10 years

Friday was our 10 year anniversary. So crazy to think how far we have come in 10 years and all by Gods amazing grace.  

The day was insane with housecleaning, grocery shopping, girls had a half day, then play dates, then gymnastics for both of them. Rushed home took the dough out of the bread maker and made our Friday pizza, then got ready quickly for our schools production of Mary Poppins at the Duncan theatre... Which was almost sold out for two nights. While I took the girls and their friends to the play Steve and Mara went to the airport to pick up tom and Patrice for the weekend. 

We all walked in the door around 10:30 pm. Such a crazy day- I barley had a chance To say hi to Steve! 

We passed out after a quick visit and then woke up Saturday and took Steve's parents on the boat to our favourite... Galiano island for a day of island and beach exploring. 

It was a gorgeous day but terrifying when we tried pulling into the beach at extremely low tide and these big waves started coming over the back of the boat as we were stuck. Very scary with girls screaming. But Steve handled it so well and kept his cool and got us all out of there in one piece! 

After a picnic lunch Steve took his dad out fishing (with no luck) while Patrice and I got in some good visits and sunshine! 

The girls had a wonderful day exploring, then we headed home to yummy pulled pork I had in the crock pot. 

It was a wonderful day and everyone slept so well. 

This morning was Mother's Day and I came down to the kitchen with a full breakfast of bacon, sausage, hash browns, eggs, toast and fruit. The girls were helping grandpa and were so cute and excited with their presents they made from school. I am one lucky mom with three beautiful, thoughtful princesses. 

Currently Steve and I are on the Washington state ferry heading to Seattle and enjoying some quiet (he's catching up on work... Blah... It never ends!) 

We are looking forward to a couple days of sight seeing and the hill song concert tomorrow night. Should be good! And we are so fortunate that tom and Patrice flew out to take care of our little girls. Feeling pretty blessed today!!! 

Chick sitting

Sunday evening we picked up our good friends chicks to "chick sit." 

They are away for a week and have one week old layer chickens that needed watching so my girls happily volunteered. They have been in love, and they are pretty fun to watch and hold... Other then the smell in my kitchen! 

This morning they took them for show and tell and they were quite the hit! 

Adessa was so excited to hold them and show them off and tell them their names...

Danika loves them and is quite bossy with them as they are her friends- Hannah's chicks that she got as a birthday present! 

Amara constantly wants to hold them and loves them so much. I'm just scared she'll love one too much! 

After school today we went to the Nagtegaal farm for a horseback ride on their beautiful new horse- Molly. All the girls are in love! She is such a sweet horse and Caroline is loving having it. 

Amara was so brave and loved being on the horse.. Acting like it was no big deal and wanting to go faster! 

Pretty lucky to have such awesome friends! And we just filled our freezers with a quarter cow, and half a pig, and pick up our farm fresh eggs from them. As well as got a load of cow poo for our garden beds! So exciting. Hopefully we can grow some food this year! 

TC 10K

Second annual times colonist 10 km race with this chica. So fun to go up Saturday night, we stopped and had fun at a thrift store and both scored some fun deals then went out for a fun Mexican dinner complete with strawberry margaritas. We fell asleep early (I didn't sleep much) and then was awake by 5 am... Must have been excited to get running! 😁

I didn't train much this year but had the goal to just keep running and run the entire time... Even through the water stations... Which ended up with me pouring water down my face instead of in my mouth. 

I was hurting pretty good at the 8k mark but pushed through and picked up my pace for the end, knowing the course from last year. 

There were 7900+ racers this year... It was insane, but so much fun! 

I ran it in 56 minutes this year compared to an hour and 3 minutes last year... So maybe every year I'll get a bit faster?! 

We showered up at the hotel and then headed to Costco to load up for the week... Child free! 

We stopped for coffees and then stopped at a yummy breakfast place to reward ourselves with delicious eggs Benedict. 

Came home to my family totally refreshed (and exhausted!) but was so proud of myself and had a good weekend with my good friend. Xo

Last day!

We will sure miss this stunning view and eating our breakfasts on the deck. 

More paddle boarding and the girls were boogie boarding all morning. They both became pros! Amara made friends with all the kids on the beach. So cute! Her and a little girl were running away from the waves and screaming. 

We hung out at the beach all morning after one last tennis match and then headed to the little kid pool where Amara loved! The big girls didn't like it so much but we got to sit and I got to read so I loved the kid pool. 

Ride home was awful. Red eye... The airport was packed and we waited in line for a loooong time. Thankfully all the girls slept pretty good on the plane, but Steve and I did not sleep at all. So when we arrived in Vancouver at 7am (4 am hawaii time) 😁 we were exhausted. We had a couple hour layover so grabbed som breakfast and the girls got to play for a bit. This little treehouse was a big hit in the airport!

The flight to Victoria is a quick one, but I guess Steve fell asleep as soon as we took off and on our bumpy landing sat up and swore! Oops! 

Our amazing friends were waiting for us outside the door with our puppy. We loaded up and were happy to head home. Stopped quickly at Costco and then home to our own beds!!! 

My view every morning from my bed when Amara wakes me up... Seeing the moon set. 

Everyone was still sleeping so I laced up and went for my second run. I was planning to run a lot more, but we were so busy and hiking and playing tennis I figured I got enough exercise in! 

