Aloha Tenth Anniversary Trip...

Can I start by saying how nice it is to travel on a plane with out kids??? We flew out Monday morning and I read, slept and watched movies on the plane. So nice! One of my favorite things about the Big Island is that at the airport you walk down a staircase to deplane, and then across the tarmac. I just think it's fun. The whole terminal is outdoors. Then we wandered over to the baggage claim where we were greeted with a Lei. After a quick trip to pick up our rental car we headed to the resort.

If you've never been to Hawaii, the Big Island especially, it may surprise you that this is mostly what you see...

Lava, and little shrubs, and more lava...Until you get to the coast or near a resort and then it is all green and lovely, just like you picture.

(the lobby)

We checked in, greeted with cold towels and a yummy guava juice drink and we headed to our room, checked out the view and then changed and hit the beach. 

(our view)

The resort we stayed at was the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, which is right next to the Hapuna State Park, so while just down the way the beach was crowded, our beach was practically deserted- so nice!

When we got back to our room the hotel had send down Champagne to celebrate our anniversary. After a little chat with the concierge, they send us down more of the juice that they'd given us at check in instead.

It was a week of amazing food- that looked a little like this... (click to enlarge)

My favorite Hawaii food would have to be 1.) Chocolate covered Mac nuts and 2.) Lava Flows- the yummiest strawberry/coconut drink. We ordered one everywhere we went.

So day one was basically the flight, and relaxing on the beach.  Day 2, we woke up at 5:00 am local time - we tried our darnedest to sleep in, but our body clocks didn't adjust. So we had an early start to the day. We ate breakfast at the Ocean Terrace with the most amazing food (and tons of birds who'd try to steal your food when you weren't looking)

We spent the most time driving around the island this day. We found a few shopping areas, and I was amazed by the beauty everywhere.  These were some of my favorite shots. The yellow flower was the size of my head, I swear! (click to enlarge) We actually had such a long day what even after a number of trips to the beach, we even drove into Kona to go see Knight and Day at this ramshackle theatre.

That night we went to the Mauna Kea Resort- next door to the HBPH for a Luau! It was a beautiful night, and a fun time. We received our leis from the cutest little girl, and had the best seats of not just the show, but the sunset too. (click to enlarge)

Waiting for it to start (above) and the sunset (below)  I took a ton of photos and videos of the show, but none of them really turned out.  We sat at a table with two couples from Australia, who were born in Denmark- needless to say, they had the COOLEST accent. And at the end, I got to take a picture with one of the guy dancers.

The next day was our actual anniversary.  We woke up crazy early again, ate and had the beach all to ourselves for a few hours.  (a 360 view- click to enlarge)

We wandered over to the neighboring resort for lunch and then did a little shopping. We got all ready to head to our big adventure of the day, a helicopter tour of the Kona side of the island.

 We were all ready to go, I was nervous as crap, but it sounded cool so I was being brave. We did the safety brief, got our life jacket pouches on, and watched the two helicopters land. We found out the first tour that was going to the other side of the island was being canceled due to weather over there. We were just about to walk down to the mat and they called us back and said the weather was too deteriorated on the coast for a good view, and the tour was canceled! BUMMER! (this actually happened to us 13 years ago too.) Glad they don't fly when it's unsafe, but it left us with a gaping hole in our day---so back to the beach for us!

We had made reservations for Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for dinner. It was so nice, the food was amazing, and of course, the Lava Flows were yummy! They dressed up the table, brought us desserts and champagne (I love the look on people's face when you tell them No to free liquor) and since we didn't drink- they brought us chocolate covered strawberries instead! Yummy food, good company and a great view, who could ask for more?

Our last full day on the island we took our time at breakfast, watching the bazillion birds trying to eat every one's food and listening to the waves crash outside the terrace. We headed to the pool, and read for a while and then moved down to the beach. I chased schools of fish in the crystal clear water for like an hour. I am way to easily amused. I loved that our hardest decision the whole trip was weather to go to the beach or pool first... We packed and wandered the hotel grounds and took a ton of photos. A lot of them in the same spots we had years before. 

Finally, we headed up to Hawi for out last big adventure. A Ziplining tour! I was super excited about this one.Once we got there, we met our crew who got us all geared up, and we chose helmets. Mine said "Queenie" and Rusty's said "Zippy". 

We were with 6 other people, who were all pretty cool. We drove about 30 minutes up the mountain in a 6 wheel drive Swiss army vehicle. That was almost as fun as the actual zip lines! They told us stories about the island, and growing up and it was so fun. We laughed a lot, and then laughed more. 

