Celebrating Micah

Micah turned 8 years old last Sunday but Darrick had duty so we had his party today. Hawaii recently got a Farrell's! I use to go there when I was a little girl but have not seen one for years. We thought it would be a fun place to have his party and Micah agreed!

Micah invited friends from his class and they arrived ready to party. We started off the party with lunch: mini corn dogs, chicken nuggets and french fries for the kids and yummy cheeseburgers for the adults.

After the kids were all done eating, Farrell's played a special Birthday BINGO game with them, complete with prizes! Then Micah opened his gifts. He has such great friends and was blessed with many wonderful things.

Then it was time for the Mauna Kea! Instead of a cake, Farrell's serves a 30 scoop vanilla ice cream volcano! The lights dimmed in the restaurant, the sirens started sounding and the drums started banging. Micah was asked to stand on a chair, which he would not do. So he sat, very embarrassed, as the employees sang to him. Each person received a portion of ice cream smothered with hot fudge. It was very yummy!

The party lasted 1 1/2 hour, which was perfect. After ice cream the parents were there and each child received $2.00 funny money to buy candy in the Farrell's store. A good time was had by all!

Happy Birthday Micah!

Darrick Honored

Yesterday, Darrick was presented with the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for what he did to help the USS Port Royal. This is the highest medal he has ever received. This is what the award says:

Department of the Navy

This is to certify that the secretary of the Navy has awarded the Navy and Marine Core Commendation Medal to Chief Damage Controlman (Surface Warfare) Darrick A. Hays United States Navy for

Meritorious service while serving as a leader of the rescue and assistance team from USS Lake Erie (CG 70), 8 February 2009. Chief Petty Officer Hays performed his duties in an exemplary and highly professional manner. His leadership, technical expertise, and professional abilities directly contributed to the high visibility rescue of a disabled guided missile cruiser grounded off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii.

He directed the rigging of peri-jet eductors, electric submersible pumps and four thousand feet of firefighting hoses in four compartments up five decks in the tropical heat, overcoming sand, coral and seashells from the distressed ship's contaminated firemain system.

Under the scrutiny of the United States coast Guard oil response team and several helicopter television news camera crews, he directed dewatering 118 thousand gallons of seawater from eight fuel oil compensated storage tanks without incident.

The safe and expeditious transfer and removal efforts prevented the regional operations center from activating the oil spill containment plan, saving the Navy millions of dollars in clean up fees and fines, and preserving the ecosystem for migrating pilot whales.

In less than twelve hours, the rescue and assistance detail lightened the distressed cruiser of 600 tons and was the single factor that enabled a joint military and civilian fleet of nine vessels to dislodge the warship from the reef and return safely to homeport.

Chief Petty Officer Hays's extraordinary professionalism, steadfast initiative, unrelenting perseverance, and loyal devotion to duty reflected credit upon him and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

Congratulation honey, I am so proud of you!

Navajo Tacos

Yesterday after Bible Study Pat made us Navajo Tacos. They were so awesome and yummy! The kids had fun playing with and rolling out the dough. Some of us tried to help Pat and make the fry bread but she was definitly the best at it.

Thanks again Pat!

I got tagged...

My friend Nicole tagged me in this fun game.

Here are the rules:

1. Go to the folder where you store your photos

2. Go to your 4th folder

3. Go to your 4th picture

4. Post it and tag 3 more people

Well unfortunately my 4th folder only has 3 photos in it, so I am posting the 3rd picture! It is my nephew Elijah with his mom Laura being bombarded by Japanese tourists who are often obsessed with American children. They would touch him and all squeal. It was crazy!

I am tagging:

Jennifer Homesley

Jeff and Beth Gutierrez

Dave and Laura Gutierrez

and anyone else who reads my blog and wants to play! It is really fun to see what picture that is for you!

100th Day of School

Today Jacob and the kindergarten classes celebrated the 100th day of school! He came home with a cool hat that counted to 100 by 10's. He also had a ribbon strung with 100 fruit loops. Well there was supposed to be 100 but he couldn't resist eating some!

We got them!

Today is the day, we got our official orders to Everett, Washington! Darrick has to report to Naval Station Everett by September.

As it stands now the kids and I will leave Hawaii after the boys get out of school in June and we will stay with my parents in California for about 6 weeks. Then my parents will help us move to Everett and Darrick will meet us there!

