Petting Zoo

We have been really busy lately so I have not had time to update our blog. A few weeks ago Julien and I went to the zoo with our friends Amber and Zak. Julien is still not a huge fan of the zoo but does seem to enjoy the little petting zoo they have there. They have some HUGE goldfish!

Crawling through the tunnel to get inside the fish tank

He thought it was pretty sweet

Petting the goats

This goat was chewing on the rope and Julien just had such a confused look on his face and kept saying "uh oh"

Taking a little water break in the shade; it was SO hot!

For play group one week we got to go to the fire station...Julien loved the fire trucks

Best Buds

Hanging out at the beach

We found this sweet tent for Julien at Goodwill for $1.99 He Loves it!

Julien now thinks the sunglasses and apparently goggles are so cool ...pretty funny!

The First Year

One year ago today we got on a plane and moved to Hawaii! Some days it feels like we have been here forever and that I will never again experience the luxuries of the mainland such as carpet, a house with a yard not a tiny apartment 16 stories up, living more than a block from the freeway, laying in bed and having it be silent, not hearing sirens, mopeds or street racing, normal food that I can actually afford, parks without bums, not having cockroaches or geckos in my house, police who actually fight crime, and people that speak English!!! It is definitely a different world over here but then there are days we wake up to beautiful sunshine and drive 5 mins and are able to lay on the most beautiful beaches and can't believe that we live in such a beautiful place. It has been a rough year, especially the first few months...if you have forgotten all of our horror stories you can go back and read our August entries from last year, but we have really learned a lot while we have been here and I think can now say that we are grateful for this adventure in our lives and will really miss this place when we leave...but yes we are going to leave. So...for all of you especially MY FAMILY, who have STILL NOT COME TO VISIT ...get your BUTTS on a plane and get over here while you can!!!

Let the Fun Begin

Julien has just recently become interested in coloring and normally I only let him color when he is strapped into his highchair but I guess I didn't notice that a crayon had fallen on the floor because about an hour later my wall had some lovely green scribbles on it. I forgot to take a picture of the lovely artwork before Landon took the magic eraser to the wall...thank goodness for those little things...but here is another picture from this latest artwork. Apparently he found a pen somewhere and thought the walls needed some color.

Peanut Butter

Julien is such a funny kid! He is absolutely obsessed with Peanut Butter. Several times throughout the day he will go to the pantry and grab the jar of peanut butter and carry it over to me and ask for some. And I am not talking like one little bite...he literally wants mouthful after mouthful of the stuff. The other morning he woke up really early so I got him out of his crib and went to lay back down hoping he would just watch tv for a little while or something but oh no he went to the pantry and brought me the jar of peanut butter! I guess this little obsession is probably my fault... I had quite a few peanut butter moods from Jamba Juice while I was pregnant.

Just a few pictures of some of the things that we have been up to lately. These first pictures were taken at Foster Botanical Gardens last weekend. They were having a little festival called a Midsummer Night’s Gleam. It was a cool experience.

The first male belly dancer that I have ever seen...and hopefully the last!

They had a lot of fun activities for the kids...Julien was in Heaven!

They even had dragon dancers

Julien was a little unsure of them at first...but slowly got closer...

and closer...

but then this face got a little too close...

and he got a little too scared

Julien's loves to copy dad playing the Wii

He can almost climb into his crib...it will be a sad, sad day when he figures out how to climb out

Grandma and Grandpa sent us a package the other day with something for all of us...THANK YOU!!! This was Julien's face when he saw his new monkey!

I think he likes it!Monkey Kisses

He likes to carry him around in his mouth...

Julien has hated hats until recently dad got a new hat...now Julien thinks that hats are so cool!

I love this boy!

Helping mom make cookies!

Playing in daddy's shoes

One of Julien favorite things...I seriously have to fight him to get into his car seat everyday because he wants to sit up front and play

We recently replaces the batteries in Julien's dog...it has been "sleeping" for quite awhile. Julien loves to give it snuggles and take it for walks. Today he took it for a ride on the horse, funny kid.

4th of July Weekend

This was our first Forth of July that we have spent away from our family...we were definitely sad to miss the family reunion, the fireworks in Lava and the Grace parade but spending the day at the beach with friends was pretty nice.

Friday we went to Waimanalo Beach with Paul and Nancy and Amber and Nate and some other friends. It was a prefect day at the beach and the kids had so much fun playing together

We found this huge hole in the sand and put all the kids in it. They loved it and so did we...free babysitter

On Saturday we started the day off at the ward breakfast. The program was nice and we had fun with our friends but the food was not fully cooked...pretty sure we will skip it next year

Julien loves to play under the table...it is one of his many forts

Most of the day we spent relaxing at our apartment and hanging out at the pool. That night a couple from our ward had a bunch of people over for a potluck dinner...the food was really good and we had a lot of fun! After dinner we came back to our apartment with some of our friends to watch the fireworks from our lanai. We did some sparklers over the edge of the lanai...I think Julien was a little unsure of the whole thing...but he was braver than his dad who wanted to wrap a towel around his hand while he was holding the sparkler...HAHAHA!