HAPPY BIRTHDAY KC!!!

Happy birthday, sis. As you can see, Kaycee will always be young, hip, and just plain fabulous.

YOUNG love

So Veda comes to my bedside this morning and says "Mom, my wish came true! I dreamed that Lukey D. came to my house to play. He came in and said "Veda where are your toys?" and then we played. But then he turned into a girl...and my heart was broken."

Lukey D. is a little boy at Veda's preschool. She just started going there the beginning of February and ever since all we have heard about is Lukey D. At first I thought it was cute that her favorite friend was this cute little local boy. Then she started saying Lukey D. rubs her back during rug time. At this point I started wondering if this is normal for preschool.

This morning when I took her in to school the teacher was gathering the kids for rugtime (their structured learning time when they all sit on the rug together and listen to a lesson) Veda wouldn't sit down. I told her to go sit down on the rug and she whispered in my ear "I want to wait until Lukey D. sits down so I can sit next to him." When I picked her up a little girl came running up to me and said "Auntie, Lukey D. wants to kiss Veda!!" I thought I was going to pass out. I didn't even have a second thought about kissing a boy until I was in 5th grade!!! Flashes of a pregnant 12 year old Veda flashed before my eyes. When we got in the car she said "Mom, I'm going to kiss Lukey D." GULP!

IS THIS NORMAL??? How do I handle this? Do I totally blow it off? Or tell her that she is too little to kiss boys? I don't want to make a "deal" out of something that is no big deal. Do I give her a talk, or let the phase pass on it's own?

Please - mothers who have dealt with this, tell me what to do!

Dude - we are going on FAIRYTALE DETOX. No more Disney Princess movies for a year.

our latest adventures

For Valentine's Day I had the bright idea to go on a romantic Napali sunset/ whale watching cruise. After reading my last post about being extremely prone to motion sickness you might ask "why KC, would you put yourself on a boat in the Pacific Ocean in winter conditions?" I asked myself that very question as I was ralphing over the side of the boat while my Valentine looked on sympathetically.

First, I have never seen the Napali coast - the Northern coastline of Kauai only accessible by hiking in, or by boat or helicopter. It is the coastline used in the Jurassic Park movies. I thought I had myself covered by taking a Dramamine 2 hours before boarding the boat. When the captain said that the water conditions were very rough with 20 foot swells and he didn't know if we would make it all the way to Napali I knew I might be in trouble. I was ok until about 2 hours into the cruise when we got to Napali and they stopped the boat and we just sat there rocking to and fro, to and fro, to and fro for several minutes. I knew I was doomed.

Despite the sickness we did see several whales - a first for me and soooo exciting! And Napali did not disappoint. It was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. No words can describe it. Truly some of God's best work. Here are some photos. The first is a professional photo I downloaded just to give you an idea of what the entire coast looks like.


It was a hazy day so the colors aren't so vivid. It was totally awesome though.




This is as much of a smile I could muster up as we swayed to and fro, to and fro. OH THE SWAYING!!!!

This one Travis took while on a camping trip on Napali



This is as close as we'll ever be to the forbidden island of Ni'ihau. It is a small island about 15 miles off the coast of Kauai. It is owned by the Robinson family and is inhabited by native Hawaiians. No visitors are allowed. I have met some people from there who come over to Kauai. Even if you marry a Ni'ihau native, you cannot visit the island.

As for the whale watching, this is something I have always wanted to do. I have never seen a whale in the wild before. It was so amazing! These are Pacific Humpbacks. By law we have to stay 100 yards away from them, so these photos aren't great. On our way back from Napali a mother and calf surfaced right in front of us. I was already to sick to grab my camera, but they were so gorgeous.


That concludes the Napali sunset cruise. We came off the cruise minus Travis' sunglases (blown right off his head) and my lunch, but plus an unforgettable adventure.

This is a light house in Kilauea we visited a couple weeks ago. It is so gorgeous!

7 little known facts about Kaycee

Torrey tagged me a while back and I still haven't thought of 7 things I'm willing to share about myself. Most of them are too embarrassing.


#1. My favorite place in the world to be is in my bed. I look forward to going to bed. I get in bed and cuddle up and say "Ahhhh, I LOVE my bed!" Sometimes I wake up in the night just to think "I am so comfortable. I absolutely love being in bed." And in the morning I dread getting out. I will usually wake up with the girls, turn on some cartoons, and go back to bed until they come in and get me up again. I don't usually go back to sleep, I just want to lay in my bed some more.

This goes way back to when I was a baby. Even before I could talk, I would lead my mom into my room and point up to my crib. I started sleeping through the night when I was just a newborn and I never protested going to bed as a kid.

