Part 1: Hale Nani Loa and our Big Island Adventure

The home we rented translates as "House by the Sea" in Hawaiian.

It was hard to tell where the pool ended and the ocean began and we never tired of the view and serenity of this beautiful home...I will add more house pictures on the next post.

Every night gave way to a unique sunset...like this night was the "swirly" night as Matt has dubbed it.

And this night was the "classic" ocean sunset...

We didn't do as much hiking as we would have liked but this Pololu Valley hike was lovely. My Uncle Darrel (Mom's brother), Aunt Annie and the twins, Gianni and Dani, joined us for the vacation.

We are in a hiking dilemma right now. Mason is too heavy for our pack and can hike a good portion himself...BUT when he tires so do our backs (well mostly Matt's back!)

My adorable parents

After we trekked down the 1000-ft elevation change we were greeted by an awesome black sand beach with huge swings in the nearby woods! 

We would venture out during the days and get back to the house around 3 to enjoy the kids favorite part....The pool!

Mason was a prune, spending half of his Hawaii trip in the water.

A fast friendship was formed between Keegan and the twins. It was really cute to watch them buddy around. Keegan spent almost every night over with the twins!

While Mason and Cormic spent most of their time trying to do what the older kids did. After my Dad showed them how to "cannon ball" and "can-opener" into the water it became a non-stop activity.

I also have to say after ten days in a pool with five kids, Thank God for Chlorine!

The Armstead family!

A few days into our trip we took the VERY long car ride south to Volcano National Park. The road was curvy and with four kids in the car, I was a little frazzled when we finally arrived. Oh and Mason threw up all over me, I of course had a change of clothes for him and not myself:) Poor dude gets car sick!

The Park is HUGE and we ventured down to the ocean area. There was no activity going on while we were down there but this sign reassured me that we need not stay long....

but since we were there why not risk our families lives for a quick photo op!

About a half hour after we returned to the vistor center we heard they had closed the road we were just on because of lava flow....thank you god!

I think the Park could be really awesome if you had the time to hike in...i.e. no young kids. The geology nerd in me found the lava fields intriguing...I also thought that amongst the barren lava fields such beauty would spring up.

Of course some of the best memories on family trips are the simple moments! Like stopping in town to eat homemade ice cream on the ocean...

and checking out the local farmer's markets

or passenger window snap shots because your husband won't pull over for you to take a photo of the cute seaside church!

I have officially traveled to all the major Hawaiian islands and I have to say the "Big Island" is the most cultural of the islands.

A deep pride lives amongst the people and their history and pride runs deep!

My favorite part about traveling is getting off the beaten path and seeing how the local people live

Even Mason got into it!

Another part about traveling is the adventure...This is from the lookout at Waipio Valley.

You can drive a one-way cliff down to the huge valley...we didn't do it...but that is a story for another post!

Instead we headed back into rainy Waimea for some Italian food (didn't you know the Hawaiians are famous for it:) and Park time. This park was huge and built of all wood. Very impressive.

Most nights we cooked at the house, each couple taking a turn. If you were at my wedding you know I have a thing for grilled pineapple. So Matt appeased me again by grilling some!

We spent a lot of time just "being" and "enjoying"

No makeup or blow dryers, just laughter and cuddle time!

sharing experiences for the first time with our Mason

It truly is a trip we will never forget.

And the best part is the reason we were there.....

Matt turns 30 and the end of an era

 I had been going back and fourth about doing something for Matt's 30th!

He turned 30 on 7.7.11!

With our house on the market I initially wasn't up for having a party there but at the end of June our house went under contract, so I decided to do something at the Entrada house. It could be our Entrada farewell party too!

As we all know, I am crazy, and I love throwing parties!

For Matt's I decided a "baseball" theme. I didn't get as many picture as I had intended. 

We had a small but lovely crowd of family and close friends.

and it gave us all time to say goodbye to a house that holds a lot of memories

My two photo models.

Cerbs found the perfect birthday present for Matt, kind of an inside joke.

Snickers and Cherry Coke were Matt's food staples while playing baseball in Europe with Cerbo. 

Matt tends to be a "safe" eater or as I refer to him, picky.

We had some good BBQ grub

Got some great snuggle time with Thea (my mom is aching for a granddaughter.)

