Crazy Hunter is 5!!!

Hunter Lane : 6/16/06

Oh my Hunter man!

5! Really? I am in disbelief. Of my 3 boys, you are the hardest to explain. You are truly one of a kind. Hard headed, stubborn, free willed, and just funny. You will never understand just how much I love you. When you look in the mirror, you will see a lot of me. When you look at who you are, you will see your Dad. Almost every reason that made me fall in love with your Dad, you have. The ability to be a complete pain in the ass, and still make me laugh at the same time is pure talent.

You are so smart...brilliant. You have been READING for several months now!!! At 4 you could read! You can count like a pro with just a little help with the next tens place. You can sort by more than one attribute. Patterns are, as you say, easy peasy. You have always been a great at coloring and have great handwriting for your age. Still write some things backwards but we are working on it. I am so so so proud of you. You start Kindergarten August 1st at Iroquois Point Elementary! So excited! You ask almost everyday how much longer you have.

Next week is your last football game this season. You have been so awesome! Until just this past game, your team was undefeated. You have scored several touchdowns and pulled more flags than I can count. Truly amazing! When you get out on the field, you put your game face on. It is so incredible to watch. You are in your zone. Other parents are constantly telling us how awesome you are and how fast. We have nicknamed you Dash. :) Again...I am so proud of you! You are still in karate. It has taken you a while to get motivated. We are hoping to test for the yellow belt at the next exam. Swim lessons are next followed by soccer in August. Have to keep your wild self busy!

We have some difficulty with you understanding how to be a nice friend and little brother. We really need to figure out how to keep our hands to ourselves. Sometimes you just get in a mean mood and you refuse to be reasoned with. You are getting better though. I am learning to keep calm and take you aside and having a quiet talk about why you are mad. Even Mommy has some things to keep working on. ;) A part of me loves that you are hard headed. Shows me that no one is going to push you around. I believe with all my heart that you will go after your goals in life. That is so so so important to me. Settling for less is just not your thing.

Favorites...hmmm. You love lasagna, taco soup, Taco Bell, pizza, meatloaf and corn on the cob. Blue is of course the best color. You are so excited about Cars 2 coming out. We are going this weekend for a late birthday activity. Batman is currently you favorite hero. You love to do tricks on your 2 wheel bike and love riding your scooter too. You are wearing XS/S shirts and 4T/5 pants. Skinny thing!

As usual I am sure I have forgotten things. But to sum it up, you are incredible and Mommy is in awe of you all the time. You have so much personality and make me laugh all the time. It is hilarious when you come down the stairs in just your underware and start shaking your booty and dancing. My little entertainer. I love you Hunter Lane.

School and Faith

For starters...Summer break is here!!! Which is why I am finally blogging ;) Doesn't mean we are completely stopping school but definitely cutting back. Blake still has a lot to do in Math. NOT his strong subject at all. Another perfect example that just amazes me as far as seeing Ben and I in the boys. Blake may look like Ben but he has my personality. So I just assumed he would learn like me....WRONG! He is just like his Daddy. Great reader, but terrible at math. For some reason he just doesn't get it...even the simple things. Ugh. It is going to be a long road. :/ So we are going to start be extra proactive and work hard.

If you missed the announcement, the boys got into the school I wanted. I am really excited for this school year. I get to be a PTA mom!!! I plan to volunteer as much as possible. And maybe helping out at the school will help me to get my confidence back to teach again. May start subbing first and see if I am really done with teaching or if I just got burnt out. Definitely something that needs to be toyed with before I start something new and spend a fortune on school!

