hawaii

Christmas is over (and it was fabulous, by the way), and now it's time to talk about our awesome trip to Hawaii a couple of weeks ago! We went to the Big Island of Hawaii for the wedding of our very good friends, Paul and Staci. The beach wedding was amazing and we had ONE WHOLE WEEK of hanging out with our wonderful friends KIDLESS (thanks Grandma Debbie)!!!

I mentioned on my photography blog about being saved by lifeguards at the beach. I have had several people ask me about it, so I feel it is time to tell the story. I read the Dalpias' blog, and after reading the very false version, I am here to set the story straight...

It was a beautiful day at the beautiful Hapuna Beach on the beautiful big island of Hawaii. We (six of us friends) were playing in the waves and having a good old time. Suddenly, a series of humongous waves started coming in. Holly, Camille, John, and Jean were smart enough to realize it was time to head back to the beach. Jean suddenly realized that Jason and Travis weren't following and turned to see them as tiny specks in the vast ocean. Arms were a-flailing and waves were crashing over their heads. Jean used her sweet swimming skills and quickly made it out to them in record time. They were exhausted and what looked to be near drowning. She grabbed them both (without a buoy OR flippers), told them to hold on to her and each other, and started pulling them to shore. After about a half a mile (maybe more) of dragging them in (they were WAY out there), Jean screams to the lifeguards who quickly sprint to help pull the two guys the rest of the way in. Jean was a bit embarrassed, but took a little bow as everyone on the beach clapped for her.

ok, ok, if you must know the truth,we were all frolicking in the waves...jean kept frolicking but was unknowingly getting further and further out... the waves became gigantic... jean kept playing... jason and travis swam out to tell her to get back to shore...we all tried to swim back, but kept getting pulled further and further out to sea...four baywatch-like lifeguards spotted the three almost drownees and came to drag our sorry butts back to shore. there. you have the truth. can you see why i would want to tell the first version? how embarrassing.

Bring on the pics! I also just posted some pics from the wedding on my photography blog if you care to see the beautiful bride and groom!

we should have paid more attention to the sign..."if in doubt, don't go out."

jason, holly, travis, jean, camille, john, paul, staci

girls being girls

guys being monkeys. out in the middle of a hawaiian jungle. with a car ripped to pieces behind them. what the?!?!

black sand beach
a hike to....hmmmm...dang it....can't remember the name. but, it was beautiful.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

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merry merry

merry merry christmas to all of our friends, family, and random blog readers!!!


oh, and by the way....
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one more thing...
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we're expecting baby #4 on june 15th, 2009!!! i am fifteen weeks along, but don't call me up in five weeks and ask me what we're having, because we're not going to find out!

oh yeah...HAPPY NEW YEARS while we're at it!

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giggle with me

the other day, travis and i came across a forgotten folder on our computer. we opened it and just started giggling...had to share some of the gems we found...

about five years ago, travis discovered a program that i had never heard of...photoshop. yep, that's right...the same program is my best friend these days. anyway, he started playing around on this crazy new program and became obsessed with distorting our poor little family.

unfortunately, others were victims as well...his very first distortion was our good friend jason...

it's 1:30 am and i'm tired. maybe these are funnier to me because i am in sleepy land right now...

click on the image to see it bigger.

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so proud

i am so proud of travis...he ran his first marathon this last week! a marathon and triathalon are both on my list of "things to do," but i have never quite got around to either of them yet. so, that makes me all the more proud of him for deciding to do it and, well, just doing it! here is our day in pictures...

the family arrives in detroit at 6 am...jean and the boys sleep in the truck for two hours while travis starts pounding the pavement...

we head out into the chilly morning and head to the finish line...the sun is just starting to come up and some half marathoners and 5kers are finishing up...


kaleb, barrett, and isaac hanging out...anxiously awaiting the time when it's time to go look for daddy...

