Some catching up to do

Ok, so I am really behind on my blog. I am hoping to catch up over the next few days. It feels like life has been extra crazy lately, but hey it just makes it more exciting. A few weeks ago Deven and I participated in the Swamp run. We went to savers the night before to find some clothes we could ruin. The outfits were only half the fun. It was fun to get muddy and do something different. The run was held on the Marine base and it was a little over 5 miles of mud and rain.
This is how we started to look. Believe it or not, this was only about 1 mile into the run. Needless to say it was muddy.
Towards the end of the run we got to get into the ocean and clean up a bit before they made us go through a few more mud piles to finish. It was a lot of fun and hopefully we can do it again next year. Deven has been able to participate in this every year since we moved here, so we hope to keep it up.
I was also able to participate in another race again. I did the Great Aloha run again this year. But for some reason this time it was a lot more fun. I am sure it helped that I shared it with great friends. Thanks for the great morning girls. It is so much more fun to wake up early when you are surrounded by good company.
Me and the family in the stadium watching others finish.
Tricia and I have got to participate in a few running events together. We trained for the marathon together and have helped each other get stronger. We finished this 8.15 mile run with a new PR for us. We did it in 1 hour 10 minutes. We were excited.
Gracie waiting for me to finish.

The Simple Life....

It seemed like last year was crazy and busy. It felt like family time was squeezed in and we always had somewhere to be or something to do. Well this year I decided it is time to go back to the simple things. We have been trying to spend more time as a family and enjoy this beautiful island we get to live on. It helps that we have church in the morning now and I have come to love Sundays again. We get to go do something as a family. One day we hiked Kolei Kolei, it was a short little hike that everyone could enjoy, and the view was beautiful at the the top.





The beach again. It had been so long since our family spent a Saturday at the beach and just relaxed and enjoyed. So this past Saturday we went with some friends and enjoyed the warm winter weather.
I got brave and tried paddle boarding. I have done it before, but I like to be out with somebody. This time I went out by myself... of course I didn't go clear out there... but progress for me.... I am scared of sharks LOL.
Dylan taking it all in.
Some of the kids making sand angels. Dylan trying to join.
And of course just going for a walk as a family. I have missed this. When church was in the afternoon. It felt like the day was over and there was no time to really do much. So I love morning church. I love that we can all have a nap and still have time to enjoy the evening. The kids out for a bike ride. So with the new year I want to spend more time with my family enjoying each other and all the beautiful things around us!!!!

Ending 2010 and Bring on 2011

Well another year has come and gone, but we have so much to look forward to in 2011. We decided to send 2010 out with a party. Now since Deven and I have been married and had kids it seems our new years end earlier and earlier, but this year we decided to get together with some friends and enjoy it. Some of our really good friends the Rees's will be moving here shortly and we wanted to make it memorable. We got the community center on base and decided to have a disco party, in which costumes were not required, but highly recommended. Gracie and I went to savers and tried to find something to wear. Gracie picked out this dress. I was so wrapped up in the party I forgot to take pictures of us ringing in the New Year, but this is Gracie afterwards... when we were cleaning up. She was a trooper and made sure she made it till midnight. She thought she was so big.
The Cox family... we did it, we made it!!! We were tired the next day, but yes even Dylan stayed up despite our best efforts to get him to sleep. And poor Deven put in a full days work. I found him some great pants to wear, but he ended up coming straight from the hospital... poor guy.
The girls... showing off our disco attire.
Of course a pinata for the kids. Amanda found this great disco ball pinata and they had so much fun breaking it open.
We set up different stations were you could play rock band or X-box kinect. We had a great dance off with it. Everyone tried it, we had a lot of fun laughing at each other and our "great" dance moves.
Deven and Dylan enjoying the night. CHEERS!!!
Dylan was obessed with the drums. We had so much fun playing games with friends and in the end we had a dance off with everyone, it was fun to feel young and carefree for the night. Thanks everyone for a great new years!!
My friend emailed me the pictures she took of Dylan ice skating. I had to post them because they were so cute. He didn't last long but he has to try everything we do these days.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We had nothing short of a nice Christmas. We feel very blessed this year! I wish we could have seen family and that would have made the day perfect, but since we couldn't we will share our day with you. Merry Christmas from two very happy children!!! Santa must have found them.
So all Dylan seems to care about these days, are balls, trains, and cars. So Christmas was a big hit for him. He got a trike from Santa and sissy gave him this basketball hoop. They played forever with it.