Serious note. Faith in God is something I have really struggled with for a while now. It was shaky in high school and then when I lost my Dad in took a nose dive. I was very angry for a long time. I felt like of all the people in the world, why my Dad? He gave his whole life to the Lord. Shared the Lord with hundreds of people every Sunday. Even during the 8 years he battled cancer, he believed that it was all God's plan and there was a reason. So why was he tortured for 8 years and then taken from me? I couldn't understand that. Then I had the boys and I was angry again because they never met their Grandpa. For those who don't know, I am talking about my adopted Dad. My mom and him married when I was little. He raised me. He loved me like I was his and never had too. That is so honorable to me. I would give anything just to see him with my boys. So with all that said, my relationship with God became very bitter. I became skeptical of everyone. My faith in everyone started disappearing. Now I look in the mirror and feel like I let the best parts of me disappear too. I used to be optimistic. I viewed the world as a wonderful place. I believed that people were genuinely good and trusted easily. I was a positive person who felt like if you work hard, good things will happen. I am starting to think that my spiral into negativity started when I pushed God out of my life. So I have made the decision to start exploring my relationship with him again. Ben and I went to church yesterday and really liked the very first one! Which is amazing. They have so many opportunities to explore your faith and get involved in making a difference in others too. I have no idea where this will take me but I am finally ready to stop questioning and start having a little faith. Few things in life have a guarantee, so why did I start demanding one. Ben is being so supportive. His beliefs and relationship with God are his own, I will support him in anything but I don't expect him to dive in just because I am. I just really appreciate his support and willingness to go with me and to share this with the boys. I feel really good about this new chapter. So here is to the better me!

Exciting....Linda is coming on Friday! The boys don't know she is coming. They will be so excited to see her. We are hoping to go camping again. We will definitely be snorkeling. :D

Happy Late Birthday Blake!

My 1st born turned 7 on Friday!!! This is the first chance I have gotten to write a note to my Blakers.

Blake Alan ~ May 27, 2004 ~ 8 lbs 13 oz

In the beginning you were a HUGE surprise! Your dad couldn't look at me without laughing for the first 24 hrs after finding out you were on your way. After the shock wore off, we were so excited. Everything in our lives became all about you. You taught us sooo much about life, priorities, and family. We became a little family with that surprise and our lives were instantly brightened.

When you were little you were so happy and curious. Everyone adored you. You had these big blue eyes and big kissable lips. Such a heart melter. You have grown into such a sweet boy. I love your kind heart and the way you still love to cuddle on the couch with me.

Sports, sports, and more sports! That is what you are all about! You love anything that can be turned into a game. So competitive! You are a natural athlete. Running is your favorite part. Determined to be the fastest there ever was. You are playing football right now but soccer is your favorite. You are also a yellow belt in Karate. The exam is coming up for the orange belt. I love that you are so active. The only bad part of that is that you eat more than I do already!!!

You are the BEST big brother. From the minute Hunter was born you were gentle and protective of him. The two of you fight all the time now but you are lost without each other when one is gone. Both you and Hunter and wonderful with Parker. You love to play with him and get excited when he does something new. I LOVE to watch you interact with him.

You love pizza. Some of your other favorites are taco soup, lasagna and spaghetti. Blue is not only your favorite color but it looks awesome on you too. You really like race cars, dinosaurs, Lego's and anything sports related.

What is going on in your life right now? Living in Hawaii is great for you. You have started snorkeling, boogie boarding and love the year round outside weather. I home schooled you this last semester but you are going back to public schools for 2nd grade. You are really excited about this. You will be going to Iroquois Point Elementary. If you could stay outside all day, you probably would. Our neighborhood is great for Hunter and you. You are able to go outside together and can go to the stop sign and back to the end of the street. There are so many kids on the street so you have lots of friends.

Still amaze me by how tall you are getting! You already come up to just below my collar bone! Yikes!!! At your checkup you weighed 61 pounds. Wearing medium shirts, size 7-8 shorts, and size 2 shoe. You just lost your 4th tooth last night. All on bottom. Sadly they are coming in crooked. Hopefully they will straighten out but most likely you will end up having braces. :( Just like your Daddy.

To close I just want you to know how much your Dad and I love you. We are so proud of the little man you are growing to be. I have no doubts that you will grow to be an amazing man. You have that drive to be the best. I love that. Reach for your dreams and never quit because things get tough. I love you Blake Alan! Happy 7th Birthday. :)

Snoreling, Sports and School

Seems like I haven't written about what has been going on with us in a while. My blogs have been more specific. So here is a catch up.

