Summer is coming....

We already have gone to a park every day this week and most of last week. I don't know how long the park will be exciting. What are your favorite summer activities? With and without kids.

Frog update

So I always take random pictures of Reed but never really have a good reason to post some of them. Let's just do a Reed Frog update:


He starting to look like such a big boy. But if we ask him who or where the big boy is, he points to to the little "Big Boy" (hamburger) statue we have on our kitchen counter.


He loves slides! Especially big ones.


But he kinda hates the swing.


He loves ducks.


But he hates crossing bridges (if they have a sloped curve). He gets to this point every time and then screams and cries until I help him across. It's a real fear--he is literally shaking. After about 30 min. or so, he gets enough courage to cross by himself.


Playing "squeezes" with daddy.


He loves doing an alphabet website (www.starfall.com) at night with daddy too. In fact, he would try to request it about every 30 min. during the day and throw a tantrum, so we ended up putting our office chairs in the back room. Did I tell you how obsessed he is with letters? It is crazy! Some kids are into cars, trains, maybe animals; Reed is into letters. We got him a DVD called Letter Factory and a few months ago, he got really into it. He also has magnetic letters, a ABC felt book I made him, and starfall. He sees letters everywhere and is constantly pointing them out. He'll even be eating food (ex: toast), and then look at it from different angles and see letters. Believe me, it's not something we forced upon him. I think the whole "My Baby Can Read" is a little weird and freaky. He just really got into letters. As a result, he knows all his letters and their sounds. It's pretty funny. I guess there are worse things to be obsessed about.


Playing letters with daddy.

Happy Easter...he still doesn't get it

Like every year, we had to keep tradition and dye eggs. We invited our friends, Ann and Brian over. It turned out to be Brian's "first time" dyeing eggs! They did something weird using flowers to dye eggs when he grew up.


I helped Reed dip the egg into the dye, he put stickers on his chest, and then he proceeded to crush the egg. He couldn't figure out why it wouldn't go back together. It was actually a very stressful time for him, not enjoyable at all.


Saturday morning we went to an Easter Egg Hunt. We were there an hour early to help set up, but there wasn't really much to do. So we froze our butts off and listened to Reed scream for an hour.


Reed was really anxious/excited to get the eggs. Sadly, he thought they were giant jelly beans (he kept saying "jelly bean") and he was pretty upset when he tried to take a bite out of it.


We left immediately after the meltdown.


The Easter Bunny left a trail of jelly beans to Reed's basket. He must've known he wouldn't be old enough to really try to find his basket.


He was pretty excited about the books in his basket.


So we had to read it right away.


The jelly beans were his favorite part. :) He ate them all in one sitting. Take it back; he misplaced one egg full of jelly beans and finished them off a couple hours later.

More Hawaii!

We're on our way!


We knew the trip was going to be awesome when we busted out our cameras at the airport!


Hanauma Bay


Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. We were the only ones that didn't see the sea turtle (I know, you should feel bad for us). My dad even saw an octupus and, with all things, ignored the comment to refrain from touching fish and got a puffer fish to "blow up."
I felt like I was in a giant aquarium.


Pit stop at insta-care for a toe problem. I'll spare you the disgusting details.


Sunburns after the first day: Sarah, Clinton, Chris. These whities just can't handle the sun. Or maybe people like Kevin who used 2 full bottles (for real) were smarter than we thought--he did not get an ounce of sun (which is what he was going for).


The U.S.S. Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor


Catamaran ride


They got soaked! It was quite entertaining. All the little Asian girls on the boat thought it was hilarious. I think I have a crush on Asian girls. So cute.


The group


Getting tatoos at the Paradise Cove luau.


A frog tattoo was very fitting. :)


We saw this a couple times...must not be very hard. ;)


Hawaii is awesome.


It's okay to laugh. Let's just say that I decided not to take the picture of my dad and the Polynesians shortly after.


Pretty beach...sorry, I lost track of all their names.


Polynesian Cultural Center


Tongan island presentation--hilarious!


Laie Temple. You could put the Provo Temple next to this foliage and it would be pretty.


View from Diamondhead Hike


My crazy father braving the waves at Sandy Beach. The rest of us were too scared to get in the water. Shortly after, some professional boogie boarders told us we shouldn't be there and to go to another beach. Apparently, this beach had the highest number of neck injuries in Hawaii.


So we went to Makapu'u Beach down the street. Scary enough waves but manageable to boogie board. Probably my favorite activity we did.


Kevin, Clinton, and Chris played a lot of water football.


While Allie played in the waves.


Sunset at Waikiki Beach.


Hike to Maunawili Falls. It was so pretty, I felt like I was in a jungle. Actually, I think it was. I was waiting to turn the corner and run into the black smoke monster.


Kevin and I


Clinton


One of the billioneth time we crossed a river. Not one particle of Tera likes to hike. Kinda funny to look back on it now.


Okay, so the waterfall was a little disappointing but I thought we'd be able to swim in the little pool of water. We didn't realize until we got there that you could get infected with Leptospirosis. Look it up, it's some nasty stuff. But we did watch one crazy jumping from a cliff 25 ft.+ and landing on his back. He came up bleeding all over himself.


We spent a lot of time looking for this guy. There were a couple more turtles there as well.


Evidence of the amount of sunscreen Chris (and Kevin) put on during this trip.


The Dole Plantation


Aloha!


What an AWESOME, AWESOME, trip!

For those of you wondering, Reed did great with his Oma and Opa. They reassured us that he didn't miss us one bit. Kinda sad. He at least was really excited to see us when we got back. I cried when we left the airport (and when I saw him again). :) But all of us did pretty well at just enjoying our vacation. :) I think I am becoming more and more of a warm weather person. I still love snow, but I could handle maybe a 3 month winter rather than 6 months. Where should we move???