Trip to St George

This past weekend we spent with the family down in sunny (and hot!) St George.

We drove there on friday night after a long day at work (for both of us). We had the Sullenger girls with us on the way down there bringing them home from visiting their cousins up North. The ride down was anything but boring: we sang (mostly girls), played games and told funny and then scary stories. I have to honestly say that the ride there didn't seem so long with the right company and food! I think we might go back there soon considering that it wasn't as long as I prepared myself for.

The first day, which was Saturday, we left our camera at home and I don't have any pictures from it. We first went to the mini-farmer's market and bought some freshest fruit and corn. Then on the drive back home we discovered a very nice, brand new playground and we stopped there to play. It was so much fun, even for the adults in the group. I can't believe I'm writing this but that playground was really cool and unique. We all throughly enjoyed playing there :)

We then went to the Sullenger's friends' farm "under construction" and got to ride a horse!!!! I loved it but Alex was a little scared sitting on the horse. I think in a couple of years he'll be more prepared for such an adventure. Instead, he played with multiple kittens that were at the farm (I want to say there were at least 10 of them).

We spent the afternoon splashing in the local Rec center for a couple of hours. My favorite attraction there was a fun lazy river. We raced each other on it, then got to just float on it looking into the sky. Alex couldn't get enough of slides. He even got to go on a huge adult slide once with me but then was kicked out of it because he has "build-in" life-jacket. O well, after many tears poor Alex calmed down and went on other, more kid-friendly slides. We were very impressed with the Rec center- it is a gem in such a hot place as St George is.

In the evening we went down to the ice cream shop and invited grandma G to go with us. That very first picture is Alex and Meagan eating their huge banana split. When their order came up we realized that we could've easily all split that 1 banana split (well, almost).

Sunday was a lounging day. Alex learned to play the piano and got really into it. Notice his tongue :)
In the evening we drove to the mini-lake Powell: a man-made reservoir, which is located in a very scenic place. The sand there is reddish orange!!! I thought it would be very dusty but it was "clean" sand. 

Our SUV got stuck in the sand and we were afraid we wouldn't be able to get out. God bless 4-wheel drive: we were able to pull ourselves out!

Smaller kids really enjoyed playing in the sand for a while.

Then Ashley, Alex and I decided to break the rules and climb over the fence to get closer to the lake. We walked on a desert-like sand for 10 min and came to the shores of the reservoir. And we didn't even get arrested!!

The water was very clean and the only regret was that we didn't come here on Saturday to swim for a day!
Back at home Liz took out her scooter and we all got to ride it.

I wasn't good at first and Liz had to hang on for dear life in the back seat.

Then Alex took a ride with Dave.

As the evening progressed I got better and better and Emily and Ashley even went on it with me (I don't know how they weren't scared but I sure was)!

Monday morning started out with us getting great exercise at the Jumping Jacks. I must say that we were all soaked by the time we were done jumping. That place is better than any gym to get real exercise in, however, it sure could use a lot more air-conditioning...

We went out on a final lunch to Samurai 21. The food was delicious and the show put up by the chef was even better. (You can tell by the pictures how excited Dave was :)!!!

I don't know if it was the Jumping Jacks, the yummy food at the japanese restaurant (which Alex ate A LOT of to our surprise), or the heat, but Alex was exhausted: he fell asleep for a long time in the car on the way home. 

We had great time on our mini-trip to St George. Thank you very much, Sullenger family!!! 

O, and did I mention it was HOT in St George???

Until we meet again :))

Alex's 4th Birthday party

On June 28th, which was a Saturday, Alex had his birthday party at the Little Gym. He had 13 friends and cousins that came to celebrate with him. Kids had  a lot of fun (and some adults did too!).

At first they played on the red mat and I was very grateful that the Little Gym staff planned and led the whole party.

They played hide and seek.

