Hawaii..Wiamea Valley

We made a last minute decision to go to Hawaii to visit a friend who recently moved there.  Best Decision Ever!  We were there many years ago, when I was 7 months pregnant with Derek for 4 days.  This time we spent 2 weeks.  It was glorious.  I am not sure that I have been to a place as beautiful as Hawaii, and to experience it with you family and wonderful friends, makes it even better.  In our 2 weeks there we swam in bays, rivers, lagoons and big wave beaches, a favorite of the kids.  They were all unique in their own ways. I can't even figure out what swimming experience was most awesome and beautiful because each swim offered such a different experience!  Wiamea Valley is a botanical garden.  You get a chance to see all of the beautiful vegetation of Hawaii.  There is also a river and waterfall that run through the park.  You get to swim in the river where the waterfall is.  It was different because when do you get to swim by a waterfall.  They gave everyone life jackets, and sent you on your way.  The kids loved it.  They tried to swim up to the waterfall, but the water pushed them away.  Anyway, here are some pictures!  Enjoy!

Legoland Florida Adventure

This Spring Break we decided to do something new.  We usually spend it with family either at my parents house or a fun location with all of us--this year, we flew solo, kind of!  At the request of a friend, we decided to join them on an adventure to Legoland Florida.  I would love to say we stayed at the hotel, swam in the pool and did everything Lego.  Unfortunately, to stay in the hotel and swim at the pool can get very pricey, and we didn't want to have to stay in 2 different places.  So we searched VRBO.com and found a lovely 4 bedroom, 3 and 1/2 bath town home at the Regal Palms Resort.  The best part was we were 1 block from the pool with a waterside.  I think it was a fair trade!

Ok...on to Legoland.  The kids knew we were going for Spring Break, I don't know who was more excited, me, Joe or the kids!   The kids had a blast.  How could you not?  Everywhere you turn a new exciting Lego sculpture to stare at and wonder--how do they do that!  Thanks to the Lego Movie and the kids favorite youtube channel FGTV, they had a decent preview of Legoland.  They couldn't wait to go and get their Lego drivers license and ride the dragon coaster and several other things that I can't think of at the moment.  First, when they say, everything is made of legos--it's true!  I am sure by some structural standard, roller coasters can't be made of Lego's, but if they could, they would be.  It is really fun to see what all they can do with Lego's!  There is one section of the park dedicated to miniature versions of certain areas, I can't remember all of them but Las Vegas, Miami Beach, Pirates and Star Wars are a just a few.  It really it amazing what they can do with some small bricks!  We spent 2 days at Legoland, followed by 3 days at Universal Studios (post to follow).  It is a fun little park for the young and old Lego enthusiast!  And you have to try Granny's Apple Fries!  We did visit the hotel while we are there.  You are free to go into the lobby and enjoy a meal at one of the 2 restaurants.  The kids got to be part of a scheduled dance party with the dreaded Pirate Brickbeard!

Snow Days!!!

We found ourselves with some extra time at the house this week due to blizzard ripping through the nation.  Normally, I would dread such an event because being stuck in the house with my kids for more then 20 minutes, I tend to just get frustrated by the very essence of their beings.  However, recently, things have changed with them.  They still fight and get on each others nerves, but they 1.) play together nicely from time to time, 2.) play by themselves at the same time an are happy and 3.) still enjoy playing games and reading with me and Joe.  So, I took it upon myself to do what I could to not be a miserable witch to my family in this time of 'togetherness'.

So, what have we accomplished. First and most importantly, my kids actually want to go outside and spend time in the snow!!!  Alot of time, hours at one time.  I thought I would never see the day.  And while my house is taken over by snow gear drying out, I will take it.  First, they were just happy to hang out and try to 'help' us dig our cars out.  That worked for a bit, until they saw a huge pile of snow and thought 'Tunnel!'.  So first they started to dig a tunnel in our record breaking 29.2 inches of snow!  It took them a while.  And they worked on their own.  We shoveled our drive way 4 times in order to be ahead of all the snow.  And while it was not fun at the time, it made the final dig out a lot more enjoyable when we were done, cars cleaned off and everything, noon!  So they built a tunnel.  Once we were done digging, we started helping.  It was all fun and games until the next day, when it got snowed in a bit and one of the kids got stuck and freaked out a smidge.  That was the end of the tunnel.   Since we had a small mountain of snow, our next thought was, lets see if we can sled ride down it.  And it worked, like a charm!  They had a nice trail through our front yard iced over pretty quick.  The next day we added a slalom path.   I might try to find a real hill to sled down this week, but they are happy along with that and forts and snow balls, we will see how long it lasts.

Another thing we had to accomplish was pinewood derby cars.  This is our first year for both boys in cub scouts, so we had to figure out how to do it all.  So this was the time to do it.  The kids thought up their own designs, we helped with each step of the process, but it was their project.  Next weekend is the derby, and I am looking forward to seeing how their cars perform.   Along with making pinewood derby cars, each kid was able to earn at least 1 new belt loop (patch) as well.  They have alot of fun activities that you can do with your family to knock one out, so we did it.  Derek did some science experiments, Jared did magic.  It was a fun day.

The rest of our time has been filled with Lego's, youtube videos, board games, and food fun of sketti-dogs!  I hope everyone is surviving, we still have 2 days at least, until school goes back in session, which means we would go on Friday this week.