Snow Days

Arianna, Maya, Zuleikha, Alex, and Shalini

Let's see where to start. Last weekend was a fun weekend. We ended up not having to watch both of our neighbors kids on Thursday as the little boy got sick the night before so we just had Zuleikha. Then Friday we had a good time at Michael's holiday party. It was at the Musuem of Flight. It was really nice. The food was soso, but they had a casino there and that was fun. Michael was a top winner. They were given $1000 (play money of course) he got to $11,700 playing craps. The next morning was Arianna's birthday party. It was a great success. All of the girls had a wonderful, fun time. It was nice having such a small group. There were 5 of them total. They got their makeovers at Club Libby Lu and then afterwards we took them to lunch at Ruby's Diner. Ruby's was great. They let us bring in our own cake and the kept it in the fridge for us and then they lit the candles and came and sang to Arianna. She loved it. Of course she loves being the center of attention.

That evening we drove an hour north to Warm Beach (http://www.warmbeach.com/). This is a Christian conference center and camp. They hold different kinds of christian camps throughout the year there. Well anyways at christmas time they have the Lights of Christmas. They use about 1 million lights to make all kinds of displays. It is beautiful. They have mountains with rivers, christmas scenes, etc. They offer train rides, horse drawn wagon rides, visits with Santa, and hot homemade donuts. I think the donuts are the main draw :). The line was probably about 45 minutes long and you are limited to 3 bags - each contain 6 donut holes. It was fun, but very cold. It had started snowing that night so it was fun, but Ethan refused to wear his gloves so he was getting cold.

This week has been a little crazy. They cancelled school on Wednesday even though there was so snow. They cancelled it because of the threat of snow - crazy!!!! We ended up not getting snow until Wednesday evening. Then we got about 4-5 inches or so. Thus they cancelled school on Thursday. Arianna had a great time playing in the snow with her friends, but she gets bored hanging out at home. She decided she doesn't like snow days - she would rather to go to school so she can play with friends all day instead of having to hang out at home and dealing with brother :). There was lots of ice so they also decided to close schools today. She she doesn't go back until Jan 5th. Because of these snow days they have taken away some vacation days. They were supposed to have the 5th off, but now they go that day. Then in april they were to have the friday before easter off, but now they go and then there were also supposed to have the tuesday after memorial day off, but they will go that day now too.

Tonight is supposed to be a Parent's night out at Ethan's school. His school is open today so we will see if they keep that. We hope so because both kids were set to go and we need to finish christmas shopping!!! Michael worked from home yesterday, but went into work today.

Another nasty storm is coming Saturday night with snow and freezing rain and winds. It is supposed to hit hard on Sunday into monday.

Well, the kids want to play so here are some pictures of them in the snow and Arianna's party

Feliz Navidad!

Well, the holidays are here! We finally have our home all decorated for the season. I had most of our decorations up before we left for Thanksgiving since we were going to be gone. Then this last weekend Michael was able to get the lights up outside. Pretty much every house on our street has lights so it looks really pretty. I think there is only like 3 houses that don't have lights on, so it always looks very festive in our neighborhood.

This is a busy week for us. Tomorrow we watch our neighbor's kids while they go to their holiday party. It is great because Zuleikha and Arianna are good friends - they are just 1 year apart and then Ethan and Zane are the same age - just a few months apart. So it will be a fun, but crazy time. Then on Friday it is Michael's holiday party. This year his party is that the Museum of Flight. Then on Saturday is Arianna's B-day party in the morning. It shall be interesting because there is a chance of snow on friday night and early saturday morning so hopefully it won't deter some of her friends from coming. She is just having a small party. There will be 5 girls going to Club Libby Lu to get makeovers and then to lunch.

This week it was funny because I had christmas music playing and the song Feliz Navidad came on and Ethan just went crazy. He had pretty much ignored the other music, but once this song came on he started dancing, jumping around, etc. It was so cute. So when Arianna came home I put the music on again and they both danced around. Arianna found some bells and Ethan found a toy and so they were making all kinds of noise. Then once the song was over that was it. So cute.

Arianna is having a little bit of trouble at school. She has a talking problem :) (surprise, surpise). The girl loves to talk. I even found a shirt for her for christmas that says My Best Subject is Talking!!! So she has to work on not talking, so when the teacher reminds her to be quiet Arianna makes a quiet sign to remind herself not to talk. Her quiet sign is to cover her mouth with her hand. We will see how it goes.

Ethan is starting Tumblebus at his school. This is a bus that comes and inside is all kinds of tumbling/gymnastic activities. He got to try it for free and he loved it!!!! He is doing better with talking all of the time, but he still has a lot of babble. More sentences are coming and questions as well. It is cute at night while he is going to sleep he will sometimes sing. He knows most of the words to twinkle twinkle and it is cute. He also learned up and down so he will rub my arm and say up and then down.

Well, I need to run. I am getting a manicure and pedicure for the party this weekend. A special treat for myself :)

I will try and post some pictures of Arianna's party this weekend.

What a weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. On Tuesday we headed out to Michael's parents house and spent several days there. Michael's mom made us a wonderful dinner. Arianna even got to help. She helped grandma make the apple pie and she helped Michael make the sweet potatoes. It was enjoyable time for me as well - it was nice not to be doing all of the cooking this year. For about 10 years we have always done our own dinner.

Friday morning Michael and I headed out to spend the weekend in Portland. We were able to get a good amount of shopping done for the kids and also visit friends. We had dinner with Jenny, Bryan, and Gabe on Friday. We had not been able to get together with them since April so it was nice. We need to try and make sure to visit them more often. Then on Saturday we visited Michele, Jeff, and David. They had flown up from Yuma, AZ to visit Jeff's family. We haven't seen each other in about 1 1/2 years so it was sooo nice to visit. Although the time always goes to fast. Michele and I would need a couple of days to fully catch up. Hopefully it won't be as long for us to see each other again.

Saturday night we went over to Dennis's house to watch the Civil War game. It was a sad game to watch. If OSU would have won, we would have gone to the Rose Bowl, but ohh well. What can you do.

Sunday we headed back to pick up the kids and had a nice surprise. Arianna was riding her bike without training wheels. Grandpa helped her! We had been working on it with her, but living on a hill makes it a little harder. They have a nice flat driveway to ride on. She was very proud of herself. She was a little slower at learning, but I think that was more because of the hill we live on and the fact that we always had to go to a specific park to ride so she just could not practice at home all of the time.

It feels good to have a good portion of the shopping done and I have our christmas cards ready to be addressed and mailed out. We also put up most of our decorations before we left, so that is nice. just a few things to add and put up the outside lights and we are good. If feels good to have that in order. Just need to get the house picked up a little bit more. It seems as if I can never get all the cleaning done with a toddler around. We did get Ethan's crib out of his room, so now we are rearranging that and going to move some of his toys up to his room.

Well, time to run.

The tooth fairy visits again

On Friday Arianna lost her 2nd tooth. It was the other bottom front. She was very excited. It had been loose for a while and she lost it at school. She wanted to lose it at school because you get to go to the nurse and she gives you a small treasure box to put the tooth into and then your name gets written down on a big tooth to be kept there.

