Easter with the Johnson Cousins- 2014

cute cousins :) 

egg hunt! 

hanging out with dad :) 

the final hawaii post--finally! (Part 3/3)

Thursday:
This was the first full day of no sessions/workshops for Max so we took advantage by waking up early and heading to beat the crowds at the Pearl Harbor Memorial. I was a little stressed because I had wanted to get tickets in advance and we weren't able to, so I wanted to make sure we got there in plenty of time to aboard the Arizona Tour at a decent time. We ended up having plenty of time to walk around and see the other exhibits/museums while waiting for the next available tour to start. As we walked around I remember everyone being fairly quiet...As you can imagine, there wasn't a lot of giggling and running around by anyone. It was a somber place, as it deserves to be with the weight of what happened there and everyone was paying their respects....

Waiting in line for our tour to start :)

We waited in line for our tour to start and once we were allowed in, we were ushered in to a theater where they played a short documentary about the events that happened in the Pearl Harbor Attack. Following the documentary, we were put on a ship and taken over to location of where (parts of)  the Actual USS Arizona Ship remains.

remains of the ship destroyed by the attack

One distinct thing I noticed (and realized other people were commenting on as well) was the strong smell of oil... You can see oil still leaking in this part of the water from the original ship. (Pictured below)

the entrance of the pearl harbor memorial

beautiful memorial built on top of the remains of the Arizona Ship.

Remnants of the Arizona... Sad to think of how many bodies of  US soldiers still lie under those waters

I am so happy we took the time to visit the memorial and if we ever make it back, I would love to check out the other tours offered there as well. 

Once our tour was finished however, we pretty much had the rest of the day free to do as we pleased so we hopped in our rental car and decided to explore more of the island since we were already out and about. It was nice to get out of the city of Honolulu and see what else Hawaii had to offer. We somehow ended up finding our way to Lanikai Beach. We didn't really know much about this beach or the quaint little town it falls in when we got there but we were swept away by the white sandy beaches, bright blue water, and crazy views. (After this trip, we discovered that Lanikai Beach has actually made  various rankings of the world's best beaches--and for good reason!!) We found a good place to sit and enjoy the view for quite a while before checking out the rest of the town, Kailua. The shopping was great, they had major stores, along with cute little local shops and the town was kept so beautiful and clean. We asked the locals where to go for lunch and we were pointed in the direction of Crepes No Ka Oi. I had never had a crepe before and was excited to check it out. We were happily surprised to find them being super savory and really delicious! I had a veggie crepe and Max had some meaty/cheesy/herby concoction and we both ate them up pretty quickly! 

pulling up to the beach...such a beautiful day!

a nice view if you ask me :) 

Following some more shopping , we headed back to the hotel, checked in with the kids via facetime, and then went to a stellar dinner at Duke's right on Waikiki Beach. We were able to enjoy an amazing sunset there for our last full night in Honolulu. The food was great (I finally got scallops, which I had been (and still am) craving throughout my whole pregnancy!!) but the view was even better :) 

final night sunset at Duke's on Waikiki Beach

Friday: Nothing too exciting went on other than shopping ALL. DAY. LONG. Now, if you know me, you would not think this would be an issue at all, but spending all day on my feet at 22 weeks pregnant was not exactly ideal. However, since we had to check out at our hotel at 11am and our flight didn't leave until 10pm that evening, we didn't have much of a choice. Had it been nice out, we could have laid out on the beach soaking up the last bit of sunshine before heading back to Minnesota, but it was a cloudy/rainy day so we walked the streets of downtown Honolulu, then made our way to Ala Moana Center, the largest open air shopping center in the world :) We were a little out of our league here since we walked by stores where I wouldn't have been able to afford ANYTHING in, but it was still a fun experience to check it all out. Eventually though the day went on and we did make our way back to the airport to make the long journey back home. It was a long night of flying and we arrived in Minnesota Saturday afternoon tired, but ready to see our kids!! They were also happy to see us (thankfully!!) and once we made our way back to our house, we sadly packed away our summer clothes and said hello to our winter attire once again. 

