what a week.  picture taking, mullets and my boy discovers his hand. 

how cold is it here friends???  oh my.  we're so freezing right now!  how i'm wishing for warmer 40s and 50s weather. 

last saturday i was able to take some fun pictures of my brother and his adorable family, below is one of my favorites.  their little girl's face, marty, makes this photo for me!  adorable little munchkin....

 here are a few pictures of Ro.  the first three were taken back in october... yes, i haven't posted them yet.  look at that mullet!  it's gotten a little less mullet-y since then but it's still pretty much there.  my little old man.

 so after looking adorable, this week Ro discovered his hand... and kept discovering it and kept discovering it... had to take some pics to remember this momentous occasion ;)

Little Boy also got his 4 month old shots today :(  oh how i hate that!!  he cried and cried after he woke up from his nap.  he measured about a 45% average on everything: weight, height, and head circumference.  nice job being average my son ;)

and that's about all we've been up to.  oh i did get my nativity up (finally!) and my wonderful fresh pine tree.  my home smells of pine, christmas, and the great outdoors.  life is good!  thanks for reading.

KAUAI PART 2

Siiiigh.  Oh how I wish I were back there!  Sorry it's been so long between part 1 and part 2 but with the holidays and my laziness and all, time just got away from me ;)  The above picture was taken on a hike around our hotel, pretty no?  I love looking for crabs on the coral beaches in Hawaii.

 Hawaii would not be complete without a stop (or two or three) at a shaved ice place.  We went to this place last time we went to Kauai and think it's pretty awesome.  I made Dave try his with macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom- aaaaamaaazing!  Can you tell how much Dave loved it?

 Mine was so delicious as well - macadamia nut ice cream with pineapple and coconut shaved ice, welcome to the islands....

 This is my mom canoodling with Ro, as he tries to devour his hands, he's really into that lately.  He also likes to stare at his hands while moving them and cooing, it's kind of adorable (and he mostly does it with his left hand which makes me think he's gonna take after me and be left handed).  He also will do this thing where when he's laying on his back he holds up his left arm with his fist tight - it reminds me of "Black Power" and makes me laugh.  Look at those eyes...

 Look at those abs... who is that guy??!  Oh wait...

that's my man!  Hello handsome... ;)  We had a BLAST boogie boarding at Poipu Beach.  The waves were just perfect for it.  We could have stayed out there forever, except when you get rocked because you took the wave a little too early or a little late...not that that happened to me...several times.  You walk out of there caked with sand that you keep finding days later... but it was so worth it!

Dave and I were lucky enough to get to go on a catamaran ride.  The boat stopped off on our way up the Na Pali coast to snorkel (see Dave's pick below) aaaaand I spotted a huge sea turtle, which was the only thing Dave really wanted to see so he was happy.  There was tons of brightly colored fish in the area that they took us to, the best snorkeling experience I've ever had.

 Please make fun of Dave's cheesy face in this pic... ;)

 Oh and I thought you might like to see me steller pedicure that I got to show off on the catamaran since they don't allow shoes... (the color was coral in case you were all wondering... and I know you were)

There were dozens of little dolphins that rode alongside the boat with us.  This one was a mommy and her wee little baby... so awesome.

So the sweet lady who asked to take take our picture... missed the whole reason we wanted the picture, like those awesome cliffs in the background?  Yep.  So I took the picture of Dave, below (while he wasn't looking ;) to get the shot.  The Na Pali coast was one of the coolest things I've ever seen, it was absolutely breathtaking and other-wordly.  There were so many movies that were filmed there as well which was kind of fun to find out.  The waves were crazy heading up the coast and we got soaked heading up there.  On the way back the waves are always calmer apparently but for Dave and I the damage was already done, both sea sick.  HOWEVER... we saw TWO humpback whales on the way back!  I didn't take pics because my camera was in the bottom of the boat and I was too sick to go get it!  We saw a yearling and it totally jumped out of the water landing on it's back.  About 20 minutes later we saw what we thought was it's mother and she hit the water 14 times with her tale.  It. Was. Amazing.

More Na Pali amazingness...  you can't really get to it from the roads on the island, you have to boat out to it so most people don't really get a chance to see it.  Some of the beaches are sacred to the old Hawaiian natives so you still have to have special permission to even land on them, like the one in the pic below.

And that ends it.  I took this last picture as we were heading to the airport... and yes, there was a rainbow. 

Ahhh love that place. 

Until next time Hawaii...

