father's day celebration

i'm convinced this past father's day was just great!

simple, fun and incredible food.

we last minute got as much as we could together in the family and put our two cents in to make it great.

elise blogged better about this day then i did... so you can check hers out for more details/pics.

elise made dad's favorite coconut and

carrot cake {gluten free} from scratch.

i ate all the leftovers.

i decorated.

some mustaches, the table, the {thank you} cards we all filled out for dad that he read aloud... picture further down...

my mom made an incredible dinner

drew BBQ'd the dinner so dad didn't have to

dad showed up and made us laugh

jack spent 15 minutes to make this for his papa

bree made the cobbler

then we played games

dad napped

jack's quote of the day,

"when is it 'happy kid's day'???"

such a great holiday for a happy dad!

my little schnookums.

what we have been up to lately...

- beach days everyday

- then to the pool after

- getting more sun kisses

- lots of popcicles

- tons of kisses; unsolicited and solicited.

- lots of laundry

- nose scrunches

- snuggles

- bedtime stories with flashlights

- making paper airplanes

- traveling on airplanes...

just the usual.

we love summer.

garland

found on etsy here.

not sure if i've ever seen a cuter garland.

yep, no i haven't.

pool day with best friend

last week, my bestie and i took our boys to lunch and then swimming at my community pool. it has a mini-waterpark so the boys got a lot of their wiggles out :)

childhood friends and our kids

our friend jamie spencer came into town for a wedding, so my friend jessica got us together for a small surprise baby shower for her baby girl coming in a week!

we met at dana point harbor for breakfast. so good to see some of our childhood friends like brit and michelle.

i love putting our kids together!

mine.jessica's.jamie's baby boys

paradise is on earth

 last week, i was invited to hawaii. 

so i have never been to this heaven on earth, so this was my first time.  

let me just start this post off with, i have island fever.

i miss this place so, so, so, so, so much.

i am so grateful for this amazing family taking me here.

here are some pictures and i'll try my best to add some words... all 49 pictures.

 brady picked me up from the airport. i was in complete shock of how i was in hawaii.  he and his family gave me my first lei!  so sweet!

 this was our view from the home... on the north shore.

so beautiful!

 these dogs were hilarious.  

we would have random people bring them to us from beaches miles south. 

kappua and feona. the dogs came with the house.

 one of the days we went on a bike ride to turtle bay with his parents. we stopped by the coolest farmer's market that had exotic fruit, coconuts and the coolest locals!  we played beach volleyball, played at the beach, had an amazing time and even saw the poly culture center show that night!

 acai bowls and shaved ice!!

  we went snorkeling in shark's cove!

so the sea cucumbers in hawaii are hard and not squishy! 

so weird!

  we had such a fun time! 

i went for some runs that were the best! i felt like i was in a dream running through the trees and on the beach and stepping on plumeria flowers.  loved it!

 on sunday we went to church by campus.

yep, got to sit next to this handsome fella.

 we stopped by the temple and took some pictures.

it was so beautiful.

after we stopped by the pearl harbor memorial. 

this day was beautiful.

we played games, made food, i attempted to make a coconut cake that almost failed many times, made some shish kabob fruits with swedish fish on the ends, went on a family hike, saw that china hat island, stand-up paddle-boarded... almost died SUpaddle-boarding, put sunscreen on brady poorly..

visited DOLE

made some memories i'll never forget.

i love this place.  cannot wait to go back.