What's New with The Browns!

black rock and snorkeling

2012-01-01T12:35:00.000-08:00

On new years eve we went to black rock at kaanapali beach - it was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky -

quincy is so comfortable in the ocean and does pretty well at keeping his head above the water. he lets the waves push him in and out while he floats on his tummy, but i wanted him to have a life jacket on so i didnt have to keep such a close watch on him, but he absolutely didnt like the life jacket. looks relaxing to me....

quincy is getting sleepy

besides the rock to jump off of, there is a coral reef around the rock to go snorkeling, which is what i did as i was not going to jump off the rock

here is caleb and miles jumping off the rock

my snorkeling experience was complete because i finally saw a turtle!!! they are the coolest looking animals...and huge too...

here is the bay that i went snorkeling in

our water proof camera became not so water proof right after i took this picture :( but i got the picture of the turtle!!

Sugar Cane Train - that had nothing to do with sugar canes

2012-01-01T00:25:00.000-08:00

Today we went on the sugar cane train. we thought we would see sugar cain feilds, learn about sugar canes and see the fields they grow in and maybe get a sugar cane to taste....our expectations were a little too high.......

here is everyone waiting for the train to arrive
here it comes...........

all aboard

and were off..

quincy is very observant and always seems to have such a serious expression when he is checking things out. here he is looking out the window on the train

jackson, mollie and sophia checking out the awesome veiw of the road :/

daddy and jackson

quincy had to make a quick phone call

this was the neatest part. the train had to slow down, even slower than it was already going and went over this wooden bridge. as it was doing so it blew steam out of the engine

silly time for quincy

the train made a 20 min stop in lahaina, enough time for the kiddos to get a quick lunch. this is a hawaiin hotdog that was red, kids thought it was cool, i thought it looked gross

our 'tour guide' serenaded us with music

beautiful view from the train

so the only time sugar cain was mentioned was here - this is the OLD sugar cane feild......yep that was all the info on sugar canes............

here is quincy getting crabby, he wanted to know more about sugar canes too..

and the boys falling asleep, that is how exciting this train ride was....not so much

but i will say that even though the train ride was dissapointing and a lot of money - we are still in maui and having a blast!!!!! and in the end the kids still think its cool they got to ride on the train that we pass every time we drive into town.

a drive on highway 30

2011-12-31T11:19:00.001-08:00

Maui is know for this red dirt...the pictures dont do it justice, it is pretty cool seeing it in person, amazing how red it is

this is the view from highway 30 we were traveling on(well, the only highway on maui) the picture is of fleming bay, where the guys like to boogie board and the condo we are staying in is over there too

while we were driving, we past this little turnout and i thought these were the most beautiful trees - it reminded me of a miniature rain forest. we only stayed for a few minutes to take pictures but i still ended up getting bit by some bug about 10 times (misquito?) oh and jackson was sleeping in the car and miles was, um..taking care of business in the outhouse- ewww, so their pictures werent taken :)

mollie doing her new pose - she says "possie" and then does this, with her hands on her hips.....

such a beautiful tree

so i just loved this view - if you look towards the bottom of the picture there is a little hut type house nestled in the forest and valley

after our little drive, it was time to cool off in the ocean back at our condo

jackson taking another little snooze on the beach

grandpa and jackson, who is well rested from his nap

quincy had such a fun and busy day that he couldnt stay awake to eat dinner

we ended our day going on a date, shopping in lahaina and eating at my favorite restuarant in Maui, Bubba Gump!

Fun in Maui

2011-12-27T09:53:00.001-08:00

i was trying to get the kids' picture in front of the banyan tree but all they could do is play with the rocks...really??? can my kids just keep their hands out of dirt and rocks for a few seconds....(sigh)

kevin and i waiting to have lunch at cheesburgers in paradise - notice the cruise ship in the background..

kiddos waiting to have lunch at cheesburgers in paradise, they waited so patiently

special...????

kevin and i trying to perfect the 'self picture taking'....

mollie and sophia are having the best time together, i just finished painting their fingers and toes

jackson is doing very well with the boogy board, he has even caught a few waves into shore

here is everyone playing, one of the reasons i love this place is that its like our own private beach...

daddy digging jacksons hole in the sand..

kevin buried all the kids, looks like we are growing little children out of the sand :)

I love this picture of TJ and Kevin

Aloha!!!!