Both Arianna and Ethan have moved up into new swimming classes. Arianna is now in teh 75 foot distance class which means they swim 25 yards or all the way across the pool. In order to get into the class you must be able to do that with the crawl, backstoke, and elementary backstoke. And also swim half way across the pool with breaststroke and butterfly. she does very well. She can dive down in the deep end to the bottom and pick up rings, her dives are getting better. We might look at her starting a summer swim team this coming summer. Ethan moved up to the Puddle jumpers class. In this class the parent is with the child for half the class and then for the last half they stay with the instructor. It is a transitional class to get them ready for classes without the parents - which he can start when he turns 3. He loves to jump into the water. He hates floating on his back and he doesn't like to blow bubbles, but in general he loves to be in the water. He likes to go on his tummy and kick and is doing fairly well with doggy paddling.

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving. We will be heading to Michael's parents and then to Portland for a few days. We are planning on bringing down the crib we have to give it to a friend's sister who is expecting and then I found out Michele is going to be in Portland at that time as well. I am so excited. We haven't seen each other for about 1 1/2 years. They have a little boy that they are adopting and I haven't met him yet. It sounds like we are going to be very busy in Portland, we have lots of people to visit. Luckily we won't have the kids so we can be more flexible and meet people later than we would normally.

On friday it was also parent's night out at Ethan's school, so both kids went and Michael and I had a nice dinner. we went to Tutta Bella - our favorite pizza place and we had a nice time. We even had time to relax at home before picking the kids up.

We have family pictures this weekend. I need to find something to wear that matches the kids outfits or otherwise I will end up wearing what I had last year. Michael's holiday party if Dec 12. I want to get a new outfit for that, but we will see. Then on the 13th is arianna's party at the swimming pool. We have to work on getting invitations ready to send out soon. I like to do them a little early where this is a busy time of year for people. If anyone wants to come up - let me know :).

I need to run. We had our air ducts cleaned today and they are getting ready to leave, so I need to pay them :(. It needed to be done. It had never been done since the house was built and many times with new construction things get left in the ducts, lots of dust, etc.

Pumpkins

These are Arianna's pumpkins. She drew the designs and carved most of them.

Catching Up

Some Decorations at our house

Arianna, Ethan, Zane, and Zuleikha


Arianna and Ethan

Arianna and Ethan wearing shirts that Grandpa Clark and Grandma Sandee bought for them from Yellowstone.

It has been a while since I have updated this blog. All is going well. Let's see - where to start.

The week of Halloween was good. Michael had left for LA on Sunday and came back on late Thursday night. The kids were very good for me while he was gone. Much easier than I had thought.

Halloween. Arianna was Minnie Mouse and Ethan was a Tiger. She had a great time at her school Halloween party. Then she came home and we had a little time to relax before we went out to trick or treat. We got them all dressed up and then went to our neighbor's house to pick up Zuleikha to go with us. Then we headed out into the neighborhood. All week I had been working with Ethan to say Trick or Treat and he would not say it, but as soon as he heard the girls saying it a few times he picked it up quickly and said it so cute! For a while he would say thank you when i told him, but then he heard the homeowners say your welcome so when I would tell him to say "Thank you" he would say "Your Welcome" it was so funny. It was also really cute because he had a pumpkin to hold his candy and he would not let anyone else hold it. He would start dragging it and if you tried to help him he would tell you no. He did really good. He walked up and down our street and another street - both of which are on hills and he didn't get tired. We eventually met up with another neighbor whose boy is in Kindergarten with Arianna and we finished trick or treating with them. It was so nice to have Halloween on a Friday!! Michael's parents came in late that night because Michael's mom had appointments on Saturday and then that evening Michael and I were able to go out for a while on our own.

Ethan is talking more and more which is great. He is combining more words for sentences, says I love you, etc. He loves airplanes, cars, balls, bubbles, cats, slides, riding toys, and dogs. He acts like a stereotypical boy. He is still on the aggressive side, but that is just his personality. He loves to bang on things, etc.

This last Thursday Ethan had a success. He had gone a little poopy in his diaper and I asked him if he wanted to go lay down for a diaper change. He said no and ran to his potty and said he wanted to sit on there. So we did so - not really thinking anything would happen, but it did. He then proceeded to go poop and pee in the potty. He was very excited. It hasn't happened again, but it was funny because the next day after he had gone potty in his diaper I asked him if he waned to sit on his potty he said no, but then proceeded to put his big teddy bear on the potty. It was too cute.

Arianna is doing very well. She is almost 6, but more like going on 16. She is doing great on reading, and math. Hopefully that will continue through the rest of school for her. She just finished up soccer, but still has swimming. We have tried to get her into Girl Scouts, but it appears that might not happen. I have called several times to find out about a troop for her, but so far nothing. They said that it looks like there is not a troop in our area for her age. If they don't come up with something soon then we are looking at Campfire USA.

We have her birthday party set up. We are having it at the pool where she has her lessons. It will be on the 13th. She loves to go swimming so we figured it would work well and it will also let Ethan participate because he likes the water as well. He is in swimming lessons too.

This last weekend we went down to Portland to see Ken and Kar-yee's new baby. He was born on Oct 16th. He is very cute. Michael was able to go over in the evening for a while just to visit without the kids. I kept the kids at the hotel and went swimming, etc.

For Thanksgiving we are going to Michael's parents house and then Michael and I are going over to Portland on Friday and Saturday to try and so some shopping for the kids. We have family pictures this weekend and Arianna has a friends birthday party on the 16th.

Arianna has today and tomorrow off from school and Ethan is at daycare these 2 days so it has been nice. We went to the library today and she is having her friend Shalini over right now to play for a few hours. Tomorrow we are going to see High School Musical 3 at the Theatre and then doing some shopping at the mall.

Things soon are going to start getting crazy for us this time of year. Since we won't be home for Thanksgiving, I am going to be behind on getting Christmas stuff up. So I might work on that before we leave so it is done when we get back home. Ethan's birthday is on a saturday this year, but we will just be doing a small home party with the neighbors and us - unless we go to Michael's parents or something like that. I am not sure what we will do for New Years. Since we have lived up here Ken has always come up, but with the new baby I assume that will not be happening so we will have to see what we will do.

My goal for next year is to save up so we can take Arianna to Disneyland for a long weekend. And then work on getting our Hawaii trip planned.

Well, I need to get going. enjoy the pictures.

Pumpkin Patch Time

This weekend was a nice weekend so we went out to the pumpkin patch with the kids. It was nice to not have it rain and it wasn't very muddy. The kids had a good time. Then on Saturday night we had Ethan go to Parent's Night Out and took Arianna out to dinner. She has been begging to go back to The Melting Pot. She went there a long time ago and loves it,but Ethan is too difficult to take there. So she got all dressed up and looked pretty for her night out.

