Vacation Part 2: Bear Lake

This really is a huge game of catch up. I can hardly believe it's already been a month since this trip to Bear Lake.

My family (Mom, Lorin and siblings) all headed out to a cabin at Bear Lake for a week for a family reunion/vacation.  We had a lot of fun!  I think Josh definitely enjoyed being with all of the family members.  He is such a social kid and ate this opportunity right up.  He was the happiest I've seen him in a very long time.  He would wear himself out all day being with everyone that when it came to bed time he would conk right out. 

The week was filled with lots of time with cousins, lake time (including Josh getting pretty daring when it comes to the water.  It took him a little bit, but once in, he loved it!), swimsuits, science experiements and kids' crafts, Jake wakeboarding, me attempting to wakeboard, boating, tubing, sandcastles, great food, jet-skiing (including Josh's first ride on one and me dumping Jake and I off twice), GuitarHero tournament, parachute guys from the stair railings, and just good old fashioned family fun.  I really enjoyed it.  I'm forever grateful for the amazing family that I have and the joy and memories they bring in to my life. 

These pictures captured my favorite moments:

Josh's first Ring Pop

Adorable Swimsuit

All the grandkids!

Parachute

Our Getaway

Jake and I were lucky enough this summer to be able to have a getaway without Josh for couple days.  We call it our baby-moon, and hopefully it will be a tradition.  We were very grateful that Jake's mom, Sandy, could come and watch Joshua.

For our outing, we traveled up to Vancouver Island, BC and it was beautiful. To sum it up:

Our first day we left from Anacortes, WA on the ferry to Sidney, BC.  That ferry is about 2 1/2 hours long.  When we got to Vancouver Island we decided we would spend the day seeing the cities and stopped in Victoria first.  Here we saw the Parliament Government building and went on a tour there, grabbed lunch in china town, saw some ancient totem poles and walked around Victoria.  It's a beautiful town to visit, bigger than we had anticipated.   That afternoon we needed to head up towards our campsite and on our way decided to get a famous "Nanaimo Bar".  They are pretty rich and incredible!  I'll have to try to make them sometime.  We got to our campsite at Rathtrevor Provincial Park.  It's a very beautiful campsite right on the beach and was very quiet and family friendly.  Definitely a place we'd consider visiting again.

funny "walk" guy with feet.   All the ones in the U.S. don't have feet. Look next time

The next morning, it was time to head up to Quadra Island for our sea kayaking tour.  We had an excellent time on the water and what's great about it, it was just the two of us with our tour guide.  We could go as fast as we wanted and it was nice and quiet.  It was also really quiet outside because of the weird tides.  I guess that makes the wildlife kind of disappear so it was pretty silent.  So we had a relaxing time.  Kayaked about 8 miles and saw some sea stars and seals.

Our next day we headed back down the island toward Nanaimo.  In Nanaimo we visited Wild Play Element Park and completed the Monkido course.  It's kind of like a ropes course with ziplines, rope swings, climbing, etc.  up high in the trees.  We had a blast.  Definitely one of the funnest things on the trip and we would recommend it to anyone.

 After Wildplay it was time to head home.  It was nice to get away, but Jake and I were very excited to see our baby boy the next morning.  This was the first time I had ever left him overnight.  He did great for Sandy and was very spoiled! 

Recent Videos

Well, lots of videos have been taken in the past few weeks.  Here are a few:


Mario Kart Anyone? He likes it a little, okay maybe a LOT!




Playtime with Daddy in Utah.  This one is funny because it's full of so many Josh-isms.  Including "Uh-oh", his dorky laugh and cheesy camera face. 




This is from our camping time while at Bryce Canyon National Park. He was a dirty mess, but it was great to see him having fun.




Lastly, here is my little kitchen helper.  He found the miscellaneous utensil drawer.  He's good though because he'll take everything out and then put it back in.  Cleans up after himself already, what a good boy. :)

spring break: maui, hawaii

So this year for Spring Break, Jake and I had a lucky opportunity to head off to Maui for a week with my family.  We couldn't have done it without them and we are exceedingly grateful to spend that time away.  It was much needed!   I want to apologize for the long post, but we did so much that there are lots of pictures and things to get down. So BIG sorry for that one, but hopefully you enjoy it!