2011-12-23T00:26:00.000-08:00

we arrived at the airport at 4:30 am - the kids were so excited that it wasnt hard getting them up out of bed

we arrived in maui and here is quincy waiting curbside

kenton waiting curbside in maui

quincy looks a little concerned :) they had lots of energy to get out since we had 8 hours on the plane

averie waiting curbside in maui

quincys first breakfast in maui

first rainbow we saw in maui, if you look close there are two - just beautiful

Miles has always been a 'little fish' and was right at home here in the pool

The kids took to the pool right away, which we knew they would. we were glad we gave them swim lessons before our trip as i'm sure it helped them feel more confident in the pool - here is mollie and jackson, about to jump in !

mollie and jackson having a blast in the pool playing with aunt kathy, jason, hailey and alyssa

quincy is warming up - (our room is to the right of the red bow in the background. our bedroom deck is the top floor and our living room deck is the same level as that bow)

how many kids can dad carry in the pool :) at one point he had all 4

quincy watching his brothers and sister, uncles and dad play in the ocean - he was content just hanging out on the beach and digging in the sand

kenton having a little snack ...of sand... he sure enjoyed it :)

everyone playin in the ocean - I just love the blue color of the oceanmiles and jackson this year - see photo below

this is miles and jackson in 2008

brothers playing in the sand

quincy....

baby kenton(my nephew) and quincy playing together after dinner

ending our day with a sweet kiss from quincy....

Mahalo! check back soon for more Maui adventures...

2010-10-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

We took our annual trip to Hunter Farms! It's one of my favorite 'traditions' we started with our family 3 years ago...

Jackson is 'free' and didnt need a wristband to go in the hay maze and hay ride, but he felt left out since his brothers and sister got a wristband, so Kevin let Jackson wear his - here Mollie's is admiring his wristband since Jackson was very excited he got to wear oneThe Kids

Kinda hard to see, but thats me and Quincy in there

Quincy laying in the straw (and yes I totally had him wear that shirt on purpose)

One of my favorites is the animals - I really love farm animals. It was feeding time and the pig was hogging the food - really, he was snorting at the other animals to get out of the troff

All the kiddos in the hay maze

Jackson thought he was pretty cool way up there

Miles found us

Taking a break

On the hay ride out to the pumpkin patches

Kevin and the 2 boys

When we got off the hay ride the kids spotted a caterpillar

Letting the caterpillar go free (I was very proud of my children, we are working on teaching them not to kill insects, well unless they are spiders in our house)

A group of people were flying an electric airplane and the kids and Kevin were very fascinated watching it fly. I thought it was a cool picture of them all blocking the sun from their eyes so they could watch the airplane

Quincy and mommy

Daddy and Jackson in the pumpkin feild

*We have a 'rule' that the kids can get any pumpkin they want, as long as they can carry it*
Jackson found his pumpkin - hes pushing the 'rule'. Kevin and I think when Jackson gets older he will find the biggest pumpkin, strain with all his might, and pick it up and carry it...

Mollie found hers

Searching for Miles' pumpkin

Now helping Jayden find his pumpkin

Ah ha, Jayden found his

(I didnt get a picure of Miles with his pumpkin (sad face) I dont know why)

On our way out of the pumpkin patch

Strangely enough, Jackson was bothered that his shoes got dirty ( we brought their super cool rubber boots, but Kevin locked our keys in the car and we didnt want to wait for the locksmith to come, so we went out into the pumpkin patch without the rubber boots

And Quincy found the most pumpkins!!

After our super fun afternoon at Hunter Farms we drove to a nearby hatcher *of course* and looked at the fish

We were STARVING so went to a quaint little hamburger joint, payed way too much money, and ate lunch - the food was really good though-

Now the second 'funest' part....

PAINTING OUR PUMPKINS!

