Two weeks in paradise. Holy pictures.

Hawaii! Here we go! Time to take off to go visit Nashy boy for her birthday! Tatum was extremely nervous to fly. I think it was a mistake to let her see the first episode of lost. After seeing it some time ago she has said that she never wanted to go on a plane. She was gripping our hands for the first 5 minutes after take off. Good thing we had markers or I don't know if she would have ever let go.

On the way home from the airport we stopped at the Pali lookout. It was SO windy. Ponytail holder.....ahhh that's better. We are ready to hang out with my sister Allie, her husband Matt and her two awesome kids Nash and Maisy. They are in Hawaii doing Matt's first year as a doctor. They are going to have the best time of their lives. That place is beautiful! So glad to visit them.

So happy to see these two!!

Maisy's hair did this number in the wind. Ha ha.

Good morning Hawaii! At Boots and Kimos for breakfast. Time to hit the beach Tatum, we are looking a little pasty!

HA HA HA! Tatum is trying to "surf". She really wanted to stand on the board and ride the waves. I kept telling her that it was the wrong kind of board to do that with. She said to WATCH! She has the right stance.

Our beautiful beautiful girl.

This was my view.

This is me, my Diet Coke and my darling daughter. Shane and Matt are in the Kayak somewhere in the water.

Paradise. Man I gotta stop drinking these. I was never a pop drinker before I met Shane. Vacation!

Tatum spent her time on the beach running for hours, swimming in the waves and laying on the sand. I tried to capture her so that I could remember how careless she was on these days at the beach and how nothing could worry or bother her while she was in her own little world enjoying the beach and waves.

Tatum looks so scared in this next picture. Shane took her out in the Kayak for a little ride. She got scared of sharks and made him turn right around. Maybe next time!!

Nash's darling little neighbor just shimmy's up the tree. He made it look so easy!

Fighting over who gets to go up the tree first! As close to sibling rivalry that Tatum has come. We'll take it.

Trying to shimmy up that papaya tree. It's monkey Tatum. Below is Maisy's first set of pigtails!

We decided to take everyone and go on a hike. We loaded up the neighbor kid, Nash, Tatum and baby Maisy and went out on an adventure in the nice weather.

Look at all that GREEN! We live in the desert. In the brown dirty desert and it's beautiful. However, after awhile you get sick of the heat and the brown. So you go to this green to visit. What a treat to go here on this hike!

Getting ready to go down and get in the watah!

Awwwwwww. Poor Maisy. When Allie was holding her eyes so that I could spray mosquito spray on her face she backed up and dodged. Some got in her eyes. I felt bad because her eyes were red and she was kinda sad for some of the hike! I like how she is licking her face too. How does it taste baby girl?

Sisters..Sisters.

What cutie little kiddos. This little neighbor kid is quite possibly one of the sweetest kids I have met. So nice. Glad he hangs with Nashy.

There was this sweet little natural rock slide. So fun and slippery! The downside? Snagged the cute Hurley suit! Worth it.

This picture of Shane and Tatum makes me smile.

Help me up Mama!

Shane and Tay Tay. We walked down to get some yummy shaved ice and

to view the beach in the late afternoon.

Tatum:"Mommy can I get in the water in my dress?" Me:" aaaaaa why not?!"

Tatum is so thrilled to be in the water with her clothes on!

Come on Daddy!

Shane had just tossed our girl in a wave. He is trying to teach her to body surf and she was loving it!

Oh my cuteness. Oh my cuteness.

I took Tatum snorkeling for the first time ever. She did pretty good and was happy pointing as all the colorful fish would swim by her. It was fun introducing her to a world that I fell in love with as a child as well. We went for 10 minutes before she wanted up for real air with no mask and tube. Here she is riding on my back on the way in. Way to go on your first snorkel Tatum. Heres to many many more.

On our way home from the beach and Tatum's first snorkeling excursion, getting shaved ice at Island Snow (I heard Obama frequents the place! Crazy. He grew up in that town) and eating Bob's Pizza. Twas a goooood day.

The day that we went to Sharks Cove. The best snorkeling place! While Matt and Allie went snorkeling, Maisy and I hung out on the beach and Shane played with the kids in the tide pools. We went snorkeling with Tatum before Matt and Allie went out and we have never seen so many fish before. It was like swimming through schools and schools of silver fish. There were huge colorful fish and even though the waters were turbulent that day and it was a little scary taking your little six year old in it I am glad we did. Tatum said it was really neat!

Picture of Sharks Cove. This was the calmer side and where the tide pools were. On the other side and to my right is where the big fish swim!

Maisy daisy. Isn't she beautiful?

I don't know why she reminds me of my dad in this picture. Maybe it is because she is my sister's baby and my sisters looks favor my dad. I don't know but she is pretty dang cute. She is a Papa Phil and Papa Chuck mix.

Girl poses and boy poses.

Shrimp truckin it! Tatum and Nash sitting by Giovanni's shrimp truck. Fresh. From the ocean. Smothered in butter and garlic. Need I say more? Uh.....so good.

He is such a boy. An adorable boy.

Yum. Could eat there every day.

The Coops. Such a cool skirt Al. Where on earth did you get that? :) Did your sister make that? Or did you get it at Anthro?

The last day that Shane was there. He had to go back to work and so we decided to go on an amazing straight up hill hike call the pillbox hike. We are standing on an old army hide out that overlooks all of Kailua. Tatum was running up it and when she came to the first break and view she said "WHOA THIS is BEAUTIFUL!" It was. I only managed to get one picture because our camera's battery was dying. It's a good one though.

