Heidi's New Look...

Well I got a new wig this past weekend and so now I am sporting a new look! I have a very short bob type cut and it is so much easier to manage and it is SO much more comfortable than my heavier wig. Now I love the one that I bought 3 years ago because it was so much like my real hair before it fell out due to chemo. But when my hair grew in, as most of you know, my hair grew in dark and curly so I have had that look the the past few years.

My hair had actually grown long enough that I really loved it! It was so easy to do and it was long and curly and so fun! Then came the steroids into my life again and my hair just started falling out in clumps. Then in November my third radio surgery sealed the deal with my hair loss, so now I have a huge, and I mean huge, bald spot on the back of my head.Well I knew that I would eventually have to do something to deal with this new turn of events--really losing your hair once is painful, but twice?? Seriously?? So this past week I went to a hairdresser to find out what my options were regarding getting a weave put in our extensions or something? I do have a little bit of hair to work with.

Well what I found out was that it was going to be months before they could do anything--you can't work with peach fuzz....and that it was going to be really expensive on top of that. So I was discouraged about that.The hairdresser suggested I get a wig but I wasn't thrilled about that, I wanted something less cumbersome and light and easy and more realistic! Even though its not my real hair I just wanted to feel more normal and with a wig on I never felt normal.

Well, after thinking about it and talking to Scott and some friends of mine, I decided to try the option of looking at a shorter wig. Something more along the lines of what my hair will eventually grow to be and something better for the spring, summer, etc. Something that would be easy to fix, easy to wear and would help me to feel just more normal!! After going to the wig place and getting advice from Scott on what he thought I came home with my new wig!! I just love it and I am looking forward to having a new "do" that will grow with me. So I decided to have our family take a photo today of Mom's first day with her new hairdo and now you can all get used to my look with short hair! I think it may eventually grow on me...literally! =)

End of February Photos

This is such a great shirt! We found this in Hawaii and we just had to buy one!! See what it says? It's so appropriate for a Star Wars family like ours! The shirt says "The Return of the Gecko" and it has geckos with light sabers, it is so funny! I just had to take a photo of this one!

This is Cameron with his pajama shirt that is finally starting to look like it fits him, it might actually be getting a little small. Why is this significant? Well, this shirt is from Kindergarten! Cam is in 4th grade now! This shirt has little thumbprints on it with the names of all the Kindergartners from Cameron's class. It's just so cute and I can't believe he is still wearing it!

This morning I made muffins and Kyler was so excited to help me and he put on this chef hat and apron.

Here Kyler is hard at work making muffins with Dad...gotta love them hard at work.

We survived the "Road to Hana!"

Tuesday was a great day in Maui!! This was the day that we were adventurous and tackled the Road to Hana! It was very long but amazing day! We left about 8:30 am and returned about 8 pm so it was a very, very long day on the road…literally, but the amazing things that we saw were totally worth the day! The children were really great sports about all the driving. Luckily we had this very nice set of wheels as our rental car so it made all the time in the car much more pleasant!!

Scott had picked spots that didn’t require a lot of hiking, both because of the kids and because of my leg so I was grateful for that. We really got to see some neat things on the Road to Hana! Five years ago when Scott and I came before without kids we did the Road to Hana and I got so carsick. This time I took medication and Kaylie did too and we did great in the car so it was a whole different scenario, I had a much more pleasant trip! I loved the Road to Hana this time!

Beauty on the Road to Hana

Our Favorite Wave Beach

This was our very favorite beach to watch the waves from, it really was BEAUTIFUL! We could have stayed here all day and watched the waves, this was a highlight of our day!! Need I say more?

Reflecting..

My kids each reflected on what their favorite thing was from our road to Hana trip. I love these photos of them just taking it all in....these are timeless photos (Kyler on the bench, he sat there a long time)!

Cameron-“My favorite thing was swimming in the waterfalls and jumping off the rocks and hiking with Dad and Kaylie.”

Dallyn—“My favorite thing was swimming in the waterfall pool and seeing all the waterfalls.”

Kyler—“Seeing the waves was not cool it was AWESOME! I liked eating lunch at the picnic tables, going on lots of roads and swimming in the water with Dallyn”

Kaylie—“My favorite thing was sitting on the bench watching the waves at the one really pretty beach and seeing the sand crabs. All of the views were so pretty.”

The famous 'Jump'!

I would guess one of Scott’s highlights was jumping off the rock he jumped off of 5 years ago when we visited Maui with some friends. It was a walk down memory lane for Scott. However, this time his kids, and a bunch of lucky tourists, got to watch him as well. It was really fun for the kids to get to watch him jump off the rock. He did it twice this time and I got the sequential photos.

Scott also was excited to drive the back road to Hana after we finished going round the island. He enjoyed the off-roading experience and thought it was great to see the view of the backside of the island. Just for the record, it is not so pretty back there. Very dry, blah and not much to see, except the back of the volcano, but at least Scott can now say he has driven all around the island! That was something that he has always wanted to do, so that was a highlight for him!

Cool Trees

This is the three bears waterfall.....

These trees were amazing..the children called them Playdough trees and they were Cameron's all time favorites!! So I had to get a photo of him with the trees! It looked like someone painted them! But they grew this way!!

(From Heidi's Journal) One of my favorite things on the Road to Hana was just getting to be with my kids and talk to them. They have such fun personalities and it was so fun just to talk to them and discuss all the neat things we saw. For example, Cameron found these trees that he nicknamed ‘play dough trees’ and they were so very cool! They have different colored trunks and it doesn’t look natural but they are. Cameron thought they were so very cool and so he watched for those. Cameron also named these other trees ‘Lego trees’ because they look like Legos built on each other, it was really neat. Cameron looked for different angles as we were driving, practicing for his 4th grade math assignment, so I know his teacher would be proud of him for that.

Pools & Caves on the Road to Hana

Black Sand Beach

This is one of the places I loved coming when we visited five years ago. This black sand beach is just so amazing! So I had to get some photos of the children with the black sand! We even brought home a handful and you can see the black sand and our seashell collection in our kitchen in Utah! So we brought back a little bit of paradise with us!

Aren't they just darling in their matching Wave shirts?? Kaylie is wearing one of my old Maui tees so we are just so very coordinated for these road to Hana photos! =)

Scott and Heidi on my favorite beach!

These are some special flowers that Kyler picked for me...how darling is that 4 year old?

Amazing Views of Black Sand Beach

Beautiful!

Do you need words with a face like this??