Bath Time Shenanigans

Bath time has become quite the event around our house.  To say Raleigh likes being in the tub is the biggest understatement of the century.  He LOVES it!  He loves to splash and play with the bath toys, it's so cute to watch.  

It has been so fun to see the kids interact more with each other.  Raleigh loves to watch Daphne and Daphne LOVES making him smile and laugh.  Despite all the craziness two kids can bring, I sure do appreciate the moments I see them playing together or watching Raleigh watch Daphne so intently.

Side note, Raleigh crawled for the first time tonight and I am kind of freaking out.  Why do they have to grow up so fast??!!

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his little over bite smile gets me everytime

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I mean seriously...

Easter 2017

We had a wonderful low key Easter this year.  The weekend was filled with working in the garden and decorating eggs.  I love the feeling of fresh beginnings that Easter and spring brings.  As I cleaned up the weeds in our yard it reminded me of the blessing of being able to start clean and fresh every week because of the Atonement.  I am so grateful for the family time and constant reminders of what makes life important.

We started our Easter morning with lemon poppy seed pancakes topped with strawberries, they were delicious if I do say so myself.  Obviously it was accompanied with easter candy at 9 in the morning.  Let's be honest here, is there ever a bad time for candy (especially holiday candy)?  After church we headed to my parents for Easter dinner and an egg hunt for Daphne.  We all left my mom's in a full blown sugar coma, no regrets here though.

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this one is blurry, but it seemed like the best we could get

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family pictures are hard

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Daphne found an old pocket size Book of Mormon of mine and is obsessed with it.  I wish I could say it had something to do with the content but I am sure it is mostly because of the size.  

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I can't get enough of this handsome little guy

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Daphne's grin kills me here

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let it be known, Daphne is obsessed with dinosaurs these days (hence, the dinosaur t shirt from the easter bunny)

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sugar coma

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Daphne's friend Axel. He lives across the street from my parents and him and Daphne have such a blast hanging out.  It is so fun to see their faces light up when they see each other!

Hawaii

I am finally getting around to posting about mine and Isaac's kidless trip to Hawaii.  It was, in a word....relaxing.  I didn't realize how much sleep I was missing out on until we had our first night away from the kids.  Don't get me wrong, we missed them loads while we were gone, but we definitely appreciated the break.  And let me just add that my mom is the super mom of the century, I mean, I already knew that but she watched both kids for us and dealt with a sick toddler (daphne of course got a 24 hour bug while we were gone) the woman is amazing.  We were so grateful for the break and my mom was so willing to help and made it such a fun week for Daphne.

We stayed in Kona on the Big Island with my grandma and had such a wonderful time.  The trip was full of lots of beach time, snorkeling, kayaking, hikes and of course endless eating.

Day 1:
Because of the time difference, I woke up pretty early and Isaac and I walked down to the Ocean.  The big Island beaches are so neat and different, the volcanic rock is absolutely beautiful.  After a delicious waffle breakfast we headed to Pu'uhonua O Hõnaunau Bay/City of Refuge.  This beach is known for great snorkeling.  Boy did we luck out, because on our first day and first snorkel we swam next to a beautiful sea turtle and after going out a little farther were surrounded by a dolphin pod.  They were swimming all around us and below us.  I have always had a hard time swimming in the ocean, especially when I can't see the bottom (seriously though, what is out there?!) but this was such an amazing experience!  I have never been that close to a dolphin, it was so incredible.  Also, while we were out with the dolphins, just 50 yards away from us were a couple of whales!  I mean, seriously, how were we going to top that? On our first day!  After our snorkeling adventures we headed to get some lunch at the Coffee Shack, a cute little sandwich and salad place with some of the best coconut cream pie money can buy.  I am not exagerating one bit either, just talking about it now makes my mouth water.  I am still trying to figure out a way for them to send a pie out to Utah.  The Coffee Shack also had the most amazing views.  Afterwards, we headed back to the kondo so Isaac could take a nap and I went to read my book by the pool.  My sister Sarah has been going to school on Oahu and she flew out to the Big Island to come hang out with us.  After picking her up from the airport we headed to dinner at Walmart to help my grandma fix some things around her condo.

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the bread on this sandwich was out of this world amazing

Day 2:
Day 2 started on a good note with some fantastic malasadas (doughnuts) that Sarah brought from Oahu.  We all then headed up north to Mauna Kea Beach.  We rented a jeep while we were there and it was so nice driving with the top off.  Because of high surf, the beach was closed but we were able to hang out at a near by beach (Samuel Spencer).  I did some more reading and Isaac explored around.  We grabbed lunch after at Cafe Pesto, a favorite of grandma Gayle's and then did some more snorkeling at Kahalu'u Bay.  The golf coarse at my grandma's condo has the most beautiful view of the sunset.  It was so neat to see the waves crash up against the lava rock.

Hawaii Part 2

Day 3:
We got an early start on day 3, we headed down south to the Black Sands Beach and volcanos.  On our way down we found the most beautiful lookout.  The big Island is amazing because you can be driving through the most lush green area and then all of the sudden come across a lava trail, the landscapes are so different.  Our first stop was Punalu'u Beach.  This black sands beach was so incredible, the sand was so soft, behind the beach was the most beautiful lilly pond surrounded by palm trees.  Sarah brought her hammock and we hung out there for a while.  Then we were off to Volcano national park.  Sadly, we didn't see any flowing lava.  Apparently the week after we were there the lava activity was insane.  We hiked through some lava tubes, it was so incredible and felt a little like we were in an Indiana Jones movie.  One of my favorite parts of traveling is driving around and seeing new places and scenery.  We clocked about 5 hours of driving that day but it honestly didn't feel that long because we had so much fun exploring.

Day 4:
Day four we felt a bit more  adventurous and rented some kayaks to find some caves.  Kayaking in the ocean is no joke, it was rough but so fun to be out on the water.  We found the caves we were looking for but the surf was too high so we weren't able to get close.  We did a little bit of snorkeling while we were out but weren't able to see much.  After, we headed to Aimee's Burgers for lunch, their meat is all fresh from the island and aside from Salt City of course, it was one of the better burgers I have ever had.  We then hiked to Captain Cook's monument.  It is a downhill hike to a bay with some of the most amazing snorkeling.  I could have been in the water for hours, it was so fun to see all the different brightly colored fish.  Isaac kept on saying I had the excitement of a little kid, and I guess it did feel that way.  The hike back up was tough but it was so worth the snorkeling we got to do.  That night we went to one of Grandma Gayle's favorites, Big Island Grill.  Everyone knows her there and here and my grandpa would frequent there together.  They had the most amazing soup (sort of like pho) and they are famous for their mud pie which is NO joke.  It is huge and tasted so incredible.