Mothers' Day 09

mother's day was fantastic! travis made breakfast, which consisted of delicious homemade muffins (2 kinds, raspberry and chocolate, how lucky am i?) fresh fruit, and my favorite juice. AND was in charge of the munchkins all morning. very nice. i took extra time getting ready and overall, enjoyed my mothers' day. i am so grateful for a thoughtful and great husband, thanks travy!!

i love the homemade gifts from the kids. mason made this cute cut-out flower at school with his picture in the middle, but refused to come anywhere near the camera for a picture and didn't want me to take a picture of his flower without him. go figure. he either loves the camera and hogs every second by pulling faces or wants nothing to do with it. sigh. marissa's class at school made a "recipe" book and her recipe was for ice cream. i should scan it in, but alas, haven't gotten around to my scanning pile lately. but its says something like this, "drive to lin's, buy watermelon ice cream, put 2 scoops in a bowl, put on lots of whipped cream, eat it all" priceless. and who doesn't love watermelon ice cream? its a jackman family favorite, let me tell you. ;)

Hawaii, part 5

day 5:
wedneday, may 20th
our last day, boo-hoo. yes, our fun get-away was coming to a close this day, very sad. jeron and heather signed up for a tour of the na'pali coast this morning so we were solo. heather regretted not exploring that part of the island on their last visit and wanted for sure do that this time around. yes, its AMAZINGLY beautifully, but highly inaccessible. in fact, the majority of the island is inaccessible by car or by foot. the real way to tour is by air or by boat. they did a raft expedition that included snorkeling. travis and i talked about it, but we are not deep water people, not snorklers, and not interested in being in water that is less than 85 degrees. its the honest truth, i like to swim in water that is bath temperature. so here is a ripped photo.
travis and i hopped in the car and went northeast. our first stop were the waterfalls made famous in the opening credits of the old tv show, "Fantasy Island" (de plane, de plane boss!) the wailua waterfall was so beautiful, and the best part was, no hiking to get there! just right off the road, boom, awesome look-out point.


after a fatty lunch at bubba's again, we were making our way to the most northern part of the whole hawaiian island chain, the kilauea lighthouse. the US government purchased the point and built the lighthouse in 1913 for commercial ships coming from asia. in 1976, they turned off the beam and 3 years later it became a national landmark. today it is also a national wildlife refuge, home to 7 native seabirds. i was so glad we went, it was fantastic, i loved the view.




and thus concludes the photo section of today's post. we checked out of our hotel, drove to lihue, (where the airport was) and just chilled. we strolled costco, (lots of towels, shorts and beach toys) had dinner there and met up with jeron and heather at the mall. part of me is like, there should be no mcdonalds, wal-mart, star-bucks or costco on the island! its such an awful contrast to the natural beauty and peaceful surroundings. but . . . i know that the people who live there deserve to have services and products available to them as well. i guess that is the struggle, and politics and money always seem to win out in the end.

our flight wasn't until 10:50pm, that totally blew chunks. ugh. and we flew into phoenix, connected to vegas, and finally arrived home at 2pm thursday! so we were pretty much zombies. we were happy to have gone on our trip but were happy to come home and see our family too. no one got wounded, our house didn't burn down, the dog didn't run away, and the baby ate/slept/played well with everyone. i will chalk it up as a huge success! thanks grandma and grandpa jackman and grandma and grandpa morris for making this trip possible!!!! aloha everybody!

Hawaii, part 4

day 4:

tuesday, may 19th
travis and jeron went early to play some wicked sweet golf course, whatever, yada yada yada. heather and i had ourselves another fabulous breakfast and headed out to do some exploring of our own. we ended up down the road a few miles at one of the few 5 star hotels on the island. its was extraordinary! the grand hyatt did not disappoint and appeared to live up to its reputation and then some. right when we walked up to the entrance, the hotel employees offered us beautiful leis. of course, we couldn't refuse them. and this picture is taken at the entrance, with the magnificent view of the ocean behind us. it was a truely beautiful day.

so in one of my other posts, i talked a little about jeron and travis. now its my turn to talk about me and heather. she is originally from waycross, georgia and still has her awesome southern accent. i could listen to her talk for hours, i love it! she and i have known each other since travis and i were engaged. the summer we were engaged and got married, the stokes lived in georgia, so we didn't hang out much until after we were married. probably my favorite thing about heather, (and there are a ton to choose from) is that we can talk about anything and everything. parenting, pregnancy, cooking, cleaning, spiritual stuff, shopping, cupcakes, books, tv shows, crafts, clothes, the list goes on and on.
we NEVER run out of things to talk about. and she is just so fun to be around, always smiling, talking to everybody under the sun, and is up for anything. heather is beautiful inside and out. she and jeron have 2 darling boys, spencer and austin, and she and i can swap stories about crazy things our boys have done. i was glad to have the morning with just the 2 of us.

