Starting our last week here in Hawaii...

...and making the second trip to drop some people off at the airport for their flights home. Weather wise this past week has been an adventure in itself. Rain showers, Thunderstorms, Flash Floods, all have been making things interesting and a bit soggy...

At the beginning of this week we picked up Adam's friend Brandon. We took Brandon for a late breakfast at Eggberts Restaurant. Gracie had the famous banana pancakes, which were phenomenal. Adam & Auntie Michelle arrived the next day. The boys were off to have fun together and us girls decided to go get pedicures together.

Martin & I had our first couple's night out together at the famed "Beach House" which supposedly has the best sunset view on the island. The food was pretty good too, and funnily the waiter we had was from Seattle originally.

We explored many new beaches, the boys hoping to find some amazing boogie boarding and the girls looking for beautiful sand and easy swimming.

The boys wanted to go hiking and since I really wanted to see a waterfall I decided to tag along. Grace also wanted to come. We headed out fairly early to hit the famed "Kalalau Trail". The day seemed perfect for a hike and we set out on the 8 mile round trip. About 3/4 mile into it the heavens opened up and it started down pouring. The trail turned to mud and we plodded on. Numerous people passed us on their way downhill with advice to turn back. We kept going to the 2 mile mark and then decided the trail got too steep to continue to the waterfall part of the trail. Both Adam & Brandon ran up ahead and made it all the way to the 4 mile mark at the waterfall. We stopped at the beach and by the time we were 3/4 of the way back the two boys overtook us and beat us back to the beach where Michelle was waiting for us.

One of our last days was spent going back to probably our favorite, Secret Beach. Gracie had so much fun there this time. Our first trip there the surf was very rough and the waves were high. When we tried to find the famed lava pools described in our handy dandy guide book "The Ultimate Guide to Kauai" we struck out. This time surf was way down and lo and behold there was the most awesome pools just around the corner. This is where our little daredevil spent the day frolicking in the water...(video to follow!)

I am LUCKY!

I totally stole this from Stacy Julian's blog, but why mess with genius. And that woman is, a genius.

My lucky number is 7, so here are 7 things that I am lucky to have in my life:

1) I am lucky to have a husband that works hard so we can run our own business, which enables me to stay home and play most days. I am incredibly lucky to not have to get up each morning and go work a job I don't particularly like.

2) I am lucky to have a wonderful family. And even though we live far apart and spread out, there is great support and love every day to help me get through this journey of life.

3) I am lucky to have so many scrapbooking friends far & wide that share this crazy hobby with me. I love reconnecting with them every so often and following their every day antics via Facebook, Blogs and e-mail. I love you guys and miss you every day...

4) I am lucky to have a precociousus 4 year old who woke up this morning saying "Mommy, I have to show you something" and came to my bed with a handful of sparkly shamrocks that had been scattered all over the house and her bedroom last night. She didn't even notice the green milk. LOL

5) I am lucky to have hobbies that I love, including scrapbooking, cooking, watching movies & playing volleyball. It is wonderful to have outlets for my energy every day and to learn new things all the time. Recently we've been experimenting with vegetarian cooking and I am amazed at how much info is out there that I did not know about.

6) I am lucky to have awesome friends who throw amazing parties that we are invited to, so I don't have to...

7) I am lucky to have the cutest little almost 5 year-old for a daughter. She brings me joy every day and I am so grateful to have her in my life.

Christmas in Winthrop

Since my parents ended up spending the holidays in Montreal visiting my Grandfather, who had broken his leg just recently we decided to head east. After numerous discussions of when we would leave, (my hubby thinking as early as possible ie: Tuesday morning, when in fact I had Tuesday all booked up!) we ended up departing Bellingham on Wednesday at around 10:30 AM, which for us I must add, is quite a feat. With cooler, six-pack of wine, numerous bins of food, a huge cardboard box of presents and our suitcases we headed toward Winthrop. Of course there was a stop at the bank to get some cash for the road, a swing by Starbucks for the mandatory latte & scones and a quick detour to our mechanics place to drop off Adam's truck so it could be serviced over the holidays.
We arrived in Winthrop and immediately everyone went into Vacation Mode. Martin stopped answering his phone every five minutes, Adam was playing computer games, Grace hauled the contents of Grandma's toy box all over the living room floor and I went into last minute present production and wrapping. We were expecting Martin's sister Michelle and her boyfriend Jack, as well as my sister & brother in-law Melanie & Matt with their two boys Oscar & Riley. Grace was beyond excited to see her cousin Oscar and to play with him.

Grace did feed the reindeer again this year. She was so cute, called Grandma before we left to make sure she had everything to put into the Reindeer Food. Turned out it was a good thing, as Grandma was all out of tiny marshmallows.
We did a lot of unwrapping on Christmas Morning, playing games & cards, eating lots of good food and had a blast in Winthrop.

Saturday at the Farmer's Market

Today we spent the morning in Bellingham walking around the local farmer's market. It took a little bit of arm twisting to get Martin out but in the end the good food won him over. This was the second weekend in a row that we went.

Last Saturday I took my new camera and since the weather was so beautiful we all got a little dressed up and headed out. Any photos in this post will be from last weekend.

Some of our favorites are the crepes, chocolate croissants, pretzel sticks spread with Nutella, Sno Cones, Mallard's Ice Cream, Goat's Kefir and much more.

Grace loves to stop and watch the performers, whether it's the guy with the crystal balls, the musicians or a hula hoop lady.

Then she asked to have her picture taken with Daddy!

Then she shared her new favorite treat with Aubrey.

And finally on the way home we stopped at the car wash...

Second Visit to the Pumpkin Patch!

Well, since Grace's Cousins (well, they are actually the kids of Martin's Cousin Mark! So does that make them Gracie's 2nd cousins????)came over for a visit last weekend we decided to take another trip to the pumpkin patch. This time we went to McPhail's Berry Farm out in Lynden. It was a little bit colder and definitely wetter than our first time, but the three kids had fun nonetheless. Aaron, Grace and Landon got to ride the train and had a blast doing so. I tried to get them all to pose out the windows of the wagon, but no such luck. This was the best photo...

We took a bumpy ride out to the patch and since we couldn't really leave without some pumpkins each of the kids got to pick one to take home. Aaron found a really cute little pumpkin, Grace got a medium one, and Landon decided to wait till we got back to the farm and pick one out from the wagon. Smart kid, the ones we carried back from the patch were pretty muddy. YUCK!

As we were leaving the farm I decided to get Gracie to pose by the sign with her pumpkin. she wasn't really interested in that so a little bribing was involved. In order for me to take her picture she got to take some of mommy posing. So here are the results. Not bad for a 2 1/2 year old. What do you think?