she talks

Hello Teens

 

Black & Orange Day at school. He went pretty hard with the orange.

The boy who makes my heart so full of the kind of love only a mother can know just turned 13 last saturday.  THIRTEEN!  I just need to make this about me right now and point out the fact that unlike past milestone birthdays like 5 and 10...I didn't cry!  Not even one tear.  In fact, I feel kind of excited for him to be in this new exciting phase of life.  He is extremely social, loves youth group, playing sports and the older he gets, the more fun all of that gets for him!  I think back to being a teenager and I had a lot of fun with my friends!  As much as I would love to be Nolan's best friend forever, I know it will be for the best that I let the boy grow up in a healthy family where he isn't co-dependant with his mom...even if that is really what I want.  

Confession...I get really excited when we text jokes back and forth which has happened once, maybe twice.  It's the best!  He's the best!  Except when he gives me teenage attitude which happens a lot, but I still love him.

Rockin the sweats (his wardrobe staple) and looking cool in Maui!

Just to touch on a few great things about having a teenager and not a child...

1. I don't feel any guilt making him do work for me, for free.
2. He is 100% capable of feeding & bathing himself.  
3. If he loses or breaks something, he has to buy it himself...and I don't feel bad about that either.
4. He works and makes money and then he has to buy his own things.  
5. He is almost bigger than me so now he can protect me when Tom goes away.
6. Big boys don't really cry and when they whine, you stop them by taking away their phone!
7. His friends are pretty sweet and tell me I make good food!  

The cons...

1. No more 'child rate' ever.
2. He needs more rides...all the time.
3. Attitude.

Nolan and his school mates he met at his new school this year. Aren't they just the cutest group of boys?

I think I hated the tweens, not the teens.  The tweens are such an awkward time in a childs life because they are too cool to be a kid, but lack the maturity to actually handle things teens can handle.  It feels good to be here!  I've got a really great son.  He has always chosen really great friends and I love that he has good judgement in that department.  

For his birthday, he actually wanted to spend it with one friend to go see The Hobbit, [I know...boring, right?]  My in-laws insisted on having the boys at their house and I had to convince Nolan that he would have way more fun with a bunch of boys rather than sitting for 3 hours in a movie theater...  The party was so easy and so much fun!  They went sledding, played video games, ate too much food, played hide and seek!  It was a great day celebrating Nolan with such a great group of boys!  

Hello Teens!  Wish me luck!          

My boy, looking more grown up than ever!

Our Maui Christmas

We love Maui!  It's my favorite place to be!  Each time we go, all it takes is one beach day for me to start thinking about how I don't ever want to come back home.  We did a Lahaina day, an evening in Paia, ate dinner at our favorite place, Coconuts!  There were no centipede's in our bed this time and nobody got eaten by a shark.  We had such a relaxing trip and I'm really missing it already!

We are so pro at packing for beach days.  Snacks, drinks, water toys, land toys, music, books and lots of sunscreen, especially on the first beach day!

Nolan got to see quite a few turtles up close and personal!  As you can see here, he is pretty serious about his snorkeling!

Tom is so much fun in the waves!  I loved watching him and Nolan play in the water!  

We didn't happen to catch many sunsets, but this one was a pretty special one for us.  Not only did I happen to get this ridiculously cool shot of Nolan, but we saw a whale flapping around in the water for a really long time and it was magical!

One of the only pictures of just Tom and I.  This year I had a very difficult time getting pictures of anybody, not to mention having someone take a picture of me (which lead to a large amount of horrible selfies...no judgement please.)

We went paddle boarding one morning and it was absolutely perfect.  The water was calm and clear...only I fell in because I got distracted thinking about how I could potentially see a shark.  The people who worked for the rental company gave me great advice, "Don't look for the sharks, they'll look for you!"  Awesome.  Not.

Big Beach day!  This is Nolan's favorite beach!  He loves jumping into the giant waves and boogie boarding here.  I don't love it because I'm afraid I will get taken out by a wave, but the beach is so beautiful!  On this particular day, we witnessed two separate individuals get taken away by the lifeguards.  We saw the one girl get crushed by the waves more than once.  She left with a broken nose and severe whip lash!  That didn't keep my guys out of the water!

We did an excursion one day to check out the Olivine Pools on the north shore.  They are several tide pools located on barren lava.  The view was so beautiful!  

One of the pools was so deep, Nolan was able to climb up the rocks and jump in!

Later that day, we went to check out a beach we have never been to before, Baldwin Beach.  It's a boogie boarding beach that all of the locals hit, and we pretty much consider ourselves locals for the duration of our vacation, so we fit right in!  

Christmas eve was great!  We had just had a few days of heavy rain, but it cleared up for us to meet friends for a nice dinner.

Christmas Day in Maui is a lot more casual than a typical one back home.  In the past we've done stockings for everyone, but this year we just kept it low key.  Don't you love our tiny christmas tree?

MIMOSA'S AND CHRISTMAS PANCAKES FOR ALL!!!!!  

Just Nolan showing off for all the passerbys...  A wave came and got him in the face seconds after I took this picture!

This is what I was telling you about...bad selfies.  I had no choice!  I was the only one snapping pictures and I needed proof that I was on this vacation!  [For the record: It takes me about 30 selfie-shots (and 3 ciders) to get 1 somewhat decent picture of myself.  It's a lot of work!]

We don't really know how this came about.  We pack chairs and towels to go to the beach everyday, but one beach day, we looked behind us and found Nolan like this!

Lucky for Nolan, he happened to have a few friends that were also vacationing in Maui at the same time as us.  Since we are really nice parents, we let him spend a few beach days with them.  Teen day at the beach was a big hit!

 This is what our evenings look like when we weren't getting gelato or playing yahtzee!  

 There are so many gecko's on the lanai, Nolan decided to catch one.  I'm not sure if this guy was No-Tail, Long-Tail or Albino...(pretty creative names he comes up with)!

 Our last beach day was a bust unfortunately.  Cloudy and windy...my two least favorite conditions!  

 We took the dreaded red-eye flight home.  Nolan claimed he slept for most of it and made a point of telling me he wasn't tired at all upon arriving into Vancouver.  We had a few hours to wait until we caught our last flight home and not once, not twice, but three times, I found him completely zonked out!  They really are sweet when they're sleeping...