this hotel was off the hook.

just your average man-made lagoon adjacent (but not connected to) the hotel pool and beach.

this picture is for my mother-in-law janet, she is always taking photos of flowers on all of her trips

when the boys were done golfing, we ate lunch at keoki's paradise, where we ate dinner the first night we landed. it was another fine meal and being a sister restaurant to duke's, they also serve hula pie and naturally, we had to have that again. after lunch we did a little shopping and jeron and heather showed their cRaZy coolness.

a little bit about waimea canyon. its nickname is the grand canyon of the pacific and although smaller than the real grand canyon in arizona, at 10 miles long and 1 mile wide, its is the largest canyon in the pacific ocean. and it certainly is big and beautiful! it looked so fake, like something computer generated. the atv tour was my favorite thing to do and the canyon was one of my favorite things to view.

our little point and shoot served us very well and it super convenient. but . . . it was times like this i wish i had a bitchin' camera that could capture the complete panorama. and then, while i am wishing for things, i would also be an expert photographer and digital editor. in my next life maybe. ;)

this is the blow hole on poi'pu beach named the spouting horn. ripped from the web, "This natural wonder occurs because water rushes under a lava shelf and bursts through a small opening at the surface. Every wave produces another spray. Spouting Horn frequently spurts salt water 50 feet into the air."
there is also another blow-hole right there that is air only. it makes this low, guttural growling and sounds like a wild animal dying. legend is that a lizard was eating all the fish and a man swam into the ocean to fight him. the man swam out through the blow-hole but the lizard was too big, got stuck and has been groaning ever since.

after we left the spouting horn, we decided to take trav and jeron to the grand hyatt. they were duley impressed and we all agreed, we should save our pennies to stay there next time. too bad it will take thousands of years to save enough pennies to stay there! another fun day completed.

Hawaii, part 3

day 3:

monday, may 18th
by far, my favorite part of the trip was the ATV tour we took this day. IT WAS AWESOME! i found this online and it had tons and tons of great reviews. travis and i are not big fans of open water or water sports in general, and i didn't want to drop 500 bones for a helicopter flight so we were in the market for a big activity and the ATV tour fit the bill and then some. i can't recommend it enough. we had a blast!

this is the mountain made famous from "jurassic park" and "mighty joe young." other movies filmed on kauai include, "six days seven nights," "hook," "south pacific" and the ever popular, highly rated hilary duff sweet 16 birthday special.

confession time. other than a riding lawn mower, i have never been on an atv before. ever. but i was very excited and we reserved early b/c we wanted the rhino. it was freakin' insanely fun. i loved it! it rained the day before we went so there was still a good bit of mud and that made it all the better, my friend. the tour guides at kipu ranch were amazing. their names were randon and kimo. they were both born and raised on kauai and were funny, informative and just really nice guys. they were a big reason we had so much fun. at the beginning, when they are giving you the rules for the tour, they said like 5 or 6 times to please respect the island, please respect their culture, their way of doing things and to remember that they don't own this land. travis and i were talking about it later and both of us thought it was so sad that the reason they have to remind the tourists so much, obviously, is that some people are jerks. why can't everybody just treat people/the earth/etc kindly?

i loved being chauffered around, i had no desire to drive. travis said it was like the indiana jones ride at disneyland, only there was no track you had to stay on.

it was so fun to do this with our friends. i am a firm believer that life is what you make of it, (hence that phrase at the top of my blog) and we all had such positive attitudes about each other, the trip and all our activities, that it made it even funner. nothing worse than being stuck with someone who is never impressed or never satisfied.

they provided helmets, goggles, bandannas, cookies and drinks. even with the rain, there were parts of the trail that were super dusty, i was grateful for the bandanna even though i looked like a weirdo. and i still ended up with dirt/dust in my ears, up my nose, etc.

action shot

one of many mud puddles that travis would gun it through. we decided that when our money tree started sprouting, we would take a measly ten grand and buy a rhino for ourselves.

