scottsbluff, NE. I guess I'll just have to go back again to see them. DARN!

This was a famous area where they apparently shot several movies, one of which was "Raiders of the Lost Ark" with Harrison Ford, I think? It was beautiful.

This was really just a small taste of the beauty that we encountered. We seriously took about 400 pictures! We ate at some really fun places and met some really fun native people. It was a memorable experience from beginning to end. Hawaii is definitely NOT over rated! I'd go back in a heartbeat, and hope that I do get the opportunity again someday. Anyone volunteering to come along?

Superman( or woman)

One weekend in early February when we were having yet another blizzard of sorts, the kids were forced to get creative and find a way to have fun indoors. JJ, Tori and Cameron decided it would be fun to jump on Mom and Dad's bed. They also decided to take about 85 pictures of this great fun they were having. Here is a sampling for your enjoyment!

The look on her face says it all. They had a really good time, and in the end all I had was a bed to make, which is not bad considering what other disasters could have occurred with three bored children!