The final countdown has begun!

USS Port Royal

Jenn wanted me to tell a little about what we did on the Port Royal. Well we went there to help a tired crew. They had tried to free her from the reef 3 times and each time was early in the morning at 2:30 am. Not only did they deal with those crazy hours they also had no A/C so it was hot inside the ship and they had no showers. The reason for all that is because we use sea water for cooling equipment like Air Compressors and A/C's and they were so close to the bottom that the pumps that bring in the sea water were getting clogged with sand. So they had a lot to deal with.

So at 10am Sunday moring the Lake Erie took 12 people over to help out. I watched the news tonight and they said that they got the ship free by removing 500 tons of sea water from her and her anchor and anchor chain. That is what we did, almost by ourselves. We used electric pumps to pump out water from fuel storage tanks all over the ship. These ships have sea water compensated tanks on them. The means that water is placed in the tanks in place of the fuel when used so the ship always sits at around the same depth in the water. It was a lot work that took us all the way to 1:30 am to do. It was also extremely hot and dirty work. After we finished getting all the water out we went on the flight deck and waited to see if she would move this time. We were also on stand-by to help if there was any damage. Well after a few minutes of pulling we saw that we were moving. The crew seemed to be relieved. We were back in port by 5 am and they let us go home to clean up and get some rest. It was a long hard day but de-watering is one of the things Damage Controlman are trained to do and the gear we used is the gear my guys maintain. So it was good to get to use our training and help the Port Royal.

They did it!

After working all through the night Darrick called me this morning and said he was coming home. The team from the Lake Erie took over when they got to the ship and early this morning their hard work was rewarded when the Port Royal came off the Reef.

Darrick is sleeping now but when he gets up he will post on what it was like.

Micah and Da

Micah has always been close to Da. Da is my youngest brother Jeff. From the time Micah started talking he called Jeff, Da and it has stuck. Tonight Jeff tried to call Micah on Skype for his birthday but Jeff's sound wasn't working. So they started typing to each other. I went and did stuff and left him alone to talk to Da. When I got back on the computer later, their conversation was still on there. It was so sweet, I wanted to share. Micah is Darrick since the account is under Darrick's name.


[7:26:04 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: hello
[7:26:44 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: hi
[7:27:26 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: it's micah
[7:27:31 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: hi
[7:27:47 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: i'm 8
[7:28:07 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: it's your golden birthday!!!
[7:28:32 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: where are you
[7:28:37 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: New JErsey
[7:29:19 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: where in new jersey
[7:30:03 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: Middle
[7:30:36 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: what town?
[7:30:47 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: Madison
[7:31:25 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: cool
[7:32:24 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: why don't you call us on skype
[7:32:27 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: yeah, we like
[7:32:54 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: what?
[7:33:25 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: our audio isn't work very well
[7:33:47 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: oh
[7:35:19 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: i'm happy
[7:35:26 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: why's that?
[7:36:21 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: because i have a pizza pocket
[7:36:30 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: those are so good!
[7:38:06 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: i'm sad because you aren't here :(
[7:38:19 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: maybe we can talk tomorrow...
[7:38:32 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: why
[7:38:53 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: because I'll probably have to download some stuff to fix the webcam
[7:39:17 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: oh now i get it
7:39:34 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: Happy Birthday to you
7:40:11 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: i have to go to bed soon :(
[7:40:18 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: ah man!
[7:40:50 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: jenn love's you
7:41:04 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: I love her, too!
[7:42:06 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: i have to go to bed now see you tomorrow
[7:42:21 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: what time will you be on tomorrow? I'll try and have it working
7:42:56 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: afternoon
[7:43:03 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: sounds good. I'll be on
[7:43:07 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: talk to you tomorrow!
[7:43:18 PM] Darrick Allen Hays: bye
[7:43:44 PM] Jeffrey S. Gutierrez: bye

Darrick to the rescue

I'm not sure if you have heard but a Navy Ship stationed here called the USS Port Royal is stuck on a reef here in Hawaii. Our friend Jeremy is stationed on that ship.

At 5:30 am this morning Darrick got called. MidPac, the head honchos, are assembling a team of Damage Controlmen to go to the Port Royal and help out and Darrick is one of them asked to be on the team.He just called and said he will probably be there overnight and maybe longer.