we were close to the finish line and could here the announcers naming people and telling stories of the finishers as they crossed the finish line. there were so many inspirational stories and people (i shed a tear). i saw one man fall to the ground with exhaustion (or injury) and two other marathoners picked him and carried him to the finish line (i shed another tear). some runners were crying, some were limping, and some were working the crowds. it was so fun to watch.

and then there was this guy...

oh, i see daddy...BOYSSSS...there's daddy...DO YOU SEE HIM?!?!!?
trav after hearing us scream our guts out for him...
oh, and want to see travis' number one fan on the sideline? he should be so proud...
just chilling after the race...

well, i'm happy to say that travis can now walk again and has regained full control of his muscles again. he wasn't very happy with his time, so he is already plotting his next training schedule for his next marathon.

hey, next time, it's MY turn...

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a little help?

ok, so i logged into blogspot to make a new post and noticed a few things.

- my poor family blog has once again been neglected (almost a month since my last post).
- i looked at my blog and realized how pathetically boring it looks.

i go to everyone else's blog and see patterned backdgrounds, polls, slideshows, pictures on the sides, etc. i have always been more into the simple side of design, but gosh dang it, i want to learn some of these cool tricks! can anyone give me tips? i'm not sure where to start...

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does this happen at your house???

(time for isaac's nap)

has anyone seen isaac's blankets? i could have sworn i set them down by the stairs. anyone? anyone?

a few minutes later, i find this. yes, that is the garbage can. a tall one.


now, who in the world would stuff two blankets, two spatulas, six spoons, and a wisk in the garbage can? hmmm...i think i may have found out who done the deed...

GUILTY as charged.

this has been happening often around here. i remember the infatuation kaleb and barrett had with toilets, but garbage cans? better watch my wallet...or my camera...or pretty much everything.

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i'm in love

we just got back from washington dc over labor day and had so much fun! but until i get around to uploading our pics and postingt them, i just had to post this picture.

i am so in love with isaac i can hardly stand it. i was just telling travis how sad i was that i had no pictures of him and me. when we went to utah, heather mickey took our family pictures and i totally don't remember her taking this picture, but she sent it to me tonight and i wanted to cry (oops, maybe i did a little). anyway, just wanted to share...

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lesson learned...but i'm still mad

this post is strictly for venting.

i'm not blaming anyone besides myself for my very stupid mistake today, but still...i need to vent.

let me tell you a little story...the condensed version...

i had a session this morning at 9:30 am at university of michigan's campus in ann arbor. oh, by the way, parking is horrendous 99.35% of the time in this town. i am looking for parking and see this...



SWEET! an open meter! so i pull up, note the orange bag on the other side that says tow away zone and the handicapped sign right above it, and figure the "tow away zone handicapped zone" only applies to the orange bag side. the other meter is fair game...rock on.

jump out of car. insert money in meter. run to session.

session ends at 10:45 am. i go out to find NO CAR. this is where the panic began. why? because my wallet AND my phone were in the car that was apparently towed. i was stuck in a town where i didn't know a soul and the only phone number i had memorized was travis (in which he was an hour away from me at work).

hmmm. i looked at the sign above the meter again. oops. NOW i notice that the red arrow points in both directions, not just the orange bag side. insert swear word here.

can't call a cab...no money.

can't call for help...no phone and don't know any phone numbers.

i find the first innocent victim with a phone and commandeer it for a few moments trying to find out which towing company has my car. found it. scared boys with phone run away from the crazy lady on the verge of yelling and/or tears.

find another innocent victim with a phone. i am crying by now. i somehow remembered the phone number of the client i just did the session with and called it. humiliating? you don't even know. she came and picked me up and continued to drive me to the lot to get my purse out of the car, back to the police station to get a release, back to the towing company, and finally to the lot again to get my car).

three hours and $375 later, i got my piece of crap honda accord back.

