Snapshots From Maui

I try and make a habit of carrying my camera everywhere I go just in case I see something kind of cool and photo worthy. Here are a couple of pictures from when we were out and about (said in my best Canadian accent) during our recent Maui trip.

Maui August 2009

Finally getting around to posting some pictures from our recent trip to Maui. Get ready, my previous post was long in speech and this one is a lot of pictures! It was a short trip and work related for Scott, but nice to get away. We will be heading there again for the week of Thanksgiving with Scott's family. We are all soooo excited about it. Our hotel suite was awesome and so huge that when we walked in for the first time, Dayton said, "wow this is a really nice kind of place" and then proceeded to check it out. I guess this was considered Addley's "first" vacation. Pretty spoiled at 7 weeks if you ask me! We stayed on a different side of the island this time at the Westin Resort. It was really beautiful but for some reason didn't have a "kiddie" pool. The pools were called kids pools at only 4 feet deep but there were no wading pools for toddlers. That kind of stunk because the kids weren't comfortable in the deep pool unless they were clinging to daddy. Weeks before the vacation Dayton talked about going down the water slide and when we got there we discovered that there was a "big kids" slide and a "little kids" slide. Daddy took Dayton down the slide once and that was the end of that. Apparently at the bottom, Scott's feet slid out from under him and dunked both himself and Dayton. Needless to say, it was not a hit. He also wanted to go under the "waterfall" in the pool so Scott had one on each hip and took them under. Dayton freaked out and did not want to come back out. Sadly, I missed out on all this fun because I was busy taking pictures and watching Addley. The flights went well, navigating the airport was horrible, and transportation to/from the airport was a nightmare. Then again, what kind of travel is ever easy with little kids? At least we are well practiced for our next trip there in November.
Addley (7 weeks) hanging out on vacation
Our "suite" living, dining, office area with wrap around balcony and oceanfront view. Very nice!
The fancy master bathroom.
View of grounds and pool with waterslides. Big slide (white on left), small slide (green on right).
View of ocean from balcony.
Scott taking the kids under the waterfall.
Dayton & Saige playing at the beach.
Mommy & Addley at the beach.
Dayton refusing to have a "nice" picture taken while out at dinner.
Saige asleep on Daddy right before dinner is served. That's what happens when she refuses to nap.
Dayton, Saige & Daddy having their picture taken with a giant sperm whale. Dayton said it was a dinosaur.
The kids checking out a map of Maui.
Taking an afternoon walk and Dayton discovers an anchor.
Then he discovers a frog and needs to have a ride.
The kids agree to have a picture taken together...sort of.
Saige insists on having a turn riding the frog.
Horrible composition but such a cute picture of Saige.
Saige looking like such a big girl out at dinner.

Beauty From The Backyard

Every once in awhile you come across something so beautiful in life it takes your breath away. I captured these pictures one recent evening before the sun went down. In fact, it was Dayton that pointed it out..."mommy, come look at the cool clouds and the moon."

