Trip to Maui

Hey everybody, we are back from our trip to Maui and we had a great time. We went to Iao Valley, took the drive to Hana, watched the sunrise at Haleakala, went snorkeling and much more. I am gonna have to do a few posts to catch up on all we did in 4 days. I will post a few pics here and then more on each individual place we went on the Hawaii blog. This first pic is of us in Lahaina at the massive 5 acre banyan tree! That's right 5 acres. This tree takes up the whole park. I was teaching Ady how to climb the tree. She tried it out on a few smaller parts.


While we were in Lahaina we stopped on along the edge of the wharf and watched the sunset. Ady liked sticking her head through the slats and watching the water more than the sunset. Then we were walking along and all of the sudden Ady stopped bent over and tried to do a somersault! It was so funny, right there in the middle of the sidewalk.


We got up at 3:30 in the morning our last day to drive to the top of Haleakala crater to watch the sunrise. It was so pretty. We went from sea level to 10,023 feet and were above the clouds. Haleakala is an old volcano on the east side of Maui. Very cool. The problem is that it was so cold. The temperature was just a little above 40 degrees and the wind was blowing.

We took some small hikes and on the hikes saw an abundance of plants and flowers that were absolutely beautiful. This is just on of the many many flowers we saw. This is a red ginger.


These are just two of the couple dozen waterfalls we saw. The one with Kasey in it is over 400 feet high. Kasey wasn't even wearing her swimsuit but waded right out into the water. She said "this is the biggest waterfall I've ever seen and I'm getting in." It started raining right about then and we all got soaked anyway.



We took a chartered snorkeling trip and although we felt it wasn't as good as Key West snorkeling we had a good time. We saw half a dozen turtles, colorful fish, a small reef shark and beautiful coral.


This is us at Iao Valley State Park. The tall mountain by itself is called the Needle and erosion has separated it from the rest of the mountain. It was really pretty and peaceful.




Here are the final pictures of our trip. These were all taken on our drive to Hana and the Ohe'o Gulch. The one of the arch is when we stopped at Wainapanapa State Park. All in all we had a great time and saw some amazing sights. If you made it through this far in today's post wonderful and if you want to see more give me a day or two and I will be posting a blog about each individual activity with more photos and more info. Later.

Laie Days Parade and Grandma's Birthday Party

Ady loved the Parade. This is her when she heard the fire engine's siren and was trying to see what was going on in the street.

Ady really liked picking up all the candy that was being thrown out of the floats. Grandma got hit in the head a couple of times by flying candy and we all thought that was pretty funny too.

This is Ady waiting for the next float and more candy.

Ady got tired of picking up the candy and decided to just chill out and wait for the candy to come to her. Notice how big the pile of candy is. We ended up giving away about half her pile to other kids. She liked collecting it but we didn't want her to eat all that candy.


Here is a couple of pics of the parade and yes we have people on horses in parades here too.

Grandma VT's B-Day was on Sunday and we got her a chocolate haupia pie from Ted's Bakery. Ady really liked it. She couldn't wait for the birthday girl to have the first taste though. Look at Ady's fingers. She liked licking those fingers off!

Chatty Ady

These are some pictures with us on our hike up Diamond Head Crater. Diamond Head is the crater that you can see in all the famous Waikiki pictures. Supposedly it is the most famous landmark in all of Hawaii. We laid Ady down next to the National Geological Survey Bench Mark. The other pic is of Kasey and Ady posing with Waikiki in the background. We had a lot of fun. We went down to Waikiki afterwards and went surfing and played in the water. Then we finished the day off by seeing the new Batman movie. We were exhausted when the day was done. Ady has learned a few new things this week. This morning I was sitting at the table and I heard the toilet flush. I looked up a little confused and then I heard it flush again. So I got up and walked into the bathroom, while walking in there the toilet flushed again. Ady flushed it a fourth and final time just as I reached down to pick her up. Between the toilet paper and the flusher we keep the door closed on the bathroom at all times now. Ady has become really chatty lately. I'm sure that she is saying really neat things but we can't understand anything at all. Of course that doesn't bother her one bit. She just keeps on talking. Kasey says she gets it from me and Grandma VT. We're trying to wean her from her binky little by little but sometimes she talks so much that I almost want to put it back in. We really want her to develop her speech and all but sometimes it would be nice for a little quiet. Especially at church.

