Salmon Anyone?

I am really trying to make some healthy changes in our family's eating habits.

We do not care for fish but salmon is so good for you I thought we should try it in the hopes that we will like it and be able to eat it a few times a week.

I called my parents to ask them how they prepare it and they suggested marinating it in teriyaki and then cooking it on the BBQ. I have never grilled on a charcoal BBQ but my dad gave me step by step instructions since Darrick was going to be late.

The grilling went great. I told the boys it was chicken, mixed it in with rice and they gobbled it up! I had a bit of a hard time at first getting over the mental part of eating fish but I actually liked it.

I decided not to tell Darrick what it was since I knew he might not like it. So when he got home I told him his dinner was in the fridge. I mixed his in the rice just like the boys. I was secretly watching him. He looked at it and then sniffed it and put it in the microwave.

Then he got it out and sat down on the couch to eat. He took a bite and didn't look to thrilled at the taste, so he smelled it again. Then he took another little bite. Then he stood right up walked into the kitchen and dumped it down the drain. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was done. I told him that I was watching him and saw him only take 2 bites. He then admitted that he didn't like it but he didn't want to hurt my feelings. He explained that somehow when we heated it up in the microwave the chicken somehow ended up tasting like fish.

So I told him that it was fish. Oh, he said. I guess next time I better just tell him what I am serving him...

So I am determined to make it again. How do you make it? Any suggestions...

One of those days

We have been enjoying our last few days of spring break but today was just one of those days when everything seems to go wrong.

We had plans today to meet Beth, Pat and their kids at Lanikai Beach. So as I was getting ready to load everything in the car I realized my purse, cell phone and keys were locked in the car. Darrick has the other set and he is leaving today to go out to sea. At first I started to panic but then thought that I could call our USAA Roadside Assistance. They said they would send someone out and it would be 45 minutes until they get there. Not too bad.

Well 45 minutes came and went and I got a call that their driver got in a car accident so they had to send someone else which took another hour because they had to come from Waikiki. When he got there he had a hard time but finally got it! Yahoo!

While all this was going on Pat called and said she was sick plus the weather was not the best so Beth and I decided to go to Bishop Museum. It was busy because of Spring Break but we had fun.

Then we went to Big Kahunas for lunch. After we ordered all the food I realized I had no money and they only accept cash. Thankfully Beth had the exact amount we needed down to the dollar!

I'm glad tomorrow is a new day!

Happy Easter!

We hope that everyone had a great day celebrating our risen Lord-He is Risen!

We spent the morning at church. I taught Sunday School at the 7:45 service and Darrick was my helper. Then we went to church at the 9:00 service. It was a nice service with a drama and special dance.

After church we drove to Beth and Oscar's house with Pat, Carlos and Abbie. We took some family pictures and then had and Easter egg hunt for the kids. After the kids opened their eggs we headed to the beach to BBQ and swim.

After our meal, Oscar took Darrick and Micah out to surf. The waves were not that good so there was not much surfing going on. The moms and kids played at the beach. It was pretty warm so the water felt so good.

After a long afternoon at the beach Beth and Oscar invited us over to their place for pizza. The boys and me fell asleep on the way home. Thankfully Darrick did not have to be at work until 11:00 this morning so we could all sleep in!

Time for a change

My hair this morning-pic taken 3 weeks ago
Front view of new do

Back view

Well I had it with my hair. It was getting long and heavy and hot so I decided that it was time for a change. I made an appt. at Paul Brown Salon for a consultation and haircut. It is really hard to find someone who wants to cut curly hair or someone who does it well. They set me up with Carol who has curly hair herself. I gave her total freedom and I didn't even see it until she was all done-I felt like I was on a makeover show. She cut 5-6 inches off in length.

I was so surprised but boy to I LOVE it! It feels so light. The great thing is I can wear it curly or straight.

What do you think?

