HAWAII!

So, this will be a long, self indulgent post, but I use this blog as a sort of journal and I don't want to forget one minute of our time in Hawaii.

We arrived in Honolulu on a late night flight and were a little out of it at first....

It was a long strange journey that first night in Waikiki. We didn't even have time to process any of it before we collapsed on the beds, but we were amazed when we woke up to this view from our hotel room balcony....

then we walked 2 blocks down and found this.....

Waikiki had us at Hello!

We spent our first full day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. It is such an amazing place. More beautiful than anything I have ever seen. The people there were so friendly and FUNNY! The night show was crazy good. I highly recommend it to everyone.






The next day (Sunday) was our day of rest....on the beach of course.

Monday we spent the day at Pearl Harbor....





Tuesday it was off to Lahaina, Maui. Here is our hotel...

Matt in downtown Lahaina...

Waiting in line for the Royal Lahaina Luau...

Wednesday we spent the day at Ka'anapali beach working on our sunburns. 

Thursday was by far my favorite day because that was the day we snorkeled at Molokini Crater.

Crystal clear, deep blue waters full of tropical fish, sea urchins, eels and reef sharks so close you could touch them (if it wasn't against federal laws). We took a bunch of photos with an underwater camera, but they are still being developed (old school) so we'll post those later. This trip was my first time in the ocean and I fell in love with it. There will definitely be lots of snorkeling and scuba diving in our future.

Friday we spent the day hiking and driving through Iao Valley State Park.

Friday night our amazing journey ended and my borderline obsessive need to go back began.

It was a life changing experience for me and a renewal of my passion for nature and all of God's creations.

Thanks, Mom and Dad Worlton for a priceless gift!

I am already checking flights and room rates for a return trip.

ALOHA!

Aloha family! We had the time of our lives in Hawaii. I can't wait to share all the pictures and details of our trip. Here is a little teaser......

We saw lots of this...

and this...

we relaxed here...

hiked here.....

and snorkeled here....

and we are already dying to go back!

Reunion photo...

Here is the family photo from our Worlton reunion last month. Notice anyone missing?

Ellla was napping, Abe was having a tantrum and Matt was trying to help stop the tantrum....so most of our little family missed out on the (once every 10 yrs) Worlton family photo. Oops!

Making pizzas....by Gavin

Me and Mom made a pizza and I called it a smiley face pizza. I think it is the best. I named it David. We didn't eat it yet, but I think it is gonna taste good. Mom made the crust and I spread the tomato sauce, I sprinkled the cheese on it and I made a smiley face made out of pepperoni and when Mom came back she put pepperoni made into eyebrows. We took a picture of it.

Hot in the city!

We have had a relatively mild summer so far, but this week we got some heat! It is only in the 90s, but before our Arizona friends and family laugh out loud at those low numbers just remember the humidity..... oh the humidity! It has actually been ok for us though because we spend most of our time here....

or here....
Yep, we love us some water park. Luckily, we have a really great one in our park district and can get there most afternoons. It is a lot of fun. Gavin slaps on his swim goggles and swims underwater grabbing people by the legs. Abe compulsively slides down the baby slide that he spent 2 weeks mustering up the courage to try. Ella on the other hand is a bit of a wild card. We have discovered 3 things about Ella since joining the pool....

1. She is absolutely fearless in the water. She will walk right in to the 5 ft deep water if you let her and when she nearly drowns before you grab her out of the depths, she comes up smiling and giggling about it. Her latest thing is standing at the edge of the pool, putting her arms above her head and walking right in without a care. I've never seen anything like her. I don't think the lifeguards have either because she puts quite a look of fear on their faces.

2. She has little to no stranger anxiety. Occasionally, she will meet someone who freaks her out, but most of the time she loves new people. She doesn't want to play with me or her brothers at the pool. She wants to play with every other random man, woman and child. She has a little sand bucket that she walks around with and she loves to see how many people she can get to fill it for her. It is funny, but also a little scary!

3. She is fiercely independent. Abe, who is 4, wants me to hold his hand or watch him the entire time we are there. Ella doesn't want anything to do with me. Her favorite game is "escape from Mommy". She won't let me hold her hand or even sit next to her. Keeping up with her is a good workout though! 

Caterpillar

We found a cool caterpillar in our yard today. We love finding interesting insects! The eyes are false and are meant to scare off predators (they do make him look quite fierce!). He also has slimy orange "antennae" called osmetrium that he sticks out when he is scared. They omit a horrible smell that also wards off predators. This guy will turn into a beautiful Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly soon. They like to live in our yard and feed off our Ash tree. Hopefully we can see him in his full glory soon.

Compliments?

Gavin has been learning about giving compliments in his summer school class. 

The other day he was playing outside with Abe and decided to hit him in the head with a stick. I made him come inside for a 6 minute time out (who watches SuperNanny? I do).  After the six minutes were done he got up and said "Mom, you're so mean, but I love you anyway!".

Later that afternoon we were driving in the car and arguing back and forth about something to do with the plants in Gramma Worlton's yard and Gavin stops and says "Oh Mom, you think you're always right, but I love you anyway." 

The next day his homework was to write about 2 compliments he had given to someone in his family. I bet you can guess what they were! 

Fourth of July!

We had a great Fourth of July! We started things off with the Wheaton 4th of July parade, always a family favorite for us. Tons of great floats, politicians and fire trucks.

Guess what Abe's favorite part was.....

Then we headed off to Gramma and Granpa Worlton's house for a family BBQ.




We coordinated our outfits in honor of Gramma West. We love you Gramma!

We even stayed awake late enough to watch the fireworks. We thought Ella would crash (she usually goes to bed at 6:30pm), but our little party girl had a great time!
We love the 4th of July!

Making cookies...

It might not be so exciting for the average family, but we made cookies for the Fourth of July...and they didn't fall apart.....and they tasted great....and they were gluten free. If you've ever tried to make gluten-free anything you know this is amazing! I just had to share!

Heritage Fest

One of our favorite things about summer in Illinois are the town festivals. Almost every town has a street festival during the summer months and we like to hit up as many as we can. Our favorite is the Downers Grove Heritage Fest. We've made it every year since we moved here and this year it was bigger and better than ever with tons of street food, amusement rides, bands and odd politcal groups handing out flyers. What more can you ask for?

The boys got to ride ponies.....

and eat snowcones.....

and ride the rides.

Family Reunion

We had a great family reunion last month (sorry about the late updates, we've been busy playing) at Grizzly's Jack's in Starved Rock, IL. My parents, my brothers and their families were all there. Most of us live close by, but it was so nice to have 4 whole days with nothing to do but have fun together. Mike and Beth flew in from Arizona with their 6 kids and we got to meet their 3 foster children for the first time. Anna, Jose and Fabian are so cute and fit right in with our crazy family. The highlights of the trip for us were watching all the cousins run around together, creating a giant chain of Worlton's in the lazy river (almost all 27 of us linked together!), late night chats, the Worlton talent show and lots and lots of good food. Unfortunately Matt and I had so much fun we forgot to take pictures. We did get a couple from the last day when we hiked in Starved Rock with Mike's family.

Karen, Matt, Ella, Abe, Gavin, Mike, Spencer, Amber, Anna, Jose

Matt with all the kids

Beth and Fabian