Years ago, inspired by my all-time favorite movie, Amelie, Brian and I bought a stuffed dog and took pictures of it "going on vacation" with us. (In the movie, Amelie wants to inspire her father to get out of the house so she sends his garden gnome with a flight-attendant friend all over the world. "The gnome" sends the father picture postcards in the mail.) Anyway, it was a blast finding different places to photograph our dog...and Denay got a kick out of the pictures (I emailed them to her one at a time when we got home....she also loves Amelie). So, on the last day of our Hawaiian vacation, Brian and I planned to drive from our hotel back to the North Shore for the second time that week. We had to stop by Target for some sunscreen (yes...Target! It was like finding paradise IN paradise...at least for me!) I got the idea to buy something we could photograph with our phones and email to the boys so they could "share" the day with us. We found a mini "snowboarding Domo" (that's what they call him at Target anyway...my boys called him the Chocolate Monster last year when he was featured in the store during Halloween season). We sent emails from our phones all day and took goofy pictures of Domo. I'll include some "normal" photos too, but here is:

Domo Does Hawaii (I'll post the titles and content of our messages, but keep in mind that I was writing it to make little boys laugh so it sounds a lot like Elmo's World)


Domo's Hawaiian Adventure:
This is snowboarding Domo (chocolate monster). We just met him at Target and he asked if we knew any little boys who might love him. We said that we DO, indeed, know three sweet little boys who would love a domo monster! We told him that we could take him home tomorrow, but that the boys aren't with us today in Hawaii. We said we could take him on an adventure to the North Shore and then on a plane back to the little boys. Today he is not snowboard domo, today he is surfer domo. This is domo monster in our Jeep...ready for an adventure!! Keep your eye out for more pictures today!!


Domo Enjoys the breezy jeep ride
Domo sees mountains ...but he doesn't think there is any chance of snowboarding today. Back to being surfer domo! "take me to the beach!"
Domo is Lost: Daddy drove us into some crazy residential alley...domo doesn't mind because there are pretty flowers RIGHT out the window. There are also speed bumps every 30 feet...bump...domo falls over on the dashboard of the jeep...Domo doesn't like that part so much.

Domo found a beach: Here, domo sits on a lava rock beside the ocean. We won't stay long...but he stopped to check out the waves. We saw two turtles swimming around. Daddy is going to investigate

Domo does lunch: We heard this place is great. Domo poses with a cool car outside the restaurant. He's headed in to try a mahi mahi sandwich with a Long Board beer....hey, are you old enough for beer Domo?

Domo found cool stuff! Domo wonders who might like these three kids' snorkel sets with masks, snorkels and flippers. Anyone know who might want something like that?

Domo takes a break After a long drive back from North Shore, domo relaxes on the hotel balcony and watches the waves roll in

Domo goes to the pool: Domo hangs out at the hotel pool.
Domo Waits for a Snack: I hear there are some garlic, cheese and bacon fries coming...yum!
Domo does the beach: Here's domo, checking out the hotel lagoon beach

Domo finds a sandcastle: The sun has set in Hawaii, the moon is out, but there is still time for one last dip in the ocean. Domo found a castle left on the beach. Goodnight from Hawaii! Domo can't wait to meet you tomorrow!!

Domo on the plane: Domo is on the plane ready to head home to meet his new boys!

Ok....so here are some "adult" pictures!

When we landed in Hawaii, I got a pretty cool surprise. Brian had rented us a Jeep (and it's white...just like Denay's back in college!!)

It was a courteous car...it introduced itself to us (this was on the back tire)

View from our room.

At the hotel hot tub: We actually didn't order the pineapples...all the frozen drinks come in them (bonus though because you can snack on your cup when the drink it gone)

amazing...just amazing

THIS is Boot's and Kimo's! If I were to move to Hawaii, I would have to live within walking distance of this place. The hotel valet gave us the tip to go there and OH MY GOSH...those pancakes in front of me are banana with a macadamia nut sauce on top. This food was probably the best meal I've ever had (I'm a big breakfast fanatic). Brian said he was in love....threatened to leave me for the pancakes. Sadly, this place was over an hour away from our hotel and about an hour away from our favorite destination so we only went once.

We arrived mid-afternoon on Monday. Tuesday, as we were just waking up, Brian said "let's see if we can get out of here in 10 minutes: grab your stuff...we're going for an all-day drive". We took bathing suits, our masks and snorkels (no fins...too big to pack), towels and sunscreen. That is just heaven to me: follow the road, eat good food (see picture above), see beautiful sites, take only the basics (we didn't even have a beach bag so our stuff went into a plastic bag I had in our hotel room).

