Mmmmmm... sweet potatoes

Today was another mellow day. I was sooooo sick and stayed in bed all morning with a horrible head cold.  Hayli did have her first veggies today... sweet potatoes! She was not too sure at first, but did take to them quickly. That was our big event for the day!

Holly worked half of the day and then we were off to the Yard House for cheap happy hour food in Waikiki. I finally got good drugs that cleared up my head cold.

Down in Waikiki they have completely redone Lewers street. The street where most of our guests stayed on for our wedding. It was a really run down street that has been totally redone with cute shops and fun restaurants. Cooper slept through dinner, I think he had a little of my head cold. But the kids did well. Cooper did wake up and started flirting with all the waitresses, like always.

We walked around Waikiki. A nice ending to our day!

Morning at the Kaneohe Bay Yacht Club

A little tired this morning. Places don't close around here until 4 in the morning.We got home shortly after 3 this morning... 

Today we are meeting our great friends the Nash family. Nate's God parents. They sponsored us for our post wedding brunch at the Kaneohe Bay Yacht club 5 years ago. So, this morning we got to have brunch with them over at the yacht club which is right across the street from Holly's house. It was great to see them as always. We did not do anything else but sleep the rest of the day. Then it was off for our weekly trip to the laundry mat! Just a lazy Sunday...

$100 baby sitter, yikes!

This morning I got up and was not feeling well. We were going to the beach to try Holly's new stand up paddle board. We were also supposed to be going out later tonight as we found a babysitter. Yeah, going out with no kids! So, I decided to stay home all morning with the kids and try to feel better before this evening. Holly and Nate went to the beach to go paddle and the kids and I just hung out and played. Once they got back we did go to the pool. Holly also pulled a Jessica Simpson to wash her fun BMW she gets to drive! 

Later that night we went out to dinner with the kids, we could not afford to pay the sitter to come too early as we knew it was going to be a late night...so we met up with some of Holly's friends and had dinner. We took the kids back home put them to bed and then the sitter came. She cost $15.00 an hour! Again the kids are already in bed (the sitter was not going to have to do a thing)! We took a cab into town and went to Nashville Waikiki and went line dancing all night. We had fun. Holly is from the midwest and loves country so she took us there. It was a very fun night out...Then we got home...yeah, the sitter was $100.00 for watching T.V. We just kept reminding ourselves that we had a fun night out with no kids!!

A Day in the Car....uggghhhhh

Nate got a call last night that Gary was feeling better and ready to golf. So, Nate was golfing today. That meant getting him to the other side of the island by 10 am to meet up with Gary. But, the pictures we had taken last night were not going to be ready until after 12. I also broke my cell phone a couple of days ago and needed to go to T Mobile to buy another one... It was going to be a day in the car, poor kids! We got Nate to Gary's on time and I then took off to Waikiki, which was on the way back to the hotel, to go buy a new phone. Fine I will tell you what I did to my phone. Nate is not letting me live it down. I left my phone on the roof of the car and slipped down a little bit falling into the way of the hatch back of the station wagon we are driving. So, I went to slam the back hatch to close it and I heard crunch. I crushed the screen. Yeah, no chance of recovery for that phone. Of course, I had no insurance, and of course it was a blackberry, not a cheap phone my husband keeps reminding me. But, I can not go without a phone. How did we do it back in the day without cell phones and being able to check your email every second of the day? Sheesh!

Got the new phone, went to feed the kids and then went back to the hotel to pick up the pictures. Then back to Michelle and Gary's house for dinner on the other side of the island. So after 5 hours of driving we made it to their house for dinner. Cooper came down with a fever at some point in there and was not feeling well. Thank goodness for children's Tylenol. One dose, he was back. Good thing, dinner would not have been fun. 

We spent the evening at Gary and Michelle's awesome place with a great ocean view from their lanai. Gary made us great fish tacos and him and Nate played the Wii all night while us girls hung out and talked shop!! Nice relaxing evening. At one point Gary got a hold of Hayli and was pretending to be a therapist and teach her how to walk. He also thought he would teach her a few wrestling moves. It was very comical! Gary passed Hayli onto Michelle and said see Michelle, you need a baby (they don't have children and do no plan on having them). Her response (the pediatric physical therapist that she is) was I would not know what to do with a normal one! They have fun lives. They like to live in different places and are always doing fun things. They say they never live in the same place more than 3 years... very fun!

