The Big Island Trip (Part II)

Even though this trip was a mere five days, we packed in a lot of stuff and took a million pictures (way too many to post here) . . . so I decided to make this a three part series, posting as many pictures as I can, and then I will send ALL the pictures out on Snapfish when I'm done with these blog entries.

So where did I leave off . . . ah yes, the cell phone incident. Luckily after this whole debacle, everything else pretty much went smoothly for the rest of the trip. As soon as we left the airport, we decided to head into the town of Kailua-Kona for some lunch. As some of you may know, Kona is a pretty cool little touristy town with tons of restaurants and neat little shops. We decided to find as kid-friendly a place as possible, so we settled on Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, where we got a table right on the water.

After lunch we poked around a few little shops in the area, and decided to take a breather next to this guy. Charley thought he was cool, but Zander was a bit leery . . . I don't think he understood that the guy wasn't real, even though we kept knocking on the guy's arms and legs.

Once we were done eating and browsing, we got back in the car and made a game plan for the rest of the day. A very good friend of mine, Kate K., who I've known since way back during my grad school days at UW, actually grew up on the Big Island in the town of Hilo. Awhile back I emailed her and asked for suggestions on "must see" things during our trip, and she was kind enough to send me a very detailed email on some of the cool highlights of the island. We decided to follow her suggestions, and we took our time taking in the landscape during the 3+ hour drive to our first destination, the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Just a couple hours from Kona, you can see that the landscape starts to change as black volcanic remnants starts to appear along the coast.

I had to include these pictures of the kids because of the small life lesson I learned at the moment I took these photos. As most of you know, we own a mini-van, which is our primary mode of transport when we drive around with the kids. And as you may also know, mini-vans generally do not have windows in the back that roll down. So here we were, on vacation in a new place with tons of exciting stuff planned, and the kids were simply thrilled because the back windows in the rental cars rolled down and they got to have "breezy" on their faces. Here they are trying to "eat the breezy" as Charley says. I guess that oftentimes it doesn't really take much to make them happy . . .


Our first major stop, per Kate's suggestion, was the Punalu'u Black Sand Beach Park, which as the name implies, is a black sand beach. Even though I've experienced many different colors and textures of sand, this was a new one for me. It was just like regular sand, but it was black . . . and I guess what surprised me most about this, was that it didn't leave any sort of black marks on our skin or clothes (which I thought it would for some reason), but instead it just brushed right off like normal sand. Go figure.

Next we drove the rest of the way to the Volcanoes Park, where we stayed in this cute little cabin at the Kilauea Military Camp right in the park itself. The cabins were one bedroom/one bath, had a nice little fireplace for evening fires, and they were also heated which was definitely needed at night since it easily got down into the 50's. It's been a long time since the kids had to wear pants and jackets, so they were a little resistant at first, but they eventually "warmed up" to the idea.

After getting all bundled up our warm clothes, we headed into the little village of Volcano in search of a Thai restaurant that Kate suggested. Since the village isn't that big (three restaurants, a gas station, a laundromat, and a post office), we found it pretty quickly, and it sure didn't disappoint. It was by far the best Thai food I've had since moving to Hawaii (thanks Kate! You know how much I love peanut sauce!). Once we finished dinner, we headed out to the rim of Halema’uma’u Crater, where the crater glows bright red at night from the lava underneath. It was breathtaking, but unfortunately it was impossible to get a good picture when it was that dark outside. When we got back to the cabin, we started a warm fire, made some popcorn, and drank some hot chocolate. It was a pretty perfect evening if you ask me.

The next morning we got up early, and decided to get a bunch of sight-seeing in right away, before the park got crowded with tour buses, and this rainbow seemed to be a good sign of a beautiful day to come.

As you can see, the kids were excited, especially Zander.

Here is a view of the Halema’uma’u Crater, which is pretty spectacular.

Just past the Crater, the landscape switches to more of a jungle area . . . very damp and green.

Next we hit the Thurston Lava Tube, which is a giant cave-like structure formed by the flow of lava. At first the kids were a bit nervous about the cave because for some reason they thought there would be scary animals in it. But once they went through the tube, they wanted to go back through and wouldn't quit talking about it for days on end. I couldn't get any good pictures of the tube itself because it was dark, but here is the entrance and exit of the tube.