Sunday we met Michael's parents for lunch. They had been down in LA visiting Michael's sister. Her husband has been transferred to Guam and so they are flying out today and will be there anywhere from 3-5 years. So we had a nice lunch with them and then that was about it. It was a fairly low key weekend for us.

Next week will be a little crazy for me. Michael has to leave to LA on Sunday for a conference for work. He will be back late on Thursday and then Friday is Halloween. We will see how it goes. Ethan is really attached to Michael right now, so it should be interesting :) Michael's parents will be up Halloween weekend for an appt so we might be able to get a night off then.

Fun weekend in Portland

This last weekend was a nice weekend for Michael and myself. On Friday the 10th, Arianna had a vacation day from school, so we left early afternoon and took the kids to Michael's parents house to stay for the weekend while Michael and I went to Portland. We had a very nice time. We stayed downtown, parked the car and walked the whole weekend. The weather was nice and it was just an enjoyable weekend. We walked all over downtown and the pearl district on friday night. Then on Saturday we slept in, walked around town, did some shopping, watched a movie and then had dinner for Ken and Kar-yee. It was so funny because Kar-yee was due with there baby on the 10th, so she was overdue and so Michael kept calling to see if she was in labor or if they would make it to dinner. We went to Veritable Quandary it was yummy. Then Kar-yee had told us about this chocolate place called Cacao. they only serve chocolate and they have real hot chocolate (like in Europe) where they melt the chocolate bar and keep it liquid by stirring with a paddle all the time. We were soo excited to go there, but when we got there they were closed because there had been a death in the family. We were going to try and go on Sunday but they opened too late and we had to leave earlier in the morning. So after we found out it was closed we walked down to Voodoo doughnuts. We have always heard lots about it. They were okay, but not the best doughnut I have ever had. I like Top Pot Doughnuts here in Seattle better.

Ethan has learned a sentence now. On the way to Michael's parents house he said Papa where are you. He loves his papa. Then while we were gone it was dada where are you. In the past he has also said a sort of sentence of Kitty go? Implying where did kitty go.

He has also had a lots of firsts in physical abilities. A few weeks ago he did a perfect sommersault on his own, he can jump (with both feet coming off the ground), he is singing songs - doesn't have perfect words, but he knows the rhythm and uses his own words to fill in.

Ethan started his first swimming lessons yesterday. They had a mommy/daddy and me class at teh same time as Arianna's class so it worked out perfect. I don't know if we will do more than one class or not. We will see. Ethan is very comfortable in the water. He is fine if we put him underwater. He wants to jump in, he kicks his feet when we float him on his front and back. The one thing he doesn't like is blowing bubbles.

Arianna is doing well in swimming. She moved to the school age classes and since she is advanced she is the youngest in the class. There are kids ranging in age from 6-12. She has always been used to being the best in her class and now the older kids can go faster than her so it was a little of a shock, but hopefully it will push her to do even better. She is still in soccer. She is also learning to ride her bike without training wheels. Since we live on a hill she has been a little slower than other kids, but we are working on it. We have to drive to specific park because it is like the only one that isn't hilly. She is still enjoying school. She is doing so well reading. She can read her reading books pretty much all on her own. Their phonics program has really made sense to her and she likes it. She is also enjoying the variety of her classes. She enjoys gym and she loves going to the library to check out books. she is also doing well singing songs from music class.

We are waiting for information on girls scouts to come so we can find a troop for her.

We are planning on going to the pumpkin patch this weekend. That should be fun. Michael is going to be heading out of town soon for work. He has to go to LA for a conference from the 26th-30th. The kids will be missing him. Michael has also started car pooling 2 days a week. We will see how that goes.

Well, i need to run.

More pictures :)

This is a picture of my family in Montana this summer. Everyone was there including Kyle and his girlfriend. Kyle is in the back behind my mom and his girlfriend is in the gray sweatshirt nex to my dad. Taunya is standing next to me in the orange, Rhonda is behind Arianna and her husband Michael is behind my Michael, and LeOrla is next to my mom. My nephew Dylan is behind me, Emily is in the green, Wyatt is next to Arianna and Dalton is standing behind him. The two people missing is Ethan as he was asleep and LeOrla's husband Lance who was not able to make the trip. This was taken around 11pm after letting off our fireworks so everyone was a little bit tired :).

Random pictures and update

Arianna and her missing tooth

Michael's new hat!

Things are now in a pretty good schedule here at the Wilde house. Not a whole lot has been going on. We did have some excitement last monday. Arianna lost her first tooth!!! She was very excited and the tooth fairy came to visit and paid $5. Of course she put it in her piggy bank to save. She lost one of her bottom front teeth and the one next to it is now becoming more loose so I assume that will be out soon as well. She doesn't play with her loose teeth a lot so they take a while to come out.



This last weekend was nice so we took a hike in St. Edwards State Park. It is a large park in the Kirkland area where a monastery used to be. There are lots of trails and a great playground. We hiked around 2 maybe 2.5 miles down to the lakefront and then back up the hill. This was tough on Michael as Ethan got tired and wanted to be carried the whole way up and we choose the difficult trail to take that was pretty much just a straight up the hill. Arianna did a great job with the hike. Oh well, it was nice and cool in the forest and along the lake.



I am happy because I am getting a facial and pedicure tomorrow. I have not had either one in a very long time so I am going to pamper myself. I joined a moms group recently and have started participating in their activities. There are a lot of walking groups so I do those a couple times a week. And tomorrow there is a mom's night out for dinner and a movie so Michael said he would be home so I could go to that. A couple times a year he gets a night out where his work group goes to a baseball or basketball game so it is nice for me to get out too.



It looks like we are going back to Hawaii this spring! Yeah. We booked the time we are in Oahu and are finishing up the details for our time in Kauai. I am so excited in Kauai there are Zipline tours where you hang from a zip line and go across forests, waterfalls, rivers, etc. I have always thought that would be fun to do, so we are planning on taking one of those tours. These tours also have you lunch at a spot where you can swim in a pool where a waterfall is and have rope swings, jumping off cliff into water, etc. How Fun!!! We also plan to do a lot of snorkeling as well.



Well, I need to get some cleaning done. I went grocery shopping and swimming this morning, so I need to do the cleaning. I am including some random photos from Arianna getting off the bus on the first day of school, the kids riding rides at the Puyallup fair, Ethan putting a strainer on MIchael for a hat, Arianna missing her tooth!



Have a great day

School Days!

Well, I am a little behind on posting. Things of course have been busy. Arianna started her first day of Kindergarten on Sept 2! She loves it and is doing great. She takes the bus in the morning and home in the afternoon. She loves riding the bus. It makes her feel like such a big girl. She goes to full day kindergarten. She catches the bus at 8:50 and then gets home at 3:55. She has made good friends with a girl down the street. Her name is Shalini and they are in the same class. She is already learning a lot and remembering lots. She had her first school book fair and bought some books and we have just started a cookie dough sale for her school. She wants to get $200 so she can take a Limo to Lunch - that is the prize. She gets to eat hot lunch sometimes and sometimes bring her own lunch. She also loves the they get to go outside 3 times a day and has PE 4 times a week. Arianna has also started swimming lessons again - she had like 2 weeks off and soccer. Both of those are after school.

