Family Photos From Hawaii

We are FINALLY back from Hawaii! Whew....in case you haven't heard we were "stuck" there for an extra 3 days. We flew standby....and sometimes that's just how it goes. There are worse places to get stuck I guess. :-)

We had a great time although I have to admit I really felt that Hawaii itself was overrated and overpriced. My brother in law grew up there and it was so awesome to have him with us to show us around. If you ever go you HAVE to try Matsumoto's shaved ice! Don't be a wuss, try it traditional with ice cream and black beans. It is amazing! Also the shrimp trucks have the BEST shrimp I've ever had. Ok...is it wrong that all I'm writing about is the food? :-) 

We really had a great time. Below are a few of my favorite pics of my boys from the trip. I know, it's ridiculous. I go to paradise and can't get enough pics of these handsome devils. I'll post some more casual photos from the trip later. 

He just gets hotter as we get older. I love this man.

Just hangin' on the beach. It's the moments like this that I am SO glad I have captured on film.

My little man...strollin. 

Mason LOVED the beach. So many rocks, so little time.

Our little family.

Funny story behind this picture....Mason had a rock in his hand and just whacked Daddy on the head. I think this is him trying to kiss up to daddy after. 

 

Grand Canyon

We have lived her for almost 10 years and FINALLY decided to head up to the Grand Canyon for a quick day trip. Here are some of our favorite pics from the day. (Captions Below) :-)

"WOW! That's one BIG hole!"

Having fun with Daddy!

The typical picture that everyone has after a trip to the Grand Canyon.

My handsome boys!

 

Seriously...how cute is my boy! 

Ok...so I always swore I would NEVER have one of those backpack/kid leash things. There's a lot I said I'd never do with a kid that I have. LOL. This shows how much he "loved" it at first.

Eventually he did end up loving it...and it was a MUST HAVE in the Grand Canyon. One more parent converted to the "leash". 

We stopped at a great deer farm on the way to the Grand Canyon. 

We were laughing because Mason was imitating the goats eating. 

Neils getting some kisses from the camel.

Feeding the deer

Ridiculously Cute Family

Ok...it's just wrong that my niece's and nephews are this photogenic and polite and SO MUCH fun to have around. I'm pretty sure they are a top secret government experiment, because I've never seen better kids. I love you guys!
  

What to do when it's 105 outside and you visit the Lunds.

Ok. It's no secret I'm a little crazy. :-) I've been wanting to find someone to let me torture them with this idea I've had for a photoshoot for a long time now. Enter in my neices (Kayla & JJ) and my nephew (Jesse)...while they were visiting I talked them into letting me dump goo all over them. We honestly had a BLAST doing this. Even Neils and I got into it. We've got the system down now so keep watching my blog for Take 2 of this experiment. I think next time will be even better.

Just a few pics from our weekend.

This weekend we officially made it a family weekend. Even though we didn't do anything too special, we really made an effort to spend time together rather than running errands and getting things done around the house. Here are just a few pics of the weekend.

Playing with Daddy

Just relaxing with the dog...

Mom always takes pics of my eyes...

"Fhawower"...as I would say.

Here Comes The Rain...FINALLY!

If you don't live here...you'll never know how AWESOME it is when it rains here! It happens so rarely that we LIVE IT UP when it does finally rain. Mason is super excited about being able to play outside again finally after 13 days of over 100 degree temps. 

Today we headed over to the park and found a huge puddle. Too bad I can't wrap those up for Christmas because it would be Mason's favorite gift. He had a blast!

Easter

Here are just a few pics from Easter. Mason LOVED the Easter Egg Hunt. He surprises me all the time with what he ends up loving. The first two pics are from when he discovered that there was candy in the eggs. He was SO excited! 

Hope you all had a great Easter.

Simplicity...

It's no secret to any of us that we are living in hard times...one of the best things about having a kid is that it teaches me on a daily basis that it doesn't matter. Mason has tons of toys, but if you have kids you know that he'd take a regular household item any day over the best that Leapfrog has to offer. So for this blog I thought I'd share just a few pics of some of his favorite things. (Watch out Oprah.)

If you have kids and you haven't used food coloring yet in your nightly bath...it's a MUST DO. RED, BLUE, or YELLOW... it's a blast! Not to worry, it won't stain baby or the tub. I have to admit. With water that looks this tropical and blue I've been tempted to try this myself after a long day. 

The squirt bottle...he must have played with this for a good hour straight. Although I have to admit that the dog was BEGGING me to take it away. He just kept spraying her and laughing.

Ok. I will admit this did take some serious cleaning up afterwords. Who knew shredded paper could be so much fun. I hear it's even better when your Mom, let's you wear your Christmas pajamas in April. :-)
We were at a Spring Training Game here. Forget cotton candy, forget the game, forget the free cookies. All he wanted to play with was this little ball.

So just remember... it's all in the simple joys of life that we find the most happiness.

Now I gotta get going...I'm bidding on a Kindle on Ebay. (Just kidding.)

We've Been Workin' On The Railroad!

Most of you have either noticed that I dropped off the face of the planet about two months ago...or you've heard me talking about this HUGE project I took on with my Dad, either way I thought you would all enjoy to see the final outcome.

For those of you that don't know, my Dad has been living with us for the past two months and building our son Mason the most amazing playroom. It all started about 6 months ago when my Dad retired. He needed a "project" to do for me while he was visiting. He casually asked me if I needed anything built for Mason, a playhouse? a bed? So I thought about it overnight and we dreamed up a "train" playroom. Mason got a railroad crossing piggy bank for his first birthday and that's where our inspiration came from.

What an amazing experience. Not only did we end up with an unbelievable room...but spending that time working, dreaming and hanging out with my Dad was priceless. I will never forget it and I know that Mason won't either. Just being able to see them together was something I will always treasure. Now when I pull up to the house with Mason in the car and open the garage, he sqeals "Gam-pa!!!!" It will be hard when we come home for the first time and he's not there working in the garage. 

Some fun facts about this room:

*Each car's number symbolizes one of our birthdays. The engine is my Dads. The Ball Car is Masons, the toy chest Neils and the Caboose is my birthday.

*The fold out Art Table is actually a chalk board as well.

*I wanted to put something in the room that was a tribute to my Dad. So I took him and Mason to the railroad tracks and got some GREAT pictures. They are hanging in the room so he'll always remember time with "Gam-pa!". The second slide show shows these ones.

THANKS DAD!!! We'll miss you!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Would you survive?

Neils and I just watched the 20/20 special on survival. I thought it was extremely interesting. There was a test offered online, which I have posted to the side. Kind of a fun, and enlightening test to take. What was most interesting about taking this test with Neils, was how we answered some of these questions the same and how we differed on some of them. 

Hope you enjoy it. 

Next time....hopefully a post with some pictures and an update. After all....wasn't Christmas like forever ago! :-)