Catching Up

The summer seems to be gone already. Back in June (12th through 18th) we spent the week in Maui with my momma, my brother, and my brother's wife. We all had so much fun. I was going to post LOTS of pictures from the trip, but somehow that just hasn't happened, lol. I figure I better type some of the highlights here while they are still fresh on my mind...and before another busy school year begins! :)

We stayed at Aston's Kaanapali Shores on Maui. It was fabulous! We had two bedrooms, a full kitchen and living areas, and two full bathrooms. We enjoyed a view of the pool, gardens, and Pacific ocean! Amazing. Maui is windy most all of the time. The rain forests on Maui are among the wettest on earth, receiving tons of rain per year. We drove part of the Road to Hana and stopped at Twin Falls for a hike, complete with splashing underneath the falls themselves! That made for some great pictures.

Another highlight of the trip was getting to eat at Mama's Fish House. Thanks to my mom, we enjoyed a meal that is beyond description. It was THAT good, folks. Extremely expensive, but totally wonderful! What a neat memory. We loved walking around the grounds at Mama's Fish House, too. Maui is simply gorgeous. Love the tropical beach areas!

Josiah loved hunting for hermit crabs, catching them, storing him in his bucket, and then releasing them. He still says, at least once per day, that we will be moving to Maui someday. He LOVED it, and he bawled when we loaded our luggage to head home on the last day of our trip. He could not stand to leave. He also loved getting to drink Coconut Milk from a real Coconut!

Mackenzie enjoyed all the swimming, and seeing a real Sea Turtle. She is a fish herself, and enjoyed the ocean with boogie boards, the pool with goggles, and our snorkeling tour to Molokini and Turtle Town. She says going on the boat ride was her favorite thing. A giant Sea Turtle swam up to the shore during our professional portrait session. It was amazing! We all loved seeing the turtle. Mackenzie also enjoyed the shopping in Lahaina and playing in the Banyon tree in Lahaina. Josiah loved climbing on the Banyon tree and all the swimming, too! He has learned to swim without floaties this summer.

Thanks to Evan (my brother) and Mia (his wife), we all enjoyed the Old Lahaina Luau and a professional photo shoot. The photographer was Mariah Milan, and she was amazing. Mia did a fabulous job of researching photographers on Maui and choosing the perfect one for our family. This was Mia and Evan's gift to my mom for completion of her doctorate in nursing this past December. They surprised my mom with the photo session. We got such great pics! What a neat gift for us all. Thanks, Evan and Mia! And the Luau was neat, too. Great food!

I am sure there is much more that I could type about the Maui trip, but for now, this will do! Maui is 6 hours behind us in time zones, so we all had quite the adjustment to make going and coming from that trip! Totally worth it, though. Thanks to my grandparents and my mom for making this trip happen, from airline tickets to lodging, for all of us. Wow. What a gift.

Other things to remember from this summer...Mackenzie lost her 2nd on July 24th, 2011. Our friend, Bill, pulled it just like he pulled the first one. Perfect!

On Tuesday, as in this coming Tuesday, August 16th, BOTH of my kids will start to school. Wow. Mackenzie will be in 2nd grade. How is that possible? And, Josiah will be in Kindergarten! I always thought it would be sad to see my "baby" start Kindergarten. Somehow, I think we are ready for this step! Mackenzie says she is a little nervous about starting back to school. Josiah says he is worried that no one will like him. I assured him that he will make lots of new friends and they will like him. He already knows one child, Lexi, in his class. He told Lexi yesterday, "You're gonna get to see me every day!" It was very funny. Mackenzie knows 11 of the 19 kids in her class this year already. Josiah has Mrs. Haluska and Mackenzie has Mrs. Scott. I am very pleased. School year, here we come!!!! :)

Just wanted to get those updates recorded before the school does start. I am sure there is much, much more that I should type, but for now, that will do.

David and I got to take a two night get-a-way, just the two of us, for the first time ever (since the kids were born) last week while his parents watched our kids. What a gift! Thank you, Zearl and Betty, for staying here with our kids while we enjoyed some one-on-one time.

Oh, and on June 11, 2011, Mackenzie was a flower girl and Josiah was a ring bearer in Aunt Mallory's wedding to Tom in Arkansas. What an honor for the two of them to be included in Mallory's wedding! How neat!!! We have some great pictures from the wedding, too, but for the sake of time I am just typing this post without pictures. Sorry.

Aquarium, Wedding, Butterflies

Whew, I've gotten behind with my blogging, so here's a quick update with a ton of pictures. :) Mackenzie, Josiah, and I all headed up to Gatlinburg for a day at Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies last Friday. We love that place! Here's the kids checking out the sea horses.
Josiah pointing at the sea horse with Mackenzie standing nearby.

