Hawaii Day 2

What am amazing day 2 of our vacation.  We really just hung out at the resort we stayed at which had a lagoon, an ocean beach and a ton of pools.  What a fun relaxing day just the 5 of us.

Exploring the lagoon after an early breakfast (the time change definitely had us at breakfast at about 6am).

Sand in her fingers and toes

Cut across to the ocean to explore the waves

Meandered through the resort past the ponds.

We did not nail the cute kid photo.

Back at our own hotel we had a bird lay an egg on our deck and then went down to the pool in our own hotel.

Loved seeing these smiles all day long!

Then we headed to the beach for play and a picnic lunch

 Next we headed to the hotel for a quick rest for Kate and the older kids read a story with Dad.  Then off to the next pool with waterslides!

Then that evening after dinner we stayed up to watch the firework show and we could zoom in on the luau happening below our building in the resort.

That was a whole lot crammed into one day but it was amazing.

New Year's

Another super low key New Year's for the Smoldon/Chervenak party.  Unfortunately Papa got sick this year (just like last year) and so he was in bed and thus we put the kids to bed at the normal time and then planned to go to bed ourselves.  However, we just kept talking which led to us actually being awake at midnight!  Crazy, I don't think I've seen midnight on New Year's in awhile.

Haha, I wanted photographic evidence that we lasted until midnight. The pic above where the clock is actually showing Jeremy gave me his usual selfie face, below I am just holding a blank phone - awesome.

And this gem of a photo, a reflection of the inside of our house with a tiny sparkle of the fireworks that went off in the next cul de sac. Happy New Year!

4th of July - fireworks

We really did have a fabulous 4th of July!  The fun run and parade in the morning and then some quality afternoon/evening neighborhood cul de sac time.  We had a BBQ with our neighbors and then a couple of them ran out to get some fireworks for us to enjoy. The kids loved the sparklers!

Lucy utilizing the cup method to keep any sparks off her hand, it worked out well.

Jaydon loved swirling them around

Just a few shots of us getting all the festivities going, maybe in a few years we will even wait until dark!  We had heard our new area was crazy and it was true, for a good hour and a half there were constant fireworks going on with the really loud booms on top of the constant booming.  Fortunately the kids didn't have any trouble sleeping right through it all after they went down to bed.

Happy Independence Day!!

RV Trip Day 2 - Metaline Falls - Happy 4th!

Next stop after leaving Twisp and continuing on the North Cascades was Republic for lunch and a little stroll through town, in the mid-afternoon we pulled into Metaline Falls and stopped at Box Canyon for a little swimming time!

Nana, Lucy and Troy exploring the lake

Dad and Lucy swimming

Jaydon and I swam to the raft (rather I swam and Jaydon held on around my neck)

He is getting to be much more adventurous in the water and having more fun.  He is still not a swimmer yet but I think we are ready for some more lessons!

Our swim back from the raft!

Adrian and Mark enjoying the water

Ashley and baby June with troy

The 3rd was Adrian's birthday and they forgot the pinata so we got to help celebrate!

The kids had a great time whacking at the ninja turtle.

Lucy was not to be left out!

Enjoying some sparklers and a little firework display out front

Grandpa Pete has a workout room/dojo for all his martial arts stuff and the kids had a great time playing around with it all!

"hiya"

On the way out of town we stopped at Boundary Dam and Gardner Caves.  Unfortunately we were a little off timing to catch the tours and Lucy fell asleep so Grandpa, Nana, Dad and Jaydon went for the nature hike to Canada - yep we had an international vacation!

Lucy of course soon woke up and she and I walked around the trail a bit but didn't make it nearly as far as the rest of the family.

Nana, Jaydon and Lucy heading down the trail.

We look forward to another visit in a couple years when the kids are old enough to really enjoy the tours of both the caves and the dam.