Life and stuff

Some days I feel like I'm having an outer body experience and watching life past by. I'm not sure where the days go, nor can I say what we did on those days. So, I'm going to sum up some latest and greatest happenings around the Bell household.

Jake - Started 4th grade. Since then he has received his green belt in martial arts and is officially considered a 'high belt'. He will spend the next 3 months practicing to test with his martial arts sticks (yeah, I'm sure there's a name, but I don't know what they are called). Also, Jake joined the elementary school orchestra. For the school year he and his buddy are the only two cello players the school has. Apparently, we didn't get the memo that cellos are not allowed on the bus and we are locked into this rental contract, so we are making do. This should be interesting. Hopefully, we have more luck with the cello than we did with the guitar. When Jake isn't at martial arts or thinking about practicing his cello, he's in the chess club and also is part of the school's flag football team. Yes, there is homework nightly that has to get done. Our week is pretty packed with Jake's stuff.

Andy - Um, right now Andy is all things Transformers. His little world revolves around transformers. Somewhere in there we are trying to fit in the alphabet and writing (he knows how to count and all this colors). Andy refuses to learn to write with a pencil, marker, pen, crayon, etc. A work in progress. He's in his happy little world and we love a 3 yr old mind. I can't believe his 4th birthday is quickly approaching next month and doesn't seem like it should be here already. They grow up so fast (and doesn't help this one is quite a little momma's boy).

Steve and I - I think I summed it up in last two paragraphs. Oh, yeah, and that full time gig we have during the day called jobs. For 11 hours Mon - Fri Steve and I work at intellectually demanding jobs so you can only imagine a few things 1) how does our house get cleaned, 2) when do we get things done, and 3) how? Well, we have Saturday and Sunday the two fastest days out of the entire week. Nothing gets done during the weekday (I highly discourage dropping by), so we can spend what little time we have with our kids. A typical conversation with either Steve or I is "Yep, totally busy - that's it." But I think we live the lives of majority of the folks out there, so we are not unique... just busy. So, I could have written 'Steven and I - totally busy.' :) We recently had date night and that was pretty darn awesome. We had a lovely dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House followed by the musical "Wicked" then a little casino time before calling it an evening (or early morning, we got in around 2am). We love our musicals and "Wicked" was pretty darn spectacular. What a wonderful story of how one becomes wicked/evil - is it self inflicted or is it your environment? Well, that's a whole philosophical blog, so I'll just stop here.

Maui

Well, it's been a while since we were in Hawaii, but I never wrote about part deux of our trip, Maui. This is where we had all our great adventures and totally worth sharing with you.



We took a quick plane trip from Oahu to Maui (it was a total of 16 mins) and that uneventful short trip was more action packed for my comfort level on an airplane. As we are coming in, we are turning to the right and all the "ooohs and aaahs" as we get to see the beautiful waters, we hit a thermal and dropped about 50 ft and the water was that much closer. So, getting off the airplane with my heart still in my throat, I was a little shaken. My kids thought it was pretty darn awesome.

We stayed in Ma'aalea Bay which is right next door to the acquarium and not far from the airport. However, its also not far from the sugar cane fields and they were burning the sugar cane so there was dust on everything in our condo. But were in a great location for all the stuff we had planned. Our condo was right up against the water and we had a beautiful view everyday.

Later that night we attended a luau at the Royal Lahaina Resort. Great entertainment, great food.
The next day, our family was off to snorkel in Molokini Crater and Turtle Town. It was a 5 hour event and we got breakfast and lunch out of it. Pride of Maui, the way to go if going out to Molokini Crater. We definitely got the most bang for our buck and most importantly had get service, the staff was wonderful from helping with food to helping us with the kids. Awesome!


Our 3rd full day in Hawaii, Steve and I signed up for an EARLY excursion. We were picked up at our condo at 3am and proceeded up 10,000 ft to the top of Haleakala Volcano (inactive). We got up there about 45 mins before sunrise to watch the sunrise. We took a van up, but we went bike riding down. So, us and 400 hundred of our closest friends huddled on the top of the volcano to play the waiting game. I get bored easy and it was cold, so I was really ready to get on my bike.


It was very cold up there, abot 45 degrees.





After the sun finally rose, we went down about 4000 ft to our bikes to coast down the mountain at about 25 mph. Apparently, some folks go about 35 mph, but they are probably more comfortable on a bike... I was fine at our speed. We were in a group of 12 and had a lead biker and the van behind us. It was truly awesome. We rode about 25 miles down the mountain and had a great histort lesson from out guide. He's a history buff and had lots of interesting facts about Hawaii he shared with us.


Once we got down the mountain and back to our condo, it was 10am. Steve and I already had full action packed morning and the rest of the condo was just waking up, watching TV, and eating breakfast. We were pooped. So, we took a little siesta because we had to be in Lahaina (about 45 mins away) at 2pm for Steve and Jake's surf lessons. :)

Surf lessons had about 5 people and the motto is "everyone gets up once" and they truly hold true to the saying. Jake & Steve were up on the 1st run. Each person had 13 waves they caught and Steve and Jake averaged 9 - so pretty darn good. Jake learned something very valuable in surfing, having arm muscles is a must otherwise you can't paddle through the waves. Poor kid had the hardest time. At one point, he ended up down the beach and the photographer had to put her camera down (not me) and go chase after him. Steve finally saw that Jake wasn't heading in the right direction and went paddling after him, but Jake was paddling to his heart's content to what look like the other side of Maui while hugging the beach. After that, Steve and Jake went together and Steve would paddle both him and Jake back out to the necessary location.

