Lego's Grand Opening in Honolulu

No surprise, Adam being the adult Lego fan that he is couldn't miss the chance to go to the Grand Opening of the Lego Store in the Ala Moana Mall. Luckily his friend Eric, whose son,William, happens to be Ady's friend, is also a fan, and we all went together and Adam had somebody to be excited with him. (since I'm not exactly the kind to be ecstatic over this stuff) Here they are at the life size surf board exhibit that was being built out of Lego's. They even got to help build a block to go in the exhibit. Ady enjoyed it and liked playing with the Legos too-especially when she found the pink ones. Looks like Dad has a new friend he can count on for years to come to play Legos with him.

Update

Well this is just an update to the last few rather vague posts. First just to let you all know that I smashed down the yellow M&M out of Ady's nose during Relief Society, thankfully before she could push it up any further to really get it stuck. However she did have odd color snot running out of her nose for the next hour or so.
Next, thanks for all those who have been concerned for us. We are doing as well as can be expected with a pregnant ornery lady in the house. I am due April 9. I think the sooner that gets here the better. However, on the positive side, this pregnancy and morning sickness is different than the last(if you know about that, your probly still surprised we are having another kid). I've only had a couple of days where I was vomiting and been really nauseous--unlike last time where I was soooo sick and vomiting about every 30 min for the whole first trimester. I am still not feeling well, but its way better than last time, so I can hardly complain. Maybe the difference is its a boy? I am also craving food this time, which is great to me, since last time I practically had to force myself to eat and nothing sounded good. But now, I feel better if I eat, and I feel like I need something in my stomach about every hour or I'll be sick, so I feel like all I do is sit at work or home and eat. I am also very exhausted, which i don't remember being before. So I pretty much eat and sleep. Well I make it to work usually too. Thats another nice thing is that BYUH and my bosses are very understanding and happy for us and I have some saved up sick leave. Its almost like it's expected for you to have a family and work here--unlike Key West.
I still have to thank Adam for pretty much doing everything from the grocery shopping to the laundry to putting Ady to bed every night. I just haven't felt good enough to do much, and Adam just fills in with what needs to be done even while attending school full-time. I know I'm not an easy pregnant lady to live with(sorry too, Rachel), but hopefully this 1st trimester will be over with soon and life will get easier.
On a cute note, we did go to the Dr. and have an ultrasound, Ady got to come with us when the time came they turned out the lights to see the screen better and she was sitting on Adam's lap while they took the measurements. It was all quiet. Then Adam asked her if they were looking at her little sibling and she turned around, put her finger to her mouth, and told him to "SHHHHH" It was so cute. And the baby is normal with a normal heartbeat, and we are very happy for that.

Family News

Well I thought I could make up for the small quantity of posts recently with a quality post. You know what they say, quality not quantity. Of course Ady was very interested in the news.

Growing up and becoming independant

Ady is probably better with a computer than I am. This morning when I got up, I heard a movie playing and went into Ady's room. There was Ady sitting in front of a laptop watching Care Bears. I assumed that Kasey must've gotten it set up before she left for work. So then I called Kasey to ask if she had fed Ady anything. But when I asked Kasey told me that Ady was still asleep when she left for work. That means that Ady got up, turned on the computer, went and got a DVD, put it in, started it, and hit enter when the menu came up. Pretty good for a two year old I'd say. Makes me worry that tomorrow I am gonna wake up and find out she walked to the store to buy some candy.

M & M

What do you do when your 2 yr old sticks a yellow mini M&M up her nose in the middle of Relief Society?

