Aloha

When my dad asked me to plan a family trip I jumped all over it!

We had the BEST time on vacation in Hawaii!! Not only did the girls talk about it for months in advance, but they're still talking about it! Hawaii was for sure kid paradise! We all lived in our swimming suits, swam in the morning and night, ate snowcones, and overall enjoyed the beautiful weather, food, and views! We stayed at a Marriot timeshare on Oahu in Ko Olina and we all loved the resort and location! All of us agreed that we'd go back and stay there in a heartbeat!

The view from the condo

Paityn, LottieMay, Abby & Presley

Feeding the fish early in the morning

Dole Plantation
(especially loved the Dole Whip and fresh pineapple)

Laie Temple
(the whole crew)

Waimea Falls
I loved this hike! It was really easy and totally breathtaking! 

The house we lived in for a few months. We had to drive by to show everyone.

Pearl Harbor

Family shot on the ferry

My personal favorite was either laying by the pool or playing on the beach! Which of course was the girl's favorite thing too!

Little Mermaids

Thanks mom and dad for such a fun trip! We will never forget it!

{Concrete Jungle}

No, I haven't disowned our blog. Yes, I have severely neglected it! If it was my child, the CPS would have taken it away from me! I really do miss taking note of the little things that fill our life. You know it's been awhile blogging when even your husband mentions how long it's been! (and is wishing I'd blog more)

We took a somewhat spontaneous trip at the beginning of this month! I'm starting to realize that we are a little unplanned and more spontaneous! (which could be bad and good) We are celebrating our 9 year anniversary this month and wanted to go somewhere fun! Kim, Danny, and Nancy came along too which made it that much more fun!

We had a few things we wanted to do and then planned the rest along the way! There are a few highlights. First Broadways. You can't go to New York without going to at least one broadway! We first went to Wicked. We have both seen it before, but I swear it gets better every time!! The music is INCREDIBLE!

The next broadway we saw was How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. We didn't know what to expect, but to our surprise, we had front row center seats!! And on top of that, Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter) and John Larroquette were the main actors! I literally could have reached up and touched Harry's leg! (and I wanted to, he was SO cute!) They were both great musicals to see!

Walking over the Brooklyn Bridge was breathtaking! You got a perfect view of the city! At the end of the Brooklyn Bridge, we ate at a yummy pizza restaurant called Grimaldi's! The pizza was fresh, thin, and delicious!

Another highlight for me was going to the Nate Berkus show! It was so fun being the an audience and seeing how a show is run! During segments while they were setting up, they had different audience competitions! As soon as I heard there was a dance competition, I was pretty sure who would end up in it.....DEVIN!! And I was pretty sure if he was in it, he would.....dance like crazy and have everyone laughing. Well, both happened and I have never laughed so hard! (and turned so red!) We had so much fun! In fact, the show will air tomorrow at 3 pm and we can't wait to watch it!

Overall, we tried to see everything and anything! We went to Canal St., browsed in Soho, road the subway, walked a million miles, stopped for hot dogs (devin), stopped for roasted cashews (jen), looked through a lot of great stores (thanks to my friend Jill for some great suggestions), road in a taxi car that was like a bat out of hell, and the list goes on. It was a great trip, with super fun people, and lots of good memories!

You can't help but sing Alicia Key's song New York as you walk throughout the city! (now it's probably in your head too!)

Where's Waldo?

loved walking past this screen! It shows you up on a giant billboard screen.

See us on the left middle...Devin has a mustard sweater on...

Goodbye New York! Goodbye busy city! Hello, quiet little Springville!

5 mile run

I decided to join the family and sign up for the Moab 5 mile race.

*Thank the lucky heavens I decided against the 1/2 marathon! *

My sister Abby and 5 of my cousins ran the 1/2 marathon, and my sister, brother and 3 other cousins ran the 5 mile race. I have never been to Moab before, but I LOVED the race! Running through the canyon was breathtaking! I was so busy looking around and taking in the fresh air, that I almost forgot we were running a race. Until I couldn't breath, then I was reminded. What a fun race! I hope to do the 1/2 marathon one of these years!

{Here are the 'lovely' photos taken throughout the race, no makeup = scary!}

...Erin and I running through the canyon...

Here's the cheer section

Here's our group of runners! (surrounded by a million paper water cups)

Meg, Jamie, Abby, Nicole, Chad, me, Steph

Erin, Tyler, Whit, Kramer, Shawn

My family all stayed in a nice condo together.

Here's my dad teasing the girls.

He put a pillow and a blanket in the tub and then brought them in to show them where they'd be sleeping. :) Paityn was all over it, Presley on the other hand was bugged!

After the race, we checked out Moab Main Street.

I'll see you next year Moab! Hopefully ready to kick some 1/2 marathon butt!

Spontaneity

2 weeks ago we went to Disneyland on a total whim!

{A little background info: we told the girl's for Christmas that we would go to Disneyland. In fact, we really planned on going in December. BUT, every time we looked at the calendar there was always something going on! Even when we would look ahead on the calendar, we always ran into a problem. I thought we were never going to make it there and I had postponed even thinking about it any time soon!}

Now here comes the spontaneity.

So after we got home from church, Devin said "why don't we go to Disneyland today?" (as in 2 hours)

It sounded C.R.A.Z.Y. We had absolutely nothing packed, planned, no tickets, hotel...nada, but we decided that if we didn't just GO, we'd never make it there! Less than 2 hours later, we were packed and out the door!

We bought tickets, reserved a hotel (and called our friends to tell them we were coming to stay with them in Vegas), filled up the car with gas and hit the road!

No exaggerating: Beautiful weather. Short lines. Great drive. Happy kids. Forever memories.

BEST TRIP!

To be honest, I don't think we could have planned it any better! It was kind of a meant-to-be trip!

{The traditional family picture}

Cruella Deville was SO funny! (or really so rude)

She played her part perfectly. Even Devin was intimidated by her!

This is how a 'real princess' travels around Disneyland

Maybe a little spontaneity in life is a good thing!!

(Thanks Brady & Jen for letting us crash your beautiful place!)