With sunscreen covered noses, wide-brimmed hats, a cooler full of beers and a crew of visitors we lugged ourselves down to the beach and as I passed flowering plumeria trees and chirping birds I wondered if there could be a more perfect way to spend the day.

As I splashed my way through foamy surf and worked myself back towards the beach through wind and waves I could see the smiles and hear the laughter of friends enjoying the privacy of this secluded low-tide sand bar we had claimed as our own. The lively colors of summer brought this tiny stretch of sand to life and I smiled as I watched two grown men goo-goo and gaa-gaa over a sandy blonde haired and blue eyed boy.

Nothing makes this mama melt faster than watching papa and baby interact. Add to this equation warm rays of sunshine, topaz tropical water and a surfboard and I’m just as good as a popsicle in a California heatwave.

I’m still trying to put pieces of myself back together after watching this scene unfold:

This Moment- A Friday ritual. A single photo- no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

Hubby and his recruits have been making progress on our lanai enclosure and it’s finally getting close to the fun part. When I say the fun part I mean the “I want everything in this Pottery Barn Kids catalog” dreaming phase. I discovered this awesome site Pinterest and have been busy “pinning” my favorites.

So far we have three half walls built, 2/3rd of the stucco in place and a giant middle of construction phase mess of a home.

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I’m not going to linger for long in this space today, just a quick post to wish you a Happy Monday and a great start to the week. My best friend is in town for a few more days and there is simply too much laugher and sunshine to enjoy today to be on the computer. I was just wondering if any of you knew where my baby was? Surely this big, teething, sitting up boy is not mine.

This Moment- A Friday ritual. A single photo- no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

Somedays you just have to give yourself a high five and today is that day for me. Maybe it’s the amazing sleep I had last night or maybe it’s the simple fact that I’m a very blessed mama but today has been a great day. Waking up to the sweet coos of my little man I gently transported his still waking body into bed and nestled him in close between myself and papa. We laid like this, the three of us taking in the morning sun until Harper’s smiles and chattiness kicked in enough to rouse us from the covers and start our morning routine.

Papa makes a bottle while I lovingly coax a few minutes of nursing out of Harper. When he’s had his fill at the boob papa steps in and tops him off with a couple of extra ounces. I take advantage of this down time to sneak in just a few more minutes of snoozing and then I’m up and at ‘em ready to greet the day.

Today was an extra special day when papa announced that surf was up and he was hoping to score some waves at Diamond Head. Being the awesome hubby that he is and knowing that I too would want to score some waves he helped pack us up and we were out the door, beach bound before most were even tossing in their beds.

We arrived at the beach to a packed crowd (so much for beating the crowd) but the waves were indeed perfect. Glassy conditions, aqua water and chest high waves welcomed us to our favorite playground. Papa headed out first while baby and I nursed a bit in the sunshine and drifted off to sleep, messy sand stuck beneath our toes and a bright umbrella safely overhead.

Soon it was my turn to paddle out, this is when things get really exciting for me. It’s been over a year since I even attempted to paddle on a short board but today I was going for it. I hopped on hubbies 5’10″ and awkwardly headed out towards the crashing waves. Within just a few short minutes the tippy board began to settle beneath my body and my paddling turned into a steady rhythmic pull, inching me closer and closer to the lineup. I took things easy, staying safely inside where the smaller waves were breaking and with a much less intimidating crowd. To make things even better I ran into a family friend that I hadn’t seen in quite a while and was introduced to a whole new crew of girly surfers.

We sat together, encouraging one another to “go for this, pop up, paddle harder, faster, catch this one!” To my surprise I still had it, I could turn and paddle and catch any wave I wanted. Standing up was a completely different story but it didn’t even matter. I was having so much fun catching and riding waves on my belly that the fact I had reverted to beginning belly riding didn’t even dampen my spirits.

With a wide grin plastered across my face I took one more ride in and finally got myself up and surfing. I was doing it! Back on the beach hubby, Harper and I spent some quiet time wading in the tide pools and sprinkling ourselves in the sweet ocean mist that light winds had begun to whip up from the sea.

Today was a good day.

Warning: This post is as disgusting as the title suggests

Ok guys, I am officially the worst mommy ever! Before you get too freaked out this event actually happened a few weeks ago and I’m just now getting the chance to write about it. I figured I would throw in this tidbit to let you know that everyone involved is perfectly healthy and possibly more immune because of what I’m about to tell you…

It was late, or more accurately it was early. Early as in my eyelids literally wouldn’t open and the moon had gone to bed but the sun had yet to rise. Unfortunately for me, my son was up and he was hungry. And in typical Harper fashion he was refusing to nurse which meant mama had to gather what little brain power she could and scramble to warm up some milk.

I stumbled into the kitchen, threw open the fridge door and grabbed some milk I had lovingly (grumble) pumped earlier in the day. Luckily I had washed all the bottles and they were drying conveniently on the counter for me to dump the milk into and run back to my fussing little man. Harper chugged his way through the bottle until about the last ounce. He was fussing like he was hungry but acted like he couldn’t get the rest of the milk out of the bottle. As I propped open my eyelids to inspect what the problem was I spotted the culprit….

A termite, wings and all was clogging up the nipple. AHHH I had literally just fed my hungry little boy 3 ounces of contaminated BUG JUICE!

I don’t know if you have ever seen a termite up close but these things are nasty. Imagine a weavel with wings and you’ve got yourself a wood chewing and pooping termite. I have no idea what this guy was doing taking up residence inside a bottle nipple but he found himself drowned in some mama milk. Fortunately he was too big (ewww he was pretty big) to pass through the nipple or else I would have been fishing a termite out of Harper’s mouth. YUCK!

Epic mommy fail. I now make sure to at least turn on a light and inspect bottles before offering them to my son…poor baby!

I guess this is one of the down sides of living in Hawaii. Bugs work themselves into our daily lives in some pretty disgusting ways. I am currently battling an ant infestation in my car that has been ongoing for about 6 months now. It doesn’t matter if I bug bomb, vacuum, spray, squish, threaten or turn hubby loose on the critters they keep coming back. Even worse they seem to have invited some cockroaches to the insect party and I’m having the hardest time getting rid of them too. In my defense I think these bug raids have less to do with my cleanliness and more to do with the car parked next to mine. I’m pretty sure my vehicle neighbors collect cans for a living and their van is visibly infested with all kinds of nasty critters and bugs.

Do you guys have any suggestions for how I might get rid of these bugs?!

This Moment- A Friday ritual. A single photo- no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see

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