More Hawaii fun...

We are now home from our fab vacation... back to everyday life... and totally happy to be with our little girls. (Jadyn snubbed us for a few minutes when we got back... I guess we deserved a little of that... :) ).

Our Hawaii adventures continued to be fantastic. I spent three completely relaxing days reading a book on my own private beach while Shane worked. (private because I was the only one out there…) The weather was beautiful, a little overcast which actually made it especially nice since I was able to sit out there for hours each day. Pure relaxation!

Of course after work we found time to explore the island… once again I booked us on a crazy adventure that involved a boat… flashlights… and snorkel equipment for an amazing adventure on a NIGHT manta ray snorkel tour. WOW! After snorkeling in the area in the daytime we boarded the boat again in preparation for our “night snorkel”. Again I was not nervous at all to have 10-15’ manta rays swimming all around me! That was truly a surreal experience… almost dreamlike it was so amazing! This snorkel is done by having LED lights positioned at the bottom of the ocean and people scuba diving holding their flashlights pointing up… with snorkelers pointing their lights down. Apparently plankton are attracted to the light… and mantas are attracted to the plankton. So these gentile giants gracefully swim around with their huge mouths open (some mouths were about 3-4’ across and 1-2’ wide) catching plankton and brushing up against us. CRAZY!! This mantas name is "Lefty" - Truly... I think I could have fit inside that mouth... Of course I didn't test out that theory!

I was grateful for a wet suit... The water felt much colder in the dark!

That's a manta under Shane... he was pretty much getting attacked right now as he was the last one in the water!

This was definitely a night to remember! I must admit that I don't think I truly knew what a manta ray was before this adventure... guaranteed I do now!

Throughout the week we did lots and lots of snorkeling... We were excited that we got to see so many turtles around!

That's a pretty cool shot I got!

We also saw more spinner dolphins on our way out for the manta tour.

And yes Shane truly did work while we were there...

We were reluctant to pack up on our last day in Hawaii… but excited to get home to our sweet little girls. We headed North for some more beach time and then took a tour at the “Sea Horse Farm”. Very informative… very over-priced… but when you are the only sea-horse farm in the United States I guess you can charge whatever price you want! Plus… if you think about it… how many people do you know that have actually held a REAL sea horse? (Well now you can say 2 I guess :)…)

More fun stuff...

No more book reading for me for a while! Back to the life I love... this afternoon/tonight that includes... 1 dance lesson, 2 piano lessons, 2 activity days, Kenna's soccer game, Shane's YM's (@ the Detention Center) and grocery shopping. Yep... I think I'm home!!

Ahhhh.... Paradise!

This morning my cute little girls and my totally awesome Momma woke up to snow... This is what Shane and I woke up to...

PARADISE!!

Yep that's the view off our lanai in Kona Hawaii!

I know... I know... it has only been a few months since our last little trip...

but...

12 days ago Shane was asked to do the carpet in the Kona Hawaii LDS Temple. I quickly looked to see if flights using Sky Miles were available for me... and they were... so... what would you do in my situation??? You probably would have used much more will power than me and stayed home....

but I said ALOHA!

Thanks mom and my good friend Kim for taking such awesome care of our little angels while we are gone! We miss them already!

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But we are having an awesome time! Like usual the schedule on the Temple had pushed (of course we didn't know that until we got here last night). So Shane and Cody will be pulling some odd hours in the next couple days. So while we had some time... Shane and I played...

I planned us an adventure (which Shane was quite unsure about at first). It involved renting a tandem kayak... strapping it to the top of our car... driving to Keakakekua Bay... paddling a mile across that bay... to the best snorkeling I have ever experienced!! Absolutely amazing! Clear, clear water, beautiful coral and amazing fish! Tayler and Saige would have loved it and we wish they could have experienced it with us! It was like "Finding Nemo" in every sense! Shane and I have snorkeled in about 10 different places... and this one rocked them all!

