Maui Built: part 3.5: Follow-up Side Note

A while back I did the Homemade Gift Challenge. For the first five people who commented on my post, I would send them a wonderfully handmade handicraft. Umm, obviously noone has any confidence in my skill level because noone even wanted a homemade gift by moi! I get it, I get it- I got the hint, don't worry. My blessed mother was the only one who responded- after all these years, she still tries to plant that seed of encouragement. ;) Anyway, this was a little bit over the top I guess you could say, but like I said, she was the only one who even responded (truth be known her comment wasn't one of excitement but rather kind of a "what are you doing courtney?" sort of comment). Well, fashioned now in the driveway of my mom's house are these 3 cute little day and night driveway signs. By day, you see a cute owl, blue birds, or flower. By night, your car lights will reflect a whimsical moon and stars scene shining brightly!
I made these signs from a Family Fun idea, and with the blessing of the barn I had practically all the supplies I needed at my fingertips! I was excited about the project, and so I even made another set for my friend the Ignacios. Unfortuneately, I decided I wanted to make them the day before we were going to Portland to see them, so I had to finish them in one day. It was kind of a late night. It always takes you longer than you think. That was a Thursday, and that weekend we were going to the coast, and then the next morning leaving for Hawaii... so finishing the set for my mom was kind of an ordeal as well. I was out the night before the airplane making Jeremy drive a stake into the ground to get them set in. The ground was too hard. We thought we were just going to give up. But a sleepless night befell me that night, I awoke early and set right to work with a couple of plain old garden tools on a new plot and worked until all 3 signs were proudly situated in the center isle of my mom's circular driveway. Yes, I told you this project was a little over the top. :) I wasn't the only one up early working though. That was the weekend that Mom flew Travis out to get done a bunch of odd jobs. That kid worked so hard the whole weekend! My work was nothing compared to him, I finished in an hour and half; he had to run change out of his work clothes while we were pulling out of the driveway for the airport! We managed to take this picture right before we got in the car. Someday, I will see the "night" side of these signs that I made.
Of course the personalized touch- adding the family brand or symbol to the back of the sign in reflective tape. I sign that beckons the visitor a farewell as well as a come again.
Thanks Betsy for your cute handmade gift! I'm glad that there are people that find joy in handmade crafts as a gift of love!

Maui Built. part 3: the Reason

So the whole reason we took the trip to Oregon was the Newport marathon Jeremy signed up for. But I might quickly add a second runner up, would be seeing our old and awesomest friends the Ignacio family! We dragged these guys down from Seattle to visit the with us in a whirlwind afternoon at the Portland zoo. I won't go into how stupid I was... for not thinking to invite them down to stay with us for a couple days...stupid, stupid, so sorry guys. We were sick with colds and the kids had pink eye or something and it just wasn't on my mind to have company. Such a big bummer. But anyway, Thanks for making the trip anyway you guys! It was so fun to see you and your cute kids! So, the real reason we made this big trip to Oregon, besides r&r, was Jeremy had signed up for the Newport Marathon. The bum had ditched out the year before when he had also signed up, so he was determined to do it this time. But unfortuneately he wasn't as determined in keeping up his training. He barely ran a handful of times in the 3 months prior to the marathon. But the trip ended up being the same weekend as our anniversary, so thanks to Grandma!! we had a wonderful (and a little painfully sore, well, Jeremy only) getaway. I had fun chasing the marathon participants around the course in the old, old, beat up (and I mean beat up!!) 1989 pickup truck. Glad I can still have memories in that thing. I would go cheer on marathon participants at any race because, man, it's just a long ways and they deserve it. Jeremy did what he'd probably call awful, but you have to give him props for finishing I guess. He was cold, in pain, and a little defeated. These two videos are backwards- the first video is of the finish, see Jeremy's pained expression, and the nice lady joggin by him to the finish line. I love the announcers commentary too! ;)
This is the start- Jeremy's in red bottoms and a white tank top, look for him towards the end of the video (the first guy you see in red/white is actually probably not him), if you can watch it slow play, you'll see Jeremy totally elbowing this other guy, so pushy! :)

Maui Built. part 2: Oregon

After leaving Oahu, we went to Oregon to visit Mom for just about 3 weeks. I was surprised how the kids felt immediately at home! They hadn't forgotten anything. We had a lot of barn play and cousin play and doing fun things.
We went to Enchanted Forrest which turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. The kids were at the perfect age for it! Lucy and castles...the match couldn't be made any more perfect! And funny as it sounds, Jeremy's been dying to know what that place is. I hope this link is worth it, but here's a little slide show of the day.
We spent some time together as a family visiting graves for Memorial Day.


Playing in the fountains at waterfront. We weren't planning to go, but the kids were dying to be outside, and luckily it was a beautiful day. And the weather kept being awesome the whole time too!



Lots of fun cousin playtime!




Visited the carousel in Salem, though we just got there after they closed so we just played outside.



Lucy celebrated her 3rd birthday with Aubrilyn with a donut.


A couple FLASHBACKS...
Mother's Day in Honolulu. I think that was our last Sunday in our ward as well. We miss our ward SO MUCH! Loved it back there, loved McCully ward and all the moms!!

Our beloved neighbors. Forever in our memories. We had so many good times with these kids, they were just perfect to have as neighbors. Love you Le Family!!

