Is Spring Really Here??

We've finally been enjoying some nice weather the last couple of weeks and the kids (and parents) have been so happy to go outside! Here's a little update on what the Kingers have been up to lately:

Lucy: Our girl is walking! And has been for awhile. She started walking literally the day after her birthday but became a pro near the end of March. At an age when most babies are starting to lengthen out and lose some of their chunkiness, Lucy is still packing it on! This girl is a chunk and seems to get chunkier with each new day (maybe we should cut back on her cheese consumption)! She's talking so much, her newest words being thank you and all done (imagine being said in a cute little rugrat voice). She LOVES dogs and will chase them around a park barking at them. She also loves feeding them grass and sticks. We just love our little lu.

Nathan: I know, I know. Where's his helmet? Well we're still working on it ok? But look! He's riding his new bike and is doing so well! When we first busted it out this spring, he fell off it riding down our driveway, not a good start. He insisted that it needed new tires before he would ride it again. However as time past, he became braver and decided to give it another shot with the old tires. I'm so glad he did because he is such a great little rider now. He loves flexing his muscles to show us how strong he is and often makes me feel his muscles. He has recently become fascinated with Jared's old transformers. Jared's parents kept his old transformers and late in the winter Jared busted them out for the kids, well Nathan LOVES them. He'll play with them all day. Like father, like son. When Nathan was at McDonalds the other with Auntie Barb he went up to a little girl who was taking a long time eating her lunch and said "Come on girlfriend, hurry up!" I guess he wanted her to come and play. He is such a little stud.

Jordan: Jordan has her big spring dance production coming up in the next couple of weeks. Last monday at her dance class her teacher told me that during their dance Jordan stopped the group, put both her hands up said "Stop, can I say something please? We need all the children to go to the middle at this part. I don't want to get booed because we're not all going to the middle!" Her dance instructor and I had a good laugh. She is in soccer right now and is a natural (tear, tear, sniff, sniff), so mom is so happy that she has someone to pass with! She starts swimiing lessons at school today so she is busy and so happy!

Andi: I started teaching grade 3 french immersion Mondays and Tuesdays at Jordan's school. I started at the beginning of April and am really enjoying it. We have a girl that comes to our house on Monday and then Auntie Barb comes to our house on Tuesday. So the kids are well taken care of and very happy. My soccer league started a couple of weeks ago as well and we're off to a perfect 2-0 start. So life is good.

Jared: Jared leaves for his trip to Quebec in a week! He's spearheaded a trip for students in grade 7 and 8 to visit Ottawa, Quebec city and Montreal. It's been a lot of work but will all be worth it very soon. He finished his volleyball league ended a few weeks ago but I think that some basketball is on the horizon. He is also busy being Elder's Quorum Prez. We are all busy doing things that we love and trying to maintain peace during such a busy but fun time of the year.

OUR DREAM TRIP TO MAUI (and our one day on Oahu!)!!!!!

(Wakiki Beach - last sunset in Hawaii)

ALOHA!! Jared and I got back from Hawaii on March 29th after spending 10 days basking in the Hawaiian sun, snorkeling in the lively ocean, surfing the playful waves and cruizin' all over the island. We had an adventure of a lifetime as we explored the natural wonder that is maui in celebration of our 10th anniversary this spring. The pictures are posted starting with our last day at the top and our first day at the bottom. It's hard to put into words the experience that Jared and I shared together while in Hawaii but over the next few days I am going to try!! So stay tuned for updates to our travel log.

We had fun that last day exploring Oahu. As soon as we left the airport the difference between Oahu and Maui became very apparent. Maui is way more laid back, no major cities, no huge skyscrapers and no freeways!! We were lost within minutes of driving on Oahu, in maui we didn't get lost once as we cruized the island..

The Dole plantation was really interesting. We learned that it takes 12-14 months for a pineapple plant to produce its first fruit and that most of the pineapples grown in hawaii are of the Cayenne variety - because they grow best in iron rich soil.

When we decided to fly out of Honolulu instead of Maui, we were so excited because we thought we'd be able to hit the temple. We landed at 7am and flew out at 10:55pm, so we had ALL day to explore the island. We rented a car for the day and headed up North to check out BYU and the temple. But guess what? The Hawaii temple is closed for a year and a half for rennovations!! It was still fun to check out the grounds and visit the visititors centre though......does that attempt count as a trip to the temple??:)

These are everywhere on Maui, but this hibiscus was on the temple grounds.

When we discovered the temple was closed we decided to head for a walk down the street to the ocean and found yet another breathtaking hawaiian beach

This was our condo at Kalama Terrace in South Kehei!!!! We rented it for a steal - $50 a night! I know! They were renting it half price because of the slow US economy right now. It was just perfect for us - in a central location in south Kehei close to restaurants, beaches and shops. The kitchen also came equipped with every, but most importantly a blender for our morning fruit smoothies!!

