The First Two days.....

After getting settled into our condo and a good night sleep the twins and I awoke to our first day in paradise. As far as Hunter and Hayden were concerned there was only one thing on the agenda playing in the Swimming pool with their buddies Kiel and Trenton. So we got up had breakfast, put on a thick layer of sunblock and off we went to start our day!

Hunter loves the water, Hayden on the other hand is quite scared of it he is happy to just hang out on the steps where he knows he can touch the bottom. Even with floaties on he still doesn't trust that he won't sink! We spent a good part of the morning playing in the pool and lounging in the sun. Soon it was evident that the sunblock was wearing off so we headed upstairs to shower and get dressed with the promise of lunch and a stop at the shave ice place down the street.

I was really enjoying this time with the the twins it's not very often that I get time with just them. After lunch we found a little road side farmers market, This market was filled with fantastic fresh fruits and vegetables which for us Alaskans is a rare treat considering it is so hard for us to get fresh from the garden taste and quality. For dinner we made a great big green salad with a fruit salad and yogurt for desert. The boys favorite part of this market were the greetings from the farmers peacocks and chickens! Needless to say we visited this market often for yummy things to eat while were were there. I think we ate a whole pineapple daily.

After dinner the twins and I decided to take the short 100 yard walk down the the beach to watch the sunset and walk in the surf. It was the perfect ending to the perfect day :)

More Hawaii fun :)

With all of my traveling done for the time being I sure was ready to get our rental van, find our condo and take a nap. That was my idea but the twins had other things on their minds being that they actually got some sleep on the plane and at the airport. All they were thinking was swimming pool, swimming pool, SWIMMING POOL! :) I was excited because we had found a very nice condo in a small complex for a really good price, for $105 a night we had a 2 bedroom two bath 1200 square foot condo with all the comforts of home for our two weeks in Hawaii!

Being that there were only two buildings in the complex we found that it was a very quite, nice and relaxing place to vacation. It has a nice pool and BBQ area that we often found empty and it actually felt as if we had our own private little piece of paradise.

I am so happy that we choose to get a condo for this trip as it was cheaper then some of the hotels we found, but we also had a full kitchen which meant we could do allot of our cooking at home. Which was absolutely fantastic to be able to do with our family. My absolute favorite part of the morning was spent having coffee and breakfast on the lani, basking in the smells, sounds and warmth of Kihei.

Our Hawaii Vacation!

My Family and I just got back from a fantastic Hawaii vacation! Two and a half weeks of fun in the sun and adventures we will never forget. To cover everything in one post would be hard so I am sure there will be several posts about all the things we did. This is the first time we have traveled with all our whole family, with 4 kids it's quite spendy to travel out of Juneau as a matter of fact this is the first time Hunter and Hayden had even been on a plane and they are almost 6 and their excitement was very contagious.

So step one to any vacation packing! Now being this is the first time we have done this needless to say I was quite overwhelmed with preparing all of us for this trip. But when all was said and done I got us down to 4 suitecases and a backpack for each of us to carry on the plane.

We are very lucky to have a great friend who works for Alaska Airlines that we took this vacation with and we flew on her passes for this fabulous trip. (Thank you Monica you are the best) One of the drawbacks flying this way is you have to fly standby, which means you stand the chance of getting to the airport all ready to go with the possibility that you will get bumped from the flight. And considering we were traveling with 4 adults and 8 children between our two families that possiblity was very high, but considering we were flying for free we didn't complain. We were looking at this as an adventure because who knew what city we would end up in on our way to our final destination, we were determined to just enjoy every minute of this time with eachother. I must say Monica is very good at planning though cause we went to and from Hawaii without getting bumped from a single flight we planned on catching and Justin and I even got to sit in first class a couple of times which definatley was a bonus :) Another perk of traveling this way is your travel dates are "flexible" based on flight loads, so on the first leg of our trip there was an open window of flights so Monica and 3 of her kids and Hunter, Hayden and I left 2 days earlier then the rest of the gang as the older boys had to stay in town to finish SBA testing at school! Bummer for them haha :) So off we went to the airport to start our long journey to Maui.

