Sunday, June 30, 2013

Family Weekend!

This weekend we had a lot of family in town for Kaci's reception; I can't believe it's been almost a month since we got home from Hawaii. Crazy.

My dad's brother from Kansas thought it would be fun to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday while they were down, even though it would be a month early.
How thoughtful! I had fun picking the cake!


The birthday boy!

The next day we all thought it would be fun to take the kiddos to Wonderland.
I think everyone had an awesome time!

My little partner!

Adore those little pigtails!

This was before they started fighting over the bell....

I talked Bubba into riding this with me!

Ileigh an Kaylee

This girl went straight for the fire truck.

There is no caption awesome enough for this photo. :)

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Eli's First T-ball Game

I can't believe we are here! 
Eli's first t-ball game- so fun!

He was very excited for the game; maybe as much as his mommy and daddy. We ran all over Amarillo for those adorable red socks and belt the day of the game.
It was worth it- he looked awesome.



One little girl was a little upset because of all the gushing we were doing over bubba, so we stopped to take her picture too.
I have no idea how she just keeps getting cuter and cuter.


I never thought I would be as nervous as I was for Eli. We don't consider ourselves 'sports' people and don't really give any weight to sports activities. I just wanted sooo badly for him to have a great time and do well. I would hold my breath every time he took a swing.
He did fantastic. Maybe he got a little bit of his momma's t-ball awesomeness.





Daddy even go to get out on the field with him!


So thankful for a group of parents that took every kid in a their own and offered encouragement to everyone.

And, of course, like some kind of inate action, every little boy slides for home...every time.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Father's Day dinner

We love to have everyone over.
And we are always looking for an excuse for a party- Father's Day is always a great opportunity. 





After our parents left, we turned on the sprinklers for a little neighbor water party! ;)

Friday, June 21, 2013

Morgan's Graduation

We are so proud of our beautiful niece, Morgan! She graduated from high school this weekend and is headed to Ole Miss this fall!


Morg, Mamaw and Grandy

We are starting a little tradition of getting each of the nieces an engraved Tiffany bracelet for graduation- not only is it a special gift, but each of them will eventually have one, a special symbol that reminds them of each other and the importance of family.

She was pretty stoked about that little blue box....

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Daddy's Color Run!


Since momma broke her toe in Hawaii, daddy ran the Color Run last weekend!

We had a great time cheering him on!




And we really loved the donuts afterward!

Great job, daddy!

Eli's First T-ball Practice

One little boy had his first T-ball practice?!
Here's to an exciting season with friends!



Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Trip of a Lifetime- Day 10

We arrived in Vegas after a beautifully uneventful flight back to the mainland at 7:15 in the morning. 

We rented a van and took Megan to a Vegas buffet. What kind of aunt and uncle would we be if we didn't give her a full Vegas experience? 
(Well, maybe not a full Vegas experience.)

Of course we went to the Flamingo just so we could end breakfast with cotton candy.

How many uses can you think of for your cotton candy cones?
Swords?

Hats?

Guess who managed to find icecream for breakfast? Thanks, Gramps.

We walked around, drive around and finally headed back to the airport for our flight back to Amarillo.

Exhaustion gave way.



We are currently counting the days until we can go back. 
What an incredible experience.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Trip of a Lifetime- Day 9

Do you know what this is!?
We didn't. 

It is a Rambutan- a fruit native to Indonesia, that one way or another made its way here to Hawaii...just like pretty much everything else here.


Chris, Megan and I all tried it. It was....interesting. It tasted a lot like a plum, with a small seed in the middle.

After our breakfast of Rambutan, we headed to catch our boat tour of the Fern Grotto. We were actually scheduled to go the day before, but totally missed our boat. We were sure to be early this time! 



The kiddos loved looking out while we drifted down the river.

Gramps was VERY concerned about Ileigh being that close to the edge, so he decided that he was going to sit beside her.

We took a short walk to the Grotto. It was HOT.



The kids could care less about the beauty surrounding them. Instead they were enamored by this cat. After ten minutes of trying to get the kids to leave the cat alone, we gave up and just let them play with the cat...I mean, it's harmless, right?

About five minutes after this photo the cat hissed and clawed Ileigh, scaring her. She started screaming and crying and I had to carry her off for the rest of the presentation. 
Kids, listen to your parents.

Chris took the camera while Ileigh and mommy went exploring (read: ran far enough away so that the other passengers could hear over her screaming).



Eventually, she calmed down. :)


Ileigh loved waving to the kyakers as we passed.

Who needs a luau? We had hula girls on the boat! And they taught us all how to dance!

After our tour was over, we grabbed lunch in Kapa'a. 
Ileigh was out! I felt sooo smart because about halfway through the meal trying to eat one-handed, I had this BRILLIANT idea to put half of her body of a chair- freeing up both hands. 
Why in the world had this not come to me before?!
I was pretty stoked about the discovery.

Eli's fruit appetizer.

Eli tried his hand at photography- not too bad, Bubba.



Oh, those eyes!

Make shift bed. Whatever works, people. It was sooo hot and she was sooo tired.

Before we headed to the airport, the 'big kids' (Chris, Megan and I) decided to we had to check out the Queen's Bath before we left. 
It was gorgeous, but a little more of a 'hike' than we bargained for.

Not worrisome at all....

Megan at what we thought was the Queen's Bath; it wasn't. We decided to go look for some sea turtles we overheard some people talking about...

Along the way, my cute, little, non-hike appropriate sandle broke jumping from lava rock to lava rock. Thankfully I didn't fall- I was holding the 'nice' (read:expensive) camera. 
I did land on my toe and rip off my toenail and I was now barefoot.

I made Chris and Megan go ahead and I hobbled barefoot back up the trail back to the car.

They found it! Gorgeous!

And those HUGE turtles!

Excuse my gross feet! Keep in mind I had to hike barefoot back up the steep trail. I did lose the nail and found out it was actually broken. Better shoes are a must if you ever go to see the Queen's Bath.

It was worth it just to see the amazing waterfalls.

By the time we got back to the car, ran by Kaci's condo and bandaged my toe, we had to rush across the island to return the car and run on the plane back to Honolulu for our over-night flight back to the mainland.