Hawaii trip part 1 - Oahu

For anyone who hasn't heard the story, Tom went to trial at the beginning of June with the expectation that he would be gone for the rest of the month.  Three days later he was home because the case had unexpectedly settled.  We had planned to take a vacation in July, but that got pushed up once he got home so we decided to go to Hawaii.  Neither of us have ever been there and we didn't really know much about it, but we wanted to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center so we thought we would start out our trip in Oahu.

Five and a half hours was a long time on the plane for Jonah.  He enjoyed some freedom once we got to the hotel.

 We had some friends from BYU who were also in Hawaii, so we got together with them for dinner the first night we were there.  They had a little koi pond at their hotel that the kids thought was neat.

 By the time we got back to our hotel (around 8pm) these guys were exhausted (that's 11pm California time).

 The next morning we were up bright and early thanks to the time difference.  We thought we would get to see the sunrise, but it was too cloudy.

 Here is Tom with Harper watching the sunrise.

 One thing I wanted to do was hike Diamond Head.  It was about 1.6 miles roundtrip and even though it was a little hot, these two did great!  They both hiked about 90% of the trail on their own.

 We did have to take lots of water breaks.  Anything over 75 is hot for us, we are spoiled.

 Jonah actually probably would have walked the entire thing by himself if the ground had been more level. His little feet had problems with all of the rocks.

 Harper turns bright red when she is hot.

 So does Jonah.

 The hike was TOTALLY worth it.  The view was amazing.

 The next day we drove up to Laie to go to the PCC.  We left a little early to have some breakfast and look around.

 The temple is gorgeous.

 And we spent some time in the visitor's center with some nice sisters from the Philippines.

 We also visited BYU Hawaii and then went to the PCC where it was VERY HOT.  Tom is trying to make fire here.

 Jonah gave it a try.

 The kids playing with sticks in the New Zealand section.

 We made little fish and they gave all of the kids these little cubes.  Jonah called his a cupcake and carried it around for the rest of the day.

 The day we were at the PCC was actually Jonah's birthday.  What a spoiled kid!

 Harper tried fishing.

 Tom and Harper in their Hawaiian gear.

 Tom and Harper took a submarine tour.  Jonah was too short to go and I get horribly seasick, so we explored a nearby hotel while they were gone.  The hotel had lots of outdoor animal exhibits (fish, penguins, turtles, etc.) and Jonah had a great time with that.

 On Monday before we left to go to Maui we spent some time at the Honolulu Zoo.

 I loved the giant turtles.

 We saw several of these giant trees while we were there.

Stay tune for Hawaii trip part 2 - Maui . . .

Happy birthday Jonah!

Jonah turned 2 while we were in Hawaii last week (this picture was taken at the Polynesian Cultural Center on his birthday).  Tom and I both commented that it was weird that he was turning 2 because he has seemed that old for a long time.  Here are a few things about this crazy boy.

• He loves to TALK.  He is constantly saying new and crazy things.  At his 2 year appointment the doctor asked of Jonah says at least 20 words, but I think he probably says more like 200.  
• He knows most of his uppercase letters and several of the letter sounds.  
• He loves Super Why, but he pronounces it "Suka Why."
• He is constantly trying to charm women when we go places.  I will look down at him and he will be smiling at someone across the store.
• He loves cars, trains, etc.
• He has started to fight a little with Harper, but they still get along most of the time.
• He falls over all of the time.  This little man would not pass a sobriety test.
• He likes to pretend that he is an animal.  He will say, "I am a frog, ribbet, ribbet," and then start hopping around.
• He loves bread, particularly rolls.  We were totally saved in Hawaii by a bag of rolls that we bought at Costco.  Jonah ate most of them.
• He is extremely stubborn.  If you tell him "no" he goes on ahead with whatever he wants to do.
• He is a Daddy's boy.  He always wants to "hold Daddy's hand" and his favorite shirt says "I love Dad."  
• He loves to say ask where something is and then point to it and say, "Kickaboo!"
• He loves to wear shoes and is partial to his Crocs.
• He likes to read himself stories.
• He loves to buckle and unbuckle things and refers to buckles as "kuckles."
• He is very sweet and will frequently come up to me, give me a hug, and say "love you."
• He likes to grab whatever Harper is holding and then run away with it.
• He calls all desserts chocolate cake.
• He has recently started to sing to himself.  It is so cute.

We love this guy so much, I am so grateful to have him in our family.

Oh Harper

Today Harper told me that she needs I "practice her letters" so that she can "get some work and have a job." Oh it was so hard not to laugh.