a post about kauai would not be complete without a mention of the chickens and roosters. they are everywhere. there is a gigantic population of birds on the island, due to the fact that there are no natural predators like snakes or mongooses. so the birds are on every corner, sidewalk, lawn, clearing, you name it. heather wanted to try and catch a baby one. ;)

if my blog had some super cool post-related soundtrack, as soon as you scrolled to this point in the post, the indiana jones theme song would kick on. picture this. opening scenes from "raiders of the lost arc." indy has just swapped the idol and is now being chased by spear throwing natives. he slides down an embankment, swings on a vine/rope into the waiting water plane with jaques and makes it by the skin of his teeth. ta-da! now i can say, been there, done that. in the above photo, look closely for the piece of black rope tied around the big branch in the middle. that is THE rope. the rope we swung out on is a newer (read safer) rope. and the best part was the tourguides hummed the first bars of the theme song for each one of us who swung out so we all had the indy effect. and yes, i can't believe i was daring enough to actually do it, but i did and it was rad.

travis above, me below. doing our best indy impersonations.

so the land we toured is actually a working cattle ranch still. the tourguides were very knowledgeable about the history which i found very interesting but i'll spare you the lecture on hawaiian history and you can look it up yourself if you are so inclined. one of the trivia tidbits i will pass along today is that in hawaii, all beaches are public. that's right, no one can kick you off the beach and tell you they own it. you can own the land that accesses that particular stretch but nothing prevents someone from getting there by boat and being on the sand. so in the above photo, the land surrounding this beach is privately owned and therefore land access is extremely limited but if you were joneseing to get there, swim on over.

amazing water. this picture doesn't even do it justice.
the fab 4
the official state bird, the nene goose
the wild peacocks that live on the ranch were once presents given to the royalty. and wild pigs are in abundance. of course, they know that guides equal handouts. lol
don't your pets get this excited for treats?
since we were right there anyway, we decided to mosey over to kipu falls after our tour ended. and because we were fully clothed, we just took photos and didn't cliff jump or rope swing. yeah, i was bummed, can't you tell?




i have to admit, i took this photo with the express purpose of posting it on my blog with the caption, "sipping a cold fruity beverage by the pool, what did you do today?"
nice flip flop tan lines. proof that even though my legs are pasty white, they are tan compared to my natural pasty whiteness.

debated posting a photo of myself in a swimsuit. when i'm 45 i can look back and think that maybe i didn't look so bad at age 30. ;)

travis expressly stated he was the photographer at the beach, and not the photographee.

after our adventure in the morning, we were up for some pool/beach time. it was so refreshing to do nothing. it was a constant balancing act in my brain because on the one hand, hello, i'm in hawaii, lets go exploring! and yet on the other hand, this is my time to sit and absolutely relax without the phone ringing, dinner begging to be made, laundry to be folded and children needing something every 2 seconds. sigh. i think we managed fine when all was said and done. we rounded out our evening by watching "wolverine" with travis' cousins hugh. the theater was like one from 1989 as far as seats, size, screen, etc. but, hey, i'm not complaining. at least they had a movie theater.

and if you are noticing today was absent of any food reviews, its because there wasn't anything worth mentioning. we ate dinner at a local place and it was okay, nothing great by any means. but the locals were pouring in to pick up their take-out orders. maybe we ordered the wrong thing, who knows?

another day done. thanks for staying with me despite my long windedness.

Hawaii, part 2

day 2:

sunday, may 17th
here is a shot of jeron and travis. they have been best friends since 6th grade. they played jr high and high school football and basketball together. they were in the same ward and in boy scouts together. they ran for student council together. after their missions (jeron served in the guam/marshall islands mission, travis served san diego, spanish speaking) they were roommates at ricks college in rexburg, until jeron married heather. jeron got into pharmacy school the year after travis did, so they are both pharmacists. they have been on golfing trips to maui, aspen, colorado, california and nevada. they have been to college bowl games, NBA games, NFL games, and even the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. they have been playing fantasy sports together for over 10 years. they were at each other's weddings and kids' blessings. i love getting together and hearing them tell stories of their kimberly days, ricks days, all their crazy roommates and their $20 brick of cheddar cheese. and i'm so glad we could go with them on this trip. ;)

despite the time change, (hawaii is 4 hours later than utah) we had no problem sleeping until 6:30, 7ish local time. i was worried i would be waking up at like 4am. enjoyed our delish breakfast and jumped in the car to explore the island.

