Back to Reality

Well, we made it in from Hawaii yesterday. We took the kids a bit by surprise when we showed up at breakfast. They tried to conceal their smiles as they ate, but wouldn't stop looking at us. Once they were done with breakfast they were ready to play...really, ready to be held.
John and I had a great time in Hawaii although I wish we would of had more time. We went to 3 different places so it felt like we were traveling a lot between places.
Our first stop: Honolulu - the city was buzzing! Tons of tourists and sites to see. We took a tour and visited the whole island of Oahu in 11 hours! We stopped to see Pearl Harbor first then headed out across the island.
Our second stop: Hana - this is a small quaint town with only 1 restaurant, 2 hotels, 1 general store and 2 churches. Not even a stop light in this place. But the road to Hana is legendary. It's only about 30 miles between Hana and the next major city, but it takes about 3 hours without traffic. You average 15 miles an hour as you twist and turn up and down the mountains climbing to Hana. It was absolutely gorgeous. We saw rainforest's, beaches, even dessert! Once we made it to our sea side cottage, there was nothing to do. Which I liked! This was my favorite stop on our vacation.
Our third stop: Wailea - the famous beaches of Maui. This was actually a nice combo between our other stops. You could still relax (although you were secluded), but if you wanted to go out and enjoy the town, you could. I think this was probably John's favorite stop.

Pics are posted on the left side, or you can click here to view the entire album. It's not in order like the slideshow on the left, but you can read the labels better. Oh - I just found out if you click a photo in the slideshow on the left, it will bring it to full screen!!!!

http://s259.photobucket.com/albums/hh311/TxMommy_photos/Hawaii/

Off to Hawaii!

Well we're off to Hawaii on Wednesday! My mom came down earlier this week as she has the first shift with the kids. My MIL will be down Sunday for the second shift. Hopefully all will go well. We've all been healthy so hopefully nothing will crop up while we're gone.
I'm really excited to go to Hawaii; it's been on our "must see" list since we've been married. I just wish it would have been easy to take the kids with us. I know it will be better for everyone without them in Hawaii, but...

Walking Warriors

I finally got some video this morning of the kids walking around. It's funny how they both have very different walking styles. Abby is slow and you can see her calculating each step in her head (she also walks with her arms straight out). Jake is more of a drunk man...he just walks/runs around all over the place. I don't think the boy could walk a straight line for anything. They aren't walking great yet, but they try really hard and will walk all over the house. They take about 5 or 6 steps, fall, then get right back up. Jake's only been walking a week so I'm thinking in a few weeks or so, they'll be running everywhere.
I sped the video up so you don't have to sit and watch the kids walk, fall, walk, fall, etc. for several minutes. Enjoy!

We went to the zoo this afternoon and the kids started getting a bit cranky after a while so I went to the children's area and found a somewhat secluded area to let them run around. It was fenced, although there was an opening to get out and wouldn't you know they both went in different directions. When they're both walking well and wanting to walk while we're out on trips, I will have to get some leashes for them! I also need to get them some outside shoes I guess. Right now, we only have indoor/grass shoes - nothing that will work on concrete. I think after we get back from vacation, I'll take the kids in and get them their first real shoes.

Am I taking too much on?

That was John's initial thought when I told him this morning that I would be taking on the Historian position at PAMOM in addition to the Playgroup Coordinator spot I already signed up for. The new historian had to step down before her term even began and I had thought about doing this next year, but when the president asked for someone to step up, I gladly volunteered. Since I just got into digital scrapbooking, I'm planning on doing that for PAMOM (a lot of people have started talking about it in the group, so I think it's about time for that). Plus it will be a lot easier for me if it's digital. I wouldn't have time to do it otherwise. I'm really excited about this new year at PAMOM and can't wait to start my ventures!!

Away for the weekend

Well I spent my first nights away from the kids this weekend. I was actually okay during the day, but was a bit restless at night as I'm used to hearing the kids' sound machine through the monitor. The first night I kept waking up about every hour and a half, but the second night I slept much better. I traveled to my mom's for a day of scrapbooking which I haven't done in quite some time. It was great to catch up on a few things and chat with everyone. I finished the kids' baby albums and finished our last vacation pages, which is good since we're leaving on to Hawaii next week!!
When I got back home I really couldn't tell if the kids were excited to see me or not. They were just waking up from their afternoon nap and ready for dinner. Although Jake ate a few bites then wanted out of his high chair for me to hold him a bit. After a while, he went back in his high chair to eat the rest of his dinner.
Nana and Grammie will be watching the twins at our house while we're in Hawaii so this weekend was great practice for me to be away from the kids and also test out the little "instructions" I typed up for them both. I still have a lot to revise and add, but it was great to have Grammie go through it this weekend to see if I forgot anything major. My little instructions really aren't so little though - so far I'm at 6 pages!!

Color Splash!

Today I finally broke out the crayons and some paper for the kids to color with. Abby is always trying to grab pens and tries to mark on paper so I thought they'd enjoy it even though they're a bit young. Jake did great marking on the paper from the beginning, but Abby enjoyed eating the crayon much better. So, the paci's came out. I figured if they had those in their mouth they'd be less apt to putting the crayons in their mouth. It worked fairly well. They made little signs for John since he's been travelling and had a blast coloring. It kept Jake's attention a bit longer, but it still occupied them for about 45 minutes or so. I'll definitely have to bring the crayons and paper out again soon.