Ward Campout!

On Friday after we dropped Steve and Kristal at the Airport we went back home and got things packed up for the Camping trip. I was pretty tired and decided that it would be a great Father and Sons camping trip so I helped them pack up and Sophia and I stayed home. In hind sight we are so glad we did. It rained, no maybe poured is a better word, the whole night!

The boys had so much fun, even in the rain. Daniel slept in his tent inside Daddy's tent and James slept on the air mattress by Sterling. They stayed dry ~ mostly!

The ward had all kinds of things planned for Saturday Morning, but most people had already packed up and left by the time the boys got up around 7:00am. Sterling said people started packing up around 4:00am because it was just too wet and sleeping was pretty difficult. Daniel and James had a great time playing in the water and puddles!

If there is a stick to be found.. Daniel will find it!

The boys were home before 9:00am and the house was littered with drying sleeping bags and the garage was the drying place for the monster tent!

Next time we will be sure to check the weather forecast BEFORE the campout!

This is a view of all the waterfalls as Sterling drove home on H3!



It looks pretty amazing with all the waterfalls. There were over 100 waterfalls!

Pretty amazing!

Steve and Kristal came to visit!

We were so excited for Steve and Kristal to come and visit us. We picked James up from school and went to get them. James had made them both a Lei. So James had leis for them and we got Daniel some flowers and Kukui Nut Leis to give them. Steve taught the kids all kinds of things while he was here. Sophia learned to say "Teef" for Steve, she learned to do knuckles {where you bump fists}, and she says "weesh" for fish. It was a great time.

Sophia loves Steve!

Every morning first thing she wanted to know where Steve was and wanted to be with him.

Steve and Kristal went to Swimming Lessons to see my kids swim. Steve got my boys to be brave enough to go down the slide for the first time. They both did it to show Steve how cool they were. Good job Daniel and James, and Thanks Steve for the encouragement.

We got to do a lot of fun things and have some history leasons from Steve. We went to the Battleship Missouri while James was in school. This is the only picture of me we got with Steve. I guess that is the downfall of always being the photographer.

This is in the Missouri in the Combat Control Room. We were all looking at the things and Daniel.....

...was ready to take control of the ship.

He climbed up into the Captains chair and was ready to set sail. We had a private tour with just the six of us and our tour guide was so great with Daniel.

Daniel's Story:

Daniel has to go potty a lot. He drinks a lot and what goes in must come out! The tour was a little more than an hour and for a three year old, that is a long time! We had him go potty before the tour, but about 15 minutes before it ended he is doing the potty dance. I was really tempted to have him just pee over the side of the boat into the harbor but the tour guide didn't think that was such a good idea. Earlier in the tour we had established that we were all Mormon and so was she. So we keep going for a little bit and she tells us that she is a Sunbeam teacher and she works with 3 year olds and knows he can't hold it much longer. She says she will let him use the "special" bathroom. Daniel and Sterling got to go inside the ship for him to go potty and just about got lost trying to find their way back out. Steve was so jealous. A part of the ship he had never seen, Daniel the Pee King got to see! Go Daniel!

Steve got to hoist his own flag on the Missouri.

There it is on the way up!

Steve and Sterling folding it up after it has flown!

Pretty cool!

We had a great time! I learned a lot and Steve only had to help the tour guide with her facts a few times. Sterling and Steve stuck around and walked around the ship for about 90 minutes more while Kristal, the kids, and I went back to our house. That is one benefit of living on Ford Island, the boys can walk home and the kids can have naps!

The USS Arizona Memorial

Our picnic by the USS Utah Memorial just before Steve and Kristal left.

Daniel cried so hard when Steve left. They became such pals while Steve was here. We really had a great time with Kristal and Steve. We played Settlers a few times, hung out lots, went out to dinner, and went to the Arizona, the Utah, and the Missouri. Sterling and Steve went on the Historic Boat tour and went on the quick tour of Ft Shafter. It was a short 3 days but we fit a lot in! We had such a great time!

