Hawaii part 2

So Sunday arrived and we had our full crew of there finally. Again, the previous night we all went to bed rather early because of the time change but all 12 of us were so grateful to sleep in without being woken up by the (wonderful) cries of our children.

We went to the small branch in the town close by of Hanalei. 95% of the ward was visiting. It was testimony meeting and we got to hear the wonderful words of both my mother and Casey as well as other members from around the world. How grateful I am to be able to go the our Father in Heaven's true church wherever I am in the world! This is the only group picture I have at this point! Hopefully I can get more from my brother later! Man how I love being surrounded by family. (I'm also realizing Casey is the tallest and I the shortest f this bunch…) Take note of my heathen brother Weston wearing jeans to church because he "forgot" his church clothes ;)

After church we did a little sight seeing around the island. We stopped in at a Tongan festival going on in a small town close by. We got to experience our mini luau while there and some of the others picked up some cool souvenirs.

After the Tongan festival we headed to the way south side of the island through a wretched bumpy dirt road (that was definitely not good on my pregnancy ha) to see some cool dry blow holes and just the interesting more desert side of the island. All that walking gave me a ton of contractions and gave both Casey and myself a little scare of too much activity. That was definitely the point my attitude changed of taking it a lot easier on myself during this trip. But the dry blow holes were still fun to see and the scenery beautiful!

 (a picture of Scott from the day before)

 The tunnel of trees on our way down south, way cool looking.

All the group pictures from this day are not on my camera sadly. I want so badly to get ahold of them!


Monday was a day of snorkeling. The newest 5 people were real eager to get out and snorkel! We went to tunnels beach this day, definitely the best snorkeling beach on the island. It was so fun to be with Casey! Exploring the ocean with him, holding hands showing each other neat stuff under water, laughing and such, oh it was just so great to have him around! But also being all together as a family of 12 adults was great. No kids to fight, nap times, diapers, it was just so fun to be a group of adults for  little while together.

After asking everyone their opinions about the week it was pretty unanimous that snorkeling was the winner. We all loved it so much. I especially loved the fact that I could keep up with everyone and experience as much as everyone else was without needing to be taken care of! I did have to watch the shallow areas that my belly wasn't going to hit, ha. But there were tons of turtles to see, so majestic as they fly through the water! Fish were just all so cool, totally felt like we were in the world of finding Nemo.

I can't really remember what we did Monday evening though…maybe more walking around shops? Ha who knows. But I should say that my SIL, Amanda, planned all the meals for the week and man did we eat good.

Tuesday we rented kayaks and kayaked up a river a couple miles to a beautiful waterfall, well at least at the end of the kayaking part you could hike another mile to the waterfall, ha. Back to the kayaking part, it was really fun. Casey did pretty much all the work so I didn't overtax my body, he was of course really fun when it came to splashing people and whenever he wanted to race someone or catch up to someone his body pumped it out by himself and we had a great time laughing and enjoying the beautiful scenery all around! I camped out at the base of the hike for a good hour or so while everyone walked/hiked up. From what I heard it was a fun experience.

I think later that afternoon we went to Lumahi beach. It was a tiny hike down (that I could do, yay!) to a secluded little beach with a large sandy area, gentle rolling waves to play in, and an area to jump off tall lava rocks. We kicked it in the shade, the water, the sun, all mean while feeding the little chicks all around.

It think maybe that night we all sat around the fire pit they had and talked and laughed about random things. The weather was always just so  perfect, maybe a 5 degree change at maximum from hottest to coldest. Pretty amazing!

A little of life lately

Here's a few small cute/funny moments I actually caught on camera recently. It's so hard for me to a) get my lazy bum up and actually take a picture of the situation b) my phone is usually much more convenient c) catching the cute moment before he becomes more interested in my phone or the camera is getting difficult. I digress, he are the cute moments:

We have this little duck game, the water moves in a circle moving the ducks around, he decided to put goldfish on it one day, very entertaining for him and I

a) Cute messy boy eating yogurt, he loves  yogurt

b) his very serious intent face while playing on my phone. I'd say about 90% of the time when he gets ahold of a phone he goes straight for the photo album and just wants to watch videos of himself and point out people he recognizes in pictures. His favorite thing to watch by far is the little videos I make of our family. 

