At Home

It was soooo good to be at home with the kids again after being away from them for so long.

We just got back into the normal swing of things :)

Watching Fireman Sam before bed (Reese loves being on the couch with James!)

I think these two missed each other too!

Bedtime with Daddy

Reading stories

Reese still loves anything she can "fit" inside.

Playing outside

James like to push Reese occasionally

My Big Stinker

My Little Stinker

Rough Housing with Daddy

More playing outside

James dressed himself this time??  Love that he chose the boots.

Pretending to sleep on the kitchen floor.  ??  Haha!

Grandparent Fun!

While Justin and I were relaxing in Hawaii, each set of grandparents graciously took in a child!  

James stayed with my parents, and Reese and Kramer went to Nashville to be with Justin's parents.  The kids had a blast, and it made me so comfortable being away from them to know they were in such good care.  Here are some pictures of the fun they had!

Meme and Papa took James so many places!  

To the mall playground 

to McDonald's to get some fries

To Shelby Farms (love he is getting so daring!)

to another park to see the ducks/geese

running with Papa

Love this :)

(I can picture James as a teen walking by Papa's side, getting some good wisdom, just like I did!)

Cracker Barrel time!

More Shelby Farms fun

To Ride the Merry Go Round

Swimming in the back yard

Playing in the yard with trucks and rocks :)

Washing the car

Uncle Josh even taught James how to pull a load!

And I knew James would be the one to miss Justin and me (except that he was having too much fun, so probably didn't even think of us!), so I made him a little day by day envelope poster.  Each day he got to open an envelope and get a small surprise from mommy and daddy!  (bag of marshmallows, a tiny airplane, some mints, stickers, etc) :)

Further East, Reese and Kramer had a blast in the country!  Nonie and Pops had some special time with them.

Kramer already got comfortable in Nonie and Pops car, and fell asleep on the drive to their house.

Reese practices her standing and plays with toys....

But her favorite toys were Nonie's tupperware!

Nonie took Reese swimming a lot!  She loves the water!

And Reese even got to go visit her cousins at Aunt Cassie's house.  Leah is teaching her how to play dress up!

You know Kramer is your friend when he shares his big bed with you.  Belle and Kramer were buddies the whole time!

After we picked Reese and Kramer up from Nashville and actually got on the road, Kramer was asleep in the car in a matter of minutes.  He had sooo much fun running around Nonie and Pops big yard.  He just crashed!

Oh, and for days after getting back to Memphis, Reese continued to bark a little dog bark every time she saw a small dog!  So funny that she imitated Belle!

Once again, a BIG THANKS to Nonie and Pops, and Meme and Papa for taking such good care of our kids while we were away!

Love yall!

Maui Day 9: The Final Day

Wow, the last day in Maui.  We wanted to just relax a little bit more and take it easy today.  Justin went for a short swim and I slept in :)  We had coffee and breakfast on the porch.  Then we walked along the beach one last time.

Walking along the beach to the right of our condo.

Stopping to take one more exotic looking plant picture :)

We packed up and showered.  We had to officially check out at noon, so we said goodbye to our condo, but left our luggage in the "holding area" so that we could hang out in Lahaina that afternoon.  Our flight didn't leave until 9:15pm so we had the whole day to fit in just a few more things.

We ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant called Cilantro.

It was yummy and filling.

Then we just walked through the town again, window shopping and looking for what we heard was the best shaved ice.

Justin's name in Hawaiian- Iukekini

Mine's a little easier to pronounce- Amanaka 

We found Local Boys which served incredible Hawaiian shaved ice.  SOOO GOOD!

Ice, pre-chilled syrup, and cream!

We headed back to Honua Kai to pick up our luggage, then drove to Ho'okipa Beach Park to try to find some surfers.  Technically it's not really surfing season, but a few people were out there trying to catch the small waves.

Ho'okipa Beach

Boogie Boarders

Windsurfers 

Surfers

We needed to grab some dinner next so we made our way to Paia Fish Market (Thanks again Lauren!  Great recommendation)

We got some yummy fish burgers to-go because it was a bit crowded there and we really weren't even hungry yet because of our big lunch.

So we drove towards the airport in Kahului to a Starbucks because that's where we wanted to get our souvenirs from!  Hawaii coffee mugs!  We didn't even get a coffee there.  By that time, we were hungry, so we sat outside the Starbucks and ate our fish burgers...ha.

We were driving to the airport and all of a sudden passed a Krispy Kreme shop with the RED light on!!!  We couldn't resist, so we stopped in, ate 3 donuts each, and hopped back in the car and headed to the rental car place.

Wow, did we really drive 754 miles on Maui?  YEP!  

I was so sad to have to say goodbye to my new friend :(

We took the shuttle to the airport to catch our flight that night at 9:15 pm.  

We tried to sleep as much as we could, but with two stops before Memphis (LA and Dallas), that didn't really happen.  We were sad to leave Maui, but it was an incredible trip that we will never forget.  And we were alsoVERY excited to know that shortly we would be seeing our sweet children. :)