Workin' in the Yard

We are having our backyard fenced in a few weeks.  Unfortunately, it will cost so much to put the fence in that we can't afford to finish the backyard this summer like I had hoped.  We will have to do it next year.  So I convinced Clint to at least let me work on the front garden beds instead.

Our front yard has a pretty significant slope to it so the flower beds that were landscaped before we bought the house were a joke.  There was no way any flowers or bushes would grow on such a steep hill.  So Clint and I did this....

And the retaining wall is done! 

Can you believe we got this done in one day???  We were sun burnt and our backs were so sore the following day that we were both hobbling around the house but we are pretty proud of what we accomplished!

Easter

I love planning dinner parties.  Clint hates it because once I get the idea in my head I don't stop thinking about it.  I decided I wanted to do an elegant Easter dinner for my family.  It was pretty stressful but it was also a lot of fun to put all the ideas together.

I made lemon cupcakes with a chocolate flower sucker

I saw a picture for this beautiful flower arrangement online and I tried to replicate it but I didn't realize how difficult it was to arrange flowers.  My attempt was hideous so I had to go buy all new flowers and took it to my mom for help.  It doesn't look quite like what I had envisioned but it still turned out ok.

Another look at the table setting.  I added homemade nametags to the napkins and tied pastel ribbons around the glasses.

A closeup of my nametags.

The food.

We also took Seth to the Easter Egg Hunt at South Jordan City.  There had to be a few thousand people there!  But we helped Seth practice at the house for a few days so he knew just what to do when the announcer said "Go!"



He got a pretty good haul!



We had a whole Easter egg hunt planned for Seth that would lead him to a little basket of toys but the video was too long to post.  I just put the end on.  He didn't really even care about the toys.  He was so focused on finding ALL the eggs.  Sorry my voice is so high pitched and whiny.

Seth...the ladies' man

Seth likes girls. 

With his little friend Mia.  She is 2 days younger than him so they will hopefully have lots of fun together as they get older.  Isn't she a little beauty?

Seth might have found his true love though next door.  They both have their own lawn mowers and they enjoyed wheeling them around the yards last week. 

Random Seth pictures

A plunger.  Why is this a fascinating toy?  (Don't worry...it hadn't been used yet.)

He got a hold of my post-it notes for work.

Seth wearing my high heels.  He had to hold on to the table for support so he didn't trip and fall. 

It was annoyingly quiet one Saturday and I discovered Seth with an open cup of ranch dressing that had been sitting on the table from lunch.  I was mad but not mad enough to not take a picture. 

Seth doesn't want to sit in the stroller anymore.  He wants to push it everywhere.  And he won't let you help him at all.  It makes our walks take a little longer than Clint and I would like.

Seth decided he wanted Aunt Kaylyn to share her cereal with him one morning.  He even brought his own spoon!

I don't normally get much peace and quiet when trying to cook dinner but one day Seth decided to entertain himself.  Although it only lasted 5 minutes...

Day Care Cooties

In December I increased my work hours to 30 hours/week so Seth started going to day care every day.  I knew he would probably get sick again because he would be exposed to germs all day every day...and he sure did get sick.  I think it seemed like he was sick all December, January, and February with colds, an ear infection, a weird stomach virus....too many things to count!

Then in the last week of February I got a phone call from the day care that Seth got hit in the mouth with a toy and was bleeding and that he may need stitches.  So I rushed to the daycare to get him and surveyed the damage.  He had a big fat lip but the bleeding had stopped so we didn't take him to the doctor.  We thought it couldn't get worse than this!

BUT...the very next day when we picked Seth up from daycare there was a notice on the door that hand-foot-mouth disease had broken out at the daycare and to keep an eye on your child for any potential symptoms because the virus is HIGHLY contagious!  I checked Seth's hands and feet obessively over the next few days and by Friday when I picked him up from the daycare, the daycare director said  they were dilligently checking all the kids when they changed their diapers and no one else had gotten the virus so Seth was probably in the clear.

LIES!!!!!!  When I brought Seth inside the house 10 mintues later, Clint immediately picked him up and went upstairs to change his diaper (isn't he a great husband?) and he came back down and showed me Seth's bare legs.  He had the rash all over his legs and even worse in his diaper area.  I found out later from a friend who has her son at the same daycare and from a daycare worker the next week that more than 10 kids got the virus.  I was ready to let the director have a piece of my mind but they gave us a discount on Seth's monthly tuition so I just let it go. 

But I will say that the first night that Seth had the breakout was one of the worst nights of sleep I have ever had.  They say that the virus turns into ulcers in the child's throat so it makes it really painful for him to swallow.  I could tell Seth was dealing with that.  He woke up 2-3  times EVERY hour the entire night and would cry for 10-15 minutes at a time.  All I could do was just cuddle him all night and try to soothe him but the poor little guy was in so much pain! 

The next morning we just layed on the couch like zombies and he fell asleep in my arms.  You can start to see little red dots have spread to his hands here.

