Hawaii!

For Thanksgiving we went with my family to Hawaii. I know, I know, these pictures are a bit late since it's almost Christmas but hey, better late than never! I decided to do something a little different this time for our pictures. I'm going to give you the behind the scenes look at our trip. Enjoy!

Carly and Brandon having fun!

Just hanging around!

My sister Jessica and her um, husband Ben. Why is it that guys can't just smile?

Our little encampment by the pool for the day, including baby tent! The pool was great, complete with water slides, pirate ship, and waterfalls.

Tyler snoozing by the pool.

Here's Brandon pretending he's Bear Gryllis from "Man vs. Wild"!

The rest of us chose to stay on the shore and throw rocks in the water. Carly thought it was great fun!

Here's the girls hang out on the beach, enjoying the sunset.

Here's Brandon trying to push over the IOA Needle. This was our second trip b/c the first time we went, it was closed off due to rain!

Carly had a great time running around while waiting for Brandon to finish his bet with Natalie. He had to run up and down the stairs to the look out 7 times for $20! There were 133 steps. No comment.

We made Brandon a little tunnel to run through when he was finished. Definitely not worth $20!

Our second day in Hawaii, we took the advice of a local and took the scenic route back to the resort. It was a long, narrow, windy road and we all wanted to throw ourselves off the cliff about half way through.

Carly and I spent most of the drive asleep after realizing the views weren't really that great!

We went to dinner at Cheeseburgers in Paradise. Brandon decided to buy Carly a real lei. It only cost $11!!!! And she wouldn't wear it even for the picture!


Thanks Mom and Dad for the wonderful trip! We had a lot of fun and it was nice to take a break from the everyday!

I WIN!!!!!!

I'm wiling to admit that I'm stubborn, many times very stubborn to be exact. And of course, in all fairness to my mom and dad, I ended up with an often stubborn child. Today stubborn mama and stubborn daughter went head to head.

It was an average morning. Carly was sitting in her high chair, eating peaches and watching her favorite cartoon, Max and Ruby. And like every morning, instead of telling me when she is finished, she dumps the remaining peaches out of her bowl and onto her tray. Well, I've gotten tired of cleaning up the dumped food which usually is just on her tray but sometimes ends up on the floor as well if I'm not paying good enough attention. I asked her to help me put the peaches back in the bowl. I put most of them back in the bowl while she sat and watched so I told her to put the remaining peaches back in the bowl and then she could get down and watch some more Max and Ruby. To which she replied, "No, you pick them up." And thus the battle began.

Forty-five minutes later, Carly was still sitting in her high chair, crying and occasionally screaming and thrashing about but still refusing to put the peaches back in the bowl. And I was still sitting nearby on the couch telling her to put the peaches in the bowl and then she could get down.

After another half an hour, most of which was spent in time out in her room, Carly finally gave it up and put the peaches back in her bowl. I won!!! And despite how frustrated I was, I kept my cool and didn't yell. I think my magazine I was reading on the couch helped. :) In conclusion, I guess I still win for being the most stubborn!