 Pedal training. He loves riding this bike around so much. As soon as we walk out our back door he jumps on it, rides it down the driveway, onto the street, around the corner, down that sidewalk. It's definitely one of his favorite activities.

 Casey's first day of his 3rd Dental school year! This was lunch time on his way back and he didn't want to take a picture, but somehow I got him to jump in excitement for me. He is enjoying his 3rd year  a BILLION times better already than his 1st and 2nd years. He's in the clinic actually doing stuff 60-70% of the time finally doing real dental work. I'm happy that he's happier.

 I've dealt with this mess before…I should have been smarter...

 He loves the song "Let it Go" along with every other child in America. When I start singing it to encourage him to sing it (he does and it's freaking adorable) he starts searching for the actual movie within our DVD's to watch the whole movie, ha. At this point. I don't feel like I need him entertained by movies (he'll probably get enough of that while I nurse in the coming months, let's be honest) so instead I've gotten in the habit of letting him watch a you tube clip of that song part of the movie to appease his wishes. He watches it with full attention and then goes around the house singing "Dohhhhhh! (pause) Dohhhhhhh!" it's one of my favorite things.

 Being woken up up by mom and dad from his nap. Such a sweetie. I love his glazed eyes and sleep marks all over his face.

 Nose picking and snuggling usually ensue post naps too

I'm trying so hard to slow down the days I have with just Maxson. I know my attention and time with just Max is coming to and end real quick. I find myself reading more books to him at each going to bed moment when he literally has a pile of 8 to read. When he begs for more and more songs at bedtimes I oblige and keep singing and rocking and snuggling him not at all wanting to disagree with him (except after like 6 songs). Although it's really uncomfortable to sit on the ground and bend and reach for things, I stay for longer periods than I used to building towers for him to knock down and making other random toys come to life (granted his attention span and play time is getting longer too). I just find myself lingering longer at all my activities with Maxson. I'm sad for our time together, just him and I, to be ending so soon, but I'm so excited to be adding more babies to our family too. It will be hard, but it will get easier with time and everything will feel right again 3 kids. 

Hawaii part 1

Over a month later I'm finally getting around to starting my posts on Hawaii! Well, as you can imagine, it was such a wonderful trip. Has anyone ever gone to Hawaii and not had  an amazing time? My generous parents extended the invitation to all the kids and their spouses to join them for their week's timeshare on Kauai sans kids. Nearly all of us kids are not in ideal financial situations to say "hey, let's take a vacation to Hawaii" but since the offer was put on the table far in advance we all just made it happen, and it was oh so worth it.

Casey's saintly brother and SIL, Cody and Camille, took in the orphan Max while we were gnu and we will forever be indebted to them, more on Maxson's stay later. My parents also decided why not extend their week long vacation by a couple days since they were already spending all the time nd airfare going over there. Some of the couple joined in with this idea, including us. After we bought those plane tickets Casey signed up for a school dental trip down to Jamaica which happened to overlap our Hawaii trip! Our minds began spinning of how we'd make this work. It was decided that I would still go early with my parents and a couple of siblings, and Casey would leave his Jamaica trip a day early to get to Hawaii for the original week's time we'd be there, also getting there the same day as some of the other siblings.

So off we went to Hawaii!

Those first couple days there without Casey were fun but hard on me. I guess I just didn't quite realize how big pregnant I was. It slowed me down more than I wanted to admit, things were uncomfortable and hard to do, and Casey, my main support in life who I talk to about everything, just wasn't there, it was hard. I felt like a really inconvenient 3rd wheel on my family. Except at the same moment my parents made me feel completely otherwise and included me on everything and took care of all my needs in place of Casey, they were so sweet and I was so grateful for them.