Maui Built. part 1

Wow, has it really been that long since my last post?!?! How do you explain a month long absence from blogging... PREGNANT!!! Just KIDDING!! Hahaha. Actually, I thought I'd been away longer than that-- must have just felt longer!! No, but I do have a much better excuse than that! Specifically, we haven't had the internet. I've been putting the time to good use though, for those fans out there, finally almost done reading Twilight. :) But things have been crazy, a little frustrating, but good I think. Never fear, I will get you caught up. And I've decided to take the long way, in a journal kind of style. So, once I get my pictures all uploaded, I'll be off. (This all may take another 4 weeks, btw!)
love, Court

Congrats Jeremy!

Things have been focused on packing and getting ready to move this week, but it wasn't without it's breaks for some fun and sun! Jeremy's brother and his wife came to visit so we had lots of fun going out to play. We only took one picture, believe it or not, at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory.
Last Friday night was the convocation for the school of Social Work. Sparing minor details, I'm glad we went because Jeremy isn't walking in graduation so this was the most official kind of thing he'll experience. I'm so happy for him to have accomplished so much and have his master's degree! He, on the other hand, is very ready to get on to the next thing! Truth be told, the kids and I didn't hear basically any of the convocation. They just weren't in the mood. So I jetted down to Don Quihote where I could pick up nihon no pan that I've been craving- nice perfect japanese sweet bread. Lucy fell asleep on the way to the store and was pretty groggy when I put her in the cart. I put Willie next to her and she cuddled right up, and Willie felt like a proud brother. It was so cute cute! These two are like ... well, I don't know the simile, but they are either at each other's throats or best friends. I like the times of the latter best!

Letter Yy Day!

Hmm, the letter Yy...kinda difficult, but kinda done at the last minute. ;)
Making our bodies into the letter Yy, and practicing writing Y on the back of the person in front of us.Yoga for kids! This was the warrior pose
And down diggity down dog down!

Yellow is a primary color that can make other colors. We added yellow ice cubes to clear, red and blue water to see what colors they make.And the results:

Yellow collage and bookmark

Yummy Yogurt Pops for snack! We also tried, yams and a trick egg yolk (actually made from marshmellows and a dried apricot).

So, this picture it doesn't look like we're doing anything really... which is a pretty fair description as far as the kids were concerned, but I was trying pretty hard to get them to sing a yodeling camp song. We watched a youtube video of a cute little yodel girl. Then tried to sing with a rhythem hand jive the song. Yeah, no luck, I really needed visiuals on that one, when I have time to make them... next time.
How many Years old is a tree? Learning to count the rings of a tree.

Mr. Yuk. Organizing a group of random items into categories of "yummy" or "yucky."
The Letter Memory Game. We had four pictures for "bases" on the ground. We said the picture, aka: yarn, and the child ran to the picture of the yarn. Then after awhile we turned the pictures over to reveal just the letter the word started with, then played again. We ended up doing one at a time, instead of a race kind of thing. Kids just get a little too pushy for that.

Yakety-Yak Game. A letter Y version of "Don't eat Pete!" You have nine squares with a marker (candy, bean, cereal, etc.) on each square. One child goes out of the room and the rest decide on the secret "yakety yak" square. Then the child comes back into the room and takes, one at a time, a piece from whatever square. When the child takes the piece from the yakety yak square, all the other children say, "Yakety Yak" and the turn is over. The child gets to keep the pieces she already has. Refill the board and send another child out! 3 year olds can do this, it might take a few rounds to completely catch on to everything though.

Just me

I'm going to ramble on for a little bit about... me. You did want to hear what I've been up to every now and then and not just the kids, right? Something like that.
Anyway, this has actually been a very busy month of accomplishments for me. I have been studying the organ and played in church for sacrament meeting for the first time last week. I have to say a big thank you to my husband who supported me in babysitting while I went to practice. I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't play better given I had 2 months to prepare. But practicing once a week for an hour or so, and learning as much as I did- well, it was kind of a lot of work. It was exciting to learn a new instrument! I even played pedals and everything! I still feel pretty intimidated by the organ- there's so much to learn. Another thing I learned is how much you have to prepare just for prelude! The thing is, I didn't prepare for prelude- I was so worried about my 3 songs. The first 2 were pretty good, the closing could have been better. But prelude, I just was winging it and that's not good, because you're winging it through about 7 songs! Holy cow, can't believe I had to play that many. It's probably because I notoriously play very fast.
The other big thing I had going on was for our ward playgroup I was planning. I did a Smile Party and talked to the kids about the important of teeth and cleaning them and the dentist is. I decided to open it up to the stake (or mostly just the 3 wards in our building). And we had a great turn out. I think there must have been over 40 people there (from smalles to oldest!). I think there were 29 kids, and then however many moms who came with them. There are a couple of cute pics on our playgroup blog from our circle time. We did circle time, a craft: making crocodiles out of egg cartons and brushing the teeth with white paint, I had a tooth pinata we didn't end up doing, and then we ended with the dentist comeing to visit the kids and we presented each child with a certificate and goodie bag with new toothbrush. It was way fun activity.
I also had to talk in church yesterday, and then taught preschool this morning. So it was a very busy month. Getting ready to move is only going to get more busy, but I'm sure we'll be packing in as much fun as possible before we leave! We're excited to have Jeremy's brother and wife come to visit this week!!
Well, I guess that's enough rambling about me for awhile!
love, Courtney