lime in the coconut

a friend from work gave wes a whole coconut, and wes re-gifted it to coen. the funny thing about this is that very same day when coen woke up from his nap he said to me, "someday i want to get a coconut and crack it open and drink the coconut juice inside." okay random, but sure we can do that someday. 

three hours later wes walks in with a coconut. what?! i know, lucky for coen. 

wes got out his machete and started hacking on the thing, and voila! coen was drinking out of it in no time! 

serious coconut business...

he is seriously excited about it.

mmmmm....i think the coconut made someone a little nutty! 

labor day

i completely appreciate 3 day weekends WAY more as a stay home mom then i ever did when i worked outside the home. having wes around for an extra day is just a bonus all around for everyone, and jumping into a short week feels refreshing. when is the next federal holiday?! i can't wait. 

besides doing some serious (i am not joking) cleaning and purging we managed to have a really fun family weekend. hanging out with coen is fascinating to me. he is constantly working through this world, trying to figure it out. but aren't we all? 

we spent a morning at the zoo. as we were loading the car coen ran back in and grabbed his binoculars, said he needed them so he could do some exploring. and he did.  

trike riding and swimming at coconut island. 

cooling off with shave ice. so ono, you know you want some!

vanity: take four

when i was little, my uncle made me a vanity. it was so cute and i loved it. when i got older i passed it on to my cousin, nikki and then she passed it on to our youngest girl cousin, keely. each time it was passed along our grandpa would give it a fresh coat of paint and grandma would recover the seat with new fabric. it eventually made it back to me, and i have moved around with it for years. wes and i just finished getting it prepped for it's fourth round. we used a fitted sheet from the bedding collection for the stool, and painted it a shade of light gray. i think it is adorable. i hope marin enjoys it as much as we all did, and that she can pass it down some day too. 

mr big brother has been toting this baby doll around, using the extra fabric as a blanket and pulling baby shoes out of marin's closet to put on his baby. i love watching him prep and learn all about being a big brother. he is so excited and sweet about my growing belling. i know it won't be a cake walk, but i am looking forward to seeing him in action with his little sister. 

helicopter ride!

last week wes took us by to say hi to david, the helicopter pilot that flies them out into the field. david was getting the helicopter ready to fly up and get some of the techs from the observatory that were out doing lava man stuff. getting a helicopter ready really means talking off the doors. just take note of that. 

david tossed coen into the helicopter to look around. he was in heaven. what could be better than this? 

oh i don't know, taking a ride in the helicopter! that's right, david invited us all into his very lean helicopter with NO doors to take a tour around hilo bay. eeeeeeeek! coen sat up front in between david and wes, and i sat in the back. 

we flew over hilo bay, and coen was pretty much emotionless the whole time. he was concentrating very hard on what the control tower was saying in his headphones...one of his favorite parts, of course. 

i was a little bit freaking out. it was SO fun, and i would do it again tomorrow. but it was freaky, and crazy and so strange to just look out and have nothing separating you from um, the world down below. 

as soon as i jumped off the heli and grabbed coen he said to me, "can we go again?" 

he has the hunger, watch out world.

way to go daddy, best family date...ever! 

crash

the crash. it happened when we came home from our winter tour and it happened yet again after we finally settled in from our summer vacations. a total and complete monster took over our sweet child and turned him into something we could not even recognize. why am i telling you this? because i need to remember the next time that it passes quickly, and soon the silly little soul comes beaming back. some notes from the past week:

a 6 week hiatus from our normal routine is just asking for a total need to reprogram. 

all reprogramming will be fought, to. the. death. 

he is stubborn and very much willing to stay awake from 2:30am to 6am, just to get what he wants. 

bad parenting happens. let it go, move on. 

rewards and incentives ALWAYS work. so skip the bad parenting stuff, and go straight to an incentive chart. 

the monster, the sleepless nights, the outright terror, i am just smitten for this little guy who is trying so hard to have control in this big crazy world. 

despite his efforts to read books ALL night and not sleep, he will eventually fall asleep. 

oh hey there, waikoloa!

coen and i arrived back on the island just in time for a busy couple weeks. hvo (hawaiian volcano observatory) was celebrating it's 100th year anniversary with a fun filled alumni weekend. the festivities lead up to a conference on hawaiian volcanoes at the marriott in waikoloa. we seriously didn't slow down from the moment we got off the plane. it was so fun for coen and i to get to participate in all of this, especially the "go to kona for a week" part. i am well adjusted to hanging out at a nice resort, in case you were wondering. 

c made leaps in his swimming. in fact it is terrifying. 

he just dives in, floats around and pops up when he can't 

possibly hold his breath another second. 

sharing fruity drinks by the pool with his mama. 

the towel ladies started paying him $1 to sing to them, he made over $5! 

on the way to the pool everyday he would said, "mama i need to go talk to my ladies...okay?" 

lounging poolside. 

right way coen made friends with identical five year old twins, maddison and ashlyn. he looooved them. they all played together everyday, and we hope to connect with them in the bay area on our next visit. 

 self portrait.

big swimmer. 

our sweet friend acacia came to swim with us one day annnnnd 

cousin keely happened to be visiting the big island too! how lucky for us!

guess what?! we live here!