On Saturday night all four of us went to Bryan and Holly's wedding. (David and Bryan work together.) We had a blast! The wedding was at a place called "The Stables." I pictured an old fashioned barn, but it was quite decorated and nothing like I imagined! Above is a picture of the bride and groom leading the train off the dance floor out into the crowd. :)

Here's one view of the inside of the barn. They served a full buffet dinner to all the guests! What a nice surprise.

Here's the dance floor, with the bride and groom's names lit up above and the wedding cake was in the gazebo on the left.

Our kids really enjoyed exploring outside.

Mackenzie near the waterfall area where the bride and groom got married.

Josiah near the same waterfall.

Josiah doing his "holy cow" dance. :) It's a classic at our house.

Random gazebo up the hill from the barn area. Kinda reminds me of The Sound of Music. ;)

Looking down at the barn from the random gazebo. (The chairs have all been picked up, but the area between the barn and the waterfall is where the wedding took place.) Josiah actually slept in my arms through the entire wedding, including the fireworks at the end. He was tired!

Sweet little girl.

Mackenzie found a flower and was putting it in her hair.

Josiah was playing with his shoes.

On our way home, Mackenzie asked if she could get married someday. We said, sure, if she finds the right fellow. She did not miss a beat in saying, "I already have found the right fella." We asked who that was that she found. She said, "Josiah's the one I'm going to marry!" Pretty precious. We explained that she should marry someone that she's not related to...then she replied, "Well, if I can't marry Josiah, then I guess I'll marry Grant Miller, and Laura Miller can marry Josiah! Then we can all live close together." We assured her that we thought that was a great plan. :)

David ordered caterpillars, four of them, a few weeks ago. We enjoyed watching them as they went through the phases to become butterflies! Of the four, three became beautiful butterflies. After watching them for the better part of a week, I was tired of feeding them and their wings kept getting stuck in the liquid (sugar water) that caused them some issues. He, he. Long story short, I was ready for them to go free! We released them last night.

Butterfly on Mackenzie's hand.

Mackenzie loved holding the butterfly.

We took lots of pictures, just before the butterfly flew away!

Josiah waiting patiently for the butterfly to climb on his finger.

Josiah loved holding the butterfly, too.

Poor butterfly. You can see the wing issue. Two of the three butterflies were able to fly away...one was not able to fly. At least we released it into the grass.

Josiah loved those butterflies. Both kids did. They wondered if any of the butterflies would fly to "Awkensaw" to see our family. I do love those cute phrases.

On a side note, just before we headed out to church yesterday afternoon, I headed out to pick the garden. To my dismay, as I reached down to pick the squash I almost picked a snake! Yikes. I pulled back, left the squash there and went to get David. By the time we got back, the snake was gone. Tonight I knew the garden needed picking. I put on hiking boots and gathered my gumption. I'm pleased to announce that the garden got picked and I did not see a snake tonight! Well, the garden got mostly picked....I just couldn't make myself reach the entire garden. :0

Our Wedding

The horse drawn carriage delivering me from my room to the wedding gazebo where David was waiting.
Horse drawn carriage with Moon Palace Resort (Cancun, Mexico) rooms in background.

Opening prayer by Martin Bolden, random missionary in Cancun who officiated weddings for The Moon Palace...he really did a good job, too!

Cutting of the cake, which by the way, had moist strawberry filling and was heart shaped!

Rice being thrown as we exited the gazebo. My mom and Mark were in attendance; David's parents and brother were in route! (Remember, we had a December wedding...well, flights were delayed and we had NO IDEA what happened to David's parents...flights arrived into Cancun without them...we had to make a decision about whether to continue or post pone the wedding as it was late afternoon already and not much daylight left...we went ahead with the wedding, still not knowing the whereabouts of David's parents or brother...after the wedding, much worry, and Stateside help from Debbie Duke, we found out that they were, in fact, still coming but delayed! So. We met them at the airport still dressed in wedding clothes!) Made for some funny memories. People at the airport cheered for us!

(Also pictured above is Pilar, our wedding coordinator, who did a fantastic job with our emailed instructions.)

Picture session afterwards on the grounds near the gazebo.

I like this one with the ocean in the background.

Our hands with my bouquet.

Have I mentioned that it was a VERY WINDY day?! My hair and veil were everywhere!

Obviously, the sun was setting fast in these last few pictures. If you just looked through all those pictures, bless you! That was a lot of pics! Thanks for walking down memory lane with us.