KAUAI: PART 1
Beware, this post has loooads of pictures :)
We were lucky enough to go visit Kauai with my parents this year.  My parents like to visit every few years with the conventions my dad goes to as an optometrist.  We've been with them before to this same convention but we have to say, we'll go any year we're invited!  It was heaven.  We took little Ro with us and just had a ball (not to mention built in babysitters...).  I took the picture above on a catamaran cruise while my parents lovingly babysat - thank you Mom and Dad! 

Here's my pops watching Ro while we got ready for the day.  He's sitting on our balcony of the hotel room that overlooked the ocean... I miss it... sniff, sniff.

Mom babysitting while Dave and I floated down the lazy river at the hotel.  It's kind of hard to bring a baby to Hawaii that can't get in the sun and can't wear sunscreen but if you have grandparents then you're golden.

This is one of my FAVORITE places to eat breakfast, Roy's Poipu Bar and Grill.  I have been craving their banana macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup for several years (since we last had them), and me and my mom shared them again.  I was not disappointed!

I actually bought some coconut syrup as a souvenir and will be trying it out soon... oh it's making me salivate!

We saw this sweet sign as we started a little hike by the hotel.  Sigh... Hawaii = Romance.

This picture was taken on our hike, pretty sweet huh?

First time in the Baby Bjorn and the kid popped off to sleep immediately.  Dave, on the other hand, was DYING from heat.  He said that's the hottest he's ever been in his entire life - I'd say so too, I married a stud ;)

Another sign we came across on another hike/walk by the hotel.  These are fruits off of a tree, I forget what it's called.  But they TOTALLY look like candy corn no?

My dad is like a professional tour guide when it comes to Hawaii.  So when he gets behind the wheel  he'll take you all over to places he's been from long ago and tell you all about it.  He also likes to take the occasional side road to just check out if it leads you somewhere cool, and 90% of the time it totally does.  The other 10% of the time you're trying to keep from screaming "I'm bored Dad!  And you don't even know where you're going!"  But you don't, and usually you end up in some local's bay that has awesome surfing and you're glad you kept that little thought to yourself ;)

These trees are at the very end of the road that leads past Princeville and Hanalei, it's as far north as you can go on the island from the east side heading up north.  I guess it has an amazing 12 hour hike that ends up right there at the bay, it's super dangerous and muddy and Dave and I totally want to do it someday.  I just can't be nursing a wee babe at the time ;)  These trees grow right on the coast with all their roots exposed and sea lions sleep under them, we saw two while we were there.  They just hang out while the tourist mill around them sun bathing.  I love Hawaii, it's so laid back even the tourist aren't so surprised when awesome wildlife is hanging out right next to them. 

We even saw a mermaid while there, she was pretty chill, had awesome sea shells.

This was taken at the "local's bay" my dad happened to find.  He remembered seeing surfers here from years ago and was happy he found the same bay again.  The sun was setting and it was gorgeous.

Ro even took a dip in the ocean (or his tootsies did).  His first ocean experience! which he will remember forever... well I will and I'll have pictures to prove it ;)

You can see by his face how much he enjoyed it - a little freaked out but mostly totally excited, as we all were to be in such a be-a-utiful place.

a halloween back east... so beautiful

Dave's family was super nice and took us back east to their town home in Nauvoo and a visit to Springfield, IL to see Abe Lincoln's house.  It was so fun and the foliage was absolutely divine, I was in love with all the trees and their fall colors!  We went to many of the historical places while we were out there, Carthage and some of the pioneer homes.  Dave and I had been to most of them before sine we'd both done a semester at BYU Nauvoo, but I haven't been back there in almost 8 years (my! how time flies!)  We also took a horse ride in Nauvoo and both Dave and my sweet baby fell asleep, I snapped a picture and Dave woke up (angry ;)

 There is a big celebration in Nauvoo for Halloween and I've never seen so many people there!  They have hundreds and hundreds of carved pumpkins lining main street and you can go into every little old shop and trick-or-treat.  They had a little costume parade, free food, live bands, a haunted house and some awesome costumes. 

 We both got pretty into it :)

 Oooh look at my little sweet baby, such a doll.

 Roman got to enjoy some time with his cousins, Kelty and Teagan and had a blast.

 We did a session and some sealings at the beautiful temple.

 We headed over to Springfield, IL where Abraham Lincoln his first home with his wife.  They've preserved the home as well as several homes surrounding it so you can walk around the little village and do tours.  On this particular day they also invited kids to come and "meet" historical figures and go trick-or-treating.  We took our chubby pumpkin and headed out for candy (mostly for me to eat).

 Cousins as Rapunzel twins.

This last picture is of Dave and his sis, Jaimie, that I just loved and had to throw in.  Jaimie helped us out a lot with Ro - thanks again Jaimie!

Posting soon.... Kauai pictures!  Sad to be home...