Work in Progress

We had fun this Easter weekend. That's right, it's Easter for us all weekend long.

We went to the wild free for all Easter egg"hunt" at our city park. For the 3 years and under it's a blocked off section of the grass with candy and plastic eggs spread across the area. Pretty tough. They obviously don't know that Taj and Eden have been trained to find candy.
That afternoon we dyed eggs. We had two packs of dye instead of one so we put two pellets in each cup and the colors were AMAZING. S0 vibrant and dyed them quickly, which is perfect for our attention span.

The Easter Bunny found our house, and my goodness that Eden girl can find an Easter egg. She's got skills. I wish I had footage of her spotting the egg and taking off in a run for it. Taj did well too but once he saw her working it he started waiting for her to find one and try to beet her to it. She didn't mind though. What she does mind is when you take away her candy after her hands and mouth are full of it. Lesson learned.



While Easter is always wonderful and a special time I feel like I'm still kind of wrestling with balancing the pagan and religious aspects of the occasion. I hope to do more of the candy, hunting, silliness part of the holiday on Saturday and then reserve Sunday for the true meaning of the day. Food and Easter clothes aren't going to cut it. What do you guys do? We're still a young family and are looking for traditions to adopt. Anyone?

Reality Bites

We're heading back to Utah tonight. I know we'll be back to Hawaii someday, and I also know that we have a great life waiting back in Utah, but it still hurts. Here's just a small list of the things we will miss:

Goodbye morning walks/runs by the beach.

See ya hammocks.

We'll miss you toes in the sand while watching the sun go down.

Until next time neighbor kids coming by to play with Taj.

I'll be dreaming of you Storto's, Wailua Bakery, Sharks Cove Grill, Pizza Bob's salad, Kua'aina, ice cream shop in Hale'iwa whose name I can't remember, Foodland Sushi, Hawaiian Sun's, Bale's, Hale'iwa Eats, farmers market....

Laters surfboard that magically rides any size wave and fits into the turtle bay closet.

Goodbye local grocery store where we bump into people we know and love.

Was great to hang with you beaches where the kids played happily for hours giving Micah and I the chance to surf and relax.

Love you warmth and sunshine that gives us the chance to play, even in March, and tire the kids out so they sleep better than they have in months.

Hasta trees that Taj and Eden love to climb.

Oh, plumerias, tahitian gardenia, pua kini kini, we will miss looking at you and smelling your sweetness. I can't believe I didn't take a single picture of Eden putting them behind her ear.

I'll remember you always Micah's wedding ring that rests somewhere at Waimea Bay.

You are my happy place ocean so crystal clear I can see blue and yellow fish swimming around from my surfboard.

I'll stop myself because I could obviously go on and on forever and because some of my favorite things are feelings that can't be put into words. I feel so blessed to have had so much time here in paradise with my favorite people. I'm grateful for the memories we've created together here and the way this place is helping to shape my kids approach to life. So until next time Hawaii, Aloha oe.

Wordsmiths

Taj was trying to eat some pistachio nuts and asks, " Can you pistach these for me?"

Instead of tiki torches we get "tiki tortures".

Pretending to be a camel he tells us to "look at my plumps."

Eden is talking A LOT. I don't think anyone but us can understand her. Taj says she's speaking Spanish. One of my favorites is when she grits her teeth and says "Bee-bee." Then calls to each of us until we look. I don't think she knows she's as little as a lot of the "bee-bee's" she's pointing to.

She can say flower and points to them and then to her ear.

Instead of seagulls Taj says "singles".

Taj asked if the Holy Ghost is a scary ghost. We had a nice long talk.

Anytime we put music on Taj asks what the song is saying and why. There are some long car rides.

Eden loves to play with whatever Taj is playing with. She's learned a lot of words from him too. Poo poo, no touch, Iron man (with an Iron Man song), that, that, that, this, that... you get the picture. I love that she is talking more and look forward to the next new words.