pirates

Pirates have invaded Hawaii...Pirates of the Caribbean that is. They are filming a couple of miles down the road from us so we decided earlier this week to go check out the pirate ship. We drove down to a park that was next to the boat harbor that the ship is docked at and tried to see through the trees.

Not such a great view but then we realized that we could walk a little ways down the path to get a clearer shot.As we watched for a little bit we realized there were actually people parking down at the harbor and walking up to the set. So we hopped back in the car and drove over to the harbor to see if we could get a closer look. This was as close as we could get but do you see Johnny Depp? Yeah, we didn't either. Apparently they film at night which is why they let all these people stand there and take pictures. You would think I'm a big fan of the movies if I'm driving all over trying to get a great shot of it but actually I was a little spooked by the first movie, had no desire to see the second and have no plans of going to see the third. Why did we go see the ship then, you ask? I thought the boys would like to see it...and maybe we would get a glimpse of a "star". But after about 30 seconds my boys said "mommy, can we go home?" So after the Honey Pumpin truck blocked our view I thought we had had enough and we hopped back in the car and drove home. The End.

bible study

I wanted to post a link to what our Bible study listened to on Wednesday. Joni Tada was the speaker and her message was so powerful, gospel centered and God glorifying. It helps to put suffering into perspective and see it for what it is...it's not about us. She is an amazing woman of God...not because she's perfect but because she is humble in her weakness (of sin) and yet so rich in her understanding of God's purpose for her. If you have half an hour of free time in your evening do listen...it will definitely get you thinking. Click here.

hike of a lifetime

Not that our anniversary hike wasn't special but this hike was quite the feat for me. I hiked this with some friends of mine a couple of weeks ago. It is a "trail" here on Oahu called the Stairway to Heaven...and the whole trail is actually a stairway...3,900 steps to be exact. So I had to document this because I'm pretty sure I won't be doing it again. Not because it wasn't amazing but because my legs and arms would give up in protest. We started off early in the morning...sun just coming up kind-of-early and we hiked half of it in the clouds. Which means mist and wind. We summited after about 1 1/2 hours and couldn't see a thing because we were sitting in a cloud. So after some rest, a snack and some photos of the old military satellite tower (kind of LOST looking) that is the destination point, we headed back down...just as the clouds started clearing away which are the amazing pictures that you see below....breathtaking (thanks to my friend with a great camera).


Half way down point...giving my arms a break. Thanks to someone in our group who had an extra glove because most of the way down was using your arms to "swing" down (using the railing) or "slide" your hand down the rail.

the big 10 anniversary

Well I didn't meet my goal of blogging every day for a week...but I have a good excuse. Jason and I got to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary by having a night away while our friend, O who has been living with us for the past couple of weeks, watched our kiddo's for us. It has been over 8 years since Jason and I got to get away, just the two of us. I highly recommend having weekends away with your spouse. So we started off with a hike because before getting married and then before kids, we always enjoyed hiking together. We tackled the Diamond Head trail which isn't a great feat but it did have amazing views of Waikiki. It's actually an extinct volcano that the military used for defense by building lookouts and posts along the rim. We were the geeky hikers who read all the signs and the brochure on the history....Hawaiian and military. Then we headed off to the Moana Surfrider Hotel in Waikiki which is the first hotel built on Oahu back in 1901. It was beautiful with all of its architectural detail. We had our fancy anniversary dinner there and then watched the fireworks on the beach. You can't get anymore romantic than that. The next day we played tourist and saw Iolani palace and other historical buildings downtown, then headed out to the North Shore to browse around, get some frozen mochi and then head home where our friend then had a surprise party waiting for us with some of our good friends. What a fun and memorable anniversary. Here's to the next ten!

reading reward

Ethan has been working on his reading this summer and to add a little twist to it we decided that for every ten books he read he got to pick an activity to do together. So last week he read his 10 books and said he wanted to go on a hike to the waterfall. So today as a family we all headed out there and had quite a fun time.

nature's slip-n-slide

You do what you have to do when you don't have a child carrier backpack.

holding on for dear life

and of course when a boy sees running water he automatically starts trying to dam up the water to see if they can make a bigger pool to play in.

eating ice cream...yum!

