Alyssa Marie ~ A Year In Review

Marianne's Graduation

Congratulations Marianne! This Tuesday Marianne (Nathan's cousin) graduated from Stone Bridge High school, woo hoo!!! All of a sudden I wish I could list all of the awards she got in sports this year- but you can always check out the Bell Blog to find more of those. Suffice it to say she had an amazing high school career and her senior year was definitely the finale. Grandma Teresa and Jack came clear from Idaho to be their for her graduation which was fun too. Congratulations Marianne!!!

Bookworm

One of my favorite escapes in life is to read. For me there is really nothing quite like it. I have this image of myself sitting on a cozy couch engrossed in a book while some natural disaster is occurring around me and as the building starts to go I am completely oblivious, still turning pages. Kind of a weird daydream...hmmm...I should get out more...But back to books. It is summer and I am low on recommended books and that is a cryin' shame as far as I am concerned. So here is a call to all of my dear family and friends- any suggestions? I would love for any of you to share a favorite book, series or even a list of your favorites. I like a page turner in any genre so don't be shy. And if by some miracle I don't like a suggested book, don't worry, I swear I won't do a blog about it! :)

Gallery of VA Beach

Forgive me if I have inundated you all with pictures but there were so many fun things at the beach. Love the first picture of Kohen because you can see his reflection in the water. H. and I loved the 2nd picture because my, my how times have changed since the last time we were at the beach together! Here the boys were frantically trying to dig a big 'ol hole for the kids but they were playing beat the waves because each time a surge would come up it would fill half of the hole up again. It was kind of a neat moment where we watched our husbands wear themselves out trying to accomplish this (let's be honest, kind of pointless) project for their children...it was endearing for us to see how their focus has changed from themselves to their kids. The next picture is Eric and Nathan Boogie Boarding, followed by a hilarious picture of me after I lost a round with a wave on my way out to try Boogie Boarding. It is actually kind of funny, double click the pic to see it bigger- I had just inhaled my body weight in salt water (mmm, my favorite!) and I look like a wet cat all beaten down, sopping wet, ticked off and possibly willing to scratch someone if given half the chance. Next picture you will see that under Nathan's tutelage I was successful at boogie boarding...though I think I might have lost some points on form. The next picture is of Aly while her mom and dad were out boogie boarding and she woke up from her nap wondering where everyone was (don't worry, H. was on the job). The rest are self-explanatory though the second from last pic is the surf surging up about to touch Aly's hand for the very first time. Anyway, hope you enjoyed browsing my virtual album today...I am thinking I might have gotten a little carried away... :)

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Nathan! I picked this picture because it was not posed- Nathan was reading scriptures before bed one night and everyone piled on his lap and I grabbed the camera and took a picture. If I was to write all the ways and reasons Nathan is an amazing father the post would be pages long. And really, the reasons that I know he is a great father have to do with moments that I witness him having with his children that are quiet and special and I think that sharing them in such a public forum could never do such moments justice. Let it suffice to say that as a father Nathan exceeds my every expectation and I feel like if I never make another wise choice again, marrying Nathan was the best choice I ever made. Not only is he an attentive, caring husband- my best friend- but a better father than I could have ever imagined. Hopefully I will still feel this way 10 years from now when we have 3 obnoxious teenagers... :)

Virginia Beach

After Jamestown we drove an hour to Virginia Beach, Virginia. We promptly went down to the beach even though it was overcast and kind of chilly. This was our children's first time at the ocean and their reaction was priceless. All the kids were running back and forth in and out of the waves surge that would spread up onto the sand. I love the 2nd picture because Kennedy captured how they were all excited running all over the place, screaming and squealing with delight. It didn't take long however for Kohen (and Maile) to get knocked over and gain that healthy respect for the waves. Alyssa was beside herself, apparently wondering why I hadn't been feeding her sand her whole life and determined to make up for lost time. She wore a 'sand beard' the entire time we were at the beach (pic. 4). By the time we left the beach that evening the storm had passed, the skies had cleared and it was quite beautiful.

