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!

shave ice & coconut island

after a rough drive home from kona to pick up our special guests, we took it easy the next day. we planned to not go anywhere at all. the thought of riding in the car made a certain someone want to vomit, but the weather was looking good and i felt like we all could use some fresh air. so after naps i rallied everyone to head to hilo for some super ono shave ice and a little beach time at coconut island. no one complained. 

coconut island has a huge grassy area and we let the boys (and lauren) loose to run around like crazy people. beckett thought it was so much fun to try to catch coen, who was chasing lauren...but who was lauren after? 

perhaps things got a little out of hand and mr c had to take a moment to re-group (aka..a timeout). he pulled it together and we got the boys in their beach clothes and sent them off into the ocean. just kidding, but we did play in the sand and b actually liked playing in the big blue pacific. 

our first attempt at a group picture. what you aren't seeing is my child preparing to throw a sand toy at us. i am a little sister and to this day i still flinch at pretty much everything. i got him redirected and we managed to get a good picture.

we got caught in a 10 min down pour and ran for cover. except for beckett, he loved playing in the rain. on the way home we picked up pizza and beckett napped. day one: success!  

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. 

picnic date

last week we had a picnic playdate at coconut island with some friends. coen and acacia are quite cute together and i love the sequence of these pictures. 

acacia checking out the big boy

coen is totally chilling and acting all cool

what? we are just friends. geese, mom. 

geesh, that boy has a big old head.