Sprinkled with Love

Some friends in my ward threw me a baby "sprinkle." If you're unfamiliar with this term, basically it's like a baby shower, but it's not for your first child. (It's typically for your first child of a different gender.)

My friend Kristee and I both were celebrated at the baby sprinkle. It was nice to share the attention with her. I consider her to be one of my closest friends. Lucky Kristee, she had her baby about a month ago! I have about a month until mine comes.

I walked in to see pizza which was perfect and so thoughtful. I ate at least 4 pieces. All the food was divine including a yummy salad and a swig sugar cookie knockoff recipe that I can't seem to replicate. 

I felt so spoiled and loved being surrounded by so many friends. Also, girl clothes and accessories are so cute. It's quite different than purchasing for a boy. My budget might be in trouble...

Flash forward ahead a month or so and I had a family shower. Jessica made darling invitations. I can't get over how cute they were. 

I walked in to Olive Garden to find a table full of presents and cupcakes. Nothing beats that. Also, there were some leftover Reeses Peanut Butter Cupcakes and I enjoyed those thoroughly for a few days afterword. 

Jill was in charge of the game at the baby shower. She has been to her fair share of baby showers that include cheesy games that nobody likes. Jill took a different approach which was refreshing. She asked each person that came to the shower beforehand 2 things: 1) A memory have with me. 2) A trait of mine they hope my baby girl inherits. 

People were so kind with their responses. The "game" part was that Jill read a response and I had to guess who said what. This was surprisingly hard and I didn't do very well. Jill even drew little illustrations to go along with the responses which I have on my fridge.

What a relief that the baby shower game didn't include tasting various types of baby food and guessing the flavor or practicing changing diapers filled with chocolate (to resemble food). I'm not making these games up people.

I decided to go all out at Olive Garden and ordered my favorite entree called Tour of Italy. I'm so bad at deciding what I want to order, but this large entree includes lasagna, fettuccine, and chicken parmesan. Jessica paid for my meal which was so generous. I definitely felt bad ordering such a pricey item. 

Grandma Lynda, Jessica, Me, Jill, Esther, Lindsey, Diane, Grandma Langlois, Mom, Lori

Baby girl was spoiled once again at this shower. I have some talented relatives. Grandma Lynda made a fabulous quilt and my mom crocheted a soft blanket in the perfect color. I can't wait to snuggle our little one in these. I didn't take a picture of all the clothes and accessories I got, but I came home feeling like, "what did I do to deserve all of this?" 

Unfortunately, I didn't inherit Grandma's amazing sewing skills

My super long, detailed list of chores I want to finish before baby comes is getting shorter and shorter. All that's left is really just for the baby to join us. The nursery is ready to go now that James is out of the crib and sleeping in a big-boy bed and the new pink curtains add a nice touch to her room. I'm also feeling better and more confident about our name of choice and am no longer having nightmares about it. Now if only time didn't seem to be moving at a stand-still. We are all so anxious to meet her. July 23 can't come soon enough! Also, for being such a planner, I wish I knew if she was going to arrive early like her brother. This waiting game is really testing my patience, but what can I do?

Here's to enjoying the last little bit of pregnancy. Who am I kidding?

Hawaii Part 3

How was the food?

The picture above is the answer. Pizza was one of our meals, so I was completely satisfied. There was a Round Table Pizza about a mile away from where we stayed. They don't have these in UT, so we took full advantage. 

For another meal, we had some delicious, authentic ramen. We went to a huge mall in Honolulu called the Ala Moana Center. There is a little village food court called the Japanese walk which is where we had this tasty meal. Andrew and I ate every bite. (My brother in law served his mission in Japan and knows where to find the good stuff.)

My dad's colleague invited us to a fancy dinner. It was requested that we wear aloha attire. Who knew that was a thing? We had unlimited prime rib, although for most of us that just meant 1 helping. Thanks Rob, for taking one for the team and getting the meat sweats.

We had a scrumptious cherry dessert to top off our prime rib and Simon was in heaven because he got to help make the fire. It was like magic.

I can't gloss over these quotes my mom made at Mahaloha Burger. "I would come back to Hawaii just for these! These fries are the best I've ever had." My mom ordered the Parmaroni fries and clearly had no regrets. The burgers were juicy too.

Popsicle's were a staple in our freezer for the duration of the trip. I've learned that they sell these popsicles at Costco. They're called melona bars and I'm in trouble having them so close to me. There are a variety of flavors: mango, strawberry, banana, melon, coconut. I think my favorite was the banana with melon coming in a close second.