This is what his legs looked like on Friday night...how could a daycare worker be "obsessively checking for the rash" and NOT see this when changing Seth's diaper...I think the daycare director was lying through her teeth!

It even spread to Seth's face! 

This was taken on Tuesday morning.  He was almost not contagious anymore.

It's these sorts of things that make me feel guilty for being a working mom but he generally really loves it there and plays all day long.  He usually doesn't want to go home when we come to pick him up so it has to be more fun than our house!

Oahu - Hawaii Part 1

We have wanted to go to Hawaii for a long time but have never been in a good situation to go. My brother-in-law and his family moved to Kauai last July and told us we should come visit so we started thinking about it a little more. So with the help of two awesome babysitters for Seth (my mom and Clint's mom) and thanks to the 118,000 sky miles I had racked up when I worked at Arkona, we were able to take a trip to Oahu AND Kauai this year.

On the pier near our hotel in Waikiki.

Apparently even dogs can boogie board...

At the Pearl Harbor Memorial


On the boat heading toward the memorial that sits over the USS Arizona

The water that surrounds the USS Arizona is shimmery. They explained that it was from the oil that still leaks from the ship. As we looked at it, we saw some actual oil rise to the surface. There is still 50,000 gallons of oil estimated to be in the ship and if it all were to come up at once, Pearl Harbor would be facing an ecological disaster. Crazy.

I don't remember what kind of tree this is but the brown branches actually grow until they reach the ground and then they become roots like all the rest of the trees.

At a restaurant called Tiki's for Valentine's Day

Yellow Hibiscus. The Hawaiian National flower.

Our tour guide at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

The lunch buffet. It was much better than the pricey dinner we ate later on.

Waiting for the canoe show to start.

We played games in each of the villages. I can't remember what village this was but everyone started in a circle holding a stick. Then our guide would say "left" or "right" and we would have to move around the circle and grab hold of the next stick before it fell to the ground. If your stick dropped you were out. Obviously it got harder and harder as fewer people were in the circle. But Clint and I were the last two standing. Go us!

Another game we played was this weird javelin throwing thing. You had to try to get your stick into the circle. Clint came in 2nd place.

One of the few pictures we were able to get of the both of us together...the downside of not traveling with anyone else.

Clint's favorite part of the canoe show....the Tahiti canoe.

He liked that it was the only canoe of just girls.

Getting my "hula" on!

Clint was a good sport and even did some dancing. I think he looks so cute!

At another village we did some reed weaving. It was freaking hard! I pouted until Clint finally helped me make my fish!

Coconut climbers...

Our tour guide used to be a fire dancer in the Ha! Breath of Life evening show. So he was showing us some of his old moves.

At the beach in Waikiki on our last day in Oahu. Just hanging out before we took our short flight to Kauai that evening.

Kauai (Hawaii Part 2)

For the 2nd half of the week we island hopped to Kauai to visit my brother-in-law Shawn and his family. I liked this 1/2 of the trip much more than the 1st part.

Apparently roosters roam wild here. We saw them all over the place.

At Poipu Beach to snorkel and sit in the sun.

Hanging with my girls...my favorite part of the trip!



Getting ice cream!

On Saturday we all drove up to the north shore. There were a few of these one-way bridges where you just take turns driving across. You let four or five cars go and then it's your turn. Only in Hawaii could this happen. No one honks at each other. I'm not sure I ever observed any road rage. Fascinating.

Of course, if there is a bug nearby, the girls would find it and pick it up.
Shawn attempting to teach the "rookie" how to surf at Hanalei Bay.

I'm somewhere under the water....

Will I get all the way up?????

Yes. I will!

This is the best shot Clint got of me standing but I got up twice. The 2nd time I got up I rode the wave all the way to the shore. It was cool!

Fearless Heidi. She will do anything!

Clint and Shawn boogie boarding!

The sun decided to peek out at us as we were leaving Hanalei Bay.

On Sunday Clint and I went to Kapa'a and rented some bikes and rode along the shore. Best $10 we spent!

It was pretty windy as you can see from the palm trees in the background. But still fun.

There spots on the bike trail that went right alongside the cliffs of the shore.

Clint being....Clint.

After our bike ride we got some shave ice from a local shop. I have to admit, it didn't sound all that wonderful but it was so good that I didn't even think to get a picture of it until we had eaten almost the whole thing!

On our final day in Kauai, we went on a whale watching trip. These were the pictures taken by the photographer on the boat:

First whale spotted about 10 minutes into the 5 hour ride.

Spinner Dolphins

We actually saw them jump in the air and spin before going back in the water.

We went all the way up the Napali coast. The cliffs and mountains are unlike anything we had ever seen!

More whales!

I was pretty ready for this trip to be over after 5 hours...can you tell by the look on my face?

We went to Brenneke's beach that night and made fajitas and had a picnic dinner before Shawn took us to the airport. He forgot tongs for the wok so he used a stick...ha ha!

Beautiful Sunset.

A perfect way to end our trip.