Hawaii 2011

AHHH!!! DID I really just get back from HAWAII?! I still can't even really believe it that we were there. I've wanted to go to Hawaii since I was little and it totally is a DREAM come true. I told Ry when we got married that I'd LOVE if we could try to save $$ and go there on our 5 year anniversary....well that came and went because WHO would have ever thought we would have had triplets then?! :) So....we waited til now..and I'm so glad we did because I need this vacation WAY more now than I did before we had kiddos! :) So I know this is a lot of pics...but when you have 800 pics to choose from, it is IMPOSSIBLE to only pic a few.. :)

So, our friends Zach and Heidi HAD (haha) to go to Hawaii for work....so we thought we'd make it a trip along with our friends Dave and Desirae. We first flew in to Honolulu with Zach and Heidi to check out Waikiki beach and Pearl Harbor.

Here we are at the airport! Soooo excited!!
At our hotel in Honolulu, these flamingos were hanging out RIGHT behind my lawn chair. :) LOVE HAWAII.
The view from our room....
And the other side...the view of Waikiki beach..
then here we are at Pearl Harbor. If you ever go, GO EARLY. The lady told us 4000 people visit A DAY. That is CRAZYYYY. But it is a very powerful memorial. These are all the names of people that died that day.
Here we are standing above the sunken USS Arizona ship. Oil is STILL bubbling and you can STILL smell it after all these years.
Walking around the different museums at Pearl Harbor...
Then the next day, we flew over to Maui. Dave and Desirae met us at that airport so here Heidi and I are, waiting to see our "long lost" friends.
Our condo! The guys found this amazing condo on Kaanapali Beach. We would HIGHLY recommend it. Super nice with 3 big bedrooms and 3 huge bathrooms!
Our condo/pools
The guys....we loved having the whole WALL open up to open air! Hawaii has the best temperatures ever.


The view from our condo
Paradise :)
So we are amateurs...and decided to snorkel right outside our condo. Turns out it is totally full of coral there and we all got cuts all over our feet. Saw some great fish though!!
And we got to see about 50+ whales while we were in Maui. We saw sooo many breaching and spraying and diving from our condo, from the beach, from the boat. It was such a rush every time we saw one!
We saw rainbows practically every day.
Here we are at our first Luau!

Fire dancers....
Then the next day we got on a boat and went to Molokini island - it's an old volcano like 10 miles off the shore. The captain even let all of the guys fish while we boated over to Molokini...they were SO excited.
That's Molokini....when we snorkeled there, we could see TONS of fish...and you could see for like 160 feet...it was incredible!

We swam 2 feet away from SEA TURTLES!! Sooo amazing!!!

the pics don't do justice!!!

The guys were hoping for a Marlin.. :) but caught a Tuna!!

All ready for another night out in LaHaina - a great cute town!
This is one of the biggest banyan trees in the world....This pic is an ENTIRE tree. All of the things that look like different trunks are really just roots. It is amazing how it's all connected!

Our view while dining at Kimo's in LaHaina...
THIS little fella is a HONKING big Hawaiin Monk Seal! Apparently he just wanted to take a nap and stayed on our beach for like 7 hours! There are only 1000 of these guys left...totally endangered so they blocked off this part of the beach while he slept. I can't believe we snorkeled with this guy.
Here we are at Black Rock - a great place to snorkel and jump off cliffs! Here go's Ry! It was so fun! The worst part was just hiking to the top of the cliff in barefoot on black rocks!

Duke's Restaurant on our resort...

Bubba Gump restaurant...

A bunch of us would run every day...and this is what we had to look at....soooo refreshing! :)
Kaanapali Beach!
And here we are at Fleming beach (below)...it was more wavey for swimming. SO FUN!

Then the last day we drove to Wailea to check out the scenery there and the Grand Wailea hotel. This hotel was RIDICULOUS! It was HUGE and soo nice. Here's the views...

Sitting on lava...

And since it looked like we were on the Bachelor, :) we took this pic. :)

This is what we saw on our last night as we drove to the airport...a perfect sunset to end an amazing vacation...

And then we came home to our little Hawaiian princesses. :) These were there souvenirs. :) They were so excited to see us and even had a few tears in their eyes. I feel like they gained weight :) and got whiter (or maybe that's cuz we are more tan) :) They were talking a MILE a minute though and were so excited to tell us all that they did with Grandpa Kim and Grandma Kathy. They even made us a huge picture book with all of their activities. So it was a little vacation for them too.....just not for Grandpa and Grandma! :) We are sooo thankful they were willing to watch the girls for us. It was a dream come true and soooo great to relax and get refreshed. We are sooo sooo soooo grateful!!

Pics!

I had a meltdown today and thought we seriously lost every single pic that we've taken since the girls were born. I was even crying. :) I was freaking out! But after the guy at the Genius Bar at the Apple Store searched our computer for an hour, HE FOUND THEM! I was like crying AGAIN I was sooo happy!!! :) So here's a couple pics:

We took the girls to the store to get their first new bike. Here's Hailey in her pink princess bike...

and Addy and her purple flower Waikiki bike :)...

and then of course they don't have THREE bikes in the same style and/or price range at the same store so then we ventured to a different store for Em and she fell in love with a blue princess bike! :)

They have been cruising around our basement in circles....we are soooo ready for SPRING!!!

and here's us with Elizabeth - the girls are flower girls in her wedding in July and I'm standing up too. I'm so excited for her but I'll miss her so much when she moves to Canada....