Only a few miles past this jungle area, the landscape started to dramatically change again. Vegetation became very sparse as more and more old lava fields started to appear. Within just a few miles, the area became desolate, almost like what I picture the moon to be like.

This is the Holei Sea Arch, which was formed from hot lava that hit the cold ocean water.

Another crater shot . . .
These are one of the many "steaming vents" in the area, which is the result of rain water that seeps into the ground, hits the hot rocks and earth underneath, and comes back up as steam. As you are driving through the park, you will randomly see these steaming vents, which sort of reminded me of Yellowstone Park.


After a fun-filled day of sight-seeing, we took the kids on their first bowling adventure right there at the military camp where we were staying. The lanes came fully equipped with bumpers and the ball launcher thing, so the kids had an awesome time. The first few shots, Charley used the ball launcher, but then she decided to do the old school roll-the-ball-between-the-legs method, which means the ball rolls down the lane at about one mile per hour.



After bowling, we returned to our cabin for one last night of a cozy fire, popcorn, and hot chocolate because the next day we were hitting the road and heading the rest of the way around the island.

To be continued . . . .

The Big Island Trip (Part 1)

I decided to blog about our Big Island trip in at least a couple different posts, not only because I tend to be long winded, but because the beginning of our trip was worthy of its own post anyway. You will see what I mean in just a minute.

Things started off pretty smoothly on Monday morning, when we rose at the crack of dawn to get to the airport. The kids were cheerful and excited about the trip, the ride to the airport was very fast despite the rush hour traffic, thanks to someone's suggestion (thanks Matt!) that we take the express lane, and getting checked in and through security went off without a hitch. The kids were a little wild when we first got to the gate waiting area, but they finally settled down and Charley decided to catch up on the day's news while Zander kicked back and relaxed.

On the short flight over (about half an hour), Brian and I decided our exit/luggage/car rental strategy: I would hang back with the kids and gather our luggage, while Brian caught the shuttle to the car rental agency to pick up our car. I made the kids sit on a nearby bench while I grabbed our two fairly large bags (got to pack them big now that they charge per bag) and our two car seats and dragged them as close to the car loading area as possible. I quickly realized that we were still a bit far from the loading area, far enough that I wasn't sure airport security would let Brian abandon the rental car on the curb while grabbing our stuff, so I decided to hoof all our luggage closer to the road. I knew it couldn't possibly be done in one trip, with two large bags and two car seats, so I made the kids stay on the bench while I made the first trip with one bag and one car seat, all the while keeping the kids within sight. I then ran back to the bench as fast as possible to grab the kids and remaining luggage, because not surprisingly, airport security doesn't really like you leaving any piles of bags alone anywhere on airport property. So I quickly herded up the other bag and car seat, while telling the kids to follow me as quickly as possible, as they drug their feet as slowly as possible. We finally made it out by the curb with all of our stuff, so I decided to get the kids settled with a little snack and drink while we waited for Brian.

Here we are, all nice and cozy, before everything started to "hit the fan" as they say.

Right after I took this picture, Charley stood up and said, "Mooommm, I have to go poooop." I asked her if she could hold it for just a couple minutes, and she said she could, so I thought if I could hold her off long enough for Brian to show up, everything would be fine. But just a minute later she said, "Mooommm, I really have to go pooop." My interpretation at this point was that Charley really COULDN'T wait a few minutes and that the situation was a bit more urgent than I had hoped. So for a few seconds I just stood there dumbfounded, trying to figure out how I was going to get two kids, two car seats, two large bags, and a carry-on to the nearest bathroom. I stopped a security guard and asked him where the nearest bathroom was, and he pointed to an area about 100 feet away. He asked me if I was by myself, and I told him that I was waiting for my husband but that unfortunately my daughter couldn't wait. He asked me if it was only going to take a minute, because if it didn't take long, he would watch my stuff. But, as anyone who has dealt with a barely potty trained toddler knows, it never just takes a minute. So I thanked him profusely for his offer and told him my concern that it might take longer than a minute, but then I wondered if he might be able to help me take all our stuff to the bathroom instead? He said sure, no problem, so I breathed a sigh of relief and thought everything was finally under control.