Jamestown

Jamestown Virginia is where the first British Colony was established 400 years ago. Sunday morning we drove over and went to what they explain as an 'outdoor museum' where they have Indian homes set up and ships like the ones the colonists would have rode over on and also a Colony set up. You can walk through all of it and touch and play with all of the displays. They also have people walking around or 'working' in period clothes and on period tasks. It was so cool! The indian encampment had corn that you could try mashing into corn-meal or flour (1st picture) and then inside each hut there were all sorts of furs (2nd picture) and things set up just as it had been. What I personally thought was really cool was that you could try tanning a hide (3rd picture). You used what looked like half of a large clam shell and scraped the fur off- it was time consuming but it really worked and the children really enjoyed trying it...and I'm not gonna lie, I enjoyed it too! Then we went down and toured the ship which was...well, a little short on square footage for the amount of time people lived on those things (4th picture). I got nauseous just thinking about an extended period of time in the belly of one of those things. Finally we toured the colony and saw a blacksmith, a guy fire a musket (10 gauge if you are wondering) and my personal favorite, Kohen trying on real 'dungeons' (picture 5) which he then refused to take off. He had other tourists laughing cuz he was struttin' around in his dungeons, barely able to see out from under the helmet and he was using this gruff voice pretending to slay dragons or some make-believe antagonist, with a grand finale of purposely knocking his head against the wall with his helmet on. Man, he had some lady laughing- classic Kohen. Such a cool place. I just felt this reverence while we were there thinking how amazing it is how this country ever came to be and it was actually really special to see where it all started.

Busch Gardens

Well, for as lucky as we were at the water park the next day at Busch Gardens our luck kind of ran out. Disclaimer: Ever since my skin cancer episode I have become even more crazy than I already was with protecting my children's skin so don't worry, I know it is nerdy that they have hats and long sleeved swim shirts on. Anyway, Busch Gardens was a beautiful park with lots of shade though on a 90-something degree day, shade only gets you so far. There were many fun kiddie rides and the children were really enjoying themselves for the most part. We had lunch while we watched a show that had performers which was nice; and air conditioned. Aly was unable to take a good nap so she wasn't her best and soon after lunch Kohen started crying and saying that his ear hurt. In the last picture you can see him holding his ear which made me feel so bad. Pretty soon the general consensus was 'enough'. We were actually there for 5 hours so that was pretty good all things considered. We went back to the hotel and called Rosie and she helped us to find a Dr. near by and Nathan took him in and got him some medicine for an ear infection. Then we spent a while swimming in the hotel pool which was really nice and refreshing. Later Nathan and I got to talking about how one of the unexpected joys of parenthood is watching your children have fun and enjoy themselves- but on the other hand it was so difficult to walk around this big awesome park and not get the chance to ride one ride for yourself... Our Conclusion: A time and a season for all things...

Water Country USA

We took a vacation with the Furni down to colonial Williamsburg and Friday morning our first order of buisness was Water Country USA, the water park of Busch Gardens. The children had all been up really late the night before and I was sure that the water park would be short lived because Kennedy and Kohen would be wrecked. Both Nathan and I were shocked when the children all held up great. No crying, no fighting, no whining. Just playing in the water and riding a few waterslides with the dads...for 6 hours straight. It seems like everything about this day was unprecidented. Including the fact that Alyssa took a 2 hour nap in the stroller- I could not believe that she slept so long somewhere other than her crib! It was fabulous and so unexpected! The park is really beautiful, surrounded by lush trees everywhere and they had really cool kiddie areas. They have nice life jackets for everyone to wear if they want which was great. Our favorite thing was this lazy river where everyone wore life vests and then just floated around, it was awesome! We could have stayed in there all day. Now, anyone who knows my kids well knows that they hardly ever sleep in cars, and if they do it would be one of the three and never more than one at a time. As we got the car packed up and got in to leave the water park Nathan and I look back and find both Kennedy and Kohen passed out! We hadn't even left the parking lot yet! In the Furniss's car it was the same- the girls wiped out as soon as they were buckled in. Kennedy was actually snoring by the time we reached the hotel, not even 15 min later. It was a surprisingly long and wonderful day. We were so grateful to have been able to spend it with our little family and also our dear friends.

A Little Too Quiet

H. and I were upstairs enjoying some peace and quiet (that's about all the foreshadowing your gonna get) as we got some snacks ready for the kids while Eric kept an eye on them while they played downstairs. Or at least he started out with his eyes on them until they must have gotten too heavy and he fell asleep. The kids who had been riding bikes in the garage started getting creative. They found the pop-up crib and assembled it enough to climb in and out. Then they discovered the newly purchased bottled water and emptied several bottles all over the floor (notice their wet pants), and then they used sidewalk chalk to display their art work all over the floors and on any unlucky item that happened to be in their way. Eventually H. and I's 'mom-alarm' went off due to the lack of noise and we went downstairs to investigate. We found a soundly sleeping Eric and 4 kids taking over the garage. We promptly put the kids in time out and then tried not to laugh as they stood there unrepentant, remaining proud of their handiwork. Eric was funny joking about how it was 'easy' to babysit so many kids and we could 'babysit' too anytime we wanted...just lay down and close our eyes!

