2017 Recap

Oh man was 2017 a year of GREAT change and a ton of business. Not always blog-worthy, but definitely busy! Let's take a look shall we?

January

This biggest thing to note for January this year (aside from my pregnancy updates), was our early new addition: Otto! This guys has been such a fun part of our lives. He loves to pick on the other kitties, but they seem to tolerate him enough.

We did start our fish baby adventure...which was exciting in the beginning, but fish reproduce so quickly it turns out! And then on a smaller note I got my new computer as my "Christmas after Christmas" present from Larry. It's been amazing working on this thing and I'm SO glad I finally have a real computer to use (when I have time that is).

February 

February, to start, had a fun continuation of our Valentine's Day tradition: making something we like from scratch. This year we did homemade pizza. It was really fun to do it and we, apparently, inspired a few people because I remember seeing a couple of other people post on social media about their own homemade pizzas around the same time. I definitely am loving this tradition as it fits the bill for the holiday: spending the day with your loved one and feeling special! Our pizzas were such a success that we have made them a couple more times this year.

We also took our mini "babymoon" and went to Vegas for a weekend. It was fun to get away and looking back it was silly that I stressed out so much about what if I went into labor while we were there (like seriously stressed out about it!). I hated being in the smoke, but it was really fun going to see the shows we saw and see everyone's reaction to a super pregnant chick walking around everywhere (we definitely got lots of looks our way haha). Plus BB moved so much during some of the shows and I remember joking she'll be a magician because she moved like CRAZY crazy right before that show started. It was amazing and I totally miss that feeling.

March

In March we got to have practice being parents when Anna came to stay the night with us. It was really fun having her and she took to Larry so quickly! He's always been good with kids and seeing him with Anna was adorable! It was fun to see how having a daughter could be so fun for both of us.

We also started acquiring more furniture for our new house this month. We got the guest room set up, our new amazing couch, our grown up master bedroom furniture, and our HUGE dining table (that worked perfect for Thanksgiving - no kid table needed!). I still love the look of our house, but we still haven't found end chairs or bar stools for our dining room.

Even though we still had a couple months, March felt like the beginning of the end of my pregnancy. We were starting to realize how much we needed to get (either from the shower or buy ourselves), I spent a day in L&D with false labor signs, and I realized I needed to start figuring out what I wanted to get done before BB showed up. Larry also kept pressuring me about making sure our hospital bag was packed...we had NO idea how much our lives were really going to change though.

April

We started April off with our baby shower for BB (it feels weird to call her that now after we know she's Cara). It was a GREAT day and it was so nice to have my mom in town. We really got spoiled with everything and I'm pretty sure we've used everything we've gotten (except for some diapers we're still waiting for her to grow into). I also started thinking about our first Vacation with Cara this month (so glad Hawaii won out and went so well...see below for that).

Larry and I decided to use our last 15th date night as a "last date night out for a while" and did a big one. We went to (our new favorite restaurant) Bona Vita, got frozen yogurt, and came home to watch a movie. I also decided I wanted to document some pregnancy things since I was close enough to the end that I wanted to remember what that whole journey was like.

As for house stuff, we got our fence installed since we knew we had to put in a fence or finish the yard by July and we figured with a baby it would just be easier to have a fence put in and to have it done before she came. I'm definitely glad we went that way...our yard isn't done yet and needs some work still, but I'm glad we can take our time with it.

And finally, we ended the month with our last pregnancy update. I got a pedicure, got my hair done, did everything we needed for last minute baby stuff (packing the bag, getting the room ready, etc. etc.). We were as ready as we were going to be (or so I thought)...

May

One of the most exciting things to happen in May was...of course Cara's appearance! I have a very very long post about welcoming her here, but the point is, we went in Monday morning, turned her, and 30 hours later (Tuesday afternoon) she made her appearance. It was one of the most amazing experiences in my whole entire life. I had no idea how much things would change with her, but she's the best addition ever and it's so weird to think about life before her! I did document a tad about my postpartum life and how things were the first week, but I had no idea what I was really in for at that point.