Once we were in the bathroom and Charley was in position to do her thing, I quickly got my cell phone out of the carry-on bag and tried to call Brian so that if he pulled up to the curb while we were in the bathroom, he wouldn't wonder where we were. Unfortunately he did not answer, so I shoved the cell phone in my pocket and asked Charley if she was doing okay. She said, "Yeah, I'm okay, but I think my poop is gone now. I don't have to go anymore." Even though I was a bit annoyed that this whole event had produced no results, I knew there was nothing I could do about it. So I once again began the process of herding the kids and stuff back to the curb, in small increments, moving stuff about twenty feet, going back and getting the rest, and doing this until we reached our destination. By the time this was all over, I was a sweaty mess. Thankfully, after only a couple more minutes of waiting, Brian pulled up and I thought we were FINALLY home free.

I immediately began telling him all that happened in his absence as we are loading gear and kids into the car. At one point I heard something drop on the ground, but after a quick glance around, I decided that one of the kids must have dropped a toy they were playing with and picked it up because I didn't see anything laying around. About thirty seconds later, an airport crossing guard approached us and told me that she had seen something from our direction fall in the storm drain, and it only took me a second to realize that my cell phone had somehow slipped from my pocket and fallen into the drain under the street. Wow, I thought, what a great way to start our vacation. Fortunately, the crossing guard was very helpful and immediately got on the radio with maintenance to see if they could open the drain. Then she winked at me and said, "Don't worry honey, it happens all the time." That made me a feel just a little bit less like a moron, but I was now more concerned with whether or not my phone had landed in a puddle of water in the drain (in which case it would be dead).

We stood there for a few minutes, waiting for maintenance, when Brian got the brilliant idea to call my phone to see if it was still working. I told him I didn't want him to, that I didn't even want to know yet, but he ignored me and called it anyway. After what seemed like an eternity, we finally heard the tinkling sound of my ring, at which time I was thanking God for having some mercy on me. After what seemed like another eternity (probably another 15 minutes), maintenance finally showed up, opened up the drain with their special tool, sent a worker (an unhappy one) down into the depths of the drainage system, and fished out my little 'ol cell phone . . . which as it turned out, just happened to have stopped on a ledge instead of falling down to the bottom in several inches of water. Thank goodness for small miracles.

So, that would be the foot that we started our vacation out on . . . and as you can see, it really wasn't the right one. :)

To be continued . . . .

God's Work

Brian and I are both in agreement . . . the Big Island is Hawaiian heaven.

This island is so different then Oahu, the two can hardly be compared. A woman who we talked to yesterday told us that she thinks God made this island with his own two hands because of its beauty and uniqueness. It truly is an amazing place.

Right now we are staying in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in a small cozy cabin. There is a fire crackling in the fire place (as it's easily in the 50's outside), I've got a warm cup of hot cocoa, and the kids are asleep. It just doesn't get much better than this.

Today we explored the park top to bottom, saw some pretty phenomenal landscapes, took the kids bowling for the first time, ate some yummy Thai food, and now we are all worn out. Tomorrow we have to leave this beautiful place, but we will be exploring much more of the island and will have the chance to stay at a nice resort for a couple nights.

A couple of you have emailed me, asking me if we are having a good time. The simple answer? THE BEST.

Rewind and Fast Forward

Looking back through my pictures, I realized that there were quite a few things I failed to blog much about the past couple weeks, like our trip to Chinatown or our visit to Pearl Harbor. Chinatown was worth seeing, and I have a few pictures from the trip that I will send out on Snapfish, but it definitely wasn't like going to Chinatown in San Francisco or Seattle. Pearl Harbor, on the other hand, never disappoints. Incidentally, we went on September 11th, so they were flying all flags at half mast. I absolutely love this picture of the kids under the flag, with the beautiful storm clouds in the background.

We didn't tour the Arizona on this day because we had the kids with us, but there is a ton of other stuff to look at, read about, and play on (for the kids anyway) at Pearl Harbor. The weather was perfect and the place wasn't too crowded, so it made for a good visit.