Ethan is doing well. His word list is growing every day - which is nice and he is now putting 2 works together like Bye Bye Dog or Hi mom or Go Kitty when he is wondering where the kitty went. He is running so fast now. Sometimes I actually have to do a good job in order to catch up with him!! He loves to climb and go down slides. He is warming up to the swings - he has never really liked them, but now he will at least sit a little longer on them. He would just rather be active and running around then sitting.

Last week was my first week of having 2 days to myself!!! It is nice. I got the whole house cleaned up with was nice. Then Michael's parents came up this weekend and watched the kiddos for us while Michael and I cleaned up the garage and organized. We took 3 loads to goodwill and a load to the dump. It is so refreshing to get rid of things. We have even more sorting to go through!! But it will get done. We also went to the Puyallup fair this weekend. We go every year. This year Ethan was able to ride on the rides. You are supposed to be 2, but he is close enough and he is as tall as most 2 year olds. He had a blast!! Arianna was such a good sister and rode on the baby rides with Ethan sometimes so that he would be comfortable. Then he was able to do it without her. He loved riding on these motorcycles that just went in a circle.

Arianna had a good time too. I took her on a rollercoaster that is similar to Mulholland Madness in California Adventure (she loves that ride). She liked this one as well. We wanted to go on more of the grown up rides, but they had longer waits and so she decided to just go on the little kid roller coasters because the wait was much shorter. Ethan did pretty good staying in the stroller. He ran around sometimes, but it is so crazy busy that it is hard to keep track of him. Arianna loves going down the giant slide. It has 100 steps that you have to go up in order to slide down. She did it 2 times.

We are working on joining 24 hour fitness. With microsoft we get a great deal of like only $30 a month and no enrollment fees. That is cheaper than where I currently go swimming and the gym close to us has a pool so it will be perfect. They also have a kids club where the kids could go and be watched while I work out.

We are looking at going to Hawaii again this spring. If we go we will go to Oahu and then we are deciding between Maui or Kauai. I also want to go to disneyland. We didn't get to go this year and I am really missing it. Michael and I talked about maybe taking a long weekend and taking ARianna down for a few days and leaving Ethan with michael's parents. We will see.

Well I am going to post a few pictures of the kids. Arianna from her first day of school, and both of them playing at teh park.

Ahh the End of Summer

Well it has been a while since my last post. Let's see.... what have we been up to. The weekend of the 16th the kids had a parents night out at school so Michael and I went out to a fancy french restaurant. Since we have had Ethan we haven't had the chance to explore new places. This was definitely going to be an experience for us. We had the 7 course tasting menu where you are given small bites for each course - a taste - . We also did the wine pairing from the sommelier. We were a little nervous at first because of one of the courses. Our first course was a savory nectarine soup. It was delicious and the wine that was paired with it was great. If you took a taste of the soup before the wine you could totally taste the nectarines but then after a sip of wine the savory part of the soup came out. It was really interesting. The next course was our nervous one. It was foie gras - duck or goose liver. This one scared me, but you only live once and need to go outside your comfort zone. It was good!!! It was small and it was sitting on a apple fritter and had a mushroom on top and then paired with a black currant sauce. I truely liked it. It melted on your tongue. The next course was creamed peas with a yeast cake. Very yummy. Then we had steelhead trout with a delicious sauce. I was nervous about this as well as I am not a huge fish fan especially if it is fishy tasting. This was wonderful - very fresh and no fishy taste. Our next course was the sorbet to cleans the pallet. It was very interesting. It was rhubarb, sour cherry, rose, champagne sorbet. The rose was the overwhelming taste. It reminded me of my grandmothers home because it always smelled of roses. Wasn't my favorite, but it did cleanse the pallet. The main course of rabbit loin stuffed with mushrooms and served with morrel mushrooms on the side in a wonderful sauce (french food is alot about the sauces). It was okay - the rabbit was a little tough for me. Then last thing was a salad. I wasn't crazy about the salad, but that could have been because I was getting full. All of the wine pairings were wonderful. We did have dessert and it was good as well. the dinner took about 3 hours - nice and relaxing.

This last weekend we went down to Portland. The people that Michael works on the second project with wanted to have a company picnic so we went down for that. Jeff hosted the party and wow do they have a gorgeous house. The live in Forest Heights and the house is wonderful and they have a beautiful backyard. Arianna had a blast playing with the other kids and Ethan did well also. We only had one incident where he tried to bite - him and another boy were arguing over a toy. We called it a success for him!

While we were there we also picked up a few more school clothes for Arianna. We went to the Woodburn outlet to Gymboree and got her some nice skirts and a few dresses and new tennis shoes. Ethan also needed new shoes - his feet grew a whole size in a couple of months. He is now and 8XW.

I can't believe Arianna starts kindergarten in a week. I didn't think I would be teary over it, but I am a little. She is growing up fast. We get to find out who her teacher is tomorrow and we are buying her school supplies tonight. She got a really cute sunflower backpack and lunch box. Last week was her last class of gymnastics. She is not signed up for the fall because I don't want her to be too busy. She will have swimming 2 days a week and then she wants to continue to do soccer. She also wants to join girl scouts.

Ethan is moving up to a new class in his daycare. It is a class for 2 year olds and older. This will be a challenge for him - hopefully he will do well. This class has them wash their own hands, clean their plates after lunch, they have chinese class, etc. He has been doing better. He has a lot more words and is trying to put them together. His biting has gotten tons better, but he still tends to do it when sometimes tries to take a toy away or he wants a toy from someone else. It is a work in progress. He has only done it once at his school - so that is good.

This week we are leaving on Thursday to go away for the weekend with Michael's parents. Once last trip before school starts on Tuesday.

Have a great labor day weekend!

I love the Summer Olympics!

I love the years of of the Olympics. Needless to say I have been glued to the TV as much as possible to watch the events. Of course the number one thing to watch is swimming, then diving, gymnastics, beach volleyball, track and field, etc. All I have to say is thank goodness for DVR so I can record the events i want to watch when I am not able to watch them live :). The winter olympics in 2010 are going to be in Vancouver and we are thinking of trying to go to some events where vancouver is only a couple hours away. I have always wanted to go to an olympics.

Tomorrow is our Anniversary. It will be 9 years. Luckily this weekend the kids' school is having parents night out this weekend so we get to go out. yeah!!! I am not sure what we are doing yet. We will have to decide today so we can make reservations. I am thinking it might be dinner and a movie maybe.

This last weekend was interesting. Michael had to work on Saturday for a deployment until around 6 pm. we met him at his work and then drove over the mountains to find some clear sky so we could see some of the perseid meteor shower. Luckily there was just enough clear sky that we were able to see some and Arianna was able to see one or two as well which is what we were wanting.

Our next trip is the weekend of the 23rd. We have to go down to portland for a picnic. Michael had promised Arianna a ride in an convertable this summer so I think we will rent one for the day when we are down there. We will see how that goes :).