I cannot even tell you how fast the five hours flew by- ha, no pun intended. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done. We went over waterfalls, and huge canyons and the views! Beautiful! They start you out on small courses to get you ready and by the 8th and final line you have to run gung-ho and jump off the cliff and then do a running landing. I was having too much fun to video the last ones in flight, so I videoed two of our three guides. The first guy is a pro, he's also responsible for jumping out of the trees sounding like a wild boar, and scaring the crap out of me.  He was so funny. The next guy was on his 2nd day of work, and needless to say, I think he will do just fine.  The guy you hear talking was our main guy, his name was Shanon, but we called him 'Cannons' because he didn't have guns- he had cannons! They were so much fun. If you ever go- use the Big Island Eco Adventures company. Love love love. 

 After that, we drove back to the hotel, got our bags, changed and did last drive to the coast to watch the sunset. We went to Cafe Pesto for dinner. It was one of those hole-in-the-wall places with the best food (we also ate there in '97). Yummy. So, full, rested and relaxed we headed to the Kona airport to wait for our red eye. How cool is this airport? Yup, that was our plane! 

Thanks for an amazing trip Rusty! 

And a huge, enormous, gigantic thanks to Kelcie who watched our boys while we were gone! You are a Super Aunt!

Happy Anniversary to US!!!

Beck Family

Established June 30, 2000

Ten years ago today, I married the man of my dreams, my high school sweetheart, my best friend- and I couldn't have made a better decision.

So, to celebrate our TEN years and three kids, my hubby has taken me to Hawaii for the week.  Last time we were here I was 17, he was 18.  (I got to go with Rusty and my future in laws on his senior trip, it was so fun.) So I can't wait to get back!

Man, if you think we looked like kids in our wedding pictures, we're practically toddlers in these...

I could go on and on and on about the may amazing qualities he has, but if you read my blog often you know most of them-- so I'll just hit the highlights... He cleans the kitchen up every night, he does laundry without being asked, and when I do the laundry he puts it away (true love, right?), he is meticulous about taking care of our house, yard and the things we have, he loves our boys, he is the hardest worker, he is a loyal friend, he spoils me and he still loves me after all this time! Rusty, you are more than I dreamed of and I love you forever and always.

Quick Trip to Utah!!!

We were able to make a quick trip up to Utah this weekend to attend the wedding of Rusty's cousin Catie Beck.  We weren't sure if we were going to be able to go because we are headed up there again in a few weeks, but once we found out the entire extended Beck family was going we knew we needed to take the chance for them all to meet Brenner. You see, the last time we saw them all was last summer, you remember, when I was as big as a whale? So, they were happy to meet him and see the boys. 

It was a mad 50 hours-- chocked full of events.  We landed at 5 and headed straight to Thanksgiving Point, checked in to our hotel and changed and headed to the rehearsal dinner.  Catie married the nicest guy named Jesse and we were lucky that we met him back in November when we spent Thanksgiving with the Ron Beck family.  The dinner was Italian and at the Garden's at TP and did I mention it was yummy? Brenner even loved it. (On a side note- Brenner is totally on people food! No baby food for him. He'll eat anything I LOVE IT!) 

I was super excited that My boys were pretty well behaved. We had to go out and run/ crawl the massive grounds for a bit to let them blow off some steam. But it was a fun program and good time.  The part I was most excited for was Brenner meeting his Baum and Papa.  That's the name Rusty (who is their Oldest grand baby) gave them. So Brenner is their Great Grand kid (yep, I did the genealogy right there for ya).  Baum suffered a stroke last year and it means so much that she is such a fighter to hang in there and have a good recovery.

She just loved on Brenner. He smiled and got shy. But he was very taken with Papa's O2 tank and cane.  Every time she would see Braden or Berk she'd ask for the baby too! Love it! She's worked so hard to say Brenner's name and I think she's finally got it! I wish I could have followed my boys around with a video camera because I know these memories will fade too fast.

After the dinner we went back to the hotel and got settled in. We knew Saturday would be a long one! Since the adults were all attending the sealing, and Kelcie had to work, lucky Uncle Ryan got the chance to babysit ALL 3 boys by himself- for the first time EVER.  Add to that the confines of a hotel room, rowdy boys and a sleeping baby and he did amazing! Thanks Ry!

We decided to wake up extra early to make sure we had a chance to eat at Kneaders for breakfast.  Berk and Brenner both had a nasty stomach but the entire trip but even a total lack of sleep couldn't keep us from this place! Russ was the only non-lazy bone to come from their room so he got to enjoy too! Berk got the pancakes and shared with Brenner (who ate an entire one himself!). Rusty had the stuffed French toast and of course we got cookies and yummy bread to take with us.