I did celebrate my first Mother's Day, which was so much fun to do! But I think I was more excited about when we finally started getting out of the house again haha.

Then to end the month we finally got our newborn photos we got taken a couple weeks earlier. This month was definitely centered around getting used to being parents and having a baby and adjusting to being a family. While it was a magical time, I'm very much happy this month is over with.

June

To start June out, my mom flew out and got to have her chance to have time with Cara. It was great seeing my mom with her and really helped me adjust a bit more to having a baby. She left saying she felt she didn't help as much as she expected to, but she has no idea how much she really helped me! Especially since I was still trying to get used to pumping and taking care of a baby while Larry worked.

We also took a road trip up to Idaho to get lottery tickets. I was so nervous to have her stuck in a car for that long, but Cara actually did really well. She slept a good chunk, I found a way to pump on the road, and we accidentally started using the best bottles out there (by me forgetting to bring an empty bottle so we stopped at the first Wal Mart we found on the road to get a Dr. Johns one)

Other than that, we were still getting used to a new schedule with a baby. I wish I had realized how easy it really is when they are that young...now that she's mobile I'm like "how could I think she was so hard when all she did was sleep and eat?" Haha.

July

July we celebrated Larry's birthday (which I didn't even blog about...I'm a bad wifey). Unfortunately, I was all hormonal and stressed out and wasn't handling leaving the house the best so we didn't do too much. He did get his gun and got to try that out and we did go out shopping for some veggie garden boxes, so we did get out of the house, but I know I ended up apologizing to him that we didn't get to do too much and I'll have to make it up to him next year.

We did end up getting a hike in during this month, which felt SO great to accomplish. That really made me feel like I was getting back into my old body again. Cara seemed to love nature which was cute to watch. I enjoyed the water fall at the end, but we did forget our usual lunch that we eat when we do hikes, but that's okay. Just getting out was enough for me (plus putting bug spray and sunscreen on a baby was annoyingly difficult)

Sadly at the end of the month I returned back to work, which was such a hard thing to do. I knew it was coming and was ready to just get back into the swing of things, but leaving Cara alone with Larry when I felt I had just gotten into the swing of things was really heart breaking. Plus not seeing her nearly as much as I was used to was hard as well (I'm happy to report I'm fully adjusted and I feel we have a GREAT schedule with Cara and our work schedules).

We did take advantage of the great weather and started our veggie garden. We knew we planted things really late, but we figured we could at least try and see what happened. Seeing how well things grew made both of us so excited. We can't wait to start earlier next year and actually get some good produce from it. I remember taking Cara out to feel the grass and check on our food items. It was a good summer!

August

August was probably when things really started to get easier for me. We were getting a good schedule going with Cara, I was getting used to working and leaving her, and pumping was a bit easier since I had been doing it for so long. Then Cara started rolling over and being a mom became SO much more exciting. Yes, the newborn stage is fun, but I knew once she started hitting big milestones like this it was going to be so much more fun to document and watch her grow. I believe she actually started sleeping through the night at this stage as well, which has been SO nice!

We did another hike with Marie and Jim up to Cascade Springs. They were so sweet and picked up lunch and drinks (we got some chips for everyone) and then we walked the loop with Cara in tow, and then took our obligatory pictures and said good bye. It was a quick visit/hike, but was SO nice to do. Especially knowing I had only gotten one hike in in years past so I felt so much more accomplished with this.

All in all, August was a great month!

September

September was when my "mom mode" started to kick in and I realized I wanted to be a more hands on mom (thank you family vloggers who helped me see how to make this happen). I created a new "Weekly Plan" that would mean I could spend enough time with Cara AND watch her learn and grow still. I will tell you this plan has helped me immensely and I'm pretty sure it's helped Cara feel like she does get enough time with me.

Larry started to get into antique shopping, which I have loved. Taking Cara to the different shops and try and include it when we go out of town has been fun. Hopefully it doesn't ever scare Cara (the stuff is really old and can be pretty creepy!)

