Our top 14.

Well, we leave Hawaii tomorrow night.  We have been here 7 weeks and have loved every minute of it.  It is bittersweet this year because we are happy to go home and see Daddy but sad to leave our "happy place".  In no particular order, these are the most memorable things about our trip for 2012.

1. Eli started talking in complete sentences/thoughts.  He is still hard to understand but he gets out the important words.  I seem to be the translator for Eli speak.
2. Lucas and Eli got to see the lava flow from Kilauea on the big island from a helicopter.
3. We have travelled by airplane, car, boat, submarine, jet ski (Lucas and I), helicopter, outrigger canoe, and train during the 7 weeks we have been here.
4. Eli has used the potty 2 or 3 times and has been excited about it.  I think potty training will be tackled this fall.
5. I turned 33 in May and got to spend the day on the beach.
6. Our first visit to a Macadamia nut farm and the boys loved cracking open their own mac nuts on top of a giant lava rock.
7. Lucas says his favorite thing about the trip was the submarine ride.  Eli absolutely loved it as well.
8. We took our first trip to the Honolulu zoo and Eli was in love with the rhinos.  Go figure!  It was our first zoo trip where we saw a hippopotamus.  I think I have seen them at the Tulsa or OK city zoo but it was the boys' first encounter.
9. I stuck with crossfit while I was here and completed my first set of 14 unassisted pull ups.  This is huge for me.  I am very proud of myself for this.  They were not strung together but I was able to do them all.  At the beginning of the year I could not even do one pull up.
10. Lucas has really gotten comfortable with the water and enjoys skim boarding, boogie boarding, and snorkeling. Both boys have really enjoyed fishing at low tide with nets and capturing their fish in a small aquarium (we release the fish later).
11. Lucas has really started taking an interest in bathing himself and dressing himself while we have been here.  He is a sucker for a hot shower.
12. Eli has enjoyed practicing his swimming. He puts his whole head underwater and blows bubbles and will kick and move those arms....he will be ready for swim lessons this winter when he turns 3.
13. Lucas found money almost every day that we were here.  Coins, dollar bills, Canadian dollars, you name it, Lucas finds it.  It is unbelievable.
14. Eli says his favorite thing about the trip was petting/swimming with the dolphins.