Our Hawaii Getaway!

For Christmas, Kevin got me plane tickets to Hawaii for over our anniversary week. We've were so excited to return there, and this time, we would be able to stay with my parents as well, which added to the fun. Because Connor is still not sleeping through the night consistently, and is not taking a bottle as great as he used to, we took him with us. Brody got to stay at Auntie Roxy's house, which he was SO excited for. We almost had to force him to give us a hug goodbye.

Connor was such a good baby, waking up at 4:30 AM to get on the plane in time. He didn't sleep much on the way there, but he was asleep for take-off and landing, which helped a lot. What a good boy! Here he is trying on Kevin's hat.

Mom and Dad were there for two weeks, and we just joined them for the second week. The weather was atrocious for them the first week, with rain downpours every day, along with high winds, tornados, flooding, etc. etc. It was VERY wet there the day we arrived, but the next morning we were blessed with sunny weather! We had good weather every day after that as well, and were able to go to the beach right beside the place we were staying at. SO beautiful! Connor got to put his feet in his first ocean water! A little chilly, but he did good.

Kevin and I got to go snorkelling at place just down the beach from our condo. There were at least six turtles swimming around in the water with you, along with the fish.
They come right up to you all the time, and if you're not paying attention, it does make you jump when one rubs your leg as it swims by. They were very cool to watch.

We were able to go see the Pearl Harbour museum there. They've done a great job at setting up a very interesting and informative centre that you can enjoy. We were only there for about an hour and a half, but you could easily spend longer there.....

I know, I'm a nerd, but this was so neat!

We spent one day on the far side of the island at the temple and the Polynesian Cultural Centre. The Hawaii Temple is beautiful. The last time we were there it was under renovations, and you could not go past the fountain. Kevin and I were able to spend a few hours there this time, and it was neat for me to be able to go inside another temple besides the Cardston, Alberta Temple.

They have a beautiful visitor centre there as well, and this is what you see when you walk in the door.

In the middle of the other area they have a copy of the Book of Mormon in all the languages it has been translated into. Kevin and I found his beloved "Hmong" copy, which he used during his mission as a Hmong-speaking missionary in Wisconsin. I've made many attempt to learn phrases in this semi-dying out tonal language to no avail. I'm good with the syllables, but it is really difficult to remember what tones to put with each syllable. Kevin is amazing though, and I am still really impressed at how well he can speak it when the occasion arises for him to use the language (which is almost never unless I ask him to, or if it is for some ward function discussing missionaries that he is asked to show off his linguistic talent).

The PCC was great, as it always is. We toured around for a few hours, then went to the buffet dinner and the show "Breath of Life", which was fantastic (and which, miraculously, Connor slept through - mostly).
We were also able to go snorkelling at Hunauma Bay, which was incredibly beautiful.
Needless to say, we greatly enjoyed our vacation from 'life' for a week. I missed Brody a ton, but when we called, he was more interested in playing with his cousins than talking to us, so I guess I shouldn't have worried about him. We also had a great fly home, and Connor was even good enough to let me finish a few good reads over the week. I don't know if we're ever going back to Hawaii, but I'm so glad we were able to go this time. It was amazing!

This is the weather we were greeted with not long after our arrival home. Brody and I decided to make a snowman, since this was about the first time it was possible this year so far.

It was a very grassy snowman! (not to mention the odd pine-cone)

Happy March!

Early Morning Mistakes and other fun stuff.

Ever heard of Clear Care? If you're a contact wearer, and you shop at Costco, then my guess is that you have seen and/or tried the stuff. WONDERFUL product. I love the way it cleans my contacts and it is the only solution that I've tried so far that seems to make my contacts feel brand new every time I wear them.

HOWEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I learned that this product is NOT an all-in one cleaning solution... in fact, it contains Hydrogen Peroxide...

and if you're wondering what happens when you aren't fully functioning at 6:30 AM and you accidentally decide to rinse your contact off with it before putting it in your eye...

don't ask me, I would never do something as silly as that.

I don't think that I've ever actually REALLY screamed in my life until the moment that contact hit my eye... scared Brody so bad that he started crying too. I'm glad it doesn't permanently damage the eyes, but my eye looked like this (actually worse at first) for about a week.

Moral of the story? Don't forget to read the warnings that are printed in RED on the bottle.