Until next time

Today we brought Charlie, Maud and Amelie to the airport. It was hard to say goodbye. Even though they hardly saw Darrick, the boys and I had so much fun. I feel like we were really able to spend time together and get to know each other better. One night Charlie, Maud and I stayed up until 3am talking. I cannot remember the last time I stayed up that late and boy was I hurting the next day. I think I am too old to do that anymore.

I really enjoyed spending time with Maud and getting to know her more as a person and my sister-in-law.

Last night we headed to Honolulu to have dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. It is one of my favorite places but they had never been there. They loved it!

This afternoon I caught up on all the housework I have been letting slid. Piles and piles of laundry...no fun.

New Link

Our Friends that recently moved here started their own blog. They are Oscar, Beth, Hezekiah and Genesis Gonzalez-keep up with their adventures!

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday was a jammed packed day! We started off with an 8:00 am soccer game for Micah. Jacob had his last game last week and this week was Micah's last game. It was a great game and at the end Micah got a cool trophy!

After the game we stopped and got a dozen sugar Malasadas-so ono!

From there we headed to the Swap Meet. It was hot but we walked around a big part of it and got some good deals. I finally got my wooden windchimes, Maud and I got cute shirts, the kids got ukeleles and a bunch of us got hats.

Then we went to the Exchange and Commissary. From there we picked up Panda Express and brought Darrick dinner on the ship since he had duty. We left the ship completely exhausted and ready for showers and a good nights rest.

Today after Darrick got home from duty we drove up to North Shore to have lunch at Cholo's. We then looked in some shops and thought we would ask some questions about surf boards. Oscar has taked Micah out on his board twice and Micah can stand up pretty good now and has been asking for a surf board but we know nothing about them. We have done a little research and they are expensive. So anyways we were talking to this sales guy and he was teaching us a lot but the cheapest boards were over $600.00! He told us "Look, I now a guy at this surf shop down the road that sells used surf board. Tell him I sent you over and he will hook you up with a great deal."

So we headed over to Surf and Sea and found Jay. And boy did he hook us up. They said a lot of people dump their boards or sell them cheap because the come to Hawaii to surf and then don't want to pay what it costs to ship their board home. It was crazy how many boards they had. So long story short we found a board for Micah for $140.00! Jay talked to Micah throughout the whole process-surfer to surfer asking him what he wants for his board.

Jay was so great and helped us get a blue nose guard for the tip of the board so it is soft and if it hits Micah he won't get hurt too bad. He also got softer fins and a red leash. Jay gave Micah some stickers for his board and some surf wax.

Micah wrote Oscar an email tonight asking when they could go surfing. Let's hit the beach-surf's up!

Our visitors

Tuesday evening we went to the airport to pick up our visitors: Charlie, Maud, and Amelie Hays. Charlie is Darrick's younger brother.

We have been having a lot of fun and I can't get enough of my niece! I just want to eat her up, she is so cute.

Today the boys took off a day from school and we took them to The Wright Bros. Cafe for a yummy breakfast by the water. Then we took them to Lanikai. It was a great day!

Jake's Ear

Last June, a red bump started growing behind Jacob's right ear. We first took him to his doctor, who them sent us to dermatology.

At dermatology they numbed his ear and cut off a sample of it and then sent it off to Washington DC to be tested and analyzed.

The results came back as an abnormal mole or hemangioma. So they referred us to Ear, Nose and Throat.

So today I took Jacob to that appointment. The doctor told us that it often occurs in children 3-8 years old. It could be left but it will grow and if bumped or broken open they can bleed a lot. So the best thing to do is to remove it. This will require surgery because they have to remove it plus the skin around it and they may have to dig deep into his ear so the best thing to do is to put him to sleep while they do it.

A plastic surgeon at Tripler is going to do it on April 21. We'll keep you updated as we know more.

Two new links

Under of Friends and Family you will find two new links.

The first is the Kimura Family. They are dear friends of ours who have adopted and are now in the middle of a miracle pregnancy.

The second is the Arney Family. They are a family at our church. The wife and mother Jane is battling cancer. The doctors have now told her it is terminal but they, as well as our church, are praying for a miracle.

