Hawaii

Josh and I went to Hawaii this past week, just for fun. We saw a good deal on flights, had a lot of reward points on our credit card and decided to use them up for a trip. Josh's parents watched the kids the first couple days and then passed them off onto my parents for the last half. It was a great vaca. 

Our hotel: 

Day 1: Ate breakfast on the beach (crepes, our favorite)

Rented scooters and rode around Waikiki

Josh's delicious lunch. Love the umbrella

Rode the scooters up to this beautiful garden. The mountains and greenery there are so amazing

That afternoon we went parasailing. It was the first time for both of us. It was a 300 ft line, which really wasn't bad. It wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it was going to be, it was quite relaxing at the top and fun to look out over Waikiki

 Day 2: Scuba Diving in the morning/afternoon. It was our first "real" dive besides our training dives and it was fun. The water was colder than expected and there weren't as many fish as I thought there would be but we still saw plenty and enjoyed the dive.

 I made sure my "dive buddy" wasn't going anywhere and made him hold my hand, ha

 Saw an eel coming out of the coral

 Hard to read, but the instructor wrote Aloha on the rock and had us hold it up

 Puffer Fish

 Between the first and second dive I got really sick on the boat so I chose not to go out, but of course was the cooler of the two dives because they saw FOUR turtles, so lucky. They got super close to them too. I had seen turtles before when I lived in Hawaii, so I was glad Josh got to see them too, but wished I had felt better we could see them together.

 Baby turtle!

Our view from the hotel balcony. Ahh....love it

                          Day 3: Breakfast at the hotel, overlooking the beach across the street

 On our way up to the north shore to go to the PCC we stopped at a few beaches. One was turtle bay

 Awesome bird on the lawn as we were leaving Turtle Bay

Stopped at one of my favorite beaches, Waimea Bay. When I lived in Hawaii this was a super calm flat beach and this time the waves were so huge the lifeguard didn't let anyone get anywhere near the water. We sat and watched the waves for a little while. 

 Drove by the temple and the BYU campus and showed Josh where I lived.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

 Day 4: Our last day. We drove around the island and stopped at Haliewa which is a cute little surf town I had went to several times before. We stopped at the famous Matsumoto's for shaved ice.

 We shopped in Haliewa, has lunch, then returned to Waikiki to eat at Duke's restaurant for dinner.

 Our view at Duke's. We also had the hula pie, the famous dessert in Waikiki.

 After dinner we walked down Waikiki Beach and enjoyed our last sunset in Hawaii together.

 Beautiful!

 It was a great trip and we already can't wait to go on another one. Maybe the Caribbean next time?

Dance Class

 Lyla started ballet/tumbling class this week. It was so much fun to watch her with the other girls learning new little moves with her body. It made me tear up a little seeing her cute little body in her ballerina outfit. When I first found out I was going to have a girl I was so excited for all the things she would do and learn. As the first organized activity she has ever done it was part of a dream come true and I loved every minute of it.

 Lyla is on the bottom right at the end. She was pretty good at listening to the teacher but had to be reminded a couple times, ha.

Easter

 Easter was a lot of fun this year. Cookie and her family were in town and we celebrated Saturday and Sunday together. Saturday we dyed eggs together. This year Lyla really got into it and did fairly well at dropping the eggs in and then digging them back out.

Sunday morning we drove back up to my parents house and first thing did the egg hunt.

 The eggs were hidden all over the half-acre of property and kept the kids busy for quite awhile. Even found one in the golf cart!

 Mac loved pulling the grass out of his basket and spreading it all over the yard and eventually just poured everything out, eggs and all.

 

It also happened to land on Mom's birthday so I made her a spring/easter cake and we sang to her and opened presents after the delicious ham dinner.

 She sure loves her papa, and looking adorable in her Easter dress

Spring is coming...maybe

The weather is teasing us with some spring warmth between cold days. We are seeing flowers pop up and the birds are singing. So Lyla and I decided to make some homemade bird feeders. 