Hawaii was an adventure we will NEVER forget and we are so grateful for the opportunity to have been able to go and have a kids-free getaway before #3 joins the picture :) Thanks to everyone who helped out in any way taking care of our home, our kids, our Mickey dog, and everything else! We couldn't thank you enough!!

peace out, honolulu! --until next time!!~ 

'lulu (Part 2!)

I'm baaaaack :)
Picking up where I left off on our Honolulu trip--

Tuesday: We were so excited to wake up to SUNSHINE and HOT weather!! Unfortunately Max had a couple hours of classes in the morning so he took off while I took advantage of the sunshine and headed down to the beach. Of course once I got there and saw everyone running along the sidewalk adjacent to the ocean I couldn't help but jog back up to our room and lace up my running shoes to join them! It was by far the prettiest run I've ever been on....As for me and my belly, I can't promise that WE were a pretty sight to see, but oh well :) (Sidenote: I do believe this was my last 'official' run= 22weeks preggo and it left me pretty uncomfortable!)

My running path/view Tuesday morning-- such a beautiful day!

Afterwards, I treated myself to an iced coffee and laid out by the pool for a while soaking up the rays. After grabbing a quick lunch, Max was done with his sessions and we had a tee time to make at Ko'olau Golf Club. I am not a golfer, but if you know my husband then you know that he was in heaven at this course. I can't even begin to describe the views we were able to enjoy since the course was literally in the middle of a rainforest! Crazy beautiful....

Cheers to our first golfing outing together in (almost) 5 years of marriage!

isn't he cute?? 

I was so obsessed with how the sun kept peaking in through the mountains :)

unreal!

Following our golfing adventure, we hurried back to our hotel room to shower up so we could attend the ICBA silent action and drooled over all the fancy stuff that we couldn't afford :) We stayed for a bit and then had a late sunset supper at Tropics on our resort overlooking the ocean. The food was great, the ma tai's were even better (so I hear!) and Max got to creep on Karl Rove, who was also there dining with his wife... Life was good!

Wednesday:
Blessed with another beautiful day! Max had his final day of sessions for a few hours in the morning so I lounged around reading by the pool and also discovered the BEST protein smoothie I've ever had at Lanikai Juice and Smoothies. Look it up. They are SO good, I had a 'choco loco' every day from that point forward!! After he finished up with work stuff, Max went for a long run and I got to facetime with little P (who, along with ryder, was having a blast soaking up all of her grandparents while mom and dad were away)! In the afternoon I indulged in an hour long prenatal massage at a little place up the road called Red Earth Massage and Wellness.

Have I mentioned I LOVE massages?!

I had read so many good reviews about this place that I knew it was where I wanted to schedule my appointment with. They were SO friendly and my massage was perfect. I left so relaxed and found my hubby waiting for me so we could do lunch! We found a little grocery store right next to the spa and discovered their deli makes pretty awesome sandwiches so we loaded up on some goodies, lathered up with some sunscreen, and made our way to Manoa Falls for an afternoon hike! The hike itself  was definitely doable, and there were plenty of people on the trail, but the waterfall and scenery were pretty amazing!

Our view as we entered the beginning of the hiking trail.... Amazing!!

a small portion of the waterfall-- not sure where my panoramic pic of this went!! 

Afterwards I made Max drive out of the way to go to a shaved ice place I had read about from a blog that I follow and I knew I didn't want to leave Hawaii without trying it out. SO WORTH IT. If you think shaved ice is like an icee or a snowcone, that is what I was thinking as well. All I can say is: not. even. close. Uncle Clay's House of Pure Aloha is unbelievable. They make their own organic syrups out of real fruit, then top it with their own homemade organic vanilla bean ice cream (which is out of this world) and then top it off once again with their shaved ice. I believe we got passionfruit/guava or something to that nature, and it was the best thing that has hit my lips in a long time. We still talk about this place.

TAKE ME BACK!!!

After our blissful trip to Uncle Clay's, we layed out by the beach for a while and then got ready for the annual banquet. This was probably the fanciest event I have been to in my measly little 26 years but we had a fun table full of bankers from all over the states to chat it up with and delicious food to munch on as well!

it's a....

Late post, obviously. 

Moving right along though....

One of the highlights of our San Diego Trip was finding out the sex of this little babe inside of me! Thanks to Kristin for orchestrating the whole gender reveal, it turned out to be such a fun experience :) And we are THRILLED with the outcome!