I am working on getting Arianna signed up for soccer in the fall and then she will continue with swimming as well. Right now we are not continuing with gymnastics in the fall because I don't want her to be so booked with afterschool classes because swimming is M/W and soccer will be on Tues or Thur. The do have classes on the weekends but we want to keep weekends free so we can do family things where she will be in school everyday. So we will see how things go.

I can't believe how fast this month is going. We still need to get Arianna's school supplies and finish getting her some more school clothes. We need to get some jeans tailored for her as they are too long. We also need to get some new tennis shoes.

Well I need to get going and start some cleaning :(

Camping, Picnics, and Crabbing

Well, it has been a while since I have posted. I need to get more pictures up of our recent adventures. Since my last post we went camping at Ocean City State Park near Ocean Shores. We had a good time. We only went for 1 night to see how Ethan would do. We all had a good time. There beach was about a 15 minute walk from the campground. In ocean shores you can drive on the beach so that was interesting to see. There are also a lot of deer in the area - on the beach, in the town, etc. We were able to bring some gates with us so we were able to block ethan from the campfire. It did get quite cold at night which we were not expecting, but we all had fun.

The following weekend was the Microsoft company picnic. Michael's mom was in town for an appointment that weekend so we left Ethan with her and just took Arianna to the picnic. We had a great time. We had brought chairs and blankets but we never even sat down the whole day. The day went by very fast.

This last weekend we went down to Florence to go crabbing. We went with Ken and Kar-yee and his friend David and Teri and their family and friends. There was about 30 people there as Ken's niece was getting baptised that weekend. The crabbing was very poor. They caught a lot of crab, but they were all too small. In about a month they will probably all be the right size. The houses we stayed at were really nice. If my family decides to come out for another reunion i think we would look at renting these houses. Ethan stayed with Michael's parents for the weekend so we just had Arianna and that was nice. There were some other little ones there that were small and sensitive to noise so I think I would have ended up trapped in a room with Ethan. We took Arianna and some of the other kids Dune Buggying. I had done this years ago on a vacation with my grandma and loved it. Everyone had a blast and Arianna wanted to do it again the next day, but we had to leave. The next time we go down we will do it again.

Arianna and Ethan are both doing well. Ethan is getting more and more words and is trying to say two word sentences. He loves going to the park and climbing and going down the slides. He is such a boy. He loves to pick up rocks and throw them, playing in the sand, etc. Arianna is doing well also. She is coming down to her last month of freedom. She starts school on Sept 2nd. We will be going to do school shopping soon for some new clothes, shoes, etc. In her pre-K class she has been able to go on several field trips. She has loved riding the bus to the different locations. She is growing up so fast and starting to act even more mature, but she is also pushing the limits to learn what they are. We have found a park that is great for her to ride her bike. she is working on getting more confident on the bike so we can start learning to ride without training wheels. We will see how it goes.

Well off to the grocery store!!

Some Pictures!

Arianna driving whale watching boat in Newport
Ethan's turn!

Ethan playing in sand at Seal Rock Beach
Playing in the water at Seal Rock Beach

Arianna climbing stairs at Yaquina Bay Lighthouse

Arianna at her Pre-K graduation

Ohh what a summer

Well, it has been quite a while since I have posted. Things have been so busy!! We had a great time visiting my family in Montana. Arianna had a great time playing with her cousins. We first went to Billings to stay at my sister Rhonda's house for a couple of days. LeOrla was there with her boys and Taunya lives in Billings as well so we were all able to visit. On Monday the 30th, we all drove over to Fort Benton to meet up with my parents. We were going on a float down the Missouri the next day. The float trip was great. It had been like 100 degrees on Monday, but tuesday it was probably in the 70s and overcast for part of the day. That made it much more bearable to be out on a canoe. We had a lot of fun. Ethan was even pretty good - he slept for probably about 1/2 the trip which was wonderful for us. We saw several bald eagles, tons of pelicans, deer, etc. It was also nice because my dad did most of his work for the BLM on this part of the river so we were able to see the different sites he worked on to develop like camping sites and Decision Point where Lewis and Clark made the decision on which river to follow.

After the river trip we went back to Lewistown for the rest of the trip. I took Michael floating down Spring Creek for the first time. Before he went he wasn't overly excited, but he had fun once he did it. We also went with Rhonda, LeOrla, Wyatt, and Dalton. We just had a nice relaxing time at home and spent the 4th of July there. Then on Saturday we headed back home. Ethan did very well on the long drives. He isn't the best rider for long trips, but all things considered he did well and Arianna always does fine on road trips.

Ethan started at the daycare where Arianna attended on the 7th. He has done wonderful!! No biting so far!! They keep them very busy there, so I think that helps a lot. We also had another Parents Night Out at their school on the 11th - which was Michael's birthday - so we were able to go out for a quiet dinner and have some quiet time.

This last weekend we had planned to go to Portland, but the kids were really burned out from road trips and we have a few coming up in the next weekends so we decided to stay home. It was a very productive weekend. Michael got the sprinkler system all finished up so now we can get our yard back in shape with new bark, gravel, etc. We also had a fun time going to some u-pick farms. On Saturday we went to a blueberry farm and picked some. Due to the weather in previous months the blueberries are a little late so they were not very sweet yet. We then went to Remlinger Farms to get some raspberries. We got some, but they bushes were very picked over so the ones left were not as ripe as needed. So on Sunday we were to a different farm - Biringer Farms. The raspberries were wonderful there. Ummm Yummy. They also had strawberries that are sooo sweet. We have been snacking on them every day. We made blueberry pancakes with the blueberries.

This weekend we are going camping at Ocean City State Park near Ocean Shores. We are excited to go - Arianna has not been before and she is so excited to make smores over a real campfire.

The weekend of the 26th we are going to the Microsoft company picnic. Luckily Michael's mom is going to be here that weekend so she is going to watch Ethan for us, so we can just take Arianna and have fun with her.

We are now working on cleaning up Arianna's playroom so that we can add Ethan's toys in. We are putting up a gate around her Art table so that she doesn't have to put away all of her art things that are dangerous for Ethan and then they can share the rest of the space. Right now we had a gate so that Ethan could not get to the playroom and we had his toys in our living room. Now that he is older and likes to play with the play kitchen, etc we want to move his things in there and start condensing. We are also going to be taking down his crib in his room. He sleeps in the full bed in there - he moved around to much for the crib and always would wake up a lot. He sleeps better in the bed. So after the crib is out we can move some toys up there too.

Well need to get going. This is my day home alone and I need to get cleaning!

Busy Busy Summer

Well things are going to start getting very busy for us. Even though it is almost summer the weather is not cooperating. Where is our sun??? Anyways, our summer plans are starting to get into gear. This friday is Arianna's pre-k graduation. Then we are going to go over to our friend Lisa's in Silverdale to get hair cuts, etc. Sunday of course if Father's day. On the 20th Arianna has her dance/gymnastics performance and Michael's parents will be coming to our house late that night as his dad has a conference to go to on the 21st. Arianna is going to go home with them and stay for the week and then on the 27th we leave for Montana. Michael's parents are going to bring her up to Ellensburg so we can pick her up on our way.

