Ke'e and Rainbows

One day after nap time we ventured up to the northernmost beach that is reachable by car, Ke'e beach. It was pretty late so we decided not to bring bathing suits. This ended up a mistake. As soon as our toes touched the sand Avery was grabbing her shirt and trying to take it off so she could go in the water. We ended up having her swim in her birthday suit. She had a blast. It was so warm and nice out.


On the drive back to Princeville we saw a 180 degree beautiful rainbow. It reminded me of all the rainbows we saw on our honeymoon 6 years ago. We stopped to take a few pictures of the rainbow but none of them did it justice. We stopped at the Dolphin Restaurant in Hanalei which was amongst our least favorite meals, not terrible just not as good as some other places we went.

'breaking in' for fun

As I already said, our condo was located just before the St Regis in Princeville. We heard they had a nice beach with tidepools and such so we decided to venture into their territory and pretend like we belonged. I think we did a good job negotiating several elevators and misleading signs :) Our striped towels probably almost gave us away but as long as you didn't ask for towel/food/drink service at the pool they didn't care to ask you your name and room number. The pool was super nice, we did humpty dumpty about 50 times, and the beach was pretty nice too, just a little rocky. It rained a little on us in the pool but that didn't stop the fun.

dinner date

We went out for several delicious dinners in Kauai, some fancy, some not so fancy. We read about a little "Fish Hut" in a strip mall kind of setting in Kapaa and they had the best fish sandwiches. We went there twice because it was so tasty AND they had great, huge shave ice too. These are our pre-dinner pix.

Rainy Days

We had plenty of rain while we were in Kauai. One of the first days we were there we all got ready to go to the pool and as soon as we got outside it started to pour. Here are the before and after pictures. We ended up getting rained on while running, in the pool and at the beach a couple of times but by the end of the trip we had two perfectly gorgeous days.

Pu'u Poa

So we decided to rent a condo in Princeville, Kauai, rather than stay in a hotel. This way we had a kitchen for breakfast and lunch, washer and dryer, and Avery had her own bedroom so we wouldn't all have to go to sleep at the same time. As we approached the area, I said I hope the pictures were not deceiving that made us choose this place. We were definitely not disappointed. The condo was beautiful with the nicest kitchen I have ever seen. It opened up onto a large grassy area, then there was a cliff and a beautiful beach that we could hike to down below. For the first 2 days Avery kept saying "I love our new house". We had to gently tell her that this luxury was only temporary.

These birds were present every morning to eat in the grassy area. Avery enjoyed watching them.

Avery sitting at the kitchen table, where her infamous jelly bean counts were first held.

The view from the master bedroom.

Notice the ropes to prevent toddlers from falling down the several hundred foot drop-off.

Happy Disney

Two days before we left for Hawaii, we joined our dear friends, Deirdre, Ella and Charlotte along with Grancy for a wonderful day at Disneyland. We went on several rides (must-haves Small World and Dumbo among them). Deirdre was sweet enough to take all the girls on the Teacups, which make me so ill I can't stand to go on them, even for my sweet girl who loves the ride.

We then sat for the most lovely meal I have ever had at Disney, Big Thunder Ranch Barbecue, mainly because we were able to sit for maybe 2 hours enjoying each others company. A big skillet filled with a warm chocolate chip cookie topped with ice cream didn't hurt either. Yummy! It was such a fun day.

Avery loved the cookie treat so much she licked the plate clean, and I let her.

Pony Rides

Avery had her first opportunity to ride a pony at her friend Lawson's 3rd birthday party last July. She really wanted to but just couldn't muster up the courage. She talked about it for months afterward. We are fortunate to live near one of the best farmer's markets ever. The Sunday Santa Monica farmer's market features great food, local produce, live music and either a petting zoo or pony rides every week. Avery and Jon frequent the farmer's market often while I am working. She has many times requested to ride the ponies, they wait in line and then she backs out at the last minute.
3 Sundays ago, she let Jon put her on the pony and thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Jon stayed inside the fence and walked most of the time with her. These are pictures of her first pony ride. She has since gone each week and today I got to be there. She let the pony ride worker put her on the pony and we watched from outside the fence. She had the biggest smile. She always picks the same horse, the smallest brown one. His name, we found out today, is Chocolate. Avery and I also shared a delicious banana pancake, yum city!
I am now officially caught up with the blog, just in time for our trip to Kauai. I cannot believe it's been 6 years since our wedding and honeymoon. Scary how time flies. We love you, Jon/daddy!! Aloha!

Big Bed Time

Tonight was Avery's first night in her "big girl bed", now that potty training is complete. She was very excited as we disassembled the bed frame and lowered the mattress onto the floor.  We left her very cozy and now we are just waiting for her to fall asleep...

Funny and nice things

Avery's new favorite thing to say is "I have an idea, hmm.." and we wait patiently for her to come up with her idea.  She loves to read "Edwina the dinosaur who didn't know she was extinct". She has been fully potty trained for a few weeks now. She loves to love on Quincy.  She took some pictures of him recently. 

She loves to gallop. She loves her friends Miles and Ella at school and she loves all her teachers too. She pretends to drink coffee (which we don't drink...) from the same little stacking cups that my friend Deirdre gave to me as a baby gift. She likes to play pretend. She still doesn't know the difference between TinkerBell and the Disney Princesses, she calls them all TinkerBell, I pride myself on this one. She loves to eat all kinds of fruit just like her Daddy.