New Front Yard

Ady is so excited to have Grandma and Grandpa VT coming next week. Ady wanted everyone to see why she is so excited about her new house. I'm sure that she loves having more space and her own room but what she really loves is having the playground right outside. This picture is taken while I am literally standing in doorway. Ady will come to the screen door, point outside, give me that puppy-dog look that she does really well and plead with me to let her go play on the slide or swings. If I don't do it right away then she starts to cry. Sometimes I have to close the door or else she'll sit there and cry for 20 or 30 minutes. She likes going down the slide by herself now too. She'll push your hands away if you try to ride with her. Yesterday she wanted to swing but there was this other little girl in the baby swing, you know the one that has sides and kids can't fall out of?, so she was standing there looking sad but not crying and then she looked at the normal swings, tilted her head to the side and gave me this really cute please-dad-look. So I ended up on the swing with her in my lap and we swung(correct conjugation?) for 20 minutes till Kasey showed up. I think she could have sat on that swing for an hour.
We got some really good news yesterday. Kasey got a promotion. She is now the Fixed Assets Supervisor at BYU-Hawaii. So she got a pay raise and full time benefits. This will help us out so much financially and we feel very blessed that she has been given this opportunity. So we decided to celebrate and went to McDonalds to order off of the dollar menu. We bought Ady a double cheeseburger since she always wants her own food now. She was so funny to watch eat. She felt like a queen, sitting there in the high chair with her own sandwich and eating the same thing as mom and dad. You could tell she was proud. The really funny part was how she ate the burger. First she took off the top bun. Then she ate the pickles, after sticking her fingers in the ketchup and licking them a few times she decided to eat the top layer of cheese. Next she tried a few bites of the bun, then she decided to take on the two patties and the with the cheese in between. She made it part way through that and went back to the bun. She was such a mess when she was done but had eaten more than half of the burger and shockingly enough not too much was on the floor. We were just glad that we could sit there, eat, talk and not have her grabbing at our food. Of course on the walk home she did spill Kasey's sprite all over herself.

Little Monkey.

I wanted everyone to know that I found the missing link. Here's some proof that we did evolve from Monkeys. Ady climbs on anything and everything these days. We have to put the step stool away now or else Ady will climb right on top of the stove. It doesn't matter if it's her stroller, the couch, her walker or even one of us higher is better. Sometimes it is really funny when she gets stuck like she did here in the walker. One foot made it and the other got hung up-- good thing she is so flexible.

4th of July

We had a pretty good time on the 4th. After a long, long, long day of shopping for microwaves and junk for our new apartment we went with our friends Steve and Lauren to Turtle Bay Resort. The had live music, booths with food, games to play and of course fireworks. Ady loved running around on the grass and having a couple thousand people smile and wave to her. She loves waving to people now. Then when the fireworks started Ady jumped a little with the first one. Then she was enthralled. She didn't like us turning her away for the picture. She was squealing and squawking every time the fire work bursted. We even had her in a special onesie. It said "Little Miss Fire Cracker". Afterwards while we were waiting for the traffic to lighten so we could leave Turtle Bay we went down to the beach and lit sparklers. Ady thought the whole thing was very confusing and exciting at the same time.

