My sister-in-law Mari took these photos of us this October. She did a great job on these and we couldn't thank her enough for sqeezing us in. To see more of her work check out her photography BLOG!
Zach has officially joined the missing teeth club, if there is such a thing of course. His permanant tooth had been growing behind his baby tooth, so I took him in to see Justin. Justin cleaned his teeth and then started numbing the front of his mouth. Without telling Zach what he was doing, he reached in with his pliers and yanked the tooth out! Zach cried for a moment and then settled still with no idea that his tooth had been pulled. As Justin sat him up we had him look on the tray and there was his tooth. Zach's response was "Cool!" and then moments later, "That didn't even hurt!", and a couple minutes later, "I was so brave!" I would have to agree, no shot, no indication of anyone pulling your tooth, you are brave Zach!
Now if he would just put his tooth under his pillow, maybe the tooth fairy would pay him a visit, but he is too proud of this tooth, that he is waiting until all his cousins have had a chance to look at it before rendering it to the tooth fairy. 
Zach turned 6! Wow time flies. It seems like just the other day I was in the hopsital looking over at him sleeping in his new born plastic bed, thinking...I am this this little guy's mom, and feeling so inadequate. But look, we made it, 6 years, and many more to come.
This year was the STARS WARS all boy party, and it was wild, 3-D glasses, Darth Vador masks and all! I think the boys all had a good time. We ate pizza and had cupcakes, played games, opened some presents, and even took some swings at a pinata. Zach scored on his legos and star wars garb, and has been in birthday gift heaven ever since. He's just a little obsessed.
Here's the annual breakdown on Zach:
Loves anything and everything star wars
Loves him some legos
Thinks that now that he is 6 he is automatically a first grader
Loves his soccer and gymnastics classes
Loves the Upside Down Show
And is obsessed with the calendar and counting down the days to the main events in his life, such as holidays, birthdays, playdates, dinner with the cousins, full day Kindergarten, and such.
Zach we love you! We love your enthusiasm for life. You are incredibly sensitive and very thoughtful. You brighten our family and we could not imagine life without you.
Last weekend we took off to Lock Lolly Land, the best Christmas Tree Farm around these parts, in search for the perfect tree to put up in grandma and grandpa's house. This was Zach and Kate's first experience with cutting down a real tree. Zach, of course loved the whole saw aspect of it, as did his cousin Kyle. But it was Justin's saw skills that were put to the test.
After we loaded the tree up, we saw Santa and his reindeer. Kate told Santa she wants a puppy and Zach wants anything and everything starwars and legos related. I love the fact that I didn't have to pay an ounce for this picture with Santa by the way. This was a perfect way to get into the festive mood. Definitely a family tradition for years to come.
Okay, so here we go again...the choice between which holiday card to choose has arrived!!! Luckily shutterfly has made it easy for me this year. Not only are they offering this amazing deal for bloggers, but they have the best selection. Believe me, I have looked. Shutterfly gets a WIN this year in my book. So here are my choices...
Traditional
OR
Modern
And I think I am going to have to design my own calendar for Christmas. All you have to do is upload your photos and they'll do the rest! Great gift idea right? I am thinking the hub might like this in his office at work. My sister-in-law makes one for Grandma and Grandpa every year. We always look forward to what pictures she has used for the annual calendar. 
If you are a blogger check Shutterfly out for your great deal! And for the rest of you non-bloggers check Shutterfly out for all your holiday needs. And if you don't get around to that holiday card this year make sure to check them out throughout the year. Who says you can't send out a Valentine's card. We had some friends do that in the past and I loved that idea.
In July, we celebrated by going downtown to Papa Haydn's for some dessert. It sounds pretty anti-climatic, but for us it wasn't, knowing that a few months later we were going to go to Kauai! Anyone who knows Justin is shocked and amazed that we even went. Some might call him cheap, others call him tight. I'll be nice and sum it up to one simple word..SAVER. So when the Broadbents had put the invite on the table, back in May, Austen, Val and I were shocked to hear the words "Yes", utter from his mouth.
