Aloha!!

Ok, overload of pictures. But these are from our trip to Hawaii. We went the end of February to Oahu with Homeshield's top ten salesmen and their wives. We had so much fun, we stayed at the Turtle Bay Resort this time, and it was amazing. Baby Shay came with us, and she was seriously the BEST baby the entire trip, even though we discovered days before we left that she had a double ear infection, and when we got back home that she had RSV probably our entire trip! 

Anyways, we had so much fun, and we definitely did not want to come back home, except to get Calvin of course :) But he had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa Butikofer up in Rexburg, or "papa" as Calvin calls both of them. I felt bad that we took Shay and not Calvin, but he had so much fun up in Idaho, that he will never know the difference :) 

  Shay and Berkley loving the beach (in the shade of course!)

 Waimea Bay

 This lookout was so pretty, and we saw whales everywhere! I have never seen a whale before and I could have sat here all day and watched them.

  Waikiki Beach with "Duke"

           Jess and I tried paddle boarding in Waikiki!! It was so fun, and I saw a sea turtle out there!

           This was our hotel view :)

            LOVE the beach!!

                           Luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center

 We found out on February 23 at dinner that Kendra, an employee at Homeshield, and one of my friends passed away in a terrible ATV accident. Kendra and I had become close this past summer in Kansas City. She and I would text all day long, and then she would come over almost every night when she was done working and we'd have some girl time. I have never had someone close to me pass away, so her death has been really hard on me, but I know she is in a better place and can't wait to see her again. I suggested that we throw our leis from the Luau the night before into the ocean to celebrate Kendra. It was a small gesture, but I felt like she knew we had done it, and it gave me such a warm feeling in my heart.

   As we had been letting our leis go for Kendra, we did not realize that Courtney Cox was watching us the entire time! She was nice enough to take a photo with us, and said she was very sorry for the loss of our friend.

 Apparently her show "cougar town" was filming at our resort, because in the lobby we met the actor who plays her ex- husband!

         One final pic of these cute patootie little babies! They both did so well on the trip, but both had RSV when we got home. Poor things :(

Read more...

Thank you kind stranger...

On our way to the airport in Honolulu...( I will post about Hawaii when I have more time!)....we were late. Not surprising. So, Jess had to drop off the rental car and I just told him to drop me and the bags and Shay off at the Delta terminal. Unfortunately in our rush we missed the terminal so I just told him to stop and I would get out and figure it out.
  Little did I realize just how far I was from the Delta terminal. It looked like a mile!! I had two huge suitcases...yeahhh we overpacked juuuust a bit :)....a stroller my ginormous diaper bag and shay in her car seat which unfortunately did not fit into the stroller because it was one of those cheap umbrella ones.
I probably stood there for a good minute just trying to figure something out. I wanted to cry...Shay was crying and I was sweating. Then I did the only thing that made sense.
   I ran about 50 feet with the luggage...then jogged back and grabbed shay in her carseat and pushed the stroller with my other hand. Then I would repeat the process. This was going to take FOREVER. After about 5 mins I was convinced we were going to miss our plane for sure. I was ready to just give up and wait for Jess.
  Suddenly a voice behind me startles me back into reality. A man in his mid thirties and a boy about 6 years old approach me. He has a heavy accent but speaks perfect English. He very kindly says they were going to help me. I hesitate at first and tell him he probably has to catch a plane himself and shouldn't bother..I will be fine. But I am literally holding back the tears flooding my eyes and am sweating profusely. He says no no...they are trying to get back to Peru where they are from and are on standby for at least 5 more hours. They were bored, and really wanted to help me. I am so relieved and he takes both our rolling suitcases and his son pushes the stroller while I carry Shay in her carseat all the way to check in. We chatted along the way, and he even waited and they helped me all the way through the customs check necessary in Hawaii where they scan every bag before it's checked in, and they waited with me all the way through the line until I was at the desk to check in.
 I gave him the biggest sweatiest hug ever, and finally burst into tears. He gave me a kiss on the cheek and said it was nothing really.
   Thank you kind stranger, we need more people like you in the world. I never even found out his name.

Read more...