Tough Questions

2008
2009

2010

So I was thinking that Mark wouldn't be asking me those "tough questions" until his teenage years. Well, I was wrong. These aren't the tough questions you're thinking of, but I dare you to find a good answer for a 2 year old!

1.

Mark: What does "anything" mean?

Me: Uhhh... it means "any thing!"

Mark: What does "any thing" mean?

Me: uhhh.

And then I gave examples of how I would use "anything" in a sentence. I think he got it, but I still can't define "anything."

2.

Mark: Why is milk white?

Seriously?

3. Now this one I could answer:

Mark: Why do we live in houses?

Me: Because they keep us warm and dry and safe. (feeling proud of myself for knowing that one until...)

Mark: So do cars.

Don't worry, I managed to come through with the fact that cars don't have bathrooms and kitchens for Mr. Smarty Pants! Anyway, he is definitly going through the "why" stage right now..its pretty funny the responses I come up with sometimes. A lot of times my answer to his question has to do with something I want him to do. For example, "why is it bright outside? was answered with, "when its bright outside it means its time to put your shoes on." (A task I had been trying to accomplish for 20 minutes!) I don't think its lying, just effective parenting! =)

Colorado

John and I just got back from a quick trip to Colorado (by ourselves!!) We had some free Southwest airlines tickets so we decided to head to the mountains and do a little hiking. After we had the trip booked we remembered that 10 years ago this month we went to Colorado for a little hiking and got engaged in the mountains! So it turned into a little anniversary trip.

We of course did the same hike, Ouzel Falls, where John proposed in front of a beautiful waterfall. So you may ask, was it beautiful? did you take lots of pictures? did you see any wildlife? To which I would reply, "Have you ever been hiking with us?" For some reason we seem to be in some sort of race everytime we hike! The park ranger said most people hike at 2mph, well we did our little 10 mile hike in 3 hours and 20 minutes. We practically ran. Which is how we've always hiked - I still don't know why and I wish we could be more laid back! But this time we had an excuse - daylight. We were quickly running out of it but we decided to go all the way to Ouzel Lake at the top (5miles) so when we got there we snapped a quick pic with John's iphone and said, "Hey look, a lake" and then literally ran most of the way down the mountain. (We didn't want to get eaten by any wildlife after dark you know!) We finally got to the bottom and in about 5 minutes it was dark. We were exhausted and that was just day #1 of the trip!

So here is a pic of me at the trailhead. I guess the old sign broke or something because the top half is new and in metal.

And here is a pic of both of us at the trailhead 10 years ago. I know, you're jealous of our really cool short vests. Hey, we can't all be trend-setters!

Here is the one pic we snapped along the way. See John's nostrils are slightly flared? I'm telling you, we ran up the mountain!

And here is a pic of both of us in that same spot 10 years ago. So pretty.

You may wonder why I'm not posting any pics of the waterfall where we got engaged. Well there happened to be another couple there this time who took our picture for us. But the lady got about 6 feet of the ground in front of us and very little of the actual waterfall. Oh well. It was still pretty in person.

The next day we went on a much shorter hike - because we could hardly walk after our 10 miler the day before! Here's a pic of John relaxing at the very top. I'm sad we're not still there!

Anyway, it was a great trip but we're glad to be home. We missed our little buddy and can't wait till he's big enough to hike with us!

Road Trip

This is finally my last post from the trip to Maui. On day #3 we went on a little road trip up the coast and ended in a town called Kahakuloa Village. On our way we did a little hiking to see some neat Maui natural attractions. Not many of those pictures actually turned out very well, but here is one of the ferocious waves. We were hiking right along the edge. And yes, apparently we are stupid enough to take a two-year old on the hike. Luckily John is in great shape and carried Mark all the way down and up our hikes. They only fell once and nothing was broken!

Here we are at Dragon's Teeth. Its a neat lava formation shaped into spikes (or teeth) from the salty sea water blowing to the north. Mark was worried that the dragon would bite him!

On our little road trip we finally came upon a bus turned smoothie stand and stopped for some smoothies. On the way we bought some pinapples at a road-side stand. This pic is of Mark and Gammy with the pinapples waiting on their pinapple smoothies. Dad and John got pina-colada smoothies.

