Our Hawaiian Adventure.....

 Our family recently got the chance to go back to Oahu. Luke had to go for 2 weeks in November. 

I thought, "Two weeks without my husband??? I'd rather not experience that. Why don't the kids and I come for the last week and have some fun?!?" 

These thoughts were immediately followed by, "Two kids (one on my lap) on a 7 hr plane ride... alone. I'd rather not experience that either!!" 

BUT, I remembered my mom has always wanted to go to Hawaii. Soooo, we invited my parents to come along and BAM... I got some help on the plane and they got a trip to Hawaii. Everyone Wins! :-)

I figure I'll post this in the Day by Day fashion. I'm warning you now... there are TONS of pictures. Seriously. Get a drink and a snack. Go to the bathroom. Maybe grab a cozy blanket. Here we go:

Day 1

We rented a beach house that turned out to be a bit of a hassle. For starters, when we got there it wasn't quite as advertised on VRBO. Whether it was deliberate or not, it was misrepresented. We were under the impression we were renting a 3 bedroom house. It turns out it was the lower level of a house and the "master bedroom" was a curtained off portion of the main living space. Plus, we quickly discovered there was the construction of a house going on next door and the owners were building a hot tub right outside one of the bedroom windows. This posed a problem for our Izzy who MUST have a nap. We discussed it and decided not to be complainers and to stay put. After all, we were in paradise.

Morning on the beach

Our first day we went to Pearl Harbor. What an amazing place. 

The next three pictures are out at the Arizona Memorial. It was such a solemn place. I felt quite emotional when I was there. It was so moving to look into the water and seeing the wreckage and trying not to imagine what the soldiers last moments would have been like. What a price these men paid for our country. 

Logan on the Bowfin, a submarine you can tour.

As day 1 came to and end, we retired to our rental house only to discover there had been a water leak. The owner had spent the better part of the day cleaning up a large water leak in the back portion of the house. My mom jeans got ruined but nothing else. We were lucky no one left anything of value on the floor. 

We also discovered they had another water leak before we arrived that ruined the washer/dryer in the unit. Yup, we were done. We decided to move to a hotel in Waikiki Beach the next day. Luckily the owners understood. It seems to me like they started renting out the unit before everything was really ready. 

Day 2

We retured to Pearl Harbor to tour the battleship Missouri. We ended up missing the last bus over the day before. 

Luke was such a trooper. He carried Izzy around in the baby carrier for hours in the heat and humidity. He's such an awesome father.

After the tour... tired and sweaty.

The rest of the day was consumed with getting to Waikiki and settling into our hotel rooms.

Day 3

The first part of the morning everyone went swimming in the hotel pool while I stayed with Izzy so she could nap. The afternoon was spent exploring the island.....

 This is what would happen every single time we would get in the car. I think we might have worn our children out!

Day 4

Most of this day was spent swimming, building sand castles, and snorkeling. I didn't bring my camera because I didn't want it to get ruined or stolen. Plus, I don't want pictures of myself in a swimsuit plastered all over the internet. :-)

Day 5

In the morning Logan and I went with my parents to the temple while Luke stayed behind so Izzy could nap.

Then they met up with us at Waimea Valley where we hiked up to Waimea Falls.

 Tired and (slightly) ornery from the walk up. 

Day 6

Day 6 was another beach day and then trying to organize  and pack all of our crap for the trip home.

Day 7

Our flight didn't leave until 10 pm and we had to check out at 10am so we just spent the day exploring!!

Congratulations, you've made it to the end!! Aloha!!

Halloween......

For Halloween this year Logan was super pumped to be the Blue Ranger from Power Rangers Samurai. It's all he talked about for the whole month. As you can see below, being the Blue Ranger is serious business. 

I happend to find Logan's very first Halloween costume, the giraffe. I had quite the internal debate with myself about whether to give in to my more girly side and buy Izzy a cute, delightfully pink costume or be more economical and have her wear the giraffe one. The economical side won out, but I can assure you it was a close call. :-)

 Poor girl had a cold all week long and wasn't feeling very well, but she was a trooper.

This year was our first year of actual trick-or-treating.... or should I say trunk-or-treating. My dear sweet son is so shy that he hasn't wanted to trick-or-treat in previous years and we didn't want to make him do it and turn something that should be fun into a negative experience. This year we went to Alicia's wards trunk-or-treat. I think it was a good way to break Logan into the candy orgy that is Halloween! 

Fall Shenanigans......

One of the very funnest things I remember about my childhood is my neighbors backyard. In their backyard was a GIANT tree that produced an insane amount of leaves. Every autumn us neighborhood kids would rake all those leaves into the outline of a giant house and then proceed to play house for hours. Either that or rake them into a huge pile and jump into it (of course!!). 

Fast forward to the present. Our house is in a mildly new neighborhood with not very many mature trees. We've planted a few but they are far, far away from becoming good leaf shedding trees. So, I was  quite disappointed that my kids weren't going to have the same fun leaf pile jumping memories as I do. Luckily Alicia and Ben recently moved onto a beautiful tree lined street. It's one of those streets where the trees make a canopy over the road so you are driving in a kind-of tree tunnel. I love it. It's beautiful. It make me feel like I'm driving through a movie set. It also DUMPS leaves. Soooo...... the kids and I invaded Alicia's house to make some leaf jumping memories. 

Izzy didn't like the leaves so much... but she did like walking up and down the path. To each her own.

The kids were having so much fun, it was impossible to get them both looking at the camera at the same time.

I feel like this shot captures the spirit of leaf jumping perfectly. :)

Do I look tired in this pic? It's because Luke has been on a business trip all week and I AM tired. Single parenting is hard.

In other news...... my kids like to play this game called, "Let's take all the cushions off the couch and throw them around and then lets scatter as many toys as possible around the room and then see how long it take's mom's OCD-like need for order and cleanliness to rear it's ugly head and freak out." I'm sure your kids have a similar game. Well, here are they playing that very game and enjoying themselves thoroughly. 

**Please excuse my daughter's lack of proper attire. Lately she's had an objection to wearing a shirt. She's going to be one of those kids that start taking their clothes off in inappropriate places... I just know it.**

Black Island Farms.....

Wednesday we made our annual trek out to Black Island Farms where we went on the hayride and picked out awesome pumpkins. Then we let the kids run free. Mostly just to tire them out but partly because they love it. ;-) This was Izzy's first trip and she loved every minute of it! She's turning out to be quite the adventurous little lady. Logan and Jackson finally get along well so that's nice.... although Logan still calls him "The Evil Genius" but I prefer to think that's an affectionate nickname.