rob's birthday celebration: round 1

Rob's birthday isn't until August 4th, but since we're going out of town FOR A MONTH, tonight we celebrated with Rob's parents and our good friends, the Grzebik's, with pool time and a delicious meal.

It was really the perfect evening with friends and family, celebrating a wonderful husband, son, father, and friend. We love you Rob! :)

Christian has no fear of the water. I guess that's what happens when your whole life is spent at the beach, or Mimi & Papa's pool! He will jump in over and over and over again until we finally have to say enough for now. 

I really wish I had gotten some pictures of everyone together! But it's almost impossible to capture a shot of the kids! They are just way too busy chasing each other, and their laughter and giggles are just the best. 

We decided to grill outside because the weather was perfect (duh) and the kiddos could continue to burn off energy even after leaving the pool. Rob's mom cooked the most delicious lamb chops, with potatoes, bok choy, and brussels sprouts. Jayme brought a yummy Hawaiian fruit bowl complete with a cacao pod! But oh the dessert. Can we have a moment of silence? Linda made a blueberry crumb pie that was to die for. It was so rich, and delicious that I'm pretty sure I could live off of it for the rest of my life. I mean, blueberries are healthy, right?? I may have dreams about that blueberry pie. 

Happy Birthday to you!!

Oh, please let me tell you about this neat little "trick" Papa showed Christian a while ago... but he never seems to forget. Papa puts whipped cream on his (Christian's) finger, Christian licks it off,  and thinks it's the best thing since sending man to the moon. Papas really are the best. 

I am so happy that the G's got to come celebrate with us. It was the perfect evening in so many ways made extra special with our friends being there. Thank you to Mimi for arranging, preparing, and cooking such a delicious spread, thank you to Papa for catching Christian in the pool 293849234 times and giving him your ice cream, and thank you to the Grzebik's for driving to our side of the island to celebrate. 

An almost full moon with a perfect Hawaiian sunset.

Happy (early) Birthday to you, Rob!! You are loved by many! Especially by this girl, and a little boy who calls you Dada! 

aloha friday!

Well good morning and happy aloha Friday!

It's been a while, hasn't it? As per the usual excuse, life has been so busy lately. Our days are literally FILLED with activities... filled a little too much truth be told. And by the time Christian's nap rolls around, you'll find me fast asleep on the sofa too. So, I am sorry that this blog has gone by the wayside just a tad. But I'm hoping to get back into it!

In just a few short days we'll be headed to Virginia for A MONTH, and we have an awesome road trip planned out!! Christian has never really been on a road trip! That's island life for you... although driving to the other side of the island sometimes feels like a road trip. But this one is the real deal.

We'll arrive in Richmond next week and spend a few days hanging out, and Sunday we'll take off for Aunt Amy's farm in West Virginia. This is a REAL farm, y'all! I'm so excited to go and finally experience (yes, experience) this wonderful place I've heard so much about. And catch up with family we haven't seen in years! (And have never met Christian!) Oh, did I mention that they have farm equipment? Tractors, and bulldozers, and skid steers = Christian's heaven.

After a few nights there, we'll journey up to Pittsburgh to visit Grandma Helen (G.G.), and see cousins, aunts, and uncles we also haven't seen in years, or met Christian. I'm hoping we'll be able to check out the Pittsburgh Zoo for an afternoon, especially after hearing great things about it from our friends, Natalie and Chris, who were just there. But I'm really looking forward to spending lots of time with family.

When we leave Pittsburgh, we'll journey on up to Michigan to visit our friends, Dan and Liz, and their two boys! Dan is Rob's best friend from high school. We also stayed with them during their time living in Japan back in 2008. We've never met their boys (or them Christian), so I just know it'll be a blast. Liz and I will be seriously outnumbered.

And the last leg of our journey will be a stop in (near) Cleveland to visit Rob's other aunt and uncle. Well, I'm hoping that's how it'll all transpire. We're still finalizing details.

After a week (plus) long journey, we'll return to Richmond to spend the rest of trip making sure Nannie gets lots of quality time with Christian, visiting more family, hanging out with friends, and taking time to just relax as a family. My brother is going to take me on a tour of the Amazon facility, where he works. I'm really looking forward to that! I mean, how often do you order things off Amazon and actually think about the warehouse and people that make that order happen?! Kyle has some pretty good stories too.

So between now and Tuesday, we have lots to do! Laundry, pack, re-pack, more laundry, make sure Baxter's taken care of... and you know we don't want to check any bags. So that'll be fun. At least it's Summer and we can just pack our normal Summer uniform (shorts, tank tops, and slippers) which takes up considerably less space than Winter clothes.

Now... for Christian's latest shenanigans!

Hanging out at Diamond Head Beach on the lava rocks.

Christian's newest trick - pulling one arm out of his pajamas.

New shoes! (Mama got matching ones too!)

And again. Little Rob?

A wonderful afternoon spent with friends at the Urban Garden!

Hiking to Lulumahu Falls

Now, if I can just make it through Rob's last trip to Sydney this weekend! 

Have a great weekend! Aloha! 

happy 4th!

Christian and I spent the morning wandering around Target... because what could be more American than that on our Independence Day?! I blame that decision on my new obsession with the website/Instagram called: Target does it again.

Christian considers today's Target trip a success. 

But back to today's shenanigans... without Rob here I realllllllly try my best to avoid parking hassles and traffic messes, so that's why we didn't beeline it for the beach this morning. I'm a wuss, with not a lot of patience. And Christian doesn't even know it's a holiday. Parking here sucks just about everywhere. Especially on holidays, at the beach.

I'm not sure what this afternoon holds. But I am quite sure one thing, if this child doesn't nap, no one in this house will be seeing fireworks tonight. Which brings me to another thing, WHY is Christian back to fighting his naps all of a sudden?!? At this moment a lot of noise - singing, kicking the wall - is coming from his room. I'd say about 90% of the days, he waits until his nap time to poop, which also keeps him awake. Update: he pooped.

Sigh.

When Rob goes to work I always send him a recap email of our day... and this was his response to me:

Geez, he needs to work on his bowel movement schedule! This poopy no nap thing needs to stop. Flight was good. A little bumpy, bunch of people got sick.

I mean, really, when we first got married, I never thought there'd come a day we would be emailing about poop. (And LOL at the rest. Just because.)

I will leave you with this little video of Christian's nap yesterday. Even though I was annoyed, I couldn't help but crack up... a little. Before I went in there and moved his crib to the center of his bedroom so he wouldn't yank the curtains to the ground or kick a hole in the wall.

(link to video)

And a Happy Independence day to you!