Port Royal

Navy pins hopes on tugs, tide,Sailors, fuel and water removed to lighten ship after two attempts to dislodge it fail

By Dan NakasoAdvertiser Staff Writer

The Navy this morning was going to make its third attempt to refloat a Pearl Harbor-based guided missile cruiser that ran aground Thursday night just off Honolulu Airport's reef runway.


Hundreds of Navy, Coast Guard, state and contract personnel had already tried twice before to pull the USS Port Royal backward from a sand and rock ledge 17 to 22 feet below the ocean's surface, then pivot the ship back into open water, said Rear Adm. Joseph A. Walsh, deputy commander and chief of staff of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

To reduce weight, crews yesterday were unloading 200 tons of fuel and water and 15 more tons of sailors before bringing in more powerful tow and tug boats to try one more time to dislodge the Port Royal during "high, high tide" at 3:24 this morning, Walsh said.
"From the bow to the stern on the port side she is touching the sand and rock bottom," Walsh told reporters yesterday at Pearl Harbor's "Mike 1" and "Mike 2" piers. " ... The issue becomes how much weight is on the ship versus our ability to pull that weight off the reef."
The image of the 9,600-ton, 567-foot warship stuck and listing starboard just outside its home port has been a national embarrassment to the Navy at a time when thousands of people have been landing at Honolulu Airport for today's National Football League Pro Bowl game, said veteran Honolulu harbor pilot Ed Enos, who served as a Navy Merchant Marine reservist for six years.

"I feel for those guys," Enos said. "It could not have happened at a worse time, just as we're getting this national exposure. These guys don't want to have an accident right outside their home port. Everybody in the Navy is feeling this."
Walsh yesterday would not speculate on what may have caused the USS Port Royal to get stuck — or any possible disciplinary action against its crew or captain, Capt. John Carroll.
"Clearly the ship is not where the ship should have been," Walsh said.
The usual path in and out of Pearl Harbor typically runs at a maximum depth of 42 feet, the Navy said. The "navigational draft" for the Port Royal is 33 feet, the Navy said.
No oil has spilled from the Port Royal and the Coast Guard has set up a 500-foot safety zone around the ship.

The Port Royal ran aground directly north of a spot called "Anchorage Delta," where civilian ships anchor, Enos said. The site is just 'ewa of "Navy Anchorage" where American fighting ships anchor or train in "Navy designated waters," Enos said.

"Those guys do go out there and train in that area all the time," Enos said.
It's normal procedure for American and foreign warships to take aboard a civilian harbor pilot to guide them in and out of Pearl Harbor, Enos said, but the captain of each ship bears the ultimate responsibility for every maneuver.

"Pearl Harbor has its own pilots who are federal, civil service employees," Enos said. "Having them onboard is typical protocol."

The Port Royal had been in drydock for four months for routine maintenance and set sail on Thursday with a crew of 324 sailors and officers for its first day of sea trials.
At the end of the day, the Port Royal began off-loading sailors, civilian contractors and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard personnel onto small boats when it ran aground "in the normal spot for small boat transfers," Walsh said.

Walsh could not say yesterday what the condition of the sea bottom was.
"We do not believe it is a live reef," Walsh said. "We believe it is a sand and rock bottom."
But he emphasized that the Navy will be responsible for cleaning up after the mishap and would work to restore any reef or sea life that potentially could have been harmed.
"Our priorities have been and remain the safety of the crew, the safety of the ship and the safety of the environment," Walsh said.

The interior and topside areas of the Port Royal sustained no damage. But the Navy believes the ship's sonar dome that extends below the bow and is encased in an 8-inch-thick rubber housing has been flooded with water and "there has been a failure," Walsh said.

He could not say whether the Port Royal might have damaged other critical parts beneath its hull, which include the shaft, propeller and twin sets of struts that stabilize them at the stern.
The mishap left the Port Royal with power but no air conditioning because the cooling water for the air conditioning system was blocked when the ship ran aground, Walsh said.
So half of the Port Royal's crew has been rotating on and off in 24-hour shifts to give the sailors rest in air-conditioned berths, Walsh said.
Removing the sailors also reduced the ship's weight.