UHmazing.

While we were all snorkeling I came across something that I thought looked like some sort of prehistoric sharks tooth. We all kinda thought it could be. A few hours later our minds were changed. The thing crumbled because it was just pressed dirt. It looked just like an old worn shark tooth. Better luck next time. Allie and I thought it would be fun to go and buy a couple of sharks teeth, hide them in the water's edge and take our kids on a shark tooth hunt. We were unable to locate any shark teeth at the store. Better luck next trip.

Looks like it's a pool day! You can still "surf" on a boogie board in the poolio right? My sister lives in a complex that has this simple yet beautiful pool. We spent a few days there (including Tatum's birthday party) watching the kids swim while reading and talking about nothing.

Ha! Perfect timing. Just out of the water. Saltwater and sand hurt the eyes.

These two are going to grow some dorsal fins I am sure of it.

Heisman!!

I am glad that I got this picture. She does this smile when you say to her.......smile for the camera! She reminds me of her daddy and how hard it was to pick an engagement photo because Shane's is the exact same slightly awkward, I am in pain type of smile. Shane has gotten better but if you don't believe me then scroll through the blog and find them. You might laugh. LOVE IT.

BCF's

(best cousins forever)

She needs every last crumb! YUM!

They were being water horses. Nuff said.

Pancake face at the famous Hukilau cafe. They have really good banana pancakes! Tatum's were plain of course. Heaven forbid her eat any fruit or veggies. I did however manage to get down her two bites of carrots, a brussel sprout and 6 green beans. ALL covered in cheese. If any of you know Tatum's food intake history this is nothing short of a miracle.

While my sister and brother in law went to the temple, I took the girls to Hukilau beach!By myself. Taking kids to the beach is tiring! Fun but tiring. I was thinking oh my heck........how does one do this with more than two kids? People do all the time. It was great practice for when Shane and I have another one!

After the beach we went to Surfin Tacos. Tatum went outside and posed for this picture.

On the way home. I guess I wore them out.....or was it the other way around?

We ate tons of this stuff called shaved ice.

Poor Maisy didn't get her own. She is begging for bites from these two.

These two were the "mini" parents of this baby. They would play house and Nash was the Dad and Tatum was the Mom. Maisy was a good sport!

This monkey. I wanted to pick him up and give him a kiss on the mug. He looks like he has a white beard. Why are they so cute??

You can hardly see this sweet orangutan because of the glare.

This guy is called an alligator Garr and they live in India.

We found a horse and milked a plastic cow's udders. Love the ZOO!

Nash: " Tatum, why do you think giraffe's necks are so long?" Tatum: " I don't know. Lets go. Giraffes are boring."

Looking at a big hippo. We have never seen a hippo in the flesh and it was pretty neato.

While we were at Costco I had Tatum and Maisy in the same cart. Maisy kept leaning over for some Tatum love. It was so very sweet so I pulled out my camera and snapped a couple of pics of this precious moment. Below is what the drive home looked like. Wow. I know that it is like this all the time there but it never ceases to amaze me when I see it.

Going to the zoo was so much fun that we decided that it would be a great idea to go toad hunting that same night. These little buggers were EVERYWHERE. Despite them peeing on you when you catch them it was really fun! We would catch them and then take them down to the koi fish pond and let them go. For some reason the kids thought it was fun to fling them across the top of the water like they were skipping stones. Good thing they can swim!

Sprinkle kisses!

My sister is a total rockstar. She helped me plan a birthday party for Tatum in Hawaii and even invited all of Nash's friends. Me and my sis made the octopus brownie bites for Tatum's party. Tatee does not do cupcakes or frosting. She had a plain one for desert. Wierdo!

Yep. The next one is boy poses and girl poses!

Make a wish! I hope she wished for a baby brother or sister!!

They are playing transformers and barbies. I won't even repeat the conversations they had.

Funny!

Oh boyeeee! This baby is busy busy. It wouldn't matter if I had hidden my purse up a tree, this one would find it. I. LOVE. HER! Above is what happened on a daily basis. Wallet emptying is her specialty.

Now here is a very lively, fun, sweet lady ( love her pose )! This is our Aunt Jackie. Shane's dad's sister and she is such a wonderful person. She and her husband Dave are on a church service mission to the polynesian cultural center. The last night that Tatum and I were in town we went there to go to the haunted lagoon and pay a visit to them. This woman is entertaining and hilarious. Here is one of the many stories that I recall of her in all her glory. There was a big family party shortly after we got married. As I was talking to her about how fun it was to be married she interrupted and yelled " DID YOU HEAR THAT EVERYONE? SHANE AND SHELLEY ARE GONNA HAVE A BABY!!!!!!" It was mortifying.....but funny. We had only been married for a month. There were so many people that I had to tell.....yes I am having a baby but not for at least two years and NO. I am not pregnant. I do admire her and it was really great to see her.

Tatum and I are fresh out of bed. It was our last day and we wanted to go to the beach and go swimming for a little bit after we dropped Nash off at preschool.

This is how we feel about leaving. There is Ichat and phones but that could never replace the awesome kisses of Nash and the sweet cuddle hugs and open mouth kisses from Maisy. Can't replace the happiness I feel when me and my sister sit side by side and laugh together at our hilarious kids. I love my sister. We loved being with Matt, Allie, Nash and Maisy and will miss them while they live on paradise island. We hope to go back as soon as we can. We love you guys. Till next time! Now home to Daddy. We missed our man.

This video is precious.