4th of July

Well we had tons of fun this last weekend.  Being as it was a holiday weekend, Kasey got work off on Friday and we decided to start celebrating that day.  First we went to Honolulu and took Ady to see the movie Up.  We had fun and Ady was very cute to watch.  She sat in her own seat and didn't even move for about 40 minutes.  I kept checking on her and her mouth was open, eyes wide in amazement, and pure ecstasy written all over her face.  Then about 40 minutes in, she was so enthralled that she wanted to share with us and everyone else in the theater.  I felt a little tap on my arm and thought I would just ignore it.  But no, another tap, this one a little firmer, and then I heard, "dad, dad, dad, dad" about 15 times.  I looked over and asked what.  She whispered, "bird, dad dere's a bird."  I kinda chuckled and looked over to see if Kasey had heard.  But no worries Ady wanted to make sure that her mom knew she saw the bird.  "HI BIRD, HI BIRD, BYE BIRD, DAD DERE'S A BIRD, BYE BIRD."  Sometimes I am amazed at how loud Ady can be, the rest of the time I am amazed that she isn't being really loud.  Don't worry Ady doesn't discriminate, she also made sure to say hi and bye to the dogs.  After the movie we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and got home late that night after a very fun family night out.  

On Saturday had a barbeque and I grilled Aloha burgers with some friends. Then later we went to the store and bought ice cream and waffle cones. We eat a lot of ice cream at our house but never in cones. Kasey wanted ice cream cones so we decided to mix things up a little bit and headed to the store. Ady loves ice cream and we decided to just give her her own cone. She thought it was so cool. She could walk around and eat at the same time. She seemed so happy. However we aren't sure if she ate much. She likes waving her arms around and dancing when she gets really excited. Twice she dumped her ice cream on the sidewalk. Don't worry though, she quickly bent down, picked up the spilled scoop and put it back on her cone. but between the sidewalk and what you can see all over her, we don't know if she actually ate any. What we do know is she loves chocolate ice cream with brownie bits.

We spent 3 dollars at Walmart last year on fireworks, but due to rain never lit them. So this year we decided to get them out and light 'em up. First we walked around the community and watched as people who spent more than 3 dollars light theirs. Ady was pretty nervous for the first 15 minutes. But after a while she really warmed up to the fireworks and by the time we made it to the park to light our sparklers and bloomin flowers she was saying, "more, more dad, more pire lights pease, again, do again dad." Hope all of you had a great 4th of July.

Fill in the blank: Popcorn-opc=__________

Adyson has decided that she really likes popcorn.  She is also learning to talk now.   So she has learned to tell us that she wants popcorn please.   However, she doesn't seem to think that the middle of a word is all that important, and struggles with the "L" in please, so "I want Popcorn please" comes out like "I want porn pease."  Ya, so she kind of forgets the middle part, and it makes it sound pretty bad.  Normally we just laugh because she is 2 and we just tell her "it's popcorn, Adyson."  But the other day we are walking down the isle of the grocery store and she sees the popcorn and starts yelling "Mommy, I want porn, I want porn.  More porn pease Mommy."  Although it was pretty funny we were a bit embarrassed and decided that we need to be  more progressive in teaching Ady how to speak correctly.  Of course, that is being difficult so for now we just don't go down the aisle with popcorn.

Blogging is Life

Having just spent nearly 3 weeks with my husband off on his trip to Minnesota to look at a future business opportunity for us, I just want to write about a couple things. One is that I am grateful for internet and this blog, because we were both able to keep in touch and even see the others pictures and read the stories. I really appreciate a good thoughtful or funny blog. Blogging can be a good hobby. I think it opens a whole new world. Not only is it something Adam and I like to do, it can be a way to reconnect with old friends, keep in contact with those who are far away, it can be a venting means, it can be an aid to "keep a journal"; it can help a person express themselves. Great things can and have come from blogging.

The second thing I want to write about is although there are many things that could be said (good and bad) about blogging and what people blog about, I just want to thank all those who "Blog-Like-It-Is." I tend to sugar coat things--even in my own pesonal journal. I guess I just want to be forgetful of bad times or I just can't imagine to share something that could potentially be embarrasing to me. But a big thank-you to those who share real life-Iwa, Tara, my husband, Marie...just to name a few, there are more, but you know who you are. As much as I'd love to be a perfect woman/wife/mother...I'm not, and sometimes I just really appreciate reading about your crazy lives too.

