Hangin with our buds!

Hard to believe it's been 4 years since we saw the Chapmans!  Like any time with good friends we picked up right where we left off (minus the obligatory talk of how big our kids have gotten) and didn't miss a beat.

Sharon could be my sister (except no family could take THAT much organization) so it's cool that we were separated at birth ;)  Between the two of us, we managed to pack in a few fun things in 10 days.

In no particular order, and in various groupings, we managed to....

Go on an 8 hour fishing charter.  (Which turned into a 12 hour fishing charter where Jack caught the only fish!)  This is an Ono fish, better known as a Wahoo.  Cool right?  Tasted delicious too!

Set sail for an awesome sunset catamaran ride

Hit the waters for a shark experience (or a walk on sea glass beach and some shopping if you are a sane person).

Hike Diamond Head and Koko Head

Koko Head was a strenuous hike (so they said, I was occupied with first day of school stuff) but totally worth it at the top!

Make sure to click on this photo to get the full panorama of their view!!

Create one very fancy, super blingy, one of a kind water bottle and head off to the first day of 3rd grade!!!  (Nope, I can't believe it either)  We do so enjoy pushing the limits of our Catholic School uniform ;)  Notice the belt has glitter stars on the sides too.  Rules are for sissies!

We also found time to lounge around on at least 4 beaches, but the "look at me so I can take your photo" shot was out of my grasp.  Teenagers. 

These two were much more cooperative!

We had nearly perfect weather the entire time 

I guess the only bad part was that these two didn't really hit it off ;)

Oh well, guess you can't force it!

Ok, back to our itinerary...

Paddleboarding

Jumping

And eating.  You name it, we ate it!  

There was also about 5 or 6 rounds of golf, a trip to the Arizona Memorial, shopping at Ala Moana, and of course a few hours at swap meet. 

A hui hou kakou...until we meet again!

Aloha Summer!

I have no idea where the time went!  

The good news is that we have long-time friends arriving tonight for a 10 day visit. The bad news is that when I pulled out my camera to charge it for all the upcoming fun we are about to have...it didn't have a single photo on it.  No photos = no blogging (I know you come here for the photos, not my witty banter.)

I don't know where July went.  David went to work, Olivia went to summer school, and Emily went out to play!

Sadly, July included the unavoidable round of goodbyes.  Two of these cuties have moved on to their next adventure as Navy kids.  Blach - that never, ever gets easier.

Neighborhood play old style!  This was the kiddos selling lemonade and lollypops on the street.  Giving it away is more accurate, but some folks were generous tippers ;) 

Yes, they are as sunburned as they look.  Bad Mommies.

More of the same...

Hard to believe Emily starts school on Monday!  Harder to believe she will be in 3rd grade.  

Even harder still is that I have a high-schooler.  AGGGG, I'm getting older as I type!  Look Ma...no braces!

Off to get my end of summer pedi - fabulous photos of our next 10 days to come :)

The Circle of Life

Remember these little guys?

They turned into these little guys!  I think this was when they were only hours old.  Not too cute yet, but this was as good as it got.  A few days later there was only one little guy - he was much fluffier and cuter by then, and standing on the edge of the nest.  I peeked over the lanai railing and scared him right out of the nest!  He tried to fly but just sort of flapped to the ground and hopped under the house.  

This is where I like to believe he was safe from all predators, made himself a nice home and had all the bugs and worms he could eat until he learned to fly and took off to start his wonderful life.

OR...as my husband put it "well he's dead."

Half full, half empty, tomato, tomato.  

Egg number 3 never did hatch and just sits there now...mocking me.

Not to leave the fish out of the picture - we are having issues there too.  Gunther has been attacking the other fish and took a big bite out of Angel last week.  She is now off enjoying the great beyond with my little bird.  Gunther has been moved to a "time out tank" so he doesn't do the same to Mickey or Scooter.  Fish drama - gonna be the death of me folks.  Warning, I am very attached to Scooter who is the only remaining baby of our original 4.  He is still very small and cute and well - you see where this is going.   

Good news...the nasty smell in Emily's closet which we figured to be a dead bird or rodent in the crawl space above turned out to be neither.  Just a forgotten snack in the soccer bag from camp a few weeks ago.  Yep, that's disgusting but better than a dead animal so all and all I'm ok with it.

My little brown girls had a fun 4th.  We started at a soccer game and ended up meeting neighbors at the beach for the rest of the day.  I won't bore you with photos of puffy white clouds, bright blue skies and teal green water (the perfect temperature of course) because I spent my time in said water and not fussing with my camera!  It was relaxing, fun, and beautiful.   

Thanks to budget cuts, no fireworks for us this year ;(

This was as crazy as we got...girls smashing pop caps on the cement.  Woo Hoo...happy 4th!

Olivia got in a small spat with the paddle board.  They are much like chain saws in that they almost always win.  Notice the smallish lump on the left side of her forehead.  We laugh at how many photos I have of her with lumps on her head.  I could make a book!

You'll be happy to know I'm not killing everything...my orchids are in beautiful bloom at the moment.  They seem to thrive in spite of me but I never get tired of looking at them.

Aloha!!

Leave!!!

So military leave is a funny thing.  You get plenty of it, you just don't get to take it.  When you do...it's usually in the middle of a move (not exactly vacation material) or if you need a Monday and Tuesday off, you submit your leave chit on Friday and get charged for the weekend days as well. Like I said, it's a funny thing.  

No one really cares though, at the end of each fiscal year we all look away from that line on the paycheck that tells you how many days you have "lost" forever.  It's like Monopoly money - you can hoard all the 500's if you want but at the end of the day you aren't any richer!

That being said, my husband has been on leave since the change of command!  No move involved so what's a family to do?  Anything we want!  It's been a fantastic few weeks of family time.   

Some much needed yard work led to this discovery.  One day we noticed two eggs and the next there were three!  

Mama bird doesn't appreciate her photo being taken so we are trying to be patient waiting for our triplets to hatch :)

The girls are still busy with the usual.  Neighborhood play - had to snag a shot of Princess Charm School.  Olivia finished with her local soccer team (winning record for the first time since we moved here) and has started weekly practices with her new school team.  Emily attended a one week soccer camp as well. 

Then we all got sick.  Of course.

Then I got my belated Mother's Day present!  A brand spankin new, not to mention beautiful, paddle board!

Nothing to do but test her out!

We rented an Army beach house for a couple of days and headed to the Waianae coast.

Beautiful place, views, water, relaxation!

Not to mention the sunset!

Of course we paddled and swam.  The next morning as I was having my coffee on the beach I spotted a pod of dolphins.  Snapped a few photos for you good folks, grabbed my board and headed out.  They are such social little guys!

See them on the left?  There were lots...this was stretching the limits of my telephoto lens, I was pretty far out there!

"I'm Queen of the world!"  Now you may all plge your alleegents to me :)

Emily finally got a solo run on the board.  I did figure out that I'm a fairly good paddler - nice and stable, until you put a 50lb wiggle worm on my bow who likes to jump, twist and turn.  Makes for a good workout.

This handsome guy is my nephew Chris, who just graduated from high school last week!  Congratulations Chris...we are very proud of you and the man you have become.  I know you have great successes ahead of you!

K folks, I'm off to enjoy more of this leave stuff ;)