Things haven't been as adventurous lately, but I have to tell you about Blake. He LOVES snorkeling! He tried it the first time when Linda and Kenzie were here last month. Ever since he will spend a lot of time out in the bays/lagoons snorkeling. If we are at a beach with minimal waves that is what he is doing. We went to Turtle Bay last weekend. Blake went out with Ben for a while first and then came back in to play with his brothers. I went out for a bit and as i was coming back in, he came out wanting to go again. We swam all over the bay together. It was amazing. I can't even begin to explain the feeling I had. It was incredible to watch him explore and point out things he saw. He would follow some of the fish around. I loved watching him. He told me before we went in that he didn't like swimming over the rocks because there are a lot of the spiked ball looking things on them. The longer we were out there, the more brave he became. Such a wonderful experience for him and for me as a mom. :)

The boys have started flag football. This is the first time Hunter has been old enough to play football so he was really excited. He hasn't taken to karate as well as we had hoped. :/ He LOVES football though! And is doing really well. His first game he scored 3 touchdowns!!! Let's go Little Rascals! (I hate the team name...fyi) Blake is on the Tiger Sharks team. He too is doing well. He has been a little caught off guard this year though. He is one of the younger boys on his team. There are several that have played competitive ball before so they are more aggressive. In his first game the other team killed them. Intercepted the ball 3 times! yikes! So needless to say, our team has some word to do. They added an extra practice each week to try to help. Our games were canceled this weekend due to rain. Hopefully this will help them because they will have more practice time before the next game. I'll keep you posted.

We have made a huge decision. The boys are going to public school next year. I have very mixed feelings about this. I am concerned about the schools here. I have heard so many mixed things about them. I feel like we can accomplish more academically if I teach them at home. But there are so many things that I can't do. Children learn so much from each other, both in the classroom and on the playground. While not all of it is good, so much of it teaching them how to deal with life situations. I feel that the social part of kids is just as important as academics. The boys keep asking to go. Blake missing having his own group of friends and being able to interact with them daily. Hunter wants to experience what his big brother has. I think he wants to branch out and have his own friends too. Something that is his, not his brother's. Hunter needs to learn how to be without Blake. We also have a selfish reason too. Ben and I would like to have a little bit of time together. I will still have Parker but 1 is so much different than 3! We can throw Parker in the Kelty back pack and go on hikes that we can't with the boys. And if I feel that the boys are not getting what they should out of school, I will pull them back out. We feel that this is the best choice for Blake and Hunter right now.

The next part is which school? Their home school is not a good one. So I started researching the area school to try for a geographic exception. I looked at student scores, school size, teacher/student ratios and population. The closest school has better scores but is huge and white kids are the minority. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids being in a diverse school. I just don't want them to be part of the 12%. This school is also year round with tracks. I like year round if the whole school operates on one schedule. I am not a fan of tracks. Another school about 5 miles away has similar test scores, half the size, better teacher/student ratio, 50% white and a large number of military. That is the one we are trying for. We should find out if we get in within a week. So please keep your fingers crossed for us!

To My Mothers

What does it mean to be a mom? There are so many different answers to this question. To define what a mom is or what a mom should be is impossible. After all, have you ever met two mothers that were exactly the same? Mothers are just as different as all of the children out there. There are no right answers. I have 3 moms in my life. Each one is entirely different from the others and have taught me different things. I want to be their best qualities. And even if I fail at times, it is comforting to know that I can't be fired. ;) I just want to say a few things to each of them.

Mom, No matter what was going on in my life you were always behind me, believing in me. I don't think you have ever gone a week without telling me that you are proud of me. So many times I didn't see what was such a big deal...I didn't do anything special. But you still acted as though I had hung the moon. You would give me your advice but always stand back and let me make decisions for my life. I'm sure letting you little girl join the Army wasn't easy! I love where we are now. Friends. No matter what is going on in my life, I can call you and tell you all about it. I never feel judged by you. (Definitely not a trait that I inherited!) I love that thousands of miles apart, I still feel close to you. Just a phone call away. I love you, Mother Marie.


