Aloha!!! (part 1)

After filling up our tummies at the graduation/birthday party we went home, packed up the car & drove to Utah where we would be leaving all 3 kids with Grammy & Grampa and heading off to paradise, just my love and me. The kids slept the whole way up which made for a very peaceful trip. We had all day Monday to acclimate the kiddos, then flew out of Las Vegas airport, headed for LAX??? After a short layover back at home we then boarded a plane Hawaii bound. We stayed 3 nights at the Waikiki Marriott then headed over to Kauai where we stayed in a beachfront condo for 4 nights. The trip was absolutely wonderful & I catch myself in daydreams, or flashbacks, amongst the chaos here at home. This is bound to be an enormously long post since I intend to give every detail of our 7 day trip.
Our first activity was to visit Pearl Harbor. This one Glenn was particularly excited for being the history buff that he is. This was my 2nd time to Pearl Harbor, but I was just as fascinated as the first time.




After Pearl Harbor I hung out by the pool sipping island drinks while Glenn took a nap. Then we headed to the International Marketplace for some shopping (I got a cool pearl necklace) & strolled down the sand of Waikiki beach to Duke's for Dinner. Dukes was AMAZING! I had the mac-nut crusted fish & it was to die for! We had a table on the rail with an awesome view of the sunset.

The next morning we woke up for the sunset (as we did every morning since we were still 3 hours ahead) and enjoyed some fresh fruit and cereal on our balcony then headed to hike Diamond Head. We had to climb through old bunkers and up tons of stairs to get to the top. The view from the top was breath-taking.



After that we headed to the North Shore where we stopped at my old stomping ground (for only 2 months, but still) BYU-H, then headed to the Laie Temple & visitors center. The temple was closed due to construction, but were able to see how neat the visitor's center is now. They have totally re-done it all & it's wonderful.


Then, the best thing ever, we went over to visit some of our favorite people, the Tapia's. It was so great seeing them and playing with the kids. Leisa & the kids took us to a good snorkel spot where we saw a whole family of squid, along with tons of other cool looking fish. Glenn and I headed to Haleiwa to of course make a visit to Motsumoto's shave ice and grab some dinner. We then headed back down to Leisa and Chris to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center's night show (we saw 2 different rainbows on the way back). That was my favorite thing to do while I lived there 10+ years ago and I still love it. Thank you Tapia's for showing us a great time!!!!




The next morning after watching the sunrise we flew over to Kauai. We had such a great time while on Oahu. Stay tuned for part 2 of our Hawaii trip.

Glenn's graduation

When Glenn first started school we discussed how his graduation was on June 13th, 2010, which is Dallin's 5th birthday. It seemed so far in the future. I dreaded the years to come. Dallin was 2, Aubrey was born a few months after he started school, and who'd have thought we would have had third, Liam, before graduation. I will admit that it has been a very busy, exhausting & stressful 3 years but it has flown by incredibly fast.
Graduation day was such an awesome day for us. I was choked up through the whole ceremony. The kids were great & well behaved for the whole 2 hours. The family members who came were my parents, Pop, Baylee & Becka (my sisters), Cyndi (Glenn's sis) and her 4 kids, Kevin, Luke, Emily & Cassie. And of course Dallin, Aubrey, Liam & myself. After the ceremony we went back to my parents house where more family joined us in celebrating the graduation & Dallin's birthday. Glenn insisted on everyone calling him "Master Glenn" all day. (I only gave him the satisfaction once)
But I am so proud of Glenn. He has done such an amazing job in school while working full time, which can't be easy. I found out at graduation that his business school is ranked in the top 5% in the nation. How rad is that? But we are so excited for what our future has in store, and mostly to have a husband and dad again!
Congrats Master Glenn!!!! You rock!!!!




Here are a few pics of Dallin opening presents on his actual birthday. He got a bike & some kind of Star Wars ship. (I'm may get in trouble for not knowing the name of it)

The Dalli-man turns 5!