As you know, last week we spent two nights at some beach cabins not too far from Brian's work. And let me tell you, we had the BEST TIME EVER. It was such a cool place to stay, not too expensive, and the kids had an absolute blast. I purposely didn't take even one regular toy for them (just some sand buckets, a stack of books and their new flashlights), but it didn't make any difference because they wouldn't have needed them. They had so much fun just hunting for shells, building castles, hiding in the closets of the cabin, checking out bugs, and looking for all sorts of "treasures." And as a result of them having so much fun, we had a great time too. The cabins come fully equipped with two air-conditioned bedrooms, all linens included, a kitchen fully stocked with dishes and everything you need to cook, a bathroom with a regular shower (woo hoo!), and there was even a television with cable (that we didn't use too much). It was sort of a good compromise between regular tent camping versus staying at the Hilton . . . sort of an in between. The cabin was right on the beach, had it's own BBQ and beach chairs, and it is even in a gated area because they are located on military property (which means they are pretty safe). It was such a cool experience that I would encourage any future visitors to try it out . . . just let me know if you are interested as far in advance as possible because they book up pretty quickly.

Here was our view from the back patio.

Here is a front/side view of the cabin . . . okay, so it doesn't look like a traditional "cabin" . . . more like an apartment . . . but it was still good . . . clean and pretty comfortable.

These are some cool tide pools that we found nearby that were perfect for the kids to swim in.



My naked babies . . .
Somebody was a bit worn out from the day's excitement.




So I guess that catches us up to the present. On Monday we are leaving for our first ever inter-island trip, to the Big Island. The first two nights we will be staying on the windward (eastern) side of the island, at the Kilauea Military Camp in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. While we are there, we will probably do a little hiking and try to see as much of the volcanoes as we can, and we will also tour the town of Hilo while we are on that side of the island. Then we will head over to the other side of the island, where we are going to stay two nights at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, and while we are there we will also check out the town of Kona. We can't wait to get out of town and relax for a few days, and the kids cannot wait to see a volcano because not only has Dora seen a volcano, but the Wonder Pets have too. And if the Wonder Pets have seen one, then we MUST see one too. :)

So things might be a little quiet from this end for a few days, but I promise to fill in the blanks when we get back. Until then!

Daddy's Little Angel

Charley: "Where we going, Dad?"

Brian: "We are going to meet Mom and Zander for lunch at Chile's, the restaurant.

Charley: "NNNNOOOOOO DAAAADDDD, I want to just go to the Chile's alone with YOU!!!"

Brian: "Sorry punkin', but Mom is already driving right in front of us and is going to meet us there."

Charley: "Oh. Okay. Well, I sure wish you had as much hair as I do, Dad."

Brian: "Me too, Charley, me too."

And the Charley-ism's just keep comin' . . .

Danielle: "So Charley, what did you guys talk about in school today?"

Charley: "Oh, we talked about doctors and stuff. I guess that Ms. Chris is going to have to call the doctor to come fix the school toilet because it is making REALLY FUNNY sounds . . . . (very long pause) . . . . I guess that would make the toilet a lawyer."

At this point, my Mom and I burst out laughing so hard that we didn't even know how to respond. I swear, I didn't make this up, she really did say this . . . and even though I don't think she knew what she was saying, the connotation of the statement was pretty funny.


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Charley: "Mom, what are you doing?"

Danielle: "I'm trying to pull these turkey burgers apart. They are frozen and stuck together and tough to seperate."

Charley: (in a very serious tone) "Well, you better quit pushing so hard or you are going to poop your pants."

Mini-vaca

We are getting ready to head to some beach cabins for the next two nights, so I wanted to check in with a brief update and then check out for a few days of relaxation . . . hopefully.

In answer to a lot of prayers and fingers being crossed, Brian finally made it home on Thursday night. He was so relieved to be home, and the kids were absolutely ecstatic when he walked in the door, especially because I didn't tell them that he was coming home that day (surprise!).

We attended the Coast Guard memorial on Friday morning, while my Mom watched the kids, and the service turned out absolutely beautiful. It was very well put together (especially in such a short period of time), it was extremely emotional, but it was also a good way for everyone to say goodbye and start healing. After the service and reception, we headed over to the club on base and enjoyed a drink with friends. I had to leave a bit early and take Zander to the doctor because he had developed an eye infection, but Brian stayed and enjoyed the get-together with his buddies. We met up at home a bit later, and then Brian and I were able to sneak away for a night out together since my Mom was here to keep an eye on the kids. We went downtown to a roof-top party at a fellow Coast Guardman's condo building, and it was nice to get away for a few hours and take a break from all the sadness.

