Eli's Birthday

Still way behind, and while I got a timely post up around his birthday I never updated on how we celebrated his big day!

This year we kind of split his fun day up. Before the superbowl we let him pick some things to do for fun. His top priority was getting out to geocache. It was a bit cold for my liking but it wasn't raining and he had a blast! For anyone who doesn't know what geocaching is, it is when people hide treasure all around cities and you follow a clue and basic location on an app on your phone. The kids love it and it is something free to do when we have time to kill!

After geocaching we went to my brother's house for the big game and celebrated with everyone and an ice cream cake!

The next day was the big day! Our boy was officially somehow 8 years old! He requested birthday cake cinnamon rolls for breakfast!

And then once Daddy got home we took him out for a little bit more spoiling! He chose 5 guys because he loves cracking peanuts lol!  And some yummy froyo for dessert!

The poor birthday boy came down with pink eye after vacation which meant we had to move his birthday party date.  But it was still fun to get a chance to celebrate our guy when he was all better!  And he definitely loves himself some baseball! 

It was a very fun time celebrating our guy! We seem to more and more be leaving the little boy days and I'm gonna miss it. But I see some really cool things about older boys too. I especially look forward to watching this guy play baseball this spring! 

Hawaii - Part 5

Last but not least, I post about our trip to the north shore. I had heard it was beautiful up there so we definitely wanted to check it out. And it was just as beautiful as everyone described.

We spent a little bit of time at the beach where the kids had some fun playing in the sand and found all sorts of treasures. 

Eli looks thoroughly unimpressed but I assure you he was happy because we couldn't get enough of Chicken in a Barrel. 

Or JoJo's! 

On the way back we found a really cool playground for the kids to lose some energy!

And made a quick stop at a waterfall. 

As if the trip wasn't good enough, the grandparents were willing to keep the kids for an evening so Peter and I could get out and enjoy a dinner together! This was so refreshing for us because while the trip was amazing, there is very little relaxing on any trip with kids. They want to go to the beach, then they need a bath, then they want food, then they want to swim, then they want another bath because they're hungry, then they want to relax but we need to clean up and do laundry before they get up to move again. Then they want more food and then they want to be entertained again and on and on it goes!  

Not only was this some relaxing downtime, but this was also some seriously amazing food! I don't even know what type of fish I had but I know it was delicious and fresh and I pretty much wanted to lick my plate clean. Peter got a mix of teriyaki chicken and beef. 

And of course we had to try a staple to the islands for dessert - hula pie! 

All that to say, this trip was amazing and hands down the best family vacation we've taken! I am loving our time away exploring new places as a family and I think now I understand a bit of the hype about the magical Hawaiian islands.  The trip went far too fast and we had to return to reality but man oh man we all can't wait to go back! 

There was one thing left that the kids wanted to experience and hadn't. The search for the sea turtle. We had checked the beach early in the morning a couple times with no luck. I suggested to Peter that maybe he should take the kids to the beach one last time while I worked on packing and sure enough right before we headed to the airport the kids last wish was granted! 

All that to say, this trip was amazing and hands down the best family vacation we've taken! I am loving our time away exploring new places as a family and I think now I understand a bit of the hype about the magical Hawaiian islands.  The trip went far too fast and we had to return to reality but man oh man we all can't wait to go back! 

Hawaii - Part 4

Holy flu bug that wiped through the house! We are finally feeling back to normal around here so time to get back to posting some updates!

We tried to see as much of the Island as we could while we were there. The sheer number of kids and age of the kids made some sightseeing (like boat tours or helicopter tours) difficult so we made the most of what we could do from land!


This particular day we got an early start, I ran out of the car to check the beach for turtles as we were most likely to see them before sunrise. No turtles but I did get a pretty view of the sun rising over the shore line.

Then we stopped for the most amazing breakfast before driving off to tour the grand canyon of the island. The weather for most of our trip was cooler than usual. It wasn't a problem most of the time because the beaches were still warm enough for us Oregonians but it was pretty darn cold and windy up on top of the mountains. So we made a quick trip out to see the views and then back to the car to warm up!

 

A slight windchill!  Brr!

We eventually found our way up to the end of the where we could see just a bit of the amazing Napali coast! It sure was gorgeous! 

Eventually we made our way down from the cool mountains back to the beach where it was nice and warm. We had an amazing lunch at chicken in a barrel (the kids still talk about wanting to go back there for that amazing roasted chicken) and what would become a daily stop - shaved ice at JoJo's! 

It was a pretty darn perfect day as after the mountains and lunch we made our way to the beach and stayed until sunset. I thought it was pretty fun that I saw the sunrise from the beach and the sunset too. We were loving every second of our time in Paradise!