Bouncing Sophia!

Sophia loves this little trampoline. She bounces it all over the yard. If it isn't up against the house it moves when she bounces. She can get some serious "air". She is getting so big way too fast! (Daniel can "sense" when the camera is on, he always wants to come and be on camera too!)

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!

It has been raining pretty hard for 4 days now.

You can only stay inside for so long!

So James says to Sterling yesterday morning, "I'm going for a bike ride!". Sterling reminded him that it was raining. James says, "I don't care!" So James goes out and rides. About 10 minutes later he comes back, soaking wet and says, "Dad, I want you to come ride bikes with me, none of my friends want to ride in the rain!" So Sterling changes his clothes, although he really didn't want to get soaking wet. Sterling got his rain jacket and he went out to ride with James for a "little bit"! They decided to go up toward the Navy Lodge were the "good" puddles are! I didn't get any pictures of them up there but it sounds like they had an incredible time. The water in some places went up to James' knees according to James! They were both covered in mud when they got home, but that wasn't enough. They came home and to "wash up" a little. Sterling got out the hose to wash some of the mud off. Then that escallated into running in the sprinklers at the park (that are stuck on). Then just playing in the rain in the ally. The rain would come and go in waves. It would rain supper hard, so hard that it hurt, then it would slow down to a drizzle, then back up again. I think all in all they were out there for about 3 hours! Daniel got brave at the end and played in the ally with the boys!

They were really having a great time.... it was so much rain!

Making "rain angels"

Daniel wanted something to float in the "stream". So we got some foam paper to float. James was blue, Daniel was orange, and Sterling was yellow. The plan was for a race, but a little cheating happened!

Sophia was brave enough to go out when it was barely drizzling, but as soon as it started raining again she ran for the garage! She wants to be big like the boys, but doesn't like rain on her head!

I'm not sure who is having more fun, Sterling or Daniel!





James said he was ready to go inside.... so they started taking their wet clothes off, then it started to rain hard again. Daniel still wanted to run and evidently so did Sterling!

December 7th, 2008 Pearl Harbor Day

We got up early this morning to go see the ship circle Ford Island. There has been a sign up for the last two weeks saying that the bridge from Ford Island to Oahu would be closed from 6am to 9:15. So we knew something was going to be happening. We also knew that the bridge was closed and we wouldn't be able to make it to church. So Sterling and I got substitutes for our classes and for the Organist. As soon as we were pulling out of our subdivision we could see the ship pulling around the bottom of Ford Island, so we drove over and took a picture, then we went up by the bridge to wait for the ship to make it's way up there. It is always neat to see the Navy ShipMen lined up around the ship as it comes into port. We had never seen the bridge up so that was also neat. It was a fun morning to mingle with friends on the bridge and watch. Pretty amazing to think that 67 years ago today, Pearl Harbor was attacked.

I took lots of pictures and even a video so you could be here too!

At the bottom of Ford Island

Every year a different ship gets the honor of circling Ford Island on Pearl Harbor Day.

This is on the Bridge, which is usually no stopping and lots of traffic.

Daniel with his monster bag of Lucky Charms, James as the self-appointed Sophia tracker, and Sophia walking everywhere. Isn't Sophia cute in her new dress and shoes!

She is growing so fast. She is 15 months old today!

Trying to take a picture with the Morning sun in their eyes!


This is proof that I was there too!
(Yet again, with the sun in our eyes, not a great picture but we are all there!)

Sophia and Sterling watching the ship.

Sophia wanted up on the wall so bad, so she could see, but didn't want to be held!

Here is the ship getting ready to go through the bridge!

This video has the ship going through the bridge

and the Air Force Jets flying the Missing Man Formation.

What you don't see on the Video is that in the first frame there are 4 jets, then when I turn around there are only 3, because the 4th Jet takes off going almost straight up.

It was pretty impressive.