Saturday we realized that something was wrong with the cat, so Brian spent much of the day taking him to the vet, where we discovered that he has a severe bladder infection and may be diabetic. Hopefully the latter is not the case!

Today we are heading to some military beach cabins that we reserved awhile back, not too far from Brian's work (one mile or so). Brian was supposed to be on leave this week, but because of the circumstances he felt that it was important to head back to work. So, the rest of us will enjoy the next three days at the cabin, and Brian will join us over his lunch hours and in the evenings (to spend the night) since we will be so conveniently located near his work.

We check out of the cabins on Wednesday, and my Mom will be leaving that evening. I cannot believe that this past month has flown by as fast as it has . . . and it will definitely be hard to see her go. But for now we will enjoy the time we have left!

BTW--thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers the past couple weeks! Your kind words and encouragement helped greatly during this tough time, and we really appreciate you all!

Mommy Helper

Yesterday I had my first opportunity to be the "class mom" for the morning at Charley's preschool. How this works is that there is a permanent teacher in the room, with approximately 12 children in the class, and each child's mom/dad sign up for two days each semester to help with the class. This not only helps keep the cost of the preschool down, but it also gives the parents a chance to be involved in the classroom more.

When a child's mom or dad comes to help for the day, that means that it is that child's "special day." On this special day, the child gets to brings snacks for the class, feed the class fish, tell the class which day of the month it is, report the weather outside, act as line leader when going in and out of the classroom, and erase the board at the end of the day (which is exciting for some reason). As I mentioned, Charley was most looking forward to the part where she got to feed the fish. Apparently, according to her teacher, feeding the fish is a class favorite.

So we arrived at school a little early to help set up the classroom, and once everyone arrived, we began the day with some carpet time where the kids sang songs, talked about what day it was, and worked on the letters A-D. During this time, Charley came over to my lap and sat down in it, which I guess is pretty common for the kids to do when their mom or dad is in class. The teacher was right in the middle of showing the kids something, and during a two second pause, Charley yelled really loud,

"Mom, the hair on your legs is really poking me and it hurts!"

Her teacher just smiled at me with that knowing look (that three-year-olds often say embarrassing things) and moved on with her activity. Thank goodness the rest of the audience was just a bunch of oblivious kids because otherwise I might have been really embarrassed. A short time later, after Charley had abandoned my lap, another little girl came and sat in my lap. I was praying the entire time that she didn't say anything about my scratchy legs, and thankfully she didn't.

The theme of the day was "chefs," so we talked about where they work, what they do, and then we proceeded to make pretend pizza's out of paper plates and cut-out ingredients for craft time. The rest of the morning flew by with playtime outside, snack time, playtime inside, reading stories, more circle time, and one more craft at the end of the day. After everyone left, I helped the teacher clean up the classroom, and then it was time to go. I really enjoyed meeting the other kids and observing their different personalities, especially Charley's.

I think I was met with a few surprises when it came to the dynamics in the class. First, I noticed that overall, Charley's class was very mellow and pretty quiet. The teacher explained that a lot of the reason is that this class consists of only four boys (two of whom were absent) and eight girls, so that makes the mood a lot more calm (go figure!). I was also surprised to see that the kids in this age group still tend to play by themselves more than playing with each other. I'm used to watching Charley around our friends' kids, kids that she is around ALL THE TIME, so I guess I'm used to seeing her interact more . . . but for some reason, in this class, the kids tend to play more individually. It was also fun to see how Charley behaves at school versus how she behaves at home. At home she is much more sassy, outspoken, and LOUD. At school she is much more quiet, much more polite (I think and hope anyway), she listens to the teacher much better then she listens to me, and she only speaks up occasionally. Don't get me wrong, she is not necessarily what I would call "shy" at school . . . she just tends to reserve her comments a lot more then she does at home. I also noticed that she thrives on the structure of the class (the routine, knowing what to expect, etc.), she frequently tries to enforce the rules (shushing other kids when they are talking too loud during story time), and she is good at following the rules (why can't she do this at home???).

