17 Years and Counting

The day we met. Pretty cool to have pics together the very day we met :)
August 2, 1996

Engaged September 21st. Originally planned to get married on Valentine's Day
the following year. That plan lasted a few days before we realized we didn't want
to wait any longer than it would take to pull a wedding together, so we bumped up
our wedding date to November 27th.

We should have used this as our engagement picture. It shows our personalities
and our relationship the best.

I really wanted to use this for our announcement because it was just as playful
and young and in love as we felt at the time. (The "grown ups" convinced us to
use something more traditional...)

The big day. 

One of my favorite pictures from our wedding day. Until someone pointed out that
at quick glance it looks like I'm getting a handful of my new hubby's.. ahem... Makes it
one of my favorite pictures  of the day for a whole different reason :)

Pretty big day for our family when Willy graduated with
one of his two Associates Degrees. 

Ben - October 9, 1997. Less than a year after we were married. (And 9 months
after my birthday. We call Ben our "belated birthday gift. *big grin*)

Brady - October 5, 2001 (Hey look! A pattern of belated birthday gifts!)

Toby - June 20, 2005

Last but not least, Molly April 7, 2008

And then a few years of true adventure, Hawaiian style. Some of our favorite pictures as a couple come from these years.

Haleakala Sunrise, Maui 2010

Our 15th anniversary was spent in Kauai. Not sure we'll ever be able to quite
match that anniversary trip! 2011

One of our favorite activities while living in the islands. I'm pretty sure one of the most
romantic gestures that made me feel 100% protected was when Willy would take my hand
when we were in the water and he'd pull me along so I could rest and relax.

Halemaumau Crater, 2012

Heading to Kalaupapa, Moloka'i. 2012

Fulfilling one of my personal dreams with Willy supporting me all the way.
Visiting Kalaupapa, Moloka'i. 2012

Ka'ena Point, O'ahu. 2012

The adventure continues as we trot around the country together.
Happy as could be in our new corner of the world.

We do a lot of this. Willy makes me laugh literally every single day. He's my best friend.
I'm an incredibly blessed woman having him as my partner and forever companion.

2012 Highlights (yep... I said 2012)

At the end of 2011 we decided to make a little family video using photos to highlight our year and then send the video to extended family so they could see our kids growing up and see our adventures and such. It was our intention to send it to all the cousins and grandparents for Christmas. Right around Easter of 2012 (*eyeroll*... I'm such a slacker!) we finally go the videos burned to DVDs and sent off to the grandparents and told them to just share. One side of the extended family popped the DVD in at the next big family gathering and we were told it was a hit. The other side of the extended family never even heard that the video existed, let alone watched it (but the grandparents did, and they enjoyed it hehehe :) ) I didn't think we could possibly botch up the idea so badly a second time. Thought we'd learned from experience and would do much better for 2012.

So early in December 2012 I started working on gathering the right photos to showcase each family member's year and attaching the music that the kids wanted, etc. It was an emotional project since I was culling through photos from Hawaii while preparing for a rough Christmas in a new place away from extended family while also preparing for a forced move to a new house within a few weeks. But I did it!! I finished the videos before Christmas. There was just one little bonus item we wanted to add to the end of the video... And what do you think happened? The whole project got back-burnered in chaos of the holidays and our move at the end of December. And then it was fairly forgotten. And finally around Easter time I remembered that we'd never sent the videos. They never got burned to DVDs. They just sat there on my computer, complete but not watched. I thought I'd try to get them burned and sent for Mother's Day. Nope. Missed that too.

Lame. Lame. Lame.

So last week I finally just uploaded them all to YouTube and sent the links to all our family members and best friends (the ones who gave us the idea to send videos in the first place). And I haven't heard a single word back from anyone after sending the links. HAHAHAHA. Talk about a flop and failure of epic proportions. Not sure I'll bother even trying this whole send-videos-to-family idea for 2013 since I clearly can't get it right. BUT! My kids absolutely love seeing their own year in review set to music of their choosing. It makes them happy. Which makes me happy. For all the scrapbooking I do for work, I'm horribly inconsistent about printing layouts or having books printed for my kids, so the videos are at least a fun way of documenting their years in review for them to enjoy and look back on.