the many sides of Jude

Jude is my imaginative kid. He likes to dress in character....something his older brother never seemed to be into. Some days he stays in one character, other days it changes a few times. The different characters usually appear after reading a story or watching his favorite hero, Davy Crockett. Here's just a taste of some of his creations: This "knife" (play-dough that is) rubber-banded to his leg came about after we were reading about the judges in the Bible and this particular day was about Ehud who killed the evil king Eglon with his double-edged sword that was strapped to his thigh under his cloak. Jude then decided he had to strap his "knife" on his leg for easy access while fighting the evil kings. He didn't understand why I made him take it off when we would go into the store.Quite often we see Jude sporting his helmet...whether he's riding his bike or not. At least his head is extra protected while he plays.On this particular day he changed characters quite a bit. First was flying goggle man......then he was part cowboy fighting off the bad guys......then he had his "laptop" in his backpack, just like dad.Then the goggles made a come back and he decided he needed to wear them during breakfast while he ate his banana nut muffin.

And today he was back in the cowboy character sporting a cow-hide vest and his black rain boots...I just didn't get a picture of it. I love this kid!

home is a place to gather

Wow, after moving, going out of town and my camera being out of commission, I have had a hard time finding time and energy for the blog. So I decided I would set a goal for myself this week...to blog every day for a week to get back into the routine. It may be a random thought or it may just be a picture, but it will be something about our lives. So to start things off I will put a picture of our amazing view in the new house (don't worry grandma's pictures of the grandkids are coming). We love our funny little Hawaiian house with all its quirks. Every day we are thankful for this place that God provided for us. We're in the process of painting walls right now (pictures to come) so we're still not quite settled completely but it is a house that fits our needs so well. The kids have space to play, we have space to have friends (old and new) over for gatherings, we have room right now for a friend that needs a place to stay until she can find her own place, we have room for our little homeschool and plenty of room for the neighbor kids to all congregate (pictures to come). I've always thought of our home being a place for others to come and gather with us, so we're thankful to God for giving us a place to do that.

some pics

Thanks to my mom, sister-n-law and mother-n-law I have some documentation of our trip. My camera wouldn't let me download them...something about it having to be initialized and then the pictures got erased. Bummer. House pictures to come as soon as I can get my camera to work.

The whole family portrait

the cousins for some reason cousins bring out the funny side"helping" grandpa with the beans from the garden and my sweet little nephew sleeping on my chest in the background...I love cuddly, sleeping newborns.fun at the water park

visit with Mimi and Papa and cousin T in my friend Jocelyn's gorgeous gardens splashing in the Coolidge Park fountain
children's museum - serving ice cream...Ethan automatically gives the shaka in every picture...poor kids thinks everyone does that for pictures.
eating sushi in the Japanese house

we're back...whew!

Wow, what a busy/crazy month is has been. I don't even know where to begin so I'll make a brief run-down of events and places.

May 31st - big move day (15+ volunteers, a moving van, 2 trucks, an SUV and a couple of cars), the move was done in 3 hours and all but a handful of boxes were left unpacked, thanks to our friends who helped unpack and put things away...we love our new place!

June 4th - left for the mainland to see Grandpa and Grandma and few others :o)

*brief summary: we saw 13 family members, 15 Alabama friends, 20+ Chattanooga friends (and their children) on our two day trip there, 5 friends (and a few new ones) at the ACCS (Association of Christian Classical Schools) conference Jason and I went to sans the kids (thanks grandpa and grandma) and we drove over 1700 miles through 5 different states in 2 1/2 weeks.

June 21st - returned to Hawaii and began to get settled in our new place.

June 25th - Jason returned to work..."vacation" time over.

June 27th - Jason preached (our pastor was out of town) and we said good-bye to two families who are moving off island

June 28th - field trip to the Botanical Gardens

June 29th - doctors appointments

June 30th - dentist appointments

Okay, I think that about sums it up. Hopefully pictures will be on the next post. We're still hooking electronics up. Glad to be back!

signing off...for now

We will be sans Internet for the next month due to our move and the Aloha (slow) way of transferring our service to the new house. So I'll have lots to share when we get our Internet service again. See you on the flip side!

my little helper

Do you remember how I commented on Ansley being my little shadow lately? Well, she wants to do whatever I am doing at the moment which is really cute...maybe not so helpful though. She found her play vacuum and was helping me clean up...except for that dent she put in the molding...we'll just have to patch that later.

