on an island in the sun.....

and absolutely loving it.

why did i not go to byu hawaii when i was seventeen

and young and still had control of my life's direction?

hmmm..i have not a clue.

but really if i wasnt stuck in vegas with matix, i would surely be moving there right about now. :)

now honestly..lets talk about how lucky am i!

i just took an almost a week vacation to hawaii

with three guy friends

and only spent a couple hundred dollars

and left my kid at home with his dad, and a little extra help from my parents

and basically had the time of my life.

yes, my life rules.

now let me introduce you to the hawaiian crew...

first we have nate who gave me the buddy pass and basically took care of me the whole trip, by keeping tabs on me, and gathering my belongings i would leave from place to place. basically he rules, and people are convinced we're getting married one day.

 (he's not really this fat..he stuffed himself for our family pictures)

second we have josh, who is like my good good friend. ive decided hes like a brother to me, however we did tell our bishop that we were going to hawaii for our honeymoon, to freak him out. good times. 

then we have bobby. who basically is my favorite because we have a lot in common, we get along super well, and he's just so dang random. 

and lastly there's cute haley...who i'd never met until i showed up on her doorstep. but she basically rocks for letting us crash at her cute little house all week.

 now that you know everyone, im gonna break down our adventure with the abc's of our hawaii vacation!

a-Anxious to get there...after traveling and Airport lounging for 12+ hours

b-Bamboo forest, got lost...loved it.

c-China man's hat we swam to it..and then hiked it!

d-Delta airlines...got us on every flight.... standby!

e-Enormous shaved ice we got at matsumotos

f-Family pictures we took in hideously matching hawaiian shirts that we bought at ross for 5.99.

g-Girl who let us invade her cute little house. aka Haley :)

h-Hukilau cafe...yummy pancakes and  Hukilau beach where we went night swimming with little sister jansen who goes to byuH.

i-Intense games of doctor mario..that josh dominated at everytime

j-Jeremy (my sisters husband and my sister steph were in hawaii the same week as us) made everyone laugh because of his ridiculousness when playing with us! and who drove us around when josh took off to poo and almost never found us again.

k-Konos sandwich shop...on the north shore. sooo good.

l-Ludacris...was on our plane to LA!

m-Maunawili falls...we hiked up a million stairs...i basically died..and then we cliff jumped.

n-North shore was where we shopped and i got matix some birthday hawaii volcom shirts!

o-Oahu...our destination island

p-Pounders...boogy boarded and basically got pounded.

    Papa ole's--joshs obssession.

    the Point..where we stayed in laie

q-Queen (maybe even double) size bed i slept on...i rotated boys every night  :)

r-Rope swings of awesomeness at the falls.

s-Snorkeling at Sharks cove

t-Turtle bay... where we swam and watched haley and bobby surf while being entertained by the blowhole and handstands

u-Ukulele that bobby played for us every night...
                                      "drop baby, drop baby, drop, drop all your love on me"

v-Valley of the temples...we Visited buddha.

  
oh and we cant forget our much loved mini Van that we rolled in. it was the bestest thing ever.

w-Waimea Bay...we jumped the cliff, and played in the sand, sun, and water.

x-eXcellent karaoke singing skills that we practiced in the car...but never got to use because we broke the karaoke machine.  :(

y-Yummy pineapple and mango we bought on the side of the road. one word...divine.

z-the extra ZZZ's i got...with no matix waking me up at the crack of dawn. ;) it was superb being able to sleep in!

basically what im trying to say is...HAWAII is the shizzzzzz and i cant wait to go back one day.

two.

i cant believe my baby boy is two.

actually i kind of can.

it seems like forever ago that he was a little baby

and i can hardly remember my life before he was around.

but at the same time, time has flown by...

kinda weird right?

anyways he is now officially a "terrible two year old!"

his dad threw an awesome birthday party for him on his actual birthday, 

where he was spoiled rotten, or so i hear.

he got a basketball hoop, a scooter, and a bicycle with training wheels.

then a few days later we threw him a meeska mooska mickey mouse birthday party

at the marx family clubhouse :)

as much as i wanted to throw him a lion king bday party, there just isnt lion king stuff out there like there once was.

so we decided mickey mouse it was, since appropriately enough, we just got back from disneyland!

these are the cute invites i made with a little help from my bobbyfriend.

we had mostly family and few friends over for food, cake, presents, and of course some play time

the kiddos had a blast playing together. it's really fun to watch them have so much fun together.

 

and of course i had my friends over to play, too!

matix just has friends of all ages. 

he is such a loved little boy.

and for good reason--

he's pretty dang cool, if i do say so myself.

thanks everyone for coming and celebrating with us!