Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your day. We definitely did! Lots of food and games and relaxing. It was very nice.
I have a couple videos of Noah just being Noah. This is what he is up to these days. Sorry they are long and somewhat boring, but it is pretty much all I can get from him. He isn't into performing for the camera, so I just have to film his normal activities.
He watches me vacuum and is really interested in what the heck the vacuum does. So he uses his popper toy to pretend like he is vacuuming. He does it just like me... hitting the furniture and all!
The next video is Noah just being a crazy boy that likes to climb and jump. He was so excited that we were letting him stand on top of the diaper box and jump onto the chair. We usually try to keep him from things that will most likely injure him, but this time we let him have his fun!
Have a great weekend! Ben and I were invited to go to The Nutcracker this weekend! I LOVE ballet's... this is my kind of fun.
For some reason it has been difficult for me to thing of things to post about, and if I have something to write about, I am too lazy to take the time to write it out. I don't know why that is, but let me just say, that I will do my best to keep everyone posted a little more often. That being said...
We got back to Colorado Springs just in time for Halloween. So I carved a pumpkin with my mom and sister this year. There is a little back history when it comes to me and pumpkin carving... last year I tried to carve a spider, but instead of just cutting out the spider, I cut a square in the pumpkin and tried to carve out the pumpkin around the spider, so the spider is what would be left. It was the more challenging way to do it, and I am not talented in the arts at all, so I ended up with a pumpkin that had an entire square hole in it. Clearly this isn't mine, but this is what is was supposed to look like.
So this time around, I went for the simple face. But I cut the top out really cool. It was pretty fun. I figure I will just stick to the easier things until I am better at it. Overall it was a nice Halloween. We just stayed home and relaxed!
We also bought a new car. We were originally planning on buying something cheap that would get us around, but since we don't have plans to move off the mainland again, we thought a nice car that we could have for a long time that will be a good family car would be nice. I have been car searching for a year or two now... so I finally got the car I was dreaming of. Honda Pilot! It is super nice. Leather seats, (with heated front seats) third row seating, and it rides nice and smooth. I really like it!
Noah news: My family and I have been rubbing Noah's back here and there when he is tired or wants to snuggle, and he LOVES it! Now he wants it all the time. When he is laying there or when he is in the middle of playing with his toys. He will look at you and touch his back and say "Back! Back!" It is so adorable. I got a video of it so you all can see too.
That is about it. We are happy to be back in Colorado, and thrilled to be spending time with our friends and family again. We hope everyone is doing well! Have a great week!
I can't deny how much Noah really looks like Ben! It is pretty exciting to see how he has changed from his baby face to his more big boy face. And I am very proud to say that this handsome boy looks like his father. I love you both so much!
Ben and I have moved back to Colorado! I know it seems incredibly short lived, but let me explain.
After 4 months of Island living... we realized that Hawaii is an amazing vacation spot! Now there was a lot that happened those first few weeks that really soured our opinion of Hawaii and because of that we main have judged Hawaii too quickly.
Here are those early unpleasant experiences... Hawaii does not have national banks. We had to open a new bank account with a Hawaiian bank, which normally wouldn't have been a big deal, but for some reason Hawaii made it difficult. Maybe we just chose the wrong bank? The problem was that we couldn't get our money into the account. Ben would get paid with Business Checks, and they wouldn't deposit them without a 6 day hold since it was a "mainland check" whatever that means? We also purchased a car we thought had working A/C and it didn't. The worst part was our living situation was... we thought that the most desirable area to live in Kona was right on the coast, so we rented a condo on the main drive along the coast. It was so HOT where we lived, I couldn't walk from the couch to the kitchen without breaking a sweat. I couldn't cook dinner without feeling like I was going to pass out from the heat. We had 4 ceiling fans, two window fans, and two floor fans going on high speed 24 hours a day! And it was still over 85 degrees in our condo almost the entire time. Our 'normal' utility bill was $350 every month... and that is just for electricity. It was also extremely expensive... with gas and groceries plus bills... pretty crazy. We wonder if we would have liked it more if we hadn't started out with so many negatives... like we lived where ihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gift was a little cooler, or if we had a car with A/C. I am not sure, but I can say that I do NOT regret the move and the time we spent there.
The amazing things about Hawaii... the beauty! We were able to make it around the entire island before moving back and it is almost indescribable. Each part of the island is so unique. The northern part of the island has amazing blue skies, beautiful ocean views, lush rolling hills and cliffs that just fall into the ocean. The west side (Kona) has the amazing water! The most beautiful turquoise colored water and a pretty decent city. The east has all the rain so it is so overgrown with trees and plants and waterfalls. Parks and gardens galore. The southern part of the island has the volcano and lava fields all over the place. Please visit our flickr page to view all of our photos during our time in Hawaii.
Someday I would love to visit Oahu... I am more of a city girl, so I might enjoy that kind of island living more than the big island.
So I am excited to be back to Colorado, but I am glad to look back and remember the wonderful times we spent together as a family in beautiful Hawaii!