The National Zoo

Our first trip to the National Zoo in D.C. was a disaster. Rosie was kind enough to take Alyssa for the day and I can't imagine what we would have done if we would have had her along with our crew of 5 and under. We drove to the Metro station stopping once so children could pee (30 min. total). Through a series of unfortunate events that I won't trouble you with, it took over an hour and a half for us to get to our destination Metro stop when it should have taken 30 min, 45 at the most. We finally got out of the station and we had to walk 3 blocks to the zoo. Normally that would be fine but it was 3 blocks straight up hill with Eric and I pushing 2 kids each in strollers and Halaulani lugging one in her tummy. Needless to say, when we finally got to the zoo 2 hours later we were all exhausted and I found myself debating in my mind if going forward with our zoo excursion was even worth it and weighing out the guaranteed meltdowns that all 4 kids would have if we just went home and took a nap. It is a beautiful zoo, I will give it that. Lots of trees and rare animals. One problem. The zoo is a giant hill. The further down you go the more work you are going to have to do to leave- an ingenious ploy to get customers to stay and spend their money on grossly overpriced food...I just know there are people at the bottom of that hill who went down too far and couldn't get out, and now they are probably in some cage labeled 'Neanderthal'...well, that wasn't gonna happen to us! We saw the main attractions, the Panda Bears in particular were unique and beautiful. We tried to take a picture of the kids on the statue of the ape but not one of them was cooperating. When I showed Nathan the picture his comment was 'If that thing suddenly came to life it would scare the crap outta them.' The thought actually gave us a good laugh. In the end the trip to the zoo took all day and we were exhausted when we got home. The children were actually really good all things considered. On the bright side if we ever have visitors who want to check out the National Zoo I will know I should just drop them off for the day...and pray they make it out!

Oh Honey...

For anyone who doesn't know my husband is a very intelligent, creative, problem solver. That is why the current condition of our honey dispenser has me befuddled. Not only did he microwave the plastic-non-microwavable container once but twice! The second time he sheepishly showed me the crippled bottle as he apologized for being too imatient to boil it when the honey hardens. Later when he saw that I had pictures and realized he was about to be 'blogged' he said, "I had to do it twice. Like when I was a little boy and I touched the car lighter twice. Once when it was red and then once when it wasn't to see if it was still hot. Guess what? It was." Ultimately I believe the tragic disfigurment of the honey bottle could have been avoided if I had bought honey that didn't harden so easily or maybe a container that wasn't so cheap. I am glad it wasn't a honey bear bottle...that would have really scared the children...

Night at the Museum

Today after church we loaded everyone up and headed down to D.C. Tangent: It is surreal to me that I can still remember sitting on a beach in Cabo San Lucas Mexico with H. and while our husbands snorkeled in the ocean we sat and talked about how we thought that soon we would be ready to start our families. Now look at us. With our three and their 2 (with a 3rd on the way this summer) all of us don't even fit in our van! So crazy. Anyway our little convoy headed down to the Museum of Natural History and went exploring. The children especially loved the Mammals section where there are all of these stuffed animals. When we first walked in Kohen looked up and saw the pouncing tiger up above and was pointing and all excited. Most of the fun was watching the children discover things and enjoy themselves. When it was time to leave (in other words: The kids were getting dangerously close to melt downs, see first group photo) we discovered that the rain this area is in desperate need of had arrived just in time to soak us as we walked to our cars. We had a whole fantastic picnic spread prepared but it was obvious we needed to go to plan B. Finally we decided to go home and have a Pajama Party Picnic and watch Night At The Museum (thought that would be fitting in light of our outing) and the idea was a hit! We were comfortable and dry on our picnic blanket downstairs eating yummy food. Tonight the 'B' in Plan B stood for 'Better'.

No Kids!!!

Eric, H., Nathan and Erin Starring in:

A Night Out on the Town Without Kids!

Princess Pajamas

I happened upon these adorable Princess Pajamas the other day for $7! I promptly called H. in Idaho and asked her if I should grab a couple for her girls too. Malia, Kennedy and Maile were so excited to have such enchanting gowns to wear to bed...and any other time of day they can get away with it :) Kennedy was so proud of herself because she stood her slippers on their tippy toes so she could be 'taller like Malia'. As you might guess my favorite picture is of all of the girls hugging the stuffin' out of Kohen.