BWCA Wilderness Trip

So for the last two weeks I have been driving all over the state of Minnesota, and I do mean all over as I have driven over 1500 miles, looking at resorts and similar businesses. I have really enjoyed my time up here and I love taking pictures of pretty things like this sunset. Well I have also taken time to look at schools, hospitals, proximity to churches, and local attractions. So one day I went and visited 3 state parks. This lighthouse is at one of the state parks and I thought it was a cool lighthouse up on the cliff overlooking Lake Superior.

Last Wednesday I picked up my Dad and we went on a 4 day Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness trip. That means that we spent 4 days paddling through lakes, carrying gear and a canoe from one lake to the next. Well we survived the bugs, the awesome thunderstorm and our canoe disappearing one night. That's right, the morning after we took on a crazy thunderstorm I got up and the canoe was gone. I looked around for a bit and finally spotted it way down the shoreline and across the bay. Took me a while tramping through the woods to make it around to it but we got it back and continued on. So here are some pictures from our trip. Lookout, this is gonna be long, so if you wanna stop here, feel free.


So our first day started out like this, the water was glassy and smooth. We paddled for 12 or 13 miles this day. Not only did we paddle for a dozen miles but we had to portage 5 times. And along the way we saw some cool sights like this Island with its reflection.

This is one of our campsites. I liked the wildflowers that were all over at this spot. One of the funniest things about this trip was my Dad. Every time we would make it to a new spot, he would get out of the canoe, find a bare spot of ground or large rock, lay down and fall asleep. Seriously, he would fall right asleep for a couple of hours, never moving. The first day I thought I might have killed him but when I got close I could hear him snoring.


Of course we did some fishing! We went out fishing one evening and we caught about 50 fish. We caught mostly smallmouth bass, which are my favorite to catch. We also caught some walleye, a dozen northern pike, and a couple of other species. It was so much fun.

My whole life I've heard from my Dad how he hates fishing. Of course he hasn't been fishing for like 35 years and never with me. Well he decided to give it a try. He caught like 15 fish that one evening and even allowed me to take his picture with this walleye. If you know him at all you know how hard it is to get him to take a picture. And I only had to ask once, he didn't even complain about having his picture taken. It was kinda funny when we started though, cause it started raining so hard and he looked back at me and asked "what do we do now?" I told him we keep fishing. He gave me this look like I was an idiotic weirdo, but he kept fishing. By the end, it was me having to tell him it was time to go since the sun had set and we hadn't even had dinner yet!

This is a waterfall that we paddled over to look at. This is why we had to Portage between lakes, most of them are connected, but you can't canoe from one to another sometimes.

This was how the trip ended. Our last night we got to watch the sky turn orange and then pink and then purple. What a great last 4 days. I can't wait to do it again sometime.

sand and water

We went to sharks cove last week and as you can see ady loves to play in the water...
and she loves to drink the water.

Ady loves to play in the sand...

and she loves to eat the sand.
I am starting to wonder if she is sodium deprived...I can't imagine how, but if she is, at least she getting it at the beach.  We tried taking a sunset picture after swimming and playing in the tide-pools, but really we just got in the way of the sun...too bad Dad is not here to take our beautiful sunset pictures for us.  We miss him! Today Ady was pointing to a picture of her Dad on top of the dresser, and she kept saying Dad, Dad, nice, nice, nice Dad.  Then she would lean over and kiss the picture.  I thought it was cute.

Adyson-self portraits

Ady is into taking pictures lately.  She always wants "my turn" on the camera.  Here are some of her latest shots.  If you can't tell by the next picture, she likes to hold the camera by the lens so she tends to get her fingers in the pics alot.  She is so funny cause she hold the camera up to her face and squints her eyes and says "Cheese." I think she is taking after her dad with this fascination in cameras-except she likes to take pictures of people and especially of herself.

The next pics are Mom's portraits of Ady.  I'm feeling good that I got a couple where she actually looked at the camera and smiled.  I wanted to get her hair in the one picture cause it really is getting so long and she is only 2.  According to my mom, I never even had hair until I was 2.  Wonder where she gets it from?  

