Geni Belly...

Some things you should know....
1. I gave myself this haircut.
2. These are new glasses... and they are red.
3. I bought this wonderful flower needlework picture at the goodwill... it makes me tremendously happy.
4. The flower on my belly I just made for baby Genevieve, who is now 25 weeks and 5 day old.
5. It is she who is making my belly adorable.

LOSING IT!!!!

Is it so wrong to want to beat Melvin from time to time?


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! I'm LOSING IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



P.S. I won't really beat him.......

Mauied.

There will be no getting over Maui. Here are some pictures... none of which flatter me, or do this GORGEOUS island justice... but still................................. here is some of our wonderful vacation- the vacation that will haunt me always! :)

We went to an awesome Luau. I wore a real flower lei- I can't even begin to tell you how divine those flowers smelt.
There was a fire dancer... the best in the world or something like that. Melvin, along with Mark and I LOVED it!

There was dancing.

And dancing.

Gorgeous sunsets.

We went whale and dolphin watching. The dolphins loved to perform... and the whales... a mother and her calf were amazing! Whale milk is about the consistency of yogurt. Just a little something we learned. It takes a lot of fat to grow a whale!

The whales were hard to photograph.

We ate Hula pie- finished it actually, with a lot of help from Mel.

We saw the amazing banion (sp?)tree in Lanai. It's amazing to me! This one tree has 12 trunks! (I might be off on that number... but wow. )

All one tree..

Amazing.

We tried our hand at Hawaiian as we attempted to pronounce Waianapanapa State Park.

We saw mongooses, who are NOT native to Hawaii.

We saw art.

Us at a black sand beach near Hana. Don't swim at this one! There are painful jellyfish VERY near the shore!

Wow. GORGEOUSSSSSS!!!!

We drove THE road to Hana. This is probably the highlight of our vacation. It was beyond incredible to me- all the dripping foliage, the falls, pools, forests, flowers, sigh. Amazing.

One of the many falls/pools. Next time we go, when the childrens are older, we are TOTALLY hiking around and swimming in the pools. We didn't this time- but just imagine...

There were bamboo forests EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!! Isn't it beautiful????

The island was so diverse. I was shocked at how commercial Maui wasn't! :) Sure, right by the beaches there are incredible resorts... but get not too far inland, and all of sudden there is farmland, and shacks- clearly with people living there, but clearly without running water or electricity. I couldn't believe it!

We saw amazing flowers...

and baby palm trees growing out of coconuts.

We got fresh mango and passion fruit smoothies from Uncle Harry's. There were little family 0wned farmer market places like this EVERYWHERE!!! People even just put fruit like passion fruit, or tropical flowers in boxes on the side of the road with a sign stating the price. You'd just put the money in the box if you wanted to make a purchase. All on the honor system.

Mel wore water shoes pretty much the whole time. :) They were perfect. Here is more beautiful bamboo.

More falls...

More beaching...I loved the lava rock

On the way to the crater we drove by a lavender farm, and through a eucalyptus forest. Mmmm... they both smelt heavenly.

We ate amazing food. Just check out Mel's grilled cheese.
We would go to the beach in the morning before it got too hot. We are clearly pasty, all three of us... so we lathered ourselves in sunscreen... :) No burns! :) Hooray! But then, no tans either. :( We had SOOOOOOOOOOO much fun at the beaches! Mel was terrified at first, but within short time he REALLY got the hang of things. We all got extremely sandy at this particular outing.

More unexpected landscapes. I had no idea Maui was like this too.

We went to the Maui Ocean Center or something like that.... this is a fish we saw there. He looks ornery.

We also saw jellyfish too.

We went to Iao Valley. Again.... amazing.

Melvin realized that his Dada is THE best- way better, WAY more fun than his mama. :) It was on this trip that Melvin didn't want me to put him to bed, or to comfort him, hold him, play with him, read to him.... he only wanted Mark.... it was SOOOOOOOOOOO nice!

More sunsets...

More of Iao valley.

Good grief... I have left out SOOOOOO much... but this will have to do- I have a neck cramp from working on this post so long! To sum it up-- good thing Christmas was after our vacation or I would have been COMPLETELY depressed to come home! But, as it was, Maui was AMAZING beyond amazing, but home is still nice, and Christmas was fantastic. Hopefully I'll post on that soon. :)

Who can beat this?

I decided to tackle the high chair today. As I removed the cover, I thought, "Wow. I wonder if anyone else's high chair can beat this." So, can yours? Or do I win?

Results.

It's a girl. :)

Reading.

I just wanted to say...

I just wanted to say two things:

#1. Tomorrow we will know if baby Roper # 2 is baby pink or baby blue :) .

#2. In three days Mark, Mel and I will land on a little island called MAUI.


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can ANY combination of words describe how out -of -this- world, beyond- beyond- beyond- excited I am for these events? No. But I am. TOTALLY. BEYOND. BEYOND. BEYOND. excited.