Long Time No Blog

I've certainly thought about blogging lately, but somehow just never seem to get around to it. Granted I don't have a ton of time, but at some point I just started to procrastinate - where does one start after a whole month has passed? I suppose with the kids. I have 3 to talk about now, so this might be a long one...you may want to have a potty break and perhaps grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine depending on what time of the day it is where you are. Dayton is into his second month at preschool. The first few weeks were...well...not so great. Several tantrums in the morning, talk of kids being mean to him, talk of having no friends and not liking his teacher. I kept telling myself to give it time. He just loved it so much last year. Granted his best (and probably only) friend from school moved to Thailand, and his old teacher retired, and his teaching assistant left, and he was in a totally different classroom....I don't know why I thought it would be easy for him to go back. With a little time and a lot of encouragement and a few teacher parent discussions, he has settled in and is back to "loving" it. This year he has come home talking about cubes and hexagons, is singing all kinds of songs I don't recognize and has developed a strong sense of imaginative play. He is still having some difficulty with some of the ethnic names of kids in his class so I only tend to hear about kids with "easy to say" names. We've also enrolled him in a hip hop class (I need to figure out how to post a video) once a week after school. He is starting to like it a little but keeps saying how "hard" it is. I think he expected to be able to "freestyle" in his dance class instead of learning steps of a routine. I love my little man and I couldn't be more proud of him. I can hardly believe he will be 4 years old in just a few short days. Breaks my heart yet warms it at the same time.
Saige...oh geez...where to start...well, she is by far the true epitome of a sassy diva. Strong willed, spirited, sensitive, determined, persistent, bossy, imaginative. Did I add any bad adjectives in there? Like manipulative, obnoxious and....hmmm...what's a nice word?...moody. She rarely wears clothes, still refuses to sleep more than 8 hours, in incredibly obsessive about her baby sister and constantly has to touch her, hug her and give her "wittle tiny baby Addwee sister tisses". Put it this way...I am currently reading "How to behave so your preschooler will too" as well as "How to solve your child's sleep problems." Obviously I'm not finished either one. I've enrolled her at MyGym in a playgroup once a week and she's been my stroller partner in my Stroller Strides exercise class.
Addley is 13 weeks old now. Yes I know, it seems like she was just born. She is at times a spitting image of Saige and at times one of Dayton. It depends what old picture I pull out. Another project...post some so you all can be the judge. She is a happy, active baby. She is hitting her milestones early (a little too fast in my opinion) and is incredibly amused by her brother. He is the one person that can easily make her burst out in uncontrollable laughter. She's about 15lbs now. Her next appointment isn't for another week or so, so I'll find out then. It appears as though she is large for her age but not quite as large as Saige was.
As for me, I have been busy and getting out a lot more. I've decided that a tidy and clean house is near impossible with 3 kids and two dogs so I've developed a unique ability to ignore those things that would otherwise normally bother me. I don't vaccuum every single day anymore...it's kind of nice. On Mondays I've been trying to get out and do a hike with friends. On Tuesdays I take the girls and push the double jogger up the lighthouse hike. Wednesdays is my Baby Hui group with Addley - I've met some nice people and Addley is making some friends. Thursdays I try and do the lighthouse hike a second time and on Fridays Ive been taking the girls in the double jogger and doing a Stroller Strides class. It's basically a circuit training/running group for moms who have young kids. For me, the running is the easy part...the circuit training is hard. The instructor really pushes you to push yourself. Most muscle groups are targets through the use of resistance bands and added to that are cardio drills to keep your heart rate up. I really just thought it would be a social type class where moms speedwalk and talk about their kids. Um..no. No time for talk until the class is over. No ability to talk because I'm out of breath. It's hard, but I love it.
Lest we not forget the man of the house...Scott...he's doing well. It's football season...what else is there to say? He gets about 500 channels of football in high definition. He does a lot of yelling and refereeing depending on who is playing/winning/losing. The kids wonder what's wrong with him. Dayton doesn't like to watch football. Saige calls it baseball. He is hoping Addley grows up to be his football watching partner. I've been informed that if the Saints ever make it to the superbowl that he will be attending that game no matter where it might take place and no matter how much it might cost. I figure by the time that happens, Addley will be old enough to go with him!
Okay, this is getting a little long...let me post some pictures....tomorrow.