Ok...most of our pictures (we realized when we got home) are of us in our bathing suits, sorry!! But it is because the weather was so fantastic while we were there, no rain, sunshine everyday, that we found ourselves on some beach somewhere almost every minute of everyday!

This was our ride!! A 99 Nissan Sentra. When we went to pick up our rental car, of course the price was a lot more than what we had booked online so the lady could tell we were a little annoyed so she said "well if you want to save some money I've got an older beaten up sentra that would be a lot less." Right away Jared and I respond "We'll take it!" The lady then asked "Don't you want to see it first?" Again at the exact same time, jared and I respond "Nope, we'll take it!" It was hilarious doing the walk around with her because her entire diagram of the car was covered with x's to mark dings or dents. It was exactly what we wanted! This picture doesn't do it justice, I'll see if I can find a better on!

We knew that our last day on Maui could only be spent one place - BIG BEACH! So we went and picked up a boogie board and headed to the surf!

The surf at big beach can get quite big and is perfect for boogie boarding! Unfortunately some of the best boogie boarding is found at a neighbouring beach conviniently called "Little Beach," which happens to be a clothings optional beach, so we thought we'd give it a try at Big Beach:)

This was Jared after he got rocked by a wave!!

But still set out for more!

Fortunately we were on Maui for whale breaching season! What a spectacular sight that is! We saw beautiful humpback whales breaching from almost every beach and lookout we went to. Sometimes we'd see three or four at a time. It was incredible! The second day we were there we saw some people looking out to see with binoculars and so we asked them what they were looking at. "Whales!" they responded. We were surprised because we thought we'd have to go on a whale watching excursion to see whales but nope. Sure enough every time after that whenever we would look out to sea, we would see a whale or two or three.

These little guys were swimming just off the beach, so close in fact that snorkelers set out to swim with them.

I'm still finding finding sand in ears!!

Lahaina

This Banyon tree is located on front street in Lahaina. Lahaina's in west maui and was a great little town! Historically it was the Royal Capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom before Hawaii's annexation by the U.S. We spent a few nights here checking out shops, eating at the fantastic restaurants and watching people. Jared loved this Banyon tree. It truly was a spectacular site! It took up an entire block and was all part of the same tree. So all of the trunks that you see actually all stem from the same larger tree. It was pretty amazing

Sunset at Lahaina.

Cheeseburger in paradise!! So good!! Live music, great burgers and all right on the ocean! Can't beat it. We ate here one of our first nights but didn't have our camera with us that night, so took one a few nights later. We headed out for a drive to North Kehei and then decided to keep going to Lahaina to see what it was about. When we arrived, to our delight we found a lively street full of shops, restaurants, music right beside the ocean. Definitely the place to be at night!

Kanapalli beach is just north of Lahaina and is huge!! Great surf and beautiful water.

This was such a great moment - laying on a hammock on Kanapali without a care in the world.

Because of all the huge resorts on this beach there were so many activities going on. We were able to sneak a volleyball and play pepper for most of the afternoon. It was a dream!

On the Road to Hana....

We figured we couldn't go to Maui without visiting at least one waterfall. On our day up north, we headed out on the Hana highway at stopped at Twin Falls. We weren't expecting much because it was the first Falls along the Highway and every had told us that the more spectacular ones were further down the highway. We thought we'd give it a shot regardless and were so happy we did!! We ended up having the best time exploring a fruit-tree filled rainforest, cliff jumping, swinging on ropes and crossing rivers in search on Twin Falls.

We actually almost missed Twin Falls. We actually stumbled on the actual Twin Falls while Jared was searching for ripe bananas. We heard cheering and so I followed the noise down a little narrow path and ended finding a natual playground with two raging waterfalls and great cliffs for jumping.

Jared didn't tell me about his little plan to dive off this cliff, and I'm afraid that when he came up from the water he found me shaking my head with dissaproval. He assured me it was deep enough but i was still a little nervous about it. Probably because as soon as he dove all the Japanese tourists that were watching gasped so that made me nervous. I ended up getting a great shot though and check out that form! I give it a "10"

I always though pineapples grew on trees but they actually grow on these yakka-type plants. We bought some pineapple from a little stand in the parking lot and it was so, so juicy and sweet.

So this was actually at a Falls quite a bit further up the trail that you had to cross a waist deep river to get to. This tree with its exposed root system was incredible!

So this is Twin Falls! We were lucky that for three weeks before arriving on maui it had been raining so these falls were pretty raging - I guess typically the one on the right is usually just a trickly. We were told this by the friendly local man who offered to take our picture in front of the falls.