I figured I wouldn't let all the video making work go to waste, and I'd go ahead and share all our little video clips here on the blog for anyone who might be interested (and for quick reference for when the kids want to watch them again). I'll list them in the order I would have burned them on DVD in case anyone feels inclined to watch them as they were intended to be viewed hehehe. I know it's a lot of video watching. I don't really expect anyone to sit down and just watch our whole year, but whatever LOL. If you want the condensed version probably just watch the last three vids that are of the whole family instead of individuals (but there are some gem photos in the individual vids too).

Here we go!

Top 20 pics of 2011... Campbell family style

I'm going to do it. I'm going to try to pick just 20 pictures from 2011 that best sum up our year. I tried 11 to be hokey (y'know... 2011 so 11 pics) but that was hopelessly impossible. Twenty was ever so slightly more doable. So here we go!

1. 2011 started with a bang. A whole lot of bangs actually. New Years Eve in Hawaii
is unlike anything I've experienced anywhere else. The fireworks start early in the afternoon
and keep booming... and booming... and booming until the MASSIVE explosion the island
experiences at midnight. It's kind of surreal. I LOVED it! Unfortunately the law went into effect
that fireworks are no longer allowed on the island. The occasional popping and booming
I'm hearing this evening indicate that we'll still be treated to a loud NYE, but I suspect due
to the new illegal nature of fireworks, it won't be quite as spectacular as in years past.
I'm glad we got to experience it in it's prime :) (That's the clean-up effort after the fireworks party,
pictured above, by the way. And the hazy nature of the photo? That's because of all
the smoke in the air... not because I'm a lousy photographer LOL.) 

2. This year we went on a lot of outings as a family. It feels so good to get out of the house
and explore together! This picture represents a few favorites of ours. It shows Willy in an
extremely typical pose... camera held to his eye snapping shots of the beauty around us.
It shows the family on a hiking adventure. It shows us exploring a new-to-us location on the
island (Kaena Point), which I love to see in the picture. We do NOT take this place for granted
and we're doing everything we can to explore it to it's fullest! 

3. Speaking of exploring and not taking island life for granted... Willy is the master
at getting out there! He's in the water as often as possible and loves getting his
"hydro-solar recharge". We go to the beach frequently as a family, but Willy
can be found in the water almost weekly.

4. 2011 was a Year of the Bumps and Bruises (and cuts, and breaks, and stitches...)
One major event this year was poor Brady losing a permanent tooth and taking a hefty
sized chunk out of his lower lip in a skateboarding accident. He's got a gap in his smile
and a scar on his lip to show for the experience.

5. Not to be outdone, Toby spent some time in the ER this year as well. A couple weeks
after Brady's accident, Toby had one of his own. He was playing on the pogo stick, slipped
and fell forward and couldn't get his hands off the handles in front of him fast enough to
stop his fall, so he caught himself with his face... on the garage floor. One broken nose,
one fat lip and several bruises later, his pic makes the top 20 of the Campbell family year.

6. Sometime around July the planking craze hit the Campbell family  with gusto. Toby
was the most die hard, and could be planking randomly and without warning everywhere
we went. My favorite planking photo was Dinner Time with Guests Planking.

7. Ours is a reading family. We read, and read, and read. Ben read the Hunger Games
trilogy this year... twice. Brady read the Harry Potter series. I have no idea how many
books Willy and I have read cumulatively this year but it's got to be somewhere near
100 between the two of us. I love this picture of Willy and I on perhaps the most
romantic date ever, sitting in one of my favorite spots on the island (Kukaniloko) and
reading individually, but together.

8. We spent a lot of time at one of our favorite places this year, the Polynesian Cultural Center.
This happens to be one of my favorite pics of Toby... ever.