Hard at work

Miles concentrating..
Mollie used lots of colors

Jackson, painting the stem

Mollie was singing Old MacDonald Had a Farm, very fitting I thought

And they are done! Very fun holiday tradition

The Sandy Beach

2010-07-27T23:10:00.000-07:00

We went to the beautiful 'sandy beach' at Illahee State Park. What a beautiful day and fun we had. I actually got in the water, I normally don't swim in salt water around here. Kevin held my hand and we ran in together because I knew if I tried going in myself, I would have chickened out.

Here is Mollie on the beachBaby Quincy, happy as always.....

Gotta LOVE this picture - Jackson is such a crazy kid
Miles burried by Jayden and Kevin

and Mollie.....

and Jackson.....

now Jackson, and Miles being burried together....

I think I will leave them there for a while .... :)

Kevin jumping off the dock...you should have heard Miles, Mollie and Jackson yelling about how awesome their dad was for jumping off the dock - they thought he was the greatest !

A fun day comes to an end.......

Jacksons Disasters

2010-07-27T23:04:00.000-07:00

Look at the smile on this kids face! Oh, and he already had this shirt on, it says "I tried to be good, but I got bored" Well, this morning Kevin and I slept in a little longer than the kids, Kevin left a permanent marker on the counter and Jackson found it. By the way, if there is anything left out, Jackson will find it and do some sort of damage with it - no matter what it is, he will find a way to cause trouble..... Notice the pink marker on his arm...... Jackson decided my rice cooker was a little boring, along with the counter tops....
Oh, and my plate needed more decorating

Thankfully there is this thing called 'the magic marker' and it IS magic - got all the marker out, clean, like he never drew on anything - well, except his arm, that took a few days to finally ware off.

Summer fun!

2010-07-27T22:55:00.000-07:00

Summer is finally here! The kids and I met some of our friends at the fountain park in downtown BremertonHere goes Jackson, jumping off the side

I love this fountain park because the water is only ankle deep, just perfect for the little ones. I get to enjoy myself too as I don't feel I have to keep my eyes glued on my kids

the next day my friend brought 4 of her kids to my house. Only her 3 year old was suppose to come over to play with Mollie, but the others wanted to play too. I figured, whats 4 more kids :) They all had a blast playing in the sprinkler

After lots of playing, it was lunch time :)

2010-07-27T22:42:00.000-07:00

We went on a trip to the Olympic Game Farm in Sequim, WA. I had never been and it was quite an experience. The kids just LOVED it! In our car was Kevin, me, Jackson, Quincy, Miles and our friends' boy, Laddie. Mollie rode with my friend Jen. Here is Miles feeding an animal. We were only allowed to feed them whole wheat bread - snobby animals, huh :)

Ewwww, that's a little too close for me

All I could envision was this animals horns going through our car

Jackson sat on my lap the whole time - he kept the window rolled up most of the time ....thats my boy....

The Bears were pretty cute.....when you threw the bread to them, they would only eat it if it fell right in front of them , if you threw it off to the side they would look at it and look back, as if saying "nope, not gonna move to get that"

finally towards the end Jackson got brave enough to feed an animal

the farm had a super lame petting area that the kids went to after our car ride

It was a very fun day that we ended with a picnic at dungeness spit

4th of July

2010-07-27T22:19:00.000-07:00

We did our annual 3rd of July celebration at the Poulsbo waterfront to watch the firework show. Jackson wasnt too sure of the fireworks at first ( I think the loud boom sound is what scared him)

Waiting for the fireworks to begin

On the 4th of July the little town of Keyport, where our church is located, has a parade. People sit out on their lawns to watch the parade go by. Anyone who wants to can walk in the parade, it goes around the town twice (which takes about 15 minutes - yup the town is small)

Everyone walking in the parade. The Keyport firetruck is in it too.
Miles, Mollie, Jackson, Arianna and Iris waiting for the parade to start

Mollie in her 4th of July outfit

*Disclaimer* Quincy wasn't being choked by Miles, as much as it looks like it....

Trick or Treating

2009-11-04T14:46:00.000-08:00

These pictures are in reverse order.....This Halloween Miles and Mollie really knew what to expect, they picked out their own costumes and were super excited to knock on people's doors and say "trick or treat" to get candy. Mollie was fearless about going up to houses that were decorated with scary things, but Miles was very afraid. Mollie would say "c'mon Miles, its not scary, lets go." and would walk up by herself.