So, back to Holly's we went. A nice ending to a not so fun day!

Happy Anniversary Part II...

Today we got up and had a nice breakfast. We checked out the sharks and the sting rays and back to the pool we went. Cooper again loved the pool and continued to get better in the water. Hayli loves the water. She hung out in her little floating boat without a peep. Nothing seems to faze that child (we are very blessed!). So we did the pool all morning and had lunch up in the room and took naps. While Nate and Cooper napped Hayli and I went on a hunt to the local stores to find Cooper and Hayli a red or green Hawaiian outfit to take pictures for our Christmas card. Could not find anyone with both red or both green, so I ended up getting Cooper red and Hayli green. It was going to be good enough, cuz I was over shopping! We went back to the hotel and got ready for pictures at sunset.

The kids cooperated fairly well. Some random lady was helping to get the kids to look and smile, she was very sweet. I hope they turn out OK!

After pictures we had dinner at the beach front restaurant at the hotel finished watching the sunset and listened to the live music. After dinner the hotel put on a movie on the beach on a big inflatable screen. Cooper walked right over and sat on the grass and said "wanna watch movie". He sat for maybe a minute and would run around and then sit again. He had fun. Hayli just sat in her carrier all night chewing on her toes. She was very content. It was a perfect evening. Happy Anniversary honey, thank you for giving me two amazing children. They could not have a better daddy! I love you tons and tons!!

Happy Anniversary Part I...

Today we get to go to the Ihilani JW Marriott Resort and Spa for a couple days! This is where we did our wedding pictures and stayed the night before our wedding 5 years ago as well as a few nights after our wedding. I stayed with all my girls the night before the wedding and then it was Nate and I for the 3 nights after. Very nice memories and I just can not believe that time flies and we are here 5 years later. So, we were off to the resort. We got the Kama aina rate (the local Hawaiian rate). Holly booked the resort for us and we got half off the ocean view penthouse. Amazing what they can charge and get from the poor tourists! It was just as beautiful as it was 5 years ago. They have expanded and have 4 huge resorts all down the beach. We stayed in the beach resort which was very kid friendly and had great pools for the kids. They were very shallow with a sand entry and a ton of sand for Cooper to play. It was very nice. We immediately went to the pool to start our relaxation! We ordered a couple of BBC's and chilled in the pool. This pool was perfect for Cooper it really boosted his confidence in the water. We heard no whining and there was no saying "all done". He could of stayed in the pool all day I think. It was very nice. We walked down to the Ihilani for dinner. Happy Anniversay honey, I love you! 

Yeah My Gym!

Nate was supposed to golf today with our friend Gary, but Gary strained his neck wrestling yesterday (he helps coach wrestling at the local high school in Hawaii Kai where he lives). He then had hockey practice as well last night and really hurt it. So, golf was out. We are supposed to go to their house for dinner tonight as well.

We spent the morning a little mellow. I was then on line and found Cooper his favorite thing. A My Gym in Hawaii! When I asked Cooper if he wanted to go to My Gym all he said over and over was "Yeah My Gym". He loves that place. It is an indoor play area for kids in which they have 1 hour classes that are semi structured. We like it as there are other kids his age to socialize with and attempt to learn that hard lesson of sharing! So I enrolled him in a 4 week class. I guess it is a brand new facility so it was very nice and very clean. Cooper loved it! After that we went to Hawaii Kai to have lunch with Gary and swim in his pool. We picked Gary up and went to Kona Brewing Co. for lunch and back to his place to swim. A fairly mellow day. Holly called and was not feeling well and had to cancel out of dinner for the night. So, after swimming we decided to go back home and let the kids nap and just stay home for the rest of the night. It was nice and mellow. We rescheduled dinner at Michelle and Gary's for Friday night. A nice easy day!!

You Belong in the Zoo!