The USS Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri

The ship turning to go to port

James on the bridge in front of the USS Arizona Memorial

The boys in front of the USS Arizona Memorial

Wreaths at the USS Utah Memorial

More beautiful wreaths at the USS Utah Memorial

They put out all new big flags today!

There is always enough wind to keep them flying high!

The USS Utah Memorial

December 7, 2008

A closer picture of the USS Utah

May we always remember those who have lost thier lives or their loved ones for our freedom!

Daniel's Story

At dinner tonight, Daniel starts telling this story. Not a standard 3 year old story. One with a beginning, middle, and end. One with a climax. Not much of a plot.. but very well thought out story for a 3 year old. It even began with a once upon a time! Nice Job Daniel. I think the funniest part is the constant hand motions!

It is kind of long... but the end is the best!

Sophia and the slide!

Sophia has been watching the boys!

"Anything you can do I can do better!"

Thanksgiving 2008

On Thanksgiving morning Sterling had a job to do. He needed to build our new swing set. He have a fabulous park, but it has no swings. James loves to swing, so we got our very own swing set. James has been asking for a swing set for at least 2 years and we finally did it. So, since Thanksgiving morning is the first chance Sterling has had in a long time to spend time with the family, James and Sterling set off to build the swing set!

As soon as anything was assembled, the kids were on it. Piece by piece they went from one thing to another. It was pretty funny. I was in the house trying to make things for dinner and they were outside building. Sophia would just go back and forth. She was very excited too!

Daniel trying out the new slide!

Daniel, James, and Paul (our neighbor) with their Indian hats.

Thanksgiving Dinner with the Keith Family.
It was my first time ever making Thanksgiving Dinner. We ate a little later than planned but everything worked out pretty well.

Thanks Dad and Mimi and Tina for all your support and recipes!

The kids having pie. (Daniel, Paul, James, and Philip)

The adults still needed to wait, we ate way too much for dinner!

Crazy Packer Boys Band!

The boys were really wound up today. Sterling had to work all day and it was raining so we were pretty much confined inside. Sophia had spilled her cereal all over the kitchen floor and it was sticky so I was sweeping and moping (which I usually do on weekdays, during nap time). So everything was on the rug in the front room and the boys had to stay on the rug too! So they thought it was a great opertunity to turn it into a serious druming session!

It was pretty funny! Daniel wasn't singing, just throwing out songs for James to sing and then telling him which animals to do in Old McDonald's Farm. Daniel is usually the mastermind behind things. He's a pretty funny kid! They were both having a lot of fun being crazy drumers! They can be really good friends!

Funny Daniel!

Daniel is such a funny boy! I was downstairs sweeping the floor and Sterling says "hey come here you need to see this!" So I come up the stairs and Daniel is going back and forth from his bin in his room to the stairs, putting each animal in "jail". Of course each trip had it's own dialog. Daniel isn't quiet very often, there is always something to be said, a story to tell, or a song to be sung when Daniel is around!

James has been begging us to fly the kite for about a month now. They took the fense down for the "soccer fields" about a month ago and he figured it would be a good place to fly the kite. So, Saturday we finally did it. I bought this kite when we lived with my sister Shelli in Utah 2 years ago. I flew it once while we lived there. It has made 3 moves since then, never being opened, so we finally got it out and let it fly. Of course we attracted several children from the neighoborhood as well! Sterling or I would get it going way high in the air, then we would let the kids take turns holding the end of the string while it was soaring. Daniel was so excited to fly it! What can be more fun than flying a Sea Turtle Kite, in Hawaii!

The last video is of the kids playing and holding up Daniel. While we were flying the kite James and his friend Philip found this piece of rebar. So, why not play with it right! It was pretty heavy, at first they were just walking with it, then they were showing off how strong they were, then it lead to letting Daniel hang from it! They were all pretty funny! I thought it was even funnier that the 8 year old girl was as strong as 2 six year old boys!