It was a gorgeous run and I found some more gorgeous beaches on the way. 

I'm loving this place. It is so gorgeous! 

The rest of the day we played tennis  and then headed down for a beach day and the boys rented paddle boards and we all took turns going out. 

I loved it and wished we had one at the beginning so I could have surfed some of the waves! Mom and I headed out and saw so many turtles beneath us. 

Date Day!

Special day with my favourite person. Woke up usual time by my Amara... We fed the girls, put on a show and left when mom and dad came down the stairs. We started the day by heading to Whalers Village and walked around the gorgeous outdoor mall and stopped in to get me a hat and Steve some sunglasses as his disappeared somewhere on the trip. 

We then walked into the Westin for yummy breakfast. 

My hot date 

View from our table. So gorgeous! 

We then headed to the other side to check out a place called 'la Parouse'  

It was where the last lava flow happened... And at the very end of a road. We drove right over the lava field... Pretty cool experience. 

Where the explosion happened. The lava went on for miles and miles... Right into the ocean where it formed pools to snorkel in. 

The spot we jumped into to snorkel

Me and my man 

So much lava

Snorkelling was pretty unreal. The sun was out when we jumped in, but the wind was still around so there were some waves. We were both a bit nervous as the water was quite cloudy but people pointed us in the direction of amazing snorkelling. We ended up heading way out and were disappointed at first and freaked out, but as we got out further it got better and better. 

We ended up hiking over the lava to try and find the pools on the other side and hiked a long ways in our flippers 😁

Because the lava was hot and so jagged. 

We found one amazing pool the had a little water flow in and out and we jumped into the crystal clear water and felt transported to a new world. It was unreal! So sadly when we went to turn on the underwater camera it wouldn't work. . Turns out the seal broke and water got into. So sad! We had the best snorkelling and couldn't capture any of it. 

The way back the wind picked up and we were both feeling nauseous so hiked back over the lava... We were out for 3 hours! 

When we got back we panicked as the tide rose over where we put our stuff. Thankfully someone moved our towels and stuff but we hid our keys under a rock and it was covered. We panicked and Steve went running. But there was a sweet couple sitting that found our stuff and moved it! We were blown away and so thankful! They were our angels! 😜

On our drive out we stopped at a few beaches on the way home and explored a bit- but sadly the wind blew in and it got a little chilly. So after more exploring we drove back to Lahaina for dinner. We changed in the car and walked the streets. Such a fun little place to explore. We walked up and down and saw the most beautiful sunset. 

We ended the date by going to aloha mixed plate as we heard so much good about it. We waited a long time to eat and did not love it. But it was right on the beach. 

Waiting for dinner. 

Great date day all around! Sure love this man of mine and getting to have him all to myself! 

Wednesday

We don't want to go home! 

We are falling in love with Maui... Other then the cost of things! 

Yesterday was another adventure day. We started the day by Steve making us omelettes and mimosas. Then we packed up for the day and headed for Haleakala national park aka the volcano. It was another long windy road but Adessa did well this time. The weather was pretty foggy and cloudy on the way up and very cold but once we got to the peak it was amazing blue skies. It felt like we landed somewhere in space- a whole new world! We had lots of fun hiking and exploring and only saw the hike down into the crater when the girls were done. So sadly for me we packed up and headed down for a picnic. But definitely a highlight! We prayed for clear weather up to and got it. 

We then adventures to the other sid of Maui to Paia where we wanted to check out the surf beach "jaws" but unfortunately got separated from mom and dad and we didn't buy a cell phone plan so couldn't get ahold of them. We drove up and down the beaches and saw some amazing surfing beaches and then ended up asking some surfer guy for his cell phone to call mom and dad. He traded the call for the use of a towel! 😜

Ends up he is originally from Ontario and had a Canadian plan so we were able to reach mom and dad. The beach we stopped at was covered in turtles. So neat! He told us jaws wasn't being surfed today but told us about baby beach and we went there for the rest of the day. It was a bit tricky to find but unreal when we did. The rocks formed a wall to break the waves so there was a completely calm, teal blue pool of water- complete with turtles! It was gorgeous! We swam in there for awhile and mom, Danika and I walked the never ending white sandy beach. 

The boys took Adessa and Amara home and I drove our Cadillac (which I am going to miss terribly!) back to Ross to return a few things and Danika, mom and I had a little shopping and dinner date. 

Such a great day. Everyday there has been some sort of new highlight. 

Today, mom and dad are watching the girls all day and Steve and I are packing up for a day of exploring some other Beaches and snorkelling. I am super looking forward to it! 

Pictures!

We have been trying to take photos on our good camera but found a few good ones on Steve's cell phone... 

The drives were gorgeous and the island so unique everywhere we went! 

Fun at slappy cakes...

Steves orca with adessas half eaten person 

Danika's horse- talented little pancake artist

Very cool experience at the aquatic center. We stayed for quite some time and enjoyed the diver in the shark yak telling us all about the Sharks

We were loving the tunnel and sat in there for quite some time! 

Hammerhead

So mesmerizing!

Gorgeous view from our bedroom patio. Everyday we watch whales and turtles from here! 

Picture from the bamboo forest in Hana

The waterfall!!!

Moms birthday dinner at Kobes steakhouse... He made us an onion volcano...

Awesome name for a sushi store across the street from us!