Winter’s Day

Just an average winter’s day out in the yard, collecting leaves and eating them.   These two love to be outdoors, and for Seth, sometimes that means just sitting in the middle of a big pile of leaves and munching away.

These pictures almost look like a comic strip in need of captions.    You can see Kaelan trying to explain that leaves are not good for the digestive tract.   That doesn’t appear to phase him, so she moves right into the “dogs pee on those things” lesson.   That really doesn’t work either, but the “mom is watching you like a hawk” thing usually works. 

   

Citizen of the Month/Quarter

Who was chosen to not only be citizen of the month, but later citizen of the quarter????

this gal!

(Please excuse that smile.   It was so early, I don’t think her face was awake, yet.)

Here she is at her Citizen of the quarter breakfast with the principal, Mrs. weed.  

Very proud of this one.  I think she stands a good chance of staying clear of prison.

 

FUMP 2012

I love Austin, TX.   I probably don’t say that enough, and Austin probably forgets how special he is to me, and maybe sometimes feels a little rejected and unloved.  Perhaps I should buy him a big bouquet of flowers and chocolates and wrap my loving arms around him and tell him there is no city on Earth like him.  I think I will do that.

There is ALWAYS something to do in this town.  If I want to run a race, BAM!  I just take a look at the RunTex site and pick from 5-10 on any given Saturday.   If I want a kid friendly event, BAM!   I run over to LiveMom or Free Fun in Austin and pick from the many going on.   We have been here for over 6 years, and there are still so many things we have yet to do and try.  

Love it.   I am throwing in a big smooch in with those flowers and chocolates.   LOVE IT!

The First United Music Festival (FUMP) is one of those Austin features I love so, and has become a yearly tradition for us.   Over the years, we have seen some of Kaelan’s favorite kid groups.  I love that the venue is small, and yet the entertainment is BIG.  This year, Darian and Summer joined us.   Seth also jammed this year.  Last year, he wasn’t much of a rock star.   He mostly slept and hit the bottle. 

Wait. 

That sounds like he was a TRUE rock star.

Kiddie Mosh Pit with the great Miss Staci Gray

      

Pretending to sleep and then jamming out

 

Seth sings along to the “Silly Face” song

 

The crew at by the Capitol Building

Aloha (Part II)

Maui Ocean Center

We spent the better part of a day  at the Maui Ocean Center just taking in the animals and the awesome views just outside the center.   This place literally feeds out into the marina where we boarded our whale tour earlier in the week.   The kids had a good time taking all the creatures in, and mom and pop enjoyed the awesome weather.

 

(There you go again.  Proof  that man with baby strapped to him is just dead sexy.)

Dad and Kaelan attended a big deal type dinner with several NFL players as part of their Pro-Bowl package.  Mind you, I had no desire to chat up some famous football players while I tried to wrangle my toddler into sitting peacefully for  a whole meal…..though the thought did pass through my mind that these guys tackled people for a living.  Maybe, just maybe they could chase my kid down for me???    Instead, the Little Man and I took a sunset stroll along the beach where we  met and talked to several of the performers from the luau shows.   Such nice people.   The fire dancer even let Seth play with his conch shell.   Now how often does that happen in Texas, I ask you?

On a funny side note, Kaelan decided to include me in the events of evening, so she used Dad’s phone to send me regular texts.   One text read, “The football players are very big.  They have hair on their arms.  I am eating chicken strips.”

Future reporter, no?

The beach at the hotel was great for hanging out.  We spotted many stars at that resort, and apparently, we missed quite a few.  Aunt Sara informed us that several  Hollywood peeps were on television vacationing in Maui around that time.  That’s what we get for not tuning in to Entertainment Tonight while vacationing.   Miley Cyrus, Karina Smirnoff, The Rock and the dude who was there promoting a movie with The Rock and is now big in The Hunger Games movie, what’s his name??…..again, more ET would probably help me with this lack of Hollywood knowledge, those were a few of the stars we spotted.  Seth actually did some heavy flirting with the DWTS lady.   He likes the ladies with the moves.

Resort Beach

Loving Seth’s sea turtle trail, and check out that breaching whale in the picture of Doug and Seth.  It just jumped right as I took the photo.  So the lesson is try to photograph them and it won’t happen, but just ignore them and you get the money shot….in a very blurry, off in the distance sort of way.

By this time, Seth had two red, swollen eyes and a fat lip.  Vacation for him is like four rounds in the ring with Rocky.

North Shore

You just can’t visit Maui and not go to the North Shore for some surfing.  Or, if you are an old gal with kids who need you to not go out in the ocean and drown or get eaten by a shark, you go and WATCH the cool surfers at North Shore.

Oh, but how I was itching to get out there and go all Point Break on those waves.   Maybe when my kids are grown and I have better life insurance.

We used the same thought process of “our kids need us alive” to pass on taking the Road to Hana this time.  That drive may have done me in.  Next time.   I will do it after I hit those sweet waves.  Next time.

Kid Beach

Here are some more shots of the kids enjoying the kid beach later that week.

Goodbye

On our last full day on the island, we drove on a scenic route to a  town called Lahaina to do some shopping and tourist stuff.   The drive was a-ma-zing.  We stopped several times to take in the views and watch the whales.   Just before we left on area overlooking the ocean, Kaelan stopped me looked at me with tearful eyes.  “I don’t really miss home.  I kind of love it here.”    She knew I had been trying to get a good shot of the whales before I left, but I kept missing them because I was too slow.  Kaelan informed me that if I sent out a thought to them, they would hear me. 

“Tell them we are leaving, and this is goodbye.  Ask them to come say goodbye.”

I didn’t raise my fingers to my forehead and do a Shena of the Jungle chant or anything, I just sent out my goodbye (and thank you) thought, and I will be darned if whale tails did not pop out of the water everywhere splashing  goodbye waves.  

 

An awesome end to an awesome journey.