Dallin had so been looking forward to his party this year since he was actually able to invite friends. We combined it with Abby since their birthdays are just a week apart, and since the same families would be invited it seemed like the best plan. I seriously had been stressing about that weekend because I had so much going on, but it was so nice to have Crystal there to help and just super fun people to enjoy the day with.
Well, it may come as no surprise to anyone, but the party was a Star Wars themed pool party. We had it at Bishop Lord's house. After lunch and a bit of swimming we pulled the kids out of the pool to make their very own light-sabers, then dressed them in Jedi robes in preparation of their Jedi training with Master Glenn & Darth Daver. Seriously, the kids thought it was so cool to fight them. And I really think Glenn enjoyed it too. We finished off with some cupcakes, more swimming and finally some present opening. Dallin seriously scored some awesome presents and has been obsessed with them all since.
I am so grateful to have Dallin as the oldest. He is such a good example to his younger siblings. He is super funny and loves to entertain. He is super smart and already understands the concept of adding and subtracting. He is so excited to start kindergarten and asks quite often how many more weeks and days are left until the school year begins. Dallin brings so much happiness into our home, especially with his knock knock jokes. He is the best big brother and we love him so much!!! Happy birthday (2 weeks ago) Dallin!!!

Guess who's 11 months old!!!!!

That's right! He's only 1 month away from the big 1year old bday. Liam is seriously a funny kids. I do have to admit that he has been my hardest baby, but I'm still so grateful he's in our family. He has an awesome personality and the majority of the time is smiling and laughing. He has started singing alot which I LOVE hearing. He is our earliest talker and latest walker. He says a good about of words/phrases such as "all done" "please dada" "downstairs" "baba" "momma". He cruises along furniture and pushes his walking toy. He will probably start walking while Glenn & I are in Hawaii next week and we will miss it. He has started standing up and letting go of whatever he's holding on to to see how long he can stay standing. Liam LOVES Dallin and Aubrey. He follows them everywhere and gets into whatever they are playing with. If they walk away from him he gets so sad. He likes to wake Dallin up in the morning by talking to him. He calls Dallin "Da-da". Aubrey loves to hug him and he likes it the first couple times in the day. (she's known as an aggressive hugger) Liam enjoys eating as I'm sure you can tell by his squishy figure. He is constantly moving and constantly sweaty. He still has a tint of red in his hair and we are beginning to wonder if it will ever go away. We love Liam and love everything he is and brings to our family.

Memorial Day/Birthday weekend

We had an amazing Memorial Day weekend. It started off with Glenn throwing a suprise party for me on Friday night. I seriously had no idea. I had been telling him for pretty much 2 months that all I wanted to do for my 30th birthday was go out to dinner with some of our friends. About a week ago he told me that it wasn't going to happen and he was just going to take me out. I was kinda being a brat about it because it seemed like a simple request, but he ended up exceeding my expectations & we had a wonderful night. He had blind folded me so I had no idea where we were going what he had put on me. It was fun.

Then Saturday was our half marathon that I already blogged about.
On Sunday Glenn had to leave for his closing residential in Lake Arrowhead and was to be gone for 4 days, so I took the kiddos up to Papa's cabin. We had a blast! Not far up the road from the cabin are tons of trails that you can hike on. On Sunday I took Dallin on a short hike. He loved climbing the rocks! On Monday (my birthday) I took Baylee & Becka on a hike for a couple hours. We found huge boulders that we climbed and had an awesome view from. Then we headed to Big Bear lake to check it out and followed that up with some of the best spagetti I have ever had & some birthday brownies. And on Tuesday I took Aubs & Dallin for a little hike together. I seriously can't describe how much I enjoyed it. The kids loved exploring and keep asking when we can go back up & hike.
Glenn got home today & now has 1 more week of school. He graduates on June 13th and we leave for Hawaii on the 15th. Ahhhhhhh!!! I'm so excited. Well, here are pics from the hikes.









In the next 2 pictures Dallin is driving Master Kanobe's ship (from Star Wars). His imagination really went to work while on the hikes. He was trying to see what different trees and rocks were in the shape of.