Hawaiian Pics and Update

Remember back in mid-May when I wrote a little blurb about a trip to Hawaii? Well, that actually was a REAL trip. And finally, I'm taking time to add some of the highlight pictures, because, well, it was AWESOME!!

Brian and I found some great airfare to Kauai, and booked some reasonable accommodations for a little getaway -- celebrating our 6th anniversary (coming up in just a few weeks), and the fact that we have only two kids for just a little while longer. We left Samantha and Spencer with Brian's wonderful parents and had a perfect little holiday for a week! yay!!

Day 1:

Arrived at noon, got a sweet red Ford focus for our rental car (ha!), and checked into our condo for the night. Our view from the balcony of our room...

And, from the inside...

We lounged on the beach for a bit, then in our pool...

Then went for a drive to check out the shops and see a nearby waterfall, Wailua Falls, I think...

This was the sign at the top of the falls... not sure what it meant, but we sensed it was warning us of DANGER...

Back to our hotel for more beach lounging and an early night, after flying alllll day...

Day 2:

Went for a drive up Waimea Canyon (sp?), which rumor has it Mark Twain once called "the Grand Canyon of the Pacific." (Guide book said it wasn't really Mark Twain who called it that, but I like to think he MIGHT have.)

It started out looking like this... (excuse the wind-blown preggie look... I was both wind-blown and pregnant, what can I say?)

Three quarters of the way up it looked like this...

And from the top, it was like this, most of the time... Lots of rain and mist. We ate our picnic sandwiches and strawberries in the car in a heavy drizzle.

But when the mist cleared, the view was totally worth the rain and the waiting...

Pictures really don't do it justice, but here's one more...

On the way down, it was like this, again... a different view (with the same wind-blown look). Disclaimer -- Brian had the camera most of the time, so you will mainly just see pics of scenery and/or me...

And, we saw lots of wild chickens... They were everywhere, because there are no big predators that eat chickens in Hawaii. How nice, huh?

Day 3:

I think this was the day we checked into our new condo (or the night before?), lounged at our pool half the day, drove around our little village of Hanalei, and ate junk food in bed for hours while we watched television (watched all three Superman movies, among other things.) So, um, not too many pics. But here are just a few, starting with our fun pool with waterfalls and sandy bottom...

It was a lovely pool... I thought we got a picture of the waterfalls? but I can't seem to find it...

Our path/tunnel down to the beach, very overgrown and secluded...

There was this pair of cute little red birds that would come sit on our balcony while we ate breakfast each morning. I finally caved and fed them a little granola so I could get a picture...

The view from the lobby of our condo/resort...

Our beach (below). It was a bit more of a walk than the first place, but it had great sand (brought in by the swanky place next door that shared the beach with us), and snorkeling. We didn't actually snorkel there, but we heard it was a great place for that...

And here I am, on the balcony at that swanky place next door...

We couldn't resist having a peek at all their finery. It's one of the most expensive places to stay on Kauai... St Regis of Princeville. Their list prices were about $550 per night! But we checked online and it looks like you could Hotwire it for $400 -- a steal. ha! (The real steal was the $3 brownie in their coffee shop, which we shared.)

Day 4:

I think this may have been my favorite day. We hiked part of the famous Kalalau Trail. It's the trail that goes up along the famous Na Pali coast, where there are no roads. Gorgeous...

Here's the same view, with me (below). I was a good hiker, I have to say! After three+ months of nausea and lethargy, I was proud of myself for being able to do it at ALL! Brian kept saying, "If it gets to be too much, we can turn around." But we didn't.

Brian was a good hiker too... It doesn't look as steep and muddy and slick as it really was.

We hiked two miles (on a path labelled "strenuous" on our guidebook), down to a secluded beach with wicked riptides (no swimming allowed).

We crossed a little creek right as we got down to the beach. It was gorgeous, and the water was the perfect temperature. Then we were wishing we would have brought our swim suits, oh well...

Another view of the stream, just because we thought it was so beautiful...

The beach was nice,though small. There were signs everywhere telling people not to swim or go in the water because so many people had died there. Doesn't look that dangerous, but we didn't chance it...

We were going to eat our picnic lunch on the beach before hiking back....

But it started raining just as we got there, so we ended up on the lava rocks for our lunch, sheltered by a little overhang...

After we finished our hike, we snorkeled at a great beach for an hour or so, before heading back to our condo. We got delicious burritos on the way back that were sooo spicy, but soooo good... just like the guidebook said they would be. ha!

Day 5:

Happy Mother's Day!

