Josie's Latest Obsessions

Well, it's Thanksgiving Eve and tomorrow we are up bright and early to head to Marion, Indiana for the annual Johnson-side-of-the-family-feast. Among other things, tomorrow will be the very first time that Josephine meets her new baby cousin Lyla so I know there will be a lot of photos to come out of that occasion. It made sense to empty my camera before hand. Here are some random photos from the past few days. :)

If you haven't been around Josie lately, she is "all girl" now. It's funny because I was talking to fellow hypnomama Angela at our playgroup this week and she was telling me about how Andrew is suddenly "all boy" and into trucks, trains, balls, etc. I swear, before having Baby J I was definitely more on the "nurture" than "nature" side of the argument and totally believed all that girl/boy stuff was due more to society than biology (ha - chalk this up as just one more thing I've been wrong about). Anyway, Josie still loves her wooden train and does point to every truck excitedly on the street downtown but we can now add "playing dress-up" to the girl column, right under her obsession with shoes and all things sparkly.

I snapped this photo from the desk in my makeshift "office" in the corner of my living room where I work as Josie & Carissa play everyday (hey, it works for us). They were playing dress-up and this was the result. Carissa dubbed her "Ninja Ballerina Fairy" although I could just as easily call this photo either "The Reason I Work from Home" or "The Reason We Love Carissa"!
Here's Josie another day in her fairy wings and pajamas. When grown-ups talk about the carefree and capricious nature of children, I think this is exactly what they mean. How much better would our days go if we woke up every morning and snapped on fairy wings while we drank our morning coffee? The rainbow legwarmers make an appearance again this season... I thought I'd share another of Josie's latest obsessions with you all as well - bread! She can't get enough of it. I'm not sure how this even started actually. All I know is that she now walks over to the pantry, opens the door, grabs the loaf of bread, and throws it at our feet. We hand her a piece, she smiles ear-to-ear, and then she eats the whole darn thing - crust and all - saying "yum" "yum" the whole way through.

Okay - stay tuned for more pictures later this weekend of what promises to be a very special holiday! :)

Aloha and Mahalo

In the interest of finally getting these pictures posted, here are some of the "greatest hits" with a whole lot more to be posted soon in her Shutterfly collection (I'll let you know when they're there).

We'll call this one "The Reason Why 9 Hours on a Plane Wasn't So Bad Afterall" although it could just as easily be called "The Reason 'Yetti' Was One of Josie's First Words":

This is the reason we went to Hawaii - the marriage of our good friend Dave (old school Miami crowd) to the beautiful Krista. We could not be more excited for them. Congratulations Mrs. and Mr. Matto! And thanks so much for inviting us to share this special occasion with you.

And I had to include this photo of Krista doing the special Traditional Hawaii Wedding Hula dance for Matto that she had learned as a surprise because it was one of the most beautiful, touching things I've ever seen and stands out as a highlight of the whole week.

Here are Louie & I at the reception:

Although the Matto nuptials were the reason we went to Hawaii, we were able to extend the trip to get some Hawaiian vacation time as well. This is Waikiki beach from the hotel where we stayed.There were lots of great beach moments. Man I love the ocean. Josie was just short of old enough to really enjoy it, but it was good practice for all the family beach vacations to come. Here we are at Kailua Beach. Josie and Louie playing in the Waikiki surf...

Josie and I "hanging loose" in Waikiki... Building sandcastles with our rented beach toys from "Baby's Away"... Playing Airplane with Granddaddy...

Posing with Daddy... Hanging out in the sand...

Playing with her little friend Stella from Thailand... Building sandcastles at sunset...

Hanging out on the hotel's beach with the whole crew (minus mama who took this paparazzi-style from the hotel balcony while I was sick)...Louie snorkeling at Waikiki (also shot from the balcony)... Hanauma Bay - a highlight of the trip - amazingly beautiful, perfect day at the beach! BIG thanks to Grandma who spent the better part of this day sitting on a park bench under a palm tree while Josie slept on a towel for at least two hours (more on that later) and the rest of us snorkeled for hours...

Louie actually relaxing... Josie chasing wild chickens at Hanauma Bay (just before the rooster got really mad at her)...And while we spent lots of time on the beach, we also had some fun just clowning around in our room...There's so much to see on Oahu as well and the smallest things amuse Josie. Here she is having the time of her life at a koy pond in the International Marketplace. This was almost called "Josie Goes Swimming with the Koy"....Here is Josie chilling with Daddy at one of the overlooks (the day that the sandfork was her best friend)...This is one of my favorite photos from the whole week - the three of them holding hands walking back from the blowhole. There was definitely some good ole' fashioned bonding going on this week. You'll have to excuse me for not posting any photos of our day driving up to the North Shore and all the way around the island. We unfortunately spent the majority of the 3-4 hour trip trying to convince Josie that we'd all be much better off if she would just sleep like we had planned. Fortunately she was match more content to sleep in the hotel beds than she was in the car.

