Randoms

The other day I was making dinner. I come around the corner to see Kasen who thought it would be in his best viewing interest to push his high chair right in front of the TV to make sure he could really see. It was so funny. Then I went to look at him and he was asleep! He is so funny lately. He only wants to wear one pair of pants. EVERYDAY and EVERY NIGHT and he will only wear his oversized Hawaii T shirt we got him with his favorite baseball longsleeve underneath. Needless to say he is super hard to get dressed these days if you want him to wear anything new or clean. When I finally got him in actually church clothes, he balled up his favorite shirt and insisted he take it to church so he could at least hold it.  Love this age!!

 After many moons I finally convinced Tessa to go a bit more natural and give up blonde look. Don't get me wrong, she is beautiful as a blonde! But its not really a "natural" beauty. Her hair is so dark and she always has these trailer trash roots peeping out. Plus I kinda thought the blonde was aging her. You know how people can age themselves by trying to dress too young?? I think she look so very naturally beautiful with her natural hair and so mature and more her age. Best part is I think she is sold now on it too!

 Thanks to TJ's wonderful dad we have a new bathroom in the basement! It was so nice of him to pay and do the work for us! Forever grateful! It was so fun to go shopping to decorate the bathroom and because it turned out so cute and fresh, I just HAD to update the bathroom up stairs. I painted the walls, framed the mirror and painted the vanity and added knobs and got all new stuff for it (the rugs were seriously shredding and needed to be replaced) I love it now too! Next is to finally finish my own bathroom and paint the vanity and add knobs. And since TJ will be traveling more I will have plenty of time for projects to keep me not blue.

 I love taking the little kids to Lowes jumping place while the older girls are in school. They love it and love it so much more when friends come along!

 The other night for family home evening we held a family council (just like my dad used to do). We got out the  calendar and put down all that was going on. The kids then made a huge list of ideas for kid dates so that we could plan for them and put them on the calendar to make sure they really happen. Today was Lexi's turn with dad and she wanted to go ice skating. She had fun but she also said it would have been more fun to go with her sisters. Cute girl. Next Saturday is Tallie's turn with dad and they are going skiing. Because if we are going to live in Utah then by golly we WILL be a snowboarding family and do it together!!

Maui

The other day I put in the Hawaii CD that we made of all the songs we heard on the radio in Maui and it made me smile and made me just ache to go back. That's the problem with these kinds of trips is that you know just how long it will be before you actually get to go back. I ache to live that lifestyle. The air dried beach nasty hair, no shoes, no schedule, the sun, the waves, endless time with Tj, no make up and simple thrown on clothes. 

I am so glad we were in invited on this anniversary trip with Rob and Becky. That they wanted to share this awesome trip with us. The best thing about these kids is that they are so easy going. Very laid back, down to earth and relaxed about pretty much everything. Rob is like a little kid in an adults body and and is easy to talk to and is always making us laugh. Becky is ridiculously sweet and awesome and we share so many things in common and I feel like I can really be myself around her. She is so low maintenance which is so nice to vacation with someone like that. We didn't care we had nasty, non brushed/washed salty hair. Or that we didn't shower and maybe wore the same clothes as the day before. I really hope they had an awesome getaway and that they really loved it like we did. The trip starting out wasn't awesome only because our flight out kept getting delayed and so we showed up 5 hours later than expected. But the rest was great. We hit up every beach (not really) but we found all the great ones and went to multiples each day to soak up the rays and play in the waves. This trip was great and different for me because this was the first Hawaii trip that I have ever spent so much time at the beach. Tj is not a lay out kind of guy but I can really be that beach bum. We had many great walks (including one to Little Beach which is a nudest beach). I played more in the water than I usually do thanks to the water being nice and not too cold. We took a boat trip to do some snorkeling. I wish that was my favorite thing but I just get sick. It must be a combo of the cold water and pressure from the mask on my face, breathing out of the tube and the rolling waves that does it to me. So after like 10 min I'm done and ready to get out. It was cool tho that in that 10 min I saw a turtle and a huge stingray. We did a bunch of shopping and a hike to a waterfall and some jumping off it too. TJ is the dare devil and me not so much but I did jump off a baby fall TWICE so beat that. We watched the sunset every night at the beach, hit up the hot tub at the condo later at night. We drove the road to Hana which is crazy but oh so worth it. We hiked to 7 pools (I think is the name), ate coconut candy, coconut PB, and coconut shrimp. I'm really obsessed with coconut! One of my favorite things was being outside in the morning running and being the crazy yoga Pilate's ladies on the beach. For me, a vacation is a vacation if I can get out and do what I love and workout and run and feel good. People always give me a hard time about working out on vacation but for me I guess its not really a workout. Its my time to get away and have time to myself. And it is so fun to run somewhere new. This trip was so amazing and sharing it with such great friends really just made the trip what it was.