Minnesota

Kasey wants me to post pics of Minnesota on here for those who aren't on Facebook. I arrived in Minnesota yesterday and spent most of the day traveling. But I did make it to Cabelas and had a great time there. Kasey always tells me that I make shopping miserable because I complain when I have to go. I have found a solution, if we go shopping at Cabelas, I won't complain at all. This morning I went hiking and had a nice relaxing time walking around. I saw some deer but didn't manage to get a picture. Here are some pics from my hike.This first one is just a pond with the sky reflected on it.

This is the Vermillion River. I spent most of my morning hiking along the edge of it. This river flows north, which is opposite to most of the rivers in the U.S. These two just show a couple of scenes from the rivers edge.


Here are the falls, there was quite a bit of water coming over them. They aren't that high but very dangerous due to the amount of water that goes over them. They used to have a professional kayak race through here, but after a couple of years of having several people die going through this section they now make you carry your kayak over the land and around the falls.

Here is the final picture, it is a bunch of lily pads on a bog near the river.

Puke

Ady has had a bit of a rough week the last few days. She has some flu bug and has been puking all over. She doesn't act sick, but a happy smiling kid pukes about the same as a miserable looking kid. Earlier this week, on Tuesday, Ady was playing and I thought she looked kinda funny so I asked her if she was alright. She nodded and I thought she must be pooping. I asked her "are you pooping?" and she didn't respond. Then her face turned a bit green and she unloaded all over the carpet and on one of our chairs. As soon as it was safe to get close enough not to be sprayed I grabbed her and hauled her into the bathroom where I put her in the tub. She was all smiling and chatting as soon as the junk stopped coming out. I began to undress her so she could take a bath and I could get the clothes cleaned up and was dreading having to go back out to the living room to clean up the putrid vile smelling mess. This was definitely one of those days where I was wishing Kasey was home and I was off to work. As soon as I got her diaper off I stepped out of the room to throw the dirty clothing into the laundry. When I came back Ady greeted me and pointed to a large turd that was right in the middle of the tub. I couldn't believe it, she waited till the diaper was off to poop. Her comment, "I tink, I tink." She doesn't put the "s" on most words. Groaning I shook my head in bewilderment and grabbed a bunch of toilet paper. Once I had the bulk of it off the tub and off her I tossed it in the toilet and flushed. I started to turn back to Ady when I realized I hadn't heard the toilet drain. I looked back to see that the toilet was plugged and the water was getting close to the top. I yelled stay to Ady and grabbed the plunger. Needless to say, that by the end of the episode I was feeling way worse for me than I was for Ady. We thought that was the end of the ordeal, until yesterday. We were at the Aloha Swap Meet and taking a break on some grass. Ady was running around a tree, stopped, came up to Kasey, and without warning puked on Kasey. Simultaneously two things could be heard, Kasey saying "are you kidding me!?", and me laughing hysterically. So I went and bought a 3 dollar souvenir t-shirt for Kasey to change into and then we got both of them cleaned up. Wondering if the 5 days between pukes was connected or just a random incident, we then had to deal with Ady puking all over her bedroom last night and then in her bed at 3 am and then came Kasey's favorite. She made a puking sound this morning and I quickly grabbed her and ran her into the bathroom. I made really good time and we got most of it in the toilet. However, Ady usually pukes twice, and sure enough after the puke came out she wanted to hug me and have me tell her it would be okay. Of course, I knew better and tried to turn her back to the toilet for round two, but I was too late, she puked on me. This time it was Kasey saying, "better you than me, hahaha."
Well enough about puke. I leave tomorrow for Minnesota and Utah for the next three weeks. I'll be looking at some resorts that are for sale and going on a BWCAW canoe trip with my Dad, and then flying to Utah for a few days. A couple of cousins were nice enough to agree to come and stay with Kasey and help with Ady while I am gone and we have had fun showing them around the Island before I leave. Here are some photos of a sunset from Laie Point.

