Thrifty Thursday-Where we spent the summer

The kids are off to school, which means I might actually get to use my computer and start blogging again! It's the most wonderful time of the year, when the kids are excited about school, and it's still summer for ME!


Notice Avery watching out the window as her siblings leave her. That's the only sad part- poor Avery has to wait THREE weeks for her school to start!



One of the things I love about summer is spending lazy Saturday mornings browsing garage sales, never knowing what crazy thing I'll find. I have collected lots of fun things for my Thrifty Thursday posts. But first let me show you what my handy husband did to improve our deck this year.

This table is where we eat our dinner every night, and it used to be an octagon shape but it was too small to accommodate our family and we had to have Avery on our lap. So Dave bought some wood and enlarged it to a square giving us much more room. I love what he did.



But then I needed more chairs cause we only had four. If I've learned anything, it's that SOMEBODY is selling exactly what you're looking for, if you know where to look. I found a couple of these chairs and a bench in the Thrifties that match what I already have almost exactly.



They just needed a little cleanup and stain, and Voila! I just doubled my patio seating for a real bargain.

If you saw this green candle holder with the pink candles at a garage sale for one dollar, would you buy it?

At first glance I thought it was ugly, but on my second glance, I saw a lovely outdoor chandelier for my deck. I spraypainted it black and changed the candles for citronella ones.

And so this is where we spent most of the summer, enjoying our new sitting areas.

Now I'll give you a preview of what else I'm working on. If you saw this at a garage sale, would you buy it? Do you see the potential?

If I recall, I think this was free. If you go at the end of a garage sale when they are cleaning up, they practically pay YOU to take their stuff. It just needs a little TLC and it will become a happy chaise lounge again. :)

A Taste of the Island Life

Ahhhhhh, Hawaii.

I'm getting a little teary just looking at these pictures. As I'm getting kids ready for school in two days, I can't believe I was really just there. Lying on this beach. Without a care in the world. Let's just click our heels and imagine ourselves back there again.

To say it was amazing is just an understatement. My eyes just couldn't even take in all the gorgeous-ness of it.

We had a REALLY good time. My big Tarzan, swinging on a vine. We were hiking through this forest to get to a good snorkeling spot.

Sea turtle spotting!

Waterfall after gorgeous waterfall . . . .

Lush forests . . .

Dave bought me this beautiful lei made of tuberose and orchid, my new favorite fragrance. It smelled soooooo good. I wore it every night until it turned brown and wilted. Why, why, why don't we get to wear flowers around our neck and in our hair at home? I think it's a lovely idea.

A red sand beach. This one is adjacent to Oprah's property, the hill in the background belongs to her. I didn't see her out this day:)

Cooling off in one of the many waterfalls we saw on the road to Hana.

Dave was really enjoying this waterfall massage. I put down the camera and swam over to join him!

Luau on the beach with fire dancing. I think I want to learn how to do that Hawaiian dancing!!

There's that lei again! Happy 13 years to us!

This was really cool, we drove to the top of Haleakala Crater and then hiked around INSIDE the crater of this inactive volcano. This picture is inside the crater. The bowl was enormous, and not at all what I expected. You can see the dark lava flow in the top middle from its last eruption 200 years ago.

On the outside of the crater, at 10,000 feet. The air was thin and COLD, and we were way above the clouds. It felt like we were in heaven!

Look, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's Super Woman!

There's little vegetation except for some sagebrush up there, and this little gem called the silver cactus or some other really fancy name. It lives for 50 years, then produces one blossom, then dies. We caught this one at the end of it's life.

This is a BLACK sand beach! Have you ever dreamed there was such a thing? I hadn't!

Gorgeous-NESS!

This little roadside flower stand gets my vote for the best presentation. Love the color and shabby chic sign. All these little fruit and flower stands are on your honor, just leave money in the box. Forgive me for all of the flower pictures, I just couldn't get over them everywhere.

This is a secluded oasis in the middle of forest. While we were admiring it, some local boys showed up, grabbed the rope swing, and yee-hawed their way into the pond that had to have been about a 50 foot drop. Look at his crazy face!!

Our sweet ride for cruising the island.

The state flower: Hyacinth

A giant "fan" palm.