$375!!!!!!!!!!!!!! are you kidding me?!?!!?!

anyway, for those of you still here with me after this monster vent session...thank you. i needed that.

learn from my mistake (or should i say mistakes...does a shirtless jean in walmart ring a bell).

by the way, since when are there handicapped meters anyway. for crying out loud...

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back from utah

ugh...kind of sucks to get back to normal life after a vacation. don't get me wrong...we are excited to get back to a normal routine, our friends, and the rest of our michigan summer (so beautiful here). i'm talking about responsibility. housework. other work. you know...the stuff that's manageable while you are at home, but kind of hits you smack in the face when you get home from a vacation. enough about responsibility...let's talk utah...

as you may have read in my last post, we were without travis for most of the trip. although that part sucked (do i use that word too much on a family blog?), it did allow for some much needed time with just my boys and me. we played games, read stories in the hammock, went to lagoon, cherry hill, swimming, and miniature golfing. i love my monkeys!

on to family and friends...i love you all and miss you already! this trip was the most relaxing utah trip we have had in a while and it was wonderful to see everyone. my boys were in pure heaven spending so much time with both of their grandmas. it's pretty crazy how much they adore them. speaking of grandmas...i'll let you in on a little conversation from a car ride with kaleb, barrett, and grandma debbie (relayed to us later)...

kaleb: grandma, i can't wait to move back to utah
grandma: i know, i can't wait for you to move back
kaleb: i will probably have to wait until i am an adult to move back
grandma: yeah
kaleb: i don't know if i will have a wife and kids when i move back
grandma: hmmmm
kaleb: i will probably just wait until i get to utah to get a wife and kids so i don't have to buy them a plane ticket

kaleb overhead talking to barrett afterwards: no, barrett, you can't just find kids, you have to get a wife first and then find kids


when i got back, i very sadly realized that i took hardly any pictures of my kiddies while i was in utah. but, here are a few i did get of my boys doing what they do best...being crazy little boys!!!

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10 years

what the?!?! that can't be right. i just checked on the last time i posted (before trav's last semi-rude post about me) and it said july 3rd. really? wow...this summer has been brutal on the smith spot blog.

enough about the "busyness" of this summer and straight to the point.

travis and i have been married TEN years today. if any of you know me, you know i am not one to write about mushy and personal things. but today, I DON'T CARE. i have been married to the most amazing person for ten years and i am going to shout it out to the world how much i love him!!! these ten years have flown by and if the next 60 years (actually, i hope i don't live that long) are anything like these last ten years, then i feel like the luckiest girl alive.

maybe my crazed love profession comes from the fact that our ten year anniversary is today and i am in UTAH and he is in MICHIGAN. how is that for SUCKY.

anyway, i love you trav and HAPPY TEN YEARS!!!

here's a picture from the oh-so-talented heather mickey from last week...she braved doing our 2008 smith family pictures...and did a FABULOUS job!

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AAAARGHHH!!!

OK, so does this bug anybody besides me?!



So yesterday while hanging out at Cedar Point, Jean asked me if there was anything she did that bothered me...after several minutes of pondering the question I was stumped...I couldn't think of a single thing...she's pretty much perfect! Then this morning I looked over and beheld the bain of my existence! TANGLED CORDS.......AAARRRGGGHHH!!! And unfortunately, everytime I look over at my sweet loving wife while listening to her headphones I am filled with IRE!!! WHY OH WHY would anybody wear a knotted mess of cords like this? I have even untangled it several times for her, but alas, the clump of tangled wires always seems to return...

But I guess it could be worse, right?

