eli's dream come true

as previously posted almost one year ago in i wish..."i wish i could take the horns off a deer and put them on my head. then i could horn you."

see? dreams really do come true.

sporting their new tats

sunday

i had my camera in my bag at church today, so i thought i would snap a few...

mary, holland and lyla crafting it up.

and these three, eli, luke and gavin...i can see trouble in the future with them. monopoly money in the offering? laser on the forehead of our beloved pastor troy? missing baby Jesus in the manger seen? yeah, check with these guys in a few years. not that they do anything bad. they are super cute when they play together. three rough and tumble boys who turn the swing set into a pirate ship .03 seconds after climbing to the top. they use jump ropes for...jumping? nope. jump ropes are for tying toys together, lassoing stuff, and capturing ones enemies.

diligently coloring...

the church's new pirate ship, uh, swing set

on the way home we finally stopped at the park with the tank. eli asks every Sunday:) he was sooooo excited and happily posed for pics.

adam had to work late that evening (because he and josh led worship and did GREAT!), so we took a picnic dinner to his work. i love these two, and love that they love each other.

eli adores his daddy, adam, dadum, addy, dada.

a self portrait

market

eagle has a really nice farmers market on saturdays. they have lots of fresh produce and little artsy stuff. eli loved the cooking show. there is a chef that cooks right there to advertise his cooking classes, and at the end you get to taste his creation. eli watch for at least fifteen minutes. after eating his sauteed elk and noodles he said, "that was delicious!"

last kauai post

we saw so many turtles on our trip. but it wasn't until the very last day that i saw one swimming in the ocean. i was so excited. this guy didn't mind us at all. he just continued his swim, slow and graceful.

that's my mom in the background...

it was a great end to our trip.

the teenage mutant ninja turtles and Jesus

i was listening to billy graham this evening on the radio when eli said...

-did he say, "Jesus died for our sins"
-yes.
-how does he know about sin?
-because he reads the Bible...do you know what sin is?
-no.
-it's when we do something we know we should not do.
-like when rocksteady and bebop break trees?
-yes. yes, that would be sin. but Jesus...(interruption)
-He's nice.
-yes. He's nice. He died on the cross for our sin, and if we believe in Him we get to go to heaven when we die.

and that was the end. he is becoming more curious about God and i love that we get to tell him about Him.

the aforementioned sinners...

carnivores and candy

while praying with eli at bedtime tonight he interrupted me...

eli - how can God hear us?
me - well, God can hear everything. He can hear all of our prayers from heaven.
eli - wow! that's awesome! He can hear everything?
me - yep
eli - a tiger growl?
me - yep
eli - a candy drop (on the ground)
me - yep

so there you have it. if it were ever in question, eli's two favorite things are carnivores and candy

our kiddos

these are some of my favorite pics of the kids. they both love to watch other kids play...not that they would join in, but just watch. here they are watching a little girl play in the sand.

serious lyla, the beach is no place to mess around...it's business. and eli with his hiking stick/gun/sword.

this is a very "kauai" picture...the sand, clear water and palm trees in the background. yeah, this is what i'll be crying to this winter.

the camps...

here is jesse and shane surfing at poipu beach. shane is so cute in this one...

my mom with lyla and hailey

the jesse camps at waimea canyon, "the mini grand canyon."

the duane camps...

thanks camp family, for a really great time.

bike jail

eli was explaining how you can't set things on fire and said, "if you set something on fire you go to jail and they put you behind handle bars and you can't get out."

el bambinos

i "borrowed" some of these pics from molly, she got some really cute ones of the the kids.

here, shane demonstrates the double choke hold on his two (un)willing volunteers...

i love how shane has his arm around hailey and how she is leaning into him. he is such a sweet big brother to her. also lovin' the little smile on eli.

hailey and eli snuggin'. so cute my heart melts.

and here they are holding hands...for all of 30 seconds, but it was cute while it lasted.

the na pali coast

one of the highlights of our trip was the na pali coast tour. the cliffs, caves, beaches and waterfalls were beautiful, but the dolphins were the coolest thing we saw. a pod of spinner dolphins came to our raft. they had their babies with them, which were only about 2 feet long. they were soooooo cute swimming and jumping next to their mamas. bummed we did not get any good pics of the babies...our underwater camera was very disappointing:(

this is us on the raft with one of the many secluded, amazing beaches behind us...

here are the dolphins. i love one on the left...you can see him jumping right in front of our raft.

this is where we stopped and ate lunch and snorkeled at a little beach.

none of our pictures even came close to doing the coast justice...it was just that lovely, but this is the best we have...

kipu falls

this is definitely a place where i wish we had more time. the problem was that there was no good place for the kids to be. no beach, no sand. just rock, a cool waterfall and a fun rope swing. my parents were nice enough to entertain the kiddos while adam and i played...

adam on the rope swing...

us jumping off the waterfall...ooooo i love jumping off stuff:)

grandma and eli catching tadpoles...

grandpa and lyla playing in the stream...

too much fast food

i love that eli calls mcdonalds's, "old mcdonalds," or, "old mcdondald had a farm." and asks if we can go to "happy jr's" (burger king).

eli...

...is singing, "cast your burdens on Jesus, for He cares for you," complete with hand motions and a lisp. i know he doesn't really understand what the song means, but i love the foundation it is setting in his mind and heart.

where's shane?

i must have been asked this question at least 10 times a day, and admittedly, it got annoying. if shane was not in eyesight, eli would ask, "where's shane?" waking up from a nap..."where's shane?" getting in the car..."where's shane?" sitting at the dinner table with shane sitting right beside him.......oh yes, "where's shane?"

so, when i asked eli what his favorite part of our vacation was, he said, "shane!"
i asked him what his second favorite part was..."playing with shane!"
what was your third favorite..."playing with shane!" (didn't he just say that?)
did you like anything besides playing with shane? his response was mumbling something while walking away, so apparently not.
these are the "buds" pics...first up, playing at the pool at the hotel

on the left, ice throwing from the deck down to the water. on the right, hand holding:)

the two of them checking out a dead crab...it sticks...can you tell?

and this is one of my most favorite pictures EVER. it makes me smile...and cry a little a the same time. such sweet buds.

caves

when i think of hawaii, i don't think of caves. but they have them and they were pretty cool. this was one from the outside...

from the inside...

the second cave was HUGE. that's me and i'm only half way down to the bottom, which was a pool of water (that looked like it could contain a crazy water beast).

me and my baby at the bottom (about to be eaten by previously mentioned crazy water beast).