Following our 20 week ultrasound, this is what we were left with. An envelope sealed by our ultrasound tech with a circled "boy" or "girl" on the inside....  After the ultrasound, Max took the envelope to his trusted coworker at the bank and had him open it, and text the results to Kristin out in San Diego. --Thanks, Ben!!  We could have just had this card mailed to Kristin, but since we were leaving for San Diego the next day, we didn't want to risk it not getting there in time! Kristin received the exciting news and was forced to keep her mouth shut until the time came to share the news with us. We decided to find out at dinner on Saturday night since we already had reservations at a really nice restaurant. The anticipation was killing us and we kept going back and forth the whole time with what we all thought the baby was.... By the time we finished our meal, we had a little surprise come to us. 

A desert plate with card. A card in a PINK envelope, that is.... That was my first clue that we were obviously having another little girl. 

The card seemed a little boyish, but since it was more of a periwinkle blue, I figured it could go both ways.... We opened it up and immediately I skimmed over the whole wording in the card to what Kristin had written in at the bottom. She had created a sweet little poem:

Since I was so antsy to figure out what this sweet babe inside of me had for 'goods' I read it so quickly that at first I told Max "It's another girl!" --but he didn't really respond, he just kept looking at the card as if he was reading it over and over. It was then that I read it again, slower, and realized that my eyes had tricked me and we were not, in fact, having another girl. 

Our excitement, as we realized that we were getting the little BOY we had (secretly) been hoping for! I love how excited Max looks in this picture :) Don't get me wrong, I would have been so happy to have another little girl to love on, and for P to have a little sister (because little sisters are obviously awesome--right Mellissa?!) but I knew Max wanted a boy to pass on his name, and I just felt it was a boy the whole time! The most important thing, of course, was finding out that baby looked great at the ultrasound and so far, everything continues to look healthy and beautiful-- finding out it was a boy was just icing on the cake! We are so thankful and blessed to have such amazing friends to orchestrate this, and to celebrate with :) 

The Long Overdue Hawaii Trip Recap :) (Part 1)

So, just how far I am behind in my blogging is unreal. I refused to let anymore time pass without finally posting a recap of our Hawaii trip. So, here we go!

In a nutshell, we arrived back 'home sweet home' on a Monday from San Diego, only to pack up once again and leave on the following Saturday for Honolulu, Hawaii. (Gosh that makes us sound like these trendy little jetsetters-- I promise you, we are not! Haha!) It was a whirlwind of craziness but believe it or not, our kids survived (and had so much fun spending time with their grandparents/aunts/uncles, etc) and so did we....

As I was saying, we flew out Saturday, March 1st. The plane ride to Hawaii is LONG. It's kind of a bummer, but since our connecting flight was in LA it worked out to be a nice little 'halfway' break to get up for a bit, grab a bite to eat, and stretch our legs. Especially important to me being pregnant and what not.... I think the first stretch was close to 4 hours and the flight from LA to Honolulu was another 5 hours. We were extremely lucky to have the seat next to us open which was amazing for such a long flight. I will say that by use of our tablets, the flights went by MUCH faster than I imagined. I don't watch much tv at home, as in, at all most days- so it was nice to have NOTHING to do but read on my kindle, and watch movies with the hubs. We arrived late Saturday night and by the time we got settled into our hotel room at The Hilton Hawaiian Village it was around midnight, so 4am Minnesota time! Ouch!! To be honest, we had a hard time adjusting to the time change for the majority of our trip. 4 hours difference can really take a toll on a person, but we managed! The rest of our week went as follows:

Good morning, Honolulu! The main beach at our hotel....

