Update

I am so tired of having all my widgets deleted when I change my background. I spent the last while putting them all back in. I think I missed a few links to other blogs too! I tried to save my link list, but I missed a few of them. Oh well. Does anybody know of how to change the template without changing widgets? I'd really like to know!

Ashelynn wrote a short story for a writing competition called "Young Authors" in Feb. We found out about a month and a half ago that she won first place for her story in the kindergarten division.

We were so proud of her! Her story was called "The Frog and The Dog" Here it is if you'd like to read it!

The Frog and the Dog

Once upon a time there was a frog and a dog. They were best friends. They liked to play on the park. On the park there were swings and slides and stairs to get on the slides. frog and dog liked to climb up the stairs to go down the slides and swing on the swings. They had so much fun together.

Then the dog said, “I want to go swing on the swings.”

“OK” said frog, “After we swing on the swings, can we play on the slides and climb the stairs to slide down the slides?”

“Yes,” said dog. “We can and we can ride on the merry-go-round at the carnival tonight.”

“OK” said frog, “And at the carnival tonight we can also go to the fire fighter’s play place.”

“And,” said dog, “We can slide down the pole in the fire fighter’s play place.”

“Before we go to the carnival we have to go home to eat dinner and then we can go to the carnival,” said dog.

So they did. The End

I typed it word for word from her. After the school ceremony we found out that her story had taken second place for the whole school district for Kindergarten. We went to another awards ceremony for her and she got a little trophy. She was so cute about it and was so excited!


She had her last TaVaci concert this month too. She loved to preform, but didn't like to go to practice very much. Next fall she is going to do dance instead. Here she is with her teacher.
Mother's day was nice. The kids had cute crafts for me and Bryant was brave enough to fix dinner. A very good dinner I might add. We had macadamia coconut crusted Mahi-Mahi. It was great to not have to cook or clean up!


I also finally joined a card group. I know I was invited countless times to go to the Village Green group, but never went. I figured it was finally time, but my skills are very lacking compared to the group that I am in! Here is the first card I've ever made. Its pretty plain!

I"ve been trying to potty train Bryson for the last 2 months. He is so hit and miss. He still has accidents everyday and only really tells me when he has to go about once every other day. He wants to do it and was asking to go potty since February. The first week we started went great and now its not so great. I've lost my momentum with it and I must not be pushing it enough. He goes most of the time when I put him on the toilet, but oh its frustrating when he is still having so many accidents. I know he'll get it eventually. The other day I found him in my bathroom and he had gotten into my make-up. Great lip stick application don't you think?

We just finished our 2 latest projects, with a great deal of help! Bryant with the help of both of our dads, built a great new swing set for the kids. He had to rip out the old homemade wood one that we had in the yard. To do that he had to jack hammer out 6 very tall, heavy, and very cemented, old wood posts. Then he planted new sod where the old one had been and began putting the new set together. It probably took him, with help, 18 hours! He must love the kids!

While he and both of our dad's were putting it together my mom, brother, my brother's roomate and I re-stained our deck. That is a job I never want to do again! We all got sunburned and it took us all day! Then 2 days later I had to put a second coat on because it hadn't been done in so long that the wood soaked up a lot of the stain. I told Bryant that the next time it needs to be done, its time to sell the house or replace the deck with a vinyl one! We still haven't finished cleaning up or putting the outdoor furniture back on the deck because it got cold and rainy the day after I did the second coat. The best part is that when I was using a sprayer to do the lattice around the hot tub I sprayed the house! Oh yes, I was using drop cloths, but the sprayer went far beyond the covered area of course. Then I had to spend 45 minutes scrubbing the house with paint thinner to get the stain off. You should see how bad my hands look now! On second thought, you wouldn't want too! Now I have to clean up and re-plant the flower boxes on the deck, then it will look great!

I'm so bad!

