boys best friend

random goodness

emily left last night after coen went to bed. thus, the morning was filled with explanations of why emily had to go on the airplane. coen handled it pretty well, and i am still coping. i am sure emily was relieved to not wake up to the sounds of bubble guppies...or maybe she missed it. it is quite catchy. in any case, here are a few random shots form her last couple days.

shave ice is so ono. where's mine?!

coen got a new surfer shirt...you like?

beaching it is hard work. coen is glad he gets to do it.

didn't you know, pretend sleeping in laundry baskets

is all the rage with 2 year olds?

love this. emily walked into her room to find the dude all snuggled up.

and last, this boy and his beat up head. i think he should maybe wear a helmet. i feel like his forehead has been bruised consistently since he started crawling! the paci is a night time only thing, but man when he gets a goose egg like this, he surely deserves it.

emily, thank you SOOOOO much for coming all this was to visit us for 5 short nights. we love having you around to goof off with. you are such a blessing to us. we love you BIG!

turtle beach

sunday morning we enjoyed a lovely breakfast at the hilo coffee mill and then headed out to punalu'u black sand beach. yes, this is the beach i always rave about with the turtles and this trip did not disappoint.

it was a perfect day for...

lounging in the sun with our favorite 2 year old.

enjoying the majestic landscape of this rural beach.

eating peanut butter sandwiches on a boogie board,

and hanging out with sea turtles.

throwing rocks (his fav) while chatting off emily's ear.

swimming with the sea turtles and other colorful sea life. we were so close we actually had to work to keep from bumping into them, crazy! (emily then me)

catching really big fish. okay, not us. BUT we did watch a guy bring in this 200lb tuna on the back of his jet ski. he said he was about 4 miles out and fought it for 45 minutes. wes went over to check it out and get his big fish story. insane.

volcano adventures

on saturday morning we packed up early and headed up to the volcano. emily and i had massages schedules for 10:00am at hale ho'ola. wes took coen to the playground while we were pampered. the owner of the spa is a mom from my mom's group and she gives the best best best massage. this was the second time i have gone to her, and it was ever better than i had remembered. she totally rocks. if you come to visit, i highly recommend you schedule an appointment with her. emily actually told me that if we ever move away from the island, she will come back JUST to get a massage. i'm telling you, it's that good. after our pamper session we headed into the national park and decided to take a hike through kilauea iki. perhaps more thought should have been given to the fact that we had just relaxed every muscle in our bodies. we were pretty much jell-o legs, but we rallied and totally rocked that crater.

the kilauea iki crater erupted in 1959. you actually walk across the crater and are reminded by the steam vents, just how active this volcano really is. it kinda blows your mind.

coen was having so much fun he could hardly stay awake. oh wait, he didn't. he snuck a 45 min cat nap in the pack. the volcano is old news to him.

family shot...thanks emily!

some shots of the plume from the hale mau mau crater. noooooo, we weren't hiking here. that would be dangerous and something only fancy pants wes gets to do.

after our hike we stopped in at thurston lava tube. coen thought the "cave" was super cool. probably because, well it is.

we pigged out at thai thai for dinner and then headed up to the lookout at hale mau mau to see the glow. that's correct, we spent an entire day exploring the volcano.

coen's point of view

emily has been so kind to let my 2 year old break in her brand new camera. must have something to do with him being THE cutest 2 year old ever thing. when we downloaded her pictures we became hysterical at some of coen's good shots. look out, we may have a professional on our hands.

coconut island

our very good friend emily is visiting us right now and we have been busy trying to show her a good time. having the world's cutest 2 year old (and i am not even a little bit biased) helps keep things fun.

she flew in on wednesday night and i got to head to hilo and pick her up all by myself, while my wonderful hubby stayed home to get coen in bed on time. i leied her upon her arrival and then we went down to the bayfront for dinner and drinks. it was awesome.

the next morning we headed to coconut island for some fun in the sun. turns out, that is kinda the theme of this trip....fun & sun! we had a great time on coconut island, and then headed to the bayfront to walk around. we love hanging out with our emily!

dad's day!