Today we got up and went back into Waikiki to go to the zoo. On the way into town the kids fell asleep. We figured once we get them out of the car and into the stroller they would wake up. Nope they didn't. So we walked to the entrance, paid our $8 (more cheap Cooper entertainment) and the kids never woke up. So we decided to go have a pina colada across the street at the Marriott. They have an upstairs bar that over looks Waikiki. So we sat for awhile, had a pina colada and French fries. The kids slept for another hour. It was a nice break.  A family friend, Kelly Nash, had recently moved over here and she happened to be in the area and stopped by. Her fiance is from Argentina and two of his friend were visiting from there for a couple of weeks. Her fiance is in Argentina visiting with friends and family as he is going to come back and marry Kelly and get a visa and will not be able to return to Argentina for 2 years. It was nice to see our free spirited Kelly. She invited us to brunch at the Kaneohe Yacht as her parents are arriving at the end of the week. That is where Nate and I had our post wedding brunch 5 years ago. Great memories!

So, the kids fianlly woke up and we were off to the zoo!

We were amazed at how big and how many animals there were for an $8.00 zoo. There were elephants, tigers, giraffes, zebras, rhinos, hippos and more. It was great. Cooper had a blast. Hayli just hung out the whole time and was not sure what to think...

Cooper had fun playing in the park at the zoo and each time becomes a little more daring. He is not the adventurer. He continues to be cautious and does not like the slide by himself. Today he went over a little bridge and climbed through some tunnels all by himself. He is getting a little better. 

After the zoo we went back to Holly's. After Holly got home from work we decided to go into town for dinner. Another fun day!

Lazy Sunday

Well, today we had an adventure. The washing machine and dryer at Holly's house are on the out so we had to go to the laundry mat. Cooper had a blast. He had fun opening and closing every machine he could reach and had so much fun running around the place. Hayli slept through the whole adventure. Oh well, she is too young to appreciate it anyway. After doing laundry we were off to the beach. Holly took us to a nice beach called Castles. A very mellow, sandy bottom beach. Perfect for the kids!  Of course we took Cooper in the water, another attempt to get him to enjoy any type of water, he didn't do too bad. At first Nate carried him in, he was a little nervous, he then got use to it. We brought the inflatable baby boat and Cooper loved the ocean and had fun going over the small waves.  Nate carried Hayli out in the water as well and she was very intrigued by the waves and could not quite figure them out. She could not stop staring at the moving water. It was very cute, she didn't protest. She never does. I think she is going to be the water baby of the two. Nice day at the beach. Back to Holly's we went. A few girls from Holly's work planned a girls night out with a movie and dinner. Nate agreed to watch the kids and Holly and I went out. We saw the movie "Women" with Meg Ryan. It was cute. I have not been to a movie in 2 years. It was very nice to get out. Nate survived as well. I did not get the frantic phone call until we were almost on our way home anyway. Hayli is still refusing to take a bottle and gets SO mad when you try. She just screams. So, she gets poor Nate a little worked up.  It was fun to go out with the girls. I am glad Nate and the kids survived!

Saturday, September 27

Today is game day! Spent the morning just relaxing and having a long breakfast. Cooper watched his usual morning cartoons on Disney channel and Hayli continues to really enjoy her rice cereal. We went to the pool again. Still trying to get Cooper to enjoy the water. He only screamed a little bit this time. Maybe he is getting better. He contined to say "all done, all done" while daddy motored him around the pool. We then ate lunch at the house and packed up to go tailgate with the football gang (Gary, Michelle, Paul, Sherry and Holly). They all have season tickets and of course island style, they had a connection to get us tickets too! Everyone seems to know someone who knows someone to get a hook up. The beauty of a small island. Everyone knows each other...

So, we went to Gary and Michelle's in Hawaii Kai (the Newport Beach of Oahu), to meet up to caravan over to the stadium. Their place is awesome with a great view of the bay. 

