March- Visiting my MN family

March was a busy month for us too.  Luke had to start job searching all over again. Before we found out about him being laid off though, I had used our Sky-miles to buy a plane ticket to go visit my MN family for a week in March.  My siblings were on Spring Break so I felt it would be a good time to go see them.  I got the tickets before I was feeling crappy, so of course when it came to the day of travel my body decided that it needed to die on the plane.  On the day we were supposed to leave to go to MN our flight kept getting delayed which did not help with my stress levels.  By the time we got on a plane it was really late and Carlos was pretty cranky with me.  And since Carlos wasn't 2 yet he didn't need his own seat so I got to have the pleasure of holding him on my lap while taking advantage of those air sickness bags.  Man was that fun or what?  Needless to say I have learned my lesson and know to not fly alone with a toddler while pregnant.  I was really lucky and had nice people sitting next to us on both flights that helped me with Carlos.  And I had invested in a portable DVD player which also saved my life for most of the flights and while we were waiting in the airport for our connecting flights.  We watched a lot of Aristocats and 101 Dalmatians.  Oh and Cars 2 as well.  I love the Pixar films because most of them are almost 2 hours long so it keeps him occupied for a while at least.  Anyway, when we finally arrived in MN and got to our hotel I discovered that my suitcase was locked.  Silly me thought that if I didn't lock the lock on my luggage that I wouldn't have any issues of getting into the suitcase so of course I didn't bring a key.  Little did I know that TSA would take it upon themselves to LOCK my suitcase and thus cause me even more stress.  Good thing my Dad has tools like a dremel tool because the next day Grandma Shelly came to the rescue and cut that stupid little lock off for me.  Now I have learned two lessons when traveling.  1) don't travel alone with a toddler while pregnant and 2) don't put a lock on your suitcase unless you plan on bringing the key.  Because you never know if it will be locked or unlocked when you get it back.

Anyway, the next week was filled with lots of fun times with my family.  Every morning Carlos woke up and asked when we were going to "Grandma's to play with the cars".  My parents still have the car mountain that my siblings would play with when they were little and all the Hot Wheels too so needless to say my car loving boy was in heaven. :)   We walked to the park near my parents place a couple times while we were there and Carlos loved it!  We also walked to my siblings old Elementary School where my Step Mom works now and played at the playground and took a little nature hike as well.

One of the days we were there we went to the Mall of America and did some shopping and checked out the Aquarium that is there too.  We met Dad for lunch at the family favorite restaurant, Rainforest Cafe and soon discovered that Carlos does not like robotic animals that move.  Or the sounds of a real rainforest for that matter lol.  Because every 5 min or so the monkeys would move and make noise or it would thunder and rain.  Carlos was totally freaked out for most of the meal so he got a lot of snuggle time with Grandma and Poppa that's for sure.  Before we left the mall we got him a Lightning McQueen and a Mater toy from the Disney store so I think that made up for the traumatic lunch.

A couple of the nights we were there we took advantage of my hotel pool and went swimming.  Carlos is like his Mama and Aunt Megan and prefers the hot tub over the big pool.  I couldn't get into the hot tub all the way so Aunt Megan and Uncle Dusty took the little guy for a swim a lot in both pools.  He sure loves them!  Uncle Logan needed some time to warm up to Carlos again as he just wanted to snuggle up to me and Carlos didn't like the idea of sharing his Mama.  By the end of the week though I think they both got along a little better.  Hopefully the next time we see them it will be easier on both of them since Carlos will be older.  But who knows, my kid is a bit crazy.  And Logan doesn't handle crazy little kids well (but who can blame him?  I can barely handle it and I don't get a choice in the matter being that I'm his Mother lol)

Another day we were there Dad took Megan, Logan and I to see The Lorax.  Carlos stayed home with Grandma Shelly and snuggled and "helped" make dinner and Uncle Dusty was at Tennis practice I think.  The movie was so cute!  I think it made me cry a little though, but of course my pregnant hormones didn't help lol.  It was nice to get out and spend some time with my siblings and not have Carlos climbing all over me.  And I think Grandma had fun with some one on one time with the boy too :)

The last full day we were there (I think) Shelly, Megan, Carlos and I drove down to Rochester and visited the Burton's and I got to see one of my High School friends (Kaylene Polley) and meet her sweet little girl, Ann and husband, Tom for the first time.  It was great catching up with her and having our kids meet.  Ann is just over a year younger than Carlos so he didn't quite understand that she couldn't run around like he does, but he soon figured it out and was actually very gentle with her.  We took them to the park near their house and played for a little while before heading back to the Burton's to see the rest of their family.  The Burton's are a long time family friend so my parents go visit them often, especially on holidays and when the kids have time off at the same time.  This year their Spring Breaks weren't the same so when we went to see them the kids were in school, but their Mom, Ann (yes I know a few Ann's lol) took them out of school early so they could see us.  I hadn't been back in Rochester for almost 6 years so it was fun to see them and catch up with them too.  But our day trip had to end so I didn't get to visit everyone that I would have liked, but not everyone's schedules worked out so I'm just glad that I did get to visit some friends at least.  Hopefully I won't wait as long to go back and visit.

