Happy Valentines Day!

For Valentines Day we had a nice romantic dinner with the kids! They loved it.  Wesley wasn't feeling that well, but we gave him some medicine, so by dinner time he had perked up a little. The kids love getting heart pizza.  We tried out a new drink, 7up floats,  they were ok. The best part about them was the licorice straw!

We don't have a lot of family traditions, but this is one we have done for the last several years and the kids love it. Wesley loves having candle light dinners. Such and easy thing to do, and yet we hardly ever do it.

Mike did take me out on Friday, so we got to celebrate a day early. I sure love my family!

Hawaii! Part 2

The day after the Road to Hana was Sunday.  We woke up super early to go see the sunrise on top of a volcano, Haleakala. 

 It was super cold and windy, but very majestic.

 Me and my dad had tried to catch the sunset almost ever night we were there.  We finally caught it this night.

 Jaime and Matt came this time so they saw it on their first try.

 While on the beach we came across an awesome sea turtle.

On Monday we went back to mile marker 14 and did some more snorkeling.  

I didn't last very long, the water was pretty murky and I started panicking! So I watched the crabs for a while. They sure are funny little things.

  Then we drove to a National Park, Ioa Valley.  We found some Sassafras, when you pull the it out by the roots, the roots smell like rootbeer! Pretty neat.

 We hiked up to the needle, we walked around the botanical gardens. Hawaii really is a beautiful place.

The next day we pretty much just shopped for souvenirs for our families. I also found some more flowers for Jaycee.

 Me and my dads flight left at 7 pm and we arrived home at 7 in the am! 

Mike and the kids came and picked us up from the airport. The kids had made me some awesome welcome home signs! It sure is nice to be home!

Hawaii! Part 1

I got the opportunity to go to Hawaii with my dad, Jaime and Matt, and Trevor and Katie, and some of Trevor's friends.  It was a really fun trip.  The only thing that would have made it better is if Mike had come with me. 

On our first day we drove around, we saw a lot of kite and wind surfers, and a lot of turtles!

 My dad was pretty sure this one was dead...it wasn't, we totally saw it move. :)

We ended the day with some snorkeling.

The next day we did some more snorkeling and a turtle actually ran right into my shin as I was adjusting my mask! Jaime even got a picture of it! Ouch!

 Black rock was my favorite snorkeling.

 The water was so clear and beautiful!

 On our way home we stopped for an icy. I think we stopped almost everyday after also. :) They put pistachio ice cream on the bottom that was delicious.  I like the flavor melona, which my dad absolutely hated! I also liked coconut.  Then they would snow cap it! I loved it! Jaime and my dad did not.

 The next day we went to Molokini to do more snorkeling. The boat ride out was amazing. We saw a lot of whale on the way out and on the way back in. 

 The snorkeling was good, but it was super cold. Every time I went snorkeling I got sick, this particular day I didn't last very long.  I about lost my cookies, I had to get out quick, I didn't want to get attacked by hungry fish after my cookies. :)

 On the way back in we saw several whales breach! It was amazing, a couple of them were pretty close.  We saw a mom with her cafe and the cafe jumped at least 10 times.  It was so cute.

 I took a lot of pictures of flowers, mostly for Jaycee, she loved the flower pictures. The yellow flowers were just outside our condo.

The next day, which was a Saturday we drove the Road to Hana. Last time we were there all the waterfalls were ragging muddy rivers. This time we saw some waterfalls, it was a little on the dry side.

 The water was so amazing!

 Trevor and his friends swam in a couple of the waterfalls.  My dad even jumped from one of the falls!

 There were so many waterfalls, oh the beauty of the Earth!

We stopped at some caves and climbed through them, they were pretty awesome.

We stopped at Black Sand beach for awhile. 

The waves were so big! The water was also very beautiful here.

We made it to the end of the road to the Seven Sacred Pools. Last time it was a raging muddy river, this time it was all dried up with stagnant water.

 There was an awesome bamboo forest.

It was starting to get dark so we kind of had to rush through.  We didn't want to be coming back in complete darkness!

We made it to the fall at the end.

We didn't make it out before it was dark, but we made it most the way down.  We used our phone flashlights to get us back to our cars.

Late January...

We ended the month with new hair cuts for the boys. Bensens first haircut was on January 30th.  

He pretty much hated it! Wesley was such a nice brother he held him so I didn't have to get all hairy.

He was very squirmy I had to stop taking pictures and help Jaime hold him still.

After all was said and done he was much happier. He is such a handsome boy...both of them are, I am a lucky mom!

Jaycee did the Northridge cheer camp.  She loved it.  It was three days of practice, then they performed at the boys basketball game halftime.  It was pretty cute.

Mae and Paige were there also.  These three are trouble!

It will be fun to see what they all decide to like as they grow up. 

Marlee got baptized on January 31st.  It was a really nice day.

Jaycee is getting pretty excited to get baptized.