on father's day we headed down to hilo to find some good greasy breakfast. wes plays soccer with a league on sunday's so we had to plan our day around his game (it was his day after all). after some good breaky we took a walk through the park and then headed over to coconut island. this little island is right in hilo bay. you have to walk across a small foot bridge to get there, and it is just charming! we weren't set up or planning to have a beach day, so we stripped the boy down and let him play in the ocean in a diaper. then we headed to the soccer game and played at the playground. we got home later afternoon for some chill out time and had the boy asleep by 7:30.

we are so blessed to have this fun, loving, patient, hard working guy in our lives. wes is a wonderful daddy and a very very patient hubby! we love you! xoxo

weekend fun

on saturday morning we set out for a full day of fun. our first stop was to our favorite beach in hilo to meet up with donna, our real estate agent, and her lovely daughter. we adore donna and have not gotten together with her since we closed on our house...long over due. coen bonded with her on our first trip to the island and still talks about her all the time. she had some birthday gifts for coen, including this inflatable seahorse. cute! coen had a blast playing in the water, sand, and grass.




after a few hours at the beach we headed up to akaka falls state park. coen did great in the backpack and loved checking out the falls. it was a pretty easy loop hike...down, down, down to the falls means up, up, up to the car.



akaka falls is a very big fall, but there were some other smaller falls to look at on the way.

so many cool plants and flowers to look at!

we stopped in hilo for some mexican food and then headed home and had the boy in bed by 7:30! what a fun fun day!

oatmeal cookies

on friday coen and i decided it was definitely a good idea to bake up some oatmeal cookies (wes' favs). we have baked a little bit together, but this time was much more exciting...i let him lick the beater! i figure we all grew up licking beaters (raw eggs and all), so what the heck. he was in heaven!



cookie dough monster!

hilo bay cafe

yesterday coen and i had a lunch date (just the 2 of us) at hilo bay cafe. i was feeling brave to take him into a nice restaurant at nap time, alone. he did great! we did lots of "cheers!" and he loved his parmasean pasta. i have never eaten something there that wasn't perfect. yum!




speaking of nap time, we are crossing into a new phase. it seems that no nap is a little rough, but when he dose nap he is up way too late. so we are trying to phase the long naps out for the next few days and see how he does. this means, i am allowing him to cat nap in the car, something i have never EVER done. unless we are traveling, this boy has taken every single nap of his life at home in his crib. i have been fighting the nap issue for a while, because i just felt like kids should nap till they are 3. any of you have advice/experience with dropping the nap well before that? i would love your insight.

pop pop & gami

we had a wonderful visit with gami and pop pop last week. they were our first guests and we were eager to show them around. it's fun to have a reason to go out and do the tourist type stuff, but also feel totally content just chilling out at home. my camera has not been found, but pop pop shared a few of his pictures with me so i could update the blog community on their fabulous visit.

we took every chance we had at beaching. why not? coen is so happy and content on the beach. we have a couple favorite places and we set up camp and soaked in some sunshine. i would like to note: i am so obsessed with not frying my fair skinned boy that he is always in full sun protection gear...when we visit this summer, i bet YOU have a better tan than him!





mid-week gami and pop pop hopped over to oahu to visit with some of their dear friends. coen was very sad to wake up and have them gone, but sure excited that they came right back! this picture is of gami paddling in the pacific during their visit to oahu.

punalu'u is our favorite beach! it is the same beach we had our family pictures taken at when we first moved to the island. it has a little bit of everything... palm trees, sand, lava, surf, annnnnnd sea turtles. we have never been there and not seen a turtle. it is so wonderful!

of course we spent a day up touring wes' office and hiking around the volcano. coen is plotting how he can take over as the head siesmic network manager. he might be small, but he has big ideas.

of course the highlight of gami and pop pop's visit was that they deliverd our sweet lily dog. she has totally adjusted and is settling in just fine. it is great to have her home with us.

our schedule of visitors has quickly filled up and we are so excited for a season of showing off the island. it may get old eventually, but for now...the more the merrier! aloha :)

scuba steve

during a trip to the black sand beach coen decided that he wanted to test out the snorkle gear. are. you. kidding. me. he can so totally pull off this look. pretty amazing, considering most people can't :-)

costco!

