Hello Again

I'm not sure what happened, but I can tell you this. It might have something to do with the fact that my mom came and visited. There's something awesome about sitting up late chatting with the woman who has known you longer than anyone else and still likes you. Hope you have a similar blessing in your life. Regardless, that's the excuse I'm going to use for falling off the blog-o-sphere. But now I'm back.

We had a lovely weekend in Sunriver with Erik's parents. It snowed over there and Luke went out to play...sort of. He spent the first half hour sitting on a towel and screaming every time the snow touched him. So, he had to come in for a time out. Then he figured out he could scoop the snow with the measuring cup that had been the snowman's hat. He proceeded to clear the entire deck of snow using a half cup measuring cup. That's my boy! I do not know where he gets this propensity for order and cleanliness. There are times when I put this gift to good use, but there are also the times when the trucks are not lined up properly and a meltdown ensues. Medication anyone? For me, not him.

In other news, Paul got his first haircut last night. It was bath time and the long hair just had to go. I only cut the back. I didn't have the fortitude to cut the curly front locks or the curls around his ears. He still is very much my baby boy. I just needed the rest of the world to stop asking how old she is. :-)

Totally random tangent: I got a Pilates workout video for beginners from the library. First impression - Is there a more beginner video available? Enough said about that.

I like you people. Thanks for reading my blog and bugging me when I don't post. Here are the pics.

Someone is missing, but he just couldn't be bothered. The rest of us look cute.

After his time out, Luke spent a few moments conversing with the snowman Erik made.

Before

After

Adorable

Celebrating Easter

We are still in somewhat of a jet lagged stupor here, but we did manage to have a wonderful Easter. My mom and grandma drove down early Saturday morning and arrived to a house with only Erik awake. They checked into G.G.'s (Great Grandma's) hotel room and hung out until 10:30 am, when Luke and I finally woke up. That's crazy! Anyway, we enjoyed hanging out, sharing pictures from the trip with them and talking.

This morning our plan had been to attend the 9:30 am service at church. No children were awake at 9 am and the Mommy and the Daddy were only barely so. Good thing there are two services! We easily made it to the 11 am service and were blessed to be there. We sat next to good friends and had a great time worshiping the risen Savior.

Erik and I made Easter dinner together. We glazed a ham and made scalloped potatoes from scratch. It was lots of fun and turned out really well. We are going to experiment a bit with the recipe for the potatoes. We are thinking of making them one of our specialties. Erik actually popped out to the store Saturday night to buy a mandoline - one of those fancy slicers. It worked really well. All the potatoes were thin and evenly sliced. I sound like a commercial for the thing. :-)

Anyway, we wish a wonderful and joyous Easter. Here are the pics!

Happy Paul with Happy G.G.

G.G. reading to Luke this morning from Beatrix Potter. G.G. taught second grade for over twenty years. I love listening to her use her teacher voice with Luke. She was also the one who taught me to read the summer I turned four. I had no idea we were learning anything important at the time. :-)

The boys in their cutie matching outfits from Oma. Socks don't count.

Four generations! Luke was already down for his nap and wasn't able to be in the picture, but Paul was more than happy to provide his happy face.

Mahalo, Maui!

Today was our last day in Hawaii. We fly out tomorrow in the early afternoon. It has been a wonderful trip. At this very moment, the sun has turned the sky over our condo an amazing shade of pink. We are actually sitting in our living room area enjoying it. Luke has reached the end of his vacation rope and is watching Veggie Tales. There was actually a tape here in the condo when we arrived. Whew! Anyway, here's the day's recap:
I went whale watching this morning! It was so much fun. I loved being out on the water and there were quite a few whales to see. None of my pictures turned out, but Alex has a better camera, so I might be able to high jack a few for my scrapbook. I could have spent all day out there. At one point they put a waterproof mic into the water and we listened to live whale song. So very cool. I also learned a lot of cool information about whales. Baby humpback whales gain 100 pound a day! That makes me feel better about the five pounds I'm pretty sure I have gained here.
This afternoon we spent time with some friends of Dave and Lynne's who have a place just down the coast. Luke walked on the sand for the first time! Yes, we have spent the entire week carrying him. He's just very cautious, folks. But it was great to see him exploring up and down the beach.
In closing, I have video footage of our first day here. We didn't get it downloaded to the computer until just yesterday. Regardless, it is a fun little tour of our condo (when it was still clean) and a short scene involving Luke getting up from his nap. It's about two minutes long.

Road Trip to Lahaina and Other Adventures

Yesterday after breakfast we loaded the family into the rental car and headed up the coast to Lahaina. My goal was to show Luke the banyan tree there. We arrived just after 9am and the town was already packed with tourists. I was so surprised. Everywhere else we have gone that early has been relatively dead. Regardless, we found parking, walked a few blocks and found ourselves looking at the coolest tree ever. A banyan tree grows by sending down roots to start other trees, but it is all connected. This tree was huge! Luke absolutely adored it.

He also found the north pole. In The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh there is a chapter in which Christopher Robin, Pooh and all the others go on an "expotition" in search of the North Pole. Pooh, or course, finds it. In our family picture below, Luke is hugging what he proclaimed to be the North Pole. "Oh, I found the North Pole!" In Maui. Well done.

Other adventures yesterday included taking Paul to the swimming pool for the first time. It was just like a really big bathtub in his estimation. He spent the entire time drenching the Mommy holding him. That kid loves to splash!

Not sure what the plan is for today. Luke is playing at the beach with Grandma. Paul is sitting in his saucer chilling out - very Hawaiian of him. I'm thinking about taking a nap. Beautiful. :-)

There it is, folks. The North Pole of Maui.