We get back from Montana on the 6th and then Ethan is going to be starting a new school. He has started biting and can be aggressive sometimes and we did not like the way his school was handling it so we are moving him to the place where Arianna goes. It is more expensive, but we like how they work. To accommodate the extra cost Arianna is dropping down to 2 days a week from 3 for the last couple months before Kindergarten. That way we will pay just about the same as before.

Michael's birthday is on the 11th of July and then on the 19th we are going to go camping at the beach and then the 26th is Microsofts company picnic. And we are not done yet. We are going crabbing in Florence, OR on Aug 1-4. We think we are going to leave Ethan with Michael's parents for that trip. He can be a little picky and fussy and there are going to be lots of people there so we thought it might be easier on him and us. Also it gives Arianna some special time with us before she starts school. Kindergarten starts on the Tuesday after Labor Day. We were thinking about going to Yellowstone over labor day weekend, but we are not sure with gas prices.

On Saturday Arianna has a Parent's Night Out at school and she is going and we are going to send Ethan as well. It will be his first time so we will see how he does. He has been doing really good with me leaving him at school, so we will see how he is in this situation. Hopefully he does well, it will be nice to have a night out. Since Ethan will be attending the school, Arianna will still be able to attend the PNO even after she is in Kindergarten so that is nice.

Arianna is doing well. She is starting to want more independence now - in terms of playing with friends, etc. There are a few neighbor kids that are 8 and 9 that she likes to play with and so we are giving her a little more flexibility about going and knocking on their door to see if they can play outside, etc. She is doing well in swimming. Her class now has them swimming 25 yards of crawl and backstroke. She does well on the crawl and pretty good on the backstroke - she just needs to figure out how to go straight. She has really progressed in soccer and her running is much better now. Soccer ends for the summer, but we will sign up again for the fall.

Ethan is as busy as ever. The boy never stops unless it is time to sleep. We both had cold this week which isn't fun. He is expanding his vocabulary every day. Arianna was a clear talker and never used baby words like nana instead of banana. Ethan is the opposite. he says nana for banana, he babbles a lot, and can be hard to understand, but he is doing better. He is even trying to say orange juice :). He is also a climber. And he is always trying to figure out what he can use to climb up onto other things. He also loves to sing. he takes microphones and sings in them, plays the piano and sings, rocks to the rhythm of music, dances, etc. It is very cute. He is also starting to enjoy coloring which is nice to keep him entertained for a while. He still is not showing a preference for which hand he will use. He uses both of them very often so we will still have to wait.

Memorial Weekend at the Beach!

This weekend turned out much better than we had planned. On Friday we left for Portland to meet up with Michael's dad. We had looked at the weather forecast for Yachats, OR and it said rain, t-storms, etc for the whole weekend. So we planned for a wet time there. On Saturday morning we drove down to Eugene to drop off his dad's car at the airport. Michael's mom was flying in there from CA and she drove the car to meet us at the beach. After we dropped off the car we headed to Newport. When we got there we were shocked. The weather was so nice!!!! It was in the 60's and barely windy. We got some lunch at our favorite fresh fish stand and then it was on to the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse. Arianna and Ethan had a blast. Ethan loved just running around. When we first got there he went up to the fence and looked at the ocean and said "Oh, Wow!" It was so cute. Then he ran around just laughing and yelling and having fun. Arianna convinced Michael to walk up the Lighthouse with her. It was her first time doing that. It was 111 steps up and she got buttons saying that she made it to the top. Michael's dad and I kept Ethan busy running around while we waited for Arianna and Michael. He practiced his steps up and down. After they finished with the lighthouse we walked down to the beach. Unfortunately the tide was coming in so we couldn't really look at the tidal pools, but there were the seals and there was also a mom seal nursing her baby. Very cute. Ethan loved it down there. He sat on the rock beach and played in the pebbles. Then it was time to go. From the lighthouse we headed down to Seal Rock and the beach there. We went to that beach last year and it was where the fort was - of course that was gone this year. We had some buckets and shovels for the kids to play with. Ethan had a blast in the sand. Arianna headed directly to the water to go wading. The water was sooo cold. I guess I was spoiled in Hawaii and all the warm water. Anyways Arianna had a blast. Michael's mom met us there at the beach and waded in the water with Arianna. Arianna then tripped as a wave came in the she got all wet but she loved it. While we were there a group of around 15 pelicans came flying by. We normally see a group of 4 or 5, but this group was huge! The weather started turning cooler and some clouds were coming in so we decided to head down and check into the hotel.

The hotel we stayed at is the Overleaf Lodge. We love this place. It sits on the waters edge above all of these rocks that you can climb down on and look around. When the tide is out there are tidal pools, rocks covered in mussels and starfish, crabs, etc. It is fun to climb around and see what is there.

The next day we walked around the rocks in the morning and then headed out to the aquarium. After the aquarium we went to Newports bayfront to walk around and have some lunch. After lunch we decided to take a boat out to see if we could see any whales. Arianna had a blast on the boat. She even got to drive the boat, throw out some crab pots, catch some plankton, etc. The captain even let Ethan drive the boat. Ethan was a little bit of a terror on the boat. He would not sit at all and was constantly walking around. We didn't see any whales, but we saw some sea lions and harbor porpoise. Arianna helped pull up the crab pots. There were some crabs in there as well as a star fish. After the boat ride we went back to the hotel to relax for a while. Michael's parents went out by themselves and we had some dinner and came back to get the kids to bed. Again the weather was wonderful!! We were sooo lucky to have such nice weather.

Monday after lunch we headed back to home :( We were all very sad. We love the beach so much. Arianna kept asking why we couldn't live there. We told her we wish we could.

We will now have another busy couple of weeks. Michael is going to have his friends come up to help finish the sprinkler system, then we have dinner with Jenny, Bryan, Gabe, and her family on Saturday. Then Arianna has Pre-K graduation on the 13th. She has her performance for dance/gymnastics on the 20th, and Michael's parents come up that weekend because his dad has a conference. Then the following Friday we leave to go home to Montana to meet up with my family for the week.

We will post some pictures soon of our weekend!

Busy Hot Weekend

This weekend was very busy for us. Michael had a huge project planned. Installing a sprinkler system in our front and back yards. He had 5 guys come from work and they worked all day in the 90 degree hit digging trenches through rocks and roots, etc. They got everything dug except one smaller run on the side of the house and all the pipes laid, etc. They got the front yard covered back up and I replanted my flowers this morning. This afternoon we have to cover the pipes in the back yard and replace the grass then that will be done. Then all that is left is the small run on the side and then Michael getting the manifold designed and set up and we should be good to go. Ohh and we have rake up the rocks that are in the yard after everything is done.



