Hawaii...Finally

I don’t know what we were thinking when deciding it was a good idea to have Rachel’s graduation party 3 days after Italy and the day before leaving for 6 weeks. We had so much rain the days before that Dave had to shuttle kids back and forth to Brentsville Park. That worked, but Dave ended up missing a lot of time visiting with the few adults that came. I was trying to go light on food, so we actually ran out. It started pouring half way through and everyone got moved to the basement. Rachel left her phone in the rain, so it had to get packed in a bag of rice. But, overall, it worked. It was stressful, but she appreciated it and the kids all had fun. I wouldn’t recommend it. And, sadly, no pictures. 

Sunday, we cleaned up, finished packing and got ready to go. We made it to Baltimore around dinner time. We are at Ruby Tuesday’s and had a horribly slow waitress. The 7-top that got sat after us was leaving before we even had food. Luckily we had nowhere to actually be. When I went to check into the hotel, they did not have our reservation. We did a Park Sleep Fly deal where they keep the car for the time we are gone. It meant it wasn’t easy to just get a room. But, they took care of it. A little bit scary for me, as I was embarking on six weeks worth of reservations. Hopefully this is the only real hiccup. We also couldn’t all fit on true right shuttle so we decided to have Dave drive me, the kids and our stuff to the airport and then back. He could fit in the shuttle himself. This actually worked really well. 

3:50AM came very early but we were on a mission. Since Dave dropped us off at the airport, I had to manage us for check-in and we went through security. It was chaotic but we made it. Here we are grabbing breakfast before the flight. 

We definitely brought too much luggage. I keep forgetting to take a picture of it all together. I tried to limit everyone, but we have a lot of stuff. SCUBA and snorkeling stuff takes up quite a lot, but we have discovered we have too many clothes. Oh well. Luckily we have lots of helpers...

To clear up overhead space, they offered to check bags to the destination from the gate.  We were thrilled to take them up on that offer - relieve us of the 6 carry-on bags we had. 

The plane rides were long but uneventful. On the long route, they had in flight entertainment with movies and games. Pretty advanced, so Charlie and the boys were pretty entertained. Some of us didn’t sleep much though. 

We made it to the Big Island!  2:30 Hawaiian time, 8:30 Eastern time. Got a car and drove to our condo. 


We had a little trouble finding a good place here in Kona, so we splurged a little on this place. We figured it was our introduction to Hawaii and only for a few days, so we should pick a place with a few. Boy, did it. It was beautiful. We had a quick dip in the ocean followed by a snippy trip to the grocery store. Dave was making steak-um sandwiches while I tried to keep the kids from falling asleep (an enormous task). We finally alll crashed after almost 24 hours awake. Thankfully we are here for a month. 

For Gramma

Here's a song that Rachel was working on for Gramma and Paka's 40th anniversary.   She never finished it, but I just found it and wanted to post it for Gramma to see.

My "baby" turns 6!

I really don't know how it is possible that Matthew could be 6.  Has it really been six years since I've had a little baby in this house?  Weird to me, but it is true!  He is such a cutie.  He has a very strong personality, but we love him bunches.  

It was a busy birthday weekend.  We had a couple basketball games, and then we had our good friends, Abby and Matt, here for a night.  Matthew loves Matt.  He feels this strong connection to him because they share the same name.  Despite the fact that we all call him Matt, Matthew calls him Matthew.  And, he barely leaves his side.  It's super cute.

I had Dave get a bunch (17 to be exact) of balloons at the Dollar store.  So, we placed them around the house for him.  He thought that was pretty fun.

We met the Lauderdales at Red Robin (a very favorite of our family) and they all came back to our house to make cupcake monsters.  They were super cute!

A New Tradition...probably not!

I'm not sure we ever bought a Christmas tree when I was a kid.  We would just head out on the property and look for a tree and then drag it back home.  We usually ended up with a Red Cedar, not my favorite because it was so prickly.  But, I remember the process fondly.  So, this year, despite some objections from the rest of my family, I loaded us up into the car to go cut down our own tree.  

About 5 minutes into the process, we were not finding anything reasonable left in the field, so the boys were frustrated and done.  Rachel had, unfortunately, worn her brand new Converse shoes, and it was pretty muddy.  She just couldn't let it go and felt very upset that they were getting dirty.  At this point, I considered leaving to head to church to just grab one there.  But, we headed to another field that was much more full of trees.   It was hard to find one the right size, but we eventually found this one, even though it was a little shorter than we would have preferred.  

So, we got to work cutting it down.  The boys were very excited to help.  But, it was muddy on the ground, the tree was prickly, and it was hard to saw.  So, Alex and Zack gave up after less than a minute.  Matthew, though, kept trying.  He wasn't making much progress, but at the very least, he gave us a break.  It turns out that trunk size is an important consideration for deciding on a tree.  Ours was quite large, so it was a challenge.  I think we have a particularly hardy tree, though, because the man straightening the bottom with a chainsaw was having some trouble, as well.

Dave creating a Survivor-like challenge - who can stand the longest on the stump on one foot.

Finally, we got the tree down.  Matthew got the honors of trying to cut the remaining edge.  And, then, he and Alex helped Dave carry the tree back to the car.

Afterwards, we let the kids play on all the extras they have there.  They rode the slides, jumped on the air pillow, did the bamboo maze, played tetherball, etc.  It was all fun - until Rachel jumped as Zack got in front of her smacking his mouth on a large tire.  His mouth was bleeding and his tooth was loose.  A couple pulls and out came that tooth.  Zack, in classic Zack fashion, was milking his injury for as much attention as possible.  He was upset, Rachel was lamenting her dirty shoes, Matthew was starving, my camera wasn't working, and I was wondering why I thought was a good idea.  To make matters worse, when we got home, the large trunk did not fit into our tree stand.  I had to go to 3 stores before I could find one to fit.  Next year, I think we'll just head to the church.

