Tsunami Evacuation - Feb 27th, 2010

After the Earthquake in Chile a Tsunami Warning was given for Hawaii. We were given the choice as to evacuate or stay put but the bridge to and from Ford Island would be closing and once we made our decision there would be no changing our minds. We would either be stuck on the Island or stuck off of it for the remainder of the day. We had planned all morning that we were going to stay home and ride it out but at the last minute Sterling's boss called and convinced him that we needed to leave. I didn't want to go, but what an adventure it turned out to be.

Lady tied to Ursula's van

We went up to Aiea Trail State Park, along with all the rest of Oahu. We had talked to our neighbor earlier that morning and that is where they had planned to retreat to. So once Sterling decided we were leaving we thought we should go find them.

The kids thought they had gone to Heaven. There were trees and all kinds of things to climb and collect, sticks to make swords out of, bugs to be found. What could be better than that?
(Pictured in the tree: Emma Pratt, Philip Keith, Paul Keith On the Ground in Blue: James)

Emma, Philip, Paul, Daniel working on their "boat"

This was the view of Ford Island from the park we were at. It was pretty "voggy" so you can see the bridge pretty well but Ford Island isn't very clear.

Philip, James, and Paul what more could you ask for?

Did someone say we were evacuating and we should be worried about something.. cause this is pretty fun!

They were up in the tree for over an hour.

How many different ways can YOU hang in a tree?

Once they finally came out of the tree it was on to the bug hunt. James found this baby praying mantis. It was pretty neat.

Daniel, after being in the tree for hours came down to get some water. He is clearly all sweaty, it was a pretty warm, humid day. Daniel can't resist making faces for the camera. You can see behind Daniel all the 72 hour kits and games and food stashed in our truck to ride out the evacuation process. We weren't sure if the tsunami was going come and if it did if it was going to be bad enough to get up to our house. We didn't know if we were going to be allowed back to our house so we had enough stuff to last it out for a while. We did learn a few things that we need to add to our evacuation list and we were blessed that the tsunami didn't come. For now we just call it a day of adventure and a good trial run if we do ever need to be ready in a short amount of time.

Fabulous Ocean Find

On the day of the Tsunami Warning, Feb 27th, Sophia, Daniel, Lady and I went for a walk on Ford Island down to the community center and the water to get out of the house for a while and to watch all the ships leave the harbor. I found this big shell. It was so cool. Daniel was so excited he carried it all the way home for me. Sterling looked up on line how to clean it up. Now it is almost all opalescent and very pretty. I think I liked it better brown like it is hear in the pictures but it was pretty stinky. After soaking it in bleach for about a week it is almost all clear of the brown growth and all white and pearly white. It is pretty cool. I will post more pictures when it is all clean.

The great Lego figure is only to show how big in size the shell is. Daniel was kind enough to lend me his Lego man to help show how big it was.

Primary Talent Show

February 26th, 2010

James played "Firefly" and did a really great job. He was the very first performer and started the show off with a bang.

Daniel played 3 Little Kittens in his first performance ever. He did a great job! He hasn't officially started piano lessons yet but Sterling has started working with him on the basics at home.

All the nursery age kids did a fabulous maraca presentation. They were so cute and so excited to be on the stage. There were 5 or 6 little kids and they were all having a great time. At the end when the audience clapped for them Sophia's eye lit up like she was so excited she made that happen.

Sophia is the tall blond with no shoes. No shoes has become her trademark!
The talent show was such a great idea. The kids really had a great time. There were about 20 different kids who performed anything from cool bike tricks to ventriloquism to karaoke. There were lots of other kids who displayed their art work or made cookies and cakes and things. It was only the kids in our primary (of which there are more than 100). It was a really fun night!

Baseball man Daniel (and other adventures of the day!)

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

Daniel couldn't be any more excited about being on a T-Ball team. He is all about the team and whenever he talks about his friends on his team he always says "He's my teammate". He thinks it is so great to belong to something. He is 4 years old going on 10.

There are 15 kids on Daniel's team. They are the Tigers and they are a fun little team.

Daniel is up to bat.

Sterling is the team coach. I am not sure which boy is having more fun!

Run Daniel!!!

Daniel lining up to give the opposing team a high 5 for a great game.

Does baseball get better than this?

The parents from the other team made a great bridge over the kids that they could walk through and the kids all thought that was so cool. T-ball is taken pretty seriously by the locals here. I just keep reminding myself that these kids are only 4 and 5 years old. I just want Daniel to have a good time!

After the baseball game we went straight to a birthday party for my friends baby who was turning 1. In Hawaii the big tradition is to have a huge party for the 1st birthday. Tiffany knows how to throw a great party.

The party was at the Grenfell Pool on Pearl Harbor Naval Base. My kids don't like to swim at the beach but they love the pool. Even though the water wasn't super warm, they loved it!

Sophia loves to play in the water.

