Hawaii Vacation: Part One

Here's a little breakdown of the first half of our vacation with some of the photos.

~Monday~
We both woke up very early because of the time difference. We headed out to the beach about 6 am to watch the sunrise. It was beautiful! We checked into a resort later that morning and were surprised with an ocean view! The rest of the day we spent on Poipu Beach relaxing and snorkeling.



~Tuesday Activities~
We decided to check out the sites and beaches on the south shore and stay close to our resort. First, we drove over to Spouting Horn. This is a small lava shelf where water from waves is thrust through an opening causing water and air to squirt out a blowhole.

Spouting Horn

After Spouting Horn, we wanted to check out the snorkeling at Lawa'i Beach. The water looked pretty rough, but there were quite a few other people out snorkeling so we figured it wouldn't be too bad. Wow, this was a great spot! We saw some colorful fish AND we saw a sea turtle! It was so cool and Mark dove down and followed it around for awhile.

We decided to do a little "off roading" to see the next beach. We had to drive down pot-holed dirt roads through sugar cane fields about 2 miles to get to Ha'ula Beach. There were only about 4 other cars out there and the views were amazing! The waves were really strong so we put on our water socks and waded in just to our knees and had fun getting knocked around. There is a little hike up some cliffs for even more fabulous views. Below are some pictures.

views from Ha'ula Beach
views from Ha'ula Beach

views from Ha'ula Beach - the small cliff we are about to hike up

views from the cliff

views on the hike down the cliff

~Wednesday Activities~
We decided that on Wednesday we would hike at Waimea Canyon. We loaded up our hiking backpacks and drove about 20 minutes to the town of Waimea, then we had to drive 20 miles up a winding road where we experienced about a 4000 foot rise in elevation.

We began at the Awa'awapuhitrail head and 4120 ft elevation. We made it about 3 miles into the hike to 2980 ft elevation in an hour and a half and then turned around and hiked back up to 4120 ft elevation and it was hard! Here are photos from the hike.

Crazy mushroom on fallen log
View of NaPali Coast

After our hike we stopped at all the "scenic view" spots on the way back down. Here are some of the pics.

Wild rooster - seen all over the island

I'll work on the second half of the vacation later this week or this weekend. Hope you enjoyed the visit. ;)

A little bit retro

It seems I can't get away from my old photos. How about that hair?!? ;)

Baby Sheba

Here's our little girl at 3 months. ;) Wow, that seems like a long time ago. It was many pounds ago for sure!

Another Childhood Memory

Dance was a huge part of my childhood. I have so many memories of Patricia's School of the Dance (AKA: Miss Pat's). The best part was the year end recital held every June. What little girl doesn't love dressing up in fancy costumes with fringe and sequins? :)

I LOVE this newest layout! I think this was 1979.

Labor Day Photo

Avery on our swing set the evening of Labor Day. :)

Our doorstep

Old is New Again

Well, I haven't shown you anything new in a long while. Here are two layouts using older photos. Enjoy the trip! ;)

Hi!

You may have just received our moving postcard and now are here to check us out online. Well, welcome to our blog. It's just a place for us to post a little about what we are up to and keep in touch with family and friends. We hope you visit again soon and drop us a comment every now and then. :)

I've had a few people ask about our postcards. These were designed by me. If you are ever in need of moving cards, baby announcements, invitations or other printables, let me know and I would be happy to design something for you at a very competitive price!

Thanks for stopping by!

Very Exciting for Me!

Here is a layout I made earlier this summer but never posted it here. It will only be shown here until the end of today so if you don't see it you'll have to wait until January. Sorry.


You may be wondering why it can't be seen again until January and why I am removing it from the blog at the end of today. Well, it is being PUBLISHED in a scrapbooking magazine!!! About a month ago I was encouraged to submit a few of my layouts to Simple Scrapbooks "Digital Scrapbooking" magazine. This will be in the category called Simply Stunning. They were looking for layouts that would be fairly easy for the new scrapbooker to copy. This is a really easy one to copy since it is just a photo, some text and a few embellishments. Oh, and they are actually paying me. As you can tell, I'm very excited. Some people might think it is silly, but it's actually a big deal to be published because quite often the same scrapbookers are chosen over and over again in these magazines. Now we have a magazine to look forward to this winter! It will be on newstands January 9th. I think I better start subscribing though. ;)

The GC page 2

The GC

Here is a photo from our day trip to the Grand Canyon this past March.

Adventures in Babysitting

Here are a few pics I took on Thursday while babysitting Avery.





Click here to see individual pictures at Shutterfly.

Sweet Memory

I saw this photo last night and I remembered how Frankie was sad that day because he wasn't "the baby" anymore. I thought I should scrap it for him so he would know how much he is loved. :)
Journaling reads: Frankie, This photo was taken the day of Aunt Jenny's baby shower right after Avery was born. You had been walking around looking so sad. Uncle Mark asked you what was wrong and you told him that everyone loved Avery because she is the cute, new baby. You were so worried that you weren't cute anymore. You couldn't have been cuter that day and we all love you so much! Love, Aunt Stephanie

House Pics

While Mark was in Indy last week he went by the house and took a bunch of photos for me. Here they so you can get a better feel for the house too. ;) Click on any photo to view it larger.

Another one

This is from Easter 2005.


Mark really appreciated all your birthday comments yesterday. I think he had fun checking back throughout the day. :)

June 21st!

A few pages to show

Pictures from Frankie's Kindergarten graduation.

Frankie's Kindergarten school photo

Sheba's 1st birthday party from last summer.

The Infamous Retaining Wall

Journaling reads: We knew we wanted to make our first yard special. Mark and I spent most of the summer landscaping. After we were done digging trenches, dumping rock, laying stone, and filling with black dirt, we added many bags of mulch and lots of beautiful perrenials. Even though it was tiring work, the beautiful yard was well worth the effort! ~ Summer 2003