We stayed at this beautiful estate in Haiku (north-eastern part of the island, or otherwise known as "upcountry").  it was absolutely amazing and fit all 15 of us perfectly.  The funny part about this place is that because it's in the "upcountry" it's a bit hard to find. Luckily my parents were already there to help guide us in.  It really was like driving through Jurassic Park.  Here is a video of the drive in... (sorry it's a little bumpy.  we were short on time on our camera)





Here are some other pictures of the place...

Here is also what we ended up doing our days there.


Saturday
We headed over to Makena Beach (Big Beach) with the entire group for the day.  We took the Boogie Boards and had a great time.  Joshie loved the sand but hated the water.  After a day at the beach we got some pulled pork sandwiches at a shack on the side of the road and went to Ululani's Hawaiian Shave Ice which was amazing!  Here are the pictures:

Sunday
After a relaxing morning, we decided to head up to Haleakala National Park to see the Haleakala Crater.  With Josh in tow it made for a 1 hour 45 minute drive up.  It was long, but we enjoyed getting to the summit.  If we ever did go back to Maui, without children, we would possibly hike inside the crater or go up for the sunrise (which is supposedly "healing", "magnificent", etc.)  We also tried to get Josh in the pool this day.  As you can see from the video he hated it!!  Too bad, because I thought I would really enjoy it!

Monday 
Jake had a surf lesson this day with some of the family.  Because I needed to watch Josh, I stayed up on the beach which was also fun to see how he enjoyed playing in the sun.  Here are some videos of the big surfers and Joshie playing away.  



 




Tuesday
We headed for an awesome snorkel day with a majority of the family this day.  We went with Pacific Whale Foundation and they did a great job.  We went to Molokini Crater Island for 1 hour and Turtle Town/Arches for 1 hour.  The coral was beautiful, the fish were everywhere and we even spotted a couple turtles.  It was great to get out without Joshie for a little bit and enjoy time together as well as with family.  We also saw quite a few whales which added to the trip.  I'm sure glad we were able to go do this.  That night we also had my mom watch Joshie while we went and got some pizza out a Pizza Fresh in Makawao.  It was pretty good pizza, but the best part was getting a night out together. 

Wednesday


As called by Jake "a waste of one of our days" we still had a pretty good time, but it could have been better.  We took off for Lahaina in the morning and walked around the shops for a little while.  Got some souvenirs and then decided to get some lunch.   We ended up going to Hard Rock Cafe which was a terrible choice because of the bad food and completely awful service.  People say live and learn, but what they should tell you first is listen to good advice from your parents. Josh did get to try a pickle out of it though. :)

Thursday
This morning started out with our trip to Iao Valley State Park to see the Iao Valley State Monument.  It was pretty interesting but we were expecting a better hike to it.  Instead you could basically see it from the parking lot.  Luckily they had some trails around the park and so we were able to break out the kid carrier for the first time this trip and walk around.  It was a nice morning with beautiful scenery.  Because of our bad experience on Wednesday and Ululani Hawaiian Shave Ice place was closed because of technical difficulties, we ended up driving to Lahaina again.  We went just to go to Kimo's (a local restaurant) for a good burger and Hula pie.  This was the restaurant my mom was telling me to go to ever since we got here and we definitely should have gone Wednesday, but oh well we still went and it really was fantastic.  Exactly the atmosphere we wanted. Small, quiet, great view, good food, everything!!   On our way back from Lahaina, we decided to stop on Hana Hwy for a little hike by Twin Falls Fruit Stand.  We couldn't do it all because it was getting late for Josh but we had a good time anyway. 

Thursday PM - Meditation Room
So my brothers came across this meditation room on the property we were staying at and Jake and I went and saw it Thursday when we got back.  Needless to say it is quite creepy.  It was supposedly built in the 50's as a bomb/hurricane shelter.  Pretty funny to see!  The acoustics in it were funny to hear too!

We really did have a GREAT time there and I wish we didn't have to leave. :)  Joshie was a great traveler and we are blessed to have him in our lives!  I'm surely grateful for my family and all those that helped make this trip happen so that we could have great memories for years to come.  Hopefully Jake and I will be able to get back to Hawaii in the future.