Labor Day

This morning when I went to get Finn out of his crib, I opened the door to find him holding on to the front rail, standing up! It's the first time he's pulled himself up. He looked so big but little at the same time. It was so cute I had to grab my camera. Wow, just the past week he hardly seems like a little baby anymore! I wish he would stop trying to grow up so quickly!

The majority of the day was spent "laboring" in the yard. We've been gone so much this summer that our yard has been a little neglected. We mowed, trimmed shrubs, weeded and shoveled rock. Not very fun, but the yard looks so much better.

We then decided that the poor kids needed a little fun so I loaded up Finn in the Burley (in his car seat) and attached it to my bike and Jeramy walked with Ella while she rode her bike and we went over to the park for a while. Finn had a great time in the swings, laughing and giggling. Do you love Finn's crazy faux-hawk? Just like his daddy's, but his hair's a little long.

This picture of Finn reminded me so much of one of Ella's first times in the swing. I went through some old pictures and found one of Ella at exactly 7 months old. It's kind of fun to compare the pictures of the kids - on the exact same swing and the same age, almost to the day. Such cutie pies!
While Finn was swinging away, Ella had a great time riding her bike around the park and then kicking the soccer ball around on the soccer field. She starts soccer this week and was excited for a little practice session.


Not our most fun, memorable Labor Day, but it was a productive day and fun to be together as a family.

Maui

Aloha! Jeramy and I just got back from a FABULOUS trip to Maui! My wonderful parents drove down from Canada - yup, 15 hours each way - to come and take care of the kids while Jeramy and I took advantage of all the airmiles, Marriott points and American Express points that he has racked up with his crazy travel schedule. One whole week in paradise!

We arrived to the hotel, the Wailea Marriott, late at night so we couldn't really see anything. In the morning - after a precious full night's sleep with no crying babies or nightmares to deal with (sorry mom and dad!) - we looked out our window and were blown away by the view - isn't it amazing?

We spent a lot of our time there just enjoying the beach, snorkeling, lounging by the pool and reading. Our second day there was Jeramy's birthday. After spending the morning at the beach, I booked him a massage at the hotel spa. For dinner we went to the most incredible restaurant - Mama's Fish House in Pa'ia. Even though it came highly recommended, the name of the restaurant conjured images of an old shack with beaten up wood plank floors and dingy walls that smelled of grease from all the fried food. I could not have been more wrong! The location and ambiance were enough to wow me. It was a converted beach house nestled in a coconut grove on a gorgeous white sand beach. We somehow scored the best table in the restaurant. And the food - AMAZING! Every morsel I tasted - and there were a lot! (don't tell Cliff, my trainer) - was sooo delicious. We had appetizers, main course and dessert - all of it scrumptious!!!

Jeramy & I enjoying his birthday dinner at Mama's.
We turned around for the picture but were facing that
amazing view our entire meal.

One of the days there we drove the Road to Hana. It is an incredibly windy road with tons of one lane bridges. I think our average speed was about 15-20 miles/hour. So why, you ask, do people spend an entire day in their car to travel a 70-mile stretch of highway? That's what I want to know!

Before we went I had heard mixed reviews - absolutely do it! or definitely skip it (one of my friends said it should be renamed the "Road to Hell") We've always heard about it and it sounded like there were so many beautiful things to see along the way - which there are - so we decided to do it. There were tons of beautiful waterfalls, beaches, caves, sea arches but I was so car sick I couldn't really enjoy anything. In retrospect, I'm glad we did it - it was really beautiful and the memories and pictures outlive the carsickness. Just don't ever try and get me on that road again.

Me and Jeramy in Nahiku - a little town

right on the coast off the Hana Highway.

Another stop on the Hana Highway.
Jeramy in front of a small sea cave at
Pa'iloa - a black sand beach

The 7 Sacred Pools - our last stop (halleluiah!)
on the Road to Hana. Then we just had to
turn around and drive the whole thing back!

Another fun thing we did was take a boat from Ma'alea to Molokini, a crater about 8 miles from Maui, to do some snorkeling. It was a lot of fun. The captain of the boat, the Four Winds II, was hilarious and kept us entertained during the boat ride. Unfortunately, the morning we went ended up being really windy, so the snorkeling wasn't as fun as it could have been. We still saw some great fish, an eel and Jeramy saw an octupus. We rented an underwater camera to take pictures but I haven't developed them yet so if there's any good ones I'll post them later.

The one thing I really wanted to do was to take a surf lesson. Unfortunately, it didn't happen this time. Between Jeramy's irrational fear of sharks, the wind, and conflicts with other things we had planned, it didn't work out. For sure next time!