(view from our breakfast table)

we headed north east and were open to any and everything. our friends, jeron and heather stokes, had been there before 2 years ago and so we let them play tour guide. last time they ate at this great local dive called "bubbas" and said we had to try it, so we did. and it didn't disappoint. their slogan is "we relish your buns." burgers are served with lots o' relish and i was slightly apprehensive. turns out i didn't need to be, they were terrific. if you like in-n-out, imagine their burger, fries and chocolate shakes taken up a few notchs and that was bubbas. it started raining (it rains somewhere there every day, duh, its a tropical island) and didn't let up the rest of the day. even though the sun shining makes everything 1000 times more beautiful, it was still very pretty even with the rain.

the view of bubba's deck

just a random, beautiful scenic look-out spot.

more roadside scenery

opeka falls. waterfalls are all over the island. its *almost* like, "oh, another one, i've already seen so many, yawn" by the time you leave. i never tired of them, though.

one of the many one lane bridges we encountered.
this is the manini-holo dry cave near the town of Ha'ena. the ocean used to be much higher and these caves were formed from thousands of years of ocean waves beating against the lava and etching away the rock.
not my favorite picture of myself, but i wanted to give perspective on how large the caves are and how far back they really go.

i know the obnoxious glare off the sign is annoying but i loved travis' pose so i had to post it.

here i am posing by some of the greenery at the entrance. it seemed everywhere you turned was a photo op.
this is actually part of the road we drove on. one giant puddle/stream.
love the rainbow
the tunnel of trees off the main highway before you enter koloa town. there are several tunnels of trees in the hawaiian islands and they signify entering royal areas. these trees are actually eucalyptus trees donated by a scottish cattle rancher named mcbryde who lived on kauai over 150 years ago.
travy checking his sports scores. he can't be un-connected during the NBA play-offs. ;0)
my hair is another story. i should put a disclaimer by every photo of me, "HUMIDITY EQUALS FRIZZY HAIR." small price to pay to be there, though. i'll suffer through it anytime if it means going to hawaii.

the view from our room balcony

they make a great looking couple. some of favorite people in the world.
had to eat at duke's canoe club. terrific food, its a must. i had pork spare ribs with mango salsa and travis had the salmon.
the view from our table. the canoes make it all the better. everywhere we went, the grass looked and felt fake, its naturally perfect.
the famous hula pie. chocolate cookie crumb crust, super creamy vanilla ice cream loaded with macademian nuts, a river of hot fudge, topped with a mountain of whipped cream and more macademian nuts. can you say fatty awesome-ness? what a way to end a day.

Hawaii, part 1

alright, where to begin? ahhh, yes. the beginning. ;) and before i start even that much, i have to preface a few things. first being, how much i would miss my kids. i really didn't think it would be so hard to leave them. and i thought about it, and this is the 3rd time since the twins were born that both travis and i have left them over night. his parents watched them while we went to san diego with our friends the broughs 2.5 years ago, and one of travis' pharmacy technicians watched them 3 years ago while we went to vegas, saw a show and stayed the night. prior to this trip, we had never both left baby joe. and i was really REALLY ready for some r&r but it was still harder than i anticipated saturday morning when we left for the airport. luckily, grandpa morris distracted a sobbing marissa and we managed to race out the door. i didn't think i would miss those monkeys as much as i did.

secondly, lets talk about airlines. particularly, US airways. i don't know if they've always been less than stellar or if its because of the economy but either way, i was not impressed. so thanks mario lopez for jacking up luggage prices, not providing any complimentary snacks, blankets or pillows, and having inconvenient flight times. (inside joke for readers of pulsipher predilections blog) unless they are like 8 times cheaper than the competition, don't fly with them. rant over.

and now onto the luscious island that is kauai. it is the northern most island that makes up the chain of 8 Hawaiian islands. It is also the oldest. its nickname is the "Garden Isle" and that is not a misnomer. So green, so amazing. Some websites that had the best info, the most useful tips for what to expect, how to get around, what to do, where to eat, etc, were gohawaii, discover kauai, and trip advisor. loved them all!

we stayed at the lovely sheraton hotel on the south part of the island on Poi'pu beach. it was a great hotel. its an older hotel, but there are 3 things, IMHO, that make a great room. #1) it was clean. #2) comfortable bed. very, very comfortable. nothing worse than going on vacation and sleeping on a rock hard mattress. and #3) great shower. i detest low water pressure. this was a fantastic shower and it wasn't mounted too low on the wall. so i was very pleased with our stay, i was a happy girl. and the delectable breakfast buffet was included in our package. french toast with coconut syprup, apple-wood smoked bacon and MOUNDS of fresh hawaiian pineapple, anyone, anyone? yum and yum.