Classic self-portrait :) This was taken by a little cove on a rock beach where we saw a bunch of people diving and snorkeling. We changed in the car, grabbed our masks and went looking for fish. We saw a TON of beautiful ones right there by the shore. After our swim, we crossed the street and ordered a banana & peanut butter smoothie from one of those road-side RVs where you order from the window and the kitchen is in the truck.

Once we got to the North Shore (Haleiwa), we shopped around for a while, took pictures of all the cool stuff in the town and then went for lunch. We ordered avocado on our burgers and we were just dying laughing when they came out. It was like an avocado in a bun with a side of hamburger. We couldn't even get our mouths around them!

Ok...let's talk some more about what we ate on vacation! Here is Brian at Roy's. HEAVEN! We've been to one in Chicago, but we were just loving this place! We went there twice and ate the most amazing fish (am I really surprised at the vaca weight gain!?)

Brian going diving: My ear was hurting all week and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to clear them so I (sniff sniff) did not go Scuba diving with Brian. BUT...the super cool thing was that this company's big dive boat was broken so they had to take out a tiny speed boat. They could fit 3 divers and there were only 2 that day (Brian and another man...plus the dive instructor) so they said I could ride along for free. I took my bathing suit, mask and snorkel with me just in case. At both dive spots, I got to jump in and swim at my leisure. I counted 10 big sea turtles at the first spot and swam above the divers along the second. Brian saw some amazing stuff: a white-tipped reef shark, leaf scorpion fish, an octopus, more turtles and a Hawaiian ray

The sun setting from our balcony: We watched it every night and it was SO funny because there was this one big tree, right below our room, where TONS of birds gathered every night...and they just chat up a storm. They are so noisy! We asked someone at the hotel about it and she said that's the only tree where the birds flock at night.

A life guard hut near Haleiwa on the North shore

At Motsumoto's Shave Ice. This general store has been on the main road in Haleiwa since 1951. They sell shave ice there and people line up around the outside of the building to get one.

In the toy aisle at Target!

Back in Los Angeles at Nana's house, Logan (what's with the face?!) and Aiden show off their shark tooth necklaces and snorkel gear

I had to show Aiden the proper snorkel technique. They thought it was SO funny for mommy to wear a mask (I do look just tres chic, no?)

A video of Aiden!

Ok...I super hate it when I accidentally upload my pictures to be aligned to the left. I simply can NOT figure out where to put the type and the preview looks nothing like my actual post (captions are mostly under the pics...until the end of the post where the pictures were actually centered...shrug). Sorry for the ugliness of this post :):)

Well...it's been another week or so since my last post...obviously I have a lot of pictures (camera happy = me)! Last week was a ton of fun, but it did have it's very sad moments. Two of my very good friends are moving away within the next 2 months. I started off my week with a going away party for Kristina (see queen of fun with the mattress surfing) and Kelly (a member of the greatest playgroup Mothers and More has ever known). It was seriously one awesome going away party....a bit of the "laugh so you don't cry" philosophy!

So...we had one final playgroup with Kelly and her kids on Wednesday. Another sad moment for me! Back when Logan was only 6 months old, I joined this playgroup with other moms and their (one and only!) babies. There were originally 4 of us with three boys and 1 girl, then came Darlene with Kennedy and then Kelly with Caleb (total count: 2 girls, 4 boys). After Kelly joined, she, I and Lisa all had a second boy and Lauren had a second girl. We continued meeting weekly until some of the kids started preschool this past year. We've tried to meet here and there, play when we can, go on park outings etc. I can't even remember if Brady came before or after the official end of our playgroup, but Kelly also had a third baby (a girl) after we had already stopped getting together on a weekly basis. I remember thinking, back when we had our group every week, that I just never wanted it to end. Kids grow up though...and good friends have to move on to different places. Here are some pictures to commemorate and remember the good times:


This is Halloween 2005 with 4 of the original 5 playgroup babies (Logan is the pumpkin!)



That was then....this is now! (5 to 12!)


Logan did a great job holding Brady next to his buddy Caleb, one of Kelly's little boys, who was doing a great job holding his baby sister

Aiden ended up next to Caleb's brother Sammy....those two are little peas in a pod! I didn't get a good picture, but they were grinning at each other and having a blast during the pictures. I found them upstairs hiding together under a blanket when we were trying to pull the whole group together for our photo session :)

The light coming in my windows was horrible, but here are the 6 playgroup mommies and all our babies.