Really, some of our favorite days were the ones we spent at the beach and the pool at the hotel. It was so nice to just do whatever we wanted with no one to take care of and no time constraints. Although we were in paradise, really the best part of the trip was just being together. I know that sounds really cheesy and very cliche, but it's true! Jeramy's travel schedule has been crazy this summer! And when he hasn't been gone for work we've been gone on family trip or we've been at home playing catch-up and getting ready for the next trip. It was so nice to have so much time together, away from everything, especially his Blackberry - yes, can you believe he actually left it! We had such a great time together! I absolutely loved the whole trip and am going to be dreaming about it until we can go again!

One day - after we fried ourselves and wanted to stay

out of the sun a little - we rented a cabana right on a cliff
overlooking the ocean. We just sat and read, had a nap
and would go jump in the pool to cool off. Heaven!

Jeramy reading in the cabana. Can you tell what
he's reading? Oh yes, none other than "Eclipse"!

Woowee! Hot stuff! Jeramy goofing
around on his way out to snorkel.

Pictures

We just got our family pictures back from Rebecca Cooper. We did a photo session with her in Canada. It was a bit stressful, mostly in part because of my very uncooperative 4-year old! I was really nervous we wouldn't get any good pictures but I was really pleased with them - Rebecca is so talented!

I created a new blog header (top of the page) with some of my favorites. Here are some more of my favorites.

O Canada!

Well, we just got back from our trip to Canada. We have tried over the years to go back for July 1st - Canada's birthday. It is also the birthday of the town of Raymond - my hometown. It is such a fun time to be home - there are so many people around and lots of fun activities and family traditions.

Our trip to and from Canada was LONG - yes, we drove - but the visit went by so quickly. With so much family to see it always seems way too short.

One of our favorite things we did was eat at Chopstix, Jeramy's dad Gary's new restaurant in Lethbridge. It is similar to a Panda Express, which is not in Canada, but much yummier. Not only is the food better, but also the decor and Chopstix has a drive-thru. After eating there two times, mine and Jeramy's unanimous decision for best dish goes to Lemon Chicken!

Another -errr- memorable thing we did was have family pictures done. It did not go well! Ten minutes into the session we were getting eaten alive by the mosquitos and Ella was having a meltdown, despire numerous bribes involving ice cream and Polly Pockets. A little while later both kids fell asleep, which was actually quite cute. It will be a miracle if we get a decent family picture. The girl who did our photos, Rebecca Cooper, does amazing work so I'm optimistic that at least something turned out - stay tuned......

We also had a chance to go to Ridge Lake with Jeramy's dad, Bryan . He brought out the boat and we had a great time tubing (after waiting in the cars for an hour for the rain and lightning to clear). Ella was a maniac in the tube and was constantly giving Bryan the thumbs up to go faster.
As for my little snuggle-bug, Finn, he just burrowed down into his life jacket and took a snooze.

One of my favorite things about the trip was the fact that I did the Raymond 10k! Despite planning on doing the race for about3 or 4 months, I only ran about 5 or 6 times prior to the race and my longest run in training was 4 miles. Needless to say, I felt a little unprepared for the run. But on race day me, my sister Kim and my sister-in-law Jessica were there ready to run. I ended up running every step of the race with a finish time of 1:08 - which I realize is slow at an11-min pace but I was just happy to finish!

A few hours after the race we ended up going up to Waterton with my family. Whenever we go home, Waterton is a MUST in my books! Even if it is almost always windy it is still great to go. While there we stopped at Cameron Falls, had lunch at one of the camp kitchens, drove up to Cameron Lake and a did a short little hike with the kids. On the way down from Cameron Lake, Jeramy and I stopped at "our rock "and took a few pictures. The picture we ended up using for our wedding announcement was taken on the rock - fourteen years ago! YIKES! Now every time we go up to the lake, we stop and take a picture. After our pictures we headed back down to the townsite for some ice cream at Big Scoop - a must do!

We were able to visit with my good friend Melissa McKendrick at her parents home in Welling. It was so great to visit. While we were inside visiting, they got the horses out so the kids had a chance to ride a shetland pony. Ella was in heaven! Finn seemed to have a good time too!

On our last day of Canada was the Raymond parade. Such a fun tradition - especially now with all the little ones. It was rainy at the beginning but turned out to be a nice day. After the parade we all went to my parents house - grandpas, grandmas, aunts, uncles, counsins, etc. to eat and visit for the afternoon. It was great to catch up with everyone. The evening, and our trip, ended with fireworks. The next morning it was back on road back to Colorado. Now that the drive is a behind us, it was a great trip and we look forward to next year!