Kim, my other mother :) I honestly can't even remember how old I was when you came into my life. I am so grateful to you for so many reasons. The thing that I cherish the most is the difference you made in my Dad. I absolutely love to see you together. To see him loved and happy. But it is more than that. You not only love my Dad unconditionally but me too. I have never felt like anything less than your daughter. From you, I have learned what it means to sacrifice yourself for the ones you love. You love with every ounce of yourself. So many times I have talked to you and could hear the pure exhaustion in your voice. But you are still trying to figure out ways to help one of us kids or other family/friends. You are so selfless. Even though I am hard headed and refuse to ask for help...I always knew you were there. I knew I had a safety net in you and Dad. I love you, Maw.

Linda, my MIL. I was just a kid when our lives merged. You basically helped raise me too. I will always feel indebted to you. Because of you, I am married to the most amazing man. I absolutely love how our relationship has changed over the last almost 12 years. In the beginning I was just your son's girlfriend. I'm sure you never expected to be stuck with me. ;) Now you are one of my closest friends. You treat me like your daughter, not just your son's wife. I love that. I love our long talks and all the memories we have made along the way. Since the day Ben and I said "I do", you have been our biggest supporter. Not sure we could have made it to this point without you.Your strength and independence inspires me. I do have to say though...if Blake or Hunter tells me one more time that they want to go live with Maw Maw, I may just have to send them your way. ;) I love you. Thank you for everything.


Blake, Hunter and Parker, to be your mom is the greatest gift in the whole world. I have learned more from the 3 of you than anyone or anything. Here is my promise to you. I will always be here, I will always believe in you, support you and love you with all I have. You and your father are the joy in my life. I want to cherish every moment with you.

To all the other moms out there. Remember that there isn't a cookie cutter mom. We are all handmade. Each one formed differently with different ingredients. So instead of worrying about what we should be, focus on passing down the best qualities of you. In the end, all our children really need is love. Happy Mother's Day.

The most amazing date with an incredible man :)

There is no way I can go without talking about our date. I have actually wanted to write about Ben in general. I love him...I really, really love him. We have been together for almost 12 years and married for almost 9! Remind you, I'm only 27. I barely remember a life without him. So many people said we would never make it. But here is why we do...why I love him so much.

EVERYTHING we do is as a team. We both raise our boys, we both clean the house and WE make decisions about what we do and want to try to do together. Ben has changed just as many diapers as I have, he does laundry, the dishes, I don't dust...he does. But this is just the start.

Ben continues to amaze me. I am a very emotionally needy person. I hate this about myself but it's true. I am insecure and get jealous very easily. While I feel like there are tons of reasons for this, it is still difficult to live with. He shows me how much he loves me. When I want to talk he does. Not saying we don't fight but we are open with eachother. We have both learned that the grass isn't greener on the other side. We are very compatible and really have a chance to be the happily ever after. Ben used to think that fairy tales were completely retarded. I think I have taught him that they can be real...you just have to know when to recognize them and fight with all you have to keep them.

With that said...on to our date. We have not left our boys since the Probowl. A night out was WAY past due. Ben first took me to the west coast. We went out on the rocks to sit and watch the sunset. It was so beautiful.

What made this even more amazing is that we got to watch a sea turtle swim around below us! The whole time we were there watching the sunset, a turtle kept popping up and swimming around. It was so fun to watch. Anytime one of us would get distracted, the other would spot him. I can't even begin to explain what those moments meant to me. The little booger was impossible to photograph though. We only had one of the small cameras of which has a LONG delay. So everytime we would try to take a picture he would dive back down. :(

This is the best picture we could get.

