COMPANY!!!! We have COMPANY!!!

We were super excited to pick up Deryck's brother Nate, his wife Leah, and their 3 kids from the airport on Thursday! So far we have hit the beach a couple times and enjoyed a little site seeing up at Pali lookout and around Kailua. I'm pretty sure we are headed to Pearl Harbor tomorrow to see the USS Arizona and some other stuff. Brady and Elayna have really picked up boogie boarding. Paul isn't a huge fan of the beach, but he is a great baby and happy as long as he isn't in the water. We are having a wonderful time (as you will see from our photos!)

~Surfs Up~

I LEARNED TO SURF YESTERDAY!!!! I have made a few friends through Deryck's work and they took me out yesterday to a local Navy beach and taught me! After figuring out how to catch a wave (and after not catching a bunch of them), I got up to my knees on my first one. Then, I caught about 5 more over the course of the afternoon and rode them in standing up! It was VERY fun, but exhausting. My arms and shoulders are a little sore today, but not as bad as my bruised hip bones and rib cage. I can't wait to get out a try it again! The pics are from far away, but that is me!

P.S. For some reason these pics are not very figure flattering. I'm a little appalled that I actually posted them. I promise I haven't gained 20 pounds since arriving in Hawaii. :-)

The Christmas tree is up!

Thanksgiving was a relaxed day for us. Deryck spent the morning playing golf with some guys from work. The kids and I spent time at the house until he returned home. I cooked some Salmon for dinner along with some Broccoli salad, corn, and crab dip. It was an easy going not-so-Thanksgiving dinner, but it was good. After dinner, we decided to put up the tree. In our small house, that project included rearranging ALL the furniture. I think I finally got it the way I want it. I'm a little afraid to ask Deryck to move the sleeper sofa...again! I am posting a couple pics of us putting the tree up and Deryck and the kids putting the manger scene together. The manger set was my mom's when I was a little kid and it brings back wonderful memories to see my kids put it together.

Vans Triple Crown!!!

Since it is something I (and most people) have only watched on television, you can imagine how excited I was to be sitting on the beach for the final day of the Reef Hawaiian Pro of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing today. (And yes, everyone, we skipped church to go see it on a Sunday morning :-) The waves weren't huge from a professional surfer's standpoint, but we thought it was pretty impressive. Also, we got some local info on dodging the crowds for the other two legs of the Triple Crown that will be going on over the next month. We left the competition in time to hit the shrimp trucks (D tried out the Thai truck this time) for lunch and then headed down to Turtle Bay to swim and play in the sand. Sorry I didn't take pics of that, but I did of the surfing. Miss you all!

Lanikai Beach

Today we checked out a new beach. It is said to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world because of it's soft sand, reef, and tame waters. Deryck and I got to use some of our new snorkle gear we purchased last week. Ethan and Rae loved just playing in the sand and small surf.

*~*Cinderella*~*

Though Rachel has been to Disney World and has loved all over Cinderella, she still has never seen the movie. I recently learned you cannot walk into a store and purchase the movie Cinderella, so we decided to search out ebay. Our new movie arrived yesterday and so last night was dubbed movie night. During the opening credits I realized that she was so excited that I needed to snap a few pictures. Her face is just priceless! The first one is when Cinderella is singing with the birds and mice in the opening, the second one is when the step-sisters are tearing up Cinderella's dress that the mice and birds made, and then the final one was when the fairy godmother appeared and made Cinderella a new princess gown for the ball. Enjoy!

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Today we decided to go see some sights. We headed over to Nu’uanu Pali. It is an overlook north of Waikiki that views the windward side (Kaneohe in the pic). Needless to say (as you can tell from E's pic) it was a little windy and chilly up there. The temp thing on the car said it was about 68 up there! Chilly for us! Rachel made sure to bring her camera to take some pics :-)

Backyard Camping!

E and D were both off today so they decided to camp in the backyard last night!