Here is Mollie in front of her pile of candy

And Miles with his candy

Jackson loves suckers

Now Jayden has a lot less, but he didn't come 'trunk or treating' with Uncle TJ and Aunt Em, cousin Sophia and the rest of us. Trunk or Treating was in their church parking lot and people hand out candy from the trunks of their cars-it was perfect for the little ones, even though my kids did enjoy going door to door too. Jayden was bummed he missed out on so much candy-not all lessons are easy

My Dad made Jayden's face up..

Mollie Trunk or Treating Miles was a little bashful

Jackson the frog

Miles the muscle man

Mollie the monkey

Painting the Pumpkins

2009-11-03T14:27:00.001-08:00

I had the kids paint their pumpkin instead of me carving it for them. We laid down butcher paper, put old t-shirts on them and let them go. They loved looking out on the porch everyday and seeing their pumpkins. Anyone who came over was told who's pumpkin was who's..

I think Jackson got more on the paper and on his face than his pumpkin :)

Making and Decorating Halloween Cookies

2009-11-03T14:09:00.000-08:00

For some fun this Halloween I decided to have the kids make sugar cookie cutouts then decorate the cookies. I wanted to individually wrap each one and give them to friends and family, but as you will soon find out, the kids started licking the knifes and eating the frosting before I could stop them....so we ate all the cookies! We had so much fun though. Jackson didn't get to make any as I wasn't motivated enough to make a non dairy cookie and frosting-so he went to bed and we got to baking and decorating.....

Each of the kids got their own bowl of purple and orange frosting with a knife, then I had orange and black sprinkles, candy corn, and about 5 other kinds of fun shaped sprinkles
Yes, here goes Miles licking the frosting........

.....and eating a cookie right after he made it

Mollie soon caught on........

Busy at work

Jayden very carefully spreading the frosting, he really enjoyed this as he has a big artistic side to him (notice Miles in the background licking his knife)

Miles really liked sprinkling the sprinkles

Mollie and me with our first cookies madeJayden was very proud of each cookie

Mollie made quite a few before indulging

Here we are...all finished with the cookies layed in front, minus a few that Miles and Mollie already ate!

The Pumpkin Patch

2009-11-02T20:01:00.000-08:00

We took our annual trip to Hunter Farms Pumkin Patch. The kids played in the hay maze, looked at farm animals, took a tractor hay ride, walked through a corn maze and picked their own pumpkin

Miles LOVES tractors, so he had this grin on his face the whole hay ride

Walking through the corn maze

I just love this picture

Miles wanted to pose with the tractor in the background Mollie with her pumpkinMiles chose his pumpkin-our rule is that you have to be able to carry your own pumpkin...he was pushing it a little, but was able to carry it

Jackson could barely carry the pumpkin he chose....yes, the rule applies to him tooHere we are leaving the pumpkin patch

Miles is pulling Mollie and Jackson with the pumpkins-with daddy pushing, but shhhhhh, miles didn't know

Family Camp at Long Beach, WA with our church

2009-11-02T19:40:00.000-08:00

Every year we go to Family Camp with our church. We stay in cabins, play games, play on the beach, go shopping in the town of Long Beach-the kids have a blast. This is the outside of our cabin

Mollie and Jackson and Kevin at the doorway of our cabin

Mollie on her bunk

The family

Jayden wanted to ride the rides, but was embarassed to get his picture taken. The town has a tiny amusement park

Miles is lovin it. You can see Jackson, Mollie and Daddy behind him

Miles loves posing with statues, this fascination started in Hawaii

Miles and Mollie sat on the "Test our Passion Factor" chair-when you put in a quarter the chair vibrates-they thought that was so funny ; their result: Lovable

Mies and Mollie's 4th and 3rd birthday party

2009-11-02T19:29:00.000-08:00

I made 'ice cream' cone cupcakes-the kids really liked that idea
So half the room was Miles' theme: Transformers and the other half was Mollie's theme: Princesses

Jackson got his very own Non-dairy cupcake :)

Mollie with Aunt Emily

4 th of July

2009-07-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

Every year we go to the Poulsbo waterfront and watch the fireworks

Miles and Jackson sitting in an airplane that is part of the annual Keyport Parade. Our church is located in the small town of keyport and every year they have a cute parade and all the locals can walk in it.....It is led by their firetruck and everyone walks behind it.