We also decided to test the babysitting waters and go see our first movie without Cara (not that we've gone to any with her haha). We left Cara with my grandma and went to see "It". The movie was good, but I feel bad I didn't leave my grandma with the best instructions. I guess I figured she watched Cindy's kids so she knew how to take care of babies, but really each one is different and I really should've prepared her better. I definitely took notes for what to do in the future!

October

October I became even more excited for the beginning of Football season! I've never actually watched football games from the start of the season, but I knew I was always looking forward to watching them with my kids, and eventually the Superbowl. Having us all root for whatever team (though hopefully they'll all either be Team Packers or Cowboys) and just snacking while relaxing! I'm sad to report, this died off quickly due to the holidays (and me wanting to watch Christmas movies more than football games), but I still plan to keep this up in the future years. We even got Cara some cute little outfits for the games.

We ended the month with the beginning of my favorite time...Halloween. I'm pretty sure I've been waiting my whole entire life to have family themed costumes...it made this the greatest holiday. I had a lot of fun with it, but I'm definitely looking forward to future years taking her out to trick-or-treat!

November

November was a very eventful month! I got a new work schedule so we started a new adventure: Freezer Meals! I mentioned I would update later to say how it was and I'm LOVING it! I didn't have to do any for December (it just happened to work out that way), but I'll definitely be doing it for January and into the new year. I highly recommend it to make dinner time smoother...as long as you have someone who will be home early enough to start the cooking and doesn't forget to take things out of the freezer ahead of time.

As for parenting, we moved Cara into her own room and the transition was amazingly easy! She's done so well in her room and I'm so thankful that she sleeps so well in there and is out of our room now haha. She also started scooting this month, which has been so fun to watch her go after toys and stuff.

We also celebrated Thanksgiving. We were originally just going to do it us 3, but decided to invite siblings over so that we could host one for once. It went over really well and was nice to spend it with Andy, Rachel, Skyler, & Jena (and kids). It was a full house, but Cara did so well with having guests over!

December

This December has been one for the books! The most memorable thing was taking our first big vacation in a few years, and bringing Cara along made it even better! I loved every single moment of that trip and was so glad we took it AND she was a great traveler. I see many more vacations in our future :)

Then we celebrated Christmas, which was pretty much a dream. I got a lot of snow for the morning, opening presents was wonderful, spending the day having family come visit us was nice, and ending it with my brother and a Skype call to my family made it great. I do think we'll be traveling more this next year for holiday, but this one was a good year to stay home with a  new baby and all.

And to end the year we decided it was time to upgrade my little Nissan and get myself a mini soccer mom car. I didn't really blog about this (it just happened today), but let's introduce our little Kia Sportage:

I'm so in love with this car already. It's literally a dream car. Even though we have deemed it our family/weekend errands vehicle (since Larry's car gets better gas mileage so I might as well keep taking that to work) we both get to drive it and I just love that we finally took the plunge (we'll see how I feel once we actually start making payments on it though haha).

And now we're moving onto another new year, I'm hoping 2018 will be one of the best years ever. We'll get to experience more with Cara AND celebrate her first birthday, I'm hoping we'll get out to visit more family (that are out of state) at some point, and maybe fit in a trip or two for us. There's so much to look forward to and for some reason I'm on a HUGE organization kick so that'll be one of my biggest goals for the year.

I hope everyone out there is having a great year and is looking forward to the next one we get! Happy New Year!!!

Cara's First Christmas

Christmas....is there a better time of year? Is there a happier time of year? Is there a more exciting time of year? If you ask me, I have to say no to all. I'm seriously the happiest person between Halloween(time) through the new year!

So Christmas: The Plan went a little like this:

1. Get Christmas shopping done by December 5th (ish) and get packages ready to ship by that weekend
2. Drive around neighborhoods to look at lights and decorations.
3. Take Cara to see Santa and get a cute, possibly crying picture of her with him to keep for forever
4. Go on a lovely Hawaii trip to celebrate being so far ahead and de-stress
5. Come back, maybe bake something just because it seems like a good time to bake. Maybe even throw in doing a gingerbread house
6. Watch ALL our Christmas movies, and most of them with Cara just to start that part of the holidays
7. Take Cara to play in the snow because the first one is so much fun!
8. Make Christmas eve boxes with matching pjs, movie snacks, and a toy or something for Cara
9. Wake up Christmas morning, open gifts, see family, and just bask in the joy that is this holiday!

