Have You Heard About the New Pirate Movie? It's Rated AAARRRRR!

On Saturday Brett surprised us by taking us to Pirate Island, a new theme restaurant in Orem.  While they were building it, I was expecting something close to Chuck E. Cheese, but with a pirate theme instead.  Boy was I wrong.  Even just walking in, we knew they had done an awesome job.  The front of the restaurant had a huge rock waterfall with a pirate skeleton in the middle surrounded by jewels, a palm tree with a parrot, skeletons in cages hanging from the ceiling, and more.

From time to time a skeleton would raise out of the waterfall, and the pirate in the middle would talk.  Kennedy was entranced by all of this, but was too short to see over the wall.  She compensated by getting on her tip toes.

When the pirate started talking, she even pushed her way through the crowd so she could watch.

They had some awesome maps on the wall too.

They seated us in the bayou section of the restaurant which had trees hanging down and some really cool lanterns.  We were right next to the huge ship in the middle of the restaurant.  Periodically there would be a thunderstorm and the skeleton captain would talk, and sometimes the cannons would go off.

There was an arcade in Skull Mountain, which actually was a huge rock skull you had to walk through.  It was awesome because all of the noise was hidden while you were eating.  They also had a play area for kids.

The food was good, the atmosphere was awesome, and Kennedy had a blast.  We loved it!

Hand/Eye Coordination: A Skill That Must Be Learned

The last time we had a doctor's appointment for Kennedy we were asked if she could use a fork and spoon.  I guiltily answered no, because she never has an opportunity.  The few times that I had given her silverware, it was a disaster.  Food everywhere and I'm pretty sure that she got almost none of it in her mouth.  But, I suppose that she has to learn sometime, right?  Today I decided that she needed some lessons in using a fork, so I gave her one during lunch.

She definitely made a mess.  The table, her booster seat, the floor, although I was happy to note that there was way less on herself and the floor than I was expecting.  She also hasn't quite gotten used to the bowl idea, so a lot of the noodles got dumped out onto the table.  She was concentrating very hard.

We don't have any baby forks yet, so the one she was using was a little bit too big for her little hands and she had a hard time deciding which way of using it was best.

It was a big mess, but it wasn't the worst mess I've had to clean up.  So I guess from here on out she's going to be getting a lot more practice.  And hopefully those skills will be learned very quickly.  Now if I could only get her potty trained.

Fresh Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dear Camera,

I really wish you wouldn't keep randomly switching settings on me.  The pictures of Kennedy with the chocolatey face all came out blurry.  I was so sad!

Unsavvy camera user

Dear Government,

Please hurry up and give us that waiver!  I really don't think that a baby in the womb should count as a dependent, but whatever.  Just give us a date soon, we are sick of waiting!

Impatient wife

Dear Kennedy,

I really hope that my attempts to switch you over to one nap a day will take.  You have been refusing that second nap, so please take one long nap.  I will love you anyway, but it will make my life easier.

Your mommy

Dear Baby in My Tummy,

Why do you feel it necessary that mom has to sleep so much?  Kennedy wasn't that picky.

Preggo

Dear Timpanogos Hospital,

If I never see you again, it will be too soon.  I have had 4 blood tests and a shot in a little over a week.  I don't want to be poked again any time soon.

Shot hater

Movies with Kids

We took Kennedy to the movies this afternoon.  I was kind of worried about it because she is a very busy little kid, but she did really well!  She started getting antsy after the first half of the movie, but she was still very good and didn't make much noise at all.  She ate all of our popcorn and stuffed the rest into our mouths and drank pretty much all of our Sprite.  She is a bottomless pit!  And that is why I am late picking a winner for the giveaway.  Please forgive me.  So without further ado, the winner is...Heidi!  Congratulations!

Last One for a While

I have one last cookbook to give away: Secrets of Slow Cooking.

It's a beautiful book, and I know someone is really going to enjoy it.  Remember that Noelle won both of the last two books, so we need some people to comment on this post!  That's all you have to do in order to win.  I'll be picking the winner at random on Thursday at 4:00.  Good luck to all of you!

