my girls

I love this photograph. Her hair matches the tree behind her. So pretty!

During the winter a very heavy, wet snow broke this branch off a tree in our backyard. It bloomed even thought it was hanging- snapped in half! It made the prettiest little spot for pictures. I am going to print this one of Simone on canvas! Love.

A happy day in March

We played in this yard last year. I think we may have missed the crocus this year. There were so few compared to last time. We still got a few good pictures though.

Guess what? Spring is here! I took a million pictures last week! I will try to post more.

As soon as I check one client off my list I will blog. That means if I get my act together there will be 15 posts this week! Yep. That is a lot of people. Three of those aren't clients though....but that doesn't mean they aren't waiting...it just means they are at the bottom of the list.

3

(That's the necklace Lincoln bought me when she was born.)

"I not a baby anymore. I growed up when I at Penny's house you in Hawaii."


It's true.

We arrived in Baltimore early in the morning on her third birthday.

Three years. How has that much time passed?


She is my little buddy.
She is my calm.
My Mone-si.
My strength.
My take a deep breath, everything is okay.
My silly.
My little pirate.
My tiny ballerina.
My future star of Annie on Broadway.
My hold me Mommy.
My dishwasher unloader.
My little song bird.
My hold my cheeks when she gives me a kiss.
My cuddler.
My doesn't want to hold hands in the parking lot.
My curly girl.
My short shadow.
My scream her head off when she wakes up.
My good listener.
My errand partner.
My princess of many dresses ( about 6 in an hour).
My velcro.
My ipad navigator.
My sunrise and sunset. (usually)
My Simone Clara.

She's three.

A quick visit...

While we were at the Polynesian Cultural Center (more on that later) we hopped on the tour bus and saw BYU Hawaii and The Hawaii Temple. It was a short visit, but I am glad we made the trip to go see it. It was beautiful. I got to see a very new missionary from Japan bearing her testimony to someone that was on our tour. Hearing the love she has for the temple and the gospel in her voice as she tried her best to speak English was really touching, and of course.....it made me cry a little. =)

We look so weird in this picture. We seem shorter, - or something. Maybe it's because we had just been soaked in a rain storm 30 minutes prior? I can't put my finger on it.



(I have to do a lot of catch up blogging. I am swamped with photography work. My to do list is daunting. I just need to hire another me.

The kids are home for spring break and today the weather was heavenly. The cherry blossoms are out!!! Tomorrow had better be beautiful, because even though I have no time to process them...I am taking tons of pictures. =)

more....

Lincoln's step sister (Sarah) is going to the University of Hawaii, so she was our guide. She was the best!

We hiked Diamond Head.

These two were taken on the way down.

Yes, I am totally saying "You shall not pass!" in this one. =)

In Utah they call it a Sno-cone
In Maryland they call it a Snoball
In Hawaii it's Shave Ice

They are huge! So yummy!

Here's Sarah! <3

Then Sara took us to this "locals only" spot. There was a place to jump into the ocean off the lava cliffs. It was heavenly! The water was calm and it wasn't cold. I swam around for a long time before I got out to jump back in again. While I was on the log the second time the wind really picked up and I thought it was going to blow me right off (to my demise) before I got to the end. The end is where the water was, before that it was all rocks! Obviously I made it. It was such a nice spot, my favorite of the trip.

We were the only people here. I want to live there!

That's me.

Another double rainbow.


We drove back to the hotel and ate dinner right on the beach at a nice restaurant. Then we went to Bubbies and got Mochi. Have you had Mochi before? We love it! We usually get it at our favorite sushi restaurant here, and I recently found it at Trader Joe's! HEAVEN!

Waimea Bay

Dear body surfers and brave swimmers (and people sitting on the sand),

Were you at Waimea Bay in early March 2011? Well- you were in my photographs, so I got rid of you. Don't they look perfect now? It was fun watching you get pummeled by the shore break though.