The other thing that I did on Saturday, was I was able to go visit Mandy for a little while. She was staying at a nearby hotel so I took Arianna and Ethan and they went swimming with Bryn and Maryn. It was great to see her, but it always goes fast. We need to plan some time where we can get together and visit for a while longer. I keep telling Michael that we need to go visit her in Boise. Mandy's mom is in Ellensburg so they come over to this side to visit her cousin and have some fun. So it makes it nice for us to be able to visit.



Well, we will try and post some pictures of the yard in progress in a little while. It will be nice when it is all done and we do not have to worry about watering the yard and using too much water!! It was a lot of hard work, but much cheaper. We have had several bids over the last few years and most of them were anywhere for $4000 for only the back yard and over $6000 for teh whole thing. Michael spent maybe a quarter of that and that includes the plummer for connecting to mainline and renting a ditchwitch, etc. Still a little expensive, but something Michael has wanted to do forever. Hopefully it will help save on water too.

We are hoping the week pasts quickly so we can head out to the coast on Saturday. We are driving to Portland on Friday and then going to Yachats on Saturday morning and then coming back on Monday. We hope the weather will be good! Arianna wants to fly her kite, have a picnic on the beach like last year, and play in the sand. Oh she also wants to look for whales :)

Checking out Kindergarten

Well Arianna had an exciting day yesterday. Her elementary school had a dinner for all incoming Kindergarteners and their families. We all went to the dinner, but Ethan got very fussy so Michael took him home and I stayed with Arianna. She met some friends she already knew and played for a while then they got to visit the classrooms, meet the teachers, go to the library, work on some projects. She wrote her name VERY nicely on some lined paper. Even the principal commented on how nice it was. That made her very proud so she all the teachers, school nurse, etc. Then afterwards she went and played on teh playground for a while and watched some girls playing softball. She wants to do T-ball next year. Luckily she actually knows a few kids that will be attending there. It just depends on if they get in the same class. Right now there are 2 full day classes, 1 AM class and 1 PM class. She is in full day. A boy from her soccer class is in full day, 2 other kids on our street are in full day, and another girl that sometimes attends her parents night out at her school (and is the neighbor of the boy from soccer) is also full day. So hopefully she will be in a class with at least one of these people.

This weekend should be interesting. Michael and about 5 guys from his work are going to attempt to put in a sprinkler system for our yard. We will see how that goes :) It is supposed to be very warm and nice today and this weekend. We are loving it as we were missing the warm weather from Hawaii :).

Next weekend we are going to the beach at Yachats, OR for a few days. Michael's parents are going to go as well. Hopefully the weather will be good!!

Have a great day!

Hawaii Pictures

Here is a website that you can start to view some of our pictures. We still need to upload some more, but this is a start.

Enjoy!

www.wildefamily.net/hawaii

No more EpiPen!

Yesterday Arianna went and had some allergy testing. We wanted to get her checked for Bees, Penicillin, and anything else they thought might be helpful. The little girl was so brave, she had 12 injections for the test for bees and then like 10 pokes for a regular panel that tested for allergies to dust mites, grasses, etc. She showed up negative to everything. That means she isn't allergic to bees - which is different that what they had thought when she was younger. Yeah no more EpiPen! They still recommend that we keep benadryl because she might be more likely to swell with a sting like she did before and that will help with the swelling. They were not able to test for Penicillin because the FDA shut down the company/lab that produced the test a few years ago. Thus he said we will have to wait for a few more years until someone else develops a better test. So for right now we still have to say she is allergic to Penicillin and then will test her later on. He did say that many times with a penicillin allergy as a child that many tend to outgrow it as adults. They didn't test her for any food allergies since we could not pin one thing down that seemed to bother her. If he figure out something in the future we can then have her tested.

As for Ethan, he is now considered allergic to penicillin. After several days on Amoxicillin he got a rash all over the trunk of his body. The doctors determined that it was a reaction so no more penicillin for him either. And we will have to wait a while for him to get tested as well.

We are just so happy not to have to carry EpiPens!

Hawaii update

Well, ,we got so busy that I didn't have a chance to update on everything we did so I will do so now. We got home on the 2nd and we are now adjusting to real life :).

Sunday 27th:

In the morning we drove north from the resort to look at the surrounding area. We drove along the North Kohala coast and then through the Kohala mountains to the town of Waimea - which is in the center of the cattle ranching area. It was a beautiful drive and we saw lots of butterflies in the mountains. That afternoon we came back to the resort and went to the spa. Michael and I both had massages. They were some of the best ones we have had. The spa facilities were very nice as well. Each locker room had a lava rock hot tub, aromatherapy steam shower, showers with shower heads down the wall, etc. That evening we at dinner at a place called Roys. It is a chain, but it was wonderful - one of our favorite meals. I had a macadamia nut crusted Mahi Mahi with augratin potatoes and a white truffle sauce. Absolutely delicious.

Monday 28th:

In the morning we listened to the sales speech for the timeshare. They were giving us a $200 dinner cruise so we decided to just listen to it. Then after that we went to Hapuna Beach and it was beautiful. We went boogie boarding - this was my first time doing that and it was sooo much fun. Michael had been boogie boarding before in Long Beach, CA. Later in the morning the waves started getting bigger so we were riding the waves in and jumping up so that the wave would carry us up. I love swimming in the ocean. As we were getting ready to leave we noticed a huge splash at the mouth of the bay. We soon realized that it was a humpback whale. It was huge. We were standing in the water near the beach and we could see it clearly. It was very cool. Everyone said that these were probably the last 2 humpbacks left in Hawaii. Usually they have all left for Alaska by now. Humpback season is from Dec to March. The only downside to our time at the beach is that I got a good sunburn. We had been in Hawaii for several days and we had done a great job of not getting burned. We had our sunscreen on, but we lost track of time and didn't reapply soon enough. I was in pain for a few days but I wouldn't have given up the experience of the beach.

That night we went to a Luau. It was a traditional luau and it was nice. The performers did a great job. We met some people from Seattle and another couple from CA. The luau was the Royal Kona Luau. We had a oceanfront view and the weather was good.

Tuesday 29th:

We drove to the Volcanos National Park on this day. We got there by driving through Waimea, then south to Hilo and then over to the park. We stopped at the Jagger Museum and saw the huge steam vent in the crater. They said that at night it hole glows because of the heat from below. We then went to a different area where there were smaller vents and we ran into the couple (Colin and Laura) from CA that we met at the Luau. We had known that we both were going to the volcanos but we didn't figure we would run into each other. It was funny. So we decided to follow each other to the additional spots to visit. Our next stop was the Thurston Lava Tube and Lava Lake. We decided to do the mile hike down to the Lava Lake first. This is a lava bed that used to be a lava lake in a crater but now of course the lava is all hardened. Luckily it was a little cloudy as well as voggy so that made the hike not too hot. When we got down there, another couple (Melissa and Laz) who had Laura take there picture at the steam vents, had followed us down. They thought it was the way to the lava tube and they asked where it was. We told them it was all the way back up the hill at the top. We all laughed because they thought it was down here. Anyways we all hung out and had some pictures together then we hiked back up to the lava tube. It was pretty cool to go into the lava tube and think about how lava used to run through this huge tube. After this Melissa and Laz decided to head back to Kona and Colin, Laura, Michael and myself went on to drive to the viewing of the lava entering the ocean. The volcano has been quite active in the recent months. We got to the viewing parking lot and then you hike about 1 mile over lava rock to the viewing area. They keep you pretty far back so you most just see the hot steam from the lava hitting the ocean, but every now and then you could see some lava. It was a neat site to see