Super Davy Crockett

Did you know that Davy Crockett was a superhero...well to Jude he is. He called himself Super Davy Crockett. And he dressed himself that day too. Didn't you know that zebras and plaid go together?

catch-up

Sorry I have no pictures to post but I thought I would jot down some highlights for those that still read this blog:

- Our biggest news is that we are moving...but not off island. I have realized lately that when I tell people that we are moving, they either are really excited or really sad...depending on their location. The mainland-ers are the excited ones until I tell them it is just to another house here in Hawaii and the other fellow islanders are sad thinking we are moving off island. So to clear it up, we are just moving across town into a little bit bigger, kind-of ugly, fenced in yard, single family, mountain view home. We are REALLY excited!! The move date can't come fast enough...but on the other hand the actual packing up everything can't seem to move any slower. So more to come...

- Jason has been at a camp for the past few days with the 6th graders at the school. He was asked to fill in since the 6th grade teacher wasn't able to go along. He just came home, gave me a kiss (before he told me he was really smelly and dirty) and then fell on the bed from exhaustion (don't worry he did take a shower first...I'm sure he's glad I posted that on the blog). I bet he's so glad to be home so he can pack up a few boxes and move some furniture now. :o)

- We finished up the boys swim lessons for the season which frees up a little more time in our week. Ethan is a natural swimmer...being so tall and skinny. He can swim free-style, back stroke, breast stroke, dive and do flip turns. And Jude...well let's just say Jude needs a few more lessons. He loves the water but has absolutely no form. He's more like a turtle than a fish. :o)

- Ethan finishes up Math tomorrow and next week will finish Phonics, Bible and Grammar. Science, Art, and Geography we will finish up this summer. Our goal is to finsih before the big move. I can't believe he will be a second grader soon. Where does the time go?

- I started a new Bible study with the ladies from church. It is a DVD series from a conference called True Woman and the main speaker sections are all on-line for free. We watched the first one this past Wednesday. John Piper was the first speaker and it was SO good. I am looking forward to the other sessions from speakers like Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Joni Eareckson Tada.

- Jude is an official bike rider now. I took the kids last night to the beach park where they have some so-so riding trails and Jude figured out how to start off his bike by himself without me giving him a push first. This was great for him because when he stopped before he had to wait for me to catch up with him so I could give him starter push. And since I was walking with Ansley that could take a while. Now, I have to teach him how to watch for other bikers/walkers on the trails because a few times I saw people halting to a stop or swerving out of the way to avoid colliding with him...while he zoomed on by oblivious that he was in anyone's way.

- Ansley has been my little shadow lately. She likes to "help" me in any way she can. Throughout the day she takes a break from playing just to give me a quick snuggle before she's off to go play again. She doesn't really talk yet but she still tries to sound like she is talking and then points as if what she is "saying" is really something important. She thinks the boys are the funniest people she has ever met. She is a great mommy to her two baby dolls. And she can sling a purse up on her shoulder like she has done it all her life. I love having a little girl!

- I'm sewing a bear, bib and burpie set for my new little nephew who I can't wait to meet soon! On a side note: I must say having my sewing stuff organized makes sewing such a better experience. It's so easy to pull out what I need and put it away until I have time to work on it again.

-Oh and another big announcement is that I have a GREEN-thumb now...not brown. (I bet you thought I was announcing a pregnancy didn't you?) I have this amazing garden and the only thing I did differently is actually plant it in the ground (not containers), use organic compost to help the dirt, and actually water it everyday. Who knew those things were so crucial to a successful garden!? So I will post pictures soon before we move and I have to leave it all to my neighbor...who said she would take care of it for me. So, now I will just have to plant a new garden at the new place.

Okay enough with the catching-up stuff. I tend to ramble too much when I make a post like this. But in case you were wondering if this old blog was dying, I reassure you, once things settle down a bit I will get back to more normal blogging frequency...at least I hope.

ants, ants

Sorry to post once again about ants...but they are a major problem this year. Someone told me that you can take regular chalk and draw a line that the ants won't cross. Not sure why it works but it does. Well after I told Ethan that interesting tid-bit, I came back to discover this...he also informed me that you can circle them in and they just keep spinning in circles trying to find a way out. I guess you can't tell by the picture but the trash can is also covered in chalk circles. I love having boys!

mother's day

These kiddo's are what made me a mom...except for the little girl in front (she's our neighbors daughter and really wanted to be in the picture). I am so thankful that God gave me these great kids and allowed me to be their mom!

at the beach

We went to the beach with our friends last week and she had her fancy-schmancy camera with her. So she sent me the best of the best yesterday. It's so nice to have friends with fancy-schmancy cameras who then take pictures of your kids and send them to you.