The mommies!!

Friday I took the boys to Prairie Fest for "Wheels Go Round". We went with the neighborhood crew. There were at least 7 or 8 vehicles that the kids could climb in to, honk horns, check out gadgets etc. Here are Logan and Aiden in the garbage truck!

Here are the babies: Jackson, Kate and Brady. Bray was SUCH a good boy that day. It's getting harder and harder to convince him that the stroller is tons of fun (notice the emergency paci is in place....that always helps)

Little kids, big wheel!

Little kids....big scooper!!!

After procuring balloons and fake tattoos, we played with the goats and rabbits. It was....red day for my boys :)

We had to teach Brady to show his open hands to the goats, indicating that he did NOT have food. After they stopped rushing at him, my little animal lover had a blast petting them and running around. I swear that Bray is going to be our kid who, "just really really wants a puppy mommy!"

Saturday night was family night for the neighborhood crew. Logan and I picked up Nana and Papa at the airport, drove home, had a quick re-fresh, packed the car and headed out. The kids all rode a ton of rides. This was the first one they did (and a first for Aiden who was too small last year) - the dragon roller coaster

When they got off the ride, AJ and Aiden rushed over to each other, grabbed hands, and had a conversation that went something like: AJ: "Aiden!! Did you like that?!"

Aiden: "ya!! it was like THIS (jumps) and like this (sways to the side)" AJ: "me too!!" (jumps and waves his arms in he air as Aiden does the same)

then they happily hugged for a while!

Next, the kids all tackled the cars. I got a sweet picture of Logan (in his "just like daddy visor") and Ryan who rode together.

Nana and Papa took the boys on the big Ferris wheel (I was quite happy to stay on the ground...!




Here is Aiden coming down from the big obstacle course / slide thing. His shirt says "100% good, 10% of the time" Hysterical!


While the kids were on the rides, I was trying to scope out an arcade game they could actually play. I found this giant fishing game...a smaller version of the one Aiden loves at home. For $3, you try until you win....and you win a ball (what could be better?!) Aiden and I went first....it took a while until "he" got the hang of it (plus the girl running the booth finally showed us where the fish were the hungriest...aka opened their mouths the most). After Aiden, Logan and I gave it a shot...we got his ball much faster :)

Aiden was hugging his ball as we walked back to our circle of chairs

A few more kids in our group went to play the fishing game after we came back (oops....sorry moms and dads!) They did make for great entertainment while we were there though!

Here is our annual "circle of fun" at Prairie Fest. Papa got all the kids some balloons from the info booth. We all ate, played with some mini beach balls and danced until it got close to dark. Since there were no fireworks this year, we left "early" and invited everyone to come back to our place to make s'mores outside and play with glow-in-the dark stuff

Bray tried a corn dog. He actually liked it despite the face he made

Brian somehow got mistaken for a climbing toy

I think he prevailed though...

Brady found a chair just his size and chillaxed in it for a while.
On Sunday, it was time for Nana and Papa to give Aiden his early birthday present...an actual UP house!! After we saw the movie, Aiden said he wanted a house with lots and lots of balloons on it. Wish granted!

Nana bought a bird house, added shingles, a door, windows etc etc and painted it to look just like the house in the movie! We bought 12 balloons to see if they would lift the house off of the ground...no luck. Another trip to the party store and we had a total of 35 balloons. Brian even cut the bottom out of the house....it was SOOOO close to flying! Bri realized later in the day that the best thing to do was to toss it over the edge of the balcony upstairs and watch it float nicely down to the ground floor....we let them do that a few times with supervision.

Aiden's house was waiting for him under the front stairs when he woke up from his afternoon nap. It took him a while to fully wake up and enjoy this amazing balloon creation, but he LOVED it!

We tried to fly it outside (see video). Aiden even wanted it to sleep in his room that night (and he put all his stretchy worms, frogs and snakes inside the house for their bed time). I for one loved the house, but would probably freak if I woke up and saw it in my room in the middle of the night! I kept mistaking it for a person standing in the living room all afternoon!

Brady has a thing for bottles right now and tries to steal them ALL the time. Brian was trying to enjoy a beer Sunday night, but it's hard when a little one is chasing after you whining. So....he filled his empty bottle with a little water (after it was washed out) and Brady was just so very happy. He climbed up on the fireplace and sat there grinning. Silly baby.