I love the holidays

This week is so exciting! I love all of the activities and meaning surrounding the holidays! I am hoping to whip up a cute advent calendar asap. Pinterest is so helpful in saving the cute ideas I find all over the internet. I've already found great recipes and crafts that I can't wait to do.

We have never done Elf on the Shelf, but it looks really darling. Has anyone personally done it with your family? I would love to hear about it.

I love shopping the internet for gift ideas and imagining what to get the kids. My sister recently asked me what things I wanted for Christmas. I had a fun time dreaming of ideas for me as well :) I tried to update my amazon wishlist.

It mostly involves cute colored or patterned tights from kohls.com, shoes, a camera bag, a camera lens, and some books. I also dream of things to make my house cute, like pillows, lamps, and curtains. Isn't Homegoods the best?

Anyway, I think I've gotten carried away. I am just super excited for cooking and hanging with my family this Thanksgiving and then getting out all the Christmas stuff. I hope you are all looking forward to it as much as I am!

November thus far

november has been beautiful. the weather has cooled just perfectly, blessing us with chilly mornings, the occasional shower, and perfect afternoons in the 70's. I have begun the fun (and daunting) task of Christmas shopping and even put up a small (4 foot tall) lit tree. I have been feeling up to a bit of crafting even. We have been enjoying riding bikes and playing at the park and generally leading a charmed life (between the snot and bruises).
Henry ( 4 1/2 years old) is now riding his bike sans training wheels and is so proud of himself! And so are we :)

We enjoyed celebrating Grandpa Wes and Uncle Bart's birthday on Sunday!

 And yesterday was the perfect park day.

Halloween 2011

 My sister Karen with the kids.

 Henry and Weston.

I've been such a lazy blogger. I think it's just become easier to post pictures on facebook and I neglect my blog. However, I still want to keep this up. so I'll try to do better.

Hawaii Trip:Day 5 and 6

 We decided to get up early and enjoy the sun rise off the East shore. It was beautiful and we had the company of a few chickens. Chickens roam everywhere on the island.

Then we went back to the B&B for a nice breakfast on the lanai upstairs with a few other guests. We headed back to the South shore and did more snorkeling. We saw some young kids spear fishing under the water and they even had an eel in their cooler

 After snorkeling we cleaned up and grabbed lunch at the Kona fish market. Once again we had the company of chickens as we ate our lunch outside. Then we checked Trent in at the scuba shop and took him to the dock. I dropped him off and headed west. I had booked a helicopter tour with Inter-island helicopters on a doors off tour of the island. I was anxious and excited and wishing I had Trent with me instead of 3 strangers, but still happy to be going. I got the best seat in the house, up front next to the open door hole. The views were gorgeous. Unfortunately I had stopped taking my prescrip for anti nausea because I didn't like the side effect. Toward the end of the flight I embarrassingly had to use an air sickness bag. I was still glad I went, since the views were amazing

. After picking Trent up, we finished the day with dinner at Duke's Canoe Club, which was a cute spot with a nice view of the beach.

The next day was our last one on the island. We spent the morning in bed until breakfast and then packing up and planning our day. We decided to kayak down Waimea river. We rented a kayak and packed sandwiches in a cooler and headed off. It was a really lovely trip. I definitely worked my shoulders out a bit, but it was relaxing too. We kayaked to the spot where all the tours take you and pulled on land to start our hike to secret falls. Toward the end of the hike we veered off path for a bit and followed the river. Big mistake. We wasted at least an hour in steep, crazy, heavily wooded areas, getting banged up, scratched up, and bitten by insects. We finally turned around and got back to where we left the path, to find we had been about 2 minutes from the falls. We hopped in the very cold water and let the falls shower down on us like a heavy rain. It was beautiful and I'm glad we finally made it!
After the hike back, we kayaked just a little further up the river to a swinging rope where we stopped and ate our lunch and took a few jumps of the rope. Trent did a few backflips and I just did one jump. Then we headed back. By then it was time to get our things from the B&B and shower off before we headed back toward the airport. We grabbed a few souvenirs and then hopped on our night flight back home.