#2. I am really prone to motion sickness. Again, this goes way back. I even get motion sick in movie theaters. If I want to see a movie, I have to take a Dramamine. And even THEN, I might get sick. This made for some really great date nights back in the day! :)

#3. People often ask me how I stay so thin. And here's the ugly truth - I don't try.
I never exercise. I eat whatever I want, although I am attracted to healthy foods naturally. I just was blessed with a really great metabolism. And I don't often feel hungry. I get this from my Dad. He can go an entire day and forget to eat. I do this often too. I will look at the clock and it's 3:00 and realize I haven't eaten anything all day. I just don't FEEL hungry! But even when I do eat, I don't gain weight.


#4. I have this weird habit - I "play" violin constantly. If I am holding Travis' hand, or have my hand on his leg, he will ask me "what song are you playing?" Because I am tapping my fingers on him to the fingerings of violin pieces. I don't even realize I'm doing it and don't know how often I do it - but probably more often than not. And it's not just pieces I've played on my violin - it can be something I heard on the radio, or a song I have in my head.


#5. I have never really been a beach person. Travis loves the beach, the girls love the beach, but after about an hour I am bored and ready to go home. So I decided if I'm living in Hawaii, I would need to take up a beach hobby of my own so I can become a beach person. So I have decided to take up shell collecting. It is really working so far. It's that variable success rate that makes it a little addicting. You never know what you might find! My goal is to find enough of my own shells to have a shell lei made with them.


#6. I have always been into body piercing. When I was in high school my mom wouldn't let me get a second hole in my ears, so I pierced my own ears with earrings and a potato. I pierced my own ear 4 times so I had 3 holes in each ear. In college I got my belly button pierced and the cartilage of my ear twice. And just last year I got the rook of my ear pierced (a cartilage part in the upper inner ear). I love it. I have never regretted any of my piercings. I think eyebrow rings, nose rings, and the ones people have on their lip or chin like a mole are really pretty. If I could go back, I would have my nose or one of the lip mole things done. I think I am too old now. Bummer.


#7. After 8 years of marriage I am still crazy in love with my husband. I get excited when I hear his car coming or when we are going to visit him at work. I still get butterflies when we kiss. And I still look at him and think he is the most handsome man I have ever seen.

iphone pics

I just downloaded the pictures from my phone. There are some noteworthy events to share, and I never pass up an opportunity to embarrass family members.

This is Pierce Brosnan shopping in Borders. (Pictured from the rear, not a bad view though.) He wandered into the children's section while my friend and I were there with our kids. She got brave as he was leaving and said "Bye Pierce". He looked at us and said "Bye ladies" in a voice so deliciously sexy that it almost made our clothes fall right off. I was hoping he would have taken the opportunity to say to us "The name's Bond, James Bond" but I'll settle for "Bye ladies".
Travis and I saw him the next day at Costco too! He is a resident of the island.

We had way too much fun with this wig we found at my brother Taylor's house.





Hat shopping - I really should have gotten one of these. The nights have been chilly here in the tropics.


The Milne cousins at the movie theater. We saw "Enchanted" - super cute film.


I took the kids to the Shangai Circus while Travis was working some long hours. The talent was incredible but the budget was low. We sat in the first row and had a great time being awed and amazed. The acrobats were just as good as the ones in Cirque Du Soliel shows, but they didn't have the fancy music, costumes, makeup, and props. We were pretty excited to get such a show on our little island though.

This was similar to the "strong men" in the Cirque show Mystere. They were really good, but they weren't painted gold OR on a rotating surface.

These girls were spinning little plates on top of sticks. Amazing enough right? No, they then started doing acrobatics while keeping the plates all spinning!



This girl was balancing tiers of tiny glasses full of water on her nose.


Veda, Eve, and our little buddy Pheonix at a Peace Rally celebration on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It was fun. They had African drumming, speakers, and a table where the kids could make a peace flag,

Home again, home again, rig-a-jig-jig

It was a great trip, but it feels good to be back in our own home and on our beautiful island. We miss our families a lot, but we had a warm welcome from our pets, Haui and Choco.

To the kids' delight, when we arrived home, we found that Santa had left one big present here at our house. I guess he knew we couldn't have taken this one home with us on the airplane. It is a huge hit!

We need some lessons on the rules of the road. Veda loves to drive full speed while looking up at the sky. Hello! Poor Eve sits innocently in the passenger side holding on for dear life.

It even has a real radio that plays the Disney station. Too cute!

Veda snuggling with her animals. She missed them a lot. Choco had really grown while we were gone!

On to our next stop...

The next leg of our tour took us to Las Vegas to see my side of the family. Travis had to get back to work and flew back to Kauai from Pheonix. Here are some of the highlights.


This is the cutest little stinker I have ever seen. Her name is Pepper. Santa brought her to my nephews, Cal and Liam. She is adorable, but lots of trouble. For some reason, she really loved to chew on Eve.




We had a rip-roaring wild family New Year's Eve party complete with lil smokies (compliments of Veda and Emma) and Martinelli's.




We had such a great time and really squeezed as much fun and family time in as we could. Thanks everyone! We miss you!!!