My little helper

♩ ♪  This is the way we water the flowers, ♫ ♬

♩ ♪ water the flowers, ♫ ♬

♩ ♪ water the flowers. ♫ ♬

♫ ♬ This is the way we water the flowers... ♩ ♪ 

♩ ♪ out on our lanai. ♫ ♬ 

Alternate title for this post : "I'm so happy to have my camera back!"

Grammys

My boys are huge Adele fans, and were super excited to see her perform on the Grammys!

Haircut

I resisted for long enough, and the mullet finally had to go.

I never had trouble cutting Keaton's hair as a baby, but he never had these soft wispy curls...

He was very serious, and noticeably concerned, but he sat very still and calm as long as I stayed nearby.

Haircuts have their perks! We enjoyed some Ben and Jerry's to celebrate 2 good boys and 2 handsome haircuts! 

And just like that, my little baby becomes my youngest little boy.

Monster face

This boy cracks me up! He calls this his "monster face." He spent the better part of our trip to the playground the other day chasing some girls around with this move. They thankfully humored him with genuine giggles and screams.

 So SCCCCAAAARRRY!! :-)

"Whale Watching"

It's whale season on Oahu. We were starting to think we were the only ones that had not seen one yet, so our good friend and neighbor Chris took us out for a personal whale watching expedition on Saturday. 

My boys are definitely not to that "fun on the boat" stage quite yet, but we decided to give it a try. It started out fine and dandy. Beautiful calm day on the water - absolutely PERFECT for whale watching! 

Hello beautiful Kaneohe Bay!

We got about 5 miles out and Chris yells, "Look!" Scott and I were so excited about our first peek at a humpback that both of us took our hands off of Mark who was sitting on the bench seat in the enclosed section of the boat. I peek my head around the back of the boat to get a better view and my hat flies off into the water! I watch it disappear into the wake behind us. I know, I know, it's just a hat.  But I really liked it, and it was my only souvenir from our Kauai trip! Chris realizes what happens, so he spins the boat around to see if we can find it in the water. Meanwhile (since neither of his parents were holding him), Mark flies off the bench seat, smacks his head, and lands violently in the bottom of the boat, stunned and crying his eyes out. It takes a lot to get Mark to cry, so we knew he was either REALLY hurt or REALLY scared. He cried and cried and eventually drifted off to sleep. We monitored his bump, and were pretty sure that it was not a concussion, so we let him sleep it off.

Keaton by now was complaining that he was tired and didn't feel well. It wasn't long before he lost his breakfast in the puke bucket. Then Scott (who is very prone to sea sickness, but was doing fine until now) started feeling sick and eventually lost it all over the side of the boat as well. 

Meanwhile, the whales evaded us. 

A spout here, a fin here, but no really close sightings. 

This is about the most we saw. you see it? 

yeah, me either.

We eventually had to count our losses and turn back. 

I was watching the horizon on our way back in, and in the far distance, I could see this whale in the water right where our boat had just been. It kept lifting its fin up out and slapping the water. This happened at least 10 times, I swear. It was as if he was waving goodbye to us, "Thanks for playing! Better luck next time!"  

I snapped this pic of Scott with my phone on the way back in. Feeling much better now, as you can see. 

Mark woke up on our way back in and thoroughly enjoyed the last 10 minutes or so of our ride! 

Sea Life Park

We have been so blessed to be able to tag along with the Tiny Tots preschool to so many cool field trips this year! Thanks so much Karen and Lucas for always inviting us! It's been a while since we visited SLP for the first time. Not much has changed. It still has a rather lousy display of sea life. But, for a 2 hour morning outing with a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds at a heavily discounted rate, it's perfect!  

Feeding broccoli to the sea turtles

Getting friendly with the dolphins before the show

The trainers brought out one of their sea lions for a special demonstration and show. Keaton quickly moved up to one of the higher rows. He was not so sure about being so close to sea creatures. 

Then we had our own private dolphin show! This was my favorite part. Dolphins amaze me. 

watching the dolphin show 

Keaton and his buddy John. One of the best things about SLP is that it overlooks the Windward coast. Gorgeous views!!

Official goodbye to 2011

The day finally came when it was time to say goodbye to all of our beautiful Christmas cards. Keaton lined them all up to give them one last thoughtful look-through before we have to throw them away. 

Sad day.