speaking of babies....

I think ours have grown up...

no one really calls them the babies anymore :(

The "babies" turned 11 years old this last Monday!!

isn't that INSANE????

I just don't know how this happened so fast...

here are a few birthday pictures..

 And another one of those series of photos

 in hopes of ONE good one!

Happy Birthday to my BABIES!!!

Brynlee baby....

While we were away, our wonderful Brittnee came AGAIN to watch the troops!

what would we do without our wonderful Brittnee??

well of course she brought with her our Brynlee Baby

I brought Brynlee home this cute outfit so I had to get some pictures of her in it before she went home.

Isn't she the cutest!!??!!

 Just look at those eyes!!!!

love this baby girl

Vegas Baby.....

So two weeks ago we were able to go to Las Vegas for an EF meeting. We decided this time, since it was semi close to just go ahead and drive rather then fly. Doing this allowed us to be able to take a couple kids with us. Since Hayden just turned 21 we thought it was a good choice to take him and then we went ahead and took Taylor too. Its hard for a 21 year old to get in too much trouble when he is attached to a 16 year old right??haha..

So we had a great time and did alot of things and saw alot of things.

I'm sure you have all seen plenty of pictures of Vegas so I wont bore you with that but i did want to share with you a funny series of pictures....

WHY does it take multiple pictures to get ONE good shot of the hooligans?

Yes it is True!!!

He Turns 21 today!!!

HOW do these things happen so fast??

He came into the world in his own way

and he has lived his life the same

(never a dull moment when Hayden is around)

lucky for us

his own way is a good way

love this boy!

Very proud he is my son...

Brittnee....

Today on Valentines day...

I want to tell you what an amazing daughter I have....

She is a great daughter

She is an amazing mother

and

She is a great wife

Brittnee has always been a very responsible girl

wise and mature beyond her years

I want to tell her that I love her

and I want to thank her again

for all she does for me....

every year she comes and holds down the fort 

so Rich and I can escape this loca casa

and hang out in paradise for a week

(this year for two weeks)

We (mainly me) need it to

refresh and rejuvenate

I also want to thank her again

for letting me come

to New Mexico last week

to kinda crash her date

and go to Wicked with her

Thank you for taking ME..

it was an amazing musical

and I loved spending that time with you!!!

I was just thinking yesterday that she has been

gone from home for 6 years now!

time just keeps rushing by..

Thank you again Brittnee for ALL you do for me

You are an

amazing,

beautiful,

wonderful women

and I'm SO proud to say you are my

DAUGHTER

Last of the Hawaii Pictures...I promise

These are the last of the pictures that have trickled in from various sources...

This is my favorite group shot with all the kids we chaperoned on the Hawaii trip

I must say they were a GREAT group of kids...they were fun, well behaved, great kids.

They listened, followed directions and rules and even played our stupid games!

We could not do this trip over and over if we did not have great kids to make our job easy!

another...if you want to see it better just click on it and it will enlarge

This is my second favorite shot....this was on the last day after we got back from the beach for the last time.

It is taken in front of the "camp" where we stayed the first week

and yep that is Rich in the background "supervising" LOL

My sister was planning to spend the second week with us so she flew into Honolulu half way through the week and she stayed at the awesome Sheraton hotel in Waikiki,

This was taken at the adult pool....this pool had the infinity edge..

if you look close it does not even look like they are in the pool but in the ocean....

go ahead....look close...(click on it)

oh and they also had those AWESOME bean bag chairs for the pool...

This was my sister Lynn and I checking out the jacuzzi

The next week in Kauai we spent some time with my good friend Terry and her son Jason (the fisherman/surfer) and daughter in law Emily (the wedding photographer http://www.emilyhelen.com/)

and Terry's SWEEET grandbabies!

These are definitely beach babies.....

cute little tans on blond babies

neither one of them has any fear of the water

and Jonah is already surfing with his dad

(and has been since he was about 6 months old)

believe it or not

here is a nice ending....to the Hawaii pictures LOL

Zip lines

On our last day we went to our favorite beach one last time

by now the boys had mastered the boogie boards and they had a GREAT time!

 Sawyer crusin all the way in

 Noah building one last sand castle

 We decided at the last minute that we needed one more adventure so we made a few calls and decided on zip lining....this ended up being one of the funnest things we did

 My friend Terry, Sawyer, Rich, Noah, Me and my sister Lynn

we were allllll sooooo brave!

 Sawyer zipping through the trees

 Rich's Turn....check out that awesome waterfall in the back ground

it was so cool cuz you didn't even know it was there until you were zipping over it

 Me flying by......

 Noah doing alittle Zippelling

 Sawyer showing what he's made of...

 The scenery was soooo amazing

 getting ready for the BIG one....

 Up the bridge to try it again

Noah and Sawyer getting crazy with alittle upside down action

My Friend Terry and My sister Lynn 

The one that got away....

Waterfalls

Today we went searching for waterfalls and we found three awesome ones!

 this was the first(...it was cool but a ways off...not what i was really hoping for

 Next we found this one (Wailua)and it was WAY cool and really big

 My sissy Lynn....

 Then we found this AWESOME swimming hole/waterfall(Kipu)

 You could jump from the cliffs and never touch the bottom...very deep

and crystal clear....

 View from the top...the pictures do not even do it justice

 if you look over to the left there is a cool rope swing....

Noah gave it a try .....and did it again and again

He is one brave boy!

sorry...this one is sideways, no way to turn it

Where we are staying,....

From our Balcony

and our awesome dinner last night..

Terry and Emily and the babies came over to share dinner with us

kabobs, fresh fish straight from the ocean, salad, corn, bread and rice

emmmmmmm.....

A fun day fishin'

We went out fishing on Kaua'i with or friend Terrys son Jason, on the fishing boat he works on

Had to get up really early

got out to the fishing spot and the fish were biting like crazy

I pulled in a small Tuna

and Noah Pulled in a small Tuna

then Rich got a big Yellow fin Tuna

big as in about 5lbs so not huge but much bigger then he has ever caught trout fishing LOL

Sawyer had one on the line but it got away

then Noah got a big hit...

worked hard (as you can see from the photos below) to reel it in..

they got it almost to the boat...close enough to see

and then it broke the line

they said it was a 15-20 pounder (maybe 3-4 feet or so)

it was a super fun day!

 Noah and Jason workin it in...

This is how i fish lol

 In the end.....