Wednesday 30th:

Today was going to be a busy day. We had to get up early to drive down to Kona to catch our snorkeling cruise. We went to Kealakekua Bay which is where Captain Cooks monument is. He was actually killed there. Anyways - it was a great bay to go snorkeling. The coral reef was alive and we saw tons of fish. It was beautiful. I love to snorkel. I hope it is something we can continue to do and teach Arianna and Ethan someday. The cruise provided us with breakfast as well as lunch. The boat had a slide that ended about 4 feet above the water as well as a high dive. Michael did the slide once, but I did it tons of times. It was so much fun. I also did the high dive once. It was high enough that it is hard to keep the water from going up your nose. On our way back to port we saw flying fish. We were not able to get pictures of them but they were amazing. We both had heard of flying fish but we just thought it was that they could jump a long distance over the water, but no they actually fly. They flap their fins and can fly very far. We were totally amazed. It was very cool.

After we got off the boat we were hurrying to get back to the resort because we were to have a dinner cruise. On our way back we got a call and they had to cancel because the winds were too strong for the sailboat. We were very disappointed but soon made new plans. We found a new dinner cruise to go on on Thursday evening and then for Wed night we decided to drive back down to Kona to the Sheraton Hotel. There they turn a light on in the evening to attrack plankton. Then the Manta Rays come!!! It was soo cook to see them. They are huge and they actually come up to the surface so you can see them pretty well. Michael took pictures but it was hard to get them super clear because the water was very choppy that night. But it was still a once in a lifetime kind of thing. They actually have a scuba dive cruise where you go and scuba dive to see them while they are feeding.

Thursday 1st:

Our last day :( :( We both did not want the vacation to end. But it was going to be an exciting day. Today was the day I got to swim with dolphins. A lifelong dream of mine. The swim with dolphins was actually at our resort. The first part of the program was snorkeling in the lagoon at teh resort. We saw 3 green sea turtles, moray eels, and lots of reef fish. Then they took us over to the dolphins. There was just 3 of us in our group. Michael, myself, and a young boy who only spoke Japanese. It was a wonderful experience. We got to spend a lot of time touch the dolphin and interacting with them. We were able to get a DVD of our experience so we can share it with anyone who wants. I will remember this experience for a long time.

That evening we had our dinner cruise. They picked us up at our hotel and drove us to the catamaran. to get on the boat we had to wade through water which was funny because there were some older couples who must not have read that part and were a little frustrated that they had to take off their shoes. It was a very nice cruise and Michael was able to get some beautiful pictures of the sunset. It was a beautiful way to end our trip.

Friday 2nd: We flew home to Seattle

We had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back. We would likely bring Arianna and likely Ethan back with us the next time. Arianna would have a great time learning to snorkel and playing in the ocean. There are also so many things that we didn't get to do on the big island and we hope to explore the other islands in the future as well.

It was great to have the opportunity to eat such fresh fish like the Mahi Mahi and Ono. We had wonderful pineapple and coconut almost every day. We had lots of pina colada smoothies and Chi Chi's which are cocktails that have cream of coconut, pineapple juice and vodka. They are similar to pina coladas. Michael got to drink from a green coconut which he used to do when he was little. We had some good papaya and saw papaya trees, mango trees, coconut palms, banana trees, beautiful wild flowers, etc.

If we could live in Hawaii, I think we would.

We are creating a website for our pictures so I will post that as soon as it is done.

Surfers and Snorkeling

On Friday we decided to drive around the island and then do some snorkeling at the end of the day. We first went to the Dole Pineapple plantation which was interesting to see. Then we drove up to North Shore where we had lunch and Hawaiian Shaved Ice at the original stand called Matsumotos. From there we drove past Turtle Bay Resort and near there we stopped to get some fruit from a fruit stand. Michael was able to get a coconut and drink the liquid from inside just like he did when he was a kid. He was so happy. I didn't particularly like the taste. We also picked up some mangos and some sugar cane. From there we continued down the east side of the island and it was raining quite a bit so we just looked at the scenery. Finally we reached Hanauma Bay which is where we wanted to go snorkeling. It was sooo much fun. It had a great beach and lots and lots of fish. And the best part of all is we saw a green Sea Turtle right next to us!!! It actually started swimming to us. What a wonderful way to end the day.

On Saturday we flew out to the Big Island to Kona. The airport had everything outside - very interesting. We then went to our hotel - driving through old lava beds. We even saw a lava tube. Here people take dead coral from the beaches and write their names on the black lava along the road. The grounds at the resort are beautiful and we had dinner last night overlooking the ocean. The volcanos have been active and thus there is a lot of haze in the air or what they call VOG. The winds should start coming in and clearing it up soon.

We have lots of activitys planned here. We are taking a snorkeling cruise on a catamaran which also has a slide to go into the ocean, a dinner sailboat cruise, swim with dolphins, visiting the volcanos, a luau, and hopefully some boogie boarding and more snorkeling.

Aloha

We LOVE Hawaii!!

Let's just say we have only been here a couple days and we already love it! Our flight here was great. Hawaiian Airlines still gives you a meal - can you believe it!! The flight was about 6 hours and we landed to warm hot weather. Our room is awesome. We have to balconies that look over a lagoon and part of Waikiki beach. We spent the afternoon walking around the resort and then that evening we drove to the other side of the island to have dinner with the parents of a friend. They live in Kailua and they gave us some great tips on what to see and do here. On Thursday we went in a submarine and saw some beautiful fish and several green sea turtles. That was an amazing experience. Then in the afternoon I went snorkling for the very first time. We snorkled at Waikiki beach - it was a good place for me to learn. There were some fish but not tons and we even saw puffer fish - lots of them. The area is being taken over by algae so there is not as much wildlife as other areas. Today we are going to Hanauma Bay which is supposed to be great for snorkling. We are also going to the Dole Pineapple plantation, North Shore to see some surfers, Kailua beach and lots of other places. We are driving around most of Oahu today. We will upload some pictures tonight for everyone to see. We have some of the views outside our room, the sea turtles, etc. Tomorrow we fly out for the big island!

Aloha!

Hawaii here we come!

Hawaii here we come!

This is my first post for this blog. Michael and I leave for Hawaii tomorrow morning on a 10 day trip without the kids! We are very excited. We will be staying on Oahu and the Big Island. My goal is to try and post some of the things we do on our trip. It will definitely be an adventure for us! Our flight leaves at 8:00 tomorrow morning and we arrive in Honolulu to start the trip. Michael's mom is watching the kids while we are gone and we hope that they behave!!! Keep checking for future updates!