Joyful June

We captured a bunch of adorable pictures and videos of Nathan this month.  One thing he has been doing lately is picking things up and then discarding them by flinging them over his shoulder.  It makes quite a mess!

He has also started to show interest in pillows and stuffed animals.  He hugs them and lays down and "sleeps" on throw pillows.  

And he has gotten pretty good at stacking rings on his stacking toy.  With style, of course!

He has always loved teeth brushing time.  Now he is interested in doing it himself!  Too cute.

Happy Father's Day!

For Father's Day this year we got Jesse a baby hiking carrier and hiked the La Luz trail for an hour.  

We also had ice cream cake and watched the game with friends.  They were pretty happy with the result!

Neutral Layouts

The layouts I created this month are family focused.  This first one is of Nathan's nursery, and I was inspired by the different colors and fonts of Kelly's mood board and used Brenda's sketch.

And for this second layout I was inspired by Creative Embellishments' mood board, particularly the flowers and the nature setting, so I scrapped pictures of our trip to Tamaya.  I also used a lot of layers.

Nathan's First Trip to Hawaii - Part 2

We continued to spend most of our time in the ocean during the second half of our trip to Maui.  Jesse went on an open water swim (you probably can't tell, but he is swimming in the ocean in this picture) while Nathan and I played on the beach.

We indulged in (and introduced Nathan to) delicious shave ice with macadamia nut ice cream.  And then back to the beach and snorkeling (look closely at the last snorkeling picture to see an eel). 

Since Nathan isn't quite up to snorkeling yet, we took him to the aquarium so he could see some fish, octopus, turtles, and sharks.  He was even able to touch a star fish and sea cucumber.  

On our last day, we had a gourmet, relaxing breakfast and said goodbye to our beautiful hotel and beach.

Then we headed up towards Hana to see a few waterfalls and a botanical garden with cool plants like 100 year old mango trees and painted eucalyptus trees.  I just love Nathan's excited smile in this first picture!  

We had a lovely trip.  It was so fun to see Hawaii through Nathan's eyes, and it was worth the nightmare red eye back and the jet lag we are still dealing with!  Maybe we'll just stay there next time.  ;D

Nathan's First Trip to Hawaii - Part 1

Last week we took Nathan on his first trip to Hawaii!  We stayed at the Grand Wailea in Maui, and it was so fun to see Nathan experience the beach and ocean for the first time.  He LOVED it!

He also had fun splashing up a storm in the pool.

We took a boat ride to the nearby island of Lanai and enjoyed spending time on the beach there and snorkeling.  

As we always do, we went snorkeling quite a few times on our trip.  We took turns snorkeling (turtles!) and playing with Nathan on the beach in front of our hotel.  He seriously couldn't get enough so it's official: we'll be back!

Nathan appreciates the little things too.  He loved the flowers on the grounds of our hotel and wanted to touch them (yes, literally just poke them once with his finger) every time we passed them.  He also thoroughly enjoyed all of the birds that hung around the open air eateries, the fans that are everywhere, and Hawaiian art (who knew?).  

There are so many good beaches in Maui, and right in Wailea, and we were able to walk to Ulua beach which had the best snorkeling of our trip with incredibly clear water and abundant fish.

We ate out at a number of fantastic restaurants during our trip and had fancy dessert too for our anniversary.  Happy 13 years!  (Yes, in this picture I'm kissing Nathan, not Jesse, but Nathan's picture of us didn't really come out well!)