Park Days

 A couple weeks ago we had some nice weather and got to go to the park. The first day at the park is always SO fun! You would have thought I told the kids we were going to Disney World, they were so happy. :) We met Jayna at the bus stop with the bikes. As soon as she got off the bus she yelled "You brought my bike, thanks Mama!!" and started jumping up and down.

Keira's first time on the swing!

Kepler would still rather go on the baby swings than the big ones. I think that Kepler was meant to be the baby of the family, he still has a hard time giving up that role to Keira sometimes. We compromised by letting him push her on the baby swing.
(That adoring expression on Keira's face shows perfectly how she feels about her big brother)

Last summer we practically lived at the park, we had no schedule and it was great!

But this little munchkin needed to get home for a nap, I think her days of sleeping anywhere with no schedule are over. But it lasted a good 7 months, so I guess we can let her have some normalcy in her life now. 

 This week is supposed to be warm and sunny all week again, and as of right now, I plan on doing this again every day!

Happy Easter!

Friday we didn't really have much planned so we did a little bunny craft. 

And then the kids wanted a bunny lunch too.

On Saturday morning we had our Egg Hunt!

There were 74 eggs hidden! 

Keira already doesn't like to be left out. :)

 

My cute little bunny's first Easter!

 

We used the whisk method for dyeing our eggs this year, so much better and easier.

And we made a couple dinosaur eggs too.

We got a bit of nice weather on Saturday, Jayna and Kepler started out playing and then ended up hanging out and chatting on the bench for a while.

Easter Sunday after church we had some friends over for dinner.

Frosty the Chick and Yellow, Jayna and Kepler usually end up playing with  their crafts that we make. They played with these chicks for at least an hour!

Making bird's nests with some friends.

I always feel like a "real" mom and grown up during holidays. And like true grown ups, Gibb and I were tired at the end of it all. :)

Atlantis Submarine

 On our last day we had to check out early, but our flight wasn't until the evening. So we booked a submarine ride to kill some time. It's hard finding something to do that doesn't involve swimming or sand! The submarine ride was pretty good. We went down to 109 feet and saw a shipwreck. We saw a few reef sharks and some huge schools of fish.

 

 

 We couldn't take Keira on the sub so my mom stayed with her and did some shopping on Front Street.

We had a red eye flight that night and luckily the kids slept on it, although we were all exhausted the next day. These pictures made me laugh, sometimes it's really great having thumb suckers.

Luau

 You can't go to Hawaii without going to a Luau! We had booked a luau a few days in advance and of course that night was the one night it rained. Not just sprinkling either, it was pouring for a while. I ran inside with Keira, but everyone else braved it out with the plastic ponchos they were handing out. It stopped raining after a while so they still did the show. Gibb said that the kids loved it! But I had the camera with me so we didn't really get many pictures.

Whale Watching

 We got up early one morning to go whale watching. This was probably my favourite thing we did! Gibb wasn't feeling good so he stayed home with Keira. He had gone out scuba diving a couple times and spear fishing, so he wasn't feeling up to another morning on a boat.

Jayna, Kepler, Avery, Alex and Abby

We saw tons of whales this morning

Within the first 20 minutes we saw 2 whales jump and 2 whales breech!

  

Kepler was just so happy to be on a boat

 

The boats are not allowed to go close to the whales unless a whale swims up to you. So we stopped for a while and there were a few whales all around us. Then a whale swam right under our boat! We were sitting right up front and it was close enough to reach out and touch it! Then it sprayed it's blowhole about 10 feet away from us and splashed us with it's tail, and kept splashing it's tail a few times as it swam away. It was incredible!

 

I had put away my camera at that point (of course), so I didn't get any really good pictures, but I did catch part of Jayna's reaction. :)

Alex and Jayna

Polo Beach

 We spent a day at Polo Beach in Wailea. This beach was amazing! I liked it way better than the beach at our resort. It was way more flat and shallow so the kids could play in the waves.

They loved the boogie board!

Kepler's new aspiration in life is to grow up to be a surfer dude. He was singing "Surf's up, surf's up! Ho Daddy!" all day long, literally! (It's from Backyardigans)

We also met up with Cheryl and her family, one of my roommates from 12 years ago!

Camryn and Jayna

He barely ever let go of this rope all day

My mom relaxing in the shade with Keira while she napped

Keira in her Pea Pod, she spent a lot of time in there and loved it! This thing was a lifesaver.

 This little cutie was so easygoing, she is such a third child.

Sugar Cane Train

 There was a little train right across the street from our resort and Kepler was dying to ride on it. So we took a little ride on the Sugar Cane Train one day. Kepler is still obsessed with things that go, he loved this!