We stayed on the North side of the island in a town called Princeville at the Hanalei Bay Resort. Our view every morning and evening:

Ha, rough life. Between us and the ocean was just a bunch of steep jungle. But the resort had a golf cart that took you anywhere you wanted to go, down to the beach, to your car, the pool, it was great. My pregnant body was ever so grateful for that convenience. 

Our first day, Thursday, was mainly just flying, shopping for food and checking into the hotel room. Because Casey cancelled his sear on the flight I somehow ended up with a middle seat all by myself. Through lots of awkward and desperate pleading with the people in the row in front of me (my mom and dad's row) and the one behind me (Kirk and Whitney's row), the kindest man ever on the aisle seat of Kirk and Whitney's row switched me for my middle seat. I was beyond grateful for this guy. I got up probably 10-12 times it seemed like during our 7 hour flight to stretch my back, legs, and belly. My back felt awful. Kirk spilt cranberry juice all over Whitney, literally a full cup, and her bum and pants were soaked for nearly 6 hours, poor girl. Kirk graciously let me borrow some head phones to watch a movie that was on, and I also worked on our 2014 photo album (got January out of the way!).

So after getting our luggage, renting cars, grocery shopping at Walmart and Costco we drove the hour north to our hotel to visit the dark beach right beneath our resort since the sun had gone down but we were all itching to get our feet in some sand and water!

Friday involved snorkeling and more snorkeling. It was the best. We first went to Ke'e beach and had a blast. I stayed close by and ventured out a little tin Kirk and Whitney while Mom, Dad, Scott, and Megan went much further battling a stronger current. It felt like it had been forever since snorkeling but oh man it's so easy to just do it and remember the feeling. The fish were in plentiful supply, just hundreds of them with so many beautiful colors, it was absolutely mesmerizing. After snorkeling we hung out on the beach for awhile, let the rain come and go and then come again hard and that's when we packed up to go to a different beach down the road in hopes of sunnier weather. By the way, there were chickens everywhere. That is literally the background noise of Kauai, roosters, chickens, and little chicks, constantly making noise for all to hear, ha.

The second beach I went out with my brothers and mom and snorkeled more. Not as many fish but still some col individual things. I think it's fun to snorkel in bigger groups because you have that many more eyes to notice really cool things and then share it with everyone else. The water was wonderful of course, temperature wise. Made snorkeling so enjoyable, also the water felt amazing on my back, hello weight of my belly lifted! After snorkeling at the second beach I hung out with parents in the shade, reading books, dozing off and just relaxing in the ocean breeze, it was great.

I think later that afternoon we walked around a couple shops and then shared a delicious snow cone with my parents. That night we were all pooped and went to bed way early from all the sun, snorkeling, traveling, and time change.

 I don't know why blogger has blocked out Kirk and Whitney's faces :(

 We bought this snorkel gear for our honeymoon to Cancun and finally got to use it again, ha!

 My mother and Scott (and in days later, Casey too) loved feeding the chicks, ha

 driving through jungle, always

Saturday we did more snorkeling, can't remember which beach, but then our car battery died :( The other siblings had left in their cars already and were doing their own things so my parents and I were stuck at the beach for a few hours for the tow truck to come. Not an awful place to be stranded though being right there by the ocean with breeze and tables to sit at.

Casey FINALLY flew in that afternoon and I could not have been happier. It was truly like I was reunited with the other half of my body and all felt right in the world again. I hate being away form that guy, I love him just so stinking much!

 these pictures are from the next day's activities, but I just wanted to show how excited I was to see this man of mine.

29 weeks pregnant with twins

I'm 29 weeks pregnant and definitely feel like I could be 38/40 weeks pregnant. Apparently MANY people I run into agree with me ha. You wouldn't believe how many comments in the last week I've gotten of the following:

When are you due?
Not until November 5th, but I'm having twins!
(Shock) Twins? Well yes I was guessing that.
You must be so uncomfortable/you look so uncomfortable.
I bet you are so ready to be done.
Two more boys, your hands are going to be so full!