Hayden was very excited but cautious as always about what it was going to be like flying in an airplane. He had lots of questions for the flight crew and was a little scared after looking over the emergency evacutation card!

Hunter on the other hand was a ball of fire ready to get moving so excited about his first ride in and airplane!

We started out leaving at 8:05 from Juneau and had to overnight in Seattle we only had 5 hours though so we decided to stay at that airport. So after numerous bathroom breaks and I'm not tired stories we finally got them all to sleep in the terminal at Sea-Tac needless to say Monica and I didn't get much sleep on the airport floor the boys slept really well !

After 4 hours of little to no sleep for mom we woke the boys to catch our early flight to Portland, that was a short flight and took no time at all. Then on to Maui what a long flight that was 5 1/2 hours but the boys did fantastic and were all very good on all the flights. We landed at noon in Maui and it was all worth it to feel the warm tropical air and the smell of the flowers filled the air! The boys were needless to say extatic about our arrival.

stay tuned for more to come!

I know, I know.......

I know I made this big deal about creating this blog sent out an email to friends and family to check it out and then......yup I did it I failed to update!!! I know I'm sorry, so my dilema was do I go back and do updates on things we've done or do I start from where things are here and now? Well I made a decision, there is so much going on in the here and now that I have plenty to write about to keep people caught up with our lives today. So I promise to update this more regularly MOM I will you'll see :) K here goes stay tuned...........

Meet my Family!

Justin and I have created quite the life for us here in Alaska. As most of you know we have a very active family of 6. Which includes our 4 boys Brian 12, Kristopher 10 and the twins Hunter and Hayden who are now 5! We also have a few pets running around our black lab Scamp, Zoey our little beagle and Lily the cat. I have been doing daycare for the past 10 years and still love my job, it can be challengeing and stressful at times but I wouldn't trade a minute of the time with my kids and all the wonderful boys and girls that I have helped raise over the years. It's a gift to know that I have been an important part of each and everyone of their lives and helped them become the amazing little people they are today. Justin has been working for Karls Auto and Marine as the business manager for the last 3 years he enjoys his job and all it has to offer. We work hard and play harder welcome to a window to our lives :)

These are my boys.....

This is Brian he is our oldest boy, he is also the

sofest most kind hearted 12 year old I know! He is an amazing big
brother and son I am so proud to be his mom. He loves art, music and

anything funny and entertaining he has a funny soul

and loves to be a prankster.

This is Kristopher he is 10 years old and loves action

and adventure! He is my dare devil a self proclaimed adrenaline
junkie!! His favorite things in the world are his dirtbike and snowmachine

he is a daddy's boy who will follow him anywhere the adventure leads.

This is little man Hunter, boy how to describe Hunter.....he is the life of the party no matter where he goes! He is energetic and fun loving. I would have to say he has all the personalities of his brothers in one rambunctious little person, he is always happy and ready for any task at hand! But boy does he keep me hoppin.

And last but not least the youngest of our brood my little Hayden. He is the thinker of the group he spends his time analyzing and critiquing things. He is happy and outgoing and loves to come up with plans and ideas. He makes the plans and Hunter executes them while Hayden stands by and watches! Boy I am sure these two little guys will be giving me a run for my money when they get older! Little do they know I will be well prepared bring it on Derr twins.

So here they all are along with all the craziness they bring to my life they are my greatest accomplishment! I wouldn't change one thing about our lives they bring me joy, laughter, and happiness. We are ready for whatever life throws at us cause we are strong and happy in our life together as a big crazy happy family!

Hello!

Hello! I have decided to create a blog to chronicle the life of my family here in Alaska! My family and friends in the lower 48 or down south as we Alaskans would say have been asking me to do this for a while and I just haven't made the time. But I have a LITTLE time to start this and figure if I update at least weekly they will feel a little more in touch with our lives. So wish me luck and look for more posts to come. I hope you enjoy the glimpes into our lives that this will bring.