After talking to my mom, it turns out that once again, Charley is my little clone. My mom said that it was almost as if I had two different personalities growing up . . . a home one and a school one. The thing is, she was always okay with this because I was polite to my teachers, followed the rules, and always got good grades . . . and as long as I kept this all up, she gave me a bit of leeway to be more of a sassy pants at home. It's not like she let me get away with being completely disrespectful at home or anything, but she just let me express the sassy aspect of my personality more without a lot of criticism. She let me be who I was.

So the lesson learned for the day . . . if my mom survived me for all those years, then I can certainly survive my little sassy pants too. :)

Happy Stuff

Since there has been so much sad blogging the past few days, I decided it was time for some more happy blogging about all the fun stuff we've been doing lately. So here we go . . .

Last week, on Wednesday, we decided to take a drive to the other side of the island to a cute little beach town, Kailua. We stopped for coffee, shopped a bit, and then we took a little walk down to the beach. Here is a rare shot with me in it . . .

My beautiful babies . . .

On our way back, we stopped at the Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden, where were able to witness some pretty spectacular views.

Once we got back home, the kids decided to make themselves look like a caterpillar.

On Saturday we dropped by the Kapolei Sunset Festival, which ended up being a little disappointing because all it consisted of were a few food vendors (I know, that's not too terrible), a couple local t-shirt vendors, a stage with various music programs, and a little kiddie area. We didn't stay too long because since there wasn't much to see, but we did manage to squeeze in a kid ride. Zander liked it at first, but was ready for it to be done once the excitement wore off. Charley, on the other hand, wanted to do it a million more times.

Yesterday we hit up a local "swap meet" that takes place every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday at Aloha Stadium, home of the infamous Hawaii Warriors. It was basically like a enormous flea market, with vendors selling everything from clothes, fresh fruits and nuts, touristy trinkets, toys, travel gear, house decor, and all sorts of other random stuff. The best part is that nearly everything at the meet is INEXPENSIVE, which is hard to find here in Hawaii.

This morning we hit up the beach for a few hours, and then this afternoon we just ran a few errands. Tomorrow is a very exciting day because it is my turn to be the "class Mom" at Charley's preschool, which just means I help out the teacher for the morning. We also provide snacks for the day, but Charley's absolutely favorite part of the whole deal is that she will get to feed the class fish on this special day. Never mind that mom will be at school with her, she gets to feed the fish!!! She's been talking about it for weeks. I'll let you know how it goes. :)

A Long Weekend . . .

As you can imagine, this past weekend was filled with many tears, many hugs, and minutes that seemed to crawl by.

A lot of details have emerged in the past few days surrounding this horrific accident, details that I do not really feel are appropriate to share on this blog. Suffice it to say that at this point, they have officially suspended the search for the fourth crew member, and the Coast Guard is actively investigating what exactly happened last Thursday night. Brian is still stuck on a remote island with a broken plane and a heartbroken crew, and it doesn't look like he will be able to make it back any sooner than Thursday or Friday. He is restless there, wishing that he could be back here with his air station, but for the moment, his hands are tied. Meanwhile, everyone here has begun the grieving and healing process, sharing their time with family and friends in memory of these fallen men.

Last night there was a fundraiser for the family of the flight mechanic that lost his life on the helicopter . . . sort of an impromptu, informal gathering for people to find solace in the company of others that were feeling the same grief. Thankfully my Mom has been here this entire time, which has offered me invaluable emotional support and help with the kids, especially since Brian is unable to be here. So last night I was able to leave the kids at home to attend this gathering with our friends, and I think that it offered a lot of us some comfort in knowing that a lot of others share the same fears and sadness. It is difficult to see so many people in such an immense amount of pain, especially these Coast Guard men and women who are normally more stoic and reserved with their emotions . . . but it is awe inspiring to see the way that everyone has come together and their willingness to share their pain with friends and complete strangers.

Thank you all so much for the concern that you have shown during this time! Please continue to keep all these Coast Guard members, families, and friends in your thoughts and prayers . . . and please say a little prayer for Brian too. It looks as if services are going to be conducted for these men sometime at this end of this week, so please pray that Brian makes it home in time to attend these services so that he might be able to say goodbye with all his comrades by his side.

