Kauai - Day 5

Today we kayaked down the Wailua River and hiked to Secret Falls. The adventure was fun but very tiring. We had to kayaked 2 miles, then hike 1.5 miles to the "secret falls" with 100 other tourist! Then hike back to the kayaks and paddle back the 2 miles. Jason and Nick kicked our butts going back in the kayaks. We then went to lunch for Pizza and Dogs at Costco. You just can't beat the prices (same as the mainland and a bargain on this island) and the views are the best anywhere. Tomorrow is a sight seeing tour to the Koke e State Park. The Hawaiian "Grand Canyon". Pictures to come.

Kauai Trip - Day 3 & 4

Today was adrenaline junkie day. Zip lining high in the tree tops and jumping off 25 ft. water falls! What a day to remember!! It is Jason's 16th Birthday today and we wanted to make it a great one. I think we succeeded. We started off zip lining on 7 zips. Nick and Jason were pros. We then headed over to Kipu Falls. We had to trek through 1 mile of brush but it was well worth it. It is gorgeous! Just what you think of when you picture Hawaii to look like. We all jumped off the falls and did the swing rope, even Nana. Cole and I realized today that we are not as young as we were. He hurt his knee and I almost tumbled down the water fall trying to keep up with the teenagers.

Kauai Trip - Day 1 & 2

Well here we are on the beautiful island of Kauai with Nana and Pop Pop. We settled into our condo and got a great view! We drove around and saw the sites. We also got to have a puka hot dog. We had seen it on the food channel and had to go. It was soooo good.

Jason Baby Pics

My mom was going thru some pictures I had sent to
my Grandma and found these little gems. Brought
back some good memories. This is our first family Christmas
picture. Man we look young!
This is Jason at the hospital
with a IV in his head. He was exposed
to Step B during my labor. We called
it his unicorn stage. He is so cute.
Just thought I would share them.

Cupcakes!

I love cupcakes! (Who doesn't?) My good friend Leslie, whom we bond in all things unhealthy, found a little gem of a bakery. It is "Let Them Eat Cake". Awesome bakery and well named. We ventured out into scary Phoenixville to buy all the cupcakes we could get our hands on. Among them was a Celeb of the Month cupcake. Yes, MJ was honored. It was a white vanilla cake with chocolate filling, white frosting, black jimmies around the side, and a sparkly glove on top! I am not making this up. Besides being supper yummy, it made for a great photo op as well.
.

Potter Madness

Since the first Harry potter came out, our family has been
hardcore Potter fans. As the 6th movie made it's appearance
so has the need for more Hogwarts crap in my house. We got
creativity cheap this time and made the kids their own "wands".
(Minus unicorn hair and phoenix feather!)

Nicks is made of Elm and
he dremeled the heck out
of it.

It took 3 days to complete them but they love them!

Can you guess our next vacation?

So we got invited to Kauai for a week from Nana and PopPop!

It is going to be over Jason's 16th birthday, so we decided to

take him and Nick with us. It's no car for his b-day but this is

pretty dang cool instead. He doesn't know yet, as he is at camp,

but we wrote it into our "from you parents" letter he will get at camp. I'm so excited to see him when he gets home. We only have 4 summers left before his mission so we are going to make this

one to remember. Snorkeling, swimming, zip line, and then over to Oahu for more fun. Thank you Nana and PopPop for the invite and we can't wait!

Ryan's 9th Birthday

We never do big parties for our kids on all their birthday's. Just on the big ones,
you know, one, five , eight, ten, twelve, sixteen, ect... Ryan thought he had to
have a big friend party, even told all these kids at school about it. Liz warned me
after she had picked him up at school telling her kids all about it. I quickly
threw together a "friends" party. Now of course they are mostly my friends
but they do have kids around his age who are also his friends, just not the ones
at school. It turned out we were both happy and he got his party.

Ryan with his minky
blanket I had Kelly
make him. He loved it!

He saw this cake and had to have it.

Ryan with my mom,
Grandma Hatch.

Ryan's Party - Take Two

Yes, I know it looks like we have a bunch of boozers in the jacuzzi, but it's kids
with ice cream in cool margarita cups. All above board, I swear!












I decided to get 120 snowball for his party for a great snowball fight. As I predicted, there was some tears.

















MJ decided to make a appearance. All of us girls loved the attention from him.