Summer Wrap Up

So it is the end of summer...where did it go? I have no idea. Well, summer never "really" ends in Hawaii, but I guess I associate the end of summer with the start of school. Dayton starts back tomorrow. We are hoping for less illness this year. He is super excited to meet new friends and see who his new teacher is. Unfortunately, the only two friends he made have moved and his teacher from last year retired. I'm sure he will adjust, but it makes me sad because I'm not sure if he completely understands that his "old" friends won't be there anymore, and he keeps talking about his teacher Miss Maria. Hopefully he is at least in the same classroom and has the same teacher assistant so something will seem familiar to him. I am excited for him...ok, I am more excited for myself, but he doesn't need to know that. With the excitement is a bit of dread because I know that Saige will become 100 times more clingy and whiny than she already is. I am looking to maybe get her signed up in some sort of class. It is hard to find things that will allow you to bring a younger sibling because they want you to participate "with" your child. It is the same problem I faced finding things for Dayton to do when Saige was a baby. Oh well, we will find something. Today the kids are at the zoo with Miss Katie so I am trying to get caught up on things I don't get much time to do...like blog. I've been using up my free time finishing thank you notes and designing and finishing Addley's birth announcement. I hope you all enjoy it - I am getting a little bit better at designing but not necessarily any faster. We went on two mini vacations this summer, had a baby, had a stream of visitors and just got home from our second vacation. We went to Maui for 4 days. If you all recall, this is the same trip we made last year via the Super Puker Ferry. This year we flew. The ferry isn't running anymore (the tree huggers were more worried about the whales than the economy), not that we would have taken it again anyhow. Scott always things going anywhere with any number of kids is a big production, I personally thought it wasn't so bad...but maybe I had the easy job of looking after the baby. I suppose the hard part is going through security - do you really think I have something hidden in the bottom of my toddler's size 7 flip flop? They also don't allow you to walk through the "scanner" with your kids - they make them walk through alone. Of course both just sort of wander through and head off in their own directions...Saige especially. She'd be on a flight to Kazakhistan before she'd realize she wasn't with her parents. She is so off in her own little world. It's really kind of funny to watch but aggravating to deal with. I suppose I should stop talking about our recent vacation because I don't have pictures ready to upload...so I'll save details for when I get around to doing that. Instead I'll post pictures of some random "fun-ness" from our summer together.Saige's new thing is to wear her brother's big boy undies. My little T-Rex.
And of course giving the camera her biggest smile.
Saige's version of playing baseball is to run off with Dayton's balls.
Saige has been practicing her Miss Hawaii pose.
Oh and her movie star beach look.Dayton can finally reach the pedals on his trike so he's been practicing riding to the end of the driveway and speeding down the slope back to the house. It completely freaks me out so I can't even watch. A total accident waiting to happen. He apparently got this trait from his daddy.Dayton practicing his "Better Batter Baseball". He's actually really good!
Dayton picking my flowers as he always does and has done since he was old enough to walk. No wonder my plants always die.
A parade we went to in honor of King Kamalikakamakaiki...or something like that.
The view of Waikiki beach from our staycation before the baby was born.
Another view of Waikiki beach.
A beautiful rainbow in our backyard.
Addley's first trip to the beach.
Mommy's first trip to the beach with Addley.
At the beach with all 3 kids.
Daddy and the kids looking for crabs and fish.
Dayton's first time slip and sliding. It was painful to watch but he finally got the hang of it.

Photo Shoot #2

Addley is 1 month old now (I can hardly believe it and am not really sure how it just slipped on by) so I decided to attempt another photo shoot with her. This time both Dayton & Saige were in attendance and decided they wanted to be part of it too. I thought it might be kind of nice to get some pictures of the 3 of them. Let me tell you...photographers that specialize in shooting children have a hard job! I mean, how hard can it be to point and shoot right? Well, try pointing and shooting at subjects that a) don't listen and b) don't sit still! Surprisingly, Saige was the most cooperative. Dayton just wanted to be silly and strike ridiculous poses with his tongue hanging out (typical boy) and Addley was busy pooping, peeing and spitting up. Dayton was fussing b/c Addley spit up near him and at one point I was wiping poop off of Saige's feet. Ugh. No wonder photographers often have assistants! Remind me to get one. All in all, I was happy with a few of the shots and despite all the laundry it created, I'm happy that I took the time to do it. Addley has already grown out of her newborn clothes and I'm finding the 0-3 month size is tight length wise. How heartbreaking and sad it is to see them grow up so fast. She is awake a lot more (unfortunately) and is holding her head up really well. She sleeps one 4hr stretch and then a 3hr stretch following that one at night...so not too bad. But bad if you look at the overall picture of 3 kids not sleeping through the night! But hey, it is all worth the joy they bring into our lives. At least that is what I tell myself as I stumble out of bed in the morning in search of a strong cup of coffee.

Grandparents

I've often wondered where the term grandparents came from but I've never looked into it. I can only assume they are similar to parents, only more grand maybe? Less responsibilities in the parenting department and more of a focus on being grand? Regardless, this title somehow gives them entitlement to spoil their grandkids. Some of my most fond memories are of my grandparents. Their cooking, magic tricks, vacations, gifts and let us not forget the sweets and staying up late. Perhaps I'll have more of an understanding one day when I am a grandparent. Grandpa and Mom Mom came for a week long visit after Addley was born to help out and visit with Dayton & Saige. I'm pretty sure my kids were thoroughly spoiled by the time they left. But that's okay, it's part of their duty as grandparents. We managed to get a bunch of nice photos with the kids. Thank you Mom Mom and Grandpa for all your wonderful presents (the kids play with their crayon sets almost every single day) and for helping out Mommy. We miss you and hope to see you again really soon!