They jumped on the big inflatable trampoline.
And, of course, Alex got his favorite ice cream cake: cotton candy SpondeBob Squarepants.
It was delicious and we all fully enjoyed the cake.
Then Alex got to open all the cool presents that his friends brought. He liked every one of them (it's nice to be 4 and simply be happy to get anything!).
After the party, all the kids got "party favors"- Kinder surprise, which is a German chocolate egg that has a toy hidden inside of it. They also each got a balloon to go home with.
Alex's party was a huge success and we all got to share the excitement with him. The best part for me personally was that I didn't have to plan, buy, organize, or clean anything! It was great considering the circumstances. Happy Birthday, dear Alex! We all love you very much! You are such a great little boy and we love spending time with you every day!

Alex's Little Gym graduation

Last week Alex graduated from his Little gym once again. This was his second semester attending the Little gym and we've seen a huge improvement in his physical skills. This semester lasted 4 months and at the beginning of it Alex was afraid to walk on the beam or to hang off of the monkey bars. Well, we've seen such a great improvement during this semester that we have no doubt the Little gym helped Alex tremendously in improving his athletic skills.

He learned to walk on the beam by himself and even turn 360 while on it.

Dave was teaching him to keep "strong" arms while hanging on the bar.

He even learned to hang upside down and do a flip on the bar (with the help of his instructor).

He performed one more time on the beam.
His favorite trick was to run very fast and jump over this rounded mat. He did it over and over and got really good at it.

At the end of the class every kid had to show his favorite trick. Alex demonstrated a donkey kick to everybody.
He got a medal for it and thought that he won (we won't tell him otherwise :)
It was amazing to me to see how 4 months of seemingly easy-going gym lessons taught Alex so much. I'm really glad we took him there and I appreciate all of his amazing instructors that were so patient with him and taught him so much!

Picnic in the mountains

Last weekend we spontaneously got together with some friends, grabbed everything from the fridge and the pantry and went to the mountains to have a picnic. We first tried the Spruces but the snow there, although dirty and melting, was still 3-4 feet high, believe it or not! So we drove back down the Big Cottonwood canyon and stopped at Storm mountain. That place is gorgeous, it has a mountain river right by it and very nicely maintained picnic tables and fire pits. When we got there and settled, Nico gave me a ride on his sweet-looking bike. I really liked it, although I used to be afraid of motorcycles :((

We all relaxed while our shashlik (shishkabob) was cooking.
Look at that beauty! Doesn't it look delicious? (By the way, Carine and Randall, it WAS delicious).
The kids found a little green caterpillar that they were playing with.

Needless to say, it didn't survive for very long... Good thing they're still young and don't understand that they killed it :)

Alex and Ava had a lot of fun together. They were posing for me on a huge log.

Then the adults were posing. And here is our beautiful fire :)

A close up of all of us.
The kids went out to explore the area, they even found these huge sticks that made them look like real hikers.

It was a great outing, we all enjoyed it a lot. It's not a surprise that by the end of it the kids had dirty faces- at least they got to explore to their heart's desire :))

We liked hanging out in the nature so much that this weekend we're already going back out there!!!

Last day in Maui

Our last day in Maui... Sad but at the same time hopeful. Time to come back home and also a promise that we will definitely be back.

My main achievement during this trip was that I didn't get sunburned even once! The rest of my family did. I attribute it to 2 things: lots of sunscreen and a big hat! This made it for the happiest vacation ever!!! 

After we checked out of our condo we still had a whole day ahead of us, the plane wasn't leaving until 9:40pm. We visited the local farmers market and I immediately regretted that we didn't come there at the beginning of our trip.

We then decided to take a drive along the North shore of the island. This is the view that we saw there. Very serene, beautiful and peaceful. The road gradually became a one-way road with the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. Two cars going opposite directions couldn't pass each other at the same point. I must admit my heart was pounding the whole time and my mom started to feel dizzy.

At the end of the road we came to a small village. It was amazing to see tourists there- people are fearless to drive on that narrow windy one-way road.. A local guy was selling leis and we would've bought some but we ran out of cash. So instead he just gave us some flowers and small flower arrangements- local people are very kind.  It made our day!