Esther had her fair share of these popsicles and the back porch was quite sticky by the time we left.

We didn't take pictures at every meal, but clearly we were starving the whole trip. Andrew got to have some seafood (and I happily declined the invitation), so I think we were all content.  

What are some things you want to remember?

Andrew is a huge Jack in the Box fan and made going there a priority. After snorkeling, we had a second breakfast at Jack in the Box. We realized that all of our fries were forgotten and had to turn around. This took quite sometime. Andrew told everyone in the car that he was going to ask the employees to make him a shake for the inconvenience. Sure enough, Andrew walked out giddy with an extra order of fries (on-top of our 3) and a large shake. I didn't realize that I had been craving a shake, but it was oh so good and I was no longer upset about the long detour the turnaround caused.

We got leis at the Polynesian Cultural Center and James heard the word, "Aloha." He says "Hello Ha" and its adorable. We brought some leis home as souvenirs and he often puts one around my head while saying, "Hello Ha." One of his new favorite things to pretend to do is fly on an airplane to Hawaii. 

At the PCC, we were taught the traditional New Zealand nose greeting and told to try it out with our neighbor. My dad loudly told the woman sitting next to him, "my wife is over there" and refused to do it. I can't stop laughing about this.

In the car, we had a conversation about DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) and my dad made some pretty drastic statements. Basically, I think we all know what he wants if he's ever put in that situation.

A few days after returning from Hawaii, my brother sent us a link to this article: https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/Dr-Beach-2019-List-Names-Hawaii-Oahu-Kailua-Best-Beach-in-US-510319541.html

See, we aren't making it up. The beach was heavenly.

Can I see some more pictures?

I didn't think you'd ask.

The timing of this trip wasn't ideal for us financially. We're trying to save up for baby girl and weren't planning on doing much (if any traveling) this year. My parents were generous and helped cover a lot of the trip. (James' airfare--he is no longer free, housing, and some meals.) We really appreciate them for making this trip possible!

Here is a short video of our experience (thanks mom!): https://drive.google.com/file/d/15kYEey34DbQYwKTZIbS1bUfB_mggqzqDqQ/view?ts=5d114375

In the words of my mom, "I could go on and on..." But really, what a wonderful experience we had in Hawaii. (I'll spare you from more Hawaii posts, but know that I have enough material to write a book about it.) There is talk of going to Maui next and I fully support that idea!

Hawaii Part 2

Did you go to the Polynesian Cultural Center?
We did! My dad's colleague has some connections and got us in for free which was amazing. They sure do charge an arm and a leg there. (I'm pretty sure our tickets cost more than tickets to Disneyland.) 

On our way to the PCC, we walked around the beautiful temple grounds. 

Andrew tasting coconut

Learning to Hula

Fortunately, there were strollers available to rent at the PCC. We made the mistake of not bringing one for James this trip. Had I known what our airport experience would be like, I would have packed a stroller in a heartbeat.

Sadly, James had a fever the last couple days of the trip. I shouldn't admit this, but it actually ended up working out in our favor. We were at the Polynesian Cultural Center for nearly 10 hours. (James left after dinner) He likes to wiggle and move around a ton, but in his feverish state, he remained in the stroller laying down/sleeping nearly all day. Poor guy.

Sick baby

By the time the night show began, there were only four of us remaining. We sure did sleep well that night. After experiencing the PCC once, I think I've had my fix. If there were to be a next time, I think I would only stay for a few hours. There were definitely some interesting things to see and do, but it was exhausting and by the end of the day, I needed a long shower. 

Did you do any hiking while in Hawaii?
Yes, we went on 2 hikes--1) Diamond Head 2) Maunawili Falls Trail. Some of my favorite moments happened while exploring. First, we walked "Diamond Head" which was full of tourists. (I guess we're included in that term.) It was blazing, but the view at the top was gorgeous.

My favorite part of the hike may have been the pineapple smoothie at the end. It really hit the spot. 

Missing Lindsey

Secondly, we trekked Maunawili Falls. This hike wasn't what I expected. In some of the reviews online mud was mentioned. I don't think we quite understood to what extent. Basically, we had mud baths. The fact that it rained on our way to the trail-head probably didn't help. Jill nicknamed the hike "The Mud Slip-n-Slide" and I think that's much more fitting and catchy than "Main Falls Trail."

I've honestly never seen so much mud. It was hard to stay on my feet. We thought about turning around. We asked lots of people who were headed down how much longer we had. Each time, we would get extremely differing answers making our decision even harder. I'm glad we decided to stick with it. The waterfall at the end was breathtaking and wading through the river felt nice, especially since it helped clean off some of the mud.