I DID end up getting us matching PJs...but no box with
Treats or toys

Our tree by the 23rd...we got SPOILED!

Setting up Cara's big gift after she was asleep
How cute is this? All the kitties were curious

Christmas: The Reality went a little like this:

1. Christmas shopping was technically done by the 10th ish, but we had to wait for deliveries that didn't get taken care of until we were gone so we had to wait until after our vacation to actually ship gifts out...oy!
2. I realized this one (driving to decorated houses) doesn't work with a baby who likes to sleep once she's in the car seat in the car and so she wouldn't really see the lights AND it would probably throw off how well she slept at night. This one will have to wait for future years. We did drive through our own neighborhood one night when she hadn't napped a whole lot during the day so we figured if she napped a little it would work.
3. We were so busy before Hawaii that we didn't get to go see Santa. So that only left us with Christmas eve weekend. It wasn't TOO busy (at the one place we went), but it was outdoors and started snowing while we were in line and THAT was when I realized Cara didn't have a winter coat (we just bundled her in layers) and so we didn't want to risk her getting sick so Santa picture is out this year
4. The trip to Hawaii was lovely, but we weren't as far ahead as I would've liked. But I did de-stress and that was totally worth it!
5. Baking...never happened. We had so many treats from early gifters at this point and, again, I felt like there was no time with all the shopping, wrapping, and shipping I had to do. I just didn't feel like adding to my list.
6. We watched a good chunk of our Christmas movies, and I was even able to sneak in some Hallmark ones...which was nice. I wish I could've watched more, but I realized that I wanted to do more with Cara rather than just being in front of the TV.
7. Um...what snow? We didn't get snow until this morning. And by the time we were done unwrapping gifts it had mostly melted. This one will have to wait till Winter actually hits!
8. Christmas Eve boxes I kind of accomplished. We had matching PJs and there were snacks in the house and Cara definitely  has toys to play with, just nothing was put into a box and the snacks and toys weren't exactly new or anything. I'll tweak this one as years pass.
9. Christmas morning was magical (I actually slept in!). I got to live my dream of having Cara come down the stairs (with daddy) and walk into the Christmas Tree Room with all the presents, the fireplace going, and music playing. It was Awesome! However, I think it might have been nice to actually go see family (some did come to us), but all we did was Skype with most of my side. I think next year it might be worth driving out to see them all.

SNOW!

Blurry, but this happy face was amazing!

 

Opening and enjoying new toys!

We also played new games

While Cara got a comfy setup

Cute new Christmas outfit thanks to
Grandma [Taylor]

Cara seems very interested in the ball pit, I had a surprise carpet cleaner waiting for me (Larry totally gets how much those surprises on Christmas morning mean to me), and I got to see snow in the background (which made it easy to convince Larry that the fireplace had to be on). We opened gifts (including Cara who kind of opened some of her own, though she was more interested in ours, especially when they were bigger), paused for breakfast, and went back to gifts. We got everything opened by her first nap and she loved playing with her toys...sure she also loved scooting to the movies on the shelves and then pulling them off, but the toys were played with!

Oh yeah, did I mention: Cara is officially a crawler! We were playing one of our games this morning and I look down and she just crawled. Just like it was nothing. First thing she went after was the kitties. Last year Larry got to feel her move for the first time in my belly, and this year it's her crawling for the first time. Christmas is just so magical!!



This year was a bit harder...Not emotionally or anything, but more difficult to get everything I wanted in. I'm realizing starting new traditions is going to take patience and maybe you just have to accept what will work versus what won't. I know the ones I want to do (like the pajama boxes and baking) will work eventually, but I think I'll skip the vacation mid month in the future ;) Either way, I learned your first Christmas for traditions probably isn't going to go according to plan so you just have to take what you can and make notes on how to improve in the future.