Sunday: We were bummed to wake up to a rainy day on our first day in Honolulu but we decided to tackle some of the 'banking stuff' that we needed to do that day anyway. We were up early (of course--time change) and grabbed some yummy mochas at "Lamperts" on our resort and did a little walking around/exploring before we had an orientation meeting at 9am for the bank convention. Following the meeting, we did a little shopping/exploring in our village (I don't even know how many shops the resort has, but its ALOT. They range from convenience marts/souvenier shops, to Louie Voitton and everything in between. Unreal! We grabbed lunch at the Pronto Pickle (great lunch food!) and relaxed for a bit in our hotel room before deciding to venture off the hotel property. Thankfully, we chose to rent a car for our entire stay in Hawaii. It's a decision we are so happy we made and we definitely made use of it everyday.... We drove up the beach and watched some surfers for a while and then made a spur of the moment decision to hike Diamond Head Crater. It was still sprinkling off and on and overcast, but it made for perfect hiking conditions.

We made it!

Seriously, those views..... 

After our hike, we trekked it back to the hotel to shower up and get ready for a welcome reception sponsored by the ICBA. We were so exhausted by the end of the day that we ended up turning in really early after snuggling up watching the rest of 'Captain Phillips' in our hotel room!

Monday: Max had a few hours to put in right away at the morning for some trainings, so I leisurely made my way to the beach for a bit and then to one of the many pools on the resort just to relax and enjoy my coffee. I also managed to find my way to the Mandara Spa where I treated myself to a manicure and enjoyed learning lots of fun hawaiian traditions from my manicurist, a Honolulu local. She had a lot of interesting things to say including an old hawaiian tradition of being able to tell what the sex of your next baby will be depending on your youngest child's hairline. Crazy stuff, but it was definitely entertaining! :) I met up with Max shortly after and we hung out at the beach for a while, despite the fact that the weather was still not all that great. It was a little windy, but no rain so we were happy!

Stud :)

I think I could handle that job..... ;) Side note- I SO badly wanted to hop on one of those paddle boards, but my balance is so off when I'm pregnant that I"m pretty sure it would have been a disaster! 

Each of the pools on the resort were so different and unique!

Max discovered there was an Outback Steakhouse just up the street from us so guess where we had supper that night..... Yep. He is obsessed with the wings there and since he rarely gets them back home since there isn't a convenient location near us, I decided to let it fly and boy was he happy, happy, happy! After supper we went back to the resort and spent the evening at the Tapa Bar because they had live music playing and by then the weather was perfect for some outdoor drinks! Max tried his first 'mai-tai' and quickly became a fan of them! Perfect end to a great day!

"somewhere sunny and 75!"

Our traveling adventures have begun! Last Friday Max and I and our good friends Kyle and Emily narrowly escaped what ended up being one of the worst blizzards in the past 30 years or so and made a quick exit out of the state to sunny SAN DIEGO :) We couldn't have chosen a better weekend to leave!
Road conditions on Thursday were not pleasant in the slightest, but after saying goodbye to our kiddos knowing they were in good hands for the weekend ahead, we decided to head up to the cities Thursday night before catching our 9am flight on Friday. Thank goodness we did! Friday ended up slamming us with a ridiculous snowstorm and we were extremely thankful that since we were flying west, and not east, our flight was not delayed/canceled. We landed in San Diego around noon on Friday we were literally shocked by the sight of palm trees and sunshine. We were those OBVIOUS tourists who were literally stripping off layers as we were making our way to Kristin's car. Needless to say, my beloved Merrell wool socks were no longer needed and were quickly replaced with sandals!

First thing we did after finding Kristin was had lunch at the perfect little spot on the water!

Cocktails at noon? Of course! (Okay, mine was a 'mocktail' --but it was amazing!)

We finished off the rest of Friday with a little shopping before making our way to Kristin and Eric's home to settle in. That night we had dinner at Cafe Coyote in Old Town. It was delicious! I can't back it up, but I heard the margaritas were bomb too ;) 

Saturday morning we were up and moving quite early (thanks to the time change!) so after grabbing some coffee, we loaded up and headed to a 9am breakfast in La Jolla at Brockton Villa on the cove. Once again, yummy food and even better views!

The view from Brockton Villa--can't beat it :) 

Post breaskfast - pre kayak tour photo opp ;) 

the girls! 

After breakfast we did a 2 hour kayak tour and then spent some time wandering in and out of the little shops before grabbing a quick lunch at The Cheese Shop (highly recommend their sandwiches!) and heading back to the beach to TRY and eat them. Instead we were attacked by seagulls (duh, what are we, from out of state or something??) and if you know anything about me at all you would know that my deepest fear usually consists of birds, so therefor, we ended up taking our sandwiches to go. We are lucky to have made it out of there alive after Kyle "accidentally" spilled his entire bag of chips. We all ran. Fast. And then we laughed almost to the point of peeing. Live and learn! 

