Maggie's 3rd Birthday

Our little princess turned 3 on August 23!  We had a wonderful day celebrating her life and making her feel like a real princess!

We started the morning off with presents!  Will did a great job wrapping up Maggie's new bike.

 Next we had birthday donuts with LOTS of sprinkles.

 Time to test out the new bike.  This is Maggie's first real bike and she did a great job riding it around our street.  She was fearless!

 Time to get ready for the birthday party!  Kate really wanted them to match...hair and all.

 We held Maggie's party at our local McDonald's.  We kept the party simple and small with 2 little girl friends and Gramma and Papa.  All the little girls received birthday crowns for the occasion.

 Present time!

 Cake time!  Maggie insisted on a pink and purple vanilla cake.

 Yummy cake!!!

Maggie and friend, Matilda.

 All of our party princesses!

Last Day of Camp Gramma: Six Flags Animal Kingdom

 On Friday we headed to Vallejo to Six Flags Animal Kingdom for our last day of Camp Gramma (yearly tradition).  We had a lot of fun riding on rides, watching animal shows and riding elephants!

 Gramma, Chloe and Kate rode on The Cobra rollercoaster

 One of my personal favorites was getting to see an elephant get a shower.  We were about 10 feet from the action.  It was super cool!

 Gramma treated us all to an elephant ride.  It was awesome to sit on top of the elephant and feel it waddle and clomp as it walks.

 This bouncy frog ride was one of the girls favorites.  They rode it 7 times in a row!

 Maggie made snake friend that loved to climb up the glass to get a better view of Maggie.

 The Butterfly House was another favorite.  There were thousands of beautiful butterflies flying all around us.

 These enormous moths were just chillin' on a tree.

 Airplane rides

Thank you Gramma for the "best day ever!"

Hurricane Iselle

While were is Kauai, Hurricane Iselle hit the Big Island.  The days leading up to the hurricane were very nerve racking and unsettling.  The news coverage was all about the hurricane and how to prepare for the worst.  Will and I were getting very nervous about the approaching storm that we even looked into flying home early.  We bought extra water, food and flashlights.  The owner of our rental brought over candles and a new, large garbage can to fill with fresh water.  Thankfully Kauai was not hit by any hurricane but we certainly experienced the effects from it!  We had about 48 hours of bad weather with a crazy 12-hours of heavy downpour.  We mostly stayed inside, watched TV and colored.  It makes for a very unique memory from our trip, especially considering it has been over 20 years since a hurricane has hit Hawaii.  

 The water in our swimming pool was 100% from the storm.  I thought for sure our house would flood and get swept into the ocean during the heavy downpour...it was insane at how much rain fell!

 The plus side to all the rain was that the waterfalls were full!

 Staying busy inside.

 On our second day of bad weather we decided to get in the car to see some sights since we couldn't go to the beach.  We drove to Wailua Falls and they were raging from all the storm water.  It was quite a sight to see!

 We also tried to tour the lighthouse but the gates were closed for "visitor safety".  Thankfully we were able to come back a few days later for a closer look.

 Another plus to the storm was the AMAZING sky at sunset.  The colors were unbelievable!!!

Kauai Anniversary Trip: Hanalei Bay

The best way to sum up our 7-nights in Hanalei is amazing beauty!  The north side of the island is so gorgeous with tons of rivers, waterfalls and lush greenery.  We stayed in a cute little one-bedroom cottage on Hanalei Bay.  We had beautiful mountains and waterfalls behind us and a gorgeous beach in front of us.  It was truly breathtaking!

 Will made us AMAZING pancakes every morning in Hanalei.  He tells me the key was to cook them quick on high heat.  Whatever the secret was, they were so delicious it was worth mentioning in the blog. :-)

 Kate devoured Daddy's pancakes!

 Each time we drove into Hanalei Town we passed by an old church and mission.  The view of the waterfalls were pretty spectacular too!

 Here is a picture of our cottage.  Since we did not have access to a pool we decided to buy one for the girls.

 This is the view from our beach looking towards our cottage (back, left corner).

 Hanalei Bay

 On our actually anniversary day (August 7) we took the girls to a Luau to celebrate.  The girls got all dressed up in their Hawaiian dresses.

 The luau was located in a lush tropical garden so they took us on a tram ride to tour the grounds.

 The girls enjoyed petting this playful goat at the luau.  The goat liked to nibble their dresses and head-butt them too.

 Kate took this picture of Will and I.

 Imu ceremony...unearthing the pig.  The girls got to sit right up front.

 Kate went up on stage to learn the Hukilau.  She was SO excited that this became all of our highlight from the entire luau.

 Kate wanted to try on my swim suit.  I think it might be a bit too big for her.

 More beach time at Hanalei Bay.

 Kate learned how to boogie board at our beach.  She loved it despite several wipe-outs! She and Will even double-boogied in which Will and Kate would ride the board together.

 Ke'e beach

 Opaekaa Falls

 Wailua River

 Tunnels Beach:  Kate snorkeled and Maggie played in a little river attached to the beach.

 Running down the river

 Sunsets on Hanalei Bay

 Pool fun with Daddy and water wars!

 We toured the Kilauea Lighthouse on our last day.

 All done...time to head to the airport.