We had a good time at the park!

Honolulu Zoo Part 2

We decided since James had the day off of school for Teacher Prep Day that we should do something fun. So we went back to the Honolulu Zoo to finish what we had started. We didn't get there until almost 1:00pm which actually was perfect. It wasn't busy at all and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The weather was perfect, not too hot with just enough wind to keep everything pretty dang pleasant. Sophia is really getting to be interested in things. She learned a new word at the zoo, "WOW". It was really cute. James kept trying to get her to say it with every new animal that we saw. I tried to get it on video, but of course she wouldn't perform for the camera. We really had a good time!

Sophia felt like she had to do everything the boys did, why sit in the stroller when you can look over the wall at the fish and turtles and Monkeys!

James is such a good helper with Sophia. She wants to be "One of the boys"!

I was trying to get her on video saying Wow, but this is pretty cute too!

This is the best face, Sophia was so excited to see the giraffes.

This is the same bench, but with the Giraffe in the background! What cute kids!

We had to take a time out from the animals to play on the little playground. Last time it was like swarming ants with so many kids, this time.. there was only 1 other little boy.

This is called the Childrens Readers Theater, It has really neat plants and some stones for the kids to sit on. My guess is during the Summer they actually do childrens events here, but for now it is a great place to take a picture!

Sophia says HI!

This is beneath the big Koi Pond, you can crawl through the tunnel and see the koi through little windows. James was so good to take Phia with him to see the fish, she loved it!

Sophia really liked the birds, of any kind. I know these are roosters and chickens, but anything that was small and moved was a hit! WOW!

And no blog entry would be complete without my Plant of the day right! These trees were amazing! The flowers were so cool. Each bunch of 6 or 8 flowers comes off of one branch to make up a beautiful collection, all over the tree. I really love the plants and flowers in Hawaii!

This is what the tree looks like, there was a long line all along the walk way of these trees it was breath taking! When you come and visit I will be sure to take you to see! We love you all!

Aiea Loop Trail

We went on a really fun hike yesterday! It was 4.5 miles long and the kids did great! Parts of it were really steep, muddy, tricky, etc. James walked the whole thing and Daniel made it about 3 miles, which is pretty great! Sterling carried Sophia in the backpack the first half, then she got fussy and wanted me so I carried her the last half. Sterling got to carry Daniel about the last mile and a half. It's a good thing Sterling is so strong and in such great shape because and extra 35 lbs on your sholders is a lot when you are hiking. It was an amazingly beautiful, jungle hike. It really felt like we were in the jungle. There were lots of ridges that had pretty big drop offs on each side and lots of amazing views.

My camera just couldn't capture some of the amazingness of what we saw!

The boys couldn't resist Shwacking everything with their sticks!

We had lots of obsticles in the trail.. it only added to the adventure!

What a cute "little Momma!"

Why go under the log when it is so much more dangerous for a little guy to go over the log! What you can't see is how steep it is below the log!


James loved these "steps".

Daniel wanted to climb anything and everything that was along the trail. So we plopped them up there to take another great picture!

Daniel is so much like Colton, my little brother, when he was little. Daniel has to take his animal treasures with him everywhere! He carried his backpack most of the way, just to take his Safari toys and guys with him. Every time we stopped for a snack Daniel got out his toys to play!

This pictures doesn't really show how amazing the valley behind us was, but I sure have a cute family!

There was a part of our hike that the tree roots were so crazy you had to be really careful where you could step. James thought it was great to jump from branch to branch..

This is the end of the hike.. we were so grateful to come up out of the bottom of the canapy and be able to see Ford Island. We weren't sure we were going to beat the sun. Our hike turned into a little more than we had thought it would be... but it was fabulous!

For all those who want to see my little island.. This is Ford Island, it was kind of hazzy so it isn't very clear, but the Missouri is on the left, my monster ball is on the right and if you look really close you can see the tower..