Gracie got a CD player for Christmas and the two of them spent the afternoon jamming out to Justin Beiber. (I keep asking myself when did she get so big... )
Each of the kids got a new little sleeping bag. These were a big hit. They both thought they were so cool.

Um yes, Gracie just opened her Justin Beiber CD. I think her face says it all. But if I have to hear "Baby, baby, baby Ahhh. all day long... we might be getting ear phones.
Our Christmas Eve was quite eventful as well. We ended the night with caroling with some friends around the neighborhood. It was fun for all of us to get top off some Christmas spirit.
"Santa and his two little reindeer" delivered a Christmas dinner to Deven's co-workers who had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
And of course we took the kids ice skating that afternoon. It is as close to the cold as we come these days. But they had fun. Dylan even tried it. I need to get the picture from a friend but I will post it soon. He did pretty well for about 5 min and then he was done. Oh well.... good memories.

Christmas came early for Me and Deven

So it has been a long time since Deven and I have taken a trip together (just him and I). We made some really good friends here and we have been switching babysitting with them for a while now. We finally decided that may be we should take turns watching each others kids so we could each have a little couples get a way. They will be moving soon (that makes us sad as it it, but I won't think about that right now). So we thought it was the perfect time to switch kids. It was a great idea and it worked out well. Deven's time off of work just so happened to fall right between our birthdays so we thought it was the perfect way to celebrate and we decided to go to Kauai. It was an amazing and a much needed trip for both of us. The pictures are out of order but I will do my best to explain them. This picture is from the North Shore. One afternoon after our Kayaking trip we drove all the way to the end of the North Shore and found this beautiful beach. We just relaxed, took a nap, watched the sun set, and watched some great surfers. It was so nice to actually relax at a beach.

Our last morning there, we took a drive up to see Waimea Canyon. It was beautiful. Kauai is an amazing island.


This is the beach were we stayed. It was such a beautiful morning and we went for a long walk along the beach that morning we passed may be one person the whole time. This reminded me how lucky we are to have these experiences. I think I had forgotten as we had been so busy with LIFE.
There was a coconut tree outside of our cottage and of course Deven was determined to get a coconut out of it. He decided he was going to climb up and knock one out. After several tries he finally decided that if he wrapped a towel around it he had more traction and he could get up the tree. After all of his work he got a coconut, managed to get the outer shell off and we had really yummy coconut for the morning.

This is a view from our deck.
This was our favorite experience. We went on a kayaking trip up the Wailua River to see the Sacred Falls. We were really lucky. It had been raining really hard but ended up being a perfectly sunny day that day and because of all the rain the waterfall was amazing.

This is my most favorite picture. I just thought the waterfall looked so amazing as we got closer to it.
Just some scenery from a long the way.
We got to hike through mud and cross several small streams and this one pretty good sized stream but it was fun!


Deven and I kayaking up the river.


This was the sunset outside of our cottage.
(so I mentioned earlier these pictures are really out of order, but oh well). This is from the first day we got there. It was a rainy day but we made it and we were just so excited to be on a trip.
We ate at this place our first night. I know Deven has his eyes closed but I thought the rainbow was so beautiful.
Every trip needs a little mishap or else our trips wouldn't be complete. They gave us a free upgrade at the rental agency. They let us pick a convertible (probably because it had been so rainy). But we thought it was nice of them. Except we get about half way to our cottage and we stopped in a little town along the way. We turned the car off and of course we go to leave and it won't start... dead battery. There was no one to jump us so we called the rental place and they said they could get someone out to us in 2 1/2 hours.... WHAT!!! well we had no choice and we actually enjoyed ourselves wandering around a little town with not much in it, but it made for a great memory.
If I look excited, it's because I am. I had no children for 2 1/2 days. WOW!!! I was ready to get back to them at the end, but I am not going to lie, I loved the break! Happy Birthday to Deven and I. It was a really great present.