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!

You tell us...

What do you think is going on in these pictures?

Projects

Today we worked on some projects. Both the boys went to school today so we had some time.

It started with my Dad doing the front brakes on our minivan. But just as soon as he got started her realized that he did not have the right size socket. To quote my Dad "I think it is time for Darrick to get a big boy tool set!" Darrick has slowly been growing his tool collection, as he needs a tool, he buys it.

So my parents and I headed to Home Depot because we needed so other items for our other project. My Dad found the tool and we also got some paint, brushes, sandpaper and drawer knobs.

A few months ago I bought a buffet on Craig's list for $50.00. It is a dark forest green color and I have been wanting to paint it for months. So this afternoon we spent some time sanding it.

Wednesday and our next year

First things first-our future. We found out that Darrick did not make it into the Officer Program this year and we got extended for another year on the Lake Erie which means we will be in Hawaii until August 2009 for sure.

We had kind of a do nothing morning. I did laundry and then my Mom and I sorted and folded a huge pile of clothes to give to our nephew Elijah.

On Wednesday afternoons I help for a bit in Micah's classroom so I went and did that.

In the afternoon we went to Micah's weekly piano lesson.

Then we were invited to dinner at Pat and Carlos' house. Pat is Navajo and so for dinner she wanted to make us Navajo Tacos. We all agreed that they were very yummy. You fry the bread and then put a meat and bean mixture on top and then lettuce, tomato and cheese. I even got to make one!