Anyways, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!

Hawaii Trip - Birthdays and Going Home

Well you guys...today is it! Today I'm the big 3-0. I know most people hate the idea of turning 30, but honestly I'm so happy with where I'm at in life that I don't think it's possible to be depressed. I mean I spent all day on a plane with a 7 month old, that's all I did with my birthday, but this last week has been so memorable and great I couldn't ask for a better gift! Plus Larry gave me my new camera before we left as my early birthday gift so that was awesome too!

I'm happy to report Cara did pretty well on the planes coming home today! I stuck with our original plan with the pillows and the water and the feedings and all that. I actually did forget to buy water in the airport so we had to get really hot water and really cold water from the stewardesses this time around and just mix them, but it worked well enough.

Unfortunately, we didn't get the TSA Precheck for this flight and Larry had to be pat down by the TSA so that was a bummer on this. But we did get to pre-board on both flights so that was a win! We didn't get the rows to ourselves, but we did get free movies (and I even got earphones this time). Cara threw a tiny fit on the first plane (I think she could tell I was stressed about not having the row to ourselves this time), but she slept so well that when the lady next to me on the longer flight needed to get up to pee (literally 5 minutes after I finally got Cara to nap), she actually slept through me moving her all around. I also got to see two movies again (Home Again and The House). Both were okay, not as good as the other two I watched going out to Hawaii, but cute. I also got a brownie and a pizza during our layover, but poor Cara had a big poopy diaper that looks like it's giving her some diaper rash. So I think overall I'd call it a win, but it was a bit more up and down this time around.

People still commented that she travels well so that made me happy that her mini tantrum didn't upset too many people (funny that our straight flight that most people were warning me would be awful, ended up being our best flight). We kept our system of Cara napping on me and Larry feeding her, I changed her, but we didn't wash out the bottle this time since she only had two eat twice while on the planes and we had enough bottles to cover that.

Cara, surprise surprise, even slept during takeoff from LA to UT...how crazy is that! Obviously planes don't bother her and I'm so happy she's a great traveler. I joke that when we got pregnant I told Larry that our kids need to love roller coasters, animals, and traveling. So far Cara does well with traveling, she seems to like animals (she's exposed to them all the time), and we do a "roller coaster" move where we let her drop for a tiny second before we catch her and she laughs a lot at that so I think she'll like coasters...yay!

I'm so glad we're home. We just barely got Cara to bed so I know I should head to ours soon enough. As much as I want to sleep in tomorrow it's the only day both of us have off so I know we need to get Cara back to her regular schedule..which means we have to be up at 7:30...wish us luck!

Oh and Happy Birthday to me...it feels great to reach the "dirty thirty"...I can't wait to see what these next 10 years bring me!

Hawaii Trip - Dole Plantation and Waimea Falls

To say I'm not ready for today to be our last full day in Hawaii is one of the biggest understatements I've ever uttered! Sure I'm ready to be home and see the kitties and normally at this point in the vacation I've had my fill and am ready to be back in my own bed and all that, but this time? I'd love another day or two..or three or four! I'm loving being on vacation and seeing Cara have so much fun! I knew we had to make today one for the books!

We headed to our last breakfast buffet this morning, where we loaded up on our usual fruit, eggs, and sides (have I mentioned how AMAZING coconut syrup is??! Every morning my second helping of breakfast is mini waffles with coconut syrup and fruit), enjoyed our view of the ocean, and got ready for today. As we were heading out we met a couple on the elevator who made some joke about if Cara was going surfing today and I said, nope we're doing the Dole Plantation today. When making our plan a couple nights ago we decided today would be the Dole Plantation, Waimea Falls (which I didn't know was here, but I saw a sign for it and decided to look it up and it seemed like an awesome thing to add), and then do some more swimming to help us all sleep tonight.

