Aloha!!

I can't believe our summer is already over and the kids will be back in school on Monday! I figured it is finally time I blogged all the fun we had this summer!!

We had the unforgettable experience of going to Hawaii the first part of June with my wonderful parents. It was definitely the highlight of our year!! These are just a few of the hundreds of pictures that we took! First is Rylee's song she wrote about our trip to Hawaii - that's right, our 5 year old is a songwriter!

We stayed on Maui for the first half of our trip, first at the Blue Tile Beach House that my cousin & his wife run! The kids loved it there, especially the beach! The played in the water for hours on end!!

We were able to go snorkeling at Molokini. Gunnar, Jessica & Kourtney also went snubaing (not sure how to spell that). They are all fish at heart, they didn't want to get out of the water!

My parents celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary while we were there, so in keeping with the tradition we toilet papered their bed! I have no idea when & why we started this tradition, but when we were little my siblings and I would toilet paper my parents room on their anniversary. We have tried to keep it going all these years, on the 25th anniversary we actually covered their bed in aluminum foil!

On the road to Hana there was a guy with all these birds - we couldn't resist stopping and getting a few pictures taken!

Cooling off in a beautiful little spring! Gunnar and my dad were the only brave ones to cliff jump!

Chad was able to join us a few days into our adventures! This was the longest vacation he has ever been on in his whole life!! He was a great sport for most of the trip, and he even admitted to enjoying himself - for those of you who know Chad that is a rarity!!

Rylee was so glad to have her daddy finally make it to Hawaii - he bought her this yellow laie & she was glowing the rest of the day!

The Luau was one of the girls highlights of the trip - it may have had something to do with these guys dancing around without shirts on!

I have decided that my kids get their love of the water from my dad! I love to swim in a pool, but the ocean is a different story. He spent hours in the water with the kids - snorkeling & teaching them to body surf! It was so fun to watch him play!

Thanks to our great friends, Cody & Tracey Bradford we were able spend the last half of our trip on the beautiful island of Lanai! It was amazing how different their island was compared to Maui. We were spoiled at the Four Seasons Hotel & we all hope to go back again someday!!

The first night there we met up with the Bradfords and had a BBQ on the beach & then the kids went crab hunting. I think my kids caught every creature imaginable in Hawaii - geckos, snails, all kinds of fish, spiders, crabs, hermit crabs, sea cucumbers! I'm sure I'm forgetting a few - everytime we turned around Rylee had another critter that Gunnar had caught for her and she had to carry around. She really wanted to bring a gecko home!

Miniature golf & croquet

The boys highlight of the trip was going deep sea fishing and catching a monster of a fish!!

It was my goal to get a family picture in Hawaii, I know that sounds like a simple task, but it really was ridiculous how difficult it ended up being!! I can almost laugh about it now:) Thank you to my mom for making this happen, I know it wasn't her easiest photo shoot, but we got some great pictures!! Here are a few:

Can you believe how the luggage we hauled around! It was exhausting!