And lastly, John and his coconut. You have no idea how long John has been talking about how excited he is to pull over on the side of the road and drink from a fresh coconut. Well, little did we know that that is near impossible here. But luckily we met Ms. Lorraine. She sells fresh baked bananna bread out of her home along with chocolate dipped fruit, coconut candy, etc. Well while we were sitting in her back yard eating all of her yummy food, John told her his sob story about wanting to drink from a fresh coconut and not finding any. She was so great! She sent John over to her husband who chopped down a young coconut, skinned it, and poked a hole in it for John to drink the young coconut juice. We got a big lesson on coconuts that day. They also cut open a mature coconut for us all to eat. John was in heaven and told Ms. Lorraine that she made his trip. On our way out of their driveway he said to me, "I can now cross off one of the top ten things I want to do in my life." =)

Boys vs. Girls

All of us got a "toddler-free" day on our trip to do some more adult vacation activities. John and my dad went over to Lanai, a neighboring island, and played 36 holes of golf. They say the pictures don't do it justice, but it was beautiful. The first 18 holes were on the mountain course and the last 18 were on the ocean course. The rumor is that Bill Gates got married on one fo the holes of the ocean course. Here are some pics that John took.

They think they had the most fun, but the next day Mom and I had our day. And let me just tell you, I didn't call this a celebration trip for nothing! As I was researching where to stay in Maui I ran accross The Grand Wailea resort. While it was WAY to expensive to stay there ($1200/night) they have the most beautiful spa I have ever seen. So mom and I made appointments for facials. Our facial appointment was at noon but from 11:00 to noon we had our "terme hydrotherapy." You really should google the Spa Grande at the Grand Wailea. This terme treatment that we have no pictures of consisted of three different types of spas. A traditional european spa (picture roman bath), a japonese spa with a cold plunge, and then the hawaiian spa. The Hawaiian spa consisted of 5 different hot tubs representing the five islands of Hawaii. Each was infused with different herbs, spices, treatments. They are all different colors and smell heavenly. So my favorite quote from the trip comes from when mom and I got in the first Hawaiian hot tub terme treatment thingy. She said that we had to stay at the grand wailea next time we come. I said even if we could afford to stay at that resort we couldn't afford a spa treatment every day. And then she said matter-of-factly, as serious as she could be, "Well we just won't eat." !!!! That's how great the spa was. I really think she was serious- cracks me up. Anyway, also in the hawaiian spa room are three waterfall-type showers to stand under that massage your back. While you are doing your "terme" (pronounced "tear-may") treatment, a spa attendent calls you over to another room and loofahs off your entire body. Mind you, you are eating fruit and drinking ice water and mango iced tea. And this is all before your actual spa treatment!!

Here are a couple of pics inside the Grand Wailea. Don't have any of the spa like I said because we were wet. You'll just have to google it to see that.

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Pictures, pictures, pictures

So why is it that on vacation we are always lining up for these group shots? Especially if you can't even tell where we are. I mean, its one thing if you are in front of the ocean or on top of a mountain, but when you could be standing in your backyard, what's the point? I don't know but we tend to take a lot of family pics while on vacation! The above was taken just outside our condo. We were on our way to a sunset dinner cruise.

This one was taken in the main drive to the resort. We were on our way to a luau.

Here we are on the dinner cruise, about to leave the harbor. Why did my mother and I, the two most motion-sick people in the world, decide to go on a dinner cruise? I have no idea. But thats why you're seeing this picture, the one before the vomiting began. There is a pic I posted earlier of the guys and the sunset. Thats because mom and I were down below where the boat is supposed to be more steady. John and dad refer to it as their date night. Ha ha guys.

Mom and Dad waiting for the sunset. We were at a restaurant called Kimos. Good food and awesome ocean and sunset views.



Here we are all together for lunch at the Hula Grill. Its just a 2 minute walk down the boardwalk from our condo. There was a big Hawaiian dude playing a ukelele and singing so Mark was in a trance...he loves singers.

The Beach!!

We had been talking up the beach for some time to Mark. I mean, for months. We were constantly talking about sand castles and dolphins. He was very excited. Almost every day we picked him up from daycare he'd say, "Where we going?" We'd say "home" and he's respond, "But I wanna go Hawaii and do sand castles!" So needless to say he was pumped about heading out the first day.

Ready for the beach!

This is Kapalua beach. We played there a couple of days because the waves were gentler than the ones just out from our condo. We also snorkled there and thank goodness those pictures were on a diposable water proof camera. John thought it was funny to take pictures of me underwater.


Finally building sand castles!! See how he's holding his left hand? He didn't like for his hands to be dirty. And the sand there was so fine it would stick to you and was nearly impossible to get off. He got used to it though and we had a great time trying to protect our castles from the waves that just kept getting closer and closer.

One of his favorite activities: running from the waves. He would go charging in and then running back out before the next wave hit. We are pretty ocean naive and had no idea how strong waves can be. They certainly gained our respect. You don't even have to be knee-deep in the water for them to knock you down, even on the way back out! And poor little Mark was knocked over everytime it got up to his ankles. Not that that stopped him! He wore either his sunglasses or a hat religiously. His light colored eyes must really be sensitive to the sun because he never took the things off. I've never known a kid to wear sunglasses for so long.

I just wonder what he was thinking about!

Hawaiian Sunsets

Not much really needs to be said about these. Just one beautiful sunset after another!