Not only is Ady running around now and opening drawers and cupboards, she sometimes decides to get in random drawers. Kasey and I were talking and I looked down to see Ady smiling up at us from the bottom desk drawer. We went to Shark's Cove to go snorkeling and had a good time last Saturday. Ady loved playing in the water and had a lot of fun floating around in her ducky. If you want to see pictures of what we saw snorkeling check out the visit us in Hawaii blog. On Monday I was playing with Ady at the pool while we were waiting for Kasey to get done teaching water aerobics. They have one of those CPR dummies that just sits on the side of the pool and I was trying to tease Ady with by making it's arms move and stuff. Ady wasn't very impressed and looked bored until I accidentally knocked the mannequin's head off. The head fell right off and rolled to her feet! Adyson freaked out and I had to console her for a while. She seemed to think that I had killed it. It was so funny. We have moved and are now living on Campus in a much bigger apartment. Adyson gets her own room and we now have internet even. Life is definitely improving.

7 days till we move!!

Now that Adyson is getting into EVERYTHING, we have quite some fun taking pictures of her. These are just a few of the funny things that happen. This morning while her Dad was getting ready for church, Ady decided to wear her dad's shoes. Last week for church she wore her Teddy Bears' blue scarf. (Yes mom, the one that you gave her for Christmas that says her name). I think most kids have a blanket or some kind of doll they drag around. Adyson take this scarf everywhere, and loves to wear it around her neck, though most of the time it just hangs on her since she doesn't know exactly how to put it on. Anyway she thinks she look so cute with this scarf. She is also into leis. Adam got a candy lei last week for Father's Day and Ady has been wearing it nonstop. She also went to her friend Will's house and they have a bunch of shell leis and they were both running around drenched with them.
Also our microwave is a bit high and since we aren't the tallest people, there is a stool we sometimes use to look into the microwave, well adam was standing on it... so what does Ady do? She gets right up there with him. Standing on the stool looking up at the microwave even though she can't see a thing. I guess it's cool to do what Mom & Dad do, (not to mention eat what Mom & Dad eat). So today she was grunting from the kitchen so we walked in to see why, and there she was with the stool turned over sitting in it, and she couldn't get out. Of course Adam turned it into a push sled and was pushing Ady around before we got her out. Adyson has also decided to try dancing. She just yells really loud, and turns in circles while waving her arms. It is pretty cute. She is also starting to run. Anyway, we are just waiting for her to be able to run full speed and see what else she finds herself doing.

I wanna surf like Dad

Sorry this is actually last week's post but we have had trouble getting this to load. Ady's Dad has been taking a surfing class for the past 7 weeks and every Saturday he comes home telling Kasey and Ady how cool surfing is. I guess Adyson was tired of just listening and wanted to try out surfing. We wouldn't let her go to the beach so she had to settle for the living room. She really liked playing on the boogie boards. We had this really cute video clip but had to cut it down for the website. It is so funny. Ady is bouncing and squealing while standing on the boards. Use your imagination or someone please tell me how to load longer vids. Ady also likes giving kisses now. They're slobbery and wet but adorable. We are moving this week to a 2 bedroom apartment and not only are we stoked to have an oven and some space, but now it means that we have room for you to come visit! Remember if you want to see all of the fun things you can do while you are here click on the Hawaii preview to the right. You might also see some more cute pictures of Adyson having fun in Paradise.

Ady at the Maori Village

Kelsey came to visit us last week and we enjoyed taking her around the island. Ady got sick for a few days and then we all got the flu. But after we got healthy we enjoyed hangin out with Kelsey. Ady and Kasey took Kelsey to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Adyson really liked the Maori village and playing with the Poi Balls.

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day we hiked to Maunawili falls in Kailua. We had a really good time and Ady enjoyed being outdoors so much. She wanted to go swimming and jump off of the falls like everybody else. There was a ledge that we jumped off that was about 50 feet high. It was so cool. When you jumped it felt like you were in the air forever.

