Crazy Kylee

Yesterday afternoon we put Kylee in her room for a nap, and told her that when she woke up we could go to the park. I went to take a short nap on the couch as well. Three hours later, I woke up, and Kylee was in her room playing. She said, "Is it time to wake up now?" So we went to the park. After the park, we went to grandma's, but she was acting really tired, so we decided to go home and eat dinner. She threw a huge tantrum about going home, so when we got there I made her sit on the couch with me for a few mintues. Not two minutes later, I looked over, and she was OUT! We decided she must not have taken a nap in her room at all. While I was asleep, she was just playing. Crazy kid!!

Lately Kylee has been singing her new favorite song, "5 Little Speckled Frogs". She learned it at school, and when nobody else is around except Andy and I, she'll sing it at the top of her lungs. However, when other people are around, or I get out the camera, she gets shy. This is the best video I got.

Boating - Day 2

On the second day on the boat, my camera accidentally got left in the car, so we'll have to get those photos from our sister-in-law later. Here's one though. Kylee had seen photos of her cousin Branson going on the tube the week before, and she was really excited. She jumped on one tube with me, and Branson jumped on the other tube with his dad (Andy's brother Pat). They were smiling and waving and dipping their arms in the water. Kylee even tube-jumped over onto the tube with Pat and Branson. She was so excited! Then all of a sudden their tube submarined...and the kiddos went into the water. They didn't think that was quite as fun.

We also tried Wakesurfing again. We had tried it on the first day, and could get up and ride, but we couldn't quite figure out where the spot was that you could ride along and throw the rope back into the boat. On Day 2, Andy got the hang of it really well!

Boating - Day 1

Recently we've been lucky enough to go out boating a few times. Last year, Andy wasn't able to get in the water at all, and just had to drive the boat for us. This year, he was excited to get in and play. He got up on the Wakeboard on his first try! He's a natural!
Every time we break out the tubes, I have to remind myself that even though it freaks me out, it's also really fun. Here's my sister Connie and I getting ready to go.

If you look closely at our faces, we both look terrified!

Then Andy and I went together with my two sisters on the other tube. I decided doubles is WAY SCARIER! It felt like we were off balance the whole time, and it's a lot harder to hold on!

This picture says it all. Andy thinks it's hilarious to get flung around at really high speeds...and it scares me to death!

We also tried Wakesurfing. Andy's step-dad and his friends own a company that made this thing called a Vukii (http://www.vukii.com/), and it has controls on the handle that help you reel yourself in. It makes it pretty easy to get up. I just couldn't get to a point where I could let go of the handle completely, which is the object of wakesurfing. Andy got up on his first try, but he couldn't get to the point of letting go either.

Crazy Hair Day

A couple of weeks ago Kylee's school did "Crazy Week". One day they all wore their pajamas, one day they wore mis-matched clothes, etc. On the last day, they had "Crazy Hair Day". Kylee thought it was super fun!

ULCER

The day after we arrived home from Hawaii, Andy rode the ULCER (Utah Lake Century Epic Ride). It starts and ends at Thanksgiving Point, and goes all the way around Utah Lake. It's 111 miles total. He's insane! Next year I would like to try it as well.

Our Trip to Hawaii!!!

The first week of August was finally vacation time. We tried to go on a cruise last year for our 5-year anniversary/Andy's graduation trip, but that didn't happen because of various reasons. So this year, it was try #2 for a vacation. The Friday before my week off, Andy hadn't given me a 'for sure' answer about where he wanted to go. I decided to start looking up last minute deals and see what we could find. We found Maui! It was perfect. The weather was scheduled to be super warm, and Maui is where we went on our honeymoon, so we were happy to go back. My sister and her husband were staying with us still, so we left Kylee home with them for the week.
The first night, we ate at a local restaurant that had outdoor seating. The Lahaina harbor was near, so we got to see all the boats.

Another photo from our table.

The next day, we went snorkeling. Because it was a little windy that day, the water was a little more cloudy than normal but it was still fun.

We stopped at an overlook where in the spring you can see lots of whales. We could see down to the other end of the island, and there was a sailboat.

Maui is a big sugar-cane growing place. There were fields in various stages of growth all over the place!

On the second day, we went to another beach. The waves were too big to snorkel, so we just played in the waves for a while. Afterwards, I buried Andy's legs in the sand.

Random beach photos from Day 2.

Andy trying to dry off his swimsuit so he wouldn't drench the car.

Andy pondering life...

Behind our Hotel

One afternoon we went behind our hotel to see how the beach was back there. They had this really nice grassy area with lawn chairs, and the beach was down below.

We were sitting out there in the sun when suddenly I saw this yucky crab looking at me. Then, when I looked around, they were EVERYWHERE! Andy said they are sand crabs. They were kind of cool to watch, because they would go down to dig their holes, and come back with a bunch of sand, toss it to the side, and go down again. They work really hard!

Our Favorite Beach

We read the comment book from people who had previously stayed in our hotel room, and a few people suggested snorkeling at this beach, which was just a few miles up from our hotel. It was our favorite beach. The water was clear, I saw some really cool eels, AND I found $5 buried in the sand at the bottom of the ocean.

Haleakala Crater National Park

On Wednesday, we decided to drive up to the Haleakala Crater National Park. It's a crazy drive, because you start at sea-level and get up to over 10,000 feet. The mountain is almost always shrouded in clouds, so it was kind of scary driving up.

Finally we came out above the clouds, and you could see really far in every direction.

Almost at the top, there is this big observatory. Apparently, Maui is the third best place on the planet to look at space. They have one telescope that can see things as small as a basketball up to 20,000 miles away.

We were kind of confused about the purpose of the park, though. We kept expecting to see a big crater, but apparently it's just a bunch of small craters? It's basically just an overlook. It is cool to realize you're on top of a volcano, though.

Views off our Balcony

Our last-minute package deal stated that we would be getting a "garden-view" room at our hotel. When we arrived, we were very pleasantly surprised to find this view, right off our balcony.

If you look closely, there was a rainbow going all the way across the sky. It's very faint in the photo, but it was really pretty.

I took this photo while laying on my pillow. It was nice to wake up and see the ocean.

Hana Highway

On our last day in Hawaii, Andy and I went and drove on the Hana Highway. It was super pretty, but we decided that there is NO REASON to drive the whole way! It's too long! And then you get to Hana, and there is nothing there!
On our way there, we saw this view, and thought it would be nice to take a photo. Then right after that, we came around a curve and traffic was stopped due to a fallen tree. Everyone got out of their cars and took pictures. We decided if we had to get stopped, this was definitely the place to do it, because it was the prettiest spot on the whole drive.

This is just another view of the same place.

The reason this drive is so pretty is because the road is narrow, and you're surrounded by rain forrest. The trees all had plants growing all the up their trunks. Everything was really green.

On the way back, we stopped and hiked to this waterfall.