My present was a GIANT chocolate chip cookie with chocolate frosting, and an orchid corsage from church. Oh, and a trip to Hawaii! :)

We called our moms in the morning (their afternoon), then went to church. We stayed for a very nice Sacrament Meeting where a young husband spoke then his wife sang. We were close behind their family of four little boys, and I felt so bad for the mom while she sang, with her boys yelling out "Mommmmmy!!!" and the newborn crying, etc. Ah, the realities of motherhood. ha!

After our church service ended, we went to this quaint little church nearby, for another service. It's the oldest Christian church on the island (their flyer said). We loved all the singing in Hawaiian -- they had a great choir!

And of course, Brian got some lovely shots of their stained glass. I'm just including one, but you can imagine the other 20 pics on our computer, right??

I confess, I was extremely tired, sore, and grumpy on Sunday. I think the hike wore me out a bit more than I expected... and poor Brian had to put up with me (his real Mothers Day present to me). We napped some, lounged on the beach and read, then napped some more.

In the evening, we walked to a secret tidepool (that's not such a secret now that it's in the guidebook), and watched the sun set...

The tide pool is called Queens Bath, and was really beautiful and big enough to swim in (which we did a few days later)...

A nice couple took our picture with the sun setting behind us...

And that, my friends, is where I will leave this blog, for now. It's taken me three days to get this far (and my kids are still in jammies at 11 a.m. on this Saturday morning). But I DO plan to write the concluding Hawaii details in the next few days. Promise.

Up and Down

For some reason, blogging just isn't my thing right now. Terrible, huh? I mean, I have hundreds of pictures that I'd like to have posted, just so I can enjoy looking at them and remembering a lot of fun things we've been doing around here lately.

But --- [big, long, involuntary sigh]. It just isn't happening.

Sorry.

Today is a down day for me. Probably a day I'd be better off steering clear of the blog, or the computer in general. Especially when I've been offline for ages. Yesterday was a down day too. And Saturday was an "on-the-way-down" day, if that makes sense to anyone?

But see, before the "down" time, I was having an incredible surge of "up-ness." For several days in a row, I was energetic, productive, and pretty much on top of things around here. (Except for blogging, of course.) I felt really good, I was sleeping good, and just getting so much done.

The short list of things I got done while I was "up":

-- cleaned out the fridge

-- did a major grocery shopping trip

-- cleaned out the laundry room (a major accomplishment, as it hasn't been cleaned for about a year -- the DEEP kind of clean-out)

-- swept and sprayed down the back porch for cobwebs

-- took the kids to the library, paid our fine for the book we lost last December, and renewed our card so we can start borrowing again.

-- picnic lunch at the park. TWICE in a row!

-- cleaned out all FOUR of our kids' toy boxes,

-- bought and planted REAL flowers in our pots in front of the house (so the silk flowers can stay in storage until some other unproductive time, I hope!)

-- got up and went walking with a friend three different times at 6:30 a.m.

-- read multiple books, multiple times on multiple days with my kids, even helping Samantha to sound out the letters on some of them!

-- visited our aging neighbor (something I've said I need to do every day for the last five months or so)

-- did a real princess hair-do on Samantha.

-- cleaned out the tupperware cupboard and the canning jars/toaster cupboard.

Whew! Can you believe I felt so accomplished as I climbed into bed several nights in a row?! -- with a smile on my face!!?

Well, right now, on my not-so-uppity day, just writing the list is making me tired. I guess the ups and downs are necessary -- one helps me appreciate the other, right?

But then, my "wondering" of the day is the same thing I've wondered countless times before, on countless down days in my past: why don't I just go ahead and CHOOSE to be "up," instead of feeling all grumpy and irritable and sludgy-- yes, sludgy describes it pretty well. See, just last night I was reading through an old journal, one that I wrote way back in college, more than a decade ago. Can you believe, I was struggling with the very same "wondering!??" I stated it a bit differently there, eventually vowing to do better at just being happy all the time whether I felt like it or not.

But as I read through more journal pages, I could see my resolve didn't really change my mood or my frustrations at the time. And I pretty much just had to weather the down days and try to find things to be grateful for, keeping me feeling somewhat positive, despite the haze. Not much has changed in all these years, I guess! It just seems to be a cycle I go through... a challenge I still haven't learned how to deal with properly. Hmm...

I guess life continues through the down days, too, right? And yes, I'm still accomplishing things, though they don't seem quite so fulfilling today:

-- showered and dressed and didn't forget to put on my wedding rings.

