Seaside in Summer: fun

Showing posts with label fun. Show all posts

Monday, May 7, 2012

Weekend with the Ladies

Well I got to have a really fun getaway with most of the girls in my family--excluding all kiddos minus Little Dirk (Ashley's). We spent the weekend in Palm Springs and it was about 95 degrees--perfect layout weather, if you ask me! Aunt Jayne met up with us for a little bit and surprised us with fresh chocolate chip cookies--ahh so delicious. Funny too, because we had just been talking about how much we needed something sweet. Ohh Aunt Jayne you know us Hoovers :-)

It was nice to get away from the guys and kids (and Dirk was quiet so we hardly knew he was there). We got some great sun and swam in the heated pool.

Supermom treated us to pedicures which felt sooo good.

The ladies at the pool. The only downfall of this weekend was that I got pretty sick. On Saturday I went to urgent care, and the doctor said I had an ear infection in both ears and a major sore throat--ugh. (I could have told him that...just give me the drugs man and no one will get hurt). I am still sick but feeling better...I thought only kids got ear infections...? Weird. If you're going to be sick however, the best place is in the sun and with mama there to rub your back :-)

For dinner one night, we went to a delicious restaurant called Jackalope Ranch. Our food was pretty awesome (and so were the misters that kept us a little cooler!).

Me and my beautiful sis-in-law, Kelli. One of the prettiest pregnant girls I know! It was nice to have a weekend away...and then back to the usual grind. The whole fambam is going boating for Memorial Day weekend. I seriously can't wait!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Easter Sunday

Growing up, Easter was such an awesome holiday. Supermom used to either sew me a new dress every year or buy me a new dress--either way I got a new church dress--yesss. Then every year (and she still does this) Supermom makes fudge eggs for everyone and writes our names on it in frosting. Yum. We would have big Easter egg hunts which were never very fair, as I am the youngest of 7 kids and they are all much older than I am. So I got shoved aside and beat for my candy! (Kidding, love you all). We used to do Easter egg hunts at Aunt Jayne's house in Newport which were the best because Aunt Jayne hides the golden egg which had a $20 bill in it. Austin (one of the triplets) and I forgot about the candy eggs and just searched for the golden egg. So fun. This year unfortunately we didn't get to do an Easter egg hunt. However, I did make a delicious special breakfast for us, and I even let Jeremy sleep in until 10 or so.

Breakfast, sticky buns--soooooo delicious! (fab recipe here)

For dinner, I made what is called Lazy Sunday Casserole. It is fantastic--and I don't usually even like Italian sausage!! I'll post the recipe this week.

We spent our Easter day at church, learning about Christ. I taught my Sunday school class (9, 10, and 11 year-old boys...sigh) about the Resurrection and the Atonement. What a wonderful day. I even made my boys chocolate chip cookies with butterscotch chips too!

This week I also went to the temple. This is my favorite place on earth. I hope everyone can make it to the temple this month--it's such a special place ;-)

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Kauai, Hawaii Part II

I think I had too many pictures on the first post, so I'll post the rest here from our trip.

From our luau, which was soo fun! There were wild peacocks on the property that were absolutely gorgeous.

Best hot dogs on the island!!

Don't know why I couldn't get this picture upright! This is Secret Falls; it's so cool!

A smaller falls on the way to Secret Falls

Hiking to Secret Falls

So it had rained a ton the week before we arrived, so there was a ton of mud on the trail. It was actually quite soothing on my skin

To get to Secret Falls we had to cross a river with a very strong current (several times) and hold onto a rope so we didn't get swept by the current

Rope swing :-)

Lighthouse on the north shore

Kayaking the river

Waimea Falls

The lighthouse

The peacocks were trying to impress the females... :-)

We got so close to the peacocks :-)

I even got to feed some right out of my hands

At the luau

The guys pulling the pig out of the ground

This was just the first round at the luau...

The wet and dry caves. Apparently the cave goes back 300 yards.

I found a baby turtle stuck in the sand! It had been washed down the river into the ocean from all of the rain, so we took it to the river and it swam away. Glad I found it before a seagull did.

Mr. Turtle. We had a blast this week.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Kauai, Hawaii

Well we just got back from a week in Hawaii! We were really afraid the weather would be bad there. Normally Kauai gets about 80 inches of rain in March. Kauai got 80 inches of rain the week before we got there alone! By the time we arrived, there was water everywhere and it was pouring rain the entire day. Yuck. It seemed as though that would be the weather for the rest of the week. However, Sunday was the only day we really had any more rain. Every other day after that was beautiful and sunny! Here are some fun pictures from the trip. The pictures above are of a place called Sprouting Horn on the west side of the island--it's a really cool blow hole where you can also spot sea turtles and humpback whales splashing in the water.

First picture of the trip and first fresh papaya as well :-)

There are chickens and roosters everywhere on the island! We almost ran over a bunch, there are so many. It was cute watching the little chicks follow their mamas right under their belly.

Sprouting Horn. We saw some big whales off the coast.

Poipu, south side of the island. This is a popular beach. Unfortunately, this day didn't have the best weather, but it was the last day of poor weather.

Tunnels Beach, North Shore, where that Soul Surfer girl got her arm bitten off by that shark. Unfortunately you don't have the best visibility in winter month snorkeling here, but it was even worse because all the rain the previous week made the water murkier than usual. We did see some incredible colored fish though--some of them were literally neon colored. So cool!

Tunnels Beach, North Shore

Pretty river flowing through Hanalei.

Driving to Tunnels the first time, we drove through some gnarley water covering the road. I told you--lots of water everywhere the first few days!

Too bad my camera is lame. We passed this spot where you could see 5 waterfalls at the same time.

I can't remember which beach this was, but the water started to clear up after day 3.

Walking along North Shore

...we passed a crab already poised for a picture! Maybe it thought we wouldn't notice it...

Nah...we definitely noticed it :-)

Mr. Crab

North Shore, Hanalie

I dunno, some beach

Tunnels Beach

Tunnels Beach. So so beautiful. Look how big that mountain behind Jeremy is. Crazy. That's the beginning of the Na Pali Coast, which we did not get to hike. I have wanted to do that hike for about 10 years...of course the one time I go to Kauai the hike has to be closed. Two people were hiking the trail the week before and disappeared...the woman's body was found a few days ago in the ocean. She must have been swept away by the flash flood or something. SO sad.

Some more pictures from the trip: one of our nights in the jacuzzi.

Poipu, south shore. We got to see three beached monk seals this trip. According to a sign I read here, there are approximately 16-30 monk seals left in Hawaii. This one was peeling...