I FINALLY made it up to Edmonton to visit both of my amazing sisters last week. I know 5 hours really isn't that far away, but it seems like it is difficult to actually make it up there. I'm lucky that my sisters seem to make it down to Lethbridge often to let me see them and their kiddos, but

there is so much fun stuff to do in Edmonton, I just knew it was about time I make the trip. We had SO much fun. The boys did so great on the drive up, and the roads were perfectly clear the whole way there. My only note for another year would be to not even attempt to stop at the Balzac Cross-Iron Mall on Family Day - It was insane.

Because Deanna ended up having the flu right before I came up, I stayed at Kim's house. Man were Brody and Zach hilarious together. They always seem to learn some funny things from each other, and half the time are laughing uncontrollably, and the other half of the time fighting over the same toys. They are so much alike. I wish they could spend more time together.

Kim and I decided to try out the John Janzen Nature centre. It is targeted to kids probably 5 and

under, and has a beehive play centre, a big slide, a 'river' that you can make beaver dams in using fake sticks, leaves and rocks, 3-d flower puzzles, and a lot more in a separate area about all sorts of animals. The boys probably played there for 2 hours, and were still having a fun time when we made them leave. The best part about the centre was that there were hardly any people there. It was quiet and relaxing for us to watch them play. It was so great to run into my old roommate, Jenna, and her family and kids there. For a while we were the only people in the centre. It was great to see you Jenna!! Reading your blog just isn't quite as fun as seeing you in person! Wish we could have visited longer. I see from Jenna's Blog that she has much better pictures of the John Janzen Centre than I do, if you want to see what it actually looks like there (hope you don't mind me linking up Jenna).

Here's Brody and Zach walking up to the Nature Centre... they decided to hold hands :)

Here's Blake playing on the ground while the older boys ran around. Connor slept almost the whole time, which was awesome.

The next day we decided to venture to the Mall to do some clothes shopping (as I'm STILL not fitting back into my skirts since having Connor - however, several of those said skirts are from my high school days, so maybe it is time to let them go anyways.) Did I find any new skirts? No - but Kim was more successful. We took the boys to Galaxy Land before we headed home, as they are still free for the rides. Brody LOVE LOVE LOVED the train ride, and keeps asking to "ride the train again, Mommy?". I should clarify that I forgot to bring my camera to Edmonton, so all of my pictures were taken with my cell phone - sorry for the quality.

Auntie Kim took the boys on a balloon ride too.

On the way home from the Mall, I practically killed myself driving because my windshield wiper fluid would not spray, and I could not see a thing (ever happened to anyone else before?) I was on the main highway, and seriously couldn't slow down or pull over safely either. Anyways, this eventually led to me discovering that I could change a fuse in my own car, all by myself!! (well, sort of - Kevin was on the phone helping me a bit). I am seriously in the dark about how to fix or take care of vehicles at all, so I was totally impressed that I could figure out what was causing the problem and fix it without spending lots of money. I am so thankful to have such an amazing handy husband, and for my brother-in-law, Mark, for sitting in the cold trying to help me figure it out.

If you are from around Edmonton and you haven't yet tried out the Cafe O' Play, it is definitely worth a visit. We met up with Deanna here on Thursday morning, and the kids LOVED it. I love that this picture has someone vacuuming in the background... seriously, it was a clean place for your kids to play. Deanna treated us to a smoothie and a piece of white chocolate zucchini bread, which was so good. I love the idea of this place, and would love to see one start up in Lethbridge for us to enjoy more often. Brody spent 90% of the time driving the cars around the track.

I wish I had some pictures of it, but we also took the boys to a community gymnastics class on Thursday night. Brody was totally loving the tumbling and rolling and jumping. I am so wishing that Stirling had something like that he could do to help him get all of his wiggles out. Thanks, Kim, for letting us join you.

I've never gone away with the boys without Kevin before, so we decided to send him a picture one morning to let him know how much we missed him. Try as I might, I could NOT get the boys to smile in the same picture.

Mom and Dad also came up for Keira's birthday towards the end of the week. They rented a party room at a bowling alley, and we were able to celebrate with her and enjoy some delicious "purse" cake made by Deanna! SO cute.

Thanks so much for a fun trip Deanna and Kim!! I really enjoyed the visit, and had so much fun with you both! Thanks to Mom, as well, for helping us out on the way back down to Lethbridge.

Also, thanks to Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Orvil for not minding our surprise visit and for helping us out. Got to love children that get car-sick...