I only wish we had pictures... (ANDREW remember that "water camera" you gave us... that you said "didn't work great for you so we could have it?" Did you mean that when you took it under water the ENTIRE case filled up with water, oh... and that it didn't wind when you thought it was winding... thus not taking pictures at all!!) Love ya brother but I'm throwing that camera in the garbage!... because I THOUGHT I took about 20 pictures of these sweet babies swimming all around me!!!

Yep that's right I SWAM WITH DOLPHINS in the big blue ocean! I never in a million years thought I would EVER experience THAT! As we were getting in they told us that dolphins were out there so we paddled to where the other kayaks were hanging out watching them... after a few minutes of watching I told Shane I was getting in!! Yes I got in first, (having no clue how I was supposed to get back in our kayak later) and I never screamed or freaked out when those 5 amazing dolphins swam underneath me and surfaced again and again. I got the most INCREDIBLE pictures of them... on that STUPID camera I mentioned before. I then decided I ought to let Shane have a turn, so I pulled myself into the kayak... it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. And told Shane to get ready and go. This is no joke right here... he was WAY MORE SCARED than me! In fact he didn't get in until I told him he was "acting like a baby"! He says he was afraid he wouldn't be able to get back in... but he was just plain nervous! (BTW there was more than just us that were in the water.) It was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I am still amazed about! When we were both safely in the kayak I told Shane that I HAD to get a picture of them (this is after I noticed the water camera problems). So against Shane's better judgement I opened our "dry pack" and used our camera... which I was so glad didn't get wet! Although it might have been worth it anyway!!

This was Captain Cook's Monument... the monument wasn't nearly as cool as the other adventures... but we were sure pumped we decided to make the trek to it! (Although I am pooped from all that paddling... and my hip hurts from a little tumble on the lava rocks getting in to snorkel... it was totally worth it though!)

We headed to Pu'uhonau o Honaunau otherwise known as the "Place of Refuge". (Is this what you were thinking of Lisa?) It was cool.

Shane is off to work right now as I am enjoying the sunset on our lanai... Ahhhh... that's what I call an amazing day in Paradise!!

Spring Break and Easter...

I LOVE it when the kids are off school. So the chance to have them home for 3 days on their Spring Break was fabulous! Sleeping in, fun all day, late nights... ahhhhh

This is what we ended up doing...

Roller Skating...

I don't think I have roller skated since the "good ole' days" at the "roller rink"... it was pretty obvious too!
It was Kenna's first time, but she never gave up and had it down pretty good by the end!

Friday I took the girls to "Baby Animal Days" (along with the rest of the valley!)




We saw the Easter Bunny there. Can you tell that Jadyn "just loved him!"
That night we went to the opening of the "Hannah Montana Movie".

And dyed Easter Eggs.
Saturday morning the Easter Bunny came. Along time ago we wrote letters to the Easter Bunny asking him to come on Saturday instead of Sunday. It works out much better for us for lots of reasons. Sunday mornings are always hectic... (especially when we are on the 9 am schedule.) And most importantly it leaves Easter morning to really be about Christ... not the Easter Bunny and all his fun.

After a few egg hunts, Tayler and Saige went to "Hamilton's" for a fun cooking class. There stuff was yummy, yummy. Looking forward to the night when they get to prepare it all again for us!! After that the kids did some much needed cleaning around the house (actually I thought the cleaning needed to be done lots more than they did!) and then played with friends. That night Shane decided we needed to try something that we have been talking about doing for a while... tackling the "kitchen sink".
That is a serious amount of ice cream in that "trough"! We gave it our best family effort... but still didn't quite make it... they gave us the bumper sticker anyway...

If you can't read it, it says, "I cleaned the sink at Angie's".

Tell you what... the next person who comes to clean a sink at my house, can have it! (I can get more too :))

Easter morning was beautiful! And so were our girls!

After church we had a great "Easter Dinner" at our house with those in my family that could make it. We missed all the rest of you :(!