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super duper ooper important

all right peeps...listen up. this is no joke. if you own a computer (which you obviously do), you need to find some way of backing up your images, documents, digital scrapbooking stuff, or whatever else it is that you have on your hard drive.

last week, my hard drive crashed, and it crashed HARD...like so hard it was DEAD. i was FREAKING out as it had all of my photography business images, family images, digital scrapbooking images, and every other document i have ever saved on it. after six days of several failed attempts, travis found a program that restored most of it.

so, i consider myself super lucky as i didn't have everything backed up in the first place. we now are subscribed to an online service that backs up our hard drive online every day.
anyway, sorry to go on and on, but SERIOUSLY...can you imagine if you lost all of your pictures??? makes me sick.

anyway, just wanted to leave you with a few pictures from our camping trip (with captions...i love my lame captions) a couple of weeks ago (i am slowly catching up)....

a very rare moment...there is actually a picture with ALL FIVE of us in it...

last day camping...we were on the sand dunes and then went down to play on the beach...

yes, i am very hot and i ride an atv like no otha...

isaac's new girlfriend...

my boys headed down to the beach...look very closely at trav's beach bag...

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one year, two months, and two days

that's how long it took isaac to take his first steps! yippee...my baby is walking (arms straight up in the air and giggling the entire time)!

ok, so i totally just skipped the very small part about WHERE HAVE WE BEEN FOR A MONTH A HALF? i can't believe i left my shirtless walmart story up for so long without another post to cover it up! anyway, we have been so busy and have a ton of pictures and adventures to share, but all else was dropped for a moment when isaac took his first steps...

be back soon...very soon...i promise....

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the unthinkable...in walmart

As I type this, I'm not really sure why I am wanting to spotlight my stupidness. Oh well, it's all for fun.

So, I was rushing through Walmart the other day when I walk past the clothes section and see a cute swimming suit cover up dress thing. I never use dressing rooms for quick try-ons because it wastes too much time, so I scouted out a mirror and slipped it on. Perfect fit. So, still rushing, I whipped the dress off and stood there for about five minutes (more like 5 seconds) when I looked in the mirror and noticed that I ripped my shirt off with the dress.

Yep...there I was...standing in the middle of the Walmart clothing section without a shirt on. So, of course, putting it back on in the fastest way possible was no graceful maneuver. I threw the dress back over my head to spare any possible onlookers the pain of seeing any more of me than they already had. I struggled for at least 10 minutes (more like 10 seconds) to get my shirt on with the dress still over my head.

With my shirt back in place, I dropped the dress, and walked away. I couldn't even bring myself to look up to see if anyone had witnessed that whole scene. I couldn't bear the pain.

Lesson learned? Always use a dressing room...they are there for a good reason.

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a little help please?

Ok...I need some serious help. We realized this week that our boys eat as though they are teenagers and I seriously fear for the day when we have actually have three teenage boys needing to fill their empty stomachs. That realization led me to look at how much we are spending on groceries...it is NOT good...not good at all.

So, I am on a mission. A mission to save some serious money on groceries. This is also perfect timing as we are really trying to work on building up our food storage. The only problem is that I have never been good at coupons or finding deals.

This is where you come in. I know there are all sorts of cool websites out there (I have heard people talking about them but it went it one ear and out the other) and other money saving tips...I just don't know where to find them.

So, please, help a mother of three boys who who doesn't want to go bankrupt from grocery spending. TELL ME YOUR SECRETS! And if you're STILL not convinced of the severity of this situation, just look...Isaac is already displaying teenage boy eating habits...

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one

So, my baby turned one last Thursday. PLEASE tell me there are others who have had a super hard time seeing their baby grow up. I never thought I would be one of THOSE people. With Kaleb and Barrett, I was always excited for the next step or development. Uh uh...not with Isaac. He is my baby and I want him to stay that way.

Ok...can't handle the sadness...let's get to the fun. We didn't do a big birthday for him...I'll save those for when he can actually remember them :) But, I will tell you that he LOVED his cake...just look at the hand shoving action...



And last, we discovered last week that Isaac's top teeth were popping through. I am well aware that this is NOT a flattering picture of our child, but I had to share and giggle. WE HAVE A BABY VAMPIRE (any Twilight fans out there will appreciate that)!!!

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