Thanks for coming Steve and Rick!

We love you lots!

Funny kids!

This is "scary teeth". She sticks out her bottom jaw and shows her bottom teeth and growls. It is really funny and very cute! She will only do it if she knows the audience pretty well, but she is getting to be quite the performer!

These pictures were taken on her 18 month 'birthday'. She is getting so big! She has her doctors appointment on Thursday and I will post her height and weight and her percentages then! She is tall and skinny just like James and Sterling!

She still doesn't have much hair. I can put the little bit she has on the crown of her head into a pony tail, but the rest isn't long enough. It is still baby fine and not growing very quickly.

If the camera comes off the shelf, Daniel comes out of hiding and has a deep need to perform. Because I was trying to get Sophia to do scary teeth and take her picture, he needed to have his picture taken too! I couldn't resist. He is such a cute little guy!

A born entertainer!

Strawberries!

We have wanted to do this for a while now and finally did it! We planted Strawberries in our backyard. We have massive snails and wanted to keep the strawberries from being eaten so we got hanging baskets to put on our fence. Since we can't have a standard in the ground garden we figure this is the next best thing. We are excited to see how they grow.. and to eat the strawberries too! I am sure they wont be as yummy as the stawberries from the patch in Georgia, but I am sure they will do! We had lots of fun!

Daniel being a goof ball as always!

Who wants to check out the plants when Daniel is so much fun!

Happy Birthday and Congratulations!

Today is Sterling's Birthday!

Happy Birthday honey! We love you lots!

10 Things I love about Sterling!

1. He is extremely patient!

2. He is a GREAT dad!

3. He is very good at taking care of me!

4. He honors his priesthood!

5. He is extremely hard working!

6. He has a very positive attitude!

7. He loves our family endlessly!

8. He is honest, almost to a fault!

9. He is a great example for my boys!

10. My very favorite thing is right after he shaves and he smells so good and is soft and .... you don't want to hear the rest. But it is by far my favorite!

Happy Birthday Sterling!

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This is a little late coming, but last Monday Feb 2nd Sterling was promoted to "Major"!

This is Colonel Penha giving the "you're a great soldier speech"!


Daniel "pinning" on Sterling's new rank.


Colonel Penha pinning on his rank on his hat.

James was melting down, so the good daddy just held him, while he was getting promoted.

Sterling and Jon and their kids who had to be part of the picture!

Congratulations Major Packer!

More pictures of the PCC

The whole family got a tatoo in one of the Indonisian Villages. It was pretty fun. Sophia, my little baby who can tan, got some really cool tan lines out of it. It was just paint that washed off in the bath tub but the kids thought it was fun. You can't tell that from this picture.. for some reason none of them are smiling!

This was Daniel's highlight of the day.. Because of the suns angle you can't see the big muscley guy who was beating on the log with him. He thought it was so great to get to beat the log drum too!.. He is going to be our drummer when he gets older!


This was James' and my highlight of the day. Sterling and My Uncle Tom wanted to go see the Imax movie. My children don't do very well in theaters.. mostly it is just sensory overload. James saw some ladies making something and really wanted to give it a try. So James and I sat down and learned how to make lei's. It was really fun and James did it all by himself. He did awesome! It was so much fun and it was the prefect thing to hold over the time!

Here is the finished product. James and I both made our own Lei!

Sophia loved Daddy's Pina Colada drink. It was super yummy and of course as big as she is!

Here is the whole group at the Luau!

Uncle Tom's Visit to the PCC

My Uncle Tom came to visit and we have been having a really good time. Yesterday we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie, Hawaii. It was amazing! Of course we didn't make it to see everything. It takes more than one day to see it all! We had a really great time and it was beautiful, sunny, 80 degree weather the whole day, actually a little too warm for the Canoe Pagent, but a great day over all! (Sophia didn't want to wear her lei!)