Tiny Tots

There is a little preschool program called Tiny Tots in our neighborhood. I take Kolea when I can manage it and she LOVES it! Definitely better than sitting at home with mommy :)

River enjoys his time out and about at Tiny Tots as well :)

Kolea with her good friend Madilyn :)

A popular day at Tiny Tots with the "Hunt" on the horizon!

Look at all those kids! This is a free program and the days I've brought Kolea, normally there are no more than about 8-10 kids. This day we had 30!!

Ready and waiting for that Easter egg hunt! Things were moving a little too slowly for this 2 yr old.

But River seemed to be in good spirits! Look at his new teeth!

Finally! And they're off! See why it's not exactly a "hunt?" When they are just thrown out in the grass you don't exactly have to do much hunting for them :)

Success!

A morning well spent. The End.

Waimea Falls

There is a place, an oh so BEAUTIFUL place called Waimea Falls...

Why haven't we been there before now? Probably b/c there is an entrance fee- let's be honest. And usually we stick to things that are FREE like the beach! But it was sooooo worth it.

These are botanical gardens along a paved path about a mile long. It's extremely easy to "hike" and I even brought my stroller. There are many plants and beautiful trees to look at along the way, but the real treasure is at the end of the hike at the waterfall.

I'm told that the falls change depending on the time of year and what the rains have been like. We came on a good day :) And as a side note, were you ever into the hit show, LOST? Well, remember when Kate found the guns in a large pond? Well folks, this is where it was filmed!

I'm really not THAT happy as I am FREEZING! I was going numb at this point :)

They even had activities like this "learn the hula" moment while we were there. But we were too busy playing in the ice cold water!

There is a short "class" for anyone that wants to swim in the falls and anyone under 12 MUST wear a life vest. So it makes sense why there is a bit of an entrance fee. It pays for things like this- and the cute lifeguards :)

First I took Hunter and Gabriella to the waterfall. The closer you get, the harder it is to get under it! It's SOOOO powerful! I never even FULLY went under it for fear of the pressure. But I went right up along the side of it.

IT. WAS. AWESOME.

Then I dragged Kolea out there :)

We did a few fun things with my bro, Adam and his wife, Tami while they were here. One of which was walking around the temple. It was fun to have them here- on our turf :)
We like visitors ;)

FUN in Waikiki

Every once in a while we take the kids to Waikiki for some family fun at the beach.

Swim Meet

Anyone that knows me, knows that I LOVE swimming. AND that I was a competitive swimmer in H.S. My freshman year I joined the team and quickly learned that I DIDN'T know how to swim!! I knew how NOT to drown, but actually SWIM? I needed to learn- and FAST!

Needless to say that by the end of the season I had gone from the world's worst swimmer to a fairly decent one on my JV swim team. AND I also received our "Most Improved Swimmer" award at our awards banquet at the end of the year... Good memories!

Anyhow, so of course I enrolled Hunter onto the swim team that started at BYU-H. The minimum age is 8, and he is only 7. But they let him on anyway. :) I guess I'm kind of pushy about some things...

So Hunter had his first ever swim meet!

"Swimmers take your marks!"

Notice his daddy as a timer? Ryan was also a swimmer!

And the crowd eagerly awaits...

And they are off! First race: Front Crawl

And the finish!

The adoring fans...

Here to cheer him on and support him...

We all came out! (Ryan's fam was here visiting!)

Next Race: Breaststroke! A personal favorite :)

LOVE IT!

He WON! The tired, and exited swimmer :)

Next up, the Backstroke. (I hate Back) and now so does Hunter...

It started out well enough, until his right arm began to pull harder than the left. Do you see the angle he's at? He's now perpendicular with the length of the pool. Not good! He should be following the lines on the bottom of the pool- be parallel with them and clearly he's not.

After MUCH whistling and yelling (on my part) trying to get his attention, Hunter finally stopped and looked at me. He was in the middle of the pool and now turned the opposite direction. He'd completely swam in a circle before I could get him to stop!!

He noticed what had happened and immediately teared up. He was embarrassed and tired. And he still needed to finish the race. It sounds so silly but I got choked up right along with him. I could FEEL his discouragement and I didn't want him to feel that kind of pain. And it was over something so simple. How will it be later in life???