(from the sheraton website, photo of our hotel)

day one:
saturday, may 16th. left at 7am, drove to vegas, got on an airplane. landed in phoenix. killed 3 hours at the airport, had some tasty chicken quesdillas, got an airplane. landed in lihue (pronounced li-who-ee) very tired. wrangled the luggage and our stinky selves over to the car rental place, waited in line, got our standard issue white rental car. do rentals even come in other colors? drove to our hotel and only had to turn around once for a missed turn. (travis has vowed to never leave his GPS home again) got a lei greeting upon check-in, (insert your own off color joke about being "leied" on vacation) and met up with our friends jeron and heather. we went to a near-by restaurant and had a nice meal. at this point, we were in one of those weird places where time/space/hunger/sleep are all suspended. they said it was time to eat dinner so we ate dinner. then we went back to our room and they said it was time to sleep so we slept. do you know what i mean? its like you can't count on your body to tell you anything anymore, you're so screwed up. i wasn't too out of it to enjoy some of the best crab cakes i've ever had though. ;) day one was not a photo taking day so i'm ripping some stuff from the web to hold you over until my next post. stay tuned!

honey, i'm home!

5 days, 4 nights

300 photos

a little sunburned

a LOT of pineapple

4 friends

1 freakin' awesome Hawaiian vacation

chicken with her head cut off

that's me right about now. a million things to do, lists to make, house to clean and oh yeah, suitcase to pack! remind me to post about brian regan (freakin' hilarious.) what do marissa's dance recital tomorrow night, our trip to hawaii, marissa's preschool graduation, my mom's birthday, my mom and dad's visit, my in-law's visit, and my twin's 5th birthday all have common? they all happen in the next 10 days. holy blog festival. wish me luck! ;)

i am a winner!

up until yesterday, something only my parents and 5th grade teacher (thanks ms.white) told me. but lo and behold, out of 457 entries, I WON SOMETHING! and something very cool. at least, i think its very cool. i entered a give-away on one of the best recipe blogs ever, mykitchencafe. she is insanely awesome. mother of 4boys, her baby born earlier this year, she constantly puts out the tastiest, most delectable recipes. and unlike someone who's name rhymes with kartha newart, her recipes do not require hard to find items or worse, dedicating 6 hours to each side dish. so check it out if you haven't done so already. many of my new favorites are courtesy of this blog; ie white velvet sugar cookies, german chocolate brownies, loaded peanut butter cookies, skillet chicken pasta with sun dried tomatoes, and too many others to mention by name.

BTW, i won a cookbook called, "Hello, Cupcake"

was i meant to win this thing or what?

lazy blogger alert

the mac is in the repair shop, some power supply problem. translate: something else to suck my money away. don't they know i'm saving up for my dreamy island va-cay? sheesh. plus, i never blogged about easter because once i downloaded and edited all my sunday easter photos onto iphoto, they ALL DISAPPEARED. that makes me oh so happy. i tried and tried to find them, to no avail. and stuff on the computer doesn't ever actually vanish, its always just a matter of finding it, right??? so maybe when it comes back, it will magically be there again. a girl can dream. i'm also trying to get my house pulled together and transfer my mental to-do lists onto paper so i can stop freaking out about all the junk i have to get done next week. blogging is low man on the totem pole.

on a positive note, hope everyone has a happy mother's day!!

The 3 amigos

here they are, in all their freshly awakend-still pajama clad glory.
what a trio of funny, cute kids!

Just your average Joe

happy 9 months little buddy!

this is his first pair of "big boy" jammies. no snaps. no zippers. no footie jammies. sob. he's growing up so fast!

mommy/daughter time

bubble bath in mommy's big tub. eating a banana/peanut butter and honey sandwich for dinner. watching barbie's "princess and the pauper" movie while eating popcorn. painting pink toenails and fingernails. sleeping in mommy's bed with mommy.. having lots of our other girl and mommy friends over for breakfast that included caramel pecan french toast, egg/sausage casserole, sticky buns, chocolate milk, orange juice, donut holes, fresh fruit, muffins and an delish eggy hasbrown casserole. that's what we did while the boys were away! so SO much fun to have a girl. she makes me so blissfully happy.

Fathers/Sons Campout

this past friday night was travis and mason's 1st ever fathers/sons campout. this was not something travis was looking forward to, for many reasons. firstly, he's not a real big camper. yes, he grew up in rural idaho, with tons of animals, farm type chores, etc. but camping just isn't his thing. and secondly, he wasn't too thrilled about watching mason out in the wilderness, near a fire, near kids going crazy on dirt bikes/4 wheelers/etc. but THEY SURVIVED! and to quote travis, "it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be." so i am chalking it up as a success. mason had a blast. they stopped at in-n-out for dinner with their friends' bill and tyler barlow. all mason could talk about when they got home was eating marshmallows (or the way he says it, it sounds like marmishes) and sitting by tyler around the campfire. it rained during the night but nothing too horrible. they came home saturday around 10:30am, very tired and dirty. that last pic is of mase crashing on my bed that afternoon. i'm so proud of my boys!! soon enough, there will be another little jackman boy who can join them. ;)