Monday, November 29, 2010

GO Shutterfly...

Okay, so here we go again...the choice between which holiday card to choose has arrived!!! Luckily shutterfly has made it easy for me this year. Not only are they offering this amazing deal for bloggers, but they have the best selection. Believe me, I have looked. Shutterfly gets a WIN this year in my book. So here are my choices...

Traditional



OR

Modern



And I think I am going to have to design my own calendar for Christmas. All you have to do is upload your photos and they'll do the rest! Great gift idea right? I am thinking the hub might like this in his office at work. My sister-in-law makes one for Grandma and Grandpa every year. We always look forward to what pictures she has used for the annual calendar.



If you are a blogger check Shutterfly out for your great deal! And for the rest of you non-bloggers check Shutterfly out for all your holiday needs. And if you don't get around to that holiday card this year make sure to check them out throughout the year. Who says you can't send out a Valentine's card. We had some friends do that in the past and I loved that idea.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

For Our 8 Year Anniversary...

In July, we celebrated by going downtown to Papa Haydn's for some dessert. It sounds pretty anti-climatic, but for us it wasn't, knowing that a few months later we were going to go to Kauai! Anyone who knows Justin is shocked and amazed that we even went. Some might call him cheap, others call him tight. I'll be nice and sum it up to one simple word..SAVER. So when the Broadbents had put the invite on the table, back in May, Austen, Val and I were shocked to hear the words "Yes", utter from his mouth.

We had been putting a few bucks away each month since he started his residency, so we were saving for a rainy day. We just didn't expect to ever treat ourselves to a trip to Kauai. But we are so glad we did. Kauai was honestly the best trip we have ever taken.

This was us the night of our anniversary...exciting I know. Everybody loves dessert.


And here we are, three months later, eating in Paradise. Actually the Kalypso, but you get the idea.


The second day we were there we took a short hike down to Queen's Bath up in Princeville.


Val and Austen are getting their snorkel on!



The third day we took a guided kayak tour up the Wailua River and hiked up to Secret Falls. Kauai was having unusually dry weather, so the falls weren't running at their fullest, but water was still trickling down. It was so pretty.





The Fourth day we drove down to the south side of the island to Poipu Beach. This beach was definitely your typical tropical beach. Lots of people were there for that reason. The snorkling was awesome.




After spending a few hours at Poipu, went went to play at Kipu Falls. This was the trail we walked to get there. Kauai is seriously a jungle! And out of no where appeared these Falls with a huge pool below. We had tons of fun jumping off the waterfall and Austen was the brave one who tried out the rope swing.







We all thought we had de-salted ourselves at Kipu Falls, but as you can see Justin was saving a few salt crystals in his stache...


Furthur down the south side of the island is Spouting Horn. The tide comes into the rockside and blows right through it making the sound of a horn, and when the tide is really high the water blasts through the spout, kind of like Old Faithful, but much more frequent.


At the end of the day we attempted to head to Barking Sands, but ended up at McArthur Beach for a gorgeous sunset. You can see the Islands off this coast where tourists aren't allowed to visit. That night we stopped by Mark's Place, for a little authentic Chicken Katsu and other Hawaiian goodies. A man who works there talked to us for awhile about those islands and about how the islanders that live on them basically live off the land...no electricity, hot water, etc. I of course pictured the girls in coconuts and the all of them, men and women, in grass skirts. I know...probably not, but don't ruin it for me.




The next morning Tyson and Jayne flew in from Honolulu to hang with us for the weekend. We went and hiked a little bit of the Napoli Coast on the northern part of the island. It was gorgeous!



A little body surfing...



The next day we took a boat tour up the West side of the island to see the rest of the Napoli coast that we didn't see from our hike. Part of the tour was stopping and letting us out to snorkel for a bit. The fish are all so different and even vary from the different parts of the island. They also slowed down to let us watch the patches of spinner dolphins that swam and performed by our boat. Amazing! The Naopli's are really majestic.







The fifth day we headed to Anini Beach on the north side of the island. A little rockier but crazy how far out you could go snorkling before the waves broke. The reef was huge.


We attempted to see the Lighthouse, but didn't make it before it closed. At least we got to see it from a distance while we were at Anini Beach. But, yet again, another great sunset, this time going down behind the Napoli coast line.