Miles holding his little American Flag

Mollie holding her BIG American flag

2009-07-10T09:42:00.000-07:00

After the 4 th of July my In-laws took us to Ocean Shores for 2 days. Miles likes posing with statues and he loves sharks, so he was very excited when he saw this statue. It's hard to see, but he is standing in the center of the sharks mouth. :)

The hotel we stayed in had a pool and the kids had a blast swimming in it. The hotel had dolphins everywhere, it was like their 'mascot' This picture was taken at 10:30 pm (we didn't realize how late is was)

Grandpa Rickie with Miles and Mollie

This is the first thing Mollie did when we went into our Hotel room

Jackson and Miles loved the ocean, even though it was really windy and cold...that didn't stop them from going into the water

Kevin made a barrier so the wind didn't blow under the car while the kids were playing on the other side.

I don't understand it, but for some reason Jackson likes to eat sand. First it was Hawaiian sand, now it's Washington sand.

2009-03-06T21:40:00.000-08:00

Just some Fall 2008 Pictures that I wanted to show.

Jackson, the lion

Miles and Mollie as Pebbles and BamBam

Ok, here is the 2009 update.......

We arrived safely home from Hawaii. That was such a fun vacation, best we have ever had! The kids loved it so much that for a month after we were home Miles and Mollie, everyday, would ask when we were going on the airplane to go to Hawaii and swim on the beach. They would bring out their suitcases and put their swim suits on. I finally had to put the suitcases away and hide the swim suits because they would get so upset when I told them we weren't going back to Hawaii.......needless to say we all want to go back. :)

Jackson......he had his 1st Birthday on February 4th. We had family and friends over for cupcakes and ice cream sundaes. Jacksons' Auntie Bianca made his personal birthday cake. It was a lot of fun and Jackson enjoyed all his new toys.

The ice cream sundae table....Yummmm

Miles and Mollie helping Jackson eat his cake.

Daddy helping Jackson get a better bite, like he needed the help...

Reading a new book...

Jackson made himself comfortable while opening his gifts.

Jackson took his first steps a few days ago and is getting braver every day. He has a very fun personality and smiles at everyone. He loves to play with his brothers and sister (I do have to say that Mollie is his favorite though) He loves to climb on things and has learned how to crawl backward down our stairs.

Kevin shaved his head a few days ago and it looks really cute, I will post pictures when I take some. I wasn't home and was upset with Kevin because I didn't get any 'first haircut' pictures. I forgave Kevin though because I know guys don't think of that sentimental stuff. Kevin was brave for doing it all by himself, he said Jackson sat there perfectly.

Now there is Mollie, she is 2 1/2 and never a dull moment with her. She is in the process of becoming potty trained. She loves to wear underwear but just doesn't fully have the potty thing down yet. She is very girly, loves her hair done, loves dresses and purses. What's really cute is that she wants to help with Jackson all the time. When he wakes up from his nap and cries she will immedietly tell me that Jackson is awake. She wants to help changed his diapers, yes even the poopy ones. She gets his bottles for him, tries to feed him (that just ends up being a huge mess) will entertain him with toys. The two of them have a good relationship, she is very gentle and loving with him. However if you make Mollie upset or tell her "no" she knows how to become a 'diva' or a 'drama queen' oh boy can she ever put on a show! She has a very goofy, but fun personality.Mollie posing with her new puppy who's name is Molly Jackson pushing Mollie