I'm so bad at keeping up with this! I bet no one even looks at my page anymore because I so seldom update! I can't promise that I will get any better, but here is the lastest post! I hope you like the slide show. Its just a few of the pictures. Bryant's parents have a very awesome camera and when I get pictures from them I'll put another slide show up!

Going to Maui in March for our 10 year anniversary was awesome. My mom kept the kids at our house so we got to go child-less. Bryant's brother Aaron and his wife, Brooke were there as well as Bryant's parents. We all stayed at the same wonderful resort. Here is a little picture of it! We affectionately called it "The Pink Palace." It was a really awesome place to stay. Here is the link to the web site if you want to check it out more. http://www.sunterramaui.com/kaanapali/index.htm

In March the whales are by the island of Maui having babies and we saw so many of them every day. It was so neat to see them. Especially when they would jump out of the water. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of one jumping but got several other shots that are in the slide show.

We started out the week by going on a snorkel boat to the Molokini crater. It was really amazing. Here is some info about it I found on the web.

Molokini

Offshore Island Located 2 ½ miles off Maui's south coast, Molokini is an extinct volcano that is now designated as a State Marine Life and Bird Conservation District. Its crescent shape acts as a fortress that provides protection from waves and powerful currents making this area one of the top ten dive sites in the world.

Molokini's back wall sharply drops off to depths of 300 feet. In the center is a lush reef area with excellent viewing up to 150 feet. The pristine waters are home to about 250 species of fish - some of which are found nowhere else on earth. Boat tours leave for Molokini from Ma'alaea Harbor or Kihei Boat Ramp. The best conditions for visiting the Islet are early in the morning.

When we got there we decided to snuba instead of snorkel the crater. Snuba is a cross between scuba and snorkeling. You are tied to a raft where you get your air and then you have a hose that takes you 20 feet under water to see all the aquatic life up close. The mouth piece is the same as scuba and we also had to wear a weight belt. It was really peaceful that far underwater, except for the bubbles from the snuba mask. We got to see a sea cucumber, eels, and look up at the snorkelers. After Molokini we went to another spot sometimes called Turtle Town. There are a lot of giant sea turtles that like to hang out in this certain area and we saw so many. There were underwater coral arches also. We did the snuba there also and got very close to about 4 turtles. We were warned not to touch them because it was a $25,000 fine!

The rest of the week we spent a lot of time on the beach boggie boarding, relaxing and doing more snorkeling. In the evenings we would go out and do a little shopping. We heard about an area called Honolua Bay while we were there. We walked down through the jungle to a black sand beach. In the jungle we found a vine low to the ground and had to swing on it of course!

When we started to snorkel at Honolua Bay we had to swim about a 1/2 mile out to get to the coral. It was amazing. There were canyons and ridegs of coral everywhere. Aaron and Brook saw a barracuda and Bryant and I saw a spotted sting ray. There were also a couple of eels there too. We snorkeled there until sunset. When we got back to the beach and were drying off we notice the water swirling and black fins in the water about 50 yards from where we had just been snorkeling. Some other guys at the beach were sure they were sharks because they had just seen a reef shark while snorkeling. We watched the fins for about 10 minutes and then they were gone. More people came down to the beach that had been up on the cliff. We asked if they had seen they fins up there and they said that they had. They had binoculars and a better view, and told us that they were spinner dolphins not sharks. We were all relieved!

Another amazing thing we saw was a pair of turtles mating about 10 feet from the beach at a beach called DT Flemming. I got a little video of that too!
Apparently it was quite a rare sighting and it even made the local paper.

It was a great vacation. The kids were pretty good for my mom expect that Bryson didn't sleep very well. It also snowed while we were gone and she almost got hit by a garbage truck that was sliding down the road . . . other than that it went well and Ashelynn was a big help.
It was great to relax, but the tans faded all too soon.

Today its been snowing off and on all day here and its May! Oh well, the memory of Hawaii kind of keeps me warm!