After the sunset we went to dinner at Roy's. It is located within the Ko'Olina Resort area. Very good! It is pricey but the food is awesome. I had the macadamia nut crusted swordfish. Mmmm. I'm not even a big seafood person. We had a wonderful dinner and then went and had a few drinks after. I love that after this long we can still sit for hours talking. It is so easy for me to imagine our future. One thing that has helped us along the way is that our dreams continue to be the same. So many young couple grow apart...but we grew together. We really want the same things out of life. I know that when we are 70 and 72, after a day of photography or painting for me and a day of fishing or golfing for him, we will sit on our front porch hand in hand.

For now we are making the most out of the time we have. Our family is precious and we are fully aware of that. Right now I have everything I ever dreamed of. My prince, 3 perfect boys and a life of opportunity. And it has just begun ;)

The nerve!

So I am beyond irritated! Quit frankly I am pissed! While Ben was at work last night some A**hole side swiped his trailblazer. What angers me so much is that they just left. No number left on the windsheild or anything! How do people do this?

Just a few weeks ago, while Ben's mom and Kenzie were here, we went to the North Shore. As I was parked outside a store, waiting on Linda, the car next to me backed up and hit the driver's side of my back bumper. She then pulled forward to readjust, put the car back into reverse. I then stepped out of my car. She saw me and then put the car into park. She was going to leave! She then tried to talk me out of calling the police for an accident report. The nerve of some people!

What happened to taking responsibilty for your actions? For treating others as you would like to be treated? How do you just leave someone to pay for your careless mistake? This is just one of the many examples of proof for how selfish people in this country are today.

If this was a vehicle that we were planning to keep for a long time, we wouldn't worry so much. But, this is a temporary vehicle. We are going to sell it before we leave the island. How are you going to sell a car with the entire driver's side scratched and the side mirror broken? So now we get to make ANOTHER claim to our insurance and pay the deductible...for something we DIDN'T do!

Ok...there is my rant. I'm finished now. On to better things.

I got my rings back in the mail today! It is so weird. A diamond feel out of my wedding band so I sent them back with my mother-in-law to take them to Gordon's for me. So I have not worn them in almost a month. I have found myself staring at them just like I did after getting them the first time. I remember how much hope I had then. When we got married we couldn't afford the engagement ring. So we bought the band to go with the engagement ring that I knew I wanted to complete my set. In no way did I want another ring to wear until I could upgrade. I wanted to wear only one set of rings for the rest of my life. So after we got our bonuses from the army, Ben bought my engagement ring. About 13 months after we were married. Because he never really proposed, he did then. In our living room with candles lit, music playing. It was so sweet. We had just found out that I was pregnant with Blake a couple weeks earlier. this was our family's begining. :)

I have been praising Hunter a lot lately. I just can't stop. He is still being the hard headed, rule breaking, full of life boy. I even caught him trying to spray ant killer on Blake today. Ugh! But...his little brain has just amazed me lately. It is like all of the sudden a light bulb went off. He was really struggling to make some of the connections is needed to read. If I sounded out a word he could hear the word. But he couldn't sound it out himself and here it. In the last week he has figured out blending. He is so excited to read new words. He also has figured out what rhyming is. He constantly asks me, "Mommy, does rat and cat rhyme?" or "Does noodle and oodle rhyme?" I am so excited. He gets it!!!! Now he is just soaring. I don't want it to stop!!! He has also had a huge nonacademic accomplishment. The training wheels are gone!!!! Ben has been fighting him on this for months. He refused to ride without them. So Ben bend them back as far as possible, so they weren't really doing anything anyway. Ben finally talked him into letting him take ONE training wheel off. Hunter tried that once and then asked for the other to be taken off as well. He took off the first time!!! He has been riding nonstop ever since! My Hunter man is growing up!!! :)

Update on Parker: The blisters and spots are looking a lot better today. His running nose on the other hand is insane! Like his big brother, his mind is just exploding too! He has discovered books. :) Constantly, over and over he brings you books. He listens, looks at the pictures and then watches your mouth as you sound out words or make animal sounds. He is very fond of the cow and the cow amazing "MOOOOO"! ;) I love it. He is making so many more sounds. He can also point out your nose when asked. He is saying momma...just not when asked. Little stinker! He has develop an odd fascination for shoes. When hanging around the house, he is almost always wearing a, yes A, shoe. He even comes up to you saying "shoe, shoe, shoe" and holding one of his sandals. So cute!