I was taking a picture of the flowere at first, and didn't even notice the frog resting on a lily pad.

Who knew that sailing was so exciting?!? I've never been before, but I definitely want to go again. We saw a couple of dolphins next to our boat on this trip, how cool is that?

My handsome hubby, AKA Big Wave Dave. He's really at home on a boat or under the water. He did some scuba diving and played with some turtles and saw a shark. (No pictures, so we'll just have to believe him!)

This may have been one of my favorite things: The Warren and Annabelle's Magic/Comedy show was Hi-LARIOUS. If you ever go to Maui, you MUST see this show. I laughed till my cheeks hurt! Amazing magic too.

Wait, this was one of my favorites too. It's called the Olivine Pools, and its some calm water pools you can swim in while the ocean is raging all around you and the pools keep filling up with each big wave. I could have stayed there all day!

Here's a closer look at them, you can see they are deep enough to dive into!

We just had to stop for the "World's Best Banana Bread"! That's what the sign said, and um, I think they may be right! Well, we were starving, but it was pretty darn good! In the background, some locals are digging up taro in the ponds, which is a staple food there that they use to make poi out of. (NOT good, if you're wondering). I'll take the banana bread instead. And while we're talking about food, can I just say, I don't think I've ever eaten so well in one week. Every meal we had was one where I just lost myself in the food, and could hardly carry a conversation other than "Mmmmmmmmm". I was in pineapple heaven! I had an oven baked pineapple pancake with coconut syrup. I had a pineapple burger that I'm still thinking about. I gained 5 lbs and couln't do up my pants on the plane ride home, but totally worth it.

More flowers for your enjoyment. I loved that they were in the trees, on the ground, falling from the sky, in your drinks, and in all the girls' hair. What a dream world!

You might think I'm lying, but this was the actual view from our condo. The rainbow is a nice touch, don't you think? Yeah, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I really want to go back, and next time I'm taking the kids because they would be in heaven too.

Good Things Utah

Thanks to my fabulous friend Lis, she scored us some tickets to go see a taping of the Good Things Utah show today! We had our two seconds of fame as they panned the audience, and got to hang out on the set afterwards. So much fun! Here we are cooking up things in the kitchen......



Rubbing shoulders with Marti and Reagan . . . .

Nicea and Angie had to leave early to do a news broadcast-

But they were nice enough to let us get a picture first.

These girls were just as friendly as they were pretty. Lis and I love to see the shows behind the scenes, cause then you feel like these people you see on TV have become your very best friends. I'm sure they'll never forget us and the moments we spent together!

Five years ago we saw Oprah and had a blast. Next on our tour will be Regis & Kelly, or maybe Ellen- that would be fun!

Torture Week

We just completed a week of swim lessons for Cade and Avery. Whew! Who knew it was going to be such a mental challenge? I thoroughly enjoyed watching Cade, who has become quite the strong swimmer, and maybe the next Michael Phelps. (A mom can dream, can't she?)

Avery was excited about swim lessons, until she caught on to the fact that the teacher was going to make her put her head under not once, but every single day! I had such a difficult time watching her struggle with her own personal fears, and she kept looking to me to come rescue her. It was agonizing. I would give her the thumbs up, while holding back my own tears.

She pretty much doesn't like putting her ears, nose, eyes, or mouth in the water.

Every day this was the part she agonized about-- putting her head under water. She would whimper and stare at the water and shake her head.

She kept looking up at me, and I'd tell her it was OK.

But it felt like sticking a fork in my heart and twisting it......

This look just killed me, and so many times I just wanted to run down there and scoop her out of the water to make her stop doing this face! Even after she'd finally do it, she still had this look on her face like it was just awful, and she never wanted to do it again.

The last day was a fun day, they got to put life jackets on and float in the deep end. Finally Avery was happy! This is her kind of swimming!! But notice the other little boy in the picture, who was so uncomfortable in a life jacket and was crying about this. Go figure. He had absolutely no problem all week long jumping in and going under, but put a life jacket on and he's the one crying now. Kids are so different!

Cade loves the diving board, and kept trying to perfect his 360 spin.

So why was Avery willing to subject herself to so much agony in the swimming pool every day? It's all about bribery. She would go through all of that, just for the hope of a snow cone on the last day. I'm so proud of her.