Hawaiian birthday

Carter and Logan loved Hawaii so much they decided to have a Hawaiian birthday party. It was much cheaper than bringing everyone to Hawaii for his birthday like Carter originally wanted. :) The boys had a great birthday party and it was so fun to see these best buds celebrating together. It is always a blast to watch all their friends laugh, play, swim and of course run around squealing. Kids are so fun!

We had these fish diving toys for a pool game, but Logan just loved to collect them and carry them around.

Little Addelyn in her Hawaiian outfit - so cute.

The boys enjoying the pool

Jake relaxing in his floaty.

Slip n' slide fun

Logan was old enough this year to blow out his candles

and he clapped for himself he was so proud.

Boat races

This year our cousins from Montana came out to go to the boat races. We haven't been for 10 years and so we had a lot of fun rediscovering the races and watching the boys enjoy the river, boats and planes. Carter was so excited to have his cousins Kaden and Tori and can't wait to see them again.

Friday at the pits

I've always thought the best part of the boat races is just

spending the whole day in the river.

Lexi, Tori and Kaden

Logan enjoying a snack

Aunt Nell pulling the kids on their floaty train

Swim lessons

Both the boys did swim lessons this summer. Logan really enjoyed his class and loves the pool. Carter is doing a great job swimming and starting to learn different strokes. It is a lot of fun to watch him.

Logan's favorite activity was when he got to throw his toy and kick and paddle to retrieve it. The only problem is he really can throw and hit a few people and he tried to go for the other kids toys a few times. He is always entertaining.

Video of Logan jumping...one of his other favorite activities.

Carter getting to try out the catepillar

Carter doing his x float

Carter gliding across the pool

July 4th

We haven't been in town the last few years for the 4th of July so it was nice to celebrate at Grandma and Grandpa's this year. We had great food as usual and Danelle planned a great fireworks show. I love that you can still light off your own fireworks in Richland, just like when we were kids. Both boys loved the fireworks and were totally thrilled by the show. Logan was funny as he oohed and awed at each firework.

All ready for the show

Carter was so excited he was dancing around

Aunt Nell and Carter

The rest of the audience

Thermonica

Today Carter went to the dentist for a teeth cleaning and checkup. He did great and so he got to pick a prize out of the big prize basket (the only reason any kid is willing to go to the dentist). Usually this is a long process examining every item and mulling it over but today he quickly found a harmonica and that was it. He carried it around and played it all day. The thing we loved is he calls it a Thermonica, "Mom where is my Thermonica" and "I shared my Thermonica with Logan". Brady and I thought this was hilarious and realize he'll probably get it right soon, so for now we are enjoying the Thermonica entertainment.

Fun on the beach

Okay, here is our last hawaii post. I promise. It is just so beautiful and we had so much fun that it is hard not to post all our pics. We had such a great time at the beach playing in the sand, swimming, jumping around in the surf and boogie boarding.

Logan's entire face is covered in sand, I'm not sure how that happened but he was having so much fun he didn't even notice.

We had a great time boogie boarding. It took Carter a few times to get the hang of it but he hung in there and had a great time cruising on the waves.

Logan loved when we jumped up when the waves. He would yell splash with us each time and them giggle.

Wailea

After a few days we moved to Wailea on the South West shore of Maui. It definitely has a different pace, slower and a really calm surf which we enjoyed.

Here is the view from our hotel room.

The grounds are beautiful and we enjoyed just walking around and exploring.

Banana trees around the hotel...there is just something I love about banana trees. As many bananas as my kids eat I could use one of these in my backyard.

We kept having these beautiful cardinals land on our lanai and Carter was so excited he was able to snatch a picture of one.

We got to spend a day with Uncle Mike who lives in Kihei. Against his better judgement we were able to get him off the golf course and into the ocean. Carter was really into hanging out with Uncle Mike, he wanted to swim with him and eat his sandwich with him, whatever he could thing of to do. Logan called him Papa the whole time which we all thought was hilarious.

The sand at Makena beach is crushed shells and coral and it is beautiful set against the aqua colored water.

We explored the lava flows to the south of our hotel. It was amazing to see how expansive they were and how picturesque the beach is along these flows.

The boys loved watching this blow hole and of course they couldn't resist throwing rocks in.

You can get a sense for how far this lava flowed looking up towards the volcano.

Carter looking at the pumice - we didn't realize pumice came from volcanic eruptions and the other cool thing we learned is it floats in water.

We took some family pictures on our hotel beach, you can expect to see these again in your Christmas card this year. :)

Daddy's in heaven when his little boy holds his hand.

~ Sisters ~

This picture is from the board walk that runs along the hotels.

We also spotted a sea turtle on our walk.

Another picture by Carter.