cockroach.

i have bug eyes.

not bulgy eyes.

bug eyes.

if there is a bug within my range of sight.. my eyes will spot it.

it's a true talent. kind of..
but not really.

with that being said, i had gotten myself pretty stressed about our trip to hawaii.

in the weeks previous to our departure, i had heard several stories of friends encountering cockroaches while vacationing in hawaii.

and not when they were out crusading through the wilderness.. just when they were in hotel rooms, condos, or restaurants.

sick!

and then, to make matters worse, we spent one of our last nights before our trip with some of our rexburg friends who are now living on oahu.

i had been totally jealous of this couple because the husband had graduated at the same time as matt, with the same same degree as matt, and took a job with the same company as matt... but in hawaii! the dreamiest state ever.

but my jealousy quickly faded when they told us of their daily battle with 2-3 inch long, aggressive, flying, biting cockroaches INSIDE their apartment!

oh. my. word.

i was now picturing my arrival to hawaii to be something like the scene in wreck-it ralph when ralph enters that sy-bug game.

[not quite. but close.]
if you have no idea what i'm talking about, just know it's terrifying.

and i was stressed!

luckily, my arrival to hawaii was nothing like that wreck-it ralph scene.
we hardly saw any bugs there, to be honest.
lizards? of course.
roosters? oddly, yes.
peacocks? every where.
in fact, our boys spent a good chuck of our trip chasing peacocks.
but bugs? not so much.

only 1 cockroach intruded on our trip.
i spotted it [of course!] while we were playing a late night rook game.
and matt took care of it.

my mom gave him a tupperware container and a spatula, and then grabbed her camera to document it!

matt eventually get the cockroach out of the apartment.. but it wasn't with as much poise as this picture makes you believe.
there was definitely some squealing involved!

the rest of our trip was deee-lightful.
and i have a whole lot of pictures to prove it.
so brace yourselves.. they're coming!

aloha.

aloha.

we are taking these handsome stinkers to hawaii!

in just 19 sleeps we will be in the aloha state.

we have never had the chance to check out hawaii, so this is exciting.

reeeeally exciting.

long story short, my parents were given the opportunity to use their friend's condo on oahu for a couple weeks in february and they invited us to tag along.

they even rented a big van so we would have one less reason not to go.

not that we had many reasons not to!

free place to stay.. free car.. family.. HAWAII..

haha it wasn't a hard sell.

i can't wait to play at the beach every day, eat some shave ice, spend time with my parents, not send matt to work for a week, go for runs along the beach, and work on my tan.

matt plans on doing some snorkeling and i hope to try to paddle boarding.

it's gonna be amazzzzing!

russia?!

when we moved down here we decided to go without cable.

which means we have now gone 10 months without cable.

we still have netflix so we aren't totally out of the loop.

but, since turning on netflix is more involved then pushing an on button, i don't do it much.
and, in a way, i'm kind of proud of us.

but despite all the positives i can list about ditching good old fashioned TV, it appears as though going without it does have a downfall.

2 days ago - on the day of the olympic opening ceremonies - matt and i were chatting about the olympics.

i was telling him that i had heard [via facebook] that russia was super far behind on the construction of hotels needed for the press covering the olympics

and then our conversation continued:

matt: russia?! what does russia have to do with the olympics?

pam: the olympics are in russia this year. in sochi.

matt: isn't sochi in japan?

pam: [starting to doubt my source. because, let's be honest, sochi does sound more like an asian city then a russian one.] nooo.. i thought it said they are in russia.

and that just goes to show that we make absolutely no effort to stay on top of current affairs.

and that people like us would definitely benefit from having news broadcasts forced in front of us as we flip through stations.

we'll have to work on that.

with that being said, here is a picture of our boys laying in their tent watching a show.
go figure!

this picture was worth taking because holden honestly never sits still to watch anything.

and this time he watched for a good 7 minutes. personal best!

plus, it was a cute brother moment.

..if you ignore chet's face.

that is his grouchy TV watching face.

happens to the best of us.

don't act like you haven't caught yourself glaring at the TV or watching with your mouth wide open!

other pointless pictures from this week:

i bought a $4 XXXL shirt from the clearance section of target and made it into a not-XXXL shirt.

i wore that shirt to church today. tucked into a skirt that i also re-invented.

so i was 100% homemade today.

good thing homemade is cool... it is cool, right?

and here is a something kinda crazy:

holden is 19 months old - walking, talking - and we just got another bill for some treatment he got back in his hospital days.

what?!

now?

seems a bit sketchy to me.

all i can say is thank goodness for insurance.

because this sweet boy has racked up ridiculous amounts of bills.

the new charges got me looking through his enormous folder of hospital paperwork, where i found the most entertaining one:

holden was born at 7:00am-ish.

that means in the first 17 hours of his 25 day hospital stay, the bill was already over $64,000.00

and, as you can see, that doesn't even include the cost of me actually having him!

madness.

and last, but not least, here are a bunch of pictures of us at various parks.

because we love parks.

cute brother picture.

not as cute brother picture.

sand angel.

off to school

a girl in our ward decided to put together a simple joy school type thing for 4 little boys.
chet included.

yesterday was the first day. chet was so eager to go.

he ate his breakfast quickly (less then an hour is a huge accomplishment for him), he helped pick out his outfit, he let me tame his bed head without the usual fuss, and he proudly put on his backpack before we headed out the door (the backpack was empty.. but it was a must for his first day at 'school').

i knew chet would love it. he loves being with his friends.

but i think he loved it even more then i had expected.

two of my friends had offered to drive chet to and from the class, so he wouldn't miss out.

so thoughtful, right?!

i swear, we have met the nicest people here.

so, when class was over, holden and i waited at the front gate of our complex for chet to come home.

when he got home he was so excited to tell us all about his morning.

and at the end of his explanation he said,

"mom, i want to get big so i can go to school every day."

:(

what?

i'm so happy that he is happy.

and i love that he excited to learn and play

but shoot! my little buddy is growing up.

way. too. fast.