{Make I take a time out at this point to say NEVER go on vacation in the middle of a strict diet! I was dying at every place we went! My breakfast was a yogurt and an apple---ok ok and a few bites of pancake too}

The wedding was at the Draper Temple. I've not been to this one yet since it is so new, but it was gorgeous and so special.  Papa Beck was able to preform the sealing- and I was struck by the thought that almost ten years ago to the day, he was sealing Rusty and I. He's such a sweet soul and he has sealed all the married grand kids. It is something so neat- and yet knowing Papa there were funny points too.  Catie and Jesse looked stunning. I wish I had taken more pictures of her dress, it was stunning. But I left the SLR camera at home and with it the charger for my 'purse cam' so I was trying to conserve battery for the whole weekend! It was sooooooo windy, especially up on the bluffs so picture taking was quite fun as we were trying to keep our hair out of our faces an our dresses from flying up!!

After the sealing and photos we headed back to Lehi and grabbed the kids and headed to my other Favorite place to eat when in UT, Zupas! I didn't get any pictures of the amazing feast because I was too busy chowing down on my salad and soup! May I recommend the Wisconsin Cauliflower soup and the Summer Chicken salad? Rusty prefers the Pina Colada salad, but the cauliflower soup is TO DIE FOR! Plus, they give you a chocolate dipped strawberry with your meal! How great is that???

We went back to the hotel and Berk and Brenner took a much needed nap (my poor sick boys) while Rusty & Russ went to help stake everything down in the yard (I told you it was windy) and Braden said, "I'm bored" about a million times. With a little tag team parenting I took Brae to swim and later Rusty too the boys to get Iceberg ice cream. We got ready for the reception and I had to take photos of my boys all gussied up.

First Brenner

And Berk & Brae would NOT give me a straight smile shot- so I got a whole lotta these...

The reception was in Highland in the Beck's beautiful backyard. The weather couldn't have been nicer (aside from the wind).  The boys got to meet even more extended family and see some Solomon (my MIL's side) cousins too! They loved the tramp- which is a hot every trip, but something about jumping in church clothes made it that much more fun!

The Beesley girls and Rusty's siblings took some fun pictures. I love ho Rusty and Ryan are about the same height and Jill & Kelcie too.  We stayed until the bouquet was tossed and then we had to head back. Both boys were sooo sick and I was out of supplies for them. So, we headed back and go the kids in bed. Rusty and his siblings went to see A Team and when he got back Berk starting puking and dry heaving and we knew we were in for another rough night. 

We woke up and took it easy and packed. We decided to kill time till the flight and we took the boys to Toy Story 3 in 3D-They loved it. Brenner did what he does best and slept through the movie. I thought it was cute and dang those Pixar people for making me cry! You've gotta take the kids to see it. 

After the movie we drove all over Utah Valley looking for a dang place to eat! If you've not visited Utah on a Sunday before, let me tell ya, it basically shuts down. Which is great for keeping the Sabbath holy, but not so great for starving kids! We ended up at In N Out in American Fork.  Then we headed to Ron's house again to see everyone and say our goodbyes. All of Rusty's Aunts (Robin,Chez, Marianne & Karen) and Uncles (Ron & Donnie) were there. The boys ran all over the now table/ dance floor free backyard. We couldn't stay near a s long as Baum and Papa would have liked us too- but we had to get the rental car back and get all checked in. Brenner slept the entire flight, and as soon as we turned the movie on Berk was out too. ( I am STILL trying to forget just how many foul diapers I changed this weekend- especially at the airport!!!)

It was a fast and fun (aside from the puke and poop) trip and we can't wait to get back to the cooler weather again soon! We also had a little Father's Day thing once we got home, so more pictures coming! 

Congrats to Catie & Jesse Finley!

What I'm Watching this Summer...

So, it is no secret that I love me some TV. And with LOST and 24 ending, I have to find some new shows to fill up my time when I am rocking Brenner.  That said, here's a list of shows you should be watching this summer...

Burn Notice

Michael Weston, how I love thee. You are like Jack Bower, but in Miami and, well, a whole lot cooler...Seriously, I love this show. It's only it's 4th season, so if you need to catch up add the first 3 seasons to your Netflix queue quick! Sam, is by far my favorite, although I love Michael's Mom in it too!

Royal Pains

This is just the 2nd season of this show. It's set in the Hampton's and it stars Hank who is a doctor.  I love his brother Evan R Lawson, CFO Hank Med, he says the funniest things and has basically no tact.  You have got to give it a try!