Played some ol' classics in the garage and combo'd it with some bad parenting.

Don't worry we didn't let him drink the beer.

I was on my A game for about 15-minutes until I had to call in a sub because Angie needed help staging an intervention for Nick.

You see Nick has a thing for meat, especially grilled meat. Poor guy, his fiance had to find him huddled in a corner eating bratwurst.

Sorry I digress.....

Happy Birthday to the love of my life. Its hard to believe its almost been 9 years since I met you. You are looking good for thirty..... 

mature, wise, and smarter than you were at 21.

and you even have a "mini" you that hopefully some day we will celebrate 30 with!

*These are just sneak peak of some Hawaii pictures

"Sisters" and Kenny

I love Kenny Chesney's Music.

When I was getting ready to turn 30 I told Angela "my only birthday wish is to see Kenny live!"

That didn't happen because he took some time off of touring.

When I found out he was coming to Red Rocks this summer I was elated. The first show sold out in minutes, they opened a second show. It sold out in minutes. I didn't get tickets in time, I was bummed. I heard they had decided to do a third show so I contacted a high school friend who does country music reviews, she set me up with a ticket code to buy tickets a half hour before they opened to the public on the StubHub.com.

I GOT THREE TICKETS!

 And who better to take with you?

Than both of your Ang's, that also love country and Kenny!

It was going to be a girls night!

We got dressed for fun, had some pre-concert drinks and headed out in the pouring rain to Red Rocks. Did I say pouring rain? I mean full out thunderstorm rain, but we didn't care we were going to see Kenny live at Red Rocks (best venue EVER). 

We reached the ticket entrance and the ticket guy scanned my tickets and told me "These were for Wednesday's show." It was Friday, the last show of his Denver tour. I freaked out. I even pulled the cry routine. He still didn't let us in. We tried another entrance and the box office. No hope. I felt so stupid for not checking the tickets, something I would usually do. I felt so let down because life was insane at the moment and I had wanted this break for one night.

So my girls took me out drinking at the Rockrest (an old college hangout). We sat in this old dive bar booth talking and drinking for hours. We had rain soaked hair and smeared makeup. We ate bar food, greasy yummy bar food that we would never eat otherwise.

The night turned out perfect because of these two!

Someday I will see Kenny, mark my word!

.......And we're back, time to get caught up on this here blog!

Matt and I have dubbed July 2011 the most intense month of our lives BUT ten days in Hawaii can fix, pretty much anything. We are on the other side and feeling a little more normal.

I have SOOOO many pictures I want to share so we will start with a little in this entry and see if I can keep up in the next few weeks.

With Emily and the boys in town for the month of June and first week of July we got to have some much needed cousin time before the Hawaii trip.

The tattoo brothers came over for play time

And we headed to the mountains too.

Cormic is a "spit fire," aren't most two year olds? He and Mason seem to get on each other's nerves quickly, Cormic's defense mechanism...biting. Mason's is slugging. Fun times! They are only eight months apart and someday they will be buds, I just know it.

Keegan is now 5. He is smart and sweet (with a little attitude.) I can not believe he starts Kindergarten in a few weeks.

Mason adores his cousins (for the most part) but he is not especially fond of sharing "his Papa!"

Papa's favorite things; My mom, my dog, my son and nephews, the rest of us...possibly in that order.

Cormic turned two on July 9th, we got to celebrate early in conjunction with the 4th of July.

My mother, who always means well, thinks birthday means presents for everyone. I am sure Keegan and Mason were just as excited for Cormic's birthday as he was.

 

The day was lovely, it always is at 268 Spring Drive. We had lots of outdoor play.

Endless un-wanted water fights

and yard work carried out by our child labor force

some hammock time

and of course CARS cupcakes...how else would we compensate them for all their hard work?

I love this picture because Mason could not resist sneaking a taste before the candles were blow out.

Cormic seriously got down on this monster cupcake.

Happy Birthday big guy, you are one sweet blessing we could not imagine our lives without you. 

We love you!

We ended the evening with fireworks, or should I say sparklers and smoke bombs. Its fire season so you have to improvise. I did sing "Proud to be an American" which I think was a nice addition to the evening.