Beach Trip

We went to Destin for 4th of July week.  Austin had a blast!!  He LOVES the water and the sand.  He just loves being outside.  He was so much fun to watch.  We enjoyed the beach, and we went to some splash pads as well.  Here are just a few of the many pictures.

1 YEAR OLD!

I can't believe we made it an entire year already! What a quick year! Austin is such an amazing blessing in our lives. We are so happy to be his parents. He is funny, smart, handsome...the list goes on and on (if I can brag a bit). He had a great party - thanks to all who came out. And here are some pictures from the party and his one year pictures as well. We are looking forward to many, many more years full of lots of fun adventures!

Cleaned out my phone

Eating an orange with the peel!

climbing...his favorite thing to do

mischief!

So, if it seems my posts are always here and there and my words are rushed, it's usually because I'm trying to post while Austin naps...along with doing the laundry, picking up toys, cleaning up the table from the last meal. Not that I'm complaining, but he is one BUSY little boy.

Anyway, I finally had to unload the 1000+ pics on my phone, so here are a few from lately. Austin is running everywhere (literally). I think he walked for 3 days, then started running. I bough him some shoes and he's doing great. He only wants to wear them if we go outside though. He'll say "shoes" and start trying to put them on when he wants to go out. He is also saying so much - I think last count was 53+++. My favorites lately are "tight tight" which is what he says when he gives snuggles, and flag. I think flag sounds more like bag, but he LOVES them. He also tweets at the birds he sees.

11 months old

Austin is growing so fast. The last month seems like the most drastic change in such a small time. He is walking so much now. He takes about 10-15 steps at a time to cross a room. He's still a little shaky at times, but he's very motivated and confident. He is about 19 1/2 pounds now. He has been to the doctor several times because somehow he caught RSV!! I've heard about it, but let me just say that IT SUCKS! That about sums it up. He was coughing, running fever, having diarrhea, snotty, ear infection, and the works. I'm sure the only thing worse is maybe the flu as far as viruses go. He had to do breathing treatments, which he was a trooper for. But he seems to be doing better. Anyway, we are so looking forward to his big birthday coming up in just a couple of weeks.

He is so much fun these days. He's talking more (his favorites are plane and please I think). The funniest thing is when we sit down to dinner, we always pray first and he is usually starving. Once we strap him in his chair, he immediately starts saying, "Amen" so we can go ahead and eat. He also had to move up to his big booster seat because he can (and does) climb out of his high chair. He's a climber, so anything he can get his leg up on is fair game. He keeps his mommy very busy every day. The pictures above are some that Kristopher took for his 11 month birthday.

Aloha Part II

Hula!

Aaahh, warm laundry

Ceci and Buzzy at the luau

Family at luau

Mmmmm, pina colada...virgin, of course

Watching the hula dancers!

Austin in the giant banyan tree

Austin and Buzzy playing

Sunrise from Mt. Haleakala

Whale right by our boat!! Showing off her belly here

Austin on the boat

Family pic

Austin loving the beach!

As promised here are some pictures from Maui. There are sooooo many to choose from so I had to just pick a few. We had such a great time there. Maui is so beautiful, and it is our favorite island so far. We had an amazing whale tour where a whale came right up to our boat and just kept bobbing her head up and playing peak-a-boo with our boat for about 30 minutes. She was rolling on her back and sticking her fins up. It was incredible. The tour guides all said that it was such a rare experience to get that close and that they ranked it in their top 10 tours of all time!

We went to the Old Lahaina Luau, which was great. We had the traditional mat seating, so we sat front and center and Austin was able to crawl around and play. He LOVED the hula dancers and all the drumming.

We also spent time relaxing on the beach, enjoying the view from our beautiful condo, and eating the local produce. I think Austin consumed at least 7 avocados in the short time we were there. We had such a great trip!

Aloha!...Part I

Hiking with Buzzy

Dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise

Playing putt-putt at the condo

Sacked out after a long day

Hanging out in the car - the only time he wore his hat all week!

Pearl Harbor - enough said

Catching a nap at Pearl Harbor

The anchor from the USS Arizona

Checking out the ocean for the first time...not too sure yet

Awesome waves on the Northshore

Hiking up Diamondhead Crater

We just got back from over a week in beautiful Hawaii! We were expecting paradise, and we got nothing short of it! Austin did amazing on the flight there (8.5 hours) and back (6.5 hours). He was an angel, and he enjoyed every minute of Hawaii.

We spent two days on Oahu near Waikiki beach. We hiked up to the top of Diamondhead Crater - unprepared. We didn't realize what a hike it was, so we were in flip flops with Austin in the stroller. As we got further along the path, Kristopher ended up barefooted, I was carrying Austin, Buzzy was hauling the stroller, and Ceci hung in there with her flip flops on. Oh, and the cherry on top (or bottom depending on how you look at it) was that Austin had a dirty diaper starting about 2/3 of the way UP. So with no bag in tow, he had to stick it out until we made it all the way back down.

We also got to see the Northshore where they have the giant waves and the big surf competitions. We saw some big waves, but it was the very end of the season, so they were not at their peak.

We visited Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial and the battleship Missouri. It's such a great tribute to those heroes who served on that infamous day.

I will post more pictures from the Maui leg of the trip later this week.