We had been putting a few bucks away each month since he started his residency, so we were saving for a rainy day. We just didn't expect to ever treat ourselves to a trip to Kauai. But we are so glad we did. Kauai was honestly the best trip we have ever taken.
This was us the night of our anniversary...exciting I know. Everybody loves dessert.
And here we are, three months later, eating in Paradise. Actually the Kalypso, but you get the idea.
The second day we were there we took a short hike down to Queen's Bath up in Princeville. 
Val and Austen are getting their snorkel on!
The third day we took a guided kayak tour up the Wailua River and hiked up to Secret Falls. Kauai was having unusually dry weather, so the falls weren't running at their fullest, but water was still trickling down. It was so pretty.
The Fourth day we drove down to the south side of the island to Poipu Beach. This beach was definitely your typical tropical beach. Lots of people were there for that reason. The snorkling was awesome. 
After spending a few hours at Poipu, went went to play at Kipu Falls. This was the trail we walked to get there. Kauai is seriously a jungle! And out of no where appeared these Falls with a huge pool below. We had tons of fun jumping off the waterfall and Austen was the brave one who tried out the rope swing. 
We all thought we had de-salted ourselves at Kipu Falls, but as you can see Justin was saving a few salt crystals in his stache...
Furthur down the south side of the island is Spouting Horn. The tide comes into the rockside and blows right through it making the sound of a horn, and when the tide is really high the water blasts through the spout, kind of like Old Faithful, but much more frequent.
At the end of the day we attempted to head to Barking Sands, but ended up at McArthur Beach for a gorgeous sunset. You can see the Islands off this coast where tourists aren't allowed to visit. That night we stopped by Mark's Place, for a little authentic Chicken Katsu and other Hawaiian goodies. A man who works there talked to us for awhile about those islands and about how the islanders that live on them basically live off the land...no electricity, hot water, etc. I of course pictured the girls in coconuts and the all of them, men and women, in grass skirts. I know...probably not, but don't ruin it for me.
The next morning Tyson and Jayne flew in from Honolulu to hang with us for the weekend. We went and hiked a little bit of the Napoli Coast on the northern part of the island. It was gorgeous! 
A little body surfing...
The next day we took a boat tour up the West side of the island to see the rest of the Napoli coast that we didn't see from our hike. Part of the tour was stopping and letting us out to snorkel for a bit. The fish are all so different and even vary from the different parts of the island. They also slowed down to let us watch the patches of spinner dolphins that swam and performed by our boat. Amazing! The Naopli's are really majestic. 
The fifth day we headed to Anini Beach on the north side of the island. A little rockier but crazy how far out you could go snorkling before the waves broke. The reef was huge. 
We attempted to see the Lighthouse, but didn't make it before it closed. At least we got to see it from a distance while we were at Anini Beach. But, yet again, another great sunset, this time going down behind the Napoli coast line.
The last day we hung out at Hanalai Bay. Our favorite beach by far! Tons of surfers, tons of locals, and great waves for body surfing. A couple days prior, the beach was closed because of how big the waves were from the swells, but the day we went, it was perfect! The little town of Hanalai was also our favorite hangout. We ate there the most...Bubba's Burger, Tropical Taco, Kalypso, etc. 
Before we dropped Val and Austen off at the airport we stopped by a local's house to get some flower leis. The lady's husband picked these flowers from his yard and gave them to us to put behind our ears. 
This was a lookout not too far from our villa in Princeville. Usually you can see tons of waterfalls falling off the mountainside, but like I said, they had not had that much rain, so they weren't running. The amount of green was still so beautiful.
Kauai was amazing. I would go back in a heartbeat! We are so thankful Val and Austen thought to invite us. I bet they didn't think we would say yes when they asked, but hopefully they enjoyed having us there as much as we liked having the company of them. This goes down as the best vacation to date! I am so thankful my parents were willing to watch the kids for us. I think that allowed us to relax and enjoy ourselves that much more, just because we knew the kids were being taken care of. We brought home some gifts of course, one of which was a Hula Girl outfit and for Zach a Ukulele. 
