Hawaii Part 1: Kauai

Before I begin my Hawaii post I must express my extreme exuberance for the birth of little Avery Nicole Bradford!! I haven't gotten to meet her yet or really talk to her mom due to being in the mountains! BUT I have seen pictures of that precious little dark haired child and LOVE her already!!!! I am headed to meet her in person and see Rox as a mommy asap after we get back!

Ok now Hawaii.....today ended our first half of our trip to Hawaii! We are staying with some friends of Lance's family who live here and they took us all over Kauai (one of the islands) and it was awesome! They call it "The Garden Island" and it was beeeeautiful. We went snorkeling the first day and happened upon 20+ sea turtles! It was one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. They were surrounding us in every direction and we were so close we could touch them! We also saw a seal chilling on the beach. We saw an eel as well which was not cool to me and freaked me out(these are on the waterproof so I won't be able to post yet). We went ziplining through the trees, went on a dinner cruise of the napoli coastline (the prettiest place I have seen in my entire life), and then headed back to what we coined "turtle beach" for some more turtle action. We flew back to Oahu tonight. We are back at our friends house now so I thought I would send a few pics into the blog world. We are headed out tomorrow to the North Shore for some yummy seafood, a trip to the set of LOST (yaaaaaaaaay), and to the Dole Pineapple Factory. I will hopefully have time to get on later this week and post some of those pictures. Ok that's all for now.....enjoy the pictures.

Lance & I today after a fun day of snorkeling! Note: as the trip progresses I am getting LESS tan b/c my "airbrush tan" is wearing off! NOT how things are supposed to go!
Just some of the pretty beach.

Nice little waterfall we saw on a hike.

"Puff the Magic Dragon"....ya know from that song? This is the dragon they were talking about in the song....I think the guy was high or something....can you see the dragon!? :)

Some more pretty scenery shots.

My favorite thing so far! This was so pretty in real life...the waves were crashing onto these rocks!


Me & Lance by a waterfall.

The girls at the resort on our first day in Kauai!

Our authentic Hawaiian juice they served us on the flight from Honolulu to Kauai!

Spinner Dolphins! They were soooo cute and we learned that they are the most promiscuous dolphins and mate 50+ times a day...and when they are not mating they are eating. I think every guy on the boat wished they were a spinner dolphin! :)

Sunset on out Dinner Cruise! Pretty huh!?

Us on the ledge, it was about to rain and the sky looked so cool! The pic doesn't do it justice.

Check out the water! SO BLUE!

We happened upon this little grave yard and I was fascinated! It was behind a trash dump and totally abandoned. Most of the graves were written in some type of tribal language and were over 100 yrs old! This poor guy just had a wooden cross with some writing on it.

Lance today in front of some awesome hills!

1 year down!!!

I am officially a second year graduate student!!! I am so happy, as this year was SUPER DUPER hard! We are off to Hawaii tomorrow and I got a camera to take so I will post soon with tons of pictures!!!

There is a Holiday for that!?

So I just learned that today, April 20th is "National Look Alike Day". Who knew that was a holiday? I have decided that this is a twin holiday and am going to celebrate if from now on!! :)

Here is a pic of me and my own look alike! I bet you wish you had a twin huh??

Camping pics!

Ok so Betho hasn't sent me the pics we took of the cupcakes but be looking for a post that looks like a picture of a bunny that melted and then got run over by a car and you are at the right place! But for now here are a few pics of our WONDERFUL camping trip! I look forward to this trip each year b/c it is always so much fun and so nice to get away for a little while and hang out with so many people I love! However, we SO missed the Bradford family. I can't remember the last trip I had without Rox and it was just not the same. But of course little miss Avery's safety comes first and I don't think Rox wanted to end up having her baby in a tent....so it was probably best that she listened to her doctor and stayed home.

It was kinda cloudy but hardly rained and we were able to stay outside all day and hang out. We ate a LOT too and is was awesome! I have been slacking on my cooking and on these trips I get to be the kid again and have people cook for me, that's the best kind of cooking!

Little Josiah is not so little anymore either and it was so fun to have him at his first camping trip. I kept imagining how crazy this trip is gonna be when we all have kids and there are like 15 little ones running around the campsite!

It was hard to leave and go back to Lubbock so far away from everyone but every day that passes of grad school makes me that much closer to getting done! Oh what a glorious day that will be! However, as crazy as Tech is I am really starting to find my niche in this field and really do enjoy some parts of speech pathology. I have been really fascinated lately with cleft palates and helping families deal with this with their little ones and am kinda thinking that's what I wanna do when I get out. However, it changes everyday and I bet next month I will want to do something different!