Sophia was being so cute in the water with Sterling, I didn't get pictures of the boys in the water. It is hard to have a sister that is so cute I only took pictures of her that day. It wasn't intentional, it just happend. Sorry boys I promise to be better next time.

Even though she was cold..... we had to take her from the water kicking and screaming. She would stay in the water the whole day if we let her. She is my little mermaid.

Our friends Tiffany and Sean had a great birthday party for their little girl "Jady Lady". Tiffany made this way cute cake and had an amazingly fun 1 year old party at the pool with a bounce house and enough food to feed 20 more people. My kids were in Heaven!


The rest has nothing to do with the busy day, except that it happened on the same day.

After we came home and got the boys in bed Sophia begged to have her nails painted. Sophia loves to have her fingers and toes painted. She is a tough girl but also a very girly girl!

She is so good to hold still while I paint her fingers.

She is growing up so fast!

Great Aloha Run

These are kind of blury, but this is what Sterling sent me!

Sterling ran the Great Aloha Run on Feb 15th, 2010. He finished 72nd out of 20,000 people. 51:46 pace 6:21 per mile. He finished 6th in his age group out of about 1000 people. He beat his goal by 3 minutes. ONLY 3 WOMEN BEAT HIM!!!! (for some reason that was important to him!) I will post a picture of it when it arrives.

Puppy!

February 13, 2010

Here is the mama dog and 9 of her 10 puppies. The 10th puppy was in James' arms and my kids didn't want to put her down.

Daniel fell in love instantly.
Here is his "soul mate". He finally found someone who looked like him. The puppy doesn't have freckles yet but I am sure they will be the best of friends.

The puppy is only 4 weeks old so we have to wait 3 more weeks before we can bring her home but the kids are already in love!

It was a tough choice between the little red one on the the right and the chubby Blondie on the left. It was such a hard choice, but Daniel swung the vote, he loved the red hair puppy.

Here is the crowning moment. Cinnamon, I think that is what we are going to name her, got her collar. She was the first of the 10 puppies to get a collar.

Her ears are so big you can't even see the collar, but it is there. She has a cute little purple collar that the kids picked out for her.

Poor Cinnamon was getting pretty tired from all the excitement and wanted to eat and rest.

Isn't she so cute!

We tried to have Sophia hold her but she had fallen asleep in the car and wasn't too excited about getting woken up even if it was to see the puppies.

Seriously!

Daniel and the puppy are the cutest ever!

I hope she is ready to come to a house with more love than she can handle.

Several people have asked what happened to Lady, our almost 10 year old Golden Retriever. Nothing is wrong with her, we still have her and love her but think it is the right time to add a fun new companion to her life. Hopefully it will help keep her young and she will stick around for a few more years!

On the way home we stopped by the Dole Plantation for lunch. It took almost 2 hours to get to the puppies house from our house - I think that is just about as far as someone can drive on Oahu. The kids were ready to stop for lunch. We didn't' realize it would take as long as it did to get there, since there isn't much between our house and Pupukea Beach we stopped at the Dole Plantation. A little Dole Whip can cure any long car ride!

In 3 weeks we will be sure to post more pictures of the puppy's journey home!

Whale Watching

Friday, Feb 12, 2010

We started the fun adventure with a bus ride from Hickam Air Force Base to downtown, near Fisherman's Wharf. The boys thought it was fabulous! Sophia wasn't old enough for the boat ride so she got to have a great night at the Watsons!

I didn't get a very good picture but this is one of the guys who was putting up the sails and securing all rigging and ropes. It was all pretty fascinating.

This picture really belongs at the end, but I couldn't get it to move so it will stay here. After a while my very cold sensitive Daniel needed something warmer, so we bought a cute hoodie sweatshirt for him to wear. The smallest they had was an adult medium so it fit him nicely and kept his legs warm too.

James really liked the map on the boat. You can kind of see the map screen. It was fascinating!

James got to drive the boat. It was pretty cool!

Captain Dan!

The captain was really cool and let the boys have a turn to drive to boat. It was a lot of fun!

It started to get a little cooler so the boys bundled up in their rain jackets. Being in Hawaii we don't own long pants and sweatshirts so raincoats will have to do.

We had finally pulled away and were sailing. Our boat was pretty cool. It was a catamaran that also had sails. It was pretty cool to watch all the pulleys and levers and to see how fast the wind could take us.

This was at the beginning of the boat ride. The boys were so excited. I was in the cabin and they wanted to look in. They were outside the cabin and I was inside. We hadn't even pulled away from the dock yet, but they couldn't wait!

So.. no pictures of Whales because.... well we were on the booze cruise instead of the actual whale watching boat tour. Our family and the 80 year old grandma that we sat with were the only ones not drinking huge amounts of alcohol. The boys said that they did see one whale far off in the distance but it wasn't quite the adventure we thought we were going on. The boys had a good time and it was still an adventure so we will still call it a success!