Celebrating Micah's birthday at school

Since Micah birthday falls this weekend he brought a treat to school today to celebrate with his class. Yesterday we spent time making S'mores Pops. Micah was super excited with how they turned out and couldn't wait to share them with his class!

Micah loves learning

Today Micah surprised me when he came home from school today. He told me that his class had gone to the library. He pulled out the book that he decided to check out and it was a book on Washington! He said he wanted to read and learn about where we are going to live.

So tonight for about half an hour he sat on the couch reading and sharing interesting facts with us, like:

• Washington has 600 islands
• Washington has about 1000 natural lakes
• Forests cover more than half the state
• Washington's forests have maples, cottonwoods, aspens and cherry trees
• Wildflowers in Washington include dogwood, goldenrod and brown-eyed Susans
• Gray whales sometimes approach the Pacific shore
• Seals and Dall porpoises often visit Puget Sound
• Thousands of deer roam Washington
• Some of the world's largest octopuses also live in Puget Sound

And I am happy to let everyone know that Naomi slept in her room all night long and did not wake up!

Naomi's new room

Since the day we brought Naomi home she has been sleeping in our room. She has now been in Hawaii just over two months. We have her in a toddler bed in our room. She is a great sleeper and sleeps through the night. The only problem is that she is a light sleeper. So when we go to bed we have to sneak around and in the morning when Darrick goes to work she usually wakes up and is awake for the day.

So today we moved her into her own room, in the room next to ours. We made a very big deal about it and she was so excited!

This weekend we got an awesome deal at a yard sale. We found a white metal frame day bed with a trundle and a new matress for only $100.00! So we set that up in her new room so she can see it and hopefully transition to it in the future.

She went to bed like normal so hopefully she will sleep through the night!

Our awesome new blog design

If you love our new blog design then the person to thank is my awesome friend, Nicole Leonard. You can check out the link to her blog on the right. She knows me so well and surprised me with this layout she designed. By the way she is also the one who designed our adoption announcements. I love it Nicole, thank you so much!

Tonight we had movie night even though it was a Tuesday. Today "Space Buddies" came out on DVD. The boys loved their previous movie "Snow Buddies" and couldn't wait to see this one. Darrick and I love it because it is rated "G". It was really "Santa Buddies" will be released November 2009-the boys are already counting down!

February

February is my favorite month of the year and I am so glad it is here! I love the color red, hearts and love.

Happy February everyone!

GLO and Dr. Laura

Yesterday we were so excited to celebrate with Micah as he earned his 6th GLO star award! They can start earning them in 1st grade so Jake is not able to yet. But both boys did get a perfect attendance award for last quarter! Below is a picture of Micah and his best buddy Jack!

Last night my friend Jennifer took me to see Dr. Laura! My ticket was a gift for my birthday, back in December. Our husbands happily watched our kids so we could have a girl's night out. We both love listening to Dr. Laura on the radio and she was going to be giving her final performance of her one woman show in Honolulu. She has been doing the show for 3 1/2 years. We were not able to take pictures once the show started but we got a few pictures before it started. While we were taking those shots two different security people came over to tell us we could not take pictures once the show started. It was a good show. She told stories, shared emails and answered questions. Thank you Jennifer, I had such a great time!

Wooden Shoes

When I was little, and I went to visit my Grandpa and Grandma Vanderbilt, one of my favorite things to do was wear the pair of little wooden shoes that they had sitting on their shelf. They felt strange but I loved the "klomp klomp" sound they made when I walked around in their kitchen.

Now we have a pair of wooden shoes that sit on our book shelf in our home. Naomi's feet are the perfect size for them and she loves to walk around the house with them. She paired the wooden shoes with an armful of bracelets we bought while in Africa and some silver beads!

Jacob turns 6!

Yesterday our sweet Jacob turned 6 years old! We had such a great day celebrating!

Naomi and I brought lunch to Jacob at school to kick off the celebration! Then in the afternoon Jacob shared a birthday treat with his class. We made Aquarium cups and the class loved them!



Then after school we headed over to the Hale Koa to celebrate with friends. We swam and played until dark. Then it was time for cupcakes, presents and then fireworks! It was a blast, thanks everyone for helping us celebrate! You can check out all the pictures on Facebook!

Jake's Nose

I guess it was bound to happen and actually in the 8 years I have been a parent, it has never happened before. Today we had our first bloody nose and it was a good one.