 
This is a green church that Nan and Brent told us about. I was surprised to find out that Nan actually went on that road. I myself almost had a heart attack every time I would see a car approaching us in the opposite direction!
On the way back we were looking for the blowhole. We stopped for another family photo.
Although we didn't find the blowhole but we all finally saw whales!!! There were at least 4 of them. They were blowing water and babies were jumping out of water. This is an incredible experience every time!
In the afternoon we got sucked in to yet another Marriott presentation. That resort is beautiful and would be worth buying into if circumstances were different. We came VERY close to buying it but decided to sleep on it. Meanwhile, Alex was happy playing in their kid's pirate pool. We didn't have his swimsuit with us so he just ran around in his underwear :) 

In exchange for listening to Marriott presentation we received $150 gift certificate so we spent the rest of the last day shopping and eating out. That was well worth it! Tired, we came to the airport and our flight was flawless. 

Aloha! We will be back, Maui!!!

A day of shopping

Tuesday in Hawaii we decided to dedicate to shopping. We needed to get some souvenirs and other minor things and also wanted to see what was there that we might like. 

Alex saw us all reading on the lanai every day and he got the idea! He was "reading" a book there too. I have to say I miss reading a book while listening to waves, birds and being just comfortable enough: not too hot and not too cold. It's a magical environment there. The wind doesn't let you get too hot and the temperature consistently stays at 85 during the day and 69 at night. We didn't have air conditioning in the units and it was the best possible solution. I think air conditioning there would make it too cold due to high humidity. When we went to tour Maui Marriott the air conditioning in their units made me miserably cold. 

We went to the Front St of Lahaina to do our shopping. The first thing we did was buy some fresh flower leis since we realized that we only had 2 days left in Hawaii and we still hadn't bought any leis! The lady who sold them was so nice that she gave Alex a lei for free!!! I noticed that people who live in Hawaii are very nice, friendly, care-free and always appear to be happy. How do they do it? I guess I'll have to move there to find out. At least this is the impression I got from my 3 trips to the Hawaiian islands so far. They're not by any means rich, they sell souvenirs on the streets that they often make themselves right then and there but they appear to have no cares in the world. Amazing!

This wooden sculpture was made by one of these sellers. He spent 5 weeks making it. The details on it are incredible! The quality is 100% better than any "made in china" souvenir you could ever buy. I think that souvenirs like this one make most sense, they are real, authentic, made in front of your eyes by people who live in Hawaii. He was asking $4500 for it. You can put a lamp behind it to create a magical effect (the eyes, nostrils and mouth are cut out so the light would shine through). I really did wish that I had that kind of money. First, I could help this amazing artist and second, I could have this one of a kind, authentic souvenir in my home to remember of my trip forever.

We had lunch at Dave's favorite restaurant- Cheeseburger in Paradise. He had one of those, I ordered a portabello sandwich (which was delicious!) and my mom said she wanted anything as long as it didn't have any bacon in it. So what did we order for her? BLT! I don't know how it happened but when she got her food she just looked at piles of bacon with disbelief. Sorry, mom! I don't know what happened... Nevertheless, it was delicious and she fully enjoyed her meal.
This is a little beach next to the restaurant and it had little crabs that would come out of their houses, run quickly towards water but as soon as they saw any human being they would quickly run back to their homes. We watched them for a while. So cute!

Koi pond at the Wharf's shopping place. Alex played there for a while while Dave and I talked to a Marriott guy.

This is my mom's new dress that she bought on Front St. We also got her a flower (for her hair) that was made by a local out of soft clay and looked just like a real flower (I got one too). He gave us an incredible deal. People in Hawaii are very kind.

The first time during our stay it started pouring rain. The sun was still shining bright.
It didn't stop Alex from going swimming. Dave had to drag himself there with him. Although later they told me that it was the best swim of the week- water was very warm and the rain didn't bother them at all. 

After a short but powerful rain storm we all went outside. I walked on the rocks looking for crabs and little fish (and I found plenty), Dave snorkeled with turtles, Alex and babulya sat on the shore watching the ocean.

Tomorrow is our last day in Hawaii. We leave here in the late evening so more pictures and adventures are coming!