The last day we hung out at Hanalai Bay. Our favorite beach by far! Tons of surfers, tons of locals, and great waves for body surfing. A couple days prior, the beach was closed because of how big the waves were from the swells, but the day we went, it was perfect! The little town of Hanalai was also our favorite hangout. We ate there the most...Bubba's Burger, Tropical Taco, Kalypso, etc.



Before we dropped Val and Austen off at the airport we stopped by a local's house to get some flower leis. The lady's husband picked these flowers from his yard and gave them to us to put behind our ears.


This was a lookout not too far from our villa in Princeville. Usually you can see tons of waterfalls falling off the mountainside, but like I said, they had not had that much rain, so they weren't running. The amount of green was still so beautiful.


Kauai was amazing. I would go back in a heartbeat! We are so thankful Val and Austen thought to invite us. I bet they didn't think we would say yes when they asked, but hopefully they enjoyed having us there as much as we liked having the company of them. This goes down as the best vacation to date! I am so thankful my parents were willing to watch the kids for us. I think that allowed us to relax and enjoy ourselves that much more, just because we knew the kids were being taken care of. We brought home some gifts of course, one of which was a Hula Girl outfit and for Zach a Ukulele.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Uncle Brandon...

Uncle Brandon came for a visit back in October over Halloween weekend. He came up to get some dental work done, so it wasn't exactly a vacation. But we did manage to take a little side trip to Cannon Beach. It was so windy, but still beautiful, even though there wasn't an ounce of blue sky. At least it wasn't raining. The kids had a great time wrestling with him, and I liked the free entertainment he brought...thanks uncle Brandon. Hopefully the next time he comes for a visit it won't be all dental related.



Kate wasn't really having it in the windy conditions.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Paige's Baby Shower...

Last night was Paige's baby shower. So, it being her first baby, I thought it would be nice to make her a quilt. When my mom and I were up visiting Marnae this summer we ran over to the Stitching Post, our favorite frabic store in Sisters, OR. My mom and I spotted this line and I knew it would be perfect for Paige.

The last quilt I made came from a kit, all nicely pre-cut, so this was a bit harder trying to figure out just how much fabric I would need. The poor lady at the Stiiching Post probably thought, with all the questions about measuring I had for her, that I was in over my head. And I very well could have been, because If I needed more I would have to travel 3 hours to get more. Luckily after cutting it all out I had just enough. After sewing it all up I sent it off to have it quilted by my wonderful friend Cami. She lives in Utah and her mother-in-law has a long arm. She did an amazing job! I love the way it turned out...so much I wanted to keep it for myself. I think this is going to be an ongoing problem if I keep making these.

My mom and I also made our first Diaper Cake. These are so much fun! You definitely need two sets of hands. I made the little owl topper with my Stampin'Up stuff. Click HERE to look at all the other stuff I have been making.

A lot of good friends came in support for Paige, and I think she is ready to pop this little guy out. We are excited to meet him and maybe a little more excited just to see how Paige parents' this little guy. She has lots of ideals as most new moms do, so we all are wondering how long it will take before she throws them out the door and just does what works.




Wednesday, November 3, 2010

The Rugrats...

That is the name of Zach's Soccer Team. Now that it is all over and done with, I am finally getting around to the pictures..which are sadly not many. Well, I guess I have more but they didn't make the cut for the ol' blog. Anyways, he loved soccer yet again, did you have any doubts? Instead of one game a week though he got to play two. At every single game with the exception of one, Zach scored a goal. Can I get a Whoot Whoot? Thank you 3 on 3 for giving my kid so many opportunities to score a goal, and feel such accomplishments on the field. I have to give a lot of credit to his coach. He was so patient and extremely positive with all the kids, seriously he was so great! Zach really improved a lot. He is way more aggressive than he ever was before and instead of running around the kids to get the ball, he runs staight through them. We can't forget the best part...the trophy! Zach received his first out of all his teammates, which he claims is because the coaches thought he was the most valuable player for scoring all the goals in their last game. SO humble right? I wasn't there to witness because we were in Kuaui, but I like to believe what I hear. He made some great friends, Noah and Adam. These three on the field together were quite the threesome. They are first graders, so the chance that Zach might play with these kids again won't be until high shool. Sad huh? That is unless we all sign up for the same club soccer...which could happen.