We finally made it to the stadium and set up shop in the parking lot complete with an easy up, BBQ and tons of food and drinks! The lot was filled with tons of people tailgating. Paul and Sherry didn't make it. They are newly weds and had to stay home and do thank you cards, bummer! We went into the stadium all the way to the top. Great view! The stadium is really not that big so it really didn't feel like nose bleed, even though we were in the nose bleed section. It was fun. Great friends made it awesome! The game was sad though. University of Hawaii played San Jose State and lost in the last few minutes. It was a sad game, but we had fun. Cooper and Hayli did awesome. They both just watched the game. Cooper entertained us as always with his dancing. Almost every time the band started playing Cooper started dancing. Hayli just watched. It was a ton of fun. And we get to do this again in two weeks! Another fun day in the land of Aloha...

Today had a rough start. Cooper woke up at 4:00 am and ended up in our bed and then a half hour later we all woke up very hot as the power had gone out, therefore no air conditioning! We all eventually woke up at 6:30 am. So we started our morning with no food as we could not open the fridge or freezer to get any food out. We did not know how long the power was going to be out so we did not want anything to go bad. Two power poles fell over night causing all power to go out in our whole area. Nate went out to the store so we did eventually eat.

We spent the first part of the morning at the pool. Cooper is still not thrilled with the pool or any body of water that goes past his knees. Yes, that does still mean he does not like baths. We continue to work on this all the time. We just blew up the boats and the kids just floated around until Cooper told us "all done". Hayli just goes with the flow as always.  Cooper only lasted at the pool 20 minutes. So we went home and got dressed and took off to the north shore to visit Aunt Debi.

We made it all the way to the north shore after an hour of driving along the water. We also passed Molii Gardens along the way, the sight where we got married almost 5 years ago next month. We went to Haliewa for lunch and sat along the beach at Velzyland.  We made it back to Holly's house in time to go to Duke's for dinner with Gary, Michelle, Tom and Glenna. It was a nice evening in Waikiki.

McIlroy Family in Hawaii...

We arrived in Honolulu on Tuesday night September 23. Tears came immediately when we saw our Auntie Holly. She greeted us Aloha style with leis that smelled amazing. It has only been since May since we have seen Holly but it seems like forever as we have missed her tons! Just an FYI, Holly is one of my best friends that we were fortunate to have live with us over the past two years when she was going through a not so fun time in her life. She quickly became a member of our family and became our kids Godmother! I think she helped us more as she was such a great help to us during the birth of both of our children and always nice to have around as Nate was working a ton. Holly is now living in Hawaii and a friend of a friend bought a house in Hawaii and is traveling the world for a year and needed a house sitter. So, it's Holly! A house and two cars for a year. An opportunity she could not pass up! So, we are taking advantage as well and visiting her for a month. The last month of my maternity leave before I have to go back to work...

Holly lives on the windward side in Kaneohe, but closer to the town of Kailua. We went to dinner and called it a night. 

Wednesday, September 24... The kids were up at 5:30 am. uuugghhhh! Not quite yet adjusted to the time change. We journeyed into town and got our supplies at the only big store they have...Walmart! We then went grocery shopping and went back and took naps. Very uneventful day. Holly got home from work and took us down a couple miles down the road to Kailua Beach Park and then walked to the area where the stars live in Lani Kai. Nice beach, huge homes, very pretty. It was a very nice evening. We then went home made spaghetti and called it a night...

Thursday, Septmeber 25... The kids woke up at 7:30, yeah! We are now looking like we have adjusted to the time change. Today we decided to go to the Waikiki Aquarium and walk around Waikiki. The aquarium was very small but it only cost $9.00 t0 get in. Cheap entertainment that Cooper loved. He loved looking at the fish and they even had a couple of very sleepy seals to look at. From there we went to have lunch over looking the beach at Tiki Bar and Grill in one of the hotels along the beach. Not a very good lunch but nice atmosphere. We went to go feel the water amongst the sea of pasty white tourists in speedos and then ventured back to Holly's house. Holly came home after work and we went to go play tennis at the local community center. Free tennis courts, pool, park and recreation rooms with free classes. Cooper had fun at the park. There was only one friend to play with at the park. When it was time to leave Cooper said, "bye, I love you". He is so sweet! We then went to Teddy's Burgers for really good burgers. Cooper and Hayli fell asleep on the way home and are now in bed. Aaaahhhhh down time! We had a busy day. Looking forward to seeing my aunt tomorrow on the north shore.