Oh my goodness, we have had so much fun in the last month or so and we are completely wiped out! We had three sets of company in just a few short weeks and loved every minute with them. By the time they all left we were all content to just stay home and do absolutely nothing. We actually just went to the beach for the first time in almost two weeks. (that's a long time for us)
One of the funnest things we did with our company is go to the Sea Life Park on the North East side of the island. We saw a dolphin and sea lion show and were able to feed (and touch, shhhhh) some sea turtles. The girls also loved watching the fish and shark in the giant aquarium and seeing the penguins. It rained on us pretty good at the sea lion show but in true Hawaiian fashion, we sat and enjoyed the show anyway. Ten minutes later we were dry.
Nana, just so you know.... yesterday Addie said, "here Mom, here's Elmo. He's a red boy." It only took a month to set in but she finally got it.

Thursday was Isabelle's birthday and we decided that since she has been talking about it for a month and obviously wants a lot of birthday attention, that we'd have a surprise party for her the night before. We invited friends over and while Justin was gone taking her out for ice cream, we hurry and set up the decorations. When she got back we had all the lights turned out and we were hiding behind the couch. As soon as she came in and saw the decorations she said, "Whaaaatttt???" and we all jumped up and yelled, "SURPRISE!!!" I think she was a little embarrassed but definitely loved the attention. We had dinner and cake with ice cream and played games. She especially loved that she got to have her real birthday the next day. It was like having TWO birthdays!
On her birthday she and I spent a few hours together doing what she wanted to do and going to lunch. I told her she could pick any restaurant she wanted and she could order anything she wanted. We ended up at McDonald's. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. After that she wanted to spend the birthday money her grandmas had sent. I think she learned a good lesson that day about how money never goes as far as you want it to.
Isabelle is a fun, sweet, and happy little girl, still pretty naive and innocent. She still loves to cuddle and have individual attention. She is very good at entertaining herself and makes us laugh every day. We love you Bella! Happy Birthday!

The girls talked Justin into taking them to the new pet store on Saturday. He caved in and bought them a small fish tank and five fish. By the time we got them home, one was dead and another was on the way. By Sunday morning we only had three surviving fish. Justin was nice though and bought two more replacements on Monday. We now have 5 new family members; Pebbles, Boo, Guppy, Frank, and Scaly.
While we were at the pet store, I took Addie over to watch the dogs being groomed. There was a nice, clean looking dog that they were blowing and brushing. They started brushing its legs and I said to Addie, "that's kinda funny, huh?" She squished up her nose and said, "that's gross!" I have to say, I agree. What a job.

Yesterday the girls and I and our friends Katie and Addalyn tried to go see the ancient temple ruins here on the island. We were all excited and prepped the girls to be respectful when we were there, and Katie was planning on teaching them all about it when we arrived. I was glad I'd have new pictures to post that weren't taken at the beach. When we got up there, we were told that the ruins were closed due to heavy rainfall a couple months ago. BUMMER! We spent the rest of the morning- guess where?- checking out a new beach we hadn't been to yet. We didn't have our suits on so we just climbed around the rocks and tried to find some fun sea life. The best thing we saw were some pretty cool crabs crawling around the black volcanic rocks. Haley found some good shells too. The lesson we learned was to always be flexible and have a plan B. (I think the B stands for beach).