on saturday we drove gami and pop pop back to kona to catch their flight home and decided to hit costco. on the mainland we lived 1.5 miles from costco, and could run in just for 1 or 2 things (usually coffee and eggs). but now we are 2.5 HOURS from costco...boo. this was our first costco spree since our move and it was also our first double cart-er! eep! coen was a trooper, kind of. aparently while i was dicipling him for something, the sample lady pulled wes aside and told him that we were doing such a good job and to stay consistant. meanwhile coen was just hitting me in the face...at least that sample lady supported my efforts.

bad news bears

something terriable happened this week. i lost my camera. ugh. it is totally missing in action. i can backtrack every place i had it, right up to where it went missing (of course, if i knew where it went missing, then this wouldn't be an issue). but for now, it's a gonner. tear. i am counting on pop-pop to supply me with some pictures from their wonderful visit. but intil then, here are some random shots from my phone. thank God for camera phones, huh?

coen pulled a paint roller out of the storage closet a few days ago. he rolls it across everything and tells me he's "just doing the cleaning." a boy after my heart.


after 5.5 years (wedding gift) our coffee pot died. it held in strong right to the end, but gami and i had to go out on an emergency coffee pot replacement mission last week. i saved the old one (wes cut off the cord) for coen to play with. when i showed it to him, i pulled the pot out and said, "look you can pour it like this!" his eyes got really big and he yelled, "NOOOO! not on the floor!" then he ran into the play room and brought out a coffee cup for me to pour the non-existant coffee into.


last, what could be cuter than a sufer boy hanging out the sunroof waving at all the cars going by? our car was parked, no need to worry.

i hope to report a found camera soon. but intil then i will keep trying to snap pictures on my phone. loosing my camera really puts a damper on my blogging skills...but i'm trying not to let it get me down.

oh lily girl

when i was little my brother used to always tease me about the songs i would make up. i had a song for everything, and i wasn't afraid to sing it. coen has always been drawn to music, and lately he has been making up songs out of the blue. i caught this one the day before lily was coming home to live with us. he sure loves his lily girl...on the airplane.

wings!

at play group on monday coen was super excited to try out the butterfly wings. i may or may not have also tried them out ;-) his pretend play has really developed in the past month and it is so fun to listen to the voices and stories he comes up with. it is also quite a reality check when i hear him disciplining his stuffed animals...do i really say those things?! eep.

lily arrives in aloha

our sweet lab lily is finally home with us and ready to settle in as an island dog. hawaii has super strict laws on bringing anaimals to the islands. aparently hawaii is one of the only places left in the world that dose not have rabies...so they are doing everything they can to keep it that way. all animals must go through a 120 day waiting period, and since we had way less notice than that, she wasn't able to make the move with us. we opted out of quarenteening her in honolulu for 3 months, and left her with wes' parents to wait out her time. she was living the good life in truckee, california for 3 months. on friday we drove over to the much hotter kona side of the isalnd to pick up lily and her travel companions. it was a very good reunion. we sure love our lily girl! oh, and yes i insisted that she get her very own lei.




waiting...waiting...where is that lily girl? coen kept saying to me, "she's gonna lick me! she's gonna get my toesies!" he really missed her (and i missed her cleaning up after him).


she's here! a little bit confused and a lotta bit hot. pop pop and gami decorated her crate to make sure she would be treated well on the flight. can you imagine how it felt to be a black dog and leave the snow in truckee and show up in HOT kona?! poor girl. we gave her LOTS of water and then took her to the kona brewing company for lunch.


everyone cooled off with a cold one from the kona brewing company (coen had oragne juice) and they even brought lily out a pitcher of ice water. she layed out by the front of the restaurant and got lots of love from people going in and out. gami brought coen a vew finder toy with thomas the train slides. it was histerical! when he looked in and saw thomas he pointed out in front of himself and started yelling, "thomas! i see see thomas, he's right there!" then he would pull it away, look around and then do it all again. it never got old.

we are so happy to have our lily girl back with us. we sure missed her. gami and pop pop did such a great job taking care of her and getting her back to us in perfect shape (10 pounds lighter)! we are excited to have a whole week to spend with them exploring the island. much more on that to come! woof! woof!