My Favorite Part

Hawaii was great, and there were tons of awesome things that I could nominate to be my favorite part.  Taking Kennedy to the beach was awesome and she had so much fun.  Having Roy's molten lava soufflé, which is pretty much my favorite dessert ever, was great.  Being with my family was fun, and hearing Kennedy learn new words like "woohoo" and "chicken" was fantastic.  But I have to say that my favorite part of Hawaii was the positive pregnancy test.  Yes, you read that correctly.  We're going to have another addition to our family!  We are so excited for Kennedy to have a baby brother or sister in March.  And although I am getting bigger much faster this time around, I know it will be fun to feel the movement again in a few weeks.  We will also be moving around a little bit while I'm pregnant, but I'm sure that it will be fine.  Brett is a wonderful father who takes care of us so well, and I know he'll do everything he can to make me comfortable.  I'm so excited to share my news with you all!

Beach Babe

We've been in Hawaii for almost 2 weeks and I haven't put up any view shots or beach pictures!  So here they are.  This is the view from our hotel room.  The beach is just beyond those trees.  We can see the water, but even though it isn't really a beach view, the grounds are very nice.

There are a few pools to choose from, and Kennedy has enjoyed them all.  She loves the jacuzzi and she also loves the beach.  She thinks it's so fun to have the waves come and hit her feet.  Her little beach outfit is killer cute too.

I love that hat.  And we bought her some Crocs the other day.  Brett tried them on her and when I took them off she got mad.  How could we not buy them?  Plus, they look so cute on her.

I couldn't get any good pictures of Brett and Kennedy just standing there on the beach because Kennedy wouldn't smile and Brett kept trying to get her to smile.  But they look cute nonetheless.

And she just has a blast every time she gets in the water.  She laughs and smiles and could care less that the water is cold sometimes.  She just wants to jump right in!

She always wants to lift her feet up in the water for some reason, so we always have to keep a good hold of her.

We're having a great time here in Hawaii, but we are leaving on Friday evening.  We'll be back in Provo on Saturday morning.  And although it will be sad to leave the beach, it will be nice to be home and to see Lucy again.  Brett will be swearing into the Coast Guard this coming Monday too, which is exciting because then we will know when we will be leaving Utah.  We have some exciting things ahead of us!

Hawaiian Wedding

On Saturday afternoon we all headed over to the Hyatt for my mom's wedding.  We all dressed up, and daddy and Kennedy looked very nice.

I even got to wear a pretty flower in my hair.  I could never remember which side meant that you were taken and which side meant that you were single, so the guy told me that if you're taken, you wear it on the same side you wear your ring on.  Very helpful.

The wedding was on a little point overlooking the  beach and was very beautiful.  We couldn't actually hear much of the ceremony due to a lot of wind and the fact that the guy was talking very quietly, but what we did hear was very nice.

Here's mom and Mark after the ceremony listening to the traditional Hawaiian Wedding Song played by a ukelele player.

Here's me, my sister Christine, my mom, Mark, and my brother Blake.  We took tons of pictures afterwards.

Daddy and Kennedy looked so cute walking around while pictures were being taken.

And Kennedy was having a blast.

My uncle Scott had an idea that since Mark was in his Navy uniform they should take a picture with him making all the other guys do push ups.  It turned out pretty cute.

Here are my cousins Hunter and Max (almost 11 and 9 respectively) who wrote a song for my mom and performed it at dinner.  It was very thoughtful and cute.  I wish I had the words.

Mom and Mark cutting the cake that Christine designed.  Although apparently they took some liberties with it and added polka dots that neither my mom nor Christine wanted.  It was a beautiful cake anyway that had lots of flowers cascading down the sides.

Christine caught the bouquet (although she claims that Kennedy actually caught it) and Max caught the garter.  Dinner was delicious and the view of the waterfall at the hotel was beautiful.  Congratulations mom and Mark!