Mighty Mo! (April 11th)

Steve would have never let us live if Brittany didn't get to go to the Mighty Mo while she was here!

Helena and I went too but we weren't as into having our pictures taken as Sophia.

Brittany and I took turns carrying the baby or the stroller up and down all the different stairs to the different decks on the ship. It was a good work out and a good time too!

Sophia and Brittany 'Cake' are best buddies!

It was a nice overcast day and a great learning experience.

Over the past 3 years I have fallen in love with Rosie the Riveter. We couldn't pass up the picture of her on the water machines. I was hoping the water bottles had her on them instead of a picture of the USS Missouri, but no go~!

We had a good time at the Missouri (we missed you Steve!)

Kailua Beach with Brittany (April 1st)

Girls Day at Kailua

April 1, 2011

Brittany was here and we wanted to show her some of the fun beaches that we have.

Sophia always takes quite a bit of time warming up to the idea of actually getting near the water. She loves to play in the sand and 'build' things. Brittany was great at helping Sophia build some towers and some very fun, deep wholes.

Sophia didn't build this fun castle section but liked walking through someone elses work.

Brittany dug this so deep that Sophia could stand in it almost up to her shoulders, but then the water got it before we could take a picture!

Panoramic view of Kailua

Helena's favorite thing to do at the beach is to eat the sand. She would get pretty mad when I would stop her.

We all tried to play in the sand together, but Helena wasn't sure that was high on her list of things to do.

Brittany finally got Sophia out into the water, all she wanted to do was jump over the waves. This isn't a great picture of either of us but you can see me lifting her and her 'jumping' the waves as they came in. She loved it. Brittany and I would have to take turns because our arms got pretty sore from doing it over and over and over again.

We are standing in the same spot, you can see how much higher the water was when the wave was in. "Wait for it..."

We all had a great time at the beach. It was fun to have a girls day and enjoy the windy beach. Brittany and Helena became great buddies while she was here!

We miss you Brittany!

PCC with Brittany!

March 16, 2011

PCC with Brittany

Although we have been to the PCC more than 10 times we are still finding things that we have never done before! This time we found spear throwing. It was a lot of fun. One of the funnest parts was that everyone, including Sophia, could participate. We loved it!

There were different lines for each age group to shoot from.

A little funny story: These 20 something year old guys came and were in the group behind us waiting for their turn. While they were waiting they were smack talking. One of the guys says to the group, if any of you get it into the ring I will give you ANYTHING you want. He was sure that no one could do it. Well my turn came and I did it. I got a dead bulls eye. I turned around and asked him if the deal was for me too, if I could have whatever I wanted. He assured me one of his friends would be glad to give me whatever I wanted. It was kind of funny. I didn't stick around to see if any of their group was able to do it. It is nice to be the "old lady" who showed them up!

One of the other things we had never done before was fishing. Okay, it really isn't fishing it is feeding the fish, but James turned it into fishing by catching this little fish. The coconut bread is attached to the string with a paper clip, but James the fisherman was able to snag a fish with it! HE was SO EXCITED! He wanted to stay at the fishing hut the rest of the day! He was so cute!

This is the cute fishing hut! If you look closely the Tahitian lady sitting in the hut has some coconut bread next to her that the kids kept coming back for more and more of to feed the fish. It was actually pretty cool! The Tahitian lady looked pretty shocked when James caught the fish. She told him to feed them, not to catch them. He wanted to try to catch another one!

This is a Cap. He is what makes the PCC so great I think.

My kids were so funny: Sophia has to play shy, Daniel was in Heaven, Helena was very curious about Cap, and James was delighted with Helena.

I took the picture with my kids because I have several of the paintings that Cap has done in our bathroom and I thought it would be fun to have his picture with my kids.

We had a great time with Brittany at the PCC. Everyone wants to go back. We will have to wait until we all recover from to big outings back to back! We are having lots of fun with Brittany staying with us! We will miss Sterling, but it sure is fun having Britt here!

Crafts with Grandma Packer

December 19, 2010Daniel and Sophia are always ready for a craft. Grandma was prepared and brought one with her. They made cute reindeer with their hands and shoe prints.

Daniel was sure he could do it all by himself, but Sophia wanted some help!

Sophia eats this stuff up! She is a craft a minute kind of girl!

He needed a bit of help after all!

He loves to cut, he could do that all on his own.

Very happy little girl with her cute reindeer!

Somehow I didn't get a picture with the nose on. The kids had a great time with Grandma and doing crafts!

Tide Pools and Waimea Bay

December 18, 2010

Sterling is going to write all about this, I wasn't there.

Snorkeling Adventure with Mimi Papa and the kids!

December 17th, 2010

Marney got a really great deal on a snorkeling cruise for the whole family so she got us all tickets to go. We dropped Helena and Sophia off at a babysitter for the day and went to have a fabulous time.

Ellie and Sarah ready to take off!

This is as we were pulling away from the shore. We were all sitting down and ready for our adventure!

And an adventure it was. We were swimming with 3 or 4 sea turtles and lots of different kinds of fish. It was really fun. We have taken James and Daniel on snorkeling cruises before but they never really got the hang of it, but his time we did it right and they loved it.

Marney and Papa loved it too!

Colton and Blake on the boat.

Dad's kids on the boat.

On our way back from snorkeling the captain asked if any of the kids wanted to drive the boat. We were the only group on the boat with kids and most of them wanted a chance. Daniel is a natural! He is the official "Captain Dan".

Colton was sure he saw something.

Gabe was checking out all the rigging.

James had full control of the steering wheel....

Or at least for while. Being a Captain is tough work!

Blake was ready to take a cruise around.

It was so fun to have everyone here, we didn't want their vacation to end!

Seriously great kids.

Gabe and Ellie.

I did such a good job of getting Dad's kids to line up for pictures and didn't get my boys up for the picture. James was cold and wrapped up in a towel and Daniel was having all the snacks he could find. I wish I had gotten a picture of the two of them on the boat like this.. but maybe next time.

This was the high light of the day. It was a lot of fun to be in the water with the boys. It was tough to stay with the group, the currant was pretty strong so you had to keep kicking your legs in order not to drift off. I was trying to help James and Daniel but wasn't a strong enough swimmer. Sterling had to keep pulling us back to the group. I was proud of both of the boys. They both put their faces in the water and snorkeled. James did it long enough to appease me and Daniel really loved it. James got out after about 15 minutes and Daniel stuck it out for almost the full 30 minutes in the water. Daniel is my dolphin, he loves the water.

Here he is all wrapped up. He had a great time.

Sterling, Papa, and Mimi were the winners for staying out the longest.

I wish we had taken underwater cameras with us. Here is a picture of one of the turtles we were snorkeling with. It isn't a great shot.. but you get the picture.

On our way back to Waikiki.

Everyone had such a great time.

We had such a great time!

Words can not express how great it was to have family in town and to be able to 'go on vacation' with my dad again. It has been a lot of years since I have been on vacation with my daddy. I had forgotten how exhausting it all is, but so much fun. We loved having them here! I love my dad a lot and I never tire of our talks and times we have together.

We love you Papa and Mimi.. thanks for a great snorkeling trip and a great 'vacation'.