HAWAII

One of the things on my bucket list is to get to all 50 states. I've actually done pretty well and I have been to 26 states in my first 26 years. One of the states I thought I would have the hardest time getting to was Hawaii because it is so expensive and so far away, but this year we found our opportunity! Two of our very close friends JK and Jackie are stationed in Hawaii with the navy and so is Noah's cousin Andy. They gave us a place to stay so we figured if we were ever going to go, this was our chance. We bought our tickets in October and on February 17th I landed in my 27th state.

The flights were really long and I am not a fan of flying anymore but it was worth it. We landed on Thursday morning in warm temperatures right as the sun was starting to come up. Jackie met us in the airport with leis and our vacation began.

We went home and showered and put our stuff away while we waited for JK to get off work. He worked a half day and then took the rest of our trip off so it was great. The first day we got in the car and did a lot of sight-seeing. We stopped at several pull-off spots to take pictures. We saw Rabbit Island, the Blow Hole, and the China Wall. Then we went to the Kona Brewery for lunch. Noah actually tried their beer, but he wasn't a fan! After lunch we stopped by the NEX for some essentials* and then we went to Kailua. We got shaved ice (which I wish I could have shipped here) from Island Snow and went to Lanikai Beach which was the prettiest beach we saw all week! We went home and cooked out for dinner since me and Noah both felt like we couldn't stay awake any longer!

JK and Noah at a lookout spot

The Blow Hole

China Wall

Lanikai Beach

Friday morning Noah and JK got up super early to go hike the Stairway to Heaven. It is 4000 steep narrow steps up to the top of a mountain so me and Jackie decided to stay home (although she has done it before). The stairway happens to be a little less than legal so you have to go early before the guard gets there. About an hour later they were back home, because they didn't beat the guard. They were mad but made plans to try again another day! We all got ready and headed to Boots and Kimos for breakfast. They serve fried rice with pancakes! Then we went to spend the day at Hanauma Bay. This was my favorite outing of the whole trip. Hanauma Bay is famous for the snorkeling so out we went. It was our first time but we caught on quickly and even though the current was especially strong we swam out past the rocks so we could see more fish and sea turtles. It was so beautiful and I could have spent everyday there.

Hunauma Bay

Let's Go Snorkeling!

Me and Jackie

Friday night we went out to Waikiki. We had dinner at Senor Frogs and then parted ways with the boys for some girl time. We did some shopping (at the Coach store) and then hung out at the bar at Hard Rock and sat on the beach.

We asked the waiter to take a picture of us...

Very large drinks!

And balloon hats!

Andy

Goldilocks

 Saturday we all went for a hike up to Manunawili Falls. It was quite a hike and very muddy. We climbed over trees and rocks until we found the beautiful waterfall. Noah went swimming and jumped off the cliff, but I didn't have my bathing suit so I just got in up to my knees. I didn't want to hike back 2-3 miles in wet shorts! The sole of my shoe started breaking off on the way back and I was really worried it would fall off in the mud. It made it off the mountain and fell off right when we saw the car! Good thing we weren't planning any more hikes for this trip :) 

Saturday night we went to the Luau at Paradise Cove. I thought it was just dinner while you watched the show but they had all kinds of things to do. We had a great time and they took a great picture of all four of us that I will have to scan sometime soon.

The Happy (Soon-to-be) Newlyweds!

Me and Jackie (kind of) doing the hula on stage!

We were closer to Tokyo than to home!

The USS Arizona Memorial

Part of the USS Arizona

Oil still leaking

Retail therapy helps when we're sad so we headed for some lunch and shopping at the swap meet! We bought tons of gifts and souveniors. We got lots of little sun dresses and shirts for the kids. They are going to be so cute this summer :) Andy meet us at the swap meet and then we went to everyone's favorite restaurant - Haleiwa Joes for dinner. Their food was excellent and we had a great time!

