With All This Loveliness . . . the House and Two Step

Do we really have to go home in just a few days? I could stay here forever . . .

. . . and watch the sunset

. . . and hang out with my family

. . . and catch geckos (oh wait, that wasn't me)

The sunsets from up on the hill overlooking the ocean are spectacular.

Do we really have to go home?

I could stay here forever.

Place of Refuge (Two-Step)

This is a fun beach for us.

The tide pools are shallow and warm for the babies.

There are plenty of salt water saturated lava rocks to chew on.

It's not just babies who like the tide pools - I'm not sure about the salty rocks, though.

Jumping in from the two steps is easy and fun.

The snorkeling is awesome. What a great variety of beautiful sea life! One friendly diver even wrote "ALOHA" on the bottom of the ocean with cinder blocks.

Getting out on the steps is almost as easy as getting in.

All the family is having fun together - hardly any fighting. Of course, it helps that I told my kids if they fight with each other, they will only be allowed to play with each other (no cousins).

When Sam got here, he got right to work.

He's working on his plumber skills.

Smiling for the camera looks so painful. Cheese.

The pool is huge, 3 or 4 times the length of a normal pool - it has no deep end, but it's deep enough to swim in and still touch bottom the whole way across.

The yard is full of all sorts of flowers and fruit trees.

like coconuts

and avocados and mangos

and lots of giant hibiscus

Yep, I'd be happy to stay here forever.

California Trip Part 2

Our trip to California was a little different than usual. The main purpose was to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. But, of course, we also had a great time visiting with cousins. What made it so different was that the cousins were all still in school the whole time we were there. That actually made it really fun for me. The kids got to see all their cousins after school, but then I got to have them with me part of the time, too. Usually, I hardly get to see my own kids when we're there because I don't want to pull them away from their cousins who they don't get to see very often.

Leah and Michael

Playing in the park

Swinging

and swinging - Leah couldn't get enough.

climbing

digging

all aboard

playing on the train

Leah and Will hanging with Scott

So much fun is exhausting, especially if you're also working hard as a handyman.

And this trip got us even more excited for our next trip . . . to Hawaii. We're there now - pictures soon.

California Trip Part 1 (Martha's Birthday)

Before I start my post, I just want to issue a formal apology to Holly for letting over a month lapse since my last post. I will try to do better for you.

We just got home from a fun trip to California. Our main reason for going was to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. It's always hard to think of a gift for my mom that she will really love. This year, though, we had such a killer gift for her that I absolutely had to be there when we gave it to her.

We almost surprised her by showing up at her door unannounced but decided a couple of days before we left that it would be a bit much to drop a family of 8 on her without any warning. We got there on Saturday and started a week long celebration with barbecues, pool parties, lunches, dinners and lots of family. With so many people's schedules to take into account, sometimes you have to have several parties so that everyone can be included. It was awesome!

Amy comes up with the best gifts. She is my hero.

Zach, Timmy and Lily's 60 favorite things about Nana for her 60th birthday

The best day was the family dinner the Friday night after her birthday. Rich and Becky did surprise her by flying in that afternoon and showing up at the restaurant.

It's so fun to make Martha cry.

This was also the night we gave her her big group gift.

It's so exciting - what could it be? Something out of this world from Anthropologie maybe?

She knows it's something good. She just doesn't know how good . . .

. . . and that it's been in the works for over 2 years.

Uh-oh. Here come the waterworks.

Steaming up

Better lose the glasses

You started working on this when!?!

Yep, over 2 years ago with Amy as the whip hand.

Thank you so much Amy - it never would have happened without you.

Yes, I know it's blurry, but it's the only picture I have that shows most of the group.

Two years in the planning and executing, with a final scramble in the last couple months to get it done, and Martha has a quilt made by all her daughters and embroidered with the whole family's signatures. It was an awesome birthday week!