The Cook Family

Sunday, April 21, 2013

A Bike Breakthrough...

Trevor and I used to bike a lot, that is, until we had kids. We started Kaylee off in the bike trailer when she was about 10 months old, but she hated it. Then Kianna came along. We put both girls in the bike trailer and it sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. Then Trace came along and we got a tag-a-long bike behind one of our bikes and a bike trailer behind the other. It was really hard to pull. Then last Spring, we got rid of the bike trailer and got two tag-a-long bikes for the girls and a seat for Trace to sit in. The problem with this method was that the only place left for Trace's seat to fit was in front of Trevor. Having a child in front of him, meant that Trevor had to pedal his bike with his legs spread apart. Which became painful. Which meant that Trevor did not like bike rides...

Then this Spring, we got rid of Trace's seat. We put him on one of the tag-a-long bikes and had Kaylee ride her own bike. We went for a 45 minute bike ride as a family and it was actually FUN. Kaylee did a great job keeping up with us on her own bike. I think we have finally had a bike breakthrough and I am super excited!!!!

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Science Fair

Gym was full of all the science fair projects.

Both girls decided to participate in LCS' first ever science fair. Kaylee's chose to do her project on what liquid will rust a nail the fastest. She chose 7 different liquids and made observations over the next week. In the end it was good ole water that rusted the nail the fastest.

Kianna was one of only four Kindergarteners' who participated in the science fair. She chose to do her project on what conditions make bread mold the fastest (light vs dark, wet vs dry, and closed vs open to air). She observed her bread for 10 days. In the end, it was the bread in the light, wet and closed conditions that molded the fastest. She worked hard on her project. It was definitely a challenge for her because she was the only one who could write in her journal and she had 10 days worth of observations to jot down. That is a lot of writing for a little girl who is still learning proper spacing between words, punctuation, when to use capital letters vs lower case letters, etc. In the end, the science fair was a success and both girls did a great job! Great work girls!

Monday, April 8, 2013

Chicago

Mommy and girls at The American Girl store.

Kaylee in book heaven

Kianna with her dolls

Daddy and Trace with his little lego guys.

Daddy and kids outside of The Lego Store.

Kids in front of a carriage just like the one Daddy took Mommy in the night he proposed.

Kaylee loved the architecture of this building.

Girls at The Cheesecake Factory

Our little statues

Chicago River

Cloud Gate at Millenium Park

Our family's reflection

Kids at The Buckingham Fountain (attitudes and all)

Trace proposing to Kianna

Trace proposing to Kaylee

Trevor reenacting his proposal

Trace enjoyed sliding down the fire pole at The Children's Museum

Girls digging for dinosaur bones

Kids climbing in rope ladder

Girls completing one of their super hero challenges.

Trace the Builder

After having returned from Hawaii on Thursday afternoon, we jumped into the car and headed to Chicago first thing Friday morning. Sounds a little crazy right!? It was a little sporty since we were dealing with jet lag and a 6 hour time difference, but it was fun nonetheless. We met Bob just outside of Chicago for lunch and to do the Grandma Becki exchange. They headed back to Iowa and we headed downtown where we checked into our hotel. I got a really nice hotel room right off Michigan Avenue for $7. It even had a swimming pool. I was able to use our credit card reward points to purchase the room and $7 was all that was left. Can't beat that deal!

We dropped off our stuff and the girls and I headed for The American Girl Store while the boys headed for The Lego Store. The kids were excited to learn that they each had $100 to spend, which was leftover money from Christmas. Kaylee was in book heaven at The American Girl Store. She is really into their mysteries and had a tough time choosing which books to purchase. She ended up with four books and a doll brush. She finished off her money by buying a Star Wars Lego set, which she put together the following day all my herself. Kianna decided to use her money to buy the pink DS she had been saving for, along with a miniature Marie-Grace doll, a DS game and a DS case. I think giddy was the word for her!!! Trace was in lego heaven. He loves the little lego guys and was able to build three little guys right there in the store. He also purchased the Batcave and Lex Luther lego sets. Daddy and Ryan (our friend that is living with us) had fun putting them together the following day. The batcave is super cool. It has an elevator that Bruce Wayne gets into and then exits as Batman at the bottom. Trace really enjoys playing with them.

Kaylee was such a little tourist. She was taking pictures of the beautiful architecture and stained glass windows with her little camera. She was so cute. Kianna brought her camera too and took pictures of a lady painted silver, pretending to be a statue. Anytime someone put money in her basket she changed postitions. The kids thought that was pretty funny and later pretended to be statues in the hotel room. It was cute. We finished off the day with a trip to The Cheesecake Factory and a swim in the pool. We went to bed exhausted.

