Saturday, February 8, 2014

Aulani

Time to catch up on some fun January memories! 

My parents escaped the frigid Oklahoma winter and came to visit in early January. Partly to celebrate my Dad's and Scott's birthdays, we decided to stay a couple of nights at Aulani. We had walked around many times, but never actually stayed at the resort. "Wow" is all I have to say. Of course, as is everything Disney, every inch of the resort was first class fun. We had such a blast!

checking in - let the fun begin!
Our room was amazing - I seriously wanted to move in. The view wasn't bad either!
Our first morning, we made reservations for the Character Breakfast. The boys were so excited to meet Mickey and his gang!
The boys barely ate a bite because they were so distracted with all the fun activities during breakfast. I think we did manage to get at least one Mickey waffle in each of them.
The boys were always the first to jump up and join in all the dances and games.
The resort has acres of pools, lazy rivers, waterslides, and other activities, but this is where we parked our stuff every morning - Menehune Bridge!
The boys ran and jumped and splashed and slid all day long.

They only stopped playing for snacks!
Scott decided to try out the "Rainbow Reef," a man-made reef in the middle of the resort for a completely controlled snorkeling environment. The boys got a kick out of seeing Daddy swimming with the fish on the other side of the glass!
The resort itself is not overwhelmingly "Mickey Mouse," but I was surprised how much the boys loved trying to find all of Disney characters who would appear here and there throughout the day.
They even waited in some long lines to get their picture taken with different friends.

We celebrated Daddy and Papa's birthday on the last evening with a fun dinner at the Monkeypod and then a special bottle of wine! Thanks to the Lieblers for introducing us to "The Prisoner!"
Aulani was such a treat - thanks Brumbra and Papa for a weekend we will never forget!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Rainy Day Fun

Yesterday was perfect. Keaton had a day off from school, and it rained ALL DAY LONG. We had nowhere to be, and no reason to leave the house. I know that some moms dread being cooped up in the house with kids, but in this land of eternal sunshine, a good old fashioned  rainy day is like chicken soup for my homebody heart.
My boys are into "moussing" their hair these days... thanks, Brumbra.
What a dude!

Seriously, could he be any more handsome? I know, kinda biased...
Shirt pockets are so handy! Anyone know where I can find a size 3T pocket protector?
We decided to do a little Valentines decorating. I got the idea to turn all our beautiful Christmas cards into a Valentines garland of all the people we love!
I loved how it turned out!
Next up - some fun Valentines sun catchers, because the sun is bound to come back out eventually! It is Hawaii.

Mark was so excited to get to cut.

The final product...
Such a fun day!

Friday, January 10, 2014

Christmas Vacation: everything in between

We had such an amazing two weeks with our Anderson family! I thank God all the time that I married into a family that I enjoy spending time with! There are way too many memories to share for one blog post, so here's a huge amount of photos to show you a little bit of what filled up the rest of our Christmas vacation.
Long flights! My boys were such troopers!
Matthew and Keaton catching up on "old times" on our way home from the airport.
We visited the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte for their live nativity.
So much silliness!!
Mark loved to watch the train around Rob and Lisa's Christmas tree.Uncle Rob got this shot - I love his little face peaking through the tunnel!
Making Christmas treats!
decorating cookies!
We had so much fun at the Children's Museum of the Upstate.
Inside the underwater bubble
They really thought that water apron would keep Mark from getting wet?  HA!
They made a video production of "The ABC Song" and "YMCA"
My boys with Clifford, the big orange dog?
One night, we visited this private residence in Mauldin that was amazing! It was such a spectacular show and totally FREE! They even gave out free hot chocolate and popcorn. So fun!
On the same night that we had our girls night out, the boys were having "man camp" at Rob and Lisa's house. The only thing I know about that night what you see in these two pictures.
Also that there was "a lot of burping and farting" Sorry I missed that.
We finished our stay with one rockin New Years Eve party!

We got our groove on!

Every child (and adult) stayed up until after midnight. Love Lisa's yawn...
Love all these crazies. It was so hard to say goodbye! :-(

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Christmas Morning

I have to say - the only thing better about being a kid on Christmas morning is having kids on Christmas morning! The excitement level, the joy, the surprise is so intense and contagious. We don't make a big deal out of Santa, but we have a lot fun pretending. This Christmas morning was one for the books. Santa came through big time for every kid in this house!


Stockings filled, gifts delivered, cookies eaten - HE CAME!!!!

Amazingly the kids slept until after 8:00. We made the boys wait at the top of the stairs until the girls were ready to come down.
Let's break into those Twizzlers - like father, like son!
Mark showing Aunt Jenny his gift from Santa. She's way impressed!
Caroline and her new Saige doll!
Stuffed Yoda - yes!!
 
We got all the cousins matching HE>I tshirts - all the way from Hawaii!