First we gathered pine cones from our very own front yard and then put peanut butter all over them, with a few finger licks if the peanut butter happened to get on them. 

We rolled them in bird seed next and made sure it was all covered

 Then we tied ribbon on and hung it on the tree in the front yard, right in front of our front window, perfect for daily window watching for the birds

 We also checked out the few daffodils that have begun to come up in our yard! We didn't plant these so we were so surprised when they started coming up everywhere and love watching them bloom.

 As a side picture, Josh and Lyla dancing for a minute before he had to go to work the other day. She loves dancing and its always the best if Dad dances with her.

Girls Weekend 2

  I miss my law school girls too much and couldn't let any more time pass by without seeing them! So we used the excuse of Brittney's birthday and met last weekend in Seattle.  We knew it was going to be a good one when about 2 weeks before the trip Heather got this fortune:

 I flew in to Portland and stayed the night at her in-laws so we could drive together to Seattle the next day. We stayed up way too late chatting away with Daren and got up the next morning with migraines, took some drugs and were on our way to get Brittney!

 Britt flew in on Thursday and we were so excited to see her and be together. After we picked her up we went to a nearby mall and ate lunch then went to the hotel to check in.

 We hung out and rested a little at the hotel and that night met up with the Borders for dinner who recently moved to Seattle. They both make us laugh a lot and it was fun to catch up and also meet their newest addition, Lindy.

Heather tried sushi for the first time and liked it, but only ate one, haha

The next day we shopped a little at the downtown shops, bought Brittney a new maternity shirt, and walked down the Pike Street shops.

 Seriously, Brittney is 8 months pregnant with her 4th, you can't even tell in this picture! And she can still fit in her jacket. Amazing. She looks so adorable as usual and just couldn't believe how great she looked with only a month to go.

We were pooped after walking most of the day. We went to lunch at Red Robin and then found ourselves back at the hotel for most of the evening as we rested up and chatted the night away.  Heather spoiled us too and gave me and Brittney scarves that she made and some turbie twists (towels that go on your head after a shower).

 Saturday we slept in and decided to take it easy after the long day before. We looked all over the internet to find a cheap but available place for a foot massage and finally found one just outside the city. We were thinking a 1-hr semi-nice foot massage and instead got the full-on body massage that was the best one any of us have ever had. And get this...it was only $25!!!!! Half way through we thought they misunderstood us and were giving us something else and that it was going to be super expensive but really ended up still being the $25. None of us still understand how a foot massage turned into body massage, but we were all grateful for it and loved it.

 Heather getting her chill-ax on right after we were done

 After massages and a lunch at a little mongolian place around the corner we drove out to the other side of the city to Alki Beach.

 We sat and enjoyed the beautiful weather and the awesome view of the city. It was such a clear day which everyone there had told us hasn't happened in months. 

Even the little baby ducks came out to play. Aren't they precious?

That night we went out to the Cheesecake Factory, which we also went there on our first girls weekend so it was fun to go back together. We stayed up late chatting since it was the last night together. 

Heather took Britt and I to the Seattle airport the next day and we said our goodbyes. We all had a great time and enjoyed a relaxing weekend together. I just love getting together with these girls. They are so much fun to talk to and we can talk about anything, and everything, and we do. Somehow I will convince all of them to move to Utah :) Until next time...

Tubing at Soldier Hollow

 I bought a coupon for tubing at Soldier Hollow a few months ago and we finally got time to go. We had a lot of fun despite the cold. Mac couldn't go down because he is too little but we pulled him around in the tubes while we switched off going with Lyla.

 The best part is that you get pulled up the hill instead of walking back up. Here is Lyla going up for the first time. She didn't seem nervous at all to be by herself and kept waving to me. She looked so small and adorable in the tube

 Mac enjoyed just chillin in the tubes being pulled around