We woke up the following day and walked to Millenium Park and ultimately to The Buckingham Fountain. The kids did AMAZING with all the walking. We were impressed. They enjoyed playing underneath the Cloud Gate. We took pictures of our family looking up into the reflective mirror. The Buckingham Fountain had been much anticipated and was a bit of a disappointment. The girls were excited to return to the fountain to show their little brother the site where Daddy asked Mommy to marry him. However, due to the cold weather the water was turned off, which means that the fountain is pretty drab. In addition, the city was setting up for an 8K race and had the area blocked off. Thankfully, the lady let us take pictures from a distance. Trace got down on one knee and pretended to propose to both girls individually and then Trevor reenacted his proposal to me. It was a fun time as a family!

We went from the fountain to Navy Pier where we spent the remainder of our time at the children's museum. They had a super hero theme going, so the kids had fun doing the scavenger hunt. The highlight for the kids though was climbing through the rope ladder. Trevor and I were a bit unimpressed with the super hero theme. The kids worked hard on the scavenger hunt and earned a hand stamp that said "WOW" as their reward. It was a bit lame. Regardless, it was a fun trip to Chicago. We headed home that afternoon and did absolutely NOTHING on Sunday except rest, get Kianna her DS, and put together legos.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Maui

Trevor and I just returned from an incredible 10th Anniversary celebration in Maui, Hawaii. We are on the five year plan. We spent our honeymoon and our 5th Anniversary there. Since this was our third trip, we had a pretty good feel for the island. We spent five days in Kaanapali, which is on the western, touristy side of the island. We stayed at the same condo that we stayed in our other two times. It has a white sandy beach nearby and is close to Lahaina, a main town with lots of shops and restaurants. We spent our mornings hiking or taking a tour. Our afternoons were spent at the beach. Our evenings were spent doing any combination of eating, shopping, watching movies, and reading. We ate gelato several times. Trevor was super excited that they had some lactose-free options for him. One funny thing we don't want to forget is the store worker who walked past Trevor and passed gas LOUDLY. I gave Trevor a glaring look thinking it was him (and for good reason), only to see him shaking his head. We got some good laughs out of that one...

We signed up for two snorkeling tours. The first was a rafting trip in a 22-person boat that circled the nearby private island of Lanai. We passed two different shipwrecks. We also were able to swim ashore to one of their beaches and walk around for a bit. We were the only ones on the beach, which was pretty cool. The boat stopped at three different snorkel locations around Lanai's coastline, which is absolutely beautiful. We also saw lots of whales since it was humpback whale season. The whales were fun to watch and we got pretty close to them. Although, it was during one of these times when our boat was stopped that my motion sickness got the best of me, enough about that. The second tour was a kayaking trip. We LOVED this trip. Trevor and I had our own kayak. We were with a few other couples on this tour. We are proud to tell you that we were the only couple NOT to tip over our kayak. Trevor would like to tell you that we were also the slowest couple, which he blamed on my poor technique. Men. Anyway, the snorkeling on this tour was AMAZING. We swam with sea turtles, lots of them. They were HUGE and very docile. We also saw several eels, some beautiful fish, a sea cucumber, and a giant lobster.

The other five days we spent in the remote town of Hana. We stopped at an ice cream shack on our way to Hana, where all of their ice cream was made out of coconut milk. This again, put Trevor into lactose-free heaven. Unfortunately, I made a poor choice and went with the pineapple panang ice cream. I thought it was awesome for the first bite and apparently that was all it was good for, because after that it was NASTY. At least I didn't get the chocolate chili ice cream. Trevor went with the more tame pineapple banana ice cream and loved it. Did I mention there were two hippy guys smoking who knows what, running this place? Live and learn.

Most people just do a day trip to Hana because besides nature there isn't much there in terms of hotels and restaurants. Last time we were in Maui we discovered an amazing guest house, which we enjoyed so much that we stayed in it again this time. It is absolutely beautiful. It is at the base of the mountains and has an ocean view. It is so quiet and peaceful there. The road to Hana is very windy. It has the ocean on one side with steep cliffs and the rainforest on the other side. It takes about three hours to drive to Hana. Since it takes awhile for people to arrive in Hana, we spent most of our mornings at the hot spots.

Hana is paradise on earth. I honestly can't imagine a prettier place. We hiked along the coastline with waves crashing loudly nearby. We hiked to several different waterfalls. We hiked through the rainforest and even through a bamboo forest. We even did some cliff jumping. We spent most of our afternoons at the beach and our evenings were spent relaxing at our house. We tried to go out to dinner one night only to discover that the restaurant closed at 4:00 PM. We asked about their hours the next day and were told "no set hours". That is a good example of life in Hana. It is definitely NOT a touristy place. It is so peaceful!

Grandma Becki watched the kids for us while we were away. She made sure to make the time special for all of them. She took them to several movies, to McDonald's Playland, to a local bouncy house, out to eat, shopping, and to our church's Easter Egg Hunt. The kids had a great time with their Grandma. We are SO thankful for the time she dedicated to the kids. It made being away from them easier knowing they were having their own fun times with their grandma. We also were able to skype them nearly everyday. Skype is an AWESOME tool! It is hard to believe that our much anticipated trip has come and gone. We are left with memories, videos, and lots of pictures...