9. I like this picture because it represents EVERY SINGLE TIME I ask the kids to pose
for pictures. There always has to be the final "funny faces shot".

10. To go along with the funny faces... we spent a lot of time this year laughing together.
Willy makes me laugh every single day. I love him for it!

11. We moved this year. We stayed in the same neighborhood but found a place with
an additional bedroom, had central air and was a significant chunk of change cheaper
than the rent in our old house. It was a no brainer! Moving sucks in general, but this
has definitely been a good move for our family! And we got so much help from
friends and church ohana that the move itself was *nearly* painless.

12. 2011 was the year of the skateboard in our family. We've explored half a dozen
skate parks on the island and the kids are mastering their skills constantly. Willy gets right
out there with them and has a blast. He even built me a skateboard and painted it with
"Chicks rule" on the bottom of the deck. I love it... but I'm kind of a klutz on it. I don't want
to lose a permanent tooth like another little sk8er boi I know...

13. One thing I managed to do right in 2011 was take better care of myself and
claim control of my body and weight. I've got a long way to go, but I started the
journey to drop the plus from my size and nothing is stopping me now.

14. This year was filled with lots and lots of hula! I continued taking dance lessons
with Akala Studios and Molly began taking hula lessons this year as well! She and I
have performed at several performances together and it's a great mommy/daughter
experience! And the boys are relatively willing to come cheer us on hehehe. (Ben moreso
than any others, probably. Coconut bras, y'know...)

15. Speaking of Molly. She's a diva princess. In a big way. She's found her
demanding, diva ways this year and really polished them to princess perfection.

16. We managed to pull off one more year of coordinated Halloween costumes in 2011.
I'm not sure I can even hope for another year of cooperation from the older kids, but
at least we had one more fun family costume photo for the books!

17. Something happened in 2011 that quite frankly disturbs me more than anything else.
Ben became a giant of a man-child now. It freaks me out thoroughly each time I give him
a hug or find myself standing next to him. Freaks. Me. Out.

18. This year we didn't have a lot of extended family visitors like we have in years past.
We haven't had any visitors, actually, since January! We miss spending time with our "real" family,
but we've managed to spend a whole lot of time with our Hawaiian ohana as they've had a pretty
magnificent year (finalizing the adoption of their now 2 1/2 year old son and being sealed
together as a family in the Laie Temple!) It's good to have "family" to spend time with!

19. Willy and I celebrated our 15th anniversary this year and took the most amazing little
island hop vacation to Kauai to celebrate! It was a magical weekend experiencing one of the
most beautiful places I've ever seen!

20. Hey look! We got our family photo taken professionally!  There's a first for everything LOL.
This is our family near the end of 2011. This is us! This is what life is all about!

 2011 was a wonderful year. 

I'm excited for what 2012 has in store!

Happy New Year from our ohana to yours!!

Thirty Days of Thankful - Day 1

Day 1 - I'm thankful for a husband who is kind and patient with me, fun and playful with the kids and hard-working and handy around the house. The man who inspires the heck out of me with his 18-mile commute BIKE ride home from work. The man who has learned to (more or less) put up with my addiction to certain reality t.v. shows and has even joined me on the couch for Amazing Race and occasionally pipes in with a few comments on the X Factor (from a safe distance away over at the computer. He's not actually watching, of course.) I'm thankful for the man who swept me off my feet the very day I met him and who took me to the temple to promise eternal companionship to me 15 years ago. The man who knows how to push all my buttons but does so carefully and knows when enough is enough. The man who isn't afraid to wash his own underwear if I've gotten behind on the laundry. I'm thankful for the man who supports me in my passions, even when sometimes it means watching another really long hula performance just to see me dance for 3 minutes, or listening to me babble on and on about something scrapbook related. I'm thankful for the man who has made me laugh every. single. day of our lives together. I'm thankful for the man who is the Peter Pan to my Wendy. The man brave enough to sport a hooded princess towel to get a perfect reaction out of both his sons and his daughter (and random passersby as we walk around in public places...)

I'm thankful for Willy.