All said and done, though, it is our Christmas tree.  We decorated it last night and it looks good - a little bogged down with ornaments.  And, after some more frustrating minutes with my camera, I was able to figure out what was wrong with it.  Not many pictures from the evening, but I love this one of my new-smile Zack

Catching Up

I've been a slacker on this blog, but I had a few random good photos from the last few months that I wanted to share.

First, Neil and Martina and family came in early August.  It was a quick visit, but we enjoyed spending as much time with them as possible.  The girls all went out shopping the Crawl - a 30+ mile strip of yard sales along Route 11.  It was a pretty unsuccessful trip for us, but Rachel did talk me into our own chocolate fountain.  It proved a very yummy and messy purchase.  

Here, little Drew (who spent the entire week he was here telling me, "I don't love you" completely unprompted) enjoyed my purchase.  I don't think it helped to endear me to him, though.  

My kids really enjoyed their time with their cousins.  Alex always has a good time with Jonathan.  We took him for a couple days while Rachel remained at Gramma and Paka's house to visit with Ashley.

 

Beautiful girls - Josie, Ashley and Rachel

First Day of School

This is a big year for Matthew - Kindergarten.  I think he was excited.  I know that academically he is ready.  I was a little worried about his ability to sit still and obey the rules of the classroom.  To make it even more difficult, he has his two buddies in his class. While they are best friends, he is definitely the leader of the group - usually getting them all in trouble.  After a couple months, he has managed to not get into too much trouble, so I guess he's adjusting.

Trip to DC

As summer was ending, I was feeling guilty that I had not taken the kids to DC.  We live so close, but I just take advantage enough.  One of the biggest problems with DC is that some of the attractions require tickets, so you need to plan ahead.  I just never do that.  Once again, my kids want to go up into the Washington Monument and there are no tickets available.  It would have been a good day to go because the earthquake happened the day after and no one is allowed in for the time being until they fix it.  But, we still enjoyed a few of the exhibits at the Natural History Museum and walked to the WWII monument.  The kids really wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial, but it is just a little too far to walk.  The trip was similar to previous ones - a little fun, a lot of logistics, some attitude, and leftover feeling of wondering why I try to do this.  Maybe next time...

The attitude begins to show....

Riding bikes in a Hurricane? Only my children.  They had a good time, though. You cannot appreciate how hard it was raining in the picture, but it is pouring here.

The Heritage 5K 

Dave was running the half marathon with Tara.  I saw that the 5K had awards for 9 and Under, so I knew that Alex should run it to get a chance to place.  I thought they had a mile for the younger kids.  But, it turned out that the mile was on the day before.  When I told the kids, they were very disappointed and said that they wanted to run the 5K, too.  I told them they were going to need to run with Daddy to see how far it really is.  I kind of joked with Dave that he should drop the car off at the shop and run home with the kids.  I guess he thought that was a good idea, and so off they went.  I was worried because there was no way to turn around if the boys gave up.  As it was getting dark, I got nervous.  So, Rachel and I got in the car and went looking for them.  I couldn't find them and was really getting worried as we passed our house to go on another loop.  They were almost home! It was amazing - 32 minutes or so for just over a 5K.

I planned to run with Zack and Matthew in the race so that I could help keep them going slow at the beginning and help make sure they stayed on track through the whole race.  I was very worried because I had not run much.  But, I figured that I would be fine.  How hard can it be to keep up with a 5-year old in a 3-mile race?  As we started, Zack took off with Alex.  I tried to call him back, but he didn't want to run with me.  Matthew stayed with me a little bit, but within 1/2 mile, he was gone.  He had weaved in and out of people, and I just didn't feel that I could do that.  I figured I would just stay slow and catch up to them when they got tired and slacked off.  As we approached the turnaround, I saw all 3 of the boys in age order.  It was fun to give them a high five and some encouragement.  I saw that they were doing well and pretty far ahead.  So, I picked it up a little.  But, I could not even get them in my sights.  The finish of the race was around the track at the high school.  As I approached the track, I thought I might get to see the boys finish, but no, they were all 3 done and cheering for me.  

I was so impressed with them for pushing themselves through the whole race.  Alex finished in 26:12 with definite room to improve if he can better pace himself.  Zack finished in 27:20 and Matthew 27:41.  This placed them 1st, 3rd, and 4th in the 9 and Under.  Matthew was the only 5 year old in the race.  They are already excited about the next race!  Me, with a 29:04 time, I'll be happy to video tape next time.  Or, maybe I'll train so I can beat my 5-year old.  It might be the only chance I will ever have to beat him.  

Tara finished the half marathon, as Dave cheers her on.  Both Tara and Dave did well.

A new house?

Not quite a new house, but it's beginning to feel a lot better.  We have FINALLY gotten our carpets replaced.  They were super disgusting, but I hated to idea of spending money to replace them if the kids were just going to mess them up again.  But, it had to be done.  We figured we go ahead and replace the floor in the powder room as well.  And, if we're pulling up that floor, we might as well tackle the whole bathroom.  So, that was my project for the last few weeks.  It was a lot of work but the end result is beautiful.  Unfortunately, I don't have before pictures.  I always forget those, but here are the final results.

Hardwood in the foyer and on the steps...

Laminate all upstairs...

Finally, I have no idea where this came from.  I got back from taking Alex to soccer practice, and Matthew had written me a card.  He was upset that he couldn't spell "very much".  He was so cute, and he is definitely not the kid that writes me little notes.  So, I had to capture it!