Lizard Friend

A couple of weeks ago I hosted a playdate with a few friends and while walking them out the door I noticed a very large lizard at the top of our outside entry way (he was about 12 feet above the ground). Being the animal/bug/reptile enthusiast that Grafton is, I had to try and catch it for him.

I stood on a ladder and gently ushered him down with the end of a broom. Then, we used a butterfly net to capture him once he was on the ground.

I knew I had to try to get him, but never expected this would actually work!

So, we had a pet lizard for about two days.

He was six inches from head to tail and was actually very calm and sweet (if you can consider a lizard sweet). Grafton held him constantly and even took him to my mom's house with him when my step-dad watched the boys for a few hours.

We found him on a Friday afternoon and released him on Sunday morning before church.

Grafton was a really good sport about letting him go and I was impressed with myself that I handled all of this so well!

Christmas in Hawaii

This past Christmas we went on the ultimate vacation by taking a family trip to Hawaii!

We left early in the morning on December 23rd and had a direct flight. The kids were very well behaved and time went by pretty quickly.

We had so much luggage between the 11 of us, that we all rode in one vehicle while a separate one carried our bags.

Some of the evenings when we'd return to our room after dinner, a treat would be left for us. My favorite one was all of the fruit and cookies that were left they first evening we were there.

On Christmas Eve we spent a wonderful day at the beach. Grafton liked it (although he wasn't a big fan of the sand) but Deklan loved it! He's like me and could stay all day.

During a few of the afternoons we'd stop and get a drink poolside.... This ended up being one of my favorite pictures from our trip!

On the evening of Christmas Eve we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant and then came back to our room so the kids could have a little gift exchange.

Christmas Day we went to breakfast and then took a bus into the city where we went shopping. That evening we ordered room service and relaxed in our room.

On the 26th we woke up to pouring rain! We went to breakfast and then headed to the mall. Once we got back the sun was shining and so I headed to the pool where I ordered a Chicken Cesar salad, read my book, and spent a couple of glorious hours by myself!

One of the most "touristy" things we did was visit the Pineapple Plantation. It was another wet day, but thankfully the train was still running..... We were able to see how pineapple grow as well as many other beautiful plants and flowers that are native to Hawaii.

On December 28th Vince and Grafton (along with some more of the family) went to Pearl Harbor. I stayed behind with Deklan, my in-laws, sister-in-law and niece. We went to breakfast and then I took Deklan and my niece to the beach for a few hours.

That evening we attended a Luau. Because of the wet weather the two days before, it ended up being inside of a ballroom and was not quite the experience we wanted.

The next day was our last full day in Hawaii. We spent our time swimming that morning and having lunch poolside, and then we grabbed Starbucks, walked around, and finished our shopping that afternoon.

December 30th was the day we left for home. Our flight wasn't until later in the afternoon, so we were able to still enjoy a little bit of that day... One thing we had to do is say goodbye to the penguins, flamingos, birds and fish that were on the property.

Grafton grabbed one last souvenir as we were waiting for our ride to the airport...... A Hawaiian Roach!!!!! We put it in an empty pill bottle and it lived until the next day.

Goodbye Hawaii!