Now Miles.......What can I say, but he is a 3 year old boy! I think that says it all....ok onto the next child.....Just kidding. There is never a dull moment with Miles. He is into pretending he is Batman and runs around jumping off of things with his arms in the air. He also watched The Lion King for the first time and then pretended he was a lion with a really, really loud roar (I haven't let him watch it since). Yes he is energenic but at the same time he can be very calm. He loves to learn. I take him to the preschool at the YMCA, the teachers always tell me how enthusiastic he is about learning and sits at attention the whole time. He also sees a speech therapist once a week and Miles is very obedient and enthusiastic about learning to speak better. He enjoys helping around the house and helping with his younger brother and sister. Lately he has been into taking pictures with our camera. He will go around the house and take pictures of random things, it's kinda funny to see what he takes pictures of. This picture below was taken in Hawaii. Every time Miles found a statue, he wanted to have his picture taken with it....so I have about 10 pictures of him with various statues. He posed himself. Jayden just celebrated his 10th Birthday on the 8th of February. I can not believe he is 10 he calls himself a 'tween' meaning 'pre-teen' :) He had a few friends over for a sleep over. In this picture they were all wrestling. I was a little shocked when they started playing like this and had to ask Kevin if this was what boys did. I was used to the sleepovers I had as a young girl. We just layed around and giggled, not had a full out wresting match! Here they are playing video games. Notice how Miles is trying to talk to one of Jayden's friends. Miles tried to be involved with the boys but they of course just ignored him. Then there is Mollie who followed them around, but she was quiet so they didn't get annoyed with her.

We ordered pizza and took the boys out to Cold Stone for ice cream, then they played video games and watched movies all night. Lastly, Kevin and I .... Our friends have an annual "Ugly Sweater Christmas Party" (this year it took place in Jan.) We didn't 'win' but I sure think our sweaters are ugly. We had a lot of fun picking them out at the Goodwill.

We will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary on the 27th of March, and my 29th Birthday on the 25th......oh my gosh, I am almost 30!!! We don't have any specific plans right now, but I am thinking we will go to Seattle and do something fun. I'll let you know :)

Well, that's all for now.....

A day at the beach

2009-01-01T23:42:00.000-08:00

Today we went to Kaanapali Beach and Black Rock. We spent about 5 hours on the beach. Jayden jumped off a lower point on black rock. It is a big rock/cliff that people jump off of into the ocean. The boys had to bribe him with $20 to get him to jump off, but he did it!

We tried to keep Jackson shaded as much as we could. He had fun crawling in the sand and eating it. He didn't like swimming in the ocean, I think it was too cold for him.

We brought our snorkel gear hear and snorkeled next to black rock. It is a lot deeper here than the last place we went to, so we weren't as close to the coral but these fish swam closer to us.

Kevin and Mollie being silly.

Jackson finally fell asleep on Kevin while they were in the water and took a nap under the orange tent for about an hour.

This is the sunset from where we are staying. A little while after the sun went down we watched a lightening storm.

We ended our day with shopping at Whalers Villiage at Kaanapali beach. We didn't buy anything, just window shopped. :)

Aloha till next time

Another day in Maui!

2008-12-31T21:31:00.000-08:00

So as I am doing this 'blog' thing, I just realized that I can type in between the photos. So I did that, but after all the photos I wrote about the past two days (I wrote that before I realized I could type in between the pictures) so I would skip the pictures, read below and then go back and look at all the picutres. They will make more sense if you read first. Also you can click on the pictures to enlarge them. The sunset at the Luau

Miles after the Luau, wearing his fancy rain poncho

Miles would not pose in the picture for us

Miles wanted his picture taken with the scuba diver behind him (notice how he is looking out of the corner of his eyes to make sure the diver is in the picture)

This is the underwater tunnel

Miles wanted his picture taken with "the man"

The boys at the aquarium

This is a picture of the coconut monkey, I explained below.

Kevin snorkeling

Snorkeling gear is so attractive

You can kinda see the backside of this fish

Beautiful coral

We saw a lot of these fish while snorkeling

Snorkeling Jayden

This is a picture of the beach where we went snorkeling

This is on the beach where we are staying

I love this picture, it's amazing to me what genes can do

Happy New Years Eve!!