Here's Ady and Kasey just enjoying the evening watching the sun go down and the waves roll in.

computer and word things

So we got a new computer recently--an upgrade from our old Apple Laptop...We are now realizing how old the old one was. We got it when we left USU--that is like almost 5 years ago now. It's amazing how slow the old Laptop is now that we have a new faster better one! We can hardly stand how slow the old one is. Funny how it never really bugged us before!

Laptop--That reminds me too of the sign I saw posted out front of our apartment. It read something like "2GH Dell labtop for sale" Yes, labtop--this computer doesn't go on your lap, it goes on your lab--just make sure that you have that specific type of dog breed or it won't work! I just had to laugh. We live in such a culturally diverse area where English is not the native language for many here.

Then that sign made me think of another time I got an email at work from a student from Asia...It kept saying NT Bae... It took me a while to figure out he was referring to the director of his program who everyone calls "Auntie Bae" (in Hawaii if someone is older than you, they are your auntie or uncle no matter blood relation)

Then I remembered when I was barely on my mission, I had written a letter to my mission president in Korean. I thought I had done pretty good and I gave it to my Korean Companion, Ahn Kang Mi, to proofread. We were on the bus and before she could even get half way thru the letter she was hysterically laughing on the floor of the bus because of my broken Korean. I had no idea what was so funny to her. But now, I am understanding a bit and it is funny to me now too--not in a demeaning way...but in a sense that when you learn another language there are inevitable things that are not picked up naturally and they have to be learned. It's just sometimes you have to make the mistake first and then learn from it. I really have to respect all those brave students who have gotten or are getting thier education in a second language. What a challenge to take on!

Fun in the Sun

We had a great pre-Memorial Day Saturday. First we went to the beach. We just went to a beach here in Laie. As you can see in the picture, it was beautiful day and the beach was virtually empty of people. I went snorkeling with some friends while Ady and Kasey played on shore. Then when I got back Ady and I played in the sand and took her out in her tube.

Ady loves floating around in her tube. She says "kick kick kick" the whole time and kicks her feet furiously but still gets pushed around by the waves. She absolutely loves it.

This is a small pool for Ady to play in. Seems she didn't want play in the big ocean, she just wanted her own pool.

Ady sometimes gets bored and likes to go exploring in the bushes. She loves climbing and playing. She was quite dirty and totally exhausted when we were done. After the beach we drove to Kaneohe and went miniature golfing. The golf course even had a small plastic putter for Ady. She had so much fun trying to hit the ball. She decided that it was easier to just pick up the the ball and throw it towards the hole. I don't think she quite understood the whole concept because she would go and get her ball and bring it back to the tee box and start over. The best was the one where the ball goes in a hole and comes out a tube on another green. She was so upset when she went to get her ball out of the whole and it wasn't there. Ady got down on her hands and knees, looked into the whole and started crying so hard. She was crying and yelling "My ball gone" over and over. We were with some friends and we were all laughing pretty hard. We took her down and showed her where the ball went. She was so excited to see it. She quickly grabbed the ball, ran back up the steps and threw the ball down the hole, and ran back to see it come out the tube. It was funny until we had to go to the next hole and she didn't want to advance. After the golf we went to the movies and watched Star Trek. We were completely exhausted by the end of the very fun day.

My Toy

Adyson's latest favorite words are "My Toy!" It is usually said every time that another kid is around and she has something(whether it really is hers or not) and she thinks she needs to let them know its hers and they are not going to share(whether they want to share or not). 

This morning Ady was riding her bike and the neighbors 9 mos old baby was crawling after her for fun.  Ady kept looking back at her and kept yelling at her "My toy, My Toy!" -- like the baby who can't even walk yet was going to come over and take her bike from her.  The baby just kept a crawling after her, and finally Adyson turned her bike around and rode to the side of the girl, mind you the whole time yelling "my toy" gradually getting louder each time.   Finally she leaned over close to the baby's face and yelled at the top of her lungs so hard her face turned red, "MY TOY!" and then rode away.   So I guess she is a little possessive?  Sharing lessons coming up for FHE.  