-- made our bed, and Samantha's too.

-- washed and dried a load of laundry, including Spencer's indispensable blanket.

-- held and comforted (and threatened to spank) a screaming, inconsolable Spencer who would NOT be placated, the ENTIRE time his blanket was in the wash. (actually Brian helped with this for awhile until he had to leave)

-- watered the tomatoes that are sitting on the counter, still waiting to be planted.

-- indulged the kids with chocolate milk and Doritos as part of their lunch.

Well, that's my feel-good list for today. And maybe tomorrow I'll get back on top of my game! Then, maybe, just MAYBE, I'll blog for REAL!

:)

Samantha was right!

Well, for those of you who have been patiently waiting for our next baby news, here it is...

We're having a GIRL! Yay!

I've been waiting to post the news so I could scan the cute little pics we have of her. But... that's taken way too long now. So, I'm just sharing without pictures, and will maybe add them later (or snag some off the internet because don't they all look a lot alike from the inside-out angle? ha!)

Anyway, we had our 20-week scan last week, and Brian relented and said we could go ahead and find out what kind of baby we were having. (He's very into the "surprise" thing -- for those who don't remember, Samantha was a surprise, at Brian's insistence. I told him we can have another surprise with the NEXT baby. one at a time, please.) We took Samantha with us, because I thought she'd be interested since she asked me almost every day whether it's a boy or girl. She was really cute about it, although, after the first 2 mins, I think she might have been more interested in the Cinderella book she found under her chair.

When the first shot of the baby's profile came up on the screen, Sam said, "Oh! I KNEW it was a girl!!" We smiled and told her it's pretty hard to tell whether it's a boy or girl, just by looking at it's face. She studied the image some more and said, "No. I'm sure it's a girl. Her face does not look at ALL like a boy." We had to laugh. And we laughed even more when Brian said to her, "Well, I guess it's not a puppy after all." And she replied, "That's silly Daddy!! Are you teasing? Because puppies only come from mama dogs, not from people mamas." (She's so smart, no?!)

Later, when we actually saw the "girl parts," Samantha got a better clue of how this all works. She told us, "well, that is for SURE is a girl, because there aren't any of those BOY parts like Spencer has!" Looks like she was right, smarty pants. Maybe she has a future as an ultrasound technician. Just think -- if she can actually tell just from the profile shot... I see big money here, folks! ha!

We also brought Spence, just because I was lazy about getting a sitter. Yeah... he didn't care one bit. But he was hoppin' mad when I accidentally bumped his ear into the doctor's counter while giving him a "horsey ride" on my knee. Oops. It actually put a slice right through the top of his ear, poor thing. I think he'll opt to stay home from future ultrasound/dr visits!

Well, we're really excited to welcome number three, and especially excited to give Sammie and Spencer a sister! Let the name discussions begin. Samantha prefers Abigail, Gabriella, or Candice. And she says "I'm not really crazy with Emma (one of her dad's top picks)" -- meaning, she doesn't like it; she's heard Brian say "I'm not crazy about [insert favorite name of mine]" so many times, I guess she figures that's the polite way to say NO, THANKS!

I have more updates to write (more Hawaii, Sam's ballet recital, etc.) Will have to promise to be back sooner, I guess!! Bye for now.

Before I move on....

I have PROMISED myself that I would include Spencer's birthday on this blog! I know, it's three months old now, but still... our darling boy is TWO, and this MUST be blogumented!

So, here are fun pictures of his birthday -- and some others from this spring as well, followed by a few things I like about my two-year-old Spencer Boy.

We had another combined party for Spencer and his cousin, Seth, who turned 5. And, we had another pinata, which was a hit -- AGAIN!! Even Spencer loved bashing at it, once he caught on to what they were doing.

The spoils...

Look at that studious face, as he opened his first present...

Surrounded by his loot... train, bowling set, pajamas, cars and trucks, candy ring pops, and peeps. Lucky boy!

I love this picture of both grandpas, blowing their party horns! Ha!!

The cute boy, smiling for the camera -- something he rarely does...

Here (below) he's looking up at a ball vacuum, in the SLC children's museum. He LOVES balls, and he LOOOOOVED that ball vacuum. We moved on several times, only to find Spencer had made his way back to the balls. I just thought it was a cute pic...

