T minus 4 days....

Vacation is so close!!!! Elan has landed in Hawaii and reported back that he overpacked. The boys and I are packing our bags and watching fat flakes of slushy cold slop fall from the sky.

Just 4 more days and we'll be making ourselves at home in one of these beauties:


I have (I think) successfully navigated the complicated Hawaii campground reservation system and we have a spot for our first 3 nights:






It's a good thing they have chickens; we'll feel right at home!

Unfortunately, Drake is having second thoughts about the whole trip...he is afraid that a whale will splash water in his eyes....

When did he get so grown up??

Dolphin Eggs

Even after starting on cool foods like avocados and sweet potatoes, we somehow ended up with one of those White Food Only kids;
Rice
Yogurt
Banana chips
Crackers
Waffles
Cheese

In a moment of total desperation I stumbled on Shark Eggs!!
(an omelet cut with a shark shaped cookie cutter).
This quickly led to Frog Eggs, Butterfly Eggs, and Dolphin Eggs.


I guess now we need a quick biology lesson about mammals and eggs......

Union Chickens

After going in strike for the Christmas rush, the chickens are finally back to work and in full production!

Snow Day!

Another fantastic Big Brother quote

Driving into the zoo parking lot yesterday we passed the back side of a mysterious horned animal's habitat. I said:

"hey look what kind of animal is that? It looks like some kind of yak! What do you think it is?"

Drake said: "a main-i-yak!"


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Sharks!

The most amazing thing Ewan's ever seen (so far):

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It's a bird, it's a plane...ouch.

Of course the camera is never on when the good stuff happens.

In a desperate attempt to avoid watching 'Cars' for the 577th time, we decided to try 'Superman'. Drake has recently discovered the Amazing Spiderman cartoons and looooves Spidey (it's genetic).

Unfortunately, Mommy failed to realize that in the mind of a 3 year old, cartoon Spidey is not real but Christopher Reeves Superman IS real, so half way through the movie, Drake lifted his arms, yelled "Swoosh!" and dove off the couch.

Into a heap on the floor.

He stayed on the floor for a few minutes seriously trying to figure out what went wrong.

I guess we have some explaining to do.....

To be completely fair, Daddy (who is much more in tune with the whole superhero thing) totally saw this coming.

He is the one who jumped off a roof with an umbrella, after all.

I have SO much to learn about little boys and superheroes.

Baseball and Sunshine

Thank you Southern Stewarts for the tireless games of baseball and the much needed dose of Vitamin D!!

Dear 23C,

Thank you for the unsolicited advice, but we don't choose to drug our kids. Although we don't enjoy fussing and crying any more than you do (probably less) we also don't consider drugging them to provide you with a quiet airplane ride to be an appropriate choice.
As for you, 24A, stop whining because YOU are old enough to know how to handle yourself on a plane for 3 hours.
By the way, that crying (you know, when you covered your ears and muttered something about 'nightmare') was because we told him he couldn't kick your seat.....


Whew. Glad I got that off my chest.

Leaving Arizona, thanks to the Southern Stewart clan for having us.

A history lesson

The Greats in uniform;
Drake and Ewan's Great Grandpa,
Great Great Grandpa, and
Great Great Great Grandpa:









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Cousin Grace

The boys love their pretty little cousin Grace. Ewan is not completely sure that it's ok for Mommy to hold that other baby though.



Well, maybe it's ok.

Gloomy Winter Saturday

What do you do on a dark soggy Saturday in the winter? Build a basecamp!

First Word

Today when he woke up, Ewan smiled sweetly at me and said: "Louvre"
I told him he doesn't even know if he likes airplanes yet, so Paris will have to wait....


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What do you mean, it can't throw yet?!?

Poor Tess is annoyed by the baby's lack of hand-eye coordination....

A Story

I'm not sure I really understood the finer points, but it was a good story:

Making lists...

Not sure if you all know this about me, but I am a list-making fool. If there is such a thing as List OCD, I have it.

Now that we have a vacation to plan, I have a list of lists (also a spreadsheet, but we won't go into that right now)

-Things for Elan to take with him
-Packing list for me and the boys
-Grocery list for the afternoon we arrive
-List of hikes
-List of beaches
-List of great cheap places to eat (Loco Moco, here we come!!)

Here's where I've run into trouble:
-List of campsites

This is really more like a list of ways to confuse the Howlies:

State Parks
-open weekends only
-permit required by mail at least 30 days before 1st day of camping.
-no camper vans (but the van rental place suggests camping at State parks, and links to their site)

County Parks
-closed Wed-Thursday
-permit required
-permits in person only, no earlier than 2 Fridays in advance.

State Forest Reserves
-permits required, in person
-permits not issued during "inclement weather" (It's Hawaii; it rains EVERY DAY)

Hoomuluhia Botanical Gardens
-Fri -Sun nights only
-permit required from visitor center
-permits are free

Now, having lived for years on a small island myself, I totally understand the joy of confusing tourists. Many times a poor unsuspecting visitor to Friday Harbor was informed that McDonalds was "over the bridge and past the second stop light". (in case it's not obvious, no McDonalds; no bridge; no stoplights.)

But seriously...this is complicated! What happened to show up and drop an envelope into the drop box?