In Plain Sight

Gee, are you sensing a USA Network theme? I love this show too! It is about people in Witness Protection and the Marshall's that protect them.  There is always some quirky storyline and Mary (the main character) has the oddest outlook on life.  Love it. Plus, I love her partner Marshall- which is funny 'cause he's a US Marshall, so he's US Marshall Marshall.  Ha, gets me every time.

Of Course I'm watching SYTYCD

Oh man, how many times did you rewind the guy doing the Robot to the Fireflies song? I think I did like 7 times.  If you didn't see it, check it out.  Ah-maze-ing! And, it seems like everyone is the same genre. No big standouts like the ballerina, or crumper. I hope there's is a good variety in the top 10...

Wait, did you click the link and watch it? STOP, you HAVE to!

Ok, moving on. I'm watching the newest season of Deadliest Catch.

I am already mentally preparing myself for the episode where Captain Phil dies.  Horrible.  I've talked about my odd obsession with this show once before and I love that I am not the only one out there who enjoys it.

Well, I am sure my DVR will be stuffed full of useless shows for me to watch this summer. There are a few new shows from Spring I can not wait to see again in Fall. Namely, Life Unexpected and Parenthood.  And I am happy to have theses Summer fav's to keep me company. What are you watching?

One to End the Nagging...

{Kelcie- this one's for you. And NOT just because you asked for it, but more because you are gonna watch my kids while we go to Hawaii- and for that I owe you MORE than a blog post, but we'll begin with this...}

I can not believe it is June. So much happened in May that I am lumping it all together so I can get on to more interesting blog topics I have in mind (like Summer TV, vacations, crafts ect.). So here is a brief (picture loaded) recap of the last two weeks.  SAD, how much was crammed into the last two weeks, I am tired just looking back at the pictures!

First Baseball wrapped up and he had our end of the year party at "Coach Bob's" house.  There was a lot of this...

A little of this...

A number of kind words by the coaches and assistant coach (aka Dad)...

A proud hug by the Mom...

After the party our busy last week of school started and it went a little like this...

There was an entertaining afternoon with Berkley and his Mater teeth sucker...

Dive Camp for this Summer's season of Diving through the Town started... (B1 is in the black rash guard)

There was the first of MANY 'water lines'. They line up in the pool so they don't get cold (in 90* weather) waiting their turn for the board...

His first time off the 1M  board of the summer...

Berkley (and my niece Jaci) finished their first year of preschool and had a great party. Berkley can write his name so well. They had the kids all sign new aprons for the teachers and he did his name 4 times all by himself! (his name is right above his hands)...

And while he enjoyed this...

By far his favorite part of the party were these...

I've begun calling Brenner "Mowgli' (like from Jungle Book) because he crawls on all fours.  And, boy howdy, is he fast! It cracks me up.

My boys were invited to Jaci's 3rd birthday. It was their very first Princess themed party. So, they did their best to hang with the girls-including my other neices Yazee & Talia--at the party. Berk loved making his blue crown...

And Braden proves it is okay to be at a princess party as long as you are rocking Spiderman Tattoos...

Brenner was just thrilled with all the candies on the floor from the cupcake decorating...

Last Days of School. Honestly, that day was insane. I was in my car all day. Poor Brenner took both his naps in there! First was Berkley's last day celebration. They showed off counting skills, and Spanish skills, and a bunch of other stuff I would have thought was super cute, if I hadn't been doing this...

 trying to keep Brenner out of all the 'work'. Man, will he really start here in just 2 years?!

I snuck into Braden's class for a photo op with his teacher, Mrs. DoBrunz. She has been so patient with Braden and so much fun to have. Their class was so fun to work in and I really will miss her in 2nd grade. So, we said bye bye to first grade and we're ready for 2nd!

In other news, Brenner got a hold of his Uncle Ryan's size 16 (I think- they may be 17's) shoes and I had a brief glimpse of the house full of shoes I'll be picking up in the future. Brenner turned 9 months old and is 22 whopping pounds.  He is such a funny boy. He loves to clap, especially if some ones says 'yeah' or if you start 'patty cake'. He knows where it echoes, and makes this funny sound and expects you to too. He loves to eat and I love that I can feed him 'real food' now. It makes dinner time so much easier...

And finally, to wrap up May. This is where we spent Memorial Day. Swimming and BBQing with the Becks and the Solomons.  Brenner loved the pool, Berk and Braden especially. Rusty even ventured back into the hot tub- despite sitting on a scorpion just 2 days prior. And yes, I am still laughing about it...

So, does anyone wanna come swim?  

We're ready for SUMMER and all the fun it has in store for us!


{Kels, this better hold you over for a bit!}