Yesterday, we went to the aquarium and saw a lot of pretty fish and sea turtles. The kids really enjoyed it. Miles especially liked the under water tunnel since there was a scuba diver swimming around feeding the fish. (He associated the scuba diver with the one in the movie Finding Nemo, who catches Nemo. He walked up and down the tunnel following the scuba diver, then wanted to pose with the diver behind him for a picture)

In the evening we went to a Luau. I really enjoyed it! The food was delicious, it was an open bar :) and the dancers were very entertaining. We left Mollie and Jackson at the condo with 'grandpa Rickie' they ended up falling asleep on him....yes, what a rough night for Grandpa. Miles and Jayden enjoyed the food and the show. The sunset was beautiful.(i posted a pic. below for you to see) I bought a drink at the bar (free refills) and they put it in a hollowed coconut with a carved monkey face. It started raining towards the end of the Luau so they gave us these really sexy plastic ponchos :) more like thin trash bags....it didn't matter though, everyone still enjoyed themselves. I talked Jayden into taking a picture with a hula dancer, I told him he can show his friends back home and they would be jealous. He let me take the picture but I don't think he wants to show anyone.

Today, New Years Eve, we went out for breakfast at a restaurant on the beach. It was like a big gazebo as it didn't have walls. Rick and Cindy watched the kids for us.

Then we went and rented snorkle gear and went snorkeling. We had so much fun. It was mine and Jayden's first time and it was a great experience. The water is only 2-10 feet deep so we were super close to the coral and the fish. It was a little challenging to keep yourself from floating into the coral, but we managed without getting our legs scraped up. (Zachary's girlfriend though, scraped her leg on the coral and she said it felt like her leg was burning.) The brothers all saw a sea turtle because they went out far in the water, us girls weren't that brave to go that far out....about a 1/4 mile off shore. We saw many different fish...really pretty ones. I took some pic., but they didn't turn out very well (i posted them)

We don't have big plans to ring in the New Year, actually we are watching Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place with Jayden right now. :)

Bye for now,

See you in 2009 !!

2008-12-28T23:30:00.000-08:00

Kevin and Jackson arrived safely on the 26th. Jackson did great on the airplane, no ear pain and slept 3 of the 5 1/2 hours. Kevin had an empty seat next to him that Jackson was able to lay on to sleep. I was very excited to see them.

Yesterday we went to a beach that is for boogie boarding-the waves are really big. It is right next to the Kapalua golf course. The signs are up advertising the Mercedes Binz PGA 2009 golf tournament that is happening the first week in January. Kevin and his brothers had fun boodie boarding, didn't catch many waves, but they tried. Jayden also tried to go out in the waves but they were a little too big for him.

Jackson ate a lot of sand as this was his first time sitting in it. He also had a lot of fun crawling into the waves...no fear of the ocean at all.

We then drove a little ways to a little beach that had an tide pool like area that was surrounded by coral, so the little ones could sit right in the water, it was like a foot deep.

Jayden found a mudpuppy (it's a type of amphibian, if you didn't know Jayden loves reptiles and has studied this kind a lot) so you can imagine how excited he was when he saw it. We told him he was like Steve Irwin because he started rambling off facts about the mud puppy as he was trying to catch it and telling us to be quiet as they are afraid of noises. :0

Today we played in the ocean and pool all day. We went out to a restaurant to eat dinner and saw geckos in the trees around us while we were eating....and yes, Jayden was excited and started telling us facts about them too.

We are having a great time. The kids are doing great and sleep well during naps and at night. Miles though will occasionally ask me when we are going back to mommy's house, and where's mommy's car and when are we going to the YMCA. He misses home but is still having fun here.

Aloha for now.

Christmas in Maui 08

2008-12-26T11:50:00.000-08:00

Jayden, Miles, Mollie and I arrived in Maui on the 23rd. We are vacationing with Kevin's family. Kevin's grandfather paid for everyone to fly here and for our condos, he is very generous and we feel blessed.

Two days before we were suppose to leave Jackson got an ear infection so the Dr. said he couldn't fly until the 26th since his ear drum could rupture. We were very sad and it was hard to leave Kevin and Jackson behind. But they are flying in today and we couldn't be more excited!

The weather hasn't been the greatest, but we are making the most of it.

Miles and Mollie love the ocean and digging in the sand, but they really love the pool. Mollie and Miles swim with water wings and have no fear when it comes to water.

Jayden is a fish and has spent the last two days in the water ALL DAY! He made a few friends here and has enjoyed playing with them in the water.

I will post pictures soon and give you updates.....so check back often

Aloha