Monday morning the boys got up even earlier and tried again. They got right to the bottom of the stairs when the guard pulled up so Noah never got to do the hike. That was the only thing on our list that didn't get done. We headed to the other side of the island and went to the Dole Plantation. It was pretty cool seeing how pineapples grow and they have amazing pineapple sherbert. 

 

Fresh pineapple sherbert, yum!

 

After that we headed down the North Shore and made a bunch of stops. We did some shopping and had lunch in Haleiwa town and then walked on the beach where the filmed Lost. We saw tons of sea turtles in the water but it was too rough for them to come over the rocks onto the sand. Then we saw Sharks Beach, Waimea Bay and Sunset Beach/Pipeline. We sat out and watched the surfers for a while and then headed home.

 

Andy, Noah and JK on "Lost Beach"

Sharks Cove

Tuesday was time to head home so we headed to the airport but made a stop for a plate lunch and one last shaved ice on the way! We were really sad to leave but we couldn't wait to get home to see the kids. We had an amazing time and we would love to go back one day, but there are so many other places we want to see. Maybe one day...

JK and Jackie - Thank you for everything! You are both amazing and we love you so much! We're both honored to be a part of your wedding and we can't wait until you move back here so we can spend lots of time together again!!!

Our Crazy Busy Life

I know I keep saying I am going to blog more, but life gets in the way. When I say life, I mean this crazy busy running around thing that we do everyday! My life is insane and finding time to sit down and blog (with pictures) is a difficult task.

On February 2nd me and Noah took 15 of my students to Orlando for the Sports and Entertainment Conference. This trip is actually a lot of fun. We stay at a Disney resort, spend two days at Universal and one day at Disney. We have some pretty great speakers, we learn a lot, and we have a lot of fun. We were both excited to go this year, but it's a hard place to go without the kids because everywhere I look I am reminded of how much I miss them! My students thought it would be funny to tell every waiter that it was my birthday. I hate when they sing happy birthday to you in restaurants. I don't even like to be at the same table as someone on their birthday so this completely sucked for me. To make matters worse they did it a Margaritaville. There was a live singer and he called me up on stage and made me do some stupid Jimmy Buffet song with him. I hated it, but I was a good sport and my kids LOVED it! I checked all their cameras and phones for blackmail pictures before we left :) However, this year's trip was not without its difficulties. I managed to get the flu from one of my students (her mom taught her how to share). It started on Thursday and into Friday. By Saturday I literally could not move. I had a ridiculous fever and slept all day. Luckily my students were really good and Noah took them to Magic Kingdom with another school so I was able to sleep off the fever. I still feel like crap a week later but I'm alive so I'll be fine. I also managed to leave my phone in a locker at Universal. We went back but of course someone took it and decided they would not turn it in. Note to self - finders keepers is not a very nice motto! I just got a new phone two days ago and being without email, facebook and text messaging was brutal. We are WAY too addicted to our phones these days!

Tonight I have to go to Downtown Norfolk for a series director meeting for DECA. It's overnight and doesn't end until after dinner tomorrow. We spend the weekend preparing for our state DECA conference. Now before you feel too bad for me having to work all weekend I should tell you that I applied for this position. I really love being more involved in DECA stuff so I asked and I received. I'd be really excited for this if I didn't feel like crap right now...but I'll survive and hopefully I'll at least get a good night's sleep at the hotel (aka - no kids waking me up in the middle of the night with their colds).

All of the sickness and crappy feelings must disappear by Wednesday though because we are going to Hawaii!!!! We leave Wednesday night and we are getting super excited. We are there until the 22nd and then we come home for a weekend. I am throwing a baby shower that weekend and then the next week I am back in Norfolk for 5 days of state competition fun! Like I said, welcome to our crazy busy life!!!

Quick Updates

We've been busy but I haven't had a lot to update about so I thought I'd share a few things today!