And now, some bits I like to remember about our boy:

• Spencer is my favorite cuddle bug. He loves to climb on my lap and sit with me, reading a book or just being still together -- as long as he has his blanket and finger to suck.
• He loves trucks, trains, buses -- and sometimes cars, too. When we go anywhere, we get a running commentary from Spencer about the trucks and buses that pass us: "Yellow bus!" "White truck!" "Blue truck!" "BIG BIG truck (semi)" ... we love it.
• He also loves to jump and dance. He's learned some great moves from Samantha's ballet practices (she tends to "practice" several times a day). He even has his own version of an "arabesque" -- where he goes leaping across the room at full speed yelling "Ahh-Besk!!" (arabesque).
• When we're eating dinner, Spencer LOVES salad, mainly for the salad dressing. Every time we start to pour the dressing, as it pours out he excitedly says, "there it goes!" (sounds more like air-go). We love to hear him say it, so he gets lots of dressing. ha!
• He's not quite so musical as Samantha has been, but Spencer does know and love one song -- Do You Know the Muffin Man? He spontaneously sings "muffin man, muffin man, muffin man" all day long, especially when we're in the grocery store, for some reason? He first sings it in a little innocent voice, then he squints his eyes in a silly face and starts singing again, in a very loud, growly voice -- "MUFFIN MAN!!" It's really quirky and quite comical. Maybe one of these days, I'll bring my camera to the store and see if I can get a video? :)
• Spencer is now in his own "big boy bed" -- Sam's old toddler bed. He's so happy about it, and calls it his "nice bed." When he's done napping, he now lets us know he's up by going to the door (which he still can't open), and laying next to the springy door stop, "dooiiinngging it" loudly, until someone comes to open the door for him. He thinks this is a very clever move -- it works, but only when he's been sleeping for awhile, which he likes to test from time to time.
• Speaking of naps and sleep, he's still our AMAZING sleeper -- averaging 15 hours a day. I know, that's a LOT of sleep. But he really seems to function best with 12 hrs at night and a 3 hour nap in the afternoon. I encourage this behavior, of course!
• Spencer loves to be tickled, and will raise up his shirt to show us his huge belly and ask politely, "tickle??" He also loves to have Daddy "eat toes." He raises up his feet, one at a time, for Brian to pretend he's eating Spencer's toes.
• Spencer politely says, "Bless you, Mama," every time I sneeze. (And since I have this weird 'pregnancy sneeze' -- three in a row at least three times a day -- he gets to say it quite often.) He also blesses Sammie, when she sneezes or coughs. And she gets irritated if it was just a cough because "you're not supposed to bless people for coughing, just sneezing!!" she tells him. Also, when he sneezes, he politely blesses himself with, "Bless you, Boy!"
• He is our fridge and pantry bandit. If the pantry is left open, he will rummage through to find any kind of snack he can sneak before we catch him. He can't open the fridge, but if it's open, he'll sit himself down in the door so we can't close it. Then he'll start looking for things he can ask for -- "cottage cheese?" "juice?" "yogurt?" ... etc.
• At bed time, Spencer eagerly awaits his "kisses" from Daddy, Mama, and Sammie. He leans his head in toward whoever's turn it is to kiss him on the cheek. But he's yet to learn that he can also give kisses. Oh well.

I'm sure I have more I would like to write about Spencer. He is such a sweet little boy, most of the time. He can melt on the floor in a real fit, just like any two-year-old. But usually he's just a pleasant, easy boy, and we love watching him grow.

Just a sneak peek...

Having such a lovely time, just thought I'd put up a few picts of our trip...

Yep, we're LOVING our little Hawaiian vacation (and I just backspaced 5-6 times, trying to figure out how to spell Hawaiian.) We have spotty internet access, so it's been especially nice to have a bit of a technology break as well. Just thought I'd check in and add a few pics, since it's been soooo long since I've blogged.

In the meantime, we've been missing our baby-kids sooo much! How is it that we were soooo ready for a break, and now we just keep talking about how cute and sweet and wonderful they are? Here are a few of the pics that were left on our camera...

Aren't they cute?! Will have to write more later. Too much fun!!

Still not blogging

I keep meaning to write, but then I don't. Sorry. The worst is that I have started posting about Spencer's birthday probably five times now. FIVE. I have lots of pictures, fun things to say, a little bit about "why we love our two-year-old," etc. Well, that has been the "next post" on my list since.... February?!??

So, I just got stuck and no blogging happens. I have to remind myself that the point of my blog (and the rest of you may have other points to your blogs, of course) is just to send a shout and and let people know what's going on with our little life here. I'm not out to capture every waking detail of life in the Bishop household. I'm not trying to keep a journal here (believe it or not, I actually DO have one of those, and have already recorded Spencer's birthday in there, pat-on-my-back.) I just like the feeling of "staying connected" with people, sharing some interesting tidbits, ya know?

