Busy

I have neglected this blog and won't even attempt to play catch-up. Life is so busy for us these days that Izaac ends up falling asleep in his carseat and napping on the couch while I hurry to make dinner before the next mad dash to the car. We finished up the soccer season and silly me- decided to start karate for the boys and gymnastics for Ellie. If there wasn't 25,000 returned soldiers getting on and off post during the same hour I'm trying to get on/off for karate I wouldn't spend two hours in the car...I planned carefully so that we wouldn't be "over-scheduled." But 4 kids is synonymous with over-scheduled. I have entered the realm of never catching up...on laundry, on shopping, on sleep, on photo-albums, on life. And I love it- I love watching the kids discover their passions and their talents. I love it when Jaylon comes home and we have dinner together as a family in between all of the activities. Life is busy but so good and so fun.
Today was supposed to be my catch-up day. Jay was off playing at a friend's house and Ellie and Jax were in school so I had Big Plans, Lofty Goals etc. I was foiled by Izaac. I'm a slow learner. I guess I didn't realize how much I rely on big brother to watch little brother and keep him out of trouble while I'm getting ready for the day. I went looking for Izaac when I got out of the shower and he had climbed up on our kitchen table and was feeding himself leftover cereal and milk. Messy but not too terrible. So I put him back in his room to play with toys while I fixed my hair (5 minutes tops!) and then went looking for him again. He was having a party with a used-to-be-full bottle of syrup. His clothes and hair and my table and floor were soaked in syrup. He toddled over to the carpet and took aim at some legos after his bath. Honestly, he's my 3rd boy. You'd think I'd know better. Sooooooo, today wasn't a catch-up day after all. There's no such thing for me. For now.

Hawaii

We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary with an awesome, amazing, relaxing, perfect vacation in Kauai the last week in August. My parents were saints and took care of the kids for us. This is the view from our balcony. Every morning we got up and ate breakfast on the balcony and watched the sunrise. Loved every minute... Our first beach day and my favorite part of the island- the north shore. We snorkeled at Tunnel's beach and saw all sorts of fish and 3 turtles. We also saw a monk seal at Poipu beach on the south side.

We ate the most delicious gelatto in the world. Look it up on Trip Advisor. Oprah and all sorts of celebrities have discovered this little icecream/video store. He gave us an extra scoop for Jaylon's military service!

Hertz upgraded our car to a Mustang convertible. So fun!

Hiked on the Na Pali coast to the beach and then on to the waterfall. 8 miles roundtrip on muddy trails. The most amazing scenery I've ever seen!

Sunset at Poipu beach.

Waimea Canyon

Amy and Matt met us at the Honolulu airport for a short layover. So fun to see them and not long enough!

One day I'm going to go back and live in Hanalei, on the north shore. It's my favorite place in the world.

Mima Mounds

We tried to go on a hike this week and ended up at Mima Mounds- a wildflower prairie in the middle of the forest. Very beautiful!

Can't help myself...what would a post be without Izaac as the main event?

Happy Happy Day

11:00 p.m. Waiting for Dad. (Izaac is sleeping at a friend's house). Watching the plane touch down at McCord A.F.B. on the big screen. Watching Dad and the other soldiers turn in their weapons and do paperwork.

1:30 a.m. Conked out. Still waiting for Dad.

At last!! 5 minutes of formation and short speeches and then released to their families.

Not even Dad could wake him up...

Sleeping boys. Ellie cried. Mom and Dad couldn't do anything but smile! Hallelujah- it's over!!!

Getting reacquainted. Izaac is just barely warming up to Jaylon. He's made his dad work hard to win him over.

One of these days we'll get a good family picture with the patriotic clothes Mamie bought special for seeing Dad again.

Sike!

Ooops, just kidding. He's not on his way home. The army is sadistic. Apparently they are incapable of solving simple math problems such as, x amount of soldiers need x amount of seats on x amount of planes. So.... we're waiting and waiting and the waiting is indefinite. They psyched us out though- moved him to Balad. Kind of like when the doctor moves you from the waiting room to the next room to wait. Totally awesome for me and the kids! Gooooooo ARMY!

Track Club

Crazy Hair, Crazy Boy Ellie is signed up for track club this summer. She's not overly thrilled about track practices but gets pretty excited about winning ribbons at the meets. We've now been to 3 meets and we usually don't get home until 10:30 at night which sounds miserable- but all of us have a lot of fun watching Ellie and running around on the field. Jax and Jay even signed up to do a couple of races and I wish I'd had my camera to capture the joy on Jay's face.

Ellie's strong event is the 400 meter. She is one fast little girl!

Iraq Videos

These are a video tour of Jaylon's home for the last 11 months. Thankfully he is almost done and coming back to us!

Escape

Perhaps I was suffering from weather induced depression. I was. I loaded my kids up on a Tuesday and drove to Idaho. As soon as I crossed the border into Idaho I felt my spirits lift and I started smiling. The moment I felt genuinely happy was the moment I realized I have been depressed. And even though I love my parents and siblings and children- it had nothing to do with family and everything to do with seeing an endless sky and the sun shining and the fields rolling...no more dark clouds or suffocating trees to cage me in. I loaded my kids up and drove 9 hours by myself even though my mom was leaving the next day to take care of my sister and her new (gorgeous, creamy, chunky) Lovely Lyla. That's how much I needed to exit Washington. Can you sense the joy???

My "baby" brother Scott can boast the most pictures of himself. I think the same pattern is emerging in our family. I can't help myself. He is changing hourly and, well, I am absolutely enjoying every moment of his babyhood.

My dear Uncle Jon and Aunt Marilyn had us over for the day. We 4-wheeled and ate loads of yummy food and had the best time! Ellie was thrilled to drive herself.

Jay loved "going so fast my stomach hurt." I loved it too!