Happy St. Patty's Day - the girls wearing "Emily's" clothes. :) Today, Addy asked me if everyone could wear purple for "Purple" Day. :)

Our friends had a St. Patty's party last night which was so fun!

And "Auntie" Heather was here a couple weeks ago for work. The girls love her ALMOST as much as I do. :) She is so fun to have here and she really was sent by GOD that week since she was here when Hailey had her seizure. Soooo thankful she was here!
That's all for now!

First Movie

Hi! Sorry my blogging has just been blah lately! I was all excited to finally load pics today and then of course, it's not working and I can't figure out why so we'll have to wait. But I just wanted to write about the girls' first movie theatre experience! Last Saturday, we had a little family outing and went to Red Robin for dinner and then to their first Disney movie, Tangled at the Budget Theatre. We had no clue how they would do or if they'd sit that long...but they were enthralled the whole time!! It was so cute looking at them in their huge chairs and seeing them so focused on the movie. Little Emily's body weight wouldn't even put the whole seat down...so she looked kinda uncomfortable the whole time but at least she didn't complain! :) They did great and had so much fun. The only thing that happened was during the part where the princess finds a crown but had never seen a crown before, she puts it on her arm. And then Hailey, for the WHOLE theatre to hear, yells out "NOT THERE SILLY!!!" Then the whole theatre laughed....:) And then the princess puts the crown on her head and then Hailey yelled again. "YEEEESSSSS!!!" So funny and so cute. THEY ARE GETTING SOOO BIG!!!

Hopefully I can figure out the ordeal w/ the pics...

Happy St. Patty's day everyone! I put the girls in green shirts today (which meant they had to wear all of Emily's clothes since that's HER favorite color) and they were SO confused as to why they were wearing Em's clothes and why in the world they couldn't wear PINK or PURPLE today. Such an interesting holiday - I wish there was a Dutch Day! :)

Dr. checkup

Hi there! So we went to the Dr. today to see how Hailey is doing. Turns out, she is doing okay as far as the seizure stuff goes...but then the Dr. checked out ALL of the girls cuz we are all coughing...and it turns out everyone has bronchitis AND Addison has a double ear infection! Go figure....so now we're back to doing triple nebulizers and we cleared the pharmacy out of antibiotics. :) Too bad the pediatrician couldn't just prescribe me with the same stuff. So we'll be hanging out around the house for yet another day. This has been a long week! I am so ready for summer!

Oh What a Night....

Wow - what a night. Here's a glimpse of what happened around here last night. So, Ryan is out of town for work....and my great friend Heather was here visiting (Thank GOD that she was here!!!) Anyway, so Heather and I stayed up til 11:30 chatting last night...then went to bed...at 1:45 Hailey comes walking up to my bed. I tell her it's the middle of the night and that I'll go tuck her back in bed. She wasn't warm, acted totally fine, and said "okay mom." I tuck her in, go back to bed for like TEN minutes...and in that time, she all of the sudden started making this terrible rhythmic crazy sounding noise. So I run into her room and she is on her side, like frozen in that position, but yet shaking uncontrollably and not really responsive. Her eyes were scary looking and she was just making a crazy noise like it was hard for her to breathe or something. I didn't even know what to do. So I picked her up to hold her cuz she just looked so scared herself...and then I realize she wet the bed. So then she stopped shaking like crazy and got really cold from wetting herself and was doing more of a trembling shake like when you have a fever. I checked her temp and it was 104.5. So within like 10 minutes, she went from feeling fine to THAT. CRAAAAZZYY!! Which I guess is why she started seizing. So I had no clue what to do...and then this whole time, Hailey's eyes were totally on the right side of her face. Like she would NOT look directly at me or move her eyes. She kinda acted like she was half sleepwalking/talking and half unconscious. I woke Heather up...just cuz I needed someone to tell me what to do! :) So I called the Dr...and then they said to call 911....and then 911 said "Paramedics are on the way." And I'm like WHAT IS GOING ON?!! Sooo scary!!!! Not only were her eyes really freaky but she was also talking really crazy. She knew her name was Hailey...but then she was calling me 'Uncle Shane." And she kept saying she wanted to drive the car...and that she wanted to sit by Emily, who was sleeping....and when I gave her a sip of water and she spilled a tiny bit she said "I'm drowning Mom I'm drowning!"....and just all sorts of weird out of this world stuff that she never says. That part almost scared me more than anything. It was like she had a stroke or something and couldn't remember stuff. I hate even re-thinking about it!!! So then the paramedics come....and it was good cuz they weren't panicky and they were just glad that she was breathing and not vomiting and stuff. But we still had to go to the ER. So THANKFULLY Heather was there to stay w/ the other girls (who were totally out of it and didn't hear a thing). So Hailey and I go in the ambulance....and then the ambulance gets stuck on our hill cuz it was super icy last night....so a firefighter was trying to push the ambulance up the hill...kinda funny. I didn't even know this was going on I was so worried about Hailey. And I thought I was going to throw up myself! ahh! So then by the time we get to the ER, her fever had gone down and she was acting better....no more shaking/trembling and her eyes were getting a little more back to normal. But she was still saying weird things. She fell asleep on my lap for half an hour as we waited for the Dr. and after she woke up, she was like back to normal. She asked for her poodle (yay!) and then she wanted to hug me and said "I love you so much mama." I was like those are the best words ever! for one, she called me MOM instead of SHANE again :) and she was just her sweet self again. Poor baby!!!!! So then we hung out there til 5 a.m., then called Grandpa Kim to pick us up. But when he got there they apparently didn't know we were still in the room so they told him we were discharged so it took a while for them to figure out where we were. So anyway, we got home and I went to bed at 6:15 a.m.....and Addison woke up at 6:30. WHAT A NIGHT. So now I'm drinking coffee...girls are watching a movie....and Hailey is acting totally normal. PRAISE THE LORD. Apparently, these febrile seizures run in families (but not in ours!) and are very common for infants to 5 year olds. Now that she's had one, she could have more any time she gets a fever so it's super important to medicate early on....but THANKFULLY this does not lead to epilepsy or anything like that. We go in on Monday for a check up. My poor baby. What a scary night.

