Hawaii!

Over a year ago (while fat and pregnant, and with a husband wading through law school) I declared to my hubby, "we are going to Hawaii next spring after you graduate!" I knew I would be done nursing Joey and would (absolutely, positively...hopefully) not be pregnant and Lance would be graduating! So what a perfect time to get away! And it was :) Thanks to my wonderful (and after this, wonderfully tired) parents for staying with my kids and making this all possible.

Though we had some clouds and a bit of rain here and there...hey, it's Hawaii--there was tons of fabulous, fabulous sun (especially seeing as it continued to rain and snow in Utah).
We stayed in two hotels: first in the middle of Waikiki, and then more towards the West coast in Ko'olina for the last few days. It was gorgeous, of course, as seen above.

This was our first day lying about at the beach. Notice, all nice and pasty white-ness :)

Lance was in love with these trees.... Boys.

This was Lance's first trip to Hawaii ever, and my first since I was 16 so we did all the good, old touristy stuff. Hey. We're tourists :) So here is Pearl Harbor. It was very, very cool.

Hanauma Bay

Wondering around the middle of Waikiki at night. It was SO nice!

This was after our fabulous (but vomit inducing) dive trip. Whew. Never felt better to be on solid ground. (Read more about it in the previous post).

The beautiful Temple

We were staying in this room from August 28th to May 3rd. And so it happened we were in this room for two of the biggest history-book-writing moments the world has seen in, like, FOREVER!! ;) Lance is enthralled.... Anyone know...?

Now Lance is celebrating! Yay for killing Osama Bin Ladin!!!!!

(Or is that cheering for Will and Kate, the Royal Wedding... hee hee ;)

Just a cool, random ship? Cool? Yes. Random? No. That's right folks. That is the honest to goodness Black Pearl. It was being stored right there by our hotel! So cool.

And this was our last full day there. Okay, so you were supposed to be able to see this great difference in our pasty white-ness to our fabulous tan-ness compared to that first picture...but you can't really tell. We really did get a lot of color, but you'll just have to take my word for it. :)

Diving in Hawaii

Much to my mother's chagrin, we went diving in Hawaii (she just doesn't like "the danger" of it all :) With the scarcity of trips of this nature for us, and the near constant nursing or pregnancies of mine for the past 6 years, we have to take these opportunities when they come.

We saw some very cool things on this trip and the great thing was that our guide had a camera to capture it all. So in case you are interested, here is a (large) sample of the pictures taken...

That's right folks. We descended and the very first thing we saw was a shark. Actually, maybe two. We couldn't tell if these two were the same one as the one below had a hook in his mouth which we didn't notice the first time around...?

White-tip reef shark. In case your wondering. We have a really cool video of him, but it's like 10 minutes. And well, he's just swimming around so you can probably just google shark videos if you really want to see that.

Cute little puffer fish...

We saw a few eels that looked ready to pounce (though, that's kind of just how they look. I think he was really just chillin'.)

That's me

Me again

And there's Lance

View from the top of the wreck we were diving (which was an overturned WWII landing craft used for an amphibious assalt--Lance just googled it for me because I couldn't remember.)

On the second dive we saw at least 4 or 5 turtles. It was pretty cool.

That's both of us with the friendly neighborhood turtle

That's Lance

That's Lance in the yellow. I'm not sure about the others.

That's me

How cute, huh? Little sleepy sitting on the bottom of the ocean floor.

And a few other statues were scattered around

There were many, many more, but you're probably already bored so we'll leave it at this.

Lance loved the diving. He loves all diving. Even if it's dark and freezing. Me, not so much. I'm a bit more of a fair-weathered friend of diving. I like my conditions to be ideal (I just really don't like being cold or sick. Is that so weird?)

So this actual diving was pretty good. It wasn't too cold, which is important. Unfortunately I got SO SICK! I swear my stomach gets weaker and weaker as I get on in my years. The last time we went I got a little sick. So this time we went out of our way to buy anti-nausea medication...and I forgot to take it. So after the first dive, I climbed back into the boat...less than 5 minutes later I was hurling over the boat. First time I've ever thrown up on a boat! And that's saying a lot considering I was practically raised on a boat.

After getting to our next dive spot, I was still feeling it so they pushed me in immediately, backwards over the edge just to get me into the water because it usually helps. It helped some, but I was feeling it through most of the second dive. At the end of that dive, when I surfaced I immediately started hurling again! It was horrible. So that was kind of a crappy ending to the diving. (Lance is just holding his breath, so afraid I'm going to swear off diving forever... ;)

Happy Easter!!

(I know, I know. I'm like weeks late. Get over it.)

We had a fabulous Easter in spite of the so-so weather. Okay, the downright crappy weather. It's been the winter that never ends around here. But I'm pretty sure it can't last forever...right? Anyway...where was I?

Oh yes. So the boys started off with a Saturday morning Easter egg hunt. But not just any Easter egg hunt. Like, the BIGGEST Easter egg hunt on the planet. Of all the treasures this awesome neighborhood held for us, who would have guessed this?!

This wonderful lady above, from our ward, is the ring leader on this and here she is getting things started. (See the megaphone? That's how big.)

Luke is just getting started. That bucket of his is not even half full...it was overflowing when this was all over.

Mikey on the hunt

Just a few of those bonus prizes. Quite possibly one the hardest decisions of Mikey's little life.

Replenishing after the big morning

And what is Easter without some egg dyeing. Joey, of course, wanted to be a part of everything

The final product

And finally Easter dinner at Mimi and Bampa's. When kids have empty buckets, what else are they going to do...? (I didn't really take many pictures. So bad of me.)

*sigh*

Yes, I'm smiling, but it's in spite of myself. That shirt is part of a set of outfits purchased for all three boys for pictures recently taken, but more importantly for family pictures hopefully in the near future. Oh the damage one little piece of chocolate can do when a child finds said chocolate in a quiet corner by himself.... (Luckily, it did all come out.)

Happy Easter!!