July 4th Festivities!

Our July 4th Festivities began on July 2. We went to
the theater and saw Toy Story 3 in the morning. (The previous
post documented that experience.)

Friday evening we went to the Maryvale Baseball Park
in Phoenix to see some fireworks.


Here is Dillon in front of the field.


There were a few games set up for the kids to play. Here
Dillon is tossing food to the bears.


This is an action shot. (Notice the flying chicken leg!)
What an arm!


Next they went into a bouncy house. I couldn't get a very
good pic of Dillon because he was having too much fun
jumping around. Taya wanted to try. She got just inside the
door and then stayed there and let the kids bounce her.
She did have fun even though this pic makes her look distraught.


The last game was a baseball game. Dillon did awesome!
He was hitting that ball like crazy!

For the Fireworks Show we sat in the stadium seats.

These are just a couple of really cute pics of Taya while

we were waiting.

The Fireworks show was pretty awesome and both

kids really enjoyed it! Super Fun!

To the Theater!

Hooray! We took the kids to see Toy Story 3!
It was great! I was a little worried about Taya,
but we had some popcorn and snacks and she
brought her baby and bottle. She enjoyed it!


She munched on her snacks and held her baby.
She sat on my lap most of the time and kinda
milled around a little. It was fun!


Dillon loved it! He was chowing on his popcorn
with his eyes glued to the screen! It was a
great show. I really liked it! What a great
family movie experience! (that was super
cheesy, but seriously it was lots of fun!)

Swimming Lessons!

Dillon just finished up his first swimming lessons!
He loved it! He is such a fish, he loves the water!


Here he is sitting on the side waiting his turn.
I especially love the goggles!


On the last day they got to jump off the diving board!



He was a little hesitant but he did it with just a little
help from his teacher!


Now he's swimming to the side! Look at him go!
He did really well, he can hold his breath for 6 seconds!
He's going to start another session of lessons in July.


Taya and I did a mom and tot class. She did
fairly well. She really loves the water but
she wasn't too interested in learning anything.
She did like singing "Ring around the Rosies" and
then getting dunked on "we all fall down"!

Memorial Day!

We had a pretty fun Memorial Day! We drove to Lake
Bartlett. It took us about and hour to get there. It was
fun exploring a bit of this great state Arizona in which we
live. :)



Dillon and Taya are just cruisin with their shades on!


We went with Jaymie and Jesse and their baby
Henslee. We always have so much fun together!


We hung out and chatted. We also walked around and
explored a little. We walked out on the dock and checked
out some fish in the water.
On our way back home we stopped and ate at a cool little
restaurant called The Horny Toad. The bbq chicken was
so good!
Afterwards we went to Jaymie and Jesse's and sat in the
hot tub. All in all, it was a good day!

Haircut!!!

Dillon got his hair cut!!!


Oh how I truly love the surfer dude look!
I had to get a couple of before pics.


I cut his hair myself in the backyard. I am not a professional
by any means but it looks pretty good. I was sad to do it, but
it was time.


And here is the after. He is still as cute as ever!
It will be fun to put some gel in it and do the spikey look.


It was time for a summertime (super hot, like 110 already)
hairdo. The last straw was when we went swimming
and his hair kept getting in his eyes and bugging him.
So I gave in and we cut it.
Don't worry, come fall time he is going to grow it out again!

Hawaii!!!

Hooray!
We survived Mike's first year of Law School! We thought what a better
way to celebrate than to take a much needed getaway to Hawaii! (thanks
so much to the Grandmas and Grandpas that watched our kids so we could
go without worries!)


We went to Honolulu and stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
It was so beautiful there the weather was absolutely awesome!


Behind me is the hotel where our room was. It was a big resort
with a few towers, right on the beach (as you can see) with four
pools and all the sun and sand we wanted!


This is the view of the ocean that we had. I am now taking the
pic from where I was standing before.


Looking down from our Lanai (balcony) we could see penguins.
Penguins! There was all sorts of ponds with koi fish and penguins
and turtles. So awesome!


Friday night we watched fireworks on the beach!
On the beach...awesome!


We had a great trip, we did tons of relaxing and swimming, but
we also did a bunch of walking and exploring. We went to the
Waikiki aquarium. It was so awesome! Tons of beautiful coral,
fish, jellyfish, an octopus and seals!


This is a view of the ocean from the aquarium. (Our hotel
is back in that cluster of towers you can see right on the beach
in the background.)


We took the bus to Pearl Harbor. It was a huge accordion bus
and it was packed!


Going to Pearl Harbor was a really cool experience. It was so
interesting to re-learn what happened and actually see where
things had taken place. Behind Mike is the USS Missouri.


The anchor from the USS Arizona. (Holy moly it is huge!)


This is the USS Arizona memorial. We came over on a boat
and now we are going to walk inside and look down and see the
ship under the water.


Inside there is an entire wall covered with the names of all
the people who were killed during the attack of Pearl Harbor.
Wow! It was amazing to see all those names and try to imagine
what it must have been like. (I am trying to look solemn)


That rust colored circle thing behind Mike is part of the Arizona.
It was kinda creepy to look into the water and see the ship underneath.
It is still leaking oil and you can see the oil spots on top of the water.
To think there are still bodies trapped in the ship...kinda eerie.


I am so glad we got to experience Pearl Harbor. It was definately
an awesome thing to do. We had a great time.


We rented a car for one day. We left early in the morning and pretty
much drove around the whole island of Oahu. We stopped at
Wiamea Bay. It was absolutely beautiful! The water was so clear!
This pic is the view to the right.


This pic is the view to the left. Gorgeous!


The Laie Temple. Such a pretty landscape and a beautiful
Temple.

So cool how the Palm trees line the street and point the way
right to the Temple.


We stopped and checked out the Polynesian Cultural Center.
We were kinda late so we didn't get to see too much but we
took some pics. It was fun!


We also stopped at the Dole Plantation. The drive there was so
cool because there was pineapple plants as far as we could see.



This was our car we were cruising around in.




So much fun cruisin with the top down!




The last night we were there we went to a Luau. Here we
are in our Hawaiian Luau attire.


Tons of food! So yummy!

The final dance was a fire dance. Yeah, it was awesome!!!

We had to take a picture of the Spam, Eggs and Rice

breakfast platter at McDonalds. I love spam!

We walked down to get it a couple times!

Outside our hotel there was also flamingos!!!

This is Mike posing by a statue that was right outside the

entrance to our hotel.

We had such an awesome trip. It was so relaxing and so fun

to see all that we saw and experienced. We spent tons of time

at the pool swimming and laying out or at the beach swimming

and laying out. It was our first time to Hawaii and hopefully

not our last!