Hawaii: a semi brief re-cap

So, we are a bit behind. We spent 9 days enjoying the lovely island of Maui, and had a fabulous time. Too many pictures to post them all, but lets just say it was a wonderful 9 days.


We spent a lot of time at the beach. Allie and Shannon both enjoyed the sand and building sand castles.


While at the beaches, we spent some time snorkeling. Kyle worked with Allie, but she was not quite ready to take on this new adventure. Next time. However, we love snorkeling.. the fish were amazing. And, we finally met a sea turtle!!!!


Our condo also had a pool, so of course, each day we had to get in... Allie is such a swimmer.


(by the way, next task... saying goodbye to the silly pacifier... that oughta be fun)

Right outside of our condo was a nice grassy area that the children were able to enjoy.... running around. For some reason, they loved chasing the birds. There was a also a fish pond that we spent a lot of time checking out. The girls loved the fishies.

And, I couldn't help but get a picture of the giant frog.


But the ocean was the best part. And the whales. Everywhere. We went on a tour, and saw a ton of whales.. even this baby humpback breaching over and over... it seemed to be doing a show just for us!!



Allie even got to help out pulling in the microphone. She was in such awe that the whales were talking into the microphone!! :)


We had a great trip... though, I am a little sad we couldn't get a better picture of Shannon.. she is at the age where posing for a picture is not happening! ugh.

Shaver Dance Party

I won a kids CD recently on a blog... Mad Hatter Mom and so last night we decided to check it out.

Allie immediately wanted to have a dance party, including a fun dance floor. And so the party began....










As you can see... it was a fun time at our house... Allie insisted that the whole family dance, so eventually all four of us were on the dance floor (sorry, no videos). we danced til bedtime.

Thanks Mad Hatter Mom for having this great give away....

the little mermaid

Allie loves swimming.... LOVES swimming. She loves to go swimming with Grandma so she can learn new tricks.

And she loves doing this mermaid kick that grandma taught her....




though it is a little hard with the fins on today.

The Science Experiment

For her birthday, Allie received a Science Experiment kit from her Godparents. Of course, because nerdiness is in her genes (paternal side of course), she couldn't wait to start her science experiment. We managed to hold her off until after church (with bribery)...

She enjoyed making colored water in test tubes.



Then she held them together and looked through them to see what colors it made.


After all this, she started mixing the colors into a dish to make lots of colors. She loved this part.

But the fun doesn't end yet... then she got to put small clear colorless crystals in each one, and watch and wait and wait and watch for them to grow into bigger colored crystals. This process took a couple hours, so we decided to make her nap. As soon as she woke up, she raced downstairs to see what had happened. She was so impressed.

While Allie was doing her experiment, Shannon was sitting close by... she kept busy by eating, of course!!

Thank you Aunt Jess, Uncle Scott and Jaya.