Grandpoo and Grammy's Visit

My Dad and Carla came for a visit a couple of weeks ago. It was great to see them and they were able to be here for all kinds of events! Our first Bible Study of the new year, Aden's birthday party, my birthday, Valentine's Day, and Aden's actual birthday! Phew...that is a lot of celebrating packed into a short amount of time! Because of all that was going on we didn't do much sightseeing. Instead, our time together was spent preparing for and taking part in all the activities! The kids sure loved having Grandpoo and Grammy here for all the festivities and of course Grandpoo and Grammy spoiled us all with meals out, treats like ice cream and Starbucks, fun little gifts on Valentine's Day, a trip to the Fun Factory (arcade), buying groceries for us, and more!

Here are some of the pictures from their time here...

Thursday 2/10/11

Two very silly little boys!

Monkey See...

Monkey Do!

 

Reading books...

Working on letters and sounds with Grammy...who has just a little bit of experience teaching young kids! ;)

Playing games...

Watching cartoons...

Jewelry overload!

Baseball hat, dog ears, beaded necklaces, and a dagger...oh boy! 

Grandpoo and Grammy bought us all ice cream...yum!

Grandpoo and Sis sitting on the big, plastic cow.

Grammy and Sis sitting on the big, plastic cow.

Jonathan's turn!

We walked out to the hidden lookout to Kilauea Falls. We've picnicked under that tree many times! Such a beautiful spot!

The boys checking out the view.

"Hey, I'm going for a swim. Anyone want to join me?"

Story time with Grammy.

Sweet Boozie, helping clean house for Bible Study that night.

Friday 2/11/11

Carla and I (and Lizzie) went into town this day to get stuff for Aden's party. 

My sweet dad stayed home with the boys.

More games with Grandpoo! One of Aden's favorites...

Should I be concerned that he ALWAYS wants the girly-looking Cootie parts?

My sweetie pie! I love her in yellow...

Saturday 2/12/11 - Aden's Birthday Party (a separate post will follow soon!)

Sunday 2/13/11

After church we love to play with chalk! Who cares if it gets all over our "churchy" clothes, right?

To celebrate my birthday and Valentine's Day we went to dinner at Hanalei Gourmet with Dad and Carla and left the kids home with Carolyn and Lucas. We had a nice time! Thanks again Dad and Carla!

Monday 2/14/11 - Valentine's Day!

We drove to Poipu this day for the Puka Dogs, some playground time, and some beach time! Before we left the kids spent some time playing out front with Grandpoo and Grammy.

These next pictures were taken at Poipu Beach. They have a beachside playground that my kids LOVE to play on. They were having so much fun we almost didn't even bother with the water and sand!

But, it was pretty humid and eventually the kiddos were ready to cool off with some water play.

Notice the heart swimsuit...perfect for Valentine's Day! =)

This beach is one of my favorite spots for the kids because there is a protected cove for them to play in that is about a foot deep all the way out to the rocks. Even Lizzie can "swim" in here!

The boys were having so much fun, splashing and giggling. Another one of those moments where I ask myself, "What would these two do without each other?!"

What a goose!

"Um, can I have my clothes?"

A little post-swim play time...

We love the double and triple slides!

On they way home...being silly from Grammy.

Tuesday 2/15/11 Aden's BirthDAY will be a separate post as well.

Dad and Carla left the morning of 2/16/11. 

We're looking forward to seeing them again soon! The boys don't  know it yet but we will be in California in May and we'll get to see them then! =)

I Spy...

a cruise ship!

 Do you see it?

Ta da!

About once a week or so we see a cruise ship sail by from our backyard. It's pretty cool!

The boys were excited about this particular ship because we had seen it docked at Nawiliwili Harbor earlier that day and then saw it again on our drive home as it sailed along the east coast of the island. So naturally the boys thought it was pretty amazing to see it for a third time as it sailed past our house!

The Girl and her Gun

This sweet little outfit makes me smile. As does the determination this girl possesses to figure things out. Here she is trying to load her brothers' gun.

Guide Gently...Sweet Words of Encouragement

My baby boy turns five in five days. Nearly five years he has been entrusted to my love and care, all day every day for 1,820 days. That's a lot of days and yet it has gone so incredibly fast. Tonight I stumbled on this from "A Holy Experience" and I can only stop and ask myself, Do I encourage him? Am I patient and kind? Do I serve him lovingly? Do I guide him gently? Sure I do. But enough? I'm afraid not. Too often there is pushing and rushing and wrinkling and puckering. The sewing analogy really resonated with me. Perhaps because I sew. Perhaps because I'm a mother. Either way, I love the idea of viewing the raising of my children as a handiwork, a task requiring care and patience and gentleness. Because all you sewers out there know that the best sewing projects are the ones you do for the ones you love. Sometimes they are hard. Sometimes they are tedious. These I call labor of love projects. Sounds a lot like the task of raising children! I am encouraged and challenged...challenged to guide gently. God has given me the most wonderful, precious gift in these children and I want to honor Him by guiding them in the way He'd have me, with kindness and patience, and gentleness, and love. Not just with Aden but with his brother ans sister as well. Because if I have learned anything in these past five years with Aden it is that time passes quickly! Five years have come and gone and I know that in the blink of an eye I will be kissing him goodbye as he heads off to college and through the tears I'll be asking myself where the last 18 years went. When that day comes will he be able to say that his mama encouraged him, modeled kindness and patience, served him with love, and guided him gently? Oh, I so hope so.

