BAD blogger!! BAD BAD BAD blogger!!

I take full responsibility for being such a slacker blogger lately . . . I'm don't have any especially new or creative excuses, other than more company, school starting, birthdays, and whatnot . . . but I will try and catch you up as efficiently as possible.

Brian's sister, Jen, arrived from Michigan the day before Zander's birthday, and she was only here for ten days, so we had to make the most of her time. Rather than ramble through the usual boring detailed descriptions of our ventures, I will just show you in pictures, in no particular order of course.

Perhaps the coolest thing we got to do when she was here was swim with some sea turtles. Now I've swam with a sea turtle or two, but never like this before, where the turtle comes within inches of you, with no fear or reservation. I heard about this secret lagoon where turtles like to hang out, so Jen and I decided to check it out. Sure enough, we saw several sea turtles, but there was one in particular, named "Miss Piggy" (according to the local diving guy) who liked to roam around wherever there were people. Of course we never touched the turtle, but we did get a chance to get close enough for some cool pictures.

The snorkeling was also beautiful there, and there were no more than a handful of other people. We will definitely be hitting our secret "Lulu Beach" (as Zander likes to call it) again in the near future.

We also managed to hit the aquarium while Jen was here, and I captured the day with some silly face action from Jen and Charley.

We also spent an afternoon at Bay Fest over at Kaneohe Marine Corps Base, where they had a carnival, concerts, and cool static displays. First we hit the rides.

Zander BEFORE:Zander AFTER: Charley BEFORE:
Charley AFTER: . . . if you look close, there are a lot of tears :(

Zander also got a chance to check out some heavy machinery.

And Charley enjoyed the ferris wheel . . .

We went out to a yummy breakfast of crepes, where Zander enjoyed his morning "coffee."

We toured around the island, hitting all the good scenic points. . . .

We went to a couple birthday parties . . .

And of course we celebrated Zander's third birthday at the Bishop Museum. The Theme: BUGS.

Our friend Aimee made this beautiful cake and cupcakes.

Which were thoroughly enjoyed . . .

Whew, so that's everything in a nutshell. Any questions? :)

I wish I had time to delve into more detail, but for the moment I don't, so I hope the pictures were enough to satiate your blog appetite.

Jen left a couple days ago, and Brian left today on a deployment to Kwajalein Atoll. So for now we are going to just relax and get back into our usual routine of school and all its happenings, hanging out with friends, and soaking in this Hawaiian life. Well, until the next burst of craziness hits anyway.