The Haight Family

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Spring Break Vacation

Last week was spring break in Spokane and that meant our day care was closed. Tough spot to be in when both of us work and can't really afford to take all our PTO on days that our day care is closed. Lucky for us we have some great family and that the Moses Lake spring break is the same as ours here. We left the kids in Moses Lake after Easter and headed back to Spokane...childless. This is the first time since having Ellie that we have been apart from her more than just a day and a half. And moreover that means that Jared and I haven't spent any substancial amount of time together since then either. So this was exciting stuff in our house!

Jared and I started our week by going to happy hour and dinner downtown. It was 75ish degrees that day so we got to walk across the Spokane Falls bridges. Then we went to the Womens NCAA basketball tournament. Can't beat free tickets! We headed home early from the game to watch the Mariner's season opener - in quiet. Tuesday we had dinner with Joel and Cailin at at restaurant and had nice adult centered conversation. Wednesday and Thursday were quiet at home, but we watched movies and relaxed. By Thursday night though, the quietness had set in....we missed the kiddos.

The kids had a blast too! They got to spend Monday and Tuesday with Grandma and PopPop. Ellie even got a sleepover at Case & Carters. I understand there were lots of powerwheel rides for all (2 batteries a day worth)! Ryan and Carter were best buds and Ellie and Case were connected at the hip as usual (even though the pic below is of Ellie and Carter).

Wednesday they headed to Nana and Papa's house. Nana had all sorts of activities for them. Ellie loved playing a marble race game that Nana made for her. I also heard (from both Grandma and Nana) that they were amazing eaters, as proven below. This is especially remarkable for Ellie who is such a pill when it comes to meal time. Not that she's picky about what she eats, just how much she has to eat, if at all.

My parents brought them back to us in Spokane - we took them to the children's museum and went to dinner. All to realize that we were back in reality with two kids at a restaurant, who wern't all that happy to be there.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Big Helper Ellie

Remember that red vacuum that Ellie so desparately wanted for Christmas? Here we are just 2.5 months past Christmas and she loves it. It's not just something she busts out to play with when she's pretending. Its actually something she pulls out when we're vacuuming, so she can help us. Its home is right next to our vacuum in the closet and as soon as Jared or I pull ours out, there she is with hers. Watch for yourself - too cute!

Ellie Reading

Ellie has a couple of books that she really likes. So much that she is now able to read them. Just prior to going to Hawaii she read these two to Grandma.

No No Yes Yes - this is a picture book that Jared and I have come up with words that we generally use to read the book with. I love that she mostly uses what we say but has added her own twist (listen to how many times she says nicely).

Brown Bear, Brown Bear - A favorite. This isn't her best 'reading' of it. Since she can't actually read the words, she needs to turn the page to see the pictures to know what animal is next.

Grandma says that Ellie is really good since she's already reading left to right and top to bottom. Some of the pictures at the end of the No No Yes Yes book are multiples per page and Ellie navigates with ease.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Ryan's 1st Birthday Party

Our baby boy turned 1 on Wednesday and we got to celebrate his birthday in style with a "Little Man Mustache Bash"! Age 1 is a good time for mama's to get to pick the theme of their babies birthday parties, since it will be one of the only times they get their way when it comes to these things. :)

Mustache Sugar Cookies

Party Favors - Mustache Crayons for the kids

We had lots of mustaches for everyone to wear....

And after awhile they ended up in funny places.

First lick of frosting

After demolishing his cake

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Hawaii

After 5+ years Jared and I took our first vacation since our honeymoon, discounting any weekend trips. This also includes our first family vacation, with Ellie and/or Ryan. Nana and Pop Pop also came with, which was helpful to have them around to assist with our two crazies!

Our week started off on Saturday with a flight to Honolulu. Both kids were great on the plane. We've contributed this to the fact that we didn't get to sit next to each other on the plane. This allowed Ellie to do what she wanted without being pestered by Ryan. Pretty impressive when people around you give you compliments on how well behaved your kids are.

Ellie and Daddy napping on the plane

Ry and Nana playing on the plane

On Sunday we headed to the Pearl Harbor Memorial. It was super windy so unfortunately they wern't allowing trips out to the USS Arizona memorial. We were there 4+ hours, but it would be incredibly easy to spend 8+ hours there as there is so much to see and do. We wern't able to bring a stroller due to the rules of the memorial, so I packed Ryan around all day. My back was miserable after that!

Tree of Life

USS Arizona Memorial

Names of those who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor

Map of Oahu and the various military bases

Ellie showing how big the missle is

Navy plane

Ellie checking out the pariscope (it was set up to see the ship in the harbor)

Ellie showing us the controls of a Coning tower (subarine)

Ellie showing her pose in front of the Coning Tower

More goofy girl poses next to machine guns

Submarine in the harbor

Then we headed to a neat swap meet at the Aloha Bowl (Univ of Hawaii football stadium). It was huge and really great prices on a lot of tourist items. Ellie picked out some cute necklaces for her friends at daycare. Again, because we didn't pack a stroller, we packed Ryan around - Pop Pop did most of the heavy lifting this time (thank goodness for my back).

For lunch, we went to a restaurant at one of the piers called Niko's. It was recommended to Pop Pop by a co-worker. Little did we know that it's actually been featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives! That explains why it was busy at 2 pm!

At dinner, we met up with some friends of Nana's and Pop Pop's who came from Warden on the flight with us. We went to a restraunt called Giovanni Pastrami - sooo good. A random find in Hawaii by our thoughts, but much of Honolulu is very mainland oriented. Lots of high end/designer shops and franchise/chain restaurants. Jared and I had a Pork Ruben which was amazing. I think everyone else had the Pastrami Ruben, also amazing.

Monday we had our flight to Maui. Another great flight by the kids. We headed to Costco immediately after landing and stocked up on snacks, fruit, snorkel gear, etc. So much stuff that they don't carry at the mainland stores like Vasi's Crab and Seafood dip! Tons and tons of macadamia nuts - various brands and preparations. What's really interesting is that their food court has the exact same items as the mainland stores and the exact same prices - polish dogs are still $1.50!! A quick drive to Kaanapali to our hotel - the Sheraton Maui on Black Rock.

For the rest of the week we enjoyed the warm weather, despite the wind. Lots of snorkeling for Jared, Pop Pop and I. We saw several sea turtles and Jared and I even saw 4 spotted sting rays! We had been told that Black Rock had the best snorkeling by lots of friends - that was certainly the case. The boys did trek out to another site and while different, they still thought we had the better of the sites at our doorstep.

View from our hotel

On Tuesday we headed to a neighboring city for a luau we heard about from a guy at Costco. It was at a local bar called Life's a Beach and for 10 bucks we had all you can eat dinner. While not a traditional luau it was still great food and Cindy and I had the best Pina Coladas ever - they were obviously made from scratch.

There was a great little shopping village just down the boardwalk from our hotel called Whaler's Village. We spent a little time there shopping and snacking. Ellie helped Nana pick out several oysters at a pearl shop. Boy is she a lucky little pearl picker. Nana ended up with two silver/blue pearls (2nd most rare type of pearl), a huge white/pinkish pearl, and even a 'perfect' pearl. The gals at the shop valued the perfect pearl at $120 bucks, not bad for a $15 oyster!