Chillin at the beach

We took Ady to Waimea Bay on this last weekend. She had so much fun. She loved the water, all the people waving to her as she toddled all over the sand. Kasey put her on the sand mat and Ady scooted to the edge, and began to pick up handfuls of sand and deposited them on the mat. Even with her small hands it wasn't long till she had quite a pile of sand on top of the mat. We gave up on keeping her out of the sand and decided maybe we could at least keep the mat somewhat clean and moved her to the sand. She loved it and kept on picking up handfuls and dropping them again. Ady really liked playing in the surf and having the waves come up around her knees. If you want to see pics of us jumping off the big rock check out our Hawaii blog to the right.

Time marches on

Yes, Adyson has hair!!

To answer Emma's question: Here is the picture of all the stuff that was available for Adyson to choose. I can't even remember what it all was, but I'll give out what i do remember. Some of it is traditional, some is not. 1. Cell Phone: Means you will be contemporary. 2. Thread: Will have long life. 3. Ball: Coordinated and Athletic. 4. Calculator: Good with numbers and math 5. Money: Will be rich( or marry someone who is) 6. Computer Mouse: A tech savvy person. 7: Book: Smart person. and that is all I remember and actually I'm probly not 100% correct, but I do remember that all the parents want their kids to pick the money. Actually you can probly just put anything out you want and make something up. So Emma, I guess you can just put a spoon in the mix and if she picks it she can be a chef!

Well this blog has been all about Adyson as of lately, so I will add a few things about life in the lives of "Married Students with a Child." Adam has been busy with school, his hardest class this semester is English315. He has to read & write about a bunch of stuff like Shakespeare and other tragedies (Glad it's not me) And although that is his hardest, the competition is tight between that and his next hardest class: Surfing. It is so much harder than it looks! Really he is lucky he got into the class. But we're happy that he can try and learn to surf, and maybe he'll be able to teach me too, (if he ever learns) ( and anyone else who wants to come try...hint hint.) Adam also got awarded a departmental scholarship and a private scholarship for the next school year which we are very grateful for helping lift the cost of continuously raising tuition. (and glad that he is so good at writing essays that they would choose his)
As for me I am still enjoying my job, now I am training 4 new student workers to do what I just learned to do, so hopefully soon I can start a new position that was created in my office. I'm still waiting for the slow process of Human Resources and opening the position up though.
Other than that, an opening came thru at the Campus's Housing, but we have to fill our off-campus housing till the end of june to be able to move now into the nicer, bigger, and cheaper housing that BYUH provides. Wish us luck!

Ady has a new hobby--pushing her own stroller. She doesn't like to ride in it anymore, she wants to be behind it pushing. Problem is that she can't steer very well. Sometimes she just goes around in circles! Enjoy the clip.

Adyson's first Birthday!!

Ady's party was a blast. She put her foot in the cake while we taking the picture! She had tons of fun unwrapping the presents. We ate a lot of cake, ice cream and finger Jello. She was so happy and cheerful during the party. We also did the traditional Korean thing-you put a bunch of stuff in front of the baby and which one they pick tells how their future will turn out. Ady picked the ball. That means she will be coordinated and athletic! Anyway it was great fun! We missed every one who couldn't make it.

Hangin out with Dad

We were at the student center watching the Jazz game, and Kasey looked over at Ady and found her sitting like this. Before I go on further, stop blaming me for not noticing, the game was really close at the end. Anyway, Ady had been sitting next to me and decided she wanted a different seat. So she climbed up on the arm rests and just sat there. Lately she has been trying to climb on everything. Now she just walks everywhere. She has decided walking is far more efficient than crawling. It's really funny when she pushes our hands away because she wants to do it herself.

Play Time!

Ady has a new favorite way to pass the time. She loves going to the park and playing on the slide and in the swing. We are having a party this Friday for Ady's one year birthday. You're all invited! We'll be having cake and ice cream. She decided last Sunday that she could walk. Literally it was like she just decided. Now she walks everywhere. Everyday she has a big fall though. Thursday she had a big bump on her head after she fell flat on her face.