Happy Family

Splashing Mommy is fun.

Maui Marine Adventures

The main highlight of the day for all of us were our respective marine adventures. Erik and I headed off at 6:45am to go snorkeling with Krista and Alex. We went to an area called Ahi Ahi (I think). The water had a fair amount of surf - something both Krista and I described as "being oceany." Despite the waves, we all made it in. I confess to being the most chicken of the four. Erik and Alex coaxed me in and I'm really glad they did. It was super fun and we saw lots of fish. Bright yellow, striped, pretty fish. Dark black, crazy-finned fish. I'm too lame to know the names, but they were really cool. We also saw some absolutely stunning coral. I just loved it. It was a little hard getting back in to shore, but a good workout for the legs. Next time we are going to visit a more secluded cove with less surf.

Luke and Paul, meanwhile, spent the morning with Grandma and Grandpa. They all visited the aquarium located less than five minutes from the condos. A good time was had by all and Luke was well behaved. Music to this mother's ears.

For dinner Erik took me to the Seawatch Restaurant at the Wailea Golf Club. Famous for its sunset views and amazing food, this place did not disappoint. Macademia nut encrusted brie, goat cheese and beet salad, fresh uku, and Hawaiian bread pudding. Wowza. I won't need to eat any food tomorrow. As for the sunset, the pictures do not do it justice, but I'm going to tweak the contrast when I get home to my computer. God did a beautiful job tonight and I don't think He'll mind if I help the pictures out a little. :-)

Luke enjoying the fish at the aquarium.

Paul enjoying his new St. Patty's Day bib. Thanks Grandma!

Amy and Erik enjoying time together at the Seawatch.

Hawaiian Sunset

Mellow on Maui

We started our day one hour later than yesterday...5:30 am wake up instead of 4:30 am. That's improvement. We are encouraged. :-) The boys had a very mellow day that included some time playing with Grandma and Grandpa as well as an evening spent with Krista and Alex. More on that a bit later.

This morning we read Matthew 21 to Luke and told him the story of Palm Sunday. It was super cool to be able to look out our window and point out the palm trees with their long, waving branches. Luke liked the story so much, he had me tell it twice! It's always a challenge to say it in the exact same way. I can tell that he's trying to memorize the events, and he likes it when we use the same words and phrases. We always start by reading straight from the Bible, but then we tell the story in our own words, using some of the dialog from scripture. This is the way he hears the story at BSF and I can tell he really likes it. Although we missed worshiping with our friends back home, it was a blessing to remember Christ's triumphal entry and the shouts of Hosanna heard that morning so long ago. Amazing to me is that Jesus knew those same voices would be shouting, "Crucify him!" in less than a week's time.

Erik gave me the opportunity to have some time to myself this afternoon and I stole away to the beach for a long, quiet walk. The area we are in is not at all overly crowded. Although there were other folks out, I spent 90% of my time in solitude. It was delightful! I took some pictures on my phone...forgot the camera again. They didn't really turn out, but I know what it looked like.

Tonight Dave and Lynne took us to dinner at The Waterfront, an award winning restaurant about five doors down from our condos. As mentioned before Alex and Krista watched the kids. I love them because they don't take any guff from the two-year old and love him despite all his guff giving attempts. Dinner was amazing. Really amazing. I had onaga, a long-tailed red snapper, sauteed "en bastille." So yummy. I took a picture of my plate. See below. It was an absolutely delightful evening filled with laughter and insanely good food.

In even more important news, Paul turned eight months old today. Here's a picture of him with Sprout.

The humidity has totally turned Paul into the curly-haired cutie. No styling product was used on this baby at any time before or after the taking of this picture.

Luke and Paul

My dinner - so good.

Erik, Amy, Lynne, and Dave

Happy!

Maui Madness

Okay. I didn't sleep so well last night. First night in a new place. Wasn't sure how the boys would do and kept checking on them. Finally at 4:30 am, I just decided the night was over and I got up. Not surprisingly, Erik was pretty much awake at this time as well. Paul joined us at about 5 am and by 5:37 am, the whole family was settled around the breakfast table. I'm thinking the time change hasn't kicked in yet. Breakfast in the dark was lovely and Paul took an early nap at 8am. Luke lasted until 11am.

The stories: Luke and I spent time in the pool and on the beach today. He would rather sit on the edge of the pool with his feet on the top step. I'm cool with that. The beach was all about finding things to throw in the water. These was actually a tad challenging on the beach in front of our condo, but we managed. Washing off the sand wasn't the most fun afterward, but nobody died. We have also started going on gecko hunts. Grandpa and Luke spotted a gecko yesterday and Luke has been looking for it ever since.

Paul is crazy close to crawling. We are blessed to be in a condo that has carpeting in the living room and bedrooms. He rolls around, but then spends a lot of time up on all fours rocking. If it's not this week, it's going to be soon after we get home.

We are tired. It is 9:30 pm here and has been a long day. Hopefully the internal clocking is on island time now and we can all sleep in a bit in the morning. Here are the pics!

Paul has learned to nap Hawaiian style - very mellow. :-)

Luke could not look more like his Daddy than he does in this picture. This is exactly what Erik looked like at this age, except with longer hair. It was the seventies.

It's going to happen. Soon.

This is the lawn outside our unit that leads to the pool (about 15 feet away) and the beach (about 25 feet away). Pretty sweet. The look on my face in the picture is a little odd because Erik, the photographer, is holding Baby Paul, and I had just noticed that the trade winds were a touch too cold for the small guy. Oh well. Luke looks adorable enough for both of us.