Hawaii

We had a great trip to Kauai. Kyle's parents came to watch the girls and we met my parents and four of my siblings. This is a picture of Kyle on the Zodiac along the Na'pali coast. He looks relaxed but the ride was anything but relaxing as they had to hang on for dear life (pregos weren't allowed to go so I just heard stories).





On their boat trip they were taken into caves along the coast. This is inside one of them. They also got out and hiked to an ancient Hawaiian village and went snorkeling.






We rented Kayaks and went up the Wailua River. Notice how my shirt is dry in this picture. It did not remain that way as a few minutes later, after watching my brother and sister in law get flipped in rapids, Kyle decided that we should try. We actually did worse as after we flipped I was trapped under the Kayak for a few seconds. Funny story now, but scary then.







After we recovered from flipping we relaxed on these rocks and jumped off a rope swing into a pool of water below.






Kyle and me at the Fern Grotto. There are alot of other great pictures but I am having trouble accessing them for some reason. This will have to do for now and then I will post more when I solve the problem.

Emma's talents

Emma's going to preschool at the 'Rez'. Which is short for Ressurection Fellowship Evangelical Church. She loves going and is learning wonderful things. This is a sampling of some of her learnings. As an added bonus you learn the sign for #2!

Also, Ellie won an award at school for Oustanding Aritstic Creativity. She was thrilled as she wants to be an artist when she grows up. Congratulations Ellie!

A little of this and a little of that

I am very aware that I yet again have neglected this blog but am determined to post more regularly. This will catch you up on some of the things that have been happening in the last month. Feb. 8th was Brooklyn's first birthday. She was not so interested in the cake.



Ellie was trying to entice her into eating it but she just thought Ellie was funny.



Emma wanted to be the statue of liberty so she has her crown, book and torch.



Emma just started soccer for the first time. This is her first soccer practice.



She's a pro already.



Kyle's sister Maryn, her husband Jamin and their daughters Audrey and Millie came for a visit.
This is a day at the park.



We took them to Denver to the aquarium.
This is a huge eel.



Emma and Ellie climbed the tree to push the buzzer at the top.

Update

I know it has been awhile since I've posted so I thought I would do a quick one to let everyone know that I am still alive. First of all, was that Superbowl awesome or what? It was so exciting. These are just a few pics of us watching the game with some friends. It was great to have Stefanie and Kevin McMinn come watch with us. They were dental students in Pittsburgh when we were there and it was fun to have other Pittsburgers to help us cheer on the Steelers. The other two families are friends from the ward. One of the guys was a noisy Cardinals fan so it was sweet victory when the Steelers won.

We got a new camera for Christmas and I hadn't put in the new memory card. So just as I was trying to get pictures of everyone cheering, my memory was full.

The reason that I haven't been blogging for awhile is that I have been deathly ill. No it wasn't a disease or a virus, it was a little thing called pregnancy. We were surprised and excited to find out that I am expecting in the middle of August. I have been very sick but am starting to feel better. My mom came to take care of me for 2 weeks which was very helpful. I am definately over the worst of it which I am very grateful for.

Santa Fe, Yay!

For Thanksgiving we decided to head to Santa Fe and see the sights. We left on Thanksgiving day and got back on Sunday. Our first morning there we walked around Old Town Santa Fe where all the buildings are made in the adobe style and there are many shops and galleries. This is San Miguel chapel, the oldest church in the country.

Theses are other interesting buildings and the sidewalk market where many people display their Native American and Mexican jewelry and crafts for sale.

After lunch we went exploring a National Park called Tent Rocks. These rocks were formed by volcanic ash and then eroded for thousands of years. We went on a trail that took us all around the rocks and gave us great views of the cliffs and mesas around us.

The next day we went to Bandalier National Park where there are many ruins and cliff dwellings of the Anasazi people. We were told that they lived here around 1200 A.D. That is when they began to group together in communities and farm the land. Before that they were nomadic and lived in very small groups.

This is a Kiva where they would hold religious ceremonies and other important meetings.

This part of the site was build in a large circle to represent the sun. This was a kind of village that housed many families. The ring was four rooms thick with all the rooms being relatively uniform and quite small.

Along the path there were many parts of ruins and also caves that the people could enlarge by carving. The rock is quite soft because it was formed by volcanic ash. This was a very large cave. It had a domed roof with noches cut out in the wall that were probably used for some kind of storage. The girls, however, used them for beds. It also had a window and a fire pit on one side with two chimney holes for the smoke.

After we did the main loop we went on another hike. This took us to the 'long house' which was hundreds of feet above the ground in a cliff. It once had as many as 22 rooms with 2 stories and housed numerous families. This is one of the many long ladders we had to climb to reach it. Some of you might know that Kyle is afraid of heights. He was not enjoying himself too much and I think he told the girls to go slow and be careful only 3 or 400 times.

After all the long hiking and climbing we finally made it to the top. The round building is another Kiva. It is amazing that they not only lived here but that they were able to build it in the first place. I don't know how they would have carried logs and other building materials up and down the cliffs.

We had to go back to Old Town after our exploring to get the girls some souvenirs they wanted. It was very cold and windy and we forgot Brooklyn's hat in the car so mommy used her sweater as a hat instead.

Emma found this little snuggly place between the bed and the wall in the hotel room. It was just 'Emma size'.

Tubby time

The girls were so cute and having so much fun I just had to take some pics.

Family Pictures

The last time we had family pictures was in the summer of 2005. Ellie was four, Emma was 23 months and Brooklyn hadn't even been thought up yet. We thought it was about time! Brooklyn was perfectly happy before the shoot, perfectly happy after, but not perfectly happy during. We managed to get a few pictures with her in it and then a few with just the older girls.