Good thing God makes them cute

Spoiler alert: Parenting is tough. In case no one told you, just when you think you start to figure out a tiny fraction of this thing called parenting, you will realize you don't have any part of it figured out.

Every time our family has grown by one of these beautiful little girls I have grown to understand a little more that raising them is pretty darn challenging. They are each their own little person. Yes, ours all look exactly alike. Pretty much triplets separated by a few years time, but oh how different they are and oh how differently they need to be parented.

Lucky for me we have just embarked on two weeks of school holidays, aka two weeks to spend every minute with all three of them, aka two weeks to test my ability to parent all three of them differently all the time. Thankfully now as we round the corner towards the end of Emma's second school year I have a better grasp of how I think these two weeks will play out (well I think, but let's be real they will probably throw me a curve ball this go around). This first week, especially the first few days will be particularly challenging, with bickering, complaints of "what are we doing today?", moping around the house with boredom, and testing all of the boundaries. Near the end of the week most likely we will start to settle into the holiday lack of routine and enjoy more of our time together; argue less, create and laugh more. But for now the end of a busy day one has come to a close and I'll prepare myself to wage battle for day two. I'll look at the gorgeous family photos we had taken back in May when I knew I would want to capture these fleeting moments, no matter how challenging they are.

I remember now that they challenged me on this day. It was mothers day and they doted on me for a few minutes when we first woke up but as the day wore on and our photo session approached they stopped listening and prepared to run carelessly around the beach. More or less flirting with our photographer in an attempt to get her to photograph themselves more than their sisters; according to their own plans for this quick photo session.

But just like in life I should just trust God that he's got it figured out and the photos are going to turn out just how I want them to (well plenty of them did NOT turn out that way, but plenty did too). It surely won't be according to my plan but we will get there trusting that our way is not always best, and often not best. And instead we should just take a deep breath and prepare for the ride because He's got our back even when we stumble and fall and ultimately knows just the right way to get us to where we need to go. I'm going to try to remember that tomorrow by escaping out of the house before they can poke me awake with some question that is surely NOT how I envisioned my day beginning. And I'm going to be excited to hear the "mama" when I open the door upon my return home. And I'm going to try to remember how cute they are, and the beautiful moments captured in these photos before I think of anything else.

Like I said, there were plenty of photos that did not turn our exactly how I envisioned. This last one is still one of my favorites. This is real life. We wanted that one last perfect family photo before the sunlight was too dim and no one was having it. Tomorrow will look like this at some point and there will be pushing and shoving and sand being stuffed in a mouth (maybe not sand, but something stuffed in a little mouth). And we will sort it out one challenge at a time.

Somewhere in the South Pacific

When your weather app identifies your location simply as "South Pacific," you know you've made it. Or perhaps not made it. Yet, whether I was really in Fiji or just some mysterious island in the south pacific, as it appeared to Apple Weather, I didn't really care (we did after all see two of the islands [pictured here] most known in the film industry for their remoteness - the islands where Castaway and Australian Survivor were filmed). I was quite happy and at peace to at least think that for a little more than a week my phone might not be able to accurately track me.

We were lucky enough to make it to Fiji at the end of June this year. While it's been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember, when you live in Australia, its comparable to a trip to the Caribbean for Americans. Yet to me it continued to hold that elusive, remote, end of the earths type of destination. And it did not disappoint.

Three cheeky monkeys up and ready for their holiday adventures to begin.

At least the airplane told me where we were supposed to go.

The irony behind Fiji bottled water when local, unfiltered tap water isn't safe to drink.

Off the plane and on the one hour ferry to the island of Tokoriki, they were so excited to escape Australian winter.

We finally made it!

Morgan made herself right at home upon arrival.

Vacation always starts right when you find bedtime treats in your room.

But let's set the story straight before we go too far. Yes, Emma had the option this year to either have a birthday party or to celebrate her birthday on a family holiday. No, despite the way she tells the story, we did not go to Fiji FOR her birthday (we were planning to likely go at some point in time this year but don't tell her that quite yet). But when she said she would rather go on a family holiday instead of a party, let's be honest, this mama jumped at the opportunity to skip the party planning, and Steve and I happily worked to ensure our family holiday would be as close as possible to her actual birthday and that she would have an extra celebration while we were there. Besides, if we really had let Emma pick a family holiday for her birthday she was scouring the globe and wanted to pick Liberia anyways. We thought Fiji sounded like a slightly better option.

Birthday songs and cake.

Thanks to Steve's hotel reward points (sadly now greatly dwindled after the last few family holidays), we were spoiled rotten and able to enjoy two beautiful resorts. We spent the first six nights on Tokoriki Island at the Sheraton and the last three nights back on the main island, Viti Levu, at the Marriott in Momi Bay. We loved both for different reasons.

On Tokoriki we enjoyed remote tranquility, the girls saw more stars than they knew existed in the sky, we spent our days effortlessly going back and forth from the main pool to a stunning beach where you could snorkel straight from the beach to the reef, the staff embraced us like family and we loved being warmly greeted with 'Bula!' from the same faces each day. While we had two days of unseasonable rain and a child with a fever for a couple days we tried to just welcome it as yet another reason to slow down while we were there. After all, it wasn't called 'Fiji time' for no reason. But when the sun shone we filled our days with bush walking, kayaking, snorkeling, friend making, basket weaving, crab hunting, stand up paddling, fish feeding, local song singing, swimming, visiting a neighboring island's local village and school, kid clubbing, ice cream eating, 'put putting' aka mini golfing, canon balling, sun setting. It really was magical and we weren't even at Disney. There was still plenty of effort involved to keeping three small children happy, but really when they are happy, we are happy too. Here's a look at our time on Tokoriki.

Back on the main island in Momi Bay we missed the stunning beach and water we had on Tokoriki, but relished in the man made lagoon and family focused resort activities. While our days were spent making sure Emma and Morgan didn't miss out on the most coveted activities in the kids club, Steve and I also had the chance for some quick daytime "dates" while Charley napped which even included some time on the tennis court. The resort was sprawling and while we were thankful for an upgrade to a beautiful beachfront bure it meant upping our step count and planning our days according to where on the resort we wanted to be. But I couldn't complain when it meant lazy mornings with kids just opening up the door and playing on the beach.

It was no doubt a pretty incredible family holiday. For me the Fijian people were a large part to making it one of my favorite places we have ever been. Unlike other places, they seemed genuinely happy for the impact tourism has made on their country and they loved on our girls as if they were their own. We didn't have to check off visiting a laundry list of historical locations for all of us to realize the rich culture and longstanding traditions of the Fijians. Although, Emma and I did enjoy visiting a nearby island village and school to learn more about their culture. And despite staying on westernized hotel properties, the sincerity of the local people and the importance of keeping it local rang true.

Fingers crossed, we'll be back one day. After all, there are over 300 islands to explore in Fiji. We can't stop at only two.