Lots of fun to watch and maybe next time I'll give it a go! The surfing was our last full day in Maui. We left the next morning, all equally sad to say good-bye to our wonderful vacation. We made lots of great memories and lots of photos to look at. I like to think we are taking a hiatus because we are going back soon!

Hawaii

We had a glorious time in Hawaii, just wonderful! This was our first (of many I hope) family vacation that was more than a weekend trip. This was Steve's and my first extended vacation since our honeymoon, 10 years ago! To sum it up, it was an overdue vacation.

We left on a Wednesday on a brief 5.5 hour flight to Honolulu, Oahu. We had stressed over Andy being the defiant child on the flight yelling and kicking, and while there was one, it wasn't ours. The power on a Nintendo DS and DVD player (oh yeah, and the nap helped too). Both kids were a breeze and made a great start to a great trip. We landed in Oahu before noon, and had to get our rental mini van. The time it took to get our van was half as long as our flight... and that's no lie. Not exactly how I wanted to spend the first few hours in paradise, but whatever, right? We got to our hotel in Waikiki and the kids were kicking off their clothes and getting into their swim trunks before the door was completely shut. Our hotel (like many) was right now the beach and the hotel had beach towels (yeah) and we were on the run. The kids went full blast into the salt water, mouth opened and all. While Jake being the more mature older child was able to handle his mouth full of salt water better, Andy on the only hand had a full on fit. Ran out of the water and threw up right beside a very beautiful lady. Did I mention he had fruit punch just before we went into the water? Not to be mean, but the look on this ladies face was priceless. While I felt bad, what do you do? Well, what I did was kick some sand over it and went about my afternoon. Phew, that was just the first afternoon...

We were in Oahu for 5 days. In those 5 days we went to the Polynesian Culture Center which was a delightful day trip. I highly recommend it to anyone who can afford a day away from the beach. We did the whole experience where we visited each island's center, luau, and show.

PCC was on the other side of the island from where we were staying so we had a beautiful scenic drive to the PCC. One place we stopped off at was Chinamen's hat (very top picture). Here are some other pictures from our trip to the PCC and at the PCC:

The other place we visited was the Dole plantation and learned all you ever needed to know about how pinapples grow and how they are harvested. We did little train ride there (for Andy) and Jake and Steve did the largest human maze ever. Andy and I went in and well, it was big and it was hot that day. Water and shade was more our speed. :)

The rest of our days were spent lounging by the beach and shopping. It was all very relaxing.

This concludes our trip in Oahu. I'll be writing a follow up with our stay in Maui.

Steve and Michelle's 10th Anniversary

Steve and I thought it would be a great idea to celebrate our 10th anniversary where it started... in Tahoe. We got married at the Cal-Neva resort in '99 and never really got to enjoy being in Tahoe because of the whole wedding thing going on. So, this was our opportunity to really get to enjoy the surroundings. We left early Saturday morning and had a beautiful flight into Reno on a turbo prop which I was less than thrilled about. But we got so close to Mt. Rainier, it was breath-taking. Steve also took that opportunity to take a picture with his cell and tried to transmit the photo to FB. Um, yeah! Getting past the mild hysteria on my part, we were able to enjoy the rest of our flight into Reno. Upon arriving in Reno, with no agenda at hand, we had breakfast since it was the logical thing to do seeing our flight was so early and we didn't eat before leaving. Then off to Tahoe we drove. It was a beautiful drive into Tahoe and I totally forgot how beautiful the lake was. We found the Cal-Neva and pulled into a parking lot where we were 1 of like 20 cars. A little disturbing. We check in and the guy tells Steve something along the lines of how we just missed the rush. It was all Steve could do to hold back, "Seriously?!?" We get to our room which has this spectacular view of the lake, but that's about all it had going for it. Otherwise, I would put it on my list as one of the worst hotel room's I have ever stayed out.

Here is the "living room". See that TV? That TV had 12 channels.

This was our bedroom. See this TV? This TV had a lot more channels and no remote. It was a complete bust!






Tahoe wasn't a complete bust. We drove over to Tahoe City where we found that was the place for us. We took a wonderful Sunset sailboat cruise equipped with complimentary wine, beer, and appetizers. Coming from Washington, we get complimentary nothing. So, this idea of "free" was very liberating. :) It was by far the most relaxing thing I have ever done. The only kicker was that no agenda thing I mentioned earlier. This sailing charter was decided on the whim and we were not dressed to be on the water while it's windy. A little chilly. Totally worth it!

After our sailing excursion, we had a wonderful dinner where we both realized that we were exhausted.

On Sunday before the drive back into Reno, we stopped and played mini golf and had a blast. It's been a while since we played and forgot how much we both enjoyed it.


