The Shortest Vacation Ever!

Our beach cottage on Kauai. Super cute and really comfortable! The view from the beach right outside our cottage at Barking Sands. That's the forbidden island of Niihau in the distance (I think).

Max crawling around on the beach. The surf was pretty big, so it was definitely not a swimming beach, plus the currents are supposedly pretty hazardous.

Me and Max on the beach!

Max and I just had the shortest vacation ever. Dave had a short underway period that would end with him on Kauai for about four days. So we decided that I would fly over from Oahu and meet him (we were arriving on Kauai on different modes of transportation). My parents would watch Sophie while I was gone and it was decided that Max was still too young to be without me for several days, so he would come with me.

I found out shortly after I arrived in Kauai (in fact I was still at the airport) that Dave wouldn't arrive on the same day I did. I would hopefully be able to meet up with him on the following day. Around 7pm the night I arrived I found out that Dave was on his way back to Oahu and so I would have to check out of the beach cottage, return the rental car and try to get on the first flight back to Oahu. All by myself, with Max (oxymoron I know).

Dave was home several hours before I was. I was lucky to get on an earlier flight out of Kauai and while we didn't get to have our mini vacation, it was really nice to see him again.

So it was short and crazy (less than 24 hours on island), but Max and I had a great time just the two of us.

The New Year - 2011

Here's some photos of our New Year's Eve festivities at my parent's house. Sorry they're a little out of order. I'm working on Dave's laptop and having technical difficulties. Oh the little joys of moving.

Sophie and Max - New Year's Day

Sophie and Dave with Sophie's first sparkler

Sophie protecting her hearing during one of Pop's firework displays.
Max's first sparkler. My dad, Lulu the dog, and me.

Max and Dave checking out the sparkler

Max and Dave on New Year's Eve 2010.

All in all we had a pretty fabulous 2010. We welcomed Max into the family, Sophie adjusted to being a big sister, and Dave found out he was going to a fantastic new job.

We already knew that 2011 would bring many exciting changes for our family. Dave will start back on sea tour this spring which means he won't be home as much as he has been the past two years. Don't worry we're getting a fancy new security system so the kids and I will feel safe.

We are buying a new home (very exciting) in our new city! Washington State here we come (do you think they're ready for us)? We're so happy to be going back to the Pacific Northwest. We really enjoyed living there several years ago and can't wait to see how things have changed.

Sophie is changing into a stubborn and hard headed little girl as opposed to the stubborn and hard headed toddler she's been. Her language is improving by leaps and bounds. She knows some of her letters by sight and we've been working on teaching her to write her name. She will start preschool next fall and has been begging me to go to ballet class.

Max is growing and will I'm sure be walking within the next couple months and talking soon after. He's already saying Mama and ball. His weight has steadied out at 23 pounds (pretty close to Sophie's weight) and he can really get around by crawling and cruising around on furniture. He's turned out to be just as laid back, happy, and easy going as I thought he would be (as long as he isn't teething and is well fed).

And I, well, I'm the glue that's holding it all together. Running a house, raising kids, being a wife, best job in the world if you can get it. I'm really looking forward to making new friends and reconnecting with some old ones when we move.

So if you're in our neck of the woods we have a guest room that's available and ready for company after March, although I'm not promising that I won't comandeer it as a craft room at some point.

Happy New Year!