Disease or No?

For Easter I gave Avery a card with stickers to decorate an Easter egg.  She chose to decorate herself instead.  It looks like she has a skin disease but they are just a bunch of stickers on her belly.

Huntington Gardens

We recently joined our dear friends, the Browns, at the beautiful Huntington Gardens in San Marino.  They remembered a camera, so follow the path here to see their pictures.  We enjoyed the children's garden and a lovely picnic.  It was a beautiful day shared with friends.

Freetime

On the day Katie and I took Jenny and her girls to the airport to fly back to California, we left our 4 at the triplets' daycare.  Avery was a little apprehensive but was comforted by two of their very special teachers.  Miss Debbie and Miss Rachel are both so sweet and nurturing and Avery ended up having a great day at school with her cousins. She learned about the letter T and made a rainbow with a yellow cupcake wrapper sun.

While the kids were at school, Katie and I enjoyed some time in a pretty little seaside town where we had sushi and went shopping.  We enjoyed lots of time in the car talking.  It was our first outing together without our kids in over 3 years and it was wonderful.

Here is a picture of Avery with Miss Debbie and Miss Rachel on the day we left for home when we dropped the triplets off at their great little school before we drove to the airport.  I was so sad, as always, to leave my sister and her family. They are so precious to us.

Peacocks and Deer

We went to Aunt Patty and Uncle Chip's house the last night Jenny and her girls were with us.  They have peacocks and deer who come visit their yard every day/night.  The peacocks were there when we first arrived but they really only come up to the house when it is quiet, not when there are 6 kids running around and talking.  We did get some beautiful peacock feathers and we got to see how the peacock trap works so they can give the peacocks to another family.

We went to see the horses, they have many horses and they are so sociable, as we walked toward their pasture they all came toward the fence to check us out and they stayed even after they could tell we weren't there to feed them.  Avery enjoyed petting one horse in particular.

  The deer did eventually come into the yard to eat.  They were so pretty and graceful.

We enjoyed yummy cookies that Aunt Patty had made for us.  One last picture on the swing, where's Elliott?

  

Arts and Crafts

One morning, Katie and Jenny were kind enough to let me go for a run down the country road.  Katie told me to run to the 2nd abandoned house and that is just what I did.  It was a lovely run with lots of different things to look at and puddles to run around.  

When I returned home I found that all the kids had done arts and crafts.  Lucia and Avery were the last to leave the table.  We were cleaning up stickers from the floor for days to come.

Travels

Avery and I recently flew with my dear friend Jenny and her girls Kylie (5) and Kira (2.5) to see my sister and her family on the farm.  We had a great flight out followed by a 2.5 hr drive from the airport.  It was a long day but well worth the travel to end up with Katie and her crew.  Our first day there was filled with adventure.  We went out to the barn to see the horses and feed the goats.  We rode out there on the EZ-go.  Avery is not a fan of the EZ-go, insisting ever after that we walk anywhere rather than jump on the EZ-go.

One Gun and Pistol in the pasture, across the pond is the house

Nearly all the kids saying hello to the goats

We got to watch one of the Jones' boys get Bessie ready for a cow show.  If the cow wins the show they get more money per pound when they sell her at the end of the show. 

 The kids got to see Bessie do her business big time, this was funny to us city folk.

L to R Kylie, Jenny and Kira, Avery, Auntie Kate, Mazie, Lucia and Elliott

On the ummm, tractor?  with Auntie Bee, Avery wanted no part of this activity but the others enjoyed checking it out

All the kids got to pick a bucket to bring some food to the goats, Avery picked the big red bucket

It was soooo heavy, thank goodness Auntie Bee came to help

Kylie checking out the goats

A girl and her bucket

Pretty little purple flowers in the grass, we don't see things like this in LA, at least not at our house.

After the barn activities, we went back to the house where a big trash pile was assembled for burning.  We had ourselves a lovely bonfire.

  

Mazie, Kira, Avery, Elliott, Lucia and Kylie (note it is impossible to get everyone looking at the same time), patiently waiting for the s'more making to begin

Avery's first s'more, she sat for a good 20-30 minutes enjoying her s'more bite by bite while everyone else ran around.

It was a great day.

Good Five

A few weeks ago Avery added yet another step to our bedtime routine.  She pulled out her little pink stool and asked us to pay attention.  She was pretending to be her teacher at school and we were her pupils.  She started to sing "Good morning everybody, how are you?" and then told us to hold up our hands like we were giving the air 5 and say back to her "good five".  We would sing this back and forth.  I could tell from her face that it wasn't exactly right, I mean what does 'good five' mean?  But she insisted this was the proper response.

Jon recently picked Avery up a little early from school and we were able to ask the daytime teacher how the song actually goes.  "Good morning everybody, how are you?"   "Just fine."  Oh, of course, that makes much better sense.  That night we tried to sing it the "right" way and Avery made us say "good five".  And she thinks it's really funny too.

Other funny words of note are stefacope for stethoscope.  Quincy is Renty and don't try to correct that one either.  Quincy answers to either name now.  And oatmeal is "oh-pee-moe".  Spot is "fpot" and twinkle is "fwinkle", as in "fwinkle fwinkle little stah".