More Hawaii Pics!

We bought this umbrella stroller at Babies'R'Us before we left. I didn't want to travel with our big stroller mainly because I worried that the airlines would trash it. I missed all the storage that our big stroller has but I LOVE the hot pink color!

Daddy and Ems at Hanalei Beach. I had a bit of a nervous breakdown here. Everyone wanted to take Emersyn into the ocean. Everyone but ME! We should have gotten her a life vest but we didn't and Brett wanted to take Emersyn out in the ocean to enjoy the waves. I was SO nervous, I literally tied one of those pool noodles around her waist which looked ridiculous but I wanted her to have some floatability. Anyways, the waves were really mild but then when my mom was holding her, a big one came over our heads and I just had this paralyzing fear of Emersyn being torn out of my mom's arms by the ocean and I have never been more scared in my adult life. The wave went over us and it was fine but I told Brett that I had had enough and he walked Ems and I back to the shore, where I proceeded to start bawling because I thought my baby was going to be swept out to sea. Accidents can happen and I can't believe I even let her get as far out as I did. The ocean that we swam in outside our hotel was really mild and had virtually no waves, but Hanalei was NOT the same. Ems and I hung out on the shore while my parents and Brett enjoyed diving in the waves.

This pic turned out blurry but I had to show off Emersyn's patriotic bikini. :) She only wore it once when we took her to the pool at night. I worried that she would get burnt if she wore it during the day. I got this on clearance at Old Navy for $.97. Even though she only wore it once, I feel like I got my money's worth!!! :)

This was a lighthouse that Brett and I saw on our first "exploring date" that we went on for a day. It was so weird leaving Emersyn behind but I was so glad to let my parents have time with her. This lighthouse was stunning. You could pay $10 to go see it closer but why? This view was good enough for us. That is the thing about Hawaii. Yes, it can be VERY expensive to do activities. But there is SO much to see, you really don't need to pay for much at all! And you can choose to pursue inexpensive activites too. For example, we rented snorkel gear for a day. It was a whopping $3.12 for both of us, including the mask, snorkel and fins! We just took our gear down to a beach and went snorkeling! Cheap fun!

Hanalei Bay, one of our favorite spots. I loved the contrast of the green mountains against the blue ocean. Kauai is known as the "garden island". It really is magnificent.

Our lunch spot in Hanalei. My handsome hubby waited for the food so that I could sit and take pictures. :) We had teriyaki burgers...yummy!!!

In so many ways I hope we have a son next for Brett to take on little adventures. (Although if we had a girl, we would need to buy ZERO in the clothing department, hee hee) Brett is such a kid himself still and it is something I love about him. We stopped on the side of the road where some cars were and Brett hiked down to a beach while I waited by the car. This is him, coming back up and begging me to go with him. I agreed of course. It turns out, the beach we hiked down to was the beach where the famous love scene in "South Pacific" was filmed, you know the one with the people kissing on the beach?? We didn't know this until AFTER we left so I failed to get a picture. Rats! Next time! It was amazing though. The only bummer was, we had to hike down through this rainforest, where I proceeded to get bitten by mosquitos. I spent the next part of our drive counting all the bites and welts. Very romantic, hee hee.

This is where Emersyn and Riley, my best friends little boy, are going to get married. I am thinking around 2030? And don't worry Lou, the bride's parents foot the bill so all you have to worry about is the tropical rehearsal dinner!! This is a church in Hanalei.

Taro fields.

On Wednesday we drove up to the Waimea Canyon. It was breath taking. I couldn't even begin to describe it. I stood there and just stared, trying to soak it all up because no words or pictures could describe it.

I love these chubby legs!!!

View on the way down from Waimea canyon.

Poipou beach, where Brett and I snorkeled! It was incredible. I almost gave up on snorkeling because I was so scared to put my face in the water and breathe. It's like I didn't trust the mask or something. Brett insisted that I try, but in a loving way of course. :) He told me to just put my face in the water, which was only up my waist really and I did. I saw TONS of fish!!!! That got me pretty excited so I conquered yet another fear and snorkeled my heart out. It was so fun and intimate to snorkel with Brett. It is so quiet and you feel like you are in your own little paradise, even though you are surrounded by lots of people. We held hands under water and showed each other fish and even eels (eeeeek). Amazing memories.

Spouting Horn geiser. Brett took like 300 pictures of it. I love him.

Brett took this pic while my dad was driving so it turned out a little blurry but this is known as the tunnel of trees. So pretty.

Emersyn was such a great little traveller in the car. As long as her monkey came along for the ride, which he always did!

Stay tuned for part three..... :)

Shout Out

Thank you thank you to LeAnna for making this adorable blog template for me!! Her and I have a LOT in commom, more then we'd like to in fact! (A little bit of an inside joke). Anyways, it is so neat when the Lord sends people your way to encourage you and BLESS your socks off by creating this blog template for me! It is just too cute!!

Thanks LeAnna!!!! I am so happy to call you a bloggy friend!!! :)

Hawaii Part One!

