Hale Koa

I know you see a lot of posts about us going to the Hale Koa pool, but it is one of our favorite places to go! The weather so far for Spring Break has been awesome so today was a great day to take the kids to the pool. Poor Darrick had to work.

I had a pink inner tube for Naomi and she loved it. She really loves the water. The water in the pool was warm and even I got all the way in. The boys love swimming and diving for little water bombs they have.

In between swimming sessions we soaked up the sun, ate lunch and topped off the day with ice cream.

The only bummer came when I went to pay for our parking and I was short $2.00. I had to back up, re park, unload the kids, and walk back to the Hale Koa to use the ATM. By the time we did that, got back in the car and back to the paying booth over 30 minutes had passed and I had to pay even more. Oh well, what can you do.

Spring Break

Today is the first day of the boys two week long spring break. I planned a few activities for this week and today was going to the Honolulu Zoo. It was Naomi's first time at a zoo and she loved it. She was most excited about the elephants and wanted to stay there watching them all day!


Another highlight was the monkeys. There were two in particular that were swinging and screaming like crazy. We also enjoyed seeing Rusty and Violet the orangutans. Rusty was drinking water out of a blue bucket while Violet was busy putting her blanket on her head. Then she went over and kissed Rusty. Then Violet laid her blanket on the ground, laid down and Rusty joined her, they were too cute!


We were joined at the zoo by Jennifer, Lainey and Brayden. The kids had so much fun looking at the animals. When we went to the Keiki Zoo they all wanted to go in and see the goats. The goats were eating grass out of the kids hands! Naomi finally touched one but didn't really like them.

We had a picnic lunch, played on the playground and after seeing a few more animals we headed home. It was a fun time!

Aloha Stacey

Today we said our final goodbyes to our dear friend Stacey. She is such an amazing person with the most amazing gift for leading worship. Like us, she is from Southern California and has a heart for Africa. We know Stacey through church and have loved hanging out with her over the years. The Lord is calling her back to Cali and so this afternoon we went to her surprise going away party.
"SURPRISE!"

Potluck-Hawaiian Style
Everyone brought their favorite Hawaiian dishes. It was so ono! Jacob decided he wanted to try sushi. He picked one with vegetables and loved it! He went back for more but by then they were all gone.

The on a bummer note: Micah's bike was stolen yesterday. We keep our bikes right in front of the house by the front door. We had the boys razor scooters stolen about 6 months ago, so we got them new ones for Christmas and now we keep them in the back yard, but now the bikes too I guess need to go in the back.

Ohana Picnic

Yesterday we had the first Ohana Picnic. Three families came with their kids from Africa and two families came who will be traveling to Africa this summer.


The three kids were Ozzie, Naomi and Max.


Ozzie
Max



We talked a lot about our own adoption journeys and encouraged the families that are yet to travel. We ate, played in the ocean and took lots of pictures!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Hays Family! We all made sure we wore green so no one would get pinched!

When we got to Jacob's kindergarten class he was surprised to find out that his classrooms was visited by Leprechauns! There were little green footprints all over and his classroom was a mess! Jacob and his classmates LOVED it and his teacher really played the part!

Our Kids

Scouts Pinewood Derby 2009