18 months

Our little man turned 18 months yesterday. This age is my favorite so far and I have to admit, he has mellowed out a lot. I am to the point where I don't feel like I was 'blessed' with a crazy, out of control child. He is just a typical toddler, who loves to explore, get into things, make a mess, wake up reeeeaaaally early, avoids sleep when possible, talks my ear off, tantrums, etc. I'm not kidding though, we love this little boy so much. I want him to stay this age forever! For the record, here are some things T has been up to;

• New words: jejews=shoes. aball=ball. abaa=bus. baabaa=bottle.
• We finally have our sleep routine worked out with Tristan, and C and I actually feel like we are back to getting sleep these days. Our sleep routine isn't the best, but it's working. Car seat naps are still the only way to go in the day time. He's an amazing transferrer. Seriously, he is out cold when I carry him up from the car. Bed time is still a little frustrating for us, but at least he's sleeping in his bed. We have to lay with him in his bed until he falls asleep, sometimes for an hour. He wiggles, tosses and turns fooooorrrreeevvvver, until he is finally comfortable and falls asleep. Whatever, it works.
• He says his prayers with us before bed. All we say is, "it's time to say our prayers", and he sits in the middle of his rug and folds his arms. It's really cute. Then he repeats after us (jibbering).
• He's really into cars and pushing them along items in our house. He says "beep beep" as he pushes them. His dad taught him that.
• He does lobster claws with his hands and he honks his nose when I say "honk honk".

Tristan visits with his friend Willa. She's a dog that lives down the street from us. So sweet and loving.

Enjoying some swim time with his dad. He didn't want to get out of the water on this day. It was perfect.

Crazy Tristan, hopping up and down on mama's back. (mistaking her for a beached whale?)

Tristan still loves being swaddled, just like when he was a baby.

Tristan waits patiently for his next job. He loves being hands-on in the kitchen, which is kind of annoying now. Everything just gets messy and crazy. In fact, this batch of cookies didn't turn out so great. He likes to stick the measuring cup in and scoop ingredients out, and put others in. It's hard to control, but he thinks that he's helping so it's cute.

Watching the fireworks in his dad's lap. (notice the premature stache growing).

Tristan takes some time to pick out his halloween costume this year.

our little explorer

We have so much video footage of this little guy, surprising right? He just does so many cute things, we feel like we have to capture EVERYTHING, it's getting out of control. We will probably be video'd out by the time our second child comes around. Sad for them. So the video below is of little T exploring in our yard- slanted yard that is. It has taken a while for him to get comfortable walking around on our sloped hill and stairs, since we live up in the valley and pretty much on a mountain with all of those stairs. He has finally mastered it! We are pretty impressed that he can climb most of the stairs with no hands, and with a bucket over his head! This video is actually a couple months old. And you will see that his mama put him in a really small onesie. Maybe I was trying to get one last use of it because of it's cuteness and little tail in the back? Sorry if it's long and boring for you, it's mostly being posted for grandparents.

Tristan Exploring from Shandra Hastings on Vimeo.

stairway to heaven

On Saturday for my birthday I thought it would be fun to do something different. Christian's mom was in town and offered to take Tristan if we wanted to go play, so we did! (Thank you, thank you!) For many years when Christian and I would drive on the H3 we would try and spot the Ha'iku Stairs, aka Stairway to Heaven, along the side and up the ridge. It freaked us out and always intimidated us. Plus, we always heard that it was closed and there was a guard that hung out at the base, kicking people out. I imagined him there, with a rifle, shooting people that attempted it. So we never went to check it out.

Just a few historical facts about the stairs: It began as a wooden ladder and was installed in 1943 to enable the construction of antenna cables between two valleys. These radio signals could also reach US Navy submarines, even while under the water. At the highest peak of the stairs, it is 2,800 ft. In the 1950's, the wooden stairs were replaced with metal steps and the building at the peak was then used by the US Coast Guard as a navigation system. 3,922 steps! The trail remains closed due to community complaints and neighborhood traffic.

After hearing many successful hiking stories from close friends we thought that we would give it a try! The guard goes on duty at 6:00 am, therefore, we left our house at 4:45 to get started on the trail at 5:30. We beat the guard! And it was still dark.

(A million pictures below. Sorry! I couldn't narrow it down)

The sun rising.

The highway and cars getting smaller and smaller. This is the part of the trail where the sides just dropped off.

We just accomplished a steep ladder climb and turned around to take a picture.

Do we seriously live here? Unreal.

The sunrise reflecting on the mountains.

Secretly wanting to die. Even before we reached half way, Christian and I had to pull off because we felt like throwing up. After the half way point, it got a lot easier.

Wanting to hurl a little.

Chinaman's hat in the distance.

We reached one of the bunkers. Very cool and old.

Our friend Jen met up with us about half way. She's pretty hardcore and caught up with us.

I believe that this was an old pulley used to bring up equipment. I love old, rusty ruins.

Breathtaking. It looks like a painting.

This is where our final destination was. Almost there!

After a couple of hours, we finally made it to heaven! It was freezing up there, but amazing! We were so high up!

My cute and curious husband couldn't stop there and wondered if the trail continued.

and there he goes.

Next time we will be prepared to continue on that ridge. He found a well worn trail that looks like it is used pretty frequently. Where does it go? We've only heard myths and legends...

Just hanging out in heaven, with steep cliffs on both sides of us.

It only took about an hour to head back down. It destroyed my knee a little but over all, we did just fine. No other injuries. Or bugs! It was a perfect day, with perfect weather.

Opps, we must have missed this sign when we came in, it was too dark. We did get a chance to walk past the 'scary guard with a rifle' on our way back to the car. He was actually really chill and was asking hikers if they wanted their pictures taken. Funny. No sniper rifle.

We are a little sore but so glad that we did it and will will be ready to go again soon. Anyone want to join us?

Young and Free

ahhhh...to be a baby again and roam around like this...

Before all of this naked nonsense, we had him suited up in his spring suit and his dad took him out to ride on the body board. We found a shallow pool area to drag him around in and get him used to the board. He loved it! (The water looked pretty icky). When we moved him to the waves in the ocean, he was a little nervous, as were we because he could just slip right out of our arms if we weren't careful. We thought that we would hold off until we found a better spot to take him in and when the current wasn't so strong.

8

Can't believe we're 8 years old. Thanks for being my best friend, for being supportive and encouraging whatever I do and being so fun and so great. Thanks for being such an amazing mom and wife, your two boys love you! I'm so thankful for my 'lil family. I really think I'm pretty lucky. Happy anniversary, angel.