Everyday my children amaze me. Everyday I feel lucky to have the life that I always dreamed of. Even with the a**holes of the world. :)

Poor Parker!

My sweet little boy has had such a rough week. Last Tuesday it all started. He woke up several time throughout the night just crying. I couldn't do anything to get him to stop. Wednesday he cried almost nonstop all day. He had a low grade temp and just acted really uncomfortable. Pretty much the only thing that would get him calm was a Popsicle! I knew it was his teeth. He was trying to cut 3 molars and his bottom 2nd tooth on the right. So 4 teeth all at once!!!

It didn't stop there. Thursday morning he woke up and had small, un-raised red spots on the palms of his hands. Later I started noticing them on the bottom of his feet. The fever was completely gone by this point. He acted more like himself. But what are these spots. We kept a really close eye on him all day. I REFUSE to be one of those moms who takes there kid to the doctor for every little thing. So we agreed that if it started to spread, the fever came back, or he acted differently that we would call the doctor. He was fine all day.

Friday morning we woke up with huge blisters on his fingers. I thought he was having a reaction to ant bites because he played in the yard the night before. But then I saw that the spots had spread up his legs. So I called the doctor. Poor guy was diagnosed with Hand, Foot, Mouth disease. :/ We suspected it but I never knew it could blister like that! The doctor said that he was most prone to getting it most likely because of the teething stressing him out and affecting his immune systems. Blake and Hunter still play with him like crazy and neither have gotten it.

Today was the first day that the spots looked like they were starting to heal. But now the poor guy has the worst running nose EVER!!! I am wondering if the teeth are starting to move again. Only one of the molars and the bottom front tooth decided to actually pop out last week. So we may still be fighting those other 2 molars. :(

One up side, as much as I hate canceling plans, we now have some down days to let him recover. Maybe tomorrow I will finally scrub my toilets! ;)

2 side notes:

1. My wonderful other mother had a successful knee surgery today. We are wishing her the most speedy recovery!

2. I hate when Ben works nights!!!

Rewind....

It was so good to be a tourist for a couple weeks. We were able to do so many things that I kept putting off. We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, USS Arizona Memorial, Swap Meet, Valley of the Temples, Turtle Bay, North Shore, Ko'Olina Lagoons, a couple different beaches, and went on a few hikes. I enjoyed everyday. There are a few that really stood out though.

The USS Arizona was a mixture of so many emotions. It is unreal to imagine this amazingly beautiful, peaceful place under attack. To think of the horror that was felt that day is heartbreaking. The think I found to be odd was that as I walked through the museums and memorial, I was angered seeing Japanese people there. It was a part of their history too but for some reason it made me angry. Is that horrible? They are now an ally of ours. They are now dealing with a tragedy of their own. But when you are there, looking at all those names of fallen soldiers, it really takes you back. I would give anything to bring my Grandpa back and be able to go there with him. I wish I could here his story...from him.

My all time favorite was our hike to Manoa Falls. The hike itself is beautiful. You hike through a bamboo forest. The trees are incredible. We even saw wild parrots. It is exactly what I pictured a hike in Hawaii being. The waterfall was so-so...but the hike was awesome.

I still can't believe that my baby is a year old. I don't want the rest of his life to go by as fast as this last year. I know that we are done having children...but I just don't feel like I'm old enough to be at that stage of my life. I look at the boys and it just amazes me how quickly the years have gone by. Blake is going to be 7 next month! How is that possible? I haven't updated about the older 2 in a while.