So anyway, that was our night. I hope the rest of you had a restful night! :)

February

Hi Hi Hi! Sorry we've been M.I.A. lately! The month of February flew by!! I feel like I am finding less time to blog the older they get! Maybe it's because naptime is getting shorter....and their talk time is increasing like CRAZY! Seriously some days, I feel like I don't even have a chance to think. Like when we're driving, I have to totally just not listen to them for a little bit so I can think which way I have to turn. Sometimes I just feel so BUSY because there is non stop chatter and "why" questions...and I keep busy refereeing fights or cleaning up messes! :) About a month ago, we decided we wanted to move their "playing" to the basement since they wouldn't even play in their playroom very much. Their toys were ALL over the house...so we moved their desks into the playroom...and then moved their toys all downstairs. It has been AMAZING! Now they'll go play downstairs and STAY downstairs for a while so we can clean up after dinner in peace! :) They love riding their bikes downstairs and lately, they are VERY into playing "house" and "school" and "camping." This morning, we were over at a friends house in fact...and they were playing house. Then Emily comes down stairs to let me know that Hailey had just taken her pants off upstairs with Tyler. I was like "oh boy." Well then Hailey comes downstairs and her pants are on and everything looks fine. Then I noticed her pants were on inside out. I take her pants down and see that she is now wearing TYLER's underwear and he was sporting her princess panties under his pants. :) All we could do was laugh. I can't wait to tell them this when they are older. :) We have to keep our eyes on those two since they'll be in the same class next year at school. :)

So since we are spending more time downstairs, we started painting it to freshen it up a bit. I LOVE painting so I get kinda addicted to it. It takes a while when the only time I can do it is during naptime or after 9 o'clock. But, we're almost done! :)

What else - oh! I'm old now! :) On Feb. 22nd, I turned the big 30!! Crazy! 30 just sounds OLD to me....even though I know it's not...it's just weird leaving the 20's. SOOO much happens in your 20's...college, dating, marriage, moving, apartments, jobs, houses, TRIPLETS, etc. I hope the 30's are as amazing and exciting as my 20's were. :) I really do feel so so blessed. I had a really great day. Great weekend in fact! On the Saturday before my birthday, Ryan was acting kinda weird in the morning, not wanting me to eat breakfast and telling me I should shower (which I'm SOOOOO glad he did cuz I was soooo gross!) But then at 8 a.m. , the doorbell rings and Ryan surprised me with tons of my friends at the door who then took me away to my fave breakfast place - The Original Pancake House. It was so fun! Then my mother -in-law and sister-in-law picked me up from breakfast and took me for a manicure! So great! Then out to lunch! I was eating like crazy but it was such a nice little getaway. Then on my actual birthday, we went out to eat and had such a great date night. Every time we get a date night out, I think "WHYYYYY don't we do this more often?" It is such a treat and so needed since we can barely get a few words into each other these days. Don't get me wrong- the girls are hilarious right now w/ all the things they are saying. I wish I was better at remembering all that they say to each other and to us. It is such a cute age seeing their little personalities come out and everything.

Other than that, not much else is new. I'll try to get some more pics up here soon.

The Big Blizzard

And oh my was it a blizzard. SOOOO windy last night....and huge drifts everywhere. Of course Ryan's out of town right? :) Oh well - we managed to dig ourselves out this morning. The girls just had to play in the garage cuz they couldn't even take one step at first. Our little snow blower was getting so tired...so thankfully we have the best neighbor friends EVER who came over to help me. Ryan is going to be so surprised we got it all done! :)

Our driveway....

Em....bummed she can't even take a step out....
Our mailbox...
Addy was already in the house...too cold..
Our front sidewalk..
Deck...
Awesome neighbor Luke to the rescue...Our deck...and our grill.....