After our game of mini golf we stopped at a little ice cream shack. I got a scoop for the trip back and Steve got a classic shake. He took on large slip and spit it out. Instead of using the oh so safe vanilla ice cream, they stuck coconut ice cream in his. I thought this was pretty funny. He has such a physical reaction to anything he doesn't look, his looks are always classic. Now, we were onto Reno.

We stayed at our favorite hotel, Peppermill got freshened up for dinner. We met Shelly, Bill, TJ, Mike, and Debi (oh, and Lily) at a restaurant and had our anniversary dinner with everyone. It was really great spending time with them and visiting. It was the perfect dinner!

After dinner, Steve and I went and saw "Footloose" at The Nugget.


This pretty much wrapped up our anniversary weekend away. It was a wonderful way to spend our 10th anniversary. It's hard to believe that 10 years went by so quickly. Steve and I feel very fortunate that we have a great life with wonderful children, great parents, and a loving marriage. It's our perfect world! :)

My Boys and their Toys

Well, Steve finally got a motorcycle. It's not the motorcycle of his dreams nor is it a motorcycle he can use on the street, but when he said, "Man, I would love to have a motorcycle" he didn't exactly specify what type. There is a loop hole to everything. :)

With these stores going out of business, we took advantage of some of the sales. We have been talking about getting Jake on a dirt bike for some time. When we saw how cheap the dirt bike was we couldn't pass up the opportunity. HOWEVER, Jake didn't really know how to ride one, so I actually insisted that Steve get one too. There is no way that Steve can run after Jake if needed. So, Steve's bike really is to chase Jakob around.

Steve settled on a 90 cc while Jake's is a 49 cc. The idea is when Jake gets big enough he will take the 90 cc and Steve will get a 250 cc and Andy will take Jake's 49 cc. Convenient that I have all boys! Per Steve, it was meant to be. :)

Jake is getting the hang of his bike. Shifting is still a little jerky, but with more practice he'll get it.

Tulip Festival

We had a wonderful, but very tiring day today. It's been a long while, but we decided to take advantage of the Tulip Festival in Mount Vernon, WA. It's about a 3-ish hour drive from where we are and the BIGGEST patience tester a driver has to go through (which is why Steve drives). While the drive is a straight, I-5 north, once there, you have to wait to exit (a good hour), then you proceed to wait to get to a field. Once we got there, we were in the car for another 2 - 2.5 hours just chugging along with everyone else. Granted the tulip festival isn't an activity that rates "fun" in Steve's or the kids books, but it is beautiful and the you can beat the pictures you can get. I've never had a bad picture. The kids did enjoy getting their pictures taken and we enjoyed walking around. AND it was a beautiful day in Washington for such and activity. Typically it's pretty rainy during the times the festival is being held and so you are sloshing in mud (which is why we typically don't go). This little trip has me tied over for a couple of years before I feel the need to for another visit.

Afterwards, while we were in the area, we headed to my favorite outlet mall for a little shopping. Got Jake a pair of shoes and the boys a little bit of clothes. I wasn't in it for personal gain today, so it was a pretty short trip... we still had a couple hours drive home. Once we were back in the area we stopped off at one of our favorite restaurant for some dinner. It was very yummy!

Now we are home and it's 10pm (we got home around 9:30pm), and I'm ready to call it a night. I'm sure there are a few hours of good sleep ahead of me tonight!

Easter 2009

We had a wonderful Easter and you would have known about it sooner had I been able to get my pix downloaded to the computer. Different story, different Blog!

Saturday we got together with our friends, The Lee family, for appetizers, dinner, and drinks. During our time, myself and Wendy stuffed many plastic eggs full of candy for the kiddos the hunt the next day. Then realized that we needed more stuff and did a Wal-Mart run. Okay, the night before Easter, not the best time to be in Wal-Mart. We were in line at Wal- Mart for as long as we shopped there. Crazy-ness! We came back to my place to wrap things up and then they headed out. I still had Easter baskets to make and to create the Easter morning scene in the Bell household. Steve and I went to bed, finally, at 3am.

Sunday - we rush out of bed at 9:45am to get the kids bathed and ready for brunch that we needed to leave for in 45 minutes. The words "on time" and "quick" do not exist in my household. Rather "rushed" and "on time-ish" are words that best describe us. So, around 10:30 we are not ready. Oh, and remember the "Easter scene" I mentioned above, yeah, still had to happen. So, since Jake was a year old, I have had an Easter bag (not basket) that I leave by his door, empty. Then from his door to his Easter basket I leave a trail of eggs for him to pick up and put in his bag. Well, now having two, I do this for both kids. They love it, so it's worth it. So, we rushed the easter bag trail thing to get out of the door by, yes, 11am. We have brunch on the waterfront in Tacoma, it was a disgusting rainy day, but the scenery made up for it. Then we headed back to my house and waited to see if we would get a break in the now thunderous rain. Yeah, 2 hrs into the waiting game, we have restless kids and still thunderous rain. We revert to plan B... Easter egg hunt indoors. These are things you need to be prepared for in Washington. The kids still loved it and they still got their hunt on.

All in all, it was another successful Easter!