Jacob and Micah were running around outside playing with their friends and Naomi and I were in the kitchen making cupcakes for Jake's birthday. All of the sudden I hear a huge thud outside and then screaming. Right away I knew it was Jacob. By the time I got to the front yard where it happened they boys had run to the back yard. Micah dashes up to me "Jacob's bleeding!"

Those are not words that you want to hear and I pictured his teeth out or a huge gash somewhere but thankfully it was a bloody nose. Jacob was running and tripped and he hit his face right on our front sidewalk and then his friend running close behind him, tripped over Jacob.

It bled pretty good and it got on his clothes and my hands. I did what I knew to do for a bloody nose. Then I called my Mom to make sure I was doing the right things and I was! Thanks Mom!

His nose is really tender tonight and starting to bruise. We'll see how it looks in the morning!

Hays Boys

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Thank You Mr President

Our Kids

Micah Jacob

Naomi

Women's Luau Brunch

Saturday, the Women's Ministry at our church, put on a Women's Luau Brunch. There were 152 women in attendance including me and my dear friends Jennifer and Pat.

We had a yummy meal and great fellowship and worship. But the highlight was definitly the special guest speaker: Bethany Hamiliton. You may remember her as the young surfer girl who survived her arm being biten off by a shark years ago. Well she is now 19 years old. She is an amazing Christian and living her life and surfing for the Lord.

We watched a 30 minute video of her story and then she spoke to us. Her and her family are very inspirational and we were all encouraged. I bought her movie if anyone wants to see it and I put a trailer below.

Heart of a Soul Surfer: The Bethany Hamilton Story

Nothing Much

Well it is 10:30 pm and the day was pretty uneventful. We had some heavy rain and strong wind but nothing bad.

At about 4:30 we lost power and I am not quite sure why. So our friend Jennifer Homesley invited us over for pizza and to hang out. It was so much fun and we just got back a little bit ago and the power had come back on while we were gone.

So far so good

It is 10:00 am now and last night passed pretty uneventful. We had some winds but nothing too powerful.

We had an appt. at the doctor this afternoon but he just called and said we need to reschedule because the hospital is closing for appts. Also Micah's scout campout for this weekend has been cancelled as well as our mini church for tonight.

Today the wind is blowing and we are getting some occassional gusts and I see lots of dark clouds coming in, so we will see what the day holds!

How bad is it going to be?

For the past few days we have been hearing about a big storm that is going to be hitting the islands. The winds could get up to 60 mph!

We just heard on the 5:00 pm news that all public schools are closing tomorrow so everyone can stay home.

It makes me a little nervous, am I ready? What do I need besides flashlights...

Teeth

I am not sure if everyone knows this or not but when I met Naomi for the first time, I discovered that she is missing her two front bottom teeth. The orphanage said that the teeth were gone when they got her and so they had no explanation.

We have been wondering if she ever had them, or if they got knocked out. Does she have adult teeth that will come up in the future?

Well today was her first dentist apt. so we were hoping to get some answers. We were not sure how she would do so we have been talking to her about the dentist and what they do. We go to Pearl Family Dental Care and I love them. They are so relaxed and kid friendly. They let Naomi sit on my lap in the chair. Thankfully she let the lady take 2 x rays of her front teeth so we could see what was going on. The dentist got a little over half way done cleaning her teeth before she freaked out. They said that was good.

Then we got the good news from the dentist that he saw 2 adult teeth in the gums in the x ray. He said that the teeth were probably knocked out because if people are born missing teeth it is usually certain ones and the front two are not it. He also said that there was no pieces of the teeth stuck in the gums so that was good too.

He said if we wanted we could have false teeth wired in her mouth until the adult teeth come up but he did not recommend that. So we were happy with what we found out!

Then it was my turn. With Naomi on my lap and Jacob peering in my mouth and asking the hygienist a ton of questions I got my teeth cleaned. Micah and Jacob saw the dentists too so we are all good for awhile.

Our Dancing Girl

On Friday we went a Birthday Party for Jacob's friend Allie at Chuck E. Cheese. We had a good time. The boys played games and tried to win tickets and Naomi enjoyed the music. We were not sure of how Naomi would feel about big rats but as you can see from this video she was just fine.