I will admit that I slipped and fell 3 times. Luckily my falls weren't anything major, but it was extra scary because I'm pregnant. Don't worry, I didn't end up having my baby in Hawaii. (That would have made for a cool story though.)

We pulled into the airbnb several hours later. I don't know that the shoes I wore will ever be the same again and I think I'm still finding mud stuck between my toes. What an adventure! 

Hawaii Part 1

We recently returned from Hawaii. I've been waiting to say that for who knows how long. Andrew and I considered a Hawaiian cruise for our honeymoon over 6 years ago and obviously that didn't happen. Clearly, we've been wanting to go for quite sometime.

This post is overwhelming to me and has taken several days to compile. We had a blast on our trip and packed in so much. How do I do Hawaii justice? I don't want to forget anything or ramble on. That being said, I'm going to break my post down into several separate entries.

Let me start from the beginning. We've been watching flight deals to Hawaii for several months and have attempted to buy tickets on a couple of occasions only to be disappointed and learn the deals sell out fast. I didn't think we were actually going to go to Hawaii because it felt like we were going to give up after so many failures. By the way, "we" refers to my family. Everyone was able to come except for my brother, Joel. 

We jumped on buying some flights to Oahu and I'm so glad we did. We ended up flying to Long Beach and staying overnight there on Monday, May 13 at my parent's condo. James enjoyed seeing the condo because he often hears that Papa is in California. We had pizza and went swimming. At first, James was NOT a fan of the pool (which is typical as of late), but he warmed up to it with his adventurous daddy and splashed around.

We flew early Tuesday morning from Long Beach, CA to Oahu, HA. What a long flight. I was most nervous about the flight more than anything this trip. Entertaining James for 5 and 1/2 hours sounded daunting. We didn't realize how good it would be that James didn't sleep well the night before in CA. He ended up sleeping for almost 4 hours on the plane! I was a happy camper and got to leisurely read my book. (I finished 2 books on the trip-- a sign of a successful vacation!) 

Also noteworthy... James got pretty scared on the plane and tucked his eyes into Andrew's elbow-crack (is that even a thing?) which helped him fall asleep.

How do I best summarize our trip? I've decided to break the trip down into commonly asked questions.

Where did you stay?

In a vacation rental home a rock throw away from the beach. We were on the island, Oahu and stayed in Kailua. My mom and Jeff nailed the place. It was like we were on a private beach. The views were breathtaking, the sand was white and the water was pleasantly warm. It was convenient to be able to decide on-the-spot to take a walk on the beach, or head over for the sunrise/sunset because we were so close.

Pathway to the beach

The house had a huge gathering area which could accommodate our large group. There were 10 adults and 3 kids.  

One of James' favorite features about the house was the backyard. It made me want a yard even more than I did before. (Don't talk to me about moving right now.) James was entertained for hours playing outside in the ocean breeze with his cousins.

The house decided to give us a warm-welcome our first morning. We awoke abruptly to several fire alarms going off at 4:40am. They were extremely loud and went off a few times. The best explanation... It was so humid that night that the smoke detectors were set off. (All of the batteries were replaced that day in the fire alarms and we didn't have a problem the rest of our time there.)

Did you go snorkeling?

Yes and we weren't too far from a famous snorkeling place-- Hanama Bay. We had heard that snorkeling in Hanama Bay gets extremely crowded and you can't find parking as the day goes on, so we headed there bright and early. It was extremely nice of my parents to babysit the grand-kids while everyone else went. 

The scenery surrounding Hanama Bay was beautiful! 

There were definitely some pretty things to see in the water! We were there during low tide, so it was a bit shallow and at times I felt like I was encroaching on the fish. It was weird because seeing fish underwater kind of went in spurts. Sometimes we would see lots of colorful fish swimming around, but other times we didn't see many.

The middle picture shows that it was cloudy and dark when we first arrived. In fact, it was actually raining the majority of the time we were there which wasn't really noticeable when you were under the water. By the end, I started to get cold though. The sun came out right when we were getting out around 9am. 

According to Andrew, "He had one of his best snorkeling experiences ever." 

Did you get snowcones while you were there?

Most definitely and thanks to my brother (who served a mission in Hawaii), we knew of a well-known place to try called called Matsumoto Shave Ice. After tasting it, I can see why it's so popular. There is no going back after having ice cream at the bottom of your snow cone.

Side note... We ate these at about 9:30am. There is always room for dessert, right? I ate every last drop.

You've been warned.... There is still lots of the trip to cover, so my blog may be taken over by Hawaii for a bit.