A couple Jonah-isms

Jonah had been doing some funny things lately so I thought I would share before I forget.

Yesterday I saw Jonah crawling around on the floor. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "I Harper's baby, wah wah."

We were playing with a little shape sorter toy. Jonah always has trouble getting the plus shaped piece in. He struggled with it for a minute, then he stared at the toy, took the lid off, put the toy in, and put the lid back on. Then he said, "all better."

the rest of May (and Jonah's birthday, kind of)

Some how May has disappeared without another blog post, so here is what we have been up to . . .

Tom shaved his beard and left a mustache for a few days.

 We went to the park a lot.  This is Jonah with his friend Dean.

 We celebrated Jonah's birthday.  You might recall that Jonah's birthday isn't for 2 more weeks.  In case you haven't already heard me complain about it (because I have been trying to get sympathy from just about everyone I have talked to for the last few weeks) Tom is going on a work trip and he will be gone for a MONTH.  He leaves on Tuesday.

Tom is wearing Jonah's new BYU cap here.  It is a youth one-size-fits-all and it fits on my toddler's giant head.

The good news is that this is good experience for him.  He has been working on this case for about 2 years and it is going to trial.

Jonah got some really great birthday presents, but somehow I didn't get photos of everything.  I really need to get a photo of Jonah with his new monkey back pack on, it is so cute! This was the big birthday winner, both kids are obsessed with it.

 See how happy they are?

 Wee!

 Jonah also got a smock and some finger paints.  The kids were a little wary about getting their fingers messy, but they warmed up to it.

 We hung onto a couple of things to give Jonah on his actual birthday but we didn't want Tom to miss out on the celebration since he will be gone.

These two are as cute and goofy as ever.  They have recently become very afraid of bugs.  A fly got into our apartment the other day and these guys were scared to death of it.  Good thing we don't live in a place with lots of bugs!

Ojai retreat

Tom's office had an IP retreat in Ojai last weekend.  The firm is really great about inviting spouses and kids to most of the events, so we were able to tag along.  

Tom was in meetings for a few hours each day so the kids and I had some fun hanging out around the hotel.

The kids spent quite a bit of time trying to squish each other.

Jonah likes to do this thing where he says, "One, two, three!" and then jumps.  Only he can't actually get off the ground.  It is pretty funny.  Here he is trying to take off.

This was a pretty fancy place so after we checked in they brought chocolate cupcakes to our room.

Note to the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa: if you don't want chocolate frosting all over your hotel rooms, don't give kids chocolate cupcakes.  This is Jonah before his ended up on the floor, frosting side down.

 And here he is after.  Harper is really great about sharing and she was happy to let Jonah have a little of her frosting.  He dove in face first.

 Jonah loves to wear shoes.  If he sees shoes sitting around the house, he will put them on and walk around for a while.  This has led to lots of abandoned shoes around our house.

The hotel had a big cage with some parrots in it.  One of the parrots, Casper, was very verbal and would say "hello" and bark like a dog.  This is Harper's response to Casper laughing hysterically and swinging around the cage.  Jonah's reaction was to run away screaming.

 These two love each other.

 When we were checking out they gave us these gigantic strawberries.  I hope the hotel doesn't mind all of the strawberry juice that ended up all over our white bed.

 I love these guys :)

My best friend from high school, Cynthia, and her husband Eric (who I also went to high school with) have lived in Santa Barbara for the last few years.  We visited her once . . . about three years ago.  Cynthia and Eric have joined the Peace Corps and are moving to Cameroon next week, so I was happy that they agreed to meet us in Ventura for lunch on our way home.  I have been really terrible about keeping in touch with old friends, but Cynthia is really great and it was so good to get to visit with her.  And Eric too.

 Jonah was completely exhausted from our trip.  Here he is on the couch after we got home.

Visit from Gramps

A couple weeks ago Tom's dad was able to stay with us for the weekend.  Tom has been planning and saving to build a new mega-super-awesome computer for several months now, and he finally had all of the parts so Reid came down for some computer building fun.  We really enjoyed having Gramps here, especially Harper.

Dear God, this is me Harper.

The sort of thing that makes a parent tear up: Harper prayed last night that she could eat ice cream without "getting itchy."

She has come to the point where she really takes note of what she is allergic to.  When she was little she would just pretend that things she liked could never make her have an allergic reaction, but she has now decided that getting super itchy is not worth the joy of eating things she likes.

I too pray that one day she can have dairy ice cream like most people without worrying about the severe itching that results if she has some now.