"I wanna go outside"

Adyson is more fun everyday. She is getting into everything! The other day she wanted my snorkel so I showed her how to put it on and she thought she was hot stuff. She was giggling and showing off. Everyday she goes to the door, points outside and squeals. She just loves being outside. Sometimes she'll see other kids out playing in the street or something and will just squeal and squeal pointing outside. We bought her a birthday present last week. Don't tell her, but we got her a forward facing car seat at a swap meet for 5 dollars. She just hates sitting in the back by herself looking out the rear windshield.

Ady in the Spring

Basically we are very busy keeping up with Adyson. She is almost 1 year old-How time has flown by for us! I don't know what we would do without her now. She definitely keeps us up and going and is the entertainment part of our lives. She is waving bye-bye really good now. During one of Adams class Adyson goes to her friend So-eul's house. (Her dad was AP in my Mission) and she is always happy to play with her. She gets there and goes straight in and then waves bye-bye to her dad, her eyes saying "ok-you can leave now so I can play" Its very cute. She is definitely a Daddy's girl now since she spends so much time with him while I work. She is also getting brave and trying to walk but usually falls after 2-3 steps. She is also actually making noise when she claps now too.
Adam is just now starting his finals and getting all his semester projects and reports turned in. He is getting straight A's. I am not sure the exact reason, but here are my top 5 guesses
1. He has figured out how and that you have to jump thru the loops of school
2. He has brain washed his teachers into thinking he's a great student
3. He is doing his homework before the last minute before its due
4. He is finally taking education seriously now that he has a kid.
5. He is in remorse for not taking education more seriously when he just had a wife.
Actually I am very proud of him and glad that he is working hard and succeeding at school. It makes me happier when I am working to support us. I am enjoying my job. Sometimes I don't feel like I have enough to do, but I don't think that will be a problem for long. On top of my normal general ledger and reconciliation duties, they keep giving me more things to do. I just got assigned to be purchasing director in my office, and right now I am reading scholarship essays and I get to input on who gets what scholarships. It is taking a lot of reading about everyones sob-story and why they need the scholarship. Even though it gets redundant, it does make me grateful that I have not experienced what a lot of the foreign students here from 3rd world countries and such have had to go thru and the difficulties they still face.
On a good note though, my boss pulled me in the office a couple days ago and told me that there would soon be a staff position open and that I should apply for it. I guess that means she likes me. This is good because then I will not be a temporary employee anymore and I will get benefits!

First Steps!!!

Last night Ady took her first steps! She took a couple of steps and then plopped down. We clapped and so did she. She has been testing the walking thing for a bit now and is really getting brave. She loves walking around the room using the walls and things to hang on to. But occasionally now she'll let go for a second and move from one object to another without help. Next time you see her she'll be walking all over.

"look mom, no hands"

Ady has picked up a few new tricks. The first one is standing up. Look closely, you'll see that she is sitting on a basketball. She thinks that the basketball is hers. So it was in her crib and she started sitting on it and pretty soon she got bolder and we noticed that she was standing next to it. Now she tries to stand up all the time. She can stay up for about 5 seconds and then she starts waving her arms, and falls over. We laugh at her and she claps.
The other new trick is she has figured out how to open our phones. She loves how they beep when she pushes buttons. She even hits send once in a while and once called Kasey which was the last number I had dialed. So if you get a call from one of us and there is no one there say "hi Ady!"

Basketball is Life!!

If you wanted to know what we are happy and exited about... it would be basketball. We just went to the last game the BYUH Seasiders played (Ady even got into cheering with her pom pom thingy)...we are so far undefeated in basketball intramurals for both the Mens and Womens teams in our wards...the USU Aggies just won Boise State...the Jazz won again and are looking good...and of course its just the beginning of March and that means there is a lot more Basketball to come. Just for those who are wondering we still have our "Show me the Title" poster up on our wall. And actually I can only take so much talk about basketball so any of you guys who want to call and talk sports with Adam I'd be grateful!