Our Trip to Paradise

Yesterday we began our journey to Maui, Hawaii. I didn’t sleep well Sunday night. I told Paul I felt betrayed by my body. I wish I could overcome my subconscious but so far I haven’t mastered that. I was nervous and because of that I only got about five hours of sleep.

We got the kids up and took them to school and ran a few errands. My mom and dad came and we briefed them on what to do while we were gone and then off we went.

We had lunch before getting to the airport. I didn’t talk much, I was still nervous. I was worried about leaving the kids, I was worried about our layover in LAX, and I was worried about whether or not I would like Hawaii. When we got the airport I realized there was something else to worry about. My habit of over packing. Our luggage was too heavy. With some creative adjusing we got that fixed and off we went through security wondering what we could leave behind so we wouldn’t have the same issue coming home.

We got into LAX without any problems

and even had time to pick up some McDonalds. (barf) We then began our journey over the Pacific. I am a slightly nervous flyer at best. The thought of flying over water with no possibilities of emergency landing, on ground, freaked me out. Five hours over water!

I did okay though thanks to in-flight entertainment. We watched Quantum of Solace while on the flight. If Daniel Craig doesn’t get my mind on other things, nothing will! That is one hot piece of…..man. After a little while we both watched Slum Dog Millionaire. It was a really great movie but there are some things you wish you could go throughout life not knowing.

We arrived in Maui after sunset and in the middle of a rain storm. The humidity, oh the humidity. Immediately my elbow pits were sticky and my face felt tacky. We had no idea what anything looked like since it was so dark. We got our car and made our way on the hour drive to our hotel. We got checked in, dropped off our stuff and then went back out for food. Nothing was open except Taco Bell. After eating I was able to appreciate our room a little better. It is awesome. It has the living and kitchen area, the large bedroom area and two full baths. It also has two lanais, one off of each room.

We finally got to bed after 11:00pm. That is past three in the morning Utah time. I didn’t even take the time to shower off the 3,000 plus miles of grime I had picked up. Eww.

At close to two AM we hear alarms and sirens and voices saying to get outside and avoid elevators. We were so discombobulated that we had no idea what was going on. I went and used the bathroom LOL! As we were just getting on clothes the voice came back saying it was a false alarm and to ignore the request. Good grief. It is hard to settle down after that. We did and then slept in until 6:30 am. Even though it isn’t a full nights rest our bodies know that it is past 10:00 in Utah.

Our view is gorgeous and I think we are going to have a marvelous time in Paradise.

Priorities

I have them so I really don’t even need to post this but here I go. Aarrrrrrrrrrrr! Today I was invited by a very lovely friend/neighbor from church who shares my birthday to go to DISNEY WORLD May 2nd-4th. Since we would both be there on our birthday, the 2nd, we would get in free that day. However she would opt for the gift card since she has a pass. She is a die hard Disney FANATIC and she invited me! I can’t tell you how honored that makes me feel. I would have to fly to Florida (not a huge issue, that would be my birthday gift) and I would get to finally go to Disney World. The problem you ask? My darling son, one of the lights of my life, is getting baptized on my birthday. I don’t think I should miss that to make on of my other dreams come true, right? (You know I am so kidding!) But dang, why did this opportunity arise at time when I couldn’t take advantage? Bonnie thanks for the offer. You made my day.

Today was Fab!

This morning I woke up too early for my own good. I did some things that needed to get done and then I was cleaned up and out of the house by 10:00 am. That is quite remarkable for me, especially on a Saturday. I did some shopping at Kohl's and took advantage of their early bird savings. I'm still in shock that I got to an early bird sale. After Kohl's I dropped into Old Navy and then went to the grocery store. I hurried home so that I could make my date with Maggie to get Glitter Toes. We went and got our toes done at Capelli's. I got a bownish bronzish color and she got the pretty pinky purply color. I think they look quite awesome.

After that I met up with Paul and the kids at Kneaders for dessert. (They had gone on a little shopping adventure of their own at the Quicksilver outlet) Emma got a giant chocolate covered strawberry.

Look, she has a chocolate goatee

I wonder what she was looking for

Andrew almost always gets a sugar cookie

I will be wearing this cream cheese cinnamon roll on my hips for years to come.

Then we went to Wally World as a family and came home for dinner. I made spinach lasagne and then left Paul with the dishes while I went to tan. It's 8:30 and I have been up for over 13 hours. I am ready to crawl into bed, read a book and fall asleep.

Really?

I mean really? Is this necessary? This is a lot of snow. Come on, give us a break already.

One Word Answers

I was tagged by Rees. Thank you!

Give one word answers with no explanation, then tag five bloggers

1. Where is you cell phone...Hmmm
2. Where is your significant other...work
3. Your hair color... brown
4. Your mother...loving
5. Your father...talented
6. Your favorite thing...shopping
7. Your dream last night...nonexistent
8. Your dream goal...security
9. Room you're in...office
10. Your hobby...quilting
11. Your fear...irrational
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years...home
13. Where were you last night...tanning
14. What you're not...educated
15. One of your wish-list items...money? (Doesn't that fix everything?)
16. Where you grew up...Chico
17. The last thing you ate...salad
18. What are you wearing...sweater
19. Your tv...love
20. Your pet...pain
21. Your computer...lifeline
22. Your mood...fine
23. Missing someone...no
24. Your car...Khaki
25. Something you're not wearing...jeans
26. Favorite store...H&M
27. Your summer...exciting
28. Love someone...lots
29. Your favorite color...pink
30. Last time you laughed...today
31. Last time you cried...Sunday

I tag five people who read my blog.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

The only problem is.....it's APRIL 15th!!! Can you believe this is how we get to spend our spring break?