The Dole Plantation...I mean you HAVE to hit it, right? Everyone tells you to see it once if you visit...and I'll agree, but just once! It is pretty cool to see the different fruit and stuff they grow (I didn't even think about how many things had a dole sticker one it...bananas, limes, lemons, papayas, etc.). We decided to do the train ride and garden tour and everyone said a train was just about to come back so we did that first. It was really cool to see how bananas and pineapple grow, I had no idea. We even saw a cat and some baby warthogs running around (by the way, I've totally developed cat vision while we've been here, I've spotted like 8 so far). The train ride gave lots of information on the plantation and it was pretty cool. The funny thing was they played some music here and there and at the end they said "to buy the soundtrack to this ride visit our gift shop" and I couldn't help but think "who gets a soundtrack to a train ride at the biggest tourist spot ever?", but I guess people do buy it since they do sell it...silly people! After the train ride we walked the garden area....I wasn't too impressed with that part, I think it'd be better to just stick with the train ride, but they had trees with low hanging branches and Cara loved touching them, so that made it worth the money we spent. After that we went to the gift shop, got ourselves both a Dole Whip treat, walked the shops (I ended up buying chocolate covered pineapple) and then headed out. Overall it was cool to visit, but like I said, just the one time. Cara, if you read this in the future, just look at the pictures for this part!

After that we headed to Waimea Falls. I had read you could swim this so we all dressed up in our swimming gear and started that "hike". I don't really feel we can call that a hike since it was completely paved, but that's all I can think to call it...maybe trek is better? It was surrounded by lush botanical gardens and some old houses (like native homes type of thing) on display. It was a beautiful walk. Since we knew it was a trek and we'd be ending at a waterfall Larry mentioned it would be a good idea to hit up a store to grab a quick lunch we could take with us to eat there...kind of a tradition of ours. However, when we got to the falls, I had completely forgotten about the food we brought. Larry saw you needed a life jacket to swim in the lake area so he decided he didn't want to go, but I got Cara and me one so we could try it. Cara didn't mind the water, but didn't like when the life jacket started to go up near her face so we decided just being in the water counted for her and Larry took her so I could swim to the falls. I recorded a video, but I might not post it because half way there I realized I forgot to take my fitbit off and some profanities came spewing out in surprise (I dried it off immediately when I got out and luckily it didn't seem to break it, but I'm not going to be surprised if it starts acting up after today). The water was FREEZING at first, but once you got in to your hips it didn't seem so bad and once I was swimming around in it it felt really good. After I got out I tried to convince Larry to get in, but he reminded me we had food and I remembered I was starving so stopping to eat was a good idea. After lunch Larry was finally convinced and went to get his life jacket. When he stepped in the water he gave me a look like "this is freezing, I thought you said it was warm" so I assured him as he got more in it it warmed up. He did the same thing I did: got in, swam to the falls, touched the rock, and swam back. He told me he never did warm up to the water like me...guess I'm just acclimating to the weather here and I'm just going to have to stay and live here now...haha! The funniest part of this time was as we were walking into the trek we ran into the couple from the elevator and they were like "hey! Weren't you the ones going to Dole?" I guess they were discussing if they should go so I told them it was a nice visit, but if they go only do the train ride because the garden tour would be a let down after this garden! It was so funny running into them though and I've never done that on vacation before, I hardly recognize anyone from the hotel. They said they only recognized us because of Cara and as they approached us I remembered it was them. Such a small world, even when you're away from home!

 

The below pictures are from the Go Pro (which doesn't seem to like the sun apparently)

 

Best pic of the "trail" I got

UGH the blur...but it's the only one of all of us looking
At the camera

Yes...I attempted to take Cara out with me...it didn't
Last too long before she whined

Our typical packed lunch with hikes

I did convince Larry to get into the water...he did not like it as
Much as I did haha

The one and only time Cara's fallen asleep upright.
She was exhausted

After this we headed to a food truck, Leonard's Malasadas, since I had heard those were to die for a "must do" when on Oahu. Cara slept so well on the ride out, I guess just being in water wears her out. We got in line at the food truck, ordered two with chocolate and two just cinnamon sugar kinds and headed out (it was actually quite the wait for them!). We ate them on the way back to the hotel; they were pretty rich, but a yummy treat still.