One of the last mornings we were there we had breakfast together (minus Dad) at my hotel.  It was one of like 2 mornings that I got to eat a waffle instead of cold cereal since someone was there to distract Carlos for me to make myself one.  Don't get me wrong though, I do like cold cereal and it was one of the few things I could keep down during my first trimester with this baby so I ate it often. ;)  That and applesauce.  Which happens to be a staple in Carlos' diet.

Anyway, while we were on vacation, Luke was back in GA job hunting and gave me a call one day saying that he got a job offer for a job in Virginia.  I didn't like the idea of moving (again) or leaving my beautiful house, but you gotta make sacrifices and go where the job is.  The job offered almost twice as much for the salary than the ATI job and Luke would actually start working right away.  So he ended up taking the job and started on April 16th (but more on that in the next post).  So when we got back from vacation we started planning out and doing little improvements on the yard and such before Luke left.  But I'll include all that in the next post as this one is getting way too long.  If you are still with me, thanks for sticking it out and reading all this!  Next post will be about April and all the stuff that we crammed into that month too.  I'm just glad that I got to spend some time with my family before the real craziness began for us.  Thanks for letting Carlos and I come and see you!  We love and miss you all! :)

Mini Vacation to Maui :)

We went on a kinda spur of the moment trip to Maui this past weekend.  We went on the Road to Hana on Friday (took us ALL DAY to do it too...would have been faster without the baby or without me getting nauseated thanks to all 600 turns we had to take..twice...) and we spent Saturday at the pool at our resort and then we went to the beach for a little bit before heading back home that night. While on the Road to Hana we stopped at the Garden of Eden (which was pretty, but not worth $8 per person with a local discount, $10 if I didn't have a HI license). We took a lot of pics while we were there and they turned out pretty good too.  My favorite one is the one that Luke took of a waterlily. After the Garden we just made a few rest stops so that my tummy could relax and so we could get the boy out for a bit.  He did pretty good considering that he was in his carseat for several hours (not all at once though) the poor kid. Once we got to Hana we had lunch at the Hana Ranch Restaurant and then went to the Hasegawa General Store to look around.  We ended up going to the gift shop by the restaurant to get a souvenir to remember our trip there (since I never want to take that drive ever again!!  Makes me ill just thinking about it..).  After that we went down to Hana Bay just to look around and then we headed back to the hotel. We stopped at the Hana Maui botanical gardens that is near Hana to look around and see what they had.  It wasn't nearly as exciting as I thought it was going to be (didn't help that we were being eaten by mosquitoes the whole time).  By the time we got to our hotel we had been on that road for almost 12 hours...we were beat!  Luckily we didn't have to checkout of the hotel until 2pm on Saturday so we got to sleep in :).  We took Carlos into the pool and he seemed to like it, at least he liked it much better than the ocean.  Didn't help that the water came in a bit faster than we thought it would and it splashed him in the face :(  We'll have to wait a while before he likes it I guess.  Well that's about it.  Overall we had a great time together and  now that we've been on the Road to Hana we won't ever have to do it again :) Here are some pics to highlight our trip!
 

 taking a break with Papa

chomping on his burp rag

being cute

the waterlily pic that Luke took

Keopuka Rock (from the opening scene of "Jurassic Park")

Puohokamoa Falls

Luke and Carlos at the waterfall overlook

standing up like a big boy

us at Rainbow overlook (Garden of Eden)

Black Gold Jackfruit

pretty orchid

more orchids

Mama peacock with 3 babies

pretty guy

some falls on the Road to Hana

Hana Bay

:)

Honolua Bay (where we went snorkeling last year)

us at Honolua (that sailboat in the background was here last year too)

my stylin babe :)

see the black cloud in the water?  that's fish!!

And there ya have it folks!  We didn't get any pics of us at the beach or the pool, but we had fun there too :)  Can't wait to go back! (hopefully for longer than 2 days next time)

Vacation is a beautiful thing :)

Beautiful New Mexico sunset!

This past month has been so wonderful! I'll split up our trips into 2 posts though so you aren't overwhelmed with information and pictures :)

The first stop on our trip was New Mexico to see Luke's fam. We had so much fun there! We celebrated his little sister's 11th birthday while we were there, went to Carlsbad Caverns (and stopped at a couple places along the way there and back), went up to Pagosa Springs, CO so the guys could go snow boarding (and I got the most wonderful massage ever!), and got to spend lots and lots of time with the family. We went bowling, mini golfing, laser tagging and so much more! His family is a hoot when you get them all together ha ha!

Here's pics of some of our adventures while we were there:

White Sands, NM

the McDonald's in Roswell, NM
Luke & I in Carlsbad Caverns, NMLuke snowboarding at Wolf Creek in Pagosa Springs, CO

We also went to the Albuquerque Aquarium while we were there with Luke's brother and his Auntie Liz. We took mostly video there since fish don't hold still all that well ha ha. Here's a particular video that is worth sharing:

And that's pretty much all we did while we were there. It was 10 days of nonstop fun that's for sure :) I'll post what we did in UT in a different post so stay tuned! Later gator!