Ours and Dan's kids had the annual Easter egg hunt in the yard...

It was a perfect day!

Monday was more of the same... lunch with Grandma and Poppa at El Sol... Fun running around outside with their friends... and dessert with the Carlsen's at our house. This little spring break has made me even more excited for summer... I know the kids are pretty excited too... Tayler has had a "countdown to summer" on her blog for the past the month!

What we've been up to...

Does anyone like science fairs as much as me? (I'm showing some sarcasm here!) I think they are great... except that when it boils down to it I think to myself, "Wait a minute... I already went to school... why am I more concerned about how this project "looks" than they are... ???"

So... this year we decided that doing something in the "collection" category would be great :)!

Saige was pleased with her first place ribbon for her "Smooshed" Penny Collection. Good job Saige!!

Right now our life pretty much revolves around dance... and it is competition time again...

Their dances are really cute this year... (Not that they weren't last year :))

Tayler's... "Wheels on the Bus"

Saige's... "New Soul"

Saige's... "Shake your tail feathers"

And Tayler's... "Dance me if you can"

Good job girls! You are lots of fun to watch!


I was a little sad that I missed most of Saturdays General Conference... thank heavens for DVR!


I love Conference... I think my kids do too.... because in our house that means it is "project" time. I don't think that kids do great just sitting and listening... even I don't do great that way... but if I have a "quiet" project to work on I seem to listen better. I scrap booked, Tayler did her latch hook, Saige knitted hats and Kenna started a needlepoint. And WE ALL tore up carpet pad for our "bean bag" projects...


This year I read something cute about setting up a "tent" in your family room to watch conference in... Similar to Mosiah's words,

“And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which King Benjamin should speak unto them.’”



Our tent was nothing fancy... but the kids all thought it was fun (we all noticed when Gary Stevenson made a reference to that scripture in his talk.)


Oh, and we also stay in our PJ's for conference... don't we look fabulous! (Hence the reason why I'm not looking at the camera!)
We had a great day together and enjoyed the messages that were shared in our "tent".

Now back to our crafty stuff...

I feel like as a mom I have tons of responsibilities. One of the many is teaching my girls to be "domestic" and "crafty" in lots of different ways. We do lots of "projects" around our house. I was able to take Tayler to 4-H sewing camp for a couple of years. She learned a lot and is actually a pretty good sewer now. There is something about taking 2 full days to work with one child to learn a new skill. I will admit that at times I was a little frustrated as I am pretty much the designated "seam unpicker" (I've done my fair share of that with my girls :))

Since the dance review falls at the same time as sewing camp... I have decided we will do our own "personal camp". I found about 10 "projects" on the Internet and we will be tackling them throughout the summer. I will post them when we finish each one if anyone wants to try them with your family! I took the girls to Hobby Lobby (all with our own 40% off coupons) and we started purchasing the stuff... the girls had a great time picking out their fabrics. When we got home... they were so excited that they wanted to start right away... instead of waiting for summer... so we did. The first project is probably the largest... but we are making bean bags (filled with carpet pad... as we know a guy who has loads of scraps of that! Hence the hours of tearing up pad during conference...) I found the pattern and instructions here.

Tayler finished hers... and Saige is "almost done" (this is her first project and I have found that I was much more patient with Tayler when I was in the presence of other people at sewing camp than I am at home... I think this is to teach me patience... and I obviously haven't got there yet! Which means lots more projects will be ahead for me!) They will also be finishing one for Kenna and Jadyn which they will be expert at by then!

Isn't it cute! Totally Tayler!
This is the latch hook Tay worked on during conference... Also totally Tayler!
These are the hats Saige finished! She is AWESOME at those!

And Kenna's very first sewing project! She did great and finished more than half of it.

Cute little Jadyn doesn't work on many projects... except she was pretty good at tearing the pad up... What a joy she is!

That pretty much sums up what's been happening at our house.