I pulled myself together and told him "Hunter, you can do it! You are almost there." He said, "but it's SO hard!" I told him "I know, but you are strong and daddy is waiting at the finish line for you. You can do THIS!" And he trusted me.

He turned himself the right direction and finished the race. You can see his frustrations on his face :(

He did it! He made it!

He had the entire crowd cheering for him and daddy was there at the end to lift him out. All the other kids his age finished a few MINUTES before he ever got out of the water- and in a short race, that's a LONG time. But he FINISHED!

And got some love for a job well done!

The last race of the day was the Noodle Race! Hunter is on the end with the yellow noodle.

He's really happy b/c it's OVER!

Hunter wasn't ready to sign up for another 8 weeks of swim team. I think we'll wait until the fall when he's a little older. I put him back in swim lessons b/c he needs help on stroke improvement- and it's not so intense.

But we are SO proud that Hunter stuck with it and followed through. He was a trooper and set an example for all of us to finish the task at hand. When the going get tough- the tough finish the race!! And of course, can you see the spiritual parallel in this story? Life can be "Hard!" But we are "strong" and our Heavenly Father is waiting at the finish line, after this life. We just need to hang in there, have faith and trust in the Lord. We can find the strength within and FINISH THE RACE!

St. Patricks or Easter?

I realize Easter is tomorrow- which is why this is happening TODAY! Once again, I am behind but I won't let another holiday go by before I've blogged about the last one :)

We spent St. Patrick's Day with some friends that live in TVA (Temple View Apartments) which comprises a large part of our ward. Anyhow, we did a luncheon where everything was GREEN!

Of course it was all very creative and lots of fun!

Three of my monkeys

And the fourth. River was 6 mo old this day :)

The kids even got to go on a Treasure Hunt and discovered a "Pot of Gold" at the end of the rainbow! Good times :)

Tsunami #2

Another scare. Another evacuation. Another sleepless night. Another practice. Another grateful heart, or two, or three, or few hundred thousand...

We are very grateful that we received no damage on our side of the island. There were a couple of Hawaiian islands that received minimal damage, but we came away unscathed.

The TV is showing a live view of the water as it had retracted- those rocks and the coral you see are ALWAYS under water. So that is interesting to see how far back the ocean receded. And there is that idiot walking around. Wasn't it like the 9th wave that did all the damage in Japan? Something like that. Just goes to show you don't want to be THAT idiot caught in a later wave when the first few seem perfectly safe!

This is where we stayed for the night. We had this one room in a vacation rental up the road from us. There were two women and their niece staying there on holiday from Canada. Our friends live in the bottom portion of the house and these women offered for anyone to come stay if needed! It was very generous of them. Of course, they were a little freaked out by what was going on- so having my crazy kids run around all night was actually fun for them and they were able to relax :)
My kids didn't last long in this room. They were way too wired. But as you can see, Ryan took full advantage of the nice, comfy bed!
This is about 6:30 am after we were awake ALL night! We pulled our kids out of bed around 1:30 am to head up the road.

finally

Our dear friend, Bethany and her daughter, Eliza up bright and early! Thanks again Taylor and Bethany!
Of course we brought David and Danielle along (David is Ryan's bro.) They have been living practically on the beach so they HAD to leave as well.
Our car is the white SUV out there in the grass. And the ocean is about a quarter mile out from there. So we felt pretty safe :)
This is back at our home later that morning. Of course, I'm stuck being awake if River is awake. BUT once he was asleep for a nap- I passed out too!
Kolea is our poster child for this event. She was fresh out of the shower and obviously SO exhausted she fell right to sleep on our bathroom floor!!

It was another tiring yet educational event. We learn more each time. I've been into preparedness lately and I was actually glad to have another trial run. Although we are extremely fortunate that we had so many hours of preparation. It took us about 4-5 hours to do everything we wanted to do.

However, we need to be able to grab the essentials in a matter of minutes if needed. And that is another post for another day. If I were computer savvy I would post pictures from Japan's Tsunami. My pictures are equivalent to marshmallows, cupcakes, and cotton candy compared to the raw nature of what they went through and continue to suffer today. Please remember them in your prayers. Find ways to help and contribute to ease their suffering. And say a prayer of thanks that you are not suffering in the same capacity.

What did I lose that day? A few hours of "precious" sleep. What did they lose??? Everything. Including THOUSANDS and thousands of lives.

Are you prepared?