Wow, what a month it has been! I am finally back at work, back into the groove of things. I have to admit, it was hard to leave Hawaii but now that I am back into reality, I am happy to be here too. :)

I am a little overwhelmed at the thought of blogging about our vacation. There is SO much to say and document, after all, this blog is mainly a scrapbook for my little Emersyn Grace. So instead of being overwhelmed, I am just going to let pictures do the talking and not try to explain it all in some clever story telling fashion.

First of all, several of my friends have said that I need to give them some tips on travelling with a toddler. Sadly, I have NONE. :) We had a great flight there but coming home was rough. More on that later. :)

Sunday morning (the 13th) we woke up at the crack of dawn and headed to the airport at 6:15am. Brett had debated onto whether we should keep Emersyn up late the night before so that she would sleep on the plane but we decided that a well rested baby is much more fun to deal with then an exhausted one. Getting up that early was brutal anyways. I had her in her travel clothes when she went to bed so that we could just wake her up and then plop her in the car. She was so cute when we woke her up though, I swear she knew that we were going on vacation. She seemed excited. :)

Our flight there was great. A sweet lady that we had made friends with in line gave us her row of three seats for the two of us. She had a one year old as well and was happy to take our two seat row by the window since she was travelling alone with her daughter. It was a win win solution for us all! Hooray. Emersyn fell asleep almost immediately on her daddy, so sweet. The flight there was fine, we were blessed with an extra meal for Emersyn, free headphones to watch the movie, etc. Plus, we knew that once we got to Hawaii, we would have help with Emersyn and get some relief that way. :)

We got into Honolulu and then took a 30 minute flight over to Kauai on a different plane.

Emersyn chatting with our "friend" on the plane and enjoying the window view. The back of the plane wasn't full at all so we could wander around, it was so nice!

Emersyn and Daddy at the airport in Honolulu watching the planes take off.

Once we landed on Kauai, I fell in love. The island is an absolute tropical paradise. We have been to Maui once before and I thought NOTHING could top our experience there but this certainly did. I was so reminded of how amazing God is and how thoughtful He is to have created such a magical place for us to enjoy.

This was our view while having breakfast our first morning there!

"Can we get going?? I am ready for the pool Mommy!!"

Note the teeny tiny painted toes. :) I painted them before we left. That was quite the struggle. I painted them while she ate in her high chair but she wasn't a big fan of having her feet pampered. I told her this will change as she gets older. :)

Emersyn enjoying the pool in her floaty, courtesy of Grammy and Grandpa. They got it in Minnesota before they got there. It was perfect. She was usually wearing a hat too, got lots of shade, no sunburns!

Breakfast place where we treated my mom and dad to a "happy grandparent's day" breakfast! We could walk here from our resort.

Sweaty baby=crazy hair!! :)

Kauai was SUPER humid, which is a foreign thing to us Oregonians. Our summers are hot but a very dry heat. I couldn't believe how moist the air was. It made getting ready pretty easy in the mornings. No make up and I usually didn't even blow dry my hair. I loved the freedom of getting ready in like 15 minutes!!

My parents have a one bedroom timeshare at the Kauai Marriott which was stunning. Brett and I slept in a pull out bed in the living room and Emersyn slept in a pack'n'play in Grammy and Grandpa's room. Every morning, she would wake up early and Grammy and Grandpa would take her down for breakfast by the pool. It was so nice. We didn't sleep in much really because of the time change, woke up most days by 7:30. It is just too beautiful out to sleep. I couldn't wait for each day to start!! We spent lots of mornings by the pool and then my dad, Brett and I would go swimming in the ocean. The Marriott is right on the beach, and is on a bay area which is nice for swimming. Much calmer waters. I am scared to death of the ocean. I went swimming a couple times in Maui but the surf was so rough both times that I got slammed into the ocean floor and spun upside down and it just scared me. This time, the waters were so smooth and calm. It was so nice to go out and bob in the waves and relax. *sigh* I miss it!!!

Brett and I got to have as much exploring and alone time as we wanted. We actually missed Emersyn during our vacation since she was with Grammy and Grandpa so much. It was fun though, she had a great time with them and really got a chance to bond with my dad, who she hasn't seen since March. One night she even cuddled and fell asleep in their bed on my dad's pillow when he was laying there too. Precious.

Under Construction

Fall changes are coming and my blog is currently under construction....pardon the mess! :) :)

Back to Reality!

Hello Bloggy Friends!!! We are back in Portland after a glorious vacation. Kauai is an amazing place; it was hard not to see God's beautiful creation everywhere you looked.

I am going to be posting about our vacation soon, tonight I need to get to bed and get ready for our week, or what's left of it.

Stay tuned!!!

Unsolicited :)

In my previous post, a *friendly* yet anonymous reader decided to tell me what he/she thought of my parenting tactic in regards to flicking Emersyn's hand when she was trying to touch the nightlight. (see post & comment below). At first, I got a little fired up, but then my husband gently reminded me that when you have a public blog with public comments, this can happen. And I do believe that the comment was said in a friendly(ish) way, but I still feel like people can too strongly interject parenting advice when it is unsolicited. Of course if I ever read on a blog that someone thought it was okay to do something that may HARM a child, I might leave a comment with my opinion.