All is Right in the World

Last night when Paul got home from work he took Andrew to Wal Mart and he got a new glitter ball. This time the color is gold. He was so excited to have it back and knows that he should never take it into the front yard!

I never got my permission to post so I guess I will be buying the next Hodge Podge set. Hopefully I will get permission soon and will be able to get it for free next time.

Impatiently Waiting

I just found out last week that elements that I have been buying (and using for all of these pages) can be earned for free! All you have to do is post layouts at Weeds and Wildflower Designs of your most recent two weeks worth of pictures. Since it is something I need to do anyway I was thrilled to find out this little nugget of info. I went to work making my pages and then signed up for the forum. The pages are due today and what I didn't know is that I have to have an administrator approve me and send me a link so I have permission to post. I really hope I don't miss the deadline. I'm ready for some new cute stuff!

Disaster

We just conducted an accidental experiment. The experiment was; how far will a large, heavy, glitter filled, bouncy ball travel when drop from the side of a mountain? Yes the ever popular Easter treat is seen in the photos below accidentally got away from Andrew while he was playing out front and it went bouncing/rolling down the hill. We will never know how far it has traveled since it was never recovered. It is miles before you hit flat ground in these parts. I just hope that the ball didn't do any damage on it's journey west. As for now I have a very sad little boy who will be going to Wal Mart this evening to replace his ball with some of his birthday money.

Easter

Yes that is going to be our family Easter picture for 2009.

Saturday night I spent hours finishing up my lesson that I had been working on for two weeks. It was one of the hardest things I have had to in a long time. Once that came together I felt such a relief that I started baking, prepping and cleaning for Easter. I was working in the kitchen until after 11:00 pm. Saturday night and I got up at 7:00 am Easter morning to do some more dinner prep. I still had to bake the rolls (I froze the dough so they would be fresh and hot when it came time to eat) and make frosting for the cupcake that I had made. I whipped up three different colors for Emma to use. She decorated the cupcakes before church. They turned out adorably.

Mid-morning we got the kids dressed and let them hunt for their baskets. They found them and we took some pictures outside by the beautiful tress with their blossoms. Here are some of my favorite shots.

Emma right as she found her basket.

Andrew when he found his basket and the treat inside.

The kids together

Andrew looking so handsome in his suit.

I think I only got one picture where he wasn't showing off his ball.

Another one of Emma since she cooperates so well.

Emma with her ball. These were a huge hit!

This is my favorite shot of the day. I asked for one of them together and she kissed him all on her own.

My parents arrived right before church and for some unknown reason we didn't take a family photo. Each year I painstakingly pick matching Easter outfits for the whole family. I do this for one reason and one reason only. For the picture. This year I didn't get us matching outfits.I bought Emma a pretty dress. Andrew needed a suit for his upcoming baptism and Paul and I wore the same clothes that we wore to the wedding. We didn't all match but we wouldn't have been gross by each other. I would have liked a picture.

After church the kids wanted to play and I was ready to decompress and relax since the stress of my lesson was finally 100% behind me. The next thing I knew we were all in comfy clothes without even discussing the possibility of taking a photo together. And that my friends is how we got the craptastic family photo above.

After that we hurried and cooked dinner. While we were waiting we all enjoyed the snacks that I had lovingly prepared for what I knew would be a hungry impatient crowd.

Dang it I took the picture before I sprinkled them with paprika. They were delicious if I do say so myself.

Dinner turned out really well as did dessert. (Thank you Marie Calendar's and Macey's for the awsome sale on pies a while back!)

We watched the video that the church had put on their website and felt the Spirit. It was a great Easter.

Saturday, April 11th

Saturday was double duty. It was the neighborhood Eater Egg hunt and Andrew's real birthday. We went to hunt eggs and candy Saturday morning. It was chilly and it had just finished raining. The kids were allowed to find 12 eggs filled with candy, as much candy as they could get their hands on and there was of course the golden egg. That is what it was really all about. The kids didn't care much about the other stuff, they wanted the golden egg. After the golden egg was found (It was not found by my children.) we had donuts, juice and time to visit with neighbors.

My battery was almost dead so all I got were some crappy "action shots" (AKA fuzzy pictures)

We went back home and get ready to shift gears and celebrate Andrew's birthday. We took him to Applebee's in Taylorsville for his lunch. Grandma and Grandpa met us there.

Gotta keep yourself busy while they got your seat ready.

They sang Happy Birthday to Andrew and brought him a small dessert. He knew he was getting ice cream so he decided to eat just the whipped cream which all fell off into his hand somehow. He made a huge mess. It reminded me of his first birthday!

After lunch we headed to Leatherby's . We need to plan better and get a restaurant that is further away from the ice cream. We let him open all of his gifts while we all enjoyed the best ice cream on earth.

I adore their ice cream murals.

Andrew got several books for his birthday including more gross jokes. I'm not sure what I was thinking.

This is an automatic Nerf gun. It shoots 25 bullets in rapid succession. Good Times, Good Times!

After lunch and dessert we went home and got back into Easter mode and colored eggs. Andrew didn't want any part of it but once he saw Emma he joined in. They color the dozen cooked eggs and hadn't had enough. I now have two dozen of the prettiest raw eggs I have ever seen!