I had a great opportunity to visit my brother and his family in Hawaii, just me and my mom. My sweet husband Jon insisted I take it while he spent a week of his vacation time watching our little ones while I vacationed in Hawaii. We had a great time! Here are just a few select pictures of all the things we did!

Here I am swimming in the pond where Kate finds the case. This is the botanical garden where we actually saw them filming Lost later that day. Jack, Locke, Sayid, and Kate all waved or sayed "hi" to us during the afternooon. We were in 7th heaven. Then we got an even better treat! Just Mom and I were standing on a path near the road in and out. Suddenly, a little white SUV stops and a girl jumps out and runs down the path to where we are standing...It's Kate(Evageline Lilly)! She noticed us standing around all afternoon and wanted to stop by. She asked our names, shook our hands, and even asked us if we were having a good time. She was the sweetest! Then she thanked us for coming and ran up the path again(in clogs), slipping in a bit of mud and had to grab onto her car to keep from falling down. We could tell she is good natured because of the way she laughed when she slipped. We were a little star struck that day!

Here is my brother Roland at Matsumoto's. The shaved ice was really good there!

This is Mom and I looking for rescue planes at the Lost crash site!My sister-in-law Joi and I at Byodo-In Buddist temple featured in lost.

It was the trip of a lifetime. I never thought I'd be able to do something so awesome with just my mom and I . Of course one of the best parts was to be able to see my newest nephew Liam while he was still only 7 weeks old. He is a joy to be around. Thanks so much Roland and Joi for having us and especially for being such great tour guides!

Sweet little Sam

My 3 year old son Sam loves his treats. He also loves sneaking into our bed in the middle of the night. We have a queen sized bed and he takes up a lot of room. Of course, only if you have had a kid sneak into your bed do you realize exactly how much room a small child takes up. Probably more than an adult I'd say. It's cute and sweet but it's been going on too long. So...my husband Jon came up with a deal. If Sam stays in bed he can have 3 mini marshmallows in the morning. Last night when Sam tried to sneak into our bed, I reminded him about the treat he would miss out on by sleeping in our bed. I guess he had his priorities in order because he left our room, got back in bed, and cried himself to sleep!

PS I'm hoping this combined with his staying in nursery yesterday and a few other things is a sign that he is getting over his "I'm a baby"and you need to baby me phase! That has been exhausting!

Happy Valentine's Day

So, I guess I am turning into a holiday blogger. I dunno...just busy. I do have a sweet husband who loves to spoil us on Valentine's Day. Not only did I get out on a date(dinner and a movie) but I got candy and flowers too. Well, all of us girls did...and of course Sam. He likes candy and flowers too! Oh, and I am spending next week in Hawaii visiting my brother so there will probably be a blog about that. That sounds pretty blogworthy to me!

Sam's 3rd Birthday

We all got together at Nana D's to Celebrate Sam's 3rd birthday. He was so excited and learned to show 3 fingers and say "three" when asked how old he is. The girl's woke Sam up on the day of his party by telling him that it was his birthday and Sam immediately jumped out of bed. I have never seen that boy move so fast! He got his dinosaur egg oatmeal for breakfast and then off to Nana's. Sam had a really cool Cars Cake with a real toy Lightning McQueen on top. He loved that. He also was totally obsessed by the pretend Camera Grandma and Grandpa Jim gave him and kept taking pictures of everything, especially his cake and presents. Another cool present was the enormous container of potato head stuff from us. We were happy to find such a great collection of pieces. Sam loves his "tato head"!

After the party, Mom told Vinnie, Alie, Jon, and I that we had to go out and leave her with the kids. After much time contemplating what to do we went to Scandia for some minature golfing and then to Fuddrucker's for some yummy food. It was really fun!

Misc. News

We have found Sam's shoes! They were not at Grandma's(we visited the day they went missing) and they did not fall out of the car at one of our stops on the way home. We were all too tired after a day trip to remember exactly who took them off and where but apparently our little boy was not too tired to stick his shoes in the play kitchen! They were lost for a week. I even ordered a new pair from Kohls.com. Luckily, we can return those!

My back fence neighbor went a bit odd on us and put up this monstrosity. See the wolf heads and the wolf claws(just below). The dragons are the final bit. I would have been okay with just the dragons but the wolves are just plain odd in my opinion. Plus, the whole thing seems not well done. Notice the piece of wood he has nailed to the trim! It's not even cut straight.

My brother-in-law Peter is going on a mission to Hong Kong soon. He just got his call! Congrats Peter!

I wore this sweater and each of my 3 brothers did as well. That was after the neighbor boys wore it and passed it on to us. It's from Penny's and apparently very good quality!

My Son is a pirate. Here he is showing off his muscles and Christmas tree tattoo!

Bekah funny

So we were driving home from my inlaw's house when the following conversation took place between myself and my 6 year old daughter, Bekah.

Bekah: Can you marry your cousin?
Me: No sweetie. Jacob is very nice but you can't marry him.
Bekah:(upset and pouting) BUT HE IS THE ONLY GOOD ONE I KNOW!!!

Our Holidays!

So I guess the highlight of Christmas was our new DS! Jon surprised the family with this. The girls got mainly American Girl Stuff and Sam got mostly stuff from "Cars" the movie. Nana, Uncle Ross, Uncle Vinnie and his family all came to celebrate with us. We were so lucky they could come to our house because Jon was on call again! Thanks everyone! My nephew Italo was adorable.

Here is Baby Italo with his noise making hammer! Insert evil laugh here. Just Kidding. Actually, we searched high and low for this because our Sam loved his so much when he was younger.

Oh and I got my Ruffles and onion dip which is VERY important. There were lots of snacks. Especially See's candy. We actually had to make a 2nd trip to See's because we ate some of the first box! It was a fun day!

New Year's Eve we headed up to Granpa and Grandma Jim's house. We celebrated with Martenelli's just a wee bit early for the kids who ended up staying up past midnight anyone! They did have fun though and that is the most important thing, right? Sam didn't want the Martenelli's. He went with milk.

We headed home on New Year's Day sans Sarah who stayed with Jon's family(grandparents, Aunt, cousins). Sarah left the next day on a trip to Utah with them to see a cousin get baptized and a brand new baby get blessed at church. I think she had a lot of fun. She keeps talking about her cousin Taylar having her own puppy. I guess that left an impression.