New Favorite Shirt

This past Saturday John got a new favorite shirt. As I've mentioned before, John's idea of a nice shirt and my idea of a nice shirt are two very different things, but at least his "nice shirts" only cost a small registration fee. This particular favorite shirt comes from the Waco Wild West ride. One of their sponsors is Skittles, so the shirts are typically very colorful- as you can clearly see. And that is what John likes about them- that they aren't white, and believe me, between the two of us you could clothe an entire village with our white event t-shirts.

And since Skittles sponsors the event, they have TONS of Mars brand candy at the finish line (we're talking full size candy bars, people)- he likes the event for the shirts, and I like the event for the loot! John was sent with explicit instructions to bring home some sweets for his sweetie. In his blazing finish of 100 miles in about 5 hours, he forgot to pick up a few treats for me. I suppose I should be happy that the reason he forgot to swing by the candy tables was because he was anxious to get in the car headed home to his family. Lucky for me, his trusty riding partner Shayne picked up some candy for Jen and she in turn shared her spoils with me! We all came away winners.

Anyway, I'm proud of your effort, sweetheart. You earned that lovely, bright yellow shirt- wear it with pride (but please don't wear it on our next date night).

And since we're talking about shirts, I thought I'd throw on a picture of Tyler and Robby in their shirts I got them in Hawaii. So. Darn. Cute. (for those of you with girls- you get bows and cute little dresses while those of us with boys get matching shirts- it's a fair trade).

Sunday Lessons

This is the conversation I had with Tyler yesterday while listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir:

Tyler: Mom, why are you listening to church music?
Me: Because it helps me think about Jesus and it helps me feel the spirit.
Tyler: What does the spirit feel like?
Me: The spirit makes you feel happy and warm and when you feel the spirit it makes you want to make good choices.
Tyler: Oh, okay. I feel the spirit too.
Then he turns and walks away and yells very excitedly down the hall, "Hey Dad, I don't want to say bad words anymore!"

Tour de Fleurs

Where would I be without good friends in my life?

Saturday morning a few friends and I participated in the Tour de Fleurs 10k, except for Tiffany- she went for the gold with the 20k. I had a blast, and I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday than with a few good friends and a good event. Can't wait for the next one!!!

First Day of Pre-K!

(Here he is with his best pal on the first day. How grateful I am that these two have each other-and hope they always will!)

Tyler started preschool last week. It's only two days a week, but I thought it would be good since next year he'll be in full day kindergarten. I felt like it was a good fit for us. He was so excited to go. So excited. I could gush on and on about how much I miss him when he's gone, what a big boy he is, how I wonder if I've taught him everything he needs to know, how it broke my heart to give him hugs and leave him with strangers, how I was lonely the rest of the day and couldn't figure out what to have for lunch (since I usually let Tyler help me choose what we're going to have), how I got TONS done while he was away, how completely excited I was to go pick him up, and how much I LOVED hearing all about his day, but I won't. I'll just leave it at that. Mostly, I'm just glad he's having such a positive experience.

(Here are a few pics we took the week prior during the open house. Can you tell how happy he is to be there?)

Hawaii

Well, our trip to Hawaii was officially one month ago and I am just now getting around to blogging about it...story of my life!

So, here goes!

After 12 hours of travel (thankfully, both boys did AMAZINGLY well), we fell into beds at our hotel. The next morning of course the kids woke up at about 5:30 am (which I thought was descent considering that would be like 10:30 am Texas time), so we headed out to the beach for a look around. What started out as a leisurely stroll on the beach turned into a morning swim for Tyler. I don't have a picture of it, but he ended up fully submerged in the water while fully dressed. Oh well, we figured it was our fault for not dressing him appropriately...who knew we'd be out swimming at 5:30 in the morning? Plus, he had a great time and was THRILLED to be in the ocean.

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Also on this trip were my parents, my sister Chrissy and her husband Mike, and my brother Spencer. We had so much fun with them. They encouraged us to try lots of unique activities and then even offered to help with our kids so we could actually participate!

On our first day there we headed out to try a little cliff jumping . I was sooo scared and almost couldn't jump, but peer pressure got the best of me...and I knew climbing down those jagged cliffs would be more difficult than just jumping right off.

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Once we were back on solid ground, it was time for lots of fun on the beach.On this particular day, we saw something big and round moving through the water only about 15 feet off the shore. When we realized that it was a large sea turtle, John ran out with Tyler to get a closer look. From the beach, I could tell the moment Tyler saw it through his goggles. His head shot up out of the water and he was screaming with a little excitement and a little fright. They were only a few feet from it, so I'm thinking it was mostly fright, but none the less, he thought it was pretty cool- and it was definitely a priceless moment to see the look on his face.

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The next day we headed out for some serious snorkeling. We took a boat out to a small island reef and then over to "Turtle Town." Tyler loved the boat ride and was so excited to see all the fish and turtles. While swimming past a turtle who was resting on the bottom of the ocean floor, Tyler started yelling into his snorkel as loud as he could, "Wake up Mr. Turtle! Wake up!" It was hilarious.

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During our trip we celebrated my mom's birthday. As part of the celebration, we got her a metal detector which she had to use in order to find clues on the beach. The clues lead her to the location of the rest of her presents. We're glad she was such a good sport about it!

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The next day we went hiking up to a few waterfalls. (Many times during the trip I was grateful that I had decided to bring the jogging stroller. It provided Robby with good shade, it rolled better in the sand, and we were glad we had it for activities like this one). One of the waterfalls had a cool rope swing that you could swing from and land right in the waterfall. It was so much fun- definitely a highlight of the trip. Even Tyler was brave enough to give it a try. (the bottom picture is of my brother Spencer swinging- since he looked the coolest doing it).

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And then- back to the beach!!! We loved this particular beach. It was beautiful, had lots of trees for shade, and had some good waves for playing and boogie boarding. Tyler seriously spent HOURS running and jumping on top of every wave that came in. He took body surfing to an all new level. The poor kid had sand in every crevass of his body and the worse case of sand burn ever, but, he sure had a blast!

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On our last day we did some shopping and went for another quick hike to see the Nakalele Blowhole. My parents were so gracious to watch the kids at the top. The views were pretty spectacular, and it was neat to see the water come splashing up through the hole in the rock every time a wave came in.

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The trip was definitely a memorable one. I was proud of Tyler for being brave and trying new things, I was proud of John and I for not letting the little stress get in our way of having fun, I was proud of (and grateful for) my family who stepped in and helped with our kids, and I was proud of Robby for being so good about taking lots of naps in his stroller and car seat! We really had a fantastic time. We did some pretty amazing activities, but the thing I think I will cherish the most is the time I spent with my family. I loved chatting on the beach, playing games, eating out, hanging out in the hotel, and having fun...together.

(and Spencer, if you're reading this...I'm still waiting for you to send me the picture you have on your camera of the whole group together. Why we decided to capture that moment with only one camera, I will never know!)