The next person to get hurt is getting a TIME OUT!

We may not make it through the week. Something is wrong with our family. I'm seriously considering putting my children in helmets for the next few days.

Since Monday, 

Elliott rode his trike straight through the baby gate and down the stairs;

dropped a pot on his head;

and tripped over the dog on the stairs and tumbled down half a flight;

Nory ran into a wall (and the wall won).

Not to mention all the other scrapes and bruises they have from falling over their feet and each others' feet and off trampolines and over dogs and into doors and out of bathtubs and off of chairs. Although my kids aren't really graceful in the classical sense, they are usually pretty coordinated.

Maybe they're growing. One can hope.

Happy New Year!

Really, what could be a better idea than letting the kids stay up until midnight to ring in the New Year?

BK's mama threw a wonderful NYE celebration. I brought Elliott's jammies just in case he started showing signs of weakness but... nope, not my boy! He looooooves being awake! (Hmmm sounds just like his daddy)

First, the three kids opened all sorts of Christmas presents to put us in a party mood. BK also opened some presents from Santa, who is a bit lazy in coming to her mom's house and doesn't make it before New Years Eve.

Then the girls played hours of dress up in BK's new princess dresses,

while Elliott became a Master Chef in BK's new play kitchen!

The girls watched a movie with some pretend ice cream.

(Is it any wonder that my kids LOVE BK's house???)

While the grownups enjoyed grownupy things ;)

Happy New Year, from the three musketeers:

BK,

Nory,

And Elliott.

PS. Thank you Chris Lorton for loaning Dan your AMAZING camera for the evening, without which these beautiful low light photos would not be possible!

Aloha, from Maui

It is hard to imagine that a week ago we were in Maui. I can't really do it justice in a blog post but suffice it to say that it was the BEST VACATION EVER.

Why? Well besides the obvious answer of the climate being perfect (sunny and warm but not too hot) and getting to wear things like flip flops and sun dresses and swim suits all day... yes, besides that... there was the hotel. We stayed at the best hotel in the world, the Grand Wailea, and since Dan was attending an IEEE conference our trip was heavily subsidized by his work. Thanks, IV!

The Grand Wailea has seven swimming pools, extensive beautiful grounds, 4 water slides that my kids were happy to go down (and several that they were too scared to do), a beach that looks and feels like someone photoshopped it into real life, and last and definitely not least, a walk in wading pool that the kids could play in while the adults sat in lounge chairs drinking mai tais.

The kids were happy. Mommy was happy.

Dan was in conference all day from dawn to midnight for the first four days. My heart almost broke when I pictured him sitting through boring math lectures all day while we were swimming and making sand castles, but hey, to each their own. I bet you are wondering how I could have handled both kids in the water all day by myself, right?

Because I brought a Secret Weapon: Nana and Papa!

In case you didn't do the math, this meant that the grownups outnumbered the kids. Which I think is key for successful traveling. It means that there is always someone available to change a diaper or take someone potty or go get an extra towel or go down that waterslide one last time or float down the lazy on or help with sunscreen. With grandparental help, I got to say "yes" to my kids all week long, which felt wonderful.

But of course the kids couldn't just play outside all day long... could they? Well, yes and no. I can't say that they ever got tired of the beach and pools, but it did get dark around 6 which always called things to an abrupt halt at the end of the day. Luckily the hotel also had a huge indoor kid play area where we could take the kids. It was full of games, legos, crafts, a huge toddler room with things to climb up and slide down and a pretend kitchen, a 1 ft deep wading pool shaped like a whale, a mini soccer field, hula hoops... etc. I don't think we have any "Dan" pictures from that area but here are a few from my phone.

We spent the bulk of our time at the resort but we adventured out a few other times to see more of Maui. Highlights included:

• Eating fish tacos almost every day with fish that had been pulled out of the ocean a few hours earlier
• Snorkeling in Lahaina which was like swimming through an aquarium
• The best shave ice on the planet (yes, "shave," not "shaved.")
• Visiting the Maui aquarium
• Watching the sunset and sunrise every day
• Sneaking into nana and papas adjoining hotel room after the kids were sleeping to have a glass of wine and watch tv

shave ice

mai tai

sand

sleepy girl

sleepy boy

jetlagged kids 5:30am watching barney

happy

 my favorite nerd :)

Dan is still sorting through and publishing the 1,295,476,197,021 pictures that he took. As he posts them, you can see them here.

Oh Christmas Tree!

We are going out of town for two weekends of December so we got our tree a little earlier than usual. December SECOND, which means we were out there with the kind of families who have already sent their Christmas Cards and completed their Christmas Shopping. Ha, we fooled them!

This turned out to be a great idea since the selection of trees at the tree lot was much better than, say, the Saturday before Christmas that we are used to. I may have to adopt this early Christmas tree hunting in future years.

Cutest hat, ever. I dare you to disagree.

Trees!

This one! This is OUR TREE!

He didn't do all the work, hey, I carried the saw!

Let's just say that this complimentary candy cane did not get hung on the tree.

Ready to roll!

Christmas Tree! Oh, Christmas Tree! How lovely are your branches! Notice all of the ornaments are above 3.5 feet? It's that kind of a year!

BAD TREE!

Casualty.

Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, you are not as fun to decorate for the second time in one evening!

You may have noticed that we had a little, ahem, trouble with the tree. Well what do you expect with two small kids and a huge dog???

Okay okay, as much as I would love to blame the kids, this was total user error on the part of Dan and myself. We hadn't put the tree in the stand correctly. Oops! Next year you better believe we will be checking it twice!

Merry Christmas Tree Decorating to All, and to All a Good Night!