Daniel and the Farm

Daniel loves to play farm.

Required tools: Lincoln Logs Farm set, Lots of Animals, and lots of great tractors.

(Grandma Robison got most of these things a few years ago for James,

but Daniel loves them too!)

First Mommy has to build all the Lincoln Log houses then Daniel sets up all the animals and puts all the tractors in line.

(All the fun things we can do while James is at school!)

However, the best part is Daniels 3 year old explanation of everything that is going on at the farm. He is such a cute little guy. He can only play farm during Sophia's nap because she is the destroyer of all things built. Nothing can survive with her around.

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!

Hickam Beach 2

Well it turns out there are 3 different beaches on Hickam Air Force Base. So we thought we would try to find another one. We went on Columbus Day to play just for a litte while. We learned after our last deep frying that short stints to the beach may work a little better for our still pretty pale skin. James, Sophia, and Sterling can do okay, but Daniel and I can't be in the sun for very long without major burning. You will see we are all now sporting the lovely SPF shirts to keep us from burning! Even little Phia's suit is all SPF gear so she wont get too much sun. She is getting better about letting us put on the hat, it is tied on, once it is on she can't get it off! Yeah for me!

We had a great time! It was pretty overcast, when isn't it in Hawaii! James would play in the water then wrap up in the towel, then go back to the water, then back to the towel. We were there for about an hour and a half and it was just about perfect!

I didn't get a picture of the final castle, I know I will try harder next time! The trick is to fight off the tide and Daniel at the same time! Daniel loves to destroy anything that James is working on just to push his buttons. My boys are really great at finding each other's buttons. This beach didn't have a very large beach. You can see in the picture where the sand is wet from the tide and right up from Sterling is the wall, so there isn't much more room for major construction of a sand castle.

Daniel's sporting his cool new SPF Gear sunglasses. Last time we went to the beach he got blisters all around his eyes.. You can't put sunblock there so he really got burned. We found this cool little SPF shop and spent a ton of money gearing up so we would be better protected on our beach outings. His favorite color is Orange, hence the beautiful neon orange glasses and band. For some reason this trip Daniel didn't spend much time in the water, he mostly sat on the towel and ate the snacks out of the cooler. Whatever makes him happy!

Sophia and I spent most of our time in the water, at first she wasn't so sure, but she slowly relaxed and was splashing and playing. Because I was squinting every picture of me has a really nasty scoul look. Not my finest picture, but I have to show I was there too!(right Tina!)

Sophia is such a funny little girl. She is getting so vocal even though the only word she says is "NO". She is getting so big. She is still only 20 lbs, but she seems so old. It is true, they don't stay little very long! We really had a great time at the beach!

SIDE NOTE:

Here is a picture of the toads that we have here, they are poisonous. James really wanted to catch them when we first got here, now thank goodness he doesn't want ANYONE to go near them. One more exciting creature to live in my little yard!

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..

Honolulu Zoo

We have had a fun week.. James has had this whole week off of school so we have tried to make the most of it. On Tuedsay he went to the Aquarium with our neighbors, on Thursday we went with the same neighbor to the Honolulu Zoo in Waikiki and on Friday we went for a fun family hike.

Here are some pictures of the zoo!

I know.. I love the trees here, that is one tree! It has roots that grow down from the branches. The actual canapy of the tree is huge, but the amazing root system is what I thought was so cool.

These were the baby Galapogos Turtles.. James loves them!

Daniel loved the playground.. James didn't want to play, but Daniel loved it!

I didn't take a very good picture of this.. in the pond were great big Koi.. they were really cool!

This is the petting zoo! Daniel loved it, the kids can climb up big logs to get into the petting part while the parents go through the boring door! Daniel loved the goats, they wouldn't move away from him. He wanted to pet the chickens, but he couldn't get close enough! Only Daniel would want to pet a chicken!

We didn't see the whole zoo.. you could only pay for 4 hours of parking and that didn't give us enough time to see everything.. but we bought a family pass so we can go back whenever we want!.. Oh We just can't wait to see what else is at our fun zoo!

The Funny Things They Say

James says to Sterling:
Sophia is like the DeathStar: She's big and she destroys things!

The New Sophia

My Sweet Cuddly, easy going Sophia.... is lost! She has been replaced by the busy, walking, climbing, temper tantrum Sophia! This one is a lot more exhausting!

Her favorite place in the house... pushing every button on the computer until it screams at her!

When she forgets to push out the chairs, then she just screams until someone comes to save her!

She wanted the boy's Oreo's and they weren't sharing with her fast enough, so she climbed up to get the oreo's herself! Nothing in the house is safe!

She even moves chairs, she's seen her brother's do it so why not her too! She really thought she wanted the butter.. I'm not sure what she thought it was.. but yuck!

My favorite that she does is cling to the window like Spiderman! She climbes up into the window bench thing, then climbs onto the little t.v. then up onto the window seal, then she clings half laughing half scared. She loves to be up there because then she can see everything that is happening outside!

I miss my cuddly baby and every once in a while she appears but mostly she is a woman on a mission and no one better get in her way!

She isn't a red head, but she has the temper of one!

She still isn't talking much, mostly yelling and crying! Hopefully soon she will pick up some words and we can really know what she wants!

I love my little girl!