Sincerely,
Jeri


We rented a jeep for a few days. One day we drove to the Waimea bay, and Lincoln swam in the ocean for a while. The shore break was really crazy, so I just watched. There were some people that had the hardest time getting out of the water, so I am glad I was just sitting there taking pictures. Beautiful spot there.

Then we ate some Thai food, and I thought my drink was the prettiest thing ever. I took a picture and told Lincoln I was going to take the bottle home and use it for something. The waitress took my empty bottle and throw it out. Lincoln made her go get it! =) (Last week my maid tried to throw it out! Come on people---"prettiest thing ever.")




After we ate we went to some fun little shops and art galleries. I loved seeing this guys work HUGE!




We saw the sun setting and drove like crazy to go photograph it. We missed the actual sun dipping down, but the colors were still pretty so I got a few.




Here is our lovely little jeep. That was the best idea ever! Of course it was Lincoln's. =) We had such a blast driving around with the top down!

Quick funny thing...

I have cameras on the brain. I always do, but right now it's really bad. Really bad. I am dreaming and hoping and praying for a camera that is only a rumor right now. It might not even exist! I read rumor blogs everyday! WAITING...for a date so I can plan accordingly.

I talk to Lincoln about this a lot.

We were folding clothes last night. I was gabbing about my camera purchasing plan.

After talking way to much, and weighing pros and cons with myself during a long one sided conversation Lincoln finally replied and said, "Get your mind out of the shutter."

I laughed.

That was a good one.
=)

Double Rainbows

I miss waking up in Hawaii.

I would walk over to the window, slide open the curtain to let in some light and say, "Hello rainbow."

The first time it caught me by surprise, but there was one in the sky four mornings out of ten.

I took lots of pictures of those rainbows, but I thought this one was cool because you can see exactly where the light is shinning through.

Beautiful!

more Hawaii

I think I'll have to use that title like six more times.

I had my nights mixed up. After we went golfing we had a party at 'Iolani Palace. The King's Guard stood on the sides of a long red carpet as we walked on to the grounds. We were welcomed by darling little girls that said, "Aloha"

and placed beautiful leis around our necks. We got to take a tour of the Palace. HP had white paper lanterns hung everywhere, and bright red and golden lights lit the front of the palace. We had hors d'oeuuvres and drinks and listened to a Hawaiian band. It started to rain a little, so Lincoln suggested we start walking to the dinning tent. About 10 steps away it started to POUR on us. I laughed at the people still back at the front of the palace as they started to race toward the tent....screaming. We had a great dinner and listened to some great musicians...oh, and watched these adorable girls hula dance. They were like four to eight years old! Cute! The decor was amazing. Bright red and orange fabric covered the tables, palm fronds were tied behind each chair with fabric, and the center piece was a hundred orange, red, and yellow orchids. There were giant red umbrellas hanging upside down from the ceiling, and orchids and other flowers decorated each corner. It was heavenly!


more tomorrow....

second excursion

We had planned to go kayaking, but the weather was a little rainy and we both wanted to do something else.

At the last minute we decided to go golfing.

I have never been golfing before, and this was a great place for a first game.

HP rented out the entire country club. There were only 24 carts out the entire day, so we rarely saw anyone else. It was so great to drive around in a golf cart in the jungle with my sweetie!

I'll admit it. I only went golfing in paradise so I could take pictures.

Eating our yummy lunches at the 18th hole.

Lincoln swinging on a vine in the jungle!

I was 50% embarrassingly horrible and 50% amazing! No lie. Lincoln did very well. I do want to mention at this point that I am the only one that made it over the water pond on the the signature hole. =)

I need to go find another camera so I can blog about the Luau we had that night. It was out of this world amazing.

Let me tell you about Hawaii......

That about sums it up.














Really though-
The first day was a lazy day. We got there after a long long long flight from Atlanta.
Checked into our hotel, walked on the beach, found a really nice sushi place, went shopping a little, and drank a ton of free pina coladas. (Do I even need to say they were virgin? Who doesn't know that?)



