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!!

Luckiest Mom Ever

That's me! The luckiest mom ever. I can't believe I have three perfect, beautiful babies that are mine. All mine! Mother's Day was fabulous. I basically slept and read. Just what I wanted. :)


(And the reason there are more pictures of me with Joey and only one with the other two is that I can grab my little Joe and he doesn't go anywhere--the other two only take pictures on their watch...so we take what we can get. But it's cute when we get it!)

And though I may be the luckiest, I am far from the best. My mom has that title. Thanks, mom for being the best mother ever. I owe it all to you. Happy Mother's Day.

He did it!!

Yay for Lance!!! After three long and grueling years, last Friday Lance graduated from BYU Law School! We are so proud :)

The proud wife

The proud father-in-law. Unfortunately, the timing was bad and Lance's parents were not able to make the trip, but it was great to have both of my parents there to join in the celebration.

Yes, we made him pose so that we could get his hood and all

I was so proud of myself. From clear across the Marriott center, I spotted Lance immediately on the floor during the commencement exercises. This looks like it would be easy, but the camera captured this better than it actually looked from so far away. I know my hubby when I see him ;)

The two days of graduation were fun for the boys as they got to hang out with their cousins Abigail and William who live so close to BYU, but it was also exhausting. This was what we found after the long drive home one night. (And this was probably how Abigail and William's mom felt each night after they left.)

Be sure to notice the "Y" in the background (because that's what we were going for.)

Lance with all his law-school-suffering peeps. They all made it! Congratulations!


Now just a few months of bar prep, the bar, and then his judicial clerkship starting August 1st.... And that's why I'm blogging from Hawaii :)

Career in Advertising...?

Do you think Dairy Queen would pay us for these?

Cute baby Joe

Oh my sweet baby Joe!!! I can't get enough of him. He is just so frickin' cute. I love him. He's about 10 1/12 months now. He is EVERYwhere. He tries to climb the stairs whenever given the chance (which isn't often because we just don't want to go there yet.) He opens every cupboard we have (spilled an entire container of oatmeal a few days ago--that was great), and just reaches and grabs everything he can. He stands and cruises along a little, but no walking. And he has some way awesome snagglely (snaggelly? snagley?) teeth. Oh he's so cute. Did I mention I love him!!!

Lance hates these leggings things and makes fun of me every time I put them on him, but come on, look how cute!! I love them. And look how cute he is.

He does this little head-tilt, shy-face thing all the time and it's my favorite.

And he LOVES dad. He gets so excited when dad shows up.

That's all. Just wanted to share some cute ones.