Thanksgiving is my favorite :)

Happy Thanksgiving, people! What better time to start blogging again? Maybe if I'm lucky i will get the at least the holidays recorded here.. I decided today that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love that its the beginning of true Holiday season; instead of being sad that its over at the end if the day, im looking forward to decorating for Christmas, which is only in 4 weeks!! And I officially get to listen to Christmas music (and pretend like I don't the rest of the year, too).
Today we went to my parent's house for lunch/dinner. Actually, we ate our (enormous) lunch at 3ish, then we pretty much had dessert for dinner, since we ate that around 5:30 :). We enjoyed the fire and good company, watched 'The Lion King'. I listened to Mish try to explain to Piper why animals die in stampedes without actually saying how they die, and that no, water can't bring them back to life if they are really dead (she asks tough questions about death, lately) (plus, that movie is pretty intense). (Mish did great, I think- I'm definitly no expert!). Troy got to play with his cousins and Memere to his heart's content, feed Matt and Jenean's fish, and play with Memere and Pepere's toys. All in all, it was a great day :). Unfortunately, I hardly got any pictures! Here's what I did get:

Lately, Troy loves anything that even remotely resembles a guitar or a baseball bat- he goes back and forth between the two sporadically. For example, one minute the kitchen spatula is a guitar, the next it could be a baseball bat, you just have to watch out for his swing. Especially when the object is long and pokey -

(Just don't ask me why I let him bring that stick inside) Right now it's a guitar, if you can't tell. He also sings, which is adorable :). Of course, thanks to Heavy Metal Mater, a lot of his singing is heavy metal style...still adorable! (For now...)

Happy holidays and happy blogging!

Aloha hawaii

This is our last week in Hawaii. Actually, our last week in Hilo was last week, this week we are in Kauai with Dusty's family. This picture was taken our last day on the Big Island:

Of course we spent it at our favorite black sand beach (Kehena!), and it was a happy and sad day for me. Excited to be here, in Kauai, with family, and excited to be on our way to the East Coast to actually LIVE near family (!!), but sad to be leaving this beautiful place (again).

We are loving Kauai and running around like crazy as is usual per Williams' family vacations! Troy went to bed tonight at 9pm, and he fell asleep so easily I'm almost tempted to give him a new bedtime...well it also helps that there are 8 other adults plus a 2 year old to keep him busy!

Troy made some friends at the park our first day here- they were such funny kids. The girls were so interested in Troy and the boys kept saying, "why is his hair is so white?!"

We bike the Coconut Coast, which Troy was not too happy about, hike the first couple miles of the Na Pali coast trail (which I believe is my most favorite hike in the whole world), saw a blowhole, Troy and Milo went on a train ride with Grandma and Grandpa (which troy was really excited about), and we've seen a new beach (or two) every day. And the fun will continue tomorrow!

Popcorn popping

So I know it was forever ago, but thats just the way my blogging is happenning lately! Dusty's famiy came to visit a couple weeks ago, and I wish they could have stayed forever! It was so much fun to have them around. We all crammed into our one bedroom apartment (all 6 of us- good thing we have a loft!) which made it feel like a big slumber party all week long. I feel like most people wouldn't love their in-laws crashed on their living room floor, couch, and all around them for a week, but not me. I definitely lucked out in the in-law department, because I would have been so sad if they hadn't stayed with us and I think I might have jumped for joy if they said they were going to stay another week. They're that great, seriously.

We had a blast hiking to Waipio Valley, seeing waterfalls, hanging out at the nudie I mean black sand beaches (lol), driving up Mauna Kea (seeing the snow that caps the mountain close up!), going to the volcano, going to Kona, playing in the waves. Jumping off South Point- the most southern point in the United States and the bluest water I've ever seen, ever. Poor Troy, after watching Dusty jump, then me, I think he thought that was it for us. He was so relieved when we climbed up. It was so good to see Troy getting some good Grandma and Grandpa time while they were here. He warmed up to them so easily I think he must remember them- and of course I think my child is a genius so what else is new! :)

The last picture was taken at a swimming hole at what has now been dubbed, "engagement point". Dusty's sister Felicia got engaged while they were here! We loved being able to celebrate with them, and of course we did it with a "happy engagement/happy birthday Kevin" pumpkin cheesecake pie, our favorite. And in fact, Dusty's other sister Natalie recently got engaged, too! We're so excited to have 2 new members of the family, hooray for getting married!

Troy is one! And other big news :)

Since i havent posted in.....well a long time, I've got a lot to post! I wont bore you with one loong post though, so i'll just hit the big ones. Like our baby is not a baby anymore! Toddlerhood is just as fun as babyhood, just with more teeth and injuries. Because this kid can run! Toddle-run, that is. It's adorable. Oh I love him. There's more laughing, too, lots of laughing. I haven't posted a "watch Troy grow" picture in awhile, but believe or not I did take them. Most of them...well I missed a couple of months but believe me, there were definitely pictures taken! So I ad-libbed (not sure if that's a word) a little.

By 12 months, he was not having the whole, lie-still-on-this-blanket-and-let-mommy-take-a picture business, as you can see. And yes, he is wearing the same shirt in his 12 month photo as in his 11 month photo. Oops. He is also still wearing some 3 month sized shorts...ah well, neither Dusty or I are unusually tall or anything, so I think he'll grow up just fine :). At his one year check-up he was 21 lbs and 29 inches long (correction! I wrote the wrong height on a previous post and i dont know if that post will show up...oops again!), 46th percentile for weight and about 18th percentile for height, depending on what website calculator. Poor shrimp. Just kidding, I shouldn't make fun of my kid! In other news, (i told you this wasn't going to be a long boring post- i promise i'll keep my word!), Dusty got accepted into Teach for America and was assigned to Connecticut!

Which I am very excited about. Dusty is less so, but he already has plans for buying a river kayak (or two), practicing flipping over in my parents pool and then taking it down the (raging) connecticut rivers. I think he'll survive the two years. I am loving Hawaii, but missing family (both families!). So we have about 3 more months until we move, first to Idaho for a week or so then to another cross country drive to Ct. Its going to be a loong trip...