whole wheat oatmeal and banana pancakes

on sunday morning wes requested banana pancakes. hawaii has the best bananas in the whole universe and we eat a million more bananas than we ever did before we moved to the island. (just a quick shout out to my friend, banana.) anyway, i am on a health kick since coming home from our five week eating frenzy so i quickly searched for a super healthy banana pancake that i could feel good about eating. this is defiantly a keeper, and i recommend you try them too. and if you care at all, 2/3 cup of batter or 2 of the pancakes pictured are only 7 weight watcher points. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup uncooked rolled oats
• 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 banana, mashed

Directions

1. Place the rolled oats into the jar of a blender and blend until the texture resembles coarse flour. Whisk together the blended oats, whole wheat flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl; set aside.
2. In blender, blend together the egg, milk, vegetable oil, vanilla and banana. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and stir just until moistened. Let the batter stand for 5 minutes.
3. Heat a lightly oiled griddle over medium-high heat. Drop 1/3 of a cup of batter onto the griddle, and cook until bubbles form and the edges are dry, about 2 minutes. Flip, and cook until browned on the other side. Repeat with remaining batter.

family date!

this last week has been the hardest week of parenting i have experienced since coen was a newborn. at first it appeared that coen was going to just jump back in to our normal routine after a five week hiatus. i think he was just running on adrenaline. by mid week we were all exhausted, grumpy, and wes and i were wondering what happened to our precious boy. he has put up a down right refusal to sleep, just wants to "play and play and play." with all that said, we decided that today needed to be 100% focused on the three of us. no chores, errands, catching up...just us. we made a pledge that we would not fight him for a nap today (although his glassy eyes are so beyond tired, it is scary), and that we would "play and play and play." after breakfast (post coming soon!), we headed out to coconut island with his new trike. we spent the whole day on this darling little island in hilo bay. coen got to ride his trike as far as he wanted, a big improvement from our dining room! turns out trike riding is a lot work, so we pushed the trike a lot too. after the island we headed downtown for some super ono shave ice. were there meltdowns? yes. did we have a blast? absolutely. can coen stay up for 14.5 hours straight? sure thing. 

100 years!

today was the 100th anniversary celebration of the hawaii volcano observatory. 100 years is a long time. the observatory held an open house and the public was invited to come out and explore some cool hands on volcano stuff. yes, it was pretty cool. but also i may have been a little bitter that wes had to work on a saturday. weekends are precious people! 

go lily, it's your birthday!

today our first child turned six. i can not believe how fast these past six years have gone. haha, i know. but really from newlyweds to now, lily has been a great side kick to have around. we celebrated with birthday cheesy eggs and coen helped her blow out her candle. 

happy birthday sweet lily dog, we love you! 

we heart the ledfords!

right when coen and i returned from the mainland, wes' cousin and her family were on vacation in kona. we were so blessed to have them come over to our side of the island for a night and enjoyed every minute of their company. 

we headed up to the volcano at night to walk through the lava tube and see the glow. it is always breath taking no matter how many times i have seen it. after the viewing we ate at out favorite thai restaurant and i want to go back and eat there again, right now. 

jack brought coen a set of very cool fisher price tools and we love them so much, thanks jack! 

jack really insists that no one takes his picture, ever. so i made it a point to get some good pictures of him. i did the best i could while we were at rainbow falls. the boys had so much fun together, and we can't wait to see everyone again...hopefully soon! 

dr doctor give me the news...

not feeling well? let dr doctor have a look at ya. 

getting back to aloha

after over five weeks away coen and i returned to the island this week. i will be honest, back in december when we left i was itching to get off the island, but after all this time away i could not have been happier to come back. as much as i love the chilly northwest, feeling the sunshine on my face actually felt like home. wes welcomed us with beautiful leis and we headed straight to the kona brewing company for lunch. as an added treat wes' cousin andrea and her family are visiting kona and met up with us for lunch. after lunch everyone headed to the beach and i hit up costco for a whirlwind shopping trip. once we officially got on the road to hilo both coen and i passed out. we had such a wonderful time on our tour across the west coast, but we are so so glad to be home. 

coen: mama is this my home?

me: yes, it is.

coen: let's stay here for a while. 

cousin date!

on our last day in seattle my brother and i took the kids to the museum of flight. all of the kids loooooved it. i was so glad my brother rallied us to go, i was pretty much spent after 5 weeks of travel. seeing the kids run around and play was totally worth the work to get there. i miss them already, and hope that they will be visiting us soon!