Once we got to the hotel we decided to go swimming one last time for a little bit. Cara once again loved the pool and started kicking again. I finally got up the nerve to ride the slide, but it wasn't too much fun. I kind of wish I had taken Cara on it since it was really tame and the pool was only 4 ft deep, but I didn't feel like going again after the first time, plus she was having fun splashing. It started to rain and was getting close to dinner time so we called it quits early to head back to the room.

Our view at dinner

We walked halfway out on this little peninsula

I took approximately 1,000,000 pictures to get a decent
Sunset with palm trees pic....this was about the best one

For dinner tonight we hit up this other restaurant called "beach house" (the one by the Mexican place we went to on our second night here). They had a bit of a wait so we walked this little rocky peninsula that went into the ocean. Larry made it much farther with Cara than I did because I didn't trust my flip flops to keep me on the rocks well enough. I wanted to dress up for dinner, but I hadn't showered all day and just felt too gross to try and look pretty so we never got our fancy night out, but it's okay. This place had really good food, and was RIGHT on the ocean so we got a good view while we ate. It was a nice ender to an amazing vacation (I almost need a new word, I think I've said amazing too many times).

Now that we're back and Cara is in bed I have LOTS of packing to do. We have to leave by 5:15 tomorrow morning so I want to get everything done tonight so I can sleep in as much as possible tomorrow (though the alarm is set for 4:45...ugh!). Wish me luck that this packing gets done AND Cara is just as great of a traveler tomorrow!!

Hawaii Trip - Makapuu Lookout, Hukilau Market, and Pool Time

Oh we're going to the Hukilau, to the huki-huki-huki-huki-huki-hukilau! I never knew I wanted to be able to apply that song to a blog post before, but it makes me happy!

Silly girl, being silly so early in the morning

Last night Larry and I realized we only had 2 more days left in this vacation and we officially wanted to make the most out of the days as we could! So we wrote up all the things we still wanted to do while we were her, prioritized them in order of importance, found each thing on the map, and made a plan on how to accomplish it all. Today's agenda: Hike up Makapu'u Lookout (where you can spot whales during migration season...which just so happened to start last week!), hit up the Hukilau Market (which is next to the Polynesian Cultural Center) and walk the shops there, and then take Cara swimming in the pool and see if she likes that better than the ocean.

Makapu'u Lookout - what an amazing place this was! We didn't see any whales migrating, but we didn't stay too long to look either. We did have a bit of a scary moment where we were on this cliff lookout area, before the hike start point, and we were going to take a picture. I thought it would be a good idea to have Cara wear her sunhat since we'd be outside for this hike, but what I didn't account for was the wind. Larry had her propped up on the railing on top of the cliff and I was getting ready to take the selfie of us, when all of a sudden the wind caught the hat off Cara's head. Larry let go of Cara momentarily to grab the hat, and she ended up falling backwards. Luckily Larry's a ninja so he caught her and the hat in one motion, but these girls saw it and, of course, thought they watched Cara plummet off the side and screamed bloody murder. Cara started crying so hard and that's when we saw she got a tiny cut on her back from the cliff. I felt SO bad and you could tell Larry did too, but she was really okay. It was more just a scary thought of what could have happened really. After that things picked up, we took our pictures and then started our hike. I had read that his was really stroller friendly so even though Larry wanted to take Cara up in the carrier, I convinced him otherwise and we put her in the stroller. Everyone still commented on how adorable and cute she was and how they were jealous she got to get a ride to the top haha. What I didn't know is that even though  it is paved and stroller friendly, there were little unpaved pathways to take you up higher and I was REALLY bummed I didn't listen to Larry and have him bring her up in the carrier. We got some amazing views and all that, but I was feeling so good about not needing to stop and I wanted to go higher, but I didn't want to leave the stroller behind so we had to say "oh well, guess it's good enough we got up to this point". The views were breathtaking and I'm so glad we were able to squeeze this in, seeing whales would've made it better, but I got to see a real light house (something I've been wanting to do for a while now) and feeling like we got a decent work out made it even better (it was a steep hike, luckily there was a nice breeze going)

That water was SO pretty

All strapped in, ready for our adventure!