Keep up with both of these AMAZING families!

Monday

This morning at 8am I got a call from the visitors that were suppossed to come today and they did not make their flight. They were up all night with their daughter and she was pulling on her ear so they took her to the doctor instead of getting their flight to Hawaii. They were right she had an ear infection and now she is on antibiotics and the doctor gave her the okay to fly. So they are going to catch a flight tomorrow. Because they had a doctors note they were able to change their tickets without any extra fees!

So I did some work around the house and ran some errands. While my parents were here we bought some flowers but did not have a chance to put them in their pots so I decided to do that. I also cleaned up, washed stuff off and reorganized it all. Below are some pictures of the end result.

Getting Back to normal-for one day

This morning, before the sun came up, my parents left our house to fly back to Cali. The 2 weeks they were here went by way too fast! Darrick had duty today so he dropped them off at the airport on his way to the ship. We miss them already.

But we get new visitors tomorrow! Yes, back to back visitors!

But before my parents left, we had one more beach day on Saturday. We headed out to Lanikai beach to meet up with our friends Beth and Oscar. The fun thing is that Beth's parents are visiting her too. Our parents know each other because we all grew up in Alta Loma and they both sent their kids to Ontario Christian. So we all had fun hanging out in Hawaii.

Micah got his second surf lesson from Uncle Oscar and he was standing up and balancing a lot more. Jake had a blast playing with Kai. The water was nice and warm. Then after the beach we all went to Teddy's Bigger Burger for dinner! It was a fun time!

Sunday

Today was such a great day! After we went to church we headed to the Ewa Beach Railroad. We were going to go last Sunday but it was raining. The weather was much better today!

It was such a beautiful train ride and there was a wonderful breeze blowing, it was perfect. It is a 90 minute train ride up the West Coast. The whole ride is narrated so you learn a lot about the railroad and surrounding areas.

After the train ride, since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to then drive up the west coast. We drove until the road ends and then got out to hike. What started out as a little walk turned into a full fledge hike! We stopped and watched a blowhole before heading up most of the trail.

We did this hike in December and had visited some tide pools so we wanted to take my parents there. It is off the path and you have to hike down to get to the tidepools. As we got closer we were so surprised that there was a huge seal laying in one of the pools. We have never seen one in the wild before and it was amazing! It would open its eyes and look at us and grunted at Jacob once because Jake got to close but mostly it just layed there. The boys also found sea cucumbers and let Nana and Papa hold them.

The views were so spectactular, the pictures don't do justice to what we saw. As we were driving home, Darrick saw what looked like a big cave so we stopped to look. It was big bit not very deep. It was the first cave the boys have been to so they thought it was so cool. The cave was dripping water so the ground was slick and Jacob slipped 3 times!

Our showers felt so good tonight and I'm sure we will all sleep like rocks!

Sunday Train ride and hike

The Atlantis Submarine Tour

Friday

Yesterday Darrick got off of work early so we wanted to go do something together. We weren't quite sure what but we headed out to the Navy ticket office to see what we could find.

It turns out that they had an amazing deal for the "Magic of Polynesia" show, buy one ticket and get one free! We also booked an activity for Saturday afternoon but we will tell you about that later.

So we headed to Honolulu but first we stopped at Big Kahunas for dinner. They have the most amazing Kalua Pork BBQ sandwiches.

When we got to Honolulu we had time to walk around before the show. We stopped at the Croc store and we got some. Plus they had the most amazing selection of Jibbitz so we let the boys pick some out.

Then we went to the Magic Show. It was awesome! The boys loved it and couldn't figure out all the tricks-they were amazed.

After the show we walked back to the van. On the weekend they have pretty cool street performers so we watched a few. We paid $1.00 and this robot man danced for us. Then we stopped and watched the Basketball Man. We were so surprised when we picked Jacob out of the crowd to help him with one of his tricks. Jacob was awesome in front of all the people-we were so proud!