~Nicole

so it's been forever since my last post....

Where did the summer go?? I can't believe that it's practically the middle of September already. How time has flown! We've been pretty busy here in sunny/rainy Hawaii. So please be prepared for a looooooong post (gotta love playing catch up).

From July 18th through the 31st Luke and I had a couple family members here visiting us. Luke's brother Sean got here on the 18th and my sister Jessica got here on the 21st. While they were here we kept em pretty busy! Luke took them on a hike and to Haunauma Bay while I was in my last week of language class. Then that weekend (25th-28th) we went Island Hopping! We went to Maui first for 2 nights and then went to the Big Island for one night before coming back to Oahu.

While in Maui we went to the Iao Valley and saw the Iao Needle.

Iao Needle

Our first night there we decided to entertain ourselves by jumping onto the bed..here's a video of the event ha ha.

We ate out at Bubba Gumps, Roy's and the Melting Pot just to name a few places. The Melting Pot was by far the best!!

at the Melting Pot

We went to the Aquarium in Maui on the 26th and there was a mini golf nearby so we went to that afterward. Fun times!
Since we were in Maui for only 2 days we didn't get to do a whole lot...but, we did do alot on the Big Island! We stayed at the military camp at the Volcano...sweet Cabins!! but it got really cold at night up there :( . Obviously we went and saw the Volcano. And we utilized the cooking site to have grilled steak, corn on the cob and garlic toast! It was tasty!! :)

Jess enjoying some toast!

We went to Rainbow Falls (much bigger this time around).

Jess and I at Rainbow Falls

We went to Akaka Falls too (still cooler than Rainbow in my opinion).

Went to the Lava tube (and Sean found one with a river flowing through it so we saw that one too).

In the lava tube

And to end our wonderful trip we went to the Green Sand Beach!! and got destroyed by the ocean ha ha. I learned how to duck under a wave to avoid the destruction :)

Sean, Luke and I in the water (I'm diving under a wave)

We got back late Tuesday night and had to get up early to take Jessica to the airport :( she is missed! But we will be seeing her (and the rest of the fam) when we come out in November! Sean stayed until the 31st, but Luke had to take him to the airport alone since I had to work :( He said he's gonna make this an annual thing (or something like that) to come out and see us once a year. We're glad that they came to see us!

I took my language proficiency test on July 30th and Aug 4th and didn't pass :( I did however improve my score from the last time I took it so that's a good thing! Here's hoping I can pass it the next time I take it in December!

August just flew right on by! We went to Bayfest on Aug 15th and saw the Black Eyed Peas in concert! They put on a great show. Too bad the first part of the day was pretty boring. Rochesterfest is so much better for food and activities! We started our search for our new place and after seeing about 5 different places in one day, we decided on a place in Mililani. We are now currently living in a 4 bed/ 2.5 bath condo (I'll post pics later) that is...get this...10-15 mins away from work!!!! Which means that I can sleep in till 9 am on work days and not have to leave until 9:45 am to get to work and find parking (what used to be me leaving at 9 am to get to work an hour later to find parking...) so you can understand how excited we are about this move! Especially since I've been really really tired, moody, queasy, forgetful...you name it, and I've felt it lately. All because of this:

Yup, I'm pregnant! I'm due on or around the 15th of April and we are super excited! I've noticed that several family members are also pregnant so it must be that time to have babies! I'm not best friends with the potty as far as puking goes. I've been lucky and not had to deal with that at all. Just the occasional queasy tummy, but Ginger Ale is my best friend! And I know that Luke and I are gonna be thrilled when I stop being so cranky :) I'm super excited to hopefully be able to hear the baby's heartbeat at my next OB appt on the 21st. It hasn't quite sunk in yet that I really am pregnant. I mean I show all the right signs, but yeah...dunno how to describe it. I just hope that our baby is a happy and healthy one, and we will be excited no matter what gender it is! The ultrasound appt will be so exciting! I wish I didn't have to wait so long for me to get it though. Oh well, the time will soon be here I'm sure!

Nothing else has really been going on in our lives. Not too much can beat the excitement of moving and finding out that I have a little one growing inside me :) My birthday was yesterday too. We went to Red Lobster for dinner with some friends which was alot of fun! I also got to take not one, but two naps too so I was a much happier person due to that :)

Now I get to go do some unpacking so I will be off! Have a good one!

~Nicole

Just one more week...

Well, Luke left Korea today and will be spending about a week with his family in New Mexico while he gets his Truck ready to ship out here. Then he will fly out here on the 16th!! I am so happy, but I'm having a hard time being patient too...it's gonna be so awesome to have him here with me! No more loneliness! YAY! We'll get to be a real married couple that lives together (and drive eachother crazy too lol.) Anyway, just wanted to share the excitement with everyone. ttyl!

Nicole