We were in Hawaii because Lincoln is amazing.
HP awarded the top five percent of their sales force with this awesome vacation.
There were people from ALL OVER THE WORLD!
How many years has Lincoln been in sales? ONE
What was that again?...In the top five percent?----Yes that is right.
I am so proud of him!

HP also gave us tons of cool stuff. Each day we got something...or a few things.
The first day we got our free Maui Jim sunglasses. ($500 in free sunglasses!)
Beautiful white embroidered robes.
A plate of yummy fruit. (Pineapple, mango, papaya, clementines, bananas.)
A box of Honolulu Cookie company cookies, and a bottle of Kahlua. (We laughed at that.)
Two Hawaiian shirts.
We got too many Leis to count. I LOVED THEM!
Lincoln got a cool award, and I got a Waikiki coffee table book.
A swim/sport bag with sunscreen, waterproof pouches (for your phone or camera), a hat, a visor, and a HD video camera.
I also won a HP touchpad during a crazy game show thingy.
(I wasn't going to volunteer, but they said anyone who came on the stage would earn their HP partner a 50% quota reduction...so I put one hand in the air, and Lincoln pulled my other arm up fast. I was chosen to go up on the stage in front of 1200 people! I was the only American on my team of 6 people. We won by one point! Of course they were kidding about the quota reduction, but I can't wait to get the touchpad. That is totally going to be for his birthday! He really wanted one.)

We went on two excursions courtesy of HP.

The first was snorkeling.
We were supposed to be on this 70 ft. boat, but they over sold that.
HP got a catamaran for the extra people. We got to go on that! There were like 10 of us!
We saw the other boat while we were in the water, and the people were packed on it like sardines! We were so lucky to get to go on the catamaran!

We had only been out on the water for about five minutes when the driver spotted a school of dolphin. We made our way over to them and they swam around the catamaran for a long time. Lincoln and I were out on the net, and they were right underneath us! We started to count them the best we could...we think there were about 30...maybe more.

(I told Natalia about the dolphins on the phone. She BEGGED me to put one in my suitcase! Lincoln and I laughed so hard!)

We headed over our snorkeling spot. I am really grateful for Lincoln. I kind of freak out (he is the only one that can tell) when I first get in the ocean....it's coldish (it was a rainy day), and it takes me a minute to get used swimming in the waves. He just held my hand so tight, and helped me calm down. Then we were off to find the sea turtles. We saw three! One came up for air right underneath me. I swam over a little so I wouldn't get too close and he ended up about 3 feet from us at the surface! He was the biggest one we saw that day and SO HUGE! We got back on the boat for a yummy lunch and giant cookies! Then we got to sail along the island for another hour. We passed the "big boat" while heading out. They only allowed 25 people in the water at a time, so most of their day was spent waiting. (WE ARE SO LUCKY!!)

Then we had another stroke of luck! We saw a mother humpback whale and her baby! They were about 100 yards from us. It was amazing! We saw one more whale during our time sailing.

UNBELIEVABLE! Once in a lifetime I tell you! I loved that day. =)


I have more to share tomorrow. =)

I love being behind.

I hate this feeling. I have so much to blog about.


I'll do a short blog each day, and then I will be caught up. Maybe.

A while ago. I think the end of February. =) Natalia had her first dance competition. I am so proud of her! So proud. I loved the whole experience. We drove down to Woodbridge, VA and slept in a hotel with our good friends. The girls had a swim in the hotel pool even though we should have put them to bed! Then Maggie and I stayed up very late gluing rhinestones on their costumes. Then we went over to the school in the morning and got all the girls ready together. It was so much fun! I can't wait for the next one! I am really grateful for her teacher...she has done so much for both of us this year. I am learning so much, and so is Talia.

Read Maggie's post here.

16th LOVE

I love love.

This wedding was amazing. This is my niece Aubrey and her new husband Grant. They were sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple on Feb. 12, 2011. The man that sealed them was so intelligent and you could tell he had studied the gospel to great lengths. I learned so much that day, and was reminded of some wonderful things too.

15th love

I love spring. We had two days last week in the 70's!

It snowed last night and the kids have another day off of school---I love that!