Hawaii

Our Hawaii trip was great! It was sunny, warm and the beaches were amazing. Richard did a fantastic job of capturing the beauty of Hawaii (All photos taken by Richard :) I'll have to go through my pictures later. The sunrises and sunsets were gorgeous. We were driving one morning really early and we saw a couple in wedding gear having their picture taken as the sun came up on the side of the highway.

These turkey's ran wild on the golf course that our condo backed onto. They were fun to watch.

Did I mention the beaches were amazing??

Beautiful waterfalls. It was rainy that morning but it didn't last long. I didn't realize that the Big Island temperature is always between 25C and 28C and only rainy on the Hilo side. That makes for alot of beautiful weather.

One morning we went on a "Swimming with the Dolphins" tour. It was amazing how close you could get to a dolphin! Touching the dolphins was not allowed. I wasn't so sure about snorkeling for too long in the ocean so I enjoyed some time on the boat. The dolphins would swim aside the boat. Our Captain was China Mike and he would get really excited over a pod of dolphins :)

We went on a quad tour up a mountain. The views were amazing!!

I loved the two Luau's that we went to! The first one had the cutest little boy that tried his best to follow the other dancers. The little hula girls were so talented.

The Luau at the Hilton Hotel included a fire dancer. He was great!

We kayaked to Captain Cook's Monument. He was some British dude who came to the Big Island, took advantage of the Natives who thought he was a God and who ultimately killed him. The British thought it was a great idea to build a monument for him where he died (was murdered). Kayaking the bay was so fun. The water was calm, the sun was shining and the dolphins were frolicking!

Hawaii has the most amazing flowers!!

We had a great time traveling with Richard and Karen. They were the perfect tour guides. We hope they'll invite us again :)

Happy Birthday Grace!

Today is Gracie's 3rd birthday. We had a rough start with child #2 but time has improved things :) When I was pregnant with Grace our first ultrasound revealed a problem with the fetus' throat. The Doctor told us to come back in a month and he'd check again. We worried about our baby not having a throat for a whole month before going back for ultrasound #2. The Doctor looked at us and asked why we had come back - apparently he thought he told us to go straight to Calgary for an ultrasound. The Calgary ultrasound showed that our baby was just fine. Alot of stress over nothing!

When I was about 7 months pregnant I was hospitalized for a week in Edmonton and diagnosed with unsustained ventricular tachyardia. I was given a round of steroids in case I delivered early and we joke that Grace experiences "roid-rage."

One bright and beautiful Sunday morning, I started having contractions. I was in a hurry to get ready for church and so I ignored these contractions. Before church started, my friend commented that I didn't look very comfortable and maybe I was in labor. Being induced with Ally, I had no idea what labor felt like. We left Ally with our wonderful friends, the Hall's, and went to the hospital. Four hours later Grace was born. She weighed in at 5'10 ounces. Karen and Richard were on there way to visit us anyways so they were able to visit us in the hospital and take care of Ally. The first night we brought Grace home was rough. The four adults took turns walking with Grace throughout the night. The next morning, Richard left leaving us all wondering how Karen would get home. We joke that Grace should behave around Papa or he will leave ;)

Happy Birthday Grace!!

Skiing

In February, Warren took Ally skiing. She loved it and constantly asks when they can go again. Ally had a one hour lesson while Warren skiied and then they played on the bunny hill. Ally said the only bad part of skiing was having to come home! Warren took some great video and at one point, Ally makes it down the hill without falling and claps for herself :)

Our New Niece!!

Sophie Andree Anne Van Orman

Born February 18th, 2011 at 3:07am

Calgary, Alberta, CA

Parents: Ryan and Nicole Van Orman

Ally Class Picture

Ally's Kindergarten Picture 2010/2011

Teacher: Mrs. Waldie

Happy Valentine's!

We had a Valentine's party today. We made homemade pizza's and cake! Ally's friends Nyla, Leah and their siblings came to play. Having seven kids in the house made for lots of fun!

11 Vantage Cres!

We finally moved into the new house on February 1st. Our landlords were awesome and let us stay until February 7th so we weren't in a mad rush!

I called the day before the move to make sure the movers were still coming. I was unhappily surprised when they told me they couldn't come until the afternoon. The next morning at 8:30am, I had just said a little prayer in my head that the movers would show up at all, when Warren yelled that the movers had just pulled up to the house. Funny since they weren't suppose to initially arrive until 9am :) I took the girls to Smitty's for breakfast and then dropped them off at our friend's house. Gracie was not happy to see the movers taking stuff out of the rental.

The office - will probably be the last room in the house to be organized.

Living Room

Kitchen - not sure why I put the same picture twice.

Dining nook

Dining nook again

Ally's room - needs some decorating!

Gracie's room