This is an interesting topic for me. Honestly, before I had a daughter of my own, I had rather strong feelings about parenting. I thought that there was definitely a right way and a wrong way to do things, or maybe not even a wrong way per say, maybe just a better way. But since becoming a parent, I have realized that we each have our own instincts, our own intuitions, and that is SO okay. I have read enough books and magazines to consider myself fairly informed. When Emersyn reached for the nightlight for the third time, I decided to gently flick her palm. Guess what? It worked! She wasn't happy about it mind you, but she realized that Mommy meant business and she moved onto other naughty-ness. :) The comment indicated that if I use such tactic's as gently flicking her palm now, what might that lead to in the future as problems increase and escalate? Well, I can't answer that right now honestly. I will have to wait until I get there. I personally was spanked as a child. I don't know how I feel about that method yet. But I do know that Emersyn's punishment fit the *crime*. :) If I had swatted her on the bum, well that wouldn't have done anything. She would have learned nothing (in my opinion). But I did what came naturally to me and I don't think there is anything wrong with that. I know that Emersyn is still young. But she knows "no" and she knows "that's not for babies". When she proceeds to do something that might harm her, like play with the nightlight, I am going to tell her that it isn't okay.

By the way, the nightlight has been relocated. :)

Anyways, that is my response to you, Mr/Miss Anonymous. :) No hard feelings!

I have had such a great morning so far!! Brett and I got up early and did some final picking up before the cleaners got here. Brett is in property management so he gets hooked up with amazing cleaners for a really good discounted price, thank you Lord. They are the same gals that cleaned before Emersyn was born. They are upstairs, deep cleaning, while I am enjoying the day. Per my chiropractor, I am not supposed to do any vigorous activity....well, cleaning is pretty vigorous, don't you think? Clearly I feel guilty for being on my laptop while cleaners are upstairs..... :)

Emersyn and I went on a coffee date this morning and then took a walk to a nearby outdoor shopping mall where I took back a shirt and then bought a birthday present for our neighbor's daughter who is turning two! I love the outfit we got her, SO darn cute. I love all that is Gymboree. And I got Emersyn a long sleeved t-shirt that say's "Daddy's Little Pumpkin". Hee hee. I have learned that Daddy will never get mad at me buying anything that says Daddy on it.

Now we are back at home, Emersyn is napping, and I am blogging. Today I have to finish up the laundry and pack. Not too daunting of a list but I know the day will be over before we know it. We leave for the airport at 6:30-6:45am....PRAY FOR US!!!! We are both a little nervous about the flight with Emersyn. :)

My (real life not blogging) friend Sarah posted a hilarious list today about her 11 month old, I felt like I was reading about Emersyn.....those of you with little ones might appreciate it!

www.sarahrunnergirl.blogspot.com

I am not sure if I will be blogging or not from Hawaii.....I want to take full advantage of this vacation and enjoy my husband, baby, and my parents! I hope you all have wonderful weeks and I am blessed to consider you all friends!!!

Hawaii, here I come!

Thursday Tid-Bits

*We are now officially Oregon Zoo members!! We got a promo in the mail for a great membership deal, $59 for 14 months. We figure that we should make it a goal to go to the zoo once a month. It is fun to have a place to walk around, plus, as Emersyn gets older she will appreciate the animals. We are very excited. We haven't taken Emersyn yet so that is another first milestone that will be fun to capture!!
*Emersyn loves dancing these days. She hears ANY music and starts grooving. Her favorite is the "Veggie Tales" theme song. When it comes on she starts waving and Bob and Larry and then shaking her booty and laughing. She is so cute.
*Emersyn has started throwing mini tantrums and darn it if I can't help but laugh. Last night she was trying to play with the nightlight in her room that is plugged in. I told her no and she did her devastated crying face and then crawled over to cuddle. Then she went right back to the nightlight and this time when I said no, she looked right at me and didn't care. So I went over and took her hand away gently, said "this isn't for babies" and she did her Shrek face (where she shows me all her teeth) and whined and then went right back to the nightlight. This time I gently flicked her palm and said no again and she started bawling again. So dramatic. She throws fits at resteraunts now too, lovely. If we aren't feeding her fast enough, she will scream in between bites. Like high pitched makes my ears bleed screaming. SO naughty. This baby to toddler transition is very.....interesting.
*We went to the NIKE employee store the other night and got Ems her first pair of official walking shoes! She has tiny feet for her age, 3.5. That is funny to me considering how tall she has been so far, I wonder if her growth has slowed down. We have her one year appointment the week we get back from our trip. We got her one pair of size 4's that will help her learn how to walk and then a pair of size 5's that are the "Shox" kind. Love it!!!!

Okay, I think that those are all the tidbits that I have for ya! Happy Thursday!!