After our morning adventures we relaxed for part of the afternoon, had a little facetime action with my munchkins back home, took naps, and just enjoyed having nothing to do! After a while we began to get ready for our dinner that night at Searsuckers in the gaslamp district. Another awesome place to eat! This was also where Max and I were able to find out the sex of babyj :) I'll save that for a seperate post!

@ Searsuckers anxiously awaiting our gender reveal for johnson baby #3 :) Note to self: remove facial sunscreen before getting ready for the night so you don't look quite so ghostly! Oops!

Following a late dinner, we headed back to our 'home' for the weekend and celebrated for a bit before heading to bed. Sunday morning was another gorgeous day and while Kristin and Eric went to church, the four of us sat outside their garage in lawn chairs because we just couldn't justify spending a second inside since it was our last full day in San Diego. We are classy like that ;) Next up we made the trek up Cowles Mountain for a hike/picnic. Beautiful views awaited us at the top. 

Getting ready to head up! It was a relatively decent hike, nothing too strenuous, but it is the highest point within the city of San Diego around 1600 feet :)

enjoying the 360 view of the city at the top :) 

After dominating that hike, we obviously needed to replenish the calories lost, so we grabbed frozen yogurt on the way home. After relaxing for a while, we made a quick trip to another mall before grilling up some hamburgers and making arrangements to catch our flight the following day. We arrived back home Monday early afternoon and were greeted once again by this damn frozen tundra of a state. Today is Wednesday and due to yet ANOTHER blizzard this afternoon, the kids were released early out of school and we were homebound for the day. I won't complain too much, because our traveling adventures are not quite over yet... We leave again this weekend for a banking convention in Hawaii :) I am going to miss the kids like crazy, but technology these days helps with that and again, I know they will be in good hands. Can't say I will miss this weather, however! 

a week i'd rather move on from....

If I think back to the last 7 days and what this household/homestead/family has been through, I actually start laughing. It's all I can do because we've seen it all.

Illness, check! Death of a beloved pet? Check! Vehicle breakdown on side of the road? You bet! Illness again? Ohhhh yes! Another snowstorm? Well obviously....
Seriously, I can't make this stuff up! This really has been our week but thankfully, we are trucking our way through it one day at a time and we have for the most part, been able to remain positive. We've had a virus circling through and thankfully it was super quick, but apparently a few days later when you think you are healthy you get another dose of it... Ryder is home sick from school today with stomach issues--my poor toilets!! And on Valentine's day evening (sometime during the night) my quarter horse Starr passed away. It was super sad and the minute Max walked into the house I already knew what had happened just by the look he had on his face. Starr was old, and was definitely starting to show signs of her aging, but the extremes that this winter has thrown at us really made it miserable for her. It was hard for her to get around in the deep snow and ice that kept accumulating so in a way, I felt relief knowing she is currently in a green pasture somewhere covered in apple trees for her to munch on all day long :) As for the vehicle breaking down, it is currently in the shop getting fixed, so I am told.

Okay, so like I mentioned, not the best week for the Johnson crew but we are hoping for better (and warmer!) days ahead... On Wednesday, we get to see our little babe for our 20 week ultrasound, and Friday morning we head to San Diego  for a long weekend with our good friends. I will get SUPER anxious right before our flights because I do worry about traveling without the kids, but at the same time, I am ready for a little vacation. It's calling for mid 70's while we are there and I think I may go in shock when I feel what 70 degrees feels like. My body just doesn't remember that kind of heat! Soon after we return, we leave yet again to Honolulu, Hawaii for a banking convention. We feel so blessed to have these opportunities during such a relentless wint
er, and we know that after baby #3 comes, we likely won't be getting away anytime soon, so we are going to take advantage of these vacations while we can! Facetime and Skype will be my pick-me-ups when I am missing home and the little ones! I know they will be in good hands and are going to have so much fun hanging out with all of their favorite people!

                                              

                                                                On to greener pastures, starr bella boo :)