Tragedy

As some of you may have heard, tragedy struck our Air Station Barber's Point family last night when we learned that one of our helicopters crashed with four crew members aboard. Three have been recovered, all of whom were killed, and they are still searching for the fourth member of the aircraft. I spent the evening last night with several Coast Guard wives, one of whom found out that her husband was aboard the helicopter and had died.

Brian knew and worked with all of these men, and at least two of them were very good friends of his. Unfortunately, Brian is stuck at the moment in the South Pacific on a small island in the middle of no where, with a plane that is broken down. I had to call him last night and tell him what happened to his comrades, and then he had the duty of telling the crew with him that they had lost their co-workers and friends. He wants to be here so badly, helping with the recovery efforts and sharing this grief with the air station, but it looks like he may be stuck where he is at for as long as another week until he receives a replacement part for the plane.

Please pray for the families and friends of these crew members, and please pray that Brian makes it home soon and safely, so that he can be in the place where his heart is, with his fellow members of the Coast Guard at Air Station Barber's Point.

Beach and Boat Bums

I think when I last left off, we had spent Saturday morning at the beach, so here are a couple shots of my beach bums . . . as you can see, Zander is lounging in true bum style, while Charley is hard at work building a sand castle . . . always the productive one.

Early Monday morning, Brian left for a two-week deployment to Rarotonga and American Samoa, both of which are supposed to beautiful destinations, so hopefully he will enjoy his trip. Meanwhile, Heather invited us to try out the ferry, which goes from Barber's Point Harbor (near us), to downtown Honolulu, at the Aloha Tower. Here we are getting ready to board . . .

On the ride over, we decided to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery.

Here is the view from our departure point.

Zander fell asleep in my arms about half way through the 50 minute ride.

Here is the view as we arrived near downtown . . . if you look off in the distance, you can see Diamondhead Crater.


After we arrived, we shopped around the Aloha Tower area for awhile, and before we knew it, it was time to head back home. On the way back we sat inside the ferry, which the kids thought was pretty fun too. Overall I think the ferry was a pretty big crowd pleaser.

This afternoon I was so excited because I got to sneak away from the kids for a little while to go meet my friend Andre's new precious baby boy, Charlie James. Not only is he adorable, but obviously I LOVE his name. Andre has two other beautiful children (you've seen them in previous photos on here before), and her son, Liam, was not quite comfortable with the name "Charlie" at first because he told his mom that there was already one Charley in the world (my Charley) and there just couldn't be two. Andre had to explain to him that there were MANY Charlie's in the world, so at this point, he seems okay with it. I got to hold little Charlie for quite awhile today, and I had forgotten how small, light, and fragile newborns can be. He is such a sweet little baby, and I look forward to many more snuggle sessions with him. :)

On a completely different note, Brian and I were able to sneak away this past week to go see a couple movies in the theatre, which is a luxury that we rarely get to enjoy. First we went and saw "Tropic Thunder," which I had heard mixed reviews about. I actually enjoyed the movie, and I'm almost embarrassed to admit that one of my favorite characters was played by Tom Cruise, who has not been on my favorite actor list lately. I also thought Robert Downey, Jr. did an awesome job, and he historically has not been one of my favorite actors either. Some people didn't like the movie, but I think it was worth watching. We also saw "The Dark Knight," which I also thoroughly enjoyed. I'm normally not much into comic-based movies, but this particular movie felt more realistic to me than any of the other Batman movies that I have seen. Plus, Heath Ledger does such a phenomenal job, it's not surprising to know that in his last days, he was haunted by his character.

So those are my movie critic thoughts . . . has any one else seen these movies? Thoughts?

Another Zander-ism

Yesterday we took the kids on a ferry ride for the first time, and as we were getting off the boat, there were a bunch of local transit buses waiting to pick up passengers. As we walked by one of the buses, I happened to notice that like many air-conditioned vehicles, it was leaking water out of its exhaust pipe. Zander noticed it too, and he just HAD to say something.

"Hey Mom, look, fire truck is pooping water."

True buddy. Very true.