My All Day, Every Day View...A Blessed Woman Indeed!

This is what I see when I look out my kitchen window and when I step out the front door. What a beautiful view! I just love these mountains! They are gorgeous whether the sun is shining brightly upon them or whether they are partly hidden by mist and clouds like this. What a blessing to be surrounded by God's beautiful creation!

Fun Times With Grandma and Grandpa Jesse

Just days before my mom and Jesse arrived we had a string of days like this (see the first two pictures) and I was just praying that the weather would change in time for their visit because I know how much the sun and the warmth mean to my mom. Well, God heard my pleas and blessed us with beautiful weather! Seriously, we could not have ask for more pleasant weather...for the entire two weeks! It was awesome and it allowed us to spend lots of time outdoors.

Squeezing in some playtime on the swing set in between storm sets

Just a little rain...at one point it was raining so hard it was practically a "white out"!

Mom and Jesse always keep busy doing little projects around the house. Fixing this and fixing that...

Here's Jesse trying to find and repair the leak in our van. He thinks he may have fixed it. I'll be able to tell you here in a few days as the forecast is calling for another onslaught of rain storms this weekend.

Just like Grandpa...fixin' his "car". Of course, his buddy, the stuffed gecko, is the co-mechanic.

On the first Saturday we left the kiddos home with Dave and Carolyn and the four of us Kayaked up the Wailua River. The Wailua is the widest and longest river on the island and because of this it is navigable by motor powered boats. So, unlike kayaking up the Kalihiwai River (which is pretty narrow and windy with a little more back country feel) on the Wailua you have to be aware of waterskiiers and boaters. Also, going against the current upstream and then going against the off-shore winds coming down stream make kayaking the Wailua more of a workout than the tranquil waters of Kalihiwai River. We had a lot of fun but in the end we all agreed that we'd prefer the setting of the Kalihiwai River for future kayak trips.

This is actually one of the most narrow sections...

We ended up sort of kayaking "off the beaten (water) path" and the further in we went up the river the more peaceful it got. At one point I looked up the bank and saw this cow just sitting there watching me. I half wondered if it would charge down the bank and into the water? Can cows be aggressive? I can see the headlines now, "Ha'ole woman killed when her camera's flash causes cow to charge..."

That's Daniel's red kayak docked at the entrance to the famous Fern Grotto.

The Fern Grotto (quite a tourist destination, thanks to Elvis, I think!)

The following Wednesday we biked along the Kealia Trail. This trail is less than 10 minutes from our house and it is so enjoyable! We biked it for the first time when Jake, Stacy, and Rebekah were home for the holidays and I knew then that it would be something that I'd be doing again soon.

We brought Jonathan's bike and he managed to ride for nearly 3 miles! It was a bit slow in go but he had a blast and felt like such a big boy. This boy's about ready for a two wheeler!

"Gwamma" and Jonathan

Aden and Jesse pretty much left us in the dust...let's just say, a bike with training wheels is not a fast mode of transportation!

Anyway, because of that I don't have any pictures of them riding... =(

But I do have some shots of the scenery that we enjoyed! Here's one...

and another...

and another...

Elizabeth was squawking up a storm because she wanted to climb the tree like her brothers. "Sissy, you can't so EVERYTHING that they do!" I swear the girl thinks she's 5!

The crew

One of the few times in his life when this kid can focus on the task at hand...when he is eating a "tweat"! Shave ice, baby!

Aden and Grandpa Jesse got ice cream, Mom and I got fresh fruit smoothies, Jon Jon got shave ice, and Sissy nibbled on all of the above!

Bellies full of said treats, we were fueled up and ready to head back to the starting point.

This trooper biked the entire eight miles and here he is excited to help Grandpa load up the bikes! Poor kid, his sweet face gets red like his mama's.

Well, it's a good thing we went on our bike ride 0n Wednesday because by Thursday AM my mom and I were both feeling pretty crummy. Somehow we picked up a sickness together...we had all the same symptoms (sore throat, headache, sinus pressure, runny nose, fatigue, etc.) and we came down with it at the same time. It stuck with us for the remainder of Mom and Jesse's visit which forced us to take it easy those last few days. To give us something low-key to work on we decided to start a quilting project. We set out to make (well, start the process of making) two twin-sized quilts for our guest bedroom. By the time Mom left on Monday morning we had about 1/2 of the cutting done. Now I have about 7/8 of the cutting done. I should finish cutting tomorrow. I had hoped to finish cutting tonight but the blog was whispering my name and well, a girl can only do so much fun stuff in one night. So, this is what my kitchen table has looked like for the last week. We've eaten many meals around the coffee table as of late. In fact, that fact alone is great motivation for me to finish cutting. I want my table back!

I need 864 squares and/or rectangles cut to construct this quilt...yes, EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTY FOUR! I think I have about 820 cut as of now. It's too late to do math but I'm thinking that 820/864 is more than 7/8 of the way done!

My friend Lori made a quilt recently that I love and when I complimented her on it she asked if I wanted the scraps from the project. When I agreed I had no idea how much fabric she'd be giving me. There was a ton! So, I decided to make two patchwork quilts of sorts. I am using a quilt pattern that calls for six different fabrics and I think I have at least two dozen different fabrics pulled into this quilt! That's where the "patchwork" look will come in. So, we'll see how it goes. Hopefully I'll finish them before Elizabeth graduates from high school. ;)

Some of the fabrics...browns, blues, greens, and creams