Blah, I'm already done with those comments and I'm not even into the 30 week area yet, ha.

On the there hand, I do GREATLY appreciate those strangers that come up to me and say "You look so cute!" I want to squeeze those people as tight as I can with a beaming smile and tears in my eyes and say "thank you, thank you!" But instead I shyly say "Oh well thank you, you're so sweet, but I actually have a long ways to go since I'm having twins" (while I keep my distance mind you) and then if they're super spectacular people they'll say "You look so good for having twins." Those people are zeeee best!

At our doctor's appointment last week at 28 weeks we had a growth scan. The boys are doing spectacular. They weigh about 2#11oz and 2#9oz. Good job boys for staying the same size, that's muy importante with you two! My blood pressure was miraculously low (probably because I was lying down for my 30 min ultrasound and then they took it. I passed my glucose test with flying colors. It was just so great for Casey and I to see those boys wiggling all around, it felt like it had been so long since we had. It's crazy when they do ultrasounds you just see a bunch of circles at first (multiple elbows, hands, feet, heads, bellies, knees) it's just a jumbled mess. They were both head down at the 28 week appt. It was just such a great appointment. Every week I continue being pregnant I am just so grateful and overjoyed. Preterm labor signs are scary and I whole heartedly do not enjoy them…

But Friday I woke up with some strange symptoms I hadn't had before and a very sore belly in general. We went in later that day for a quick appointment just to make sure all was still alright. My doctor concluded I'm just getting bigger and heavier and stretching more, it's just kind of the way it is and it's ok, just take it easy when I could. Glad I had that reassurance. The boys were both breech 10 days after that last appointment ha

I was complaining to my doctor that I just feel tired and at a loss of energy a lot and wondering if I was missing a nutrient somewhere. She replied "Nope, your hemoglobin levels came back fantastic. You're just literally growing 2 full babies in there, that is a lot of work! Your body is just working really hard!" I appreciated her answer and at the same time wished there was a nutrient I was missing so that I could have a new burst of energy.

Speaking of nutrients, remember how much I love milk? Well I think my milk intake increases while I'm pregnant because I drink so much at every meal ha. These babies are gonna love milk in all forms!

I also had a dream the other night about the twins. The main part I remember was that they were EXCELLENT at nursing. Hoping that dream was a little insight to my future because that dream was so comforting.

My belly literally feels like a watermelon. The other day I had 2 watermelon in my grocery cart and a lady told me I looked as ripe as those watermelons, ha. Funny thing is when I was picking out those watermelons I thought "I think I am bigger than these…" Whenever Max sees me putting the lotion on my belly he takes some, lifts his shirt up and follows suit. I probably seem very lazy to my family and friends and Casey but I just can't do it all anymore. I am fully aware, grateful, and ok with my friends helping chase after Maxson when I cannot, they are the best.

Sitting down and getting up seems like so much effort.

I have been wearing a belly/back support and it's been making a WORLD of difference! My back is no longer in pain, just tired from all the weight, but the no more pain part is WONDERFUL!

Have I mentioned how I have the fan blow directly on my at night? No covers. And it feels great. Casey on the other hand is freezing under the covers, ha. My 2 personal heaters are working overtime. Sleeping is getting rather uncomfortable though...

It is fun to be pregnant, it's such a special feeling. So much movement inside your belly all the time, kicks, punches, bulges, arching backs, roundhouse kicks, hiccups, etc. Just lots and lots of moving. When I look at my profile in the mirror I'm just amazed at what my body is doing. It is stretching so much to accommodate these growing babies. Organs inside are moving out of the way to make space. My body is feeding these babies and helping them grow! What a miraculous gift I have been given as a woman from our Father in Heaven. I have been entrusted to grow and care for these 2 babies. The gift of creation is such a powerful one, I feel very inadequate once I truly begin thinking about it.

BTW there are apparently 2 humans the size of butternut squash inside me…these squash were huge...