Blake continues to enjoy anything sport or outdoor related. He is so active. He is still my sweet, cuddly one. He adjusts so well to our military life. They have made so many friends on our street. He is doing really well with home school. His reading amazes me. I was never a strong reader, so I love that he has picked up on it so naturally. At first he seemed to struggle with math. Now he is doing really well, with the exception of addition facts. He has always impressed us with his memory. So why is it that it seems unable to memorize addition facts? So frustrating. He uses his fingers for EVERYTHING! He is really struggling with spelling. It drives me nuts because I know that if he would just slow down while he is writing that he could do better. It's a constant race for him though. Who is he racing? In the end, I think I am just too tough on him. I think my expectations are too high. We won't tell him that though. ;)

Hunter is just as silly as ever. I LOVE how he can make any situation he wants, a funny one. Everyday I see Ben in him. He is hard headed, full of life, impossible to deal with one second...and then makes you laugh the very next. Hunter can always make me smile. He started Kindergarten a couple weeks ago! He had finished all the pre-school curriculum and was so excited to start. So I figured there was no reason to wait. So far he is doing very well. If he tries hard throughout the day, he earns a sticker. When he has 10 stickers, we all go out for ice cream. We went today! :) So proud of him.

Blake and Hunter start flag football on the 23rd!!! I can't wait to be back in sports again. It has been so weird not running to games all the time. They are still going to Karate twice a week. We will see how the juggling of both goes. :)

Now that things are slowing down again, I am hoping to get back into a pretty steady schedule. The last couple days have been a little tough. Parker is cutting 4 teeth!!! 3 back teeth and 1 front one. He is a constant faucet and extremely whiny. I have to admit though...he is way more spoiled than he should be. Momma's baby :) What else can I say?

I should be better at posting the next month. Ben started nights tonight. I HATE nights. I avoid my bed because the thought of going there alone is depressing. I know it's not healthy to spend every waking second with someone...but I want as much time as possible. Even when he drives me crazy, I want him close. Anyway...I'll be talking to you soon. :)

What a week!

Have I mentioned that I LOVE living in Hawaii?!?!?! We have been so busy the last couple weeks and I love it. The busier I am, the better. :) We have had a couple of get togethers and meet-ups with the groups I joined. I am so glad that I found the meet-up website. It is such a great way to meet people. I am really excited to become more active with the Military Moms group. They have park, beach and in home play dates every week, along with other various activities. We went to the beach with them on Wednesday. It was at the Ko'Olina Lagoons. This is a great place for children. Very calm and shallow water so you don't have to worry as much about them being carried off by the waves. The boys loved it.

Thursday Maw Maw and Kenzie arrived!!! We have been counting down for this day during calender time. The first couple days weren't real exciting as far as showing them the island. Friday was completely focused on getting ready for Parker's birthday party. We kept it small and had burgers and cake at the house. Parker had a great time. Jenny came with Logan and Avery. Parker and Avery played on his new slide for most of the evening. Parker LOVED his cake and made sure to eat the whole piece!

Saturday we went to Hanaumu Bay. It is beautiful there. We snorkeled and just hung out of the beach. It is a nature preserve with a lot of coral, so the boys couldn't really ''play" in the water. Took Blake a little while but by the time we left he really liked snorkeling.

Then we went to the Halona Blowhole. Again...Beautiful!

After the Blowhole we went to Wakiki and walked through the shops. The weather was wonderful. We came across a pirate (at least that is what hunter called him) with 2 parrots. The boys held the parrots and the pirate continued to place them all over us. We were able to get some awesome pictures. :)

On the way home, our wonderful day was finished with an amazing rainbow.

Sunday we went to the Dole Plantation for lunch, and pineapple ice cream. ;) Then went up to the North Shore to Waimea Valley. We hiked up to the waterfall. Ben, Blake and I actually swam up under the waterfall. It was freezing! Talk about a good workout too. If you stopped swimming for a second the current would push you back out. I haven't loaded pictures from Waimea yet. :( It was a wonderful weekend! So much more fun to come. :)