Ok that's all for now I am off to bed. Well off to watch Friends on DVD until I fall asleep!

The whole group after church on Easter Sunday!

Some of the girls hanging out on some rocks.

I put this one up here so you could see that sweet little face! I LOVE that little man!!

Lance somehow managed to get down there and then couldn't get up. It was priceless watching my Dad & Cody try to pull him up!

I wish I had some more pics but my camera is still broken and I just use what other people give me. But I WILL fix it soon!

Posts and pics to come!

Hello again blog world! Lance & I were cursed with the worst stomach bug eaither one of us have had in a looooong time & I have been out of comission for over a week! We got back from camping last Sunday and were almost instantly sick. But I have lots of pics of the trip & Betho and I made the cupcakes that I promised. However, they were a DISASTER! But I will post pics of them soon too. But for now I have to make up for lost time and get tons of stuff done today!

Camping fun & cupcakes!

Ok so I know I promised to post my fondant cupcakes on the blog....but I have YET to have time to make fondant icing! I think I was aiming a little high with fondant in grad school! BUT I am definitely making these on Thursday with Betho. We are all going on our traditional Easter camping trip Friday and Lance and I are going to Austin Thursday to stay with the Girod's so we can all go together Friday to Pedernalis Falls! I am soooo excited. Anyway, these cupcakes are so easy and I really will post these on Thursday night after we make them! Aren't the so cute!! Happy Spring!!

Here is the recipe!
container (16 ounces) vanilla frosting
2 cups flaked coconut
12 unfrosted cupcakes
12 plain donut holes
12 large marshmallows
6 pink jelly beans, halved crosswise
Chocolate sprinkles
Miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS
1. Tint frosting pink or blue, using 4 drops red or 4 drops NEON blue food color. Place coconut in resealable plastic bag. Add 4 drops red or 4 drops NEON blue food color to coconut in bag; shake until coconut is evenly tinted.

2. Spread top of each cupcake with tinted frosting. Press each cupcake into tinted coconut to cover top completely. Spread donut holes with remaining frosting. Press a donut hole into top of each cupcake to form the bunny’s head.

3. For the ears, cut a 1/4-inch slice off the flat ends of each marshmallow to make 24 slices. Dip cut sides of the marshmallow slices into the coconut until completely covered. (Reserve remaining marshmallow pieces.) Attach 2 marshmallow slices to the head of each bunny with frosting to create ears.

4. Press a jelly bean half into the face for the nose and sprinkles for the whiskers. Use the chocolate chips for the eyes. Press the plain marshmallow pieces into the cupcake for the belly.

World Autism Awareness Day

Being in the field that I am preparing to be in I have been more than touched by the families and children affected by Autism. I have had the opportunity to get to know a few families very well that have struggled every day for years trying to cope and understand their child who is affected by this difficult disorder. Although these kids are different and stand out from their peers they have something so special as well. They have things to offer that typical children can't and if you really take the time to get to know them they are such unique, kind hearted, special kids!

I have no idea what it must be like to have the huge job of raising a child with Autism. These parents are not only parents, but are required to take on the role of advocate, doctor, therapist ect. They work so hard for their children and I have so much respect for these parents! I know God hand picks special people to take on this job and although I want this to be a disorder of the past as soon as medically possible, the fact of the matter is that 1 in every 150 kids will fall on the Autism spectrum and for now it is very real. There are SO many parents out there that work so hard every day of their lives juggling careers, marriages, and trying to be the best parents they can be to their children. Some of these parents are doing everything they can think of for their child and are seeing little to no change. I can't imagine that frusturation!

Please just take a few minutes to pray for peace and happiness for these children, for wisdom and a God given peace of mind for their parents and for the medical professionals working to find a solution to this problem that is getting bigger and bigger every year.

I am so thankful for these wonderful people and will never forget the relationships I have been able to form with these families! Please know how wonderful and special these kids are and make sure you treat these amazing people and families with the respect they deserve. God knew what he was doing when he created each and every one of us and although we are all significantly different we are what HE made us and that means we are wonderfully and perfectly made.

If you don't really know much about Autism and want to learn a little more this is a great website! http://www.autismspeaks.org/

“Let the little children come to me,
and do not hinder them,
for the kingdom of heaven
belongs to such as these.”
Matthew 19:14