Last Friday was our DECA District Competition at work. I took the most students and had the most winners by more than twice the second place school! It was our best year yet and I am so proud of my students. Somewhere around 27 of them will be heading to State Competition with us in March and I am very excited!!

After the competition Noah and I headed up to D.C. for the weekend. I booked a hotel room and bought him tickets to a Capitals game for Christmas. We had a really nice time. We got to see Humaira on the way up and back, the hotel had an amazing complimentary breakfast everyday, we saw a movie and went to the game. It was nice to have some time for just the two of us.

Tanner is a very big boy now - no more binky! One night we just didn't give it to him. He had been doing really well before he got sick, but while he was sick he had the binky all the time. It was getting ridiculous so we just took them all away. He hasn't asked for it or had any problems at all! It's amazing that it was so easy to take it away from both of them. I'm wondering if it is the parents who have problems taking these kind of things away instead of the kids...who knows I'm just glad to be over them!

We've been so busy that we have to sleep whenever we can!

Izabel started the New Year off with a great week of school - only one time out all week! She kind of ruined that this week, but good days come with bad days so it's ok. She moved to a Wednesday night gymnastics class and there was some overlap so she's been going twice a week for a little while and she loves it! The teacher who does the before school care also teaches the four year old class. I was talking to her about registration for next year and she actually requested Izabel for her class - so Izabel must not be that bad :)

Mom seems to be doing well taking care of them all week. I know she was happy this week to have Wednesday off (Noah was home) and now have a three day weekend, but she's very happy to be with the kids again and we are happy to have her!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Happy New Year

So it is now day 5 of 2011 and we're back into real life with our crazy busy schedules and hectic lives. I've only been back at work for 3 days and I already feel like I need a vacation because of how busy things are, but truth be told I love it when it's busy and I bring a lot of the extra work on myself! The extra things are the parts of my job that I love the most and the reason I keep teaching! I'm going to keep telling myself this over the next month and half as I move into what I like to call "DECA season!" DECA is the club I sponsor at my school and we're now the biggest club at Kecoughtan. We have two state officers this year, a national officer candidate, two state officer candidates, tons of students participating in competitive events and a school store to run. None of those things are requirements of my job, but they are the parts I like best so I do them anyway and complain when they stress me out :)

Noah's classes have started up again so he is at school on Monday nights and Izabel has gymnastics on Wednesday nights. Tuesday and Thursday nights I get home late and of course the weekends are always booked solid. I start my classes in another week so as you can see....busy just isn't the word.

But even though our lives are crazy, January seems to be the time that I handle the stress the best. I always make resolutions and I can manage to stick with them through January at least :) This year I will renew my resolution to have an empty sink every night before I go to bed. I made this one a couple years ago and have stuck to it almost completely since then. Now I can't imagine leaving dishes in the sink over night! I also gave up soda again. I've done this a few times unsuccessfully (as you can probably see in a post from this time last year) but I thought I'd try it again. I drink more water when I'm not drinking soda so it's good for me and I feel better.

Our biggest resolution is one Noah and I made together. We want to be more patient and interactive with the kids. It's hard to admit but in the afternoons/evenings when we get home after a long day at work we just want to chill out on the couch. Of course the kids want our attention and they are hungry and tired so everyone is cranky. We lose our patience much easier than we would like. Our goal is not to yell and to use time-out when necessary, but to get down and play with the kids more or let them help do whatever we are doing (i.e. making dinner or folding laundry) in order to avoid the unacceptable behavior. So far we've been doing well for the one night we were all home :) We all took down the Christmas decorations together. Our biggest challenge is bedtime when Izabel stalls for an hour and we are exhausted, but we're trying and in time I know evenings will be smoother and we'll all be happier!

So here's to New Year's Resolutions that we keep and those that we try to keep! Do you make resolutions??? Leave a comment and share them. I think putting them in writing and sharing with others will help keep us all more accountable! I'll keep you updated on how ours is going:)
Happy New Year!