Happy birthday!

Happy 8th birthday to my funny, sweet, smart little Benny!

Will's trip - Part 4 - Final Installment

What? Is it Christmas time already? And I'm just barely finishing Will's vacation posts. Well, I am behind. I'd better put the brakes on all of this summer stuff. I'll switch gears after this and rev my engine a few times. I'm pretty sure I'll need an oil change though. (That reminds me, I do need an oil change in my real life car.) All this rain we're having these days has me confused. It doesn't seem like Christmas. Anyway, here are Will's final moments in Hawaii:
He took one last nap on the beach.

Will wanted to bring home some lava rock for his big brother and sisters. But I guess it's bad luck to take lava rock unless you ask the volcano itself if it's OK. We didn't do that so we had to settle on a picture of the rocks and tossed them back onto the beach. (I really wanted to still take the rocks and chance it but the locals there said that people mail the rocks back all the time cause they have bad things happen when they get home. So Brian wouldn't let me or Will bring any back.)

Will said goodbye to the turtles.

He got sandy little toes one last time.

And he watched the sun set in Hawaii for the final time.

It seemed like the next thing he knew, he was back home and hand delivering all of his souvenirs to Elli, Ben and Addie. They were so glad to see him.

I think after Will got home he had sort of a post-vacation low. Cause he wanted me to pull up the hotel webcam ALL THE TIME just to see what was going on there at that moment. Had the sun come up yet? Was it a windy day? Was it busy, or empty? He has finally stopped asking me to pull it up anymore so I think he's settled back into regular life now. It was certainly a once in a lifetime experience and I'm sure this will be a trip that this little guy will never forget...

Will's trip - Part 3

Will was thinking of going on a helicopter ride but he wasn't sure if he'd enjoy it. We thought, you know what - we're here, we might as well do everything we can do, experience every thing we can experience. So we did it.

Will was not impressed when we dressed him up for the ride though:

But seriously, look at those miniature ear covers. They are so cute and tiny!
We are ready!

And.... liftoff!
(Okay, you got me. This wasn't us actually taking off. How could I get a picture of that if I was in it? This is one that left before us. But I'm sure we looked just like it.)

30 seconds after liftoff:

Will fell asleep. He can be such a baby sometimes.

Look at those cute little cows! (I always think cows are cute from far away. Close up they are very un-cute and slimy and nostrily.)

We saw beautiful oceanscapes.

Come on buddy! You're missing the world!

We saw lots of waterfalls.

I started getting a little motion sick near the end. Lots of swaying in front of waterfalls.

Us with our pilot.

Will woke up right after we landed. We later showed him the pictures and, he didn't come right out and say it, but I think he was pretty mad that he missed it all.

Will's trip - Part 2

Will couldn't believe all the sleep time he got on this vacation. He just wanted to leave all his 'work' stuff at home. When he wasn't resting at the hotel,

he was usually lounging on the beach chairs.

He really wanted to go snorkeling but the mask was a tad bit too loose.

He loved to feel the sand between his toes. It keeps looking like he has more toes than he should in this picture but it's the right amount. I counted.

And he also did a little reading to the sound of crashing waves.

Will's amazing trip - Part 1

Ever since he was born, Baby Will has wanted to go to Hawaii. You're supposed to give kids everything they want, right? So we had to go. We went last month. We were having such a beautiful, warm Utah Fall and I thought I would miss all the beauty of it. But it turned out that it was a good time to go. We missed the first official snow storm.

The first thing on Will's agenda - was to take a nap.

Aren't airplanes so comfortable to sleep in? Aaahhh....
We finally made it to the island of Kona! It was a beautiful 72 degrees there every day. And it wasn't even humid like I imagined. I mean, I definitely noticed that my hands didn't crack and dry up like at home but it wasn't overly moist in the air.

The next thing Will wanted to do was to get his feet into the ocean. He couldn't believe he was actually touching something so vast and expanse.

Three different times, different groups of Taiwanese people wanted to take pictures of Will. A few gestured to hold him and I let them and they took pictures of each other holding him and passed him on to others. I really wish that I would have taken pictures of them taking pictures of him but I was too busy laughing at the craziness of them passing him to the next person to get a picture. I told Brian later that, yeah, if I was in Taiwan, I would probably have the urge to take a picture of a cute little Taiwanese baby but I would never dare. He said, well now you know you can.

By the time the sun set that first day, Will still couldn't believe he was actually in Hawaii.