The pics are from her ToysRus outing.  She loves to play with the set they have in the store.  It's so nice cause it has a table they can walk around as they play.  As you can tell Ady is holding 3 trains in her arms and driving only one.  At least there are lots of other trains so other kids can play too!   She is also doing an amazing disappearing one leg trick for the camera...taking after the grandpa's.  

Overall buying a bike and train set has been a great investment for us.  Ady loves to play with them.  She also really likes her duplo lego's, and her books, but most of those were presents! There is one book that Ady loves to read-It's called Dr. Suess' book of Ridiculous Rhymes.  The first page asks "Did you ever have the feeling there's a zamp in the lamp?" and without fail she will always say "NO." Just on that page though, she won't answer any of the books other questions.  

 Ady also loves her movies.  She will watch anything with a penguin(Happy Feed, Surf's Up) or Kung Fu Panda.  She will walk around and stick out her leg and say "kick" after she watches "Nana"  (thats short for Panda).  She also gets very excited any time she sees a picture of a panda anywhere like in a book, or at Panda Express where she runs over to the picture on the wall and screams "Nana, Nana, Nana" over and over cause she is so excited about her find.  

One last thing I'll share about Ady is that she loves nursery.  The leaders say she is so active and fun to have there.  She is always dancing to the singing time music and always the first one up to do the actions for the songs.  The only problem is she doesn't want to leave with us and will continually wave and say "bye" to us when we come to pick her up! Ady is certainly one of a kind, and we love her.

 

Coloring Devil

So this morning I was working on some homework and thinking to myself how grateful I was that Ady was being quiet and actually letting me get something done. Often she just wants me to play with her and I don't get any homework done till after she goes to bed, or when Kasey comes home and I go to the library(also usually after both go to bed). Well I hadn't heard anything out of her for 15 or 20 minutes and thought I should check on her. This is what I found. If you can't see it look closely at her right arm.

Think she is such a cute little angel do you? Take a look at that face, the little devil. And yes, she used permanent markers so all those lines on the dresser won't come off. Trust me I've been scrubbing it.

She wants to make sure you know that she didn't just color the dresser or her arm, she colored her hands too. What are the neighbors gonna think, my kid is black and blue and I swear I didn't hit her.

Honolulu Zoo, Adyson's two.

Sorry for the picture overload, but this post is for the grandma's and grandpa's.  Last Saturday we took Ady to the Zoo.  We thought it would be a good way to celebrate her turning 2.  Turns out we were right.  It was so fun and Adyson was even funnier.  She kept saying "Hi" and "Bye" to all the animals in the only voice tone she has-LOUD.  Everyone around us thought it was pretty cute too.  We practically peeled her away from all the fences and glass cages to go to the next animal-which she loved just as much as the last!  

Ya know, as a kid going to the zoo was sort of fun for me.  Time went on, and as I got older it really wasn't at the top of my list.  But now I'm older and a mom and this zoo outing was great and even more fun than when i was little.   Kinda like how christmas starts losing its excitement the older you get, but then when you have kids it turns exciting again.  It's a different exciting, but I think i like it even better.  Watching Adyson be so excited about the little things in life is so fulfilling.  Its a good reminder that I should enjoy the small excitements of life too.

Here are the pics...hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed being there with Ady.

This is how Ady was nonstop...like she was glued to a TV Screen.  If she could have gone in she would have.  When we finally pulled her off, she'd make a monkey noise and put her hands on her shoulders.  She is pretty cute.Hanging with Dad and the Hippos
Leaning over the fence to get a closer look again!
So interesting.
Always pointing to the next animal
Look Mom!  It's the same guy off of Madagascar 2.
She didn't want to look at the camera to pose for a picture(taking after dad again!)...just wanting to see the "phant" as she calls them.  
Hug the glass more Ady...maybe you'll get closer. 
This is her favorite one...zebras giraffes and rhinoceros!
She didn't look back twice...
And there she goes!