The McPherson family has traveled en masse with the Dion’s to Maui for a week of sun, surf, snorkeling and good old fashioned kicking back. It’s absolute heaven and J and I are secretly scheming ways to stay here longer (mostly kidding).

I put together a nice little story in my head about the trip to write on the blog and was going to arrange the pictures accordingly, but blogger isn’t cooperating so I’m going to just use the unordered pictures below to tell about our vacation. Forgive the messiness of the story.

We go to the pool each day, which Clare really loves. She especially loves “jumping in” from a seated position on the edge into my or J’s arms.

Above is the view from our deck overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We spend most of our time out here, as you can imagine.

Clare is going all day and pretty much crashes for naps and sleeping in her “Peapod.” I bought this for our upcoming trips and, honestly, I wasn’t sure if she would take to it. I half expected her to hate the sight of it and end up sleeping in our bed. Fortunately for everyone she really likes it! She settles right in and goes to sleep almost as easily as when she’s at home. If she does wake up she usually plays in there until we come and get her. It has a little air mattress in it and is pretty comfy. She really has been a little traveling champ and has adjusted really well to both the time difference, the change in schedule and the new surroundings. I’ve been a little bit crazy about keeping her schedule fairly consistent (right now J and I are back at the condo while she naps, then we’ll join the rest of the family out for adventures) and it’s made for a pretty happy baby.

This is the picture I wanted at the top of the post with the caption “Clare says Aloha from Maui!” I took this picture before the rest of the family went snorkeling in Kapalua Bay. I’ve always LOVED snorkeling, and now J does too. The conditions have been murky the past couple of days but we’re hoping for better conditions for the rest of the week. Clare plays on the beach and sometimes wades a little in the ocean (extremely well supervised) while we’re in the water, or she goes and has adventures on land. Yesterday she and Grandma found all sorts of fun at a nearby hotel while J and I were snorkeling including a luggage cart, outdoor shower and stray kitty – y’know, the exciting things on vacation 🙂

No story here, I just thought it was cute that Clare and Grandpa were washing dishes this morning.

Eating dinner with Grandma on the ‘lanai.’ We’re all getting used to dining with a view.

Lots of book reading…

JP and J enjoying their own “bottles” on the lanai. Like I said, it’s going to be rough going home.

Some cute pictures of Clare and Auntie Debbie. I think Clare’s absolute favorite part is that there is always someone to read to her whenever she brings them a book.

Again with the out of order pictures! Grrrr! As you can see, while our girl likes the ocean just fine she is not such a fan of sand. She’s also not such a fan of sandals so she spends most of her time barefoot.

Off to read a book on the lanai until Clare wakes up! Then we’re off to the Iao Valley State Park for some hiking and inland island adventures. It’s a rough life…

Mahalo!

Seven years ago today J came over to my house in Phoenix and we sat on the couch, watched Lord of the Rings, and weren’t apart another day after that. It’s had its ups and downs (especially that first year!) but six moves in two states, countless vacations in six countries, one wedding (well, technically two ceremonies), one mortgage, two pets and one little girl later we’re still in it. Happy Anniversary my dear!

Our girl seems to have developmental spurts focusing on gross motor skills, fine motor skills or verbal skills one at a time. Suddenly she’ll go from crawling to walking within a few weeks, but she won’t add any new words during that time and almost seems clumsier with her fine motor skills. Now that she’s pretty much mastered walking (no more crawling for this toddler!) she’s adding new words left and right. Her new words include “Mama” (yay!), “hungry,” “rock,” “vroom (when playing with cars),” “bir(d),” and “Bampa.” We’re also figuring out Clare’s words for some things – “Ish” for shoes, “bonky” for her blanket, “bookabah” for peekaboo and a few others that she’s probably been telling us for a while but we hadn’t connected with a specific object.

Here are some cute pictures that my mom took of Clare and her “Bampa” washing the car. Clare always has a special smile for her Bampa, and the feeling is mutual.

When she’s not eating, Clare can usually be found running and getting into things. These pictures were taken last weekend in Bend, and you can see how active and agile our girl is. She’s particularly fond of active toys that work on her gross motor skills, like balls, push/pull and ride-on toys. She’s also beginning to climb on things (though fortunately not the couch yet).

I love this picture of J and Clare because it reminds me of a conversation J and I had when I was pregnant. J told me that he didn’t think he would read to the baby very much. I think his exact quote was “you’re the reader, so I think you’ll do the reading. I’ll play ball with them when they’re older because I’m more athletic.” Well, fast forward a year later and J is reading, playing ball and doing whatever else Clare asks him to do. I consider this picture the very sweetest and nicest “I told you so” ever.