17 Months

Brooklyn is 17 months today! She is such a good baby and is sooo much fun to be with!

About Brooklyn at 17 months:

• Went from 2 naps to 1
• Her favorite things are bubbles, stoller/wagon rides, swinging, and playing in the rocks, bark, or sand at the park
• Bottom L. tooth (next to the front one) came in
• Repeats lots of words that people say; dirty, grandpa, thank you, to name a few and loves saying "Uh-Oh".

Brooklyn + Grandmas & Grandpas = FUN

Brooklyn stayed at Brett's parents house from Friday night to Wednesday evening then went to my parents until Sunday afternoon.

When we dropped her off, she was totally oblivious as to what was going on and could have cared less that we were about to walk out the door and probably was wondering why her mom was acting so crazy. haha

While she was there she had fun playing with Millie and swinging, Mark said she wanted to go out and swing every chance she got.

My parents picked her up after a long trip home from Fiji, which they said was an absolute blast!! I was afraid that they would be too tired to watch her, but said they were looking forward to it almost like another vacation. This little girl is sooo lucky to have two sets of grandparents who love and adore her so much!

While she was at my parents she had fun spending time outside looking at the horses, going for lots of stroller rides, and, of coarse, going to the park.

Our flight got in to SLC at 10am and my parent's church is at 11:00 so we decided to go home and take a nap and unpack a little bit. When we got up there my mom caught us before we walked in cause she wanted to film Brooklyn's reaction. I was totally fine until I saw her then started crying again...I know I'm a crazy psycho mom! I don't know if it's cause she looked so different or if it's cause she just stood there and staired at us like "who are you?". It was so good to hold her again and I swear she got taller and her hair grew longer during the week that we were gone.

My sweet family fed us dinner, since we had no food in our house, then Brooklyn and I went with them to my cousin's birthday party. Brett was too tired and wanted to go home and relax before he had to work the next day.

She loved the cake and ice cream

Hawaii

On Christmas last year Brett gave me a "Tropical Paradises" calendar, I love those kinds of calendars full of beaches, palm trees, etc, so I thought "what a great gift", as I was flipping through it I saw HAWAII written in big letters on March 17th - 24th. I asked him if we were really going and sure enough my sweet husband had met with a travel agent and booked everything. I was so excited I cried!

March finally came after much anticipation. It was one of those things where you want it to come fast cause you're so excited, but at the same time you want it to come slow cause when its over you can't look forward to it anymore. We had to be at the airport at 4:30am on Saturday so we dropped Brooklyn off at Brett's parents on Friday night, what a weird feeling to go home and not have her in the next room sleeping. Even though I was more than ready for a break it was so hard to leave someone that I love sooo much behind for a week! I may have cried like a baby that whole night and off and on during the plane ride, but then it got better...until we went to pick her up, more on that later. :)

We had a short layover in LA and got to Hawaii around 10:30am Hawaii Time

We got to our hotel a few ours before check in time so we changed into our swimming suites and layed on the beach.

After we were able to go to our room we got cleaned up and headed out for dinner. We ate at a delicious restaurant with an awesome view of ocean, it was a little pricey, but worth it!

On Sunday we drove a little 1-1/2 lane road called Kahekili Hwy. We hiked on the cliffs above the shorline and found a blowhole, saw the Nakalele blowhole, stopped at Julie's banana bread stand and got some banana bread, and went to Iao Valley to see the Iao Needle. The clouds were hanging low so we decided not to hike to it sice we probably would be able to see it very good.

When we got back we chilled by the pool and walked along the beach side path that was by our hotel.

The next day we went and saw the Banyon Tree in Lahaina and wend and checked out the beaches on the south side of the island Kihei/Wailea/Makena. We went to Big Beach, peaked at Little Beach....eek, and Makena Beach then went to a Luau in Wailea. The food was awesome, the show was awesome, and the sunset was awesome!!

Tuesday we had a relaxing day by the pool. That night we went to Bubba Gumps for dinner. We got some of the best seats. I love that every night we got to eat by the ocean and feel the warm air, watch the boats and the sunset. I think I could live there forever! After we ate we walked around the shops on Front St in Lahaina and got Brooklyn the cutest Hawaiian dress. If I remember I'll post a picture of her in it sometime.

On Wednesday we drove the Hana Hwy. We had breakfast in pa'ia at Charleys, where Willie Nelson has been known to eat :) We saw beautiful waterfalls and pools and even had one to ourselves that we got in. It was one of the prettiest drives I've been on!

This was an awesome beach that we found in Hana. The waves were huge wish we had our boogie boards with us We talked to a really nice local guy that has been surfing on this beach for about 30 years.

This was the sunset at dinner that night!!

On Thursday we went on a snorkel tour. We were supposed to go to the Molakini, but it was too windy to sail over there so we went to a place called "The Coral Gardens". We were bummed that we didn't get to go to the Molakini island, but the coral was really beautiful where we went. We saw lots of colorful fish, a few pencil fish and a turtle which we were really syked about!

When we got back we went to a mall in Lahaina called Whalers Village..

...and ate at a place called Leilani's. Brett's fish and chips were amaizing!

I know that we have lots of pictures of us eating, I promise that's not all we did haha But it's hard to take pictures of yourself when your swimming and snorkeling and playing in the waves and all that fun stuff, but we did eat some really good food and ate where there were beautiful views so why not get pictures of it right!

On that note this is a picture from the Plantation Restaurant on the Plantation Golf Corse. They had a million different kinds of Eggs Benedict to choose from, ok not that many, but you get the point.

Brett got the Crab Cake Benedict and this is my Mediterranean Vegetable Benedict

Friday after we had breakfast we drove to Kihei and went to Kam beach. We bought floatie mattresses and had fun floating on the waves and snorkeling. After we went to some of the shops and bought souvenirs then went back to Lahaina and had lunch at Cheeseburger in Paradise.

When we got back to the hotel we layed by the pool until I heard a lady, as she was walking by, say that the waves were huge. So we hurried to the beach to see and sure enough they were monsters, there were even people surfing on them. Brett and I thought it would be fun to try body surfing, so fun! We got a little beat up and sand everywhere you could imagine, but I seriously think playing in those huge waves was one of the highlights of the trip!

On Saturday we slept in, took our time getting ready, and got everything packed. We had to be out of our room by 11am, but didn't need to be to the airport until 7pm so we layed by the pool and went swimming then thought it would be fun to go to the spa, not only for the messages but so that we would have a place to shower before the plane ride. Not only were the messages awesome, but the relaxation room had glass walls that overlooked the ocean and while we were waiting to be taken back we saw a whale breaching. Perfect way to end the trip!!!

I was so excited to get home and see Brooklyn, but I was sad that we had to leave the sun, ocean, humidity, and everything about beautiful Maui!

As soon as I get some more time I will post about all the fun that Brooklyn had while we were gone...if your still reading this and I haven't bored you to death :)