Well, so, no apologies about no pictures (again). This time I'm just throwing out some of those "tidbits" that y'all may or may not find interesting...

-- Spencer DID have a birthday and IS such a sweet two-year-old boy! He's big, big, big... 97th percentile on the height chart. And a big head, too, like his daddy, hee hee. He has the sweetest little voice, the biggest blue eyes, and the loooongggest lashes ever. (I put mascara on him one day when I caught him rifling through my make-up bag. Whoah!! If he were a girl...)

-- Samantha has been learning about dinosaurs and planets at school lately. She's also become addicted to her afternoon "movie time" while Mom and Spence nap. I'm sad about that, because she used to be our girl who really didn't care whether the tv was off or on. But just last week, I was watching her color and I said something about how nicely she colors. Her response: "Yeah, but coloring is not my favorite thing. My VERY favorite thing is watching tv." Ahh... it was inevitable, wasn't it? It's like when a kid learns the name of McDonald's. sigh.

-- I planted fake flowers in the pots in front of our house. hee hee. And they look GREAT!!! I just kept wishing and waiting for the moment when I was going to feel good enough to plant all those bulbs, and buy some packs of pansies, etc. Then, I was at Joann's Fabric, and I saw these darling little pink heatherish looking plants, 40% off. Well, for my $10 and three minutes that it took to arrange them in the dirt in the pots, we now have adorable silk heather in our front flower pots... and I'm even getting compliments on them, people asking what kind they are, and so on. Best part is, I don't have to remember to water them (which, my house plants could tell you, is a GOOD thing.)

-- I tried spray painting a little night table for Samantha's room. And failed. You've probably all seen someone's blog or someone's creativity in their own home... people who take a perfect DI piece of furniture, put some spray paint on it and -- Voila! a new adorable creation takes shape, with that cute shabby chic look. Well, that's what I was envisioning. But I first held the can too close. Then it dripped everywhere so I took a paper towel and tried to wipe it off. So then it got paper towel bits in it. And... you get the picture? I guess those people with cool blogs about their remakes need post instructions for those of us less talented who want to give it a try! I'll sand it down and see if I can salvage it, for the $8 I paid at the thrift store, it's worth at least one more try, no??

-- My sis-in-law mopped my kitchen floor for me!! Anyone who has read more than a few posts recently knows how big a job it is for me to mop that floor, especially with the pukiness going on, eh? Well, my very sweet Dalana sensed my need and came to my rescue on a nauseating morning. And it looked soooo gorgeous and felt soooo good and clean under my feet. Sending a shout out to her for a VERY much appreciated gesture of kindness.

-- I cooked a ham for Easter. And it really was just delicious. We had everyone over from the Bishop side around here. Everyone brought yummy eats to share for our meal, and we had quite the feast! I mention the ham, because I think it's only the second ham I've ever cooked. Just not a ham cooker, I guess? But I was very proud of myself that it didn't get too dry or something.

-- We got a big-girl bed for Samantha, and moved Spencer into his own big-boy toddler bed. I'm ashamed to say, Sam was still in a tiny little toddler bed, up until last week. I know, I know! I was wondering why we didn't just get a twin from the beginning. Well, she survived, and is now sleeping happily in her new twin bed (pics coming in some future post, I hope). And the best part is how excited Spencer is to inherit the toddler bed! We thought we might have trouble getting him to stay in, but no way! He LOVES his new bed, naps in it just fine, and is very excited to go to sleep in it each night. Good thing, too, because he fell out of his crib twice last week, and ended up with a nose bleed... guess it was time for the change, huh?

-- Samantha started a little ballet class. She's been begging for months, and I told her we'd do it after Christmas (she had to be at least 4 for this one). Then, I got pregnant, and couldn't face the idea of taking her each week (I know, I'm pathetic during those first months. Pathetic!) So, we waited till I started turning my corner. And now... she is in HEAVEN!! She practices her leaps and arabesques all day long. It's adorable. She even has a little recital coming up in May, with a costume and everything. This should be good entertainment!

-- Brian is... keeping busy. At this exact moment, he's at Wal-mart, picking out a present for his dad's birthday tomorrow. We're all having a big birthday dinner at his parents' house tomorrow, so a gift would be in order, eh? How's that for a "tidbit" you didn't know?

I'm signing out for tonight. Goodnight, blogging world. I hope I'll have more good stuff next time around. And more pics!