Easter

We kicked off Easter weekend with a bike outing on the Kapa'a bike trail. I love that path because you basically taste the ocean the entire way. Zachary whipped around on his bike for nearly an hour, and when he was bright red and exhausted, hopped in the trailer with Kate. What a darling picture, and I wish we had captured it. It was our first time using a bike trailer, and it won't be the last.

We prepped our Easter eggs that night. Zac was so excited all night, and it was infectious.


The Easter Bunny hopped its way across the ocean.

"Look at the camera, guys, and say cheese!"

Getting all the Easter stuff prepped, the kids dressed, and us dressed in time to take pictures was a major undertaking. How do people do it with more kids? I mean, we do the Sunday prep thing every week, but for some reason, it is so much harder with the "gotta get a picture" deadline looming.

It did not start out well for Kate, and we thought we had a 2011 repeat coming up.
But a few candy-filled eggs will dry those tears, right little one?


Compare last year...
...to this year.
Heidi bought Kate this dress and made her the darling bow to match.

Beep, beep! Gotta get to church.
That night, we had the Hadleys and Petersons over for dinner, a walk in the rain, and the annual Easter Egg Derby. It took me 2 tries, but I finally got my bread roll dough to rise. Ironic, considering the holiday ("He has risen!"). The boys ran around like crazy, we ate yummy strawberry trifle, and Chad took the crown with his undecorated beast.

Climbing Trees and Scootin' Along

Zachary climbs the tree in our front yard at least 15 times a day. Each time, he descends by swinging from a branch. That branch is starting to look leafless and nearly-dead. Uh-oh.
Conference weekend, we avoided getting too cooped up by taking a short surf break.
The kids played together and took naps while we watched the sessions at home.


We also got outside between sessions to scoot around the neighborhood. Zac loves this thing, and I only wish I'd bought it sooner. He is getting better at it every day, and he can really cruise. Yes, I should be a good example and also wear a helmet.



Kate is done scooting, and she can cruise along furniture and book it around the house if she is crawling. She loves to walk around, holding our fingers. I love this stage, even though I know that in a couple months, my life turns to crazy following around the turbo toddler.

We finally took a few one year pictures. We've had to wait to take any others, because somehow we lost all her bows between our stay at Koloa Landing and unpacking at the house. Argh. I love dressing up my bald baby's head, so the photos had to wait until my new ones arrived! They are here, so more pictures to come soon!
Kate would lean into the rock, and people walking by kept saying, "Look at that baby posing!"


Here, she is waving to the passerbys:



This is a really typical Kate expression, and it cracks me up because her cheeks are chunking out:

When she decides to walk, the chunk will disappear and I will really miss it.

Baby Kate Turns One

Oh, my sweet baby girl, how has it already been a year? Time goes faster with second children.

Zachary was so excited for Kate's birthday. The day before, he insisted on blowing up an entire package of 24 balloons for her. He said, "Baby Kate is going to love her birthday!" The night before, he could hardly sleep. During her party, he said, "This is the best party EVER!" I love that he adores her. He torments her, too, but he does in fact love this little gal to pieces.
Kate does her share of tormenting. She loves nothing more than knocking down Zachary's towers and pulling his hair.
Kate's birthday came square in the middle of our stay at Koloa Landing. We spent the day at the pool, napping, and then (finally, according to Zac) opening up gifts and eating strawberry cake.

Kate opened up sippy cups, a princess plate and a princess bowl, and thought they were grand presents. Babies are too little to realize that getting dishes for your birthday is like a 10-year-old boy getting clothes. Just something to open.

Zachary was super anxious for her to open his gift. He picked out a small doll from the store a few days before.
Her reaction to the doll did not disappoint. She was squealing!
We were so surprised when she immediately tried putting on the doll's hat, covering her with a blanket, kissing her, hugging her, and patting her back. I completely ruined the videos we have of her doing this with my own squeals of delight (cute for a baby, obnoxious for a mom).

Hooray for pink birthday cake. Hooray for looking at the clock at exactly the time of birth!
Zac had to have cake on his face, too.
Kate has charmed us from day one. She is content and easy-going, and her primary demands are for food and to be held. She loves to cuddle. She brings her soft, pink blanket up to our shoulders and curls herself into a ball. She crawls up to Zachary and lays in his lap.

She thinks it is fun to put on Zachary's shoes. She would crawl around with a binky in her mouth all day long if we let her. She wants to color with Zac during "Mommy Preschool" time. She puts anything shaped like a rectangle up to her ear and says "Hah" for "Hi."

Kate is ticklish, and doesn't get tired of me singing "Lift up your arms and let me tickle you," and giggling like crazy when I get her in the armpits. You will never see this girl more attentive than when she is tearing paper into tiny pieces. She loves to be outside. She loves going along for the ride in her stroller, backpack, or shopping cart. Her favorite place to be is the top stair of the pool or sitting in the sand.

She will not perform. Even though we know she can wave hello, clap her hands, and mimic noises, she will not do them under "pressure." She points to what she wants, and if that doesn't work, turns on the grunts until we oblige.

Oh, my sweet baby. We are officially dropping her "Baby" title and that makes me ache!

You'd Think We'd Own Rain Gear

A weekend ago, I bailed on a girl's trip to Oahu. I told Brady I would rather do the Hanakapai Falls hiking trip and save the cash. Plus, I've wanted to do this hike again since Brady went with Ryan and Karen. Once I get something in my head, it has to happen, so even though it had been raining all week and the weather looked lousy that morning, we packed up and drove an hour and forty minutes to the trail head.

Everything started out nicely enough. Zachary loves to hike and he got going quickly. Kate loves the pack so she was all smiles and coos. I was finally on the north shore again, scratching a hiking itch. Brady was happy I wasn't shopping.

Then, the binkey fell in the mud:

We reached Hanakapai Beach and knew there was no way I could run back a couple miles and see the waterfall (my intended plan). The trail was muddy and tough to handle by that point, especially for Brady to take 2 kids on his own. By the time we got to our lunch spot, it was dumping rain. Pouring. Not just a drizzle. The good news is we had ponchos, umbrellas, and waterproof clothing.

Or not. We don't own rain gear. 5 years living on a lush, beautiful, and rainy island, and the best we've got is a $10 umbrella from WalMart. The umbrella stayed in the car.

Brady, Zachary and I did fine with it. I'd say it made the hike even more fun, in fact. Baby Kate did not agree, and she was sure to let us know. Poor little one.
Luckily, a few minutes after the sad faces above, she was snoring away and by the time she woke up, the rain was gone.
We had a sloshing good time the rest of the way back. The only other trouble we encountered was when a boulder the size of person's head came rolling down the cliff side and hit Zac in the back.


The rain has kept up. Last Monday, we had a "severe storm," which dumped 15 inches of rain in 5 hours, shutting down our highway up north and leading to a disaster declaration by the mayor. Our little island is resilient and all seems to be heading back to normal, despite continued rainfall.

There's still things to do. We get out the Play Dough. We sit in the hot tub and wait for our chocolate milk ocean waters to get clear again. We feel bad for tourists. We run around and splash in mud puddles with Zachary. We get soaked. Welcome to March!