As you can see from this next series, being a 15 month old tourist can really be exhausting. Here is Josie passed out at Hanauma Bay... And although it's probably pretty hard to see on the blog, I thought it was pretty hilarious when I realized she was laying next to a sign that said "Danger: Falling Rocks" :)

Sleeping peacefully under Granddaddy's Beatles sweatshirt...Sleeping with Grandma's cell phone (hey, whatever works)... Josie didn't spend the whole time sleeping - here she is playing in Grandma & Granddaddy's room with the super-cute hairstyle courtesy of one very talented Grandma...

Before I go, I thought I'd share some of the fun random photos from the week - starting with this great one of my parents. THANK YOU SO MUCH for coming with us on our first Hawaiian family adventure. You were unbelievably helpful & Josie had so much fun with both of you. Really, thanks for everything. We are so blessed!!

I had to share a couple of the photos of the sunflower field we stumbled across on our drive. Unreal...

These were taller than us and just went on as far as you could see...

Here's a cool storm on the horizon... Last but not least, some holiday-fun from Hawaii. As the week went on, more and more holiday decorations kept popping up. They were even building a Christmas tree made out of sand in the lobby when we left. This was the first thing we saw along the roadside and it totally cracked us up. Gotta love the Christmas trees in the same yard as the palm trees...

And this really says it all - Josie in front of the hotel Christmas tree in her sundress. :)

There are actually some more photos I still need to post - including the ones from our morning swimming with the sharks and the Schneider family photoshoot courtesy of Granddaddy. Look for those later this week. :)

We Dive Waikiki

So I'm breaking my blog code a little bit here by posting photos that don't include Josie but I thought you might enjoy the photos from our diving trip. (Plus these were the easiest to get posted so I'm starting there.) Just to give you a little bit of background, my dad and I got SCUBA-certified several years ago before Louie & I went to Tonga and this was actually the first time after all those years that we were able to finally go diving together. It's probably important to also note here that your Three Schneiders (plus Grandma) were attacked by some mutant-strand of a stomach/intestinal virus for 24 hours each during our trip. Josie and I were completely bed-ridden Monday, then it skipped a day and attacked Louie the morning of our dives. (The boat captain ended up having to call a cab to come and pick him up from the boat dock parking lot because he thought he just might die if he actually went out on the boat.) So, Louie didn't get to dive with us - which is a shame because as you'll see below these were some incredible dives.

This is just a small sample of our undersea adventure. Check out the full album of SCUBA DIVING PHOTOS by clicking HERE!

Here are Dad & I headed down the line giving the "ok" sign to our divemaster on our way to 40 feet.

As soon as we hit bottom at Pa'awa, Divemaster Adam found an octopus for us to play with. After it expelled a ridiculous amount of ink, it calmed down enough for some great photos. Here's Dad with it in his hand.

And the two of us taking turns with the octopus stuck to our masks (which felt pretty strange I'll admit)... It's good to know there is still beautiful living coral out there, although the population is definitely declining. Here's a large coral head, that housed a huge eel.

The highlight of the dives was definitely the sea turtles. I've always wanted to dive with them, so this was an absolute dream-come-true. We saw two on the first dive and a few more on the second dive (which I went on solo because Dad was having ear-pressure problems). We were unbelievably close to the turtles (although it's a $25,000 fine to touch them).

They are so graceful, peaceful, and friendly.

This little guy actually has a turtle disease that will eventually kill him. It's attacking many of the green sea turtles in Hawaii's waters (this was at Koko Craters) and scientists are busy trying to discover why. Poot little guy!

These are some more photos from the second dive. Since Dad was having ear trouble and the rest of the group that was supposed to go with Adam was seasick, I got a personal dive tour which meant lots of fun playing with the sealife. Here's me with a sea cucumber; Adam wrote "aloha" in the sand.

Here I am with an urchin which felt very tickly on the palm of my hand!

And a beautiful Buddha statue that someone sunk, covered in live coral. Beautiful.

Here I am feeding the fish with a piece of coral.

I'll leave you with this photo of Dad & I "hanging loose" on the way back to the surface. I can't tell you how much fun I had diving with him. I will always remember those moments deep under the water with nothing but the sound of my breathing, looking back over my shoulder to see my dad suspended in the water behind me enjoying the miracle that is the ocean. Thank you so much Daddy-O for instilling a love and appreciation of the ocean in me from such a young age. It's a gift that I hope to pass on to Josie as soon as she is ready.For lots more photos - including many more of the turtles, click here.