The start of our "hike"

I honestly had NO idea Hawaii had Cactus!

I FINALLY got to see a real lighthouse...this has been a
Bucket List item for me for a long while!

After that we drove on down to Hukilau Market, where we stopped to have lunch. Funnily enough our waiter asked us where we were from and when we told him Utah he mentioned he was actually moving to Utah to go to BYU- for IT stuff even- soon and so he was asking us what rent was like and what the area around BYU was like. It was cool to talk to him about that and Larry got to talk to him about working in the IT field as well. He also got Cara to smile for him, which is new for her! She loves to people watch (and boy has she gotten her fill on this vacation so far), but no one has really made her smile until now. He was very animated! After lunch we walked some of the shops. I wanted to get SO many things, but, again, reminded myself of how little room we had to pack so pictures were going to have to be the biggest souvenirs. I did end up getting myself this wrap thing and a necklace that matched it. I'm hoping to wear it when we have our "fancy" night out for dinner (something we hope to accomplish while we're here). There weren't too many shops, but it was still fun to walk them. Plus it gave us plenty of time to head back to the hotel for swimming!!

Swimming with Cara was SO much fun. We decided to slowly introduce her to the pool this time to see if that went better. The water was a decent temperature, but Cara was still unsure. She didn't cry or anything, but she had to suck her fingers (a sure "security" sign for her in new situations). After a bit we started holding her away from us and we noticed she started kicking! Can you believe it, 7.5 months old and she's kicking in the pool! I was so surprised I grabbed the Go Pro immediately to record it, but only got her doing it a couple more times by that point. Of course she had already been kicking for probably like 15 minutes straight (Larry had her go across the pool and back with him) by that point so I'm sure she was getting worn out, but it was SO cool to see. And by the time I came back she even started splashing. Larry says she started to paddle a little with her hands, but I completely missed seeing that. I'm constantly amazed at how smart our little girl is, even if this is something that's a natural response for babies, I'm still amazed and I'm still considering her to be a smarty pants! Haha

She liked the pool MUCH better than the ocean

I loved how well she slept
After being in the water

We came back to the room at this point to let Cara get a decent nap in her crib while we relaxed and man did that swim knock her out! She passed out and slept for probably 2 hours. We ended up having to wake her up because she probably would've slept through dinner if we had let her. I was immediately wondering how to get a pool at our house once we get back haha.

We decided to go to this restaurant that was within walking distance to the hotel, Roy's Beach House. It seemed like it was pretty relaxed and would have good food (based on reviews) so we figured it would be fun. We went down to eat and they told us there was about an hour and a half wait...what?! So they took our number and said they'd text us to let us know when a table was ready so we decided to go back to our room and wait. Around 7 they sent us a text to say it was ready and to head back (which was good timing because we were ready to call room service again and just cancel that dinner). The food was REALLY expensive as it turns out and it was only okay. But Cara loved tasting it and having sips of our water (something she loves trying to steal from us now) and they had a kitty wandering around that was friendly so that kind of made it worth it...kind of.

Heading out to dinner...I probably should've
Showered first...oops!

One funny thing I would love to remember about today is I noticed that when Larry had to go to the bathroom (number 2) Cara would end up with a poopy diaper around the same time. I started joking they were synchronized pooping. Larry kept saying it must be the food since she was eating some of ours, but I was like "well how come I'm not pooping as much as you guys are then?" and Larry responded with "Because you're a girl and girls don't poop!" I laughed SO hard at that!

Overall it was such a great day! The hike felt great, the market was cute, and swimming with Cara was awesome! I'm glad she seems like she'll be a water baby, as long as it's calm water (just like her mama!). I'm definitely worn out and ready for some nice sleep! One more full day before we have to get ready to leave now :( I'm definitely not ready for that!