Bellows...our favorite boogie boarding beach!

Saturday we went to Bellows AFB on the windward side of the island. The waves coming in are the best boogie boarding waves we have found! Plus, there are some pretty cool trees on the beach!

~GAME NIGHT~

Poor D had to play half the time with a little girl crawling all over him. Ethan can't sit still to save his life. I'm pretty sure I won. :-)

~Random pics from the beach~

If you click on the pics I think they get bigger.

Our New Favorite Family Activity!

Ethan has loved riding his bike the past couple years. He would ride and ride, while our's sat in the garage collecting dust and rust. They are now tuned up and we go riding a few times a week as a fam. This place is beautiful at sunset and on bike down by the water it is even better!

Happy Halloween!!

We took the kids to a local carnival on Friday night. The kids rode some rides, blew some money at the games, and ate cotton candy! We finished it off by watching "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown". It was a great night. Tonight the kids got dressed up (Ethan as Annakin Skywalker and Rachel as Tinkerbell) and went to the church we have been visiting for Fall Festival. The kids came home with tons of candy, which Deryck and I dug into after the kids went to bed. :-)

Lazy Blogger????

Hi Everyone,

I know I have been a lazy blogger lately, but please take it easy on me as I haven't had internet since the 9th of October! It is getting installed on Friday (have I mentioned how NO one here is in a HURRY). So many things have happened in the last (almost) 20 days I'll try to recap it all! We moved into the house on the 9th. It was empty until a week ago this past Monday. The movers hauled in everything! Thank goodness we sold a ton of furniture before we left Illinois! Everything fits well and we are even looking for a small desk to go in the living room. It only took a few days to unpack and then a couple more to shove everything somewhere so it was livable! Now that everything is in its place, I conned Deryck into switching the kids rooms. He isn't too happy about it :-) I think we will be attempting that tomorrow. Ethan has received a set of bunk beds that he absolutely loves! He is doing well in school. The few months that he was out while everyone else was going hasn't hurt him a bit. Rachel is Rachel...sweet some moments/crazy others. We love having girl time everyday while E is in school.

After church one Sunday, we drove into Chinatown in downtown Honolulu and found the best dive to eat at. It is a local food market with every type of Asian food imaginable. Deryck gobbled down Korean food, while me and the kids stuffed ourselves with Thai food. If you come to visit and aren't squimish about trying new things, we WILL BE TAKING YOU HERE! It was wonderful. I have a feeling Court and Joe are going to love it the most!

A couple weekends ago we spent the day driving up the windward side of the island. We ended up stopping at two different beaches and then finished the evening eating from the shrimp truck (on the side of the road, don't knock it 'till you try it) on the North Shore watching the surfers. It was a wonderful day and one more that we were thankful that we bought a Jeep! This past weekend we cruised by the local swapmeet. It is huge and at the Pearl Harbor Stadium (where the Pro-Bowl is played). We picked up some sheets (CHEAP!) and some $5 Orchids. They are beautiful, let's just hope I don't kill them...then again they were $5.

As I said, we get internet/cable on Friday so hopefully my posts and pics will come a little more often. We are having an incredible time. Every now and then, I will be driving down the road and it will hit me that we LIVE in HAWAII!!! Much love to everyone, the only thing that would make this place better is if you were all here with us! Aloha!

(Sorry no pictures...got a new camera and still trying to figure out how to download everything!)

God's Amazing Blessings!

Can I just tell you that God has come through in an amazing way in our life this week. Upon landing in Honolulu 7 days ago, Deryck went to the housing office just to see where we stood on the list. At the time, we were 50th out of 70 families, we were slated for Junior NCO housing, and it was a 60 to 90 day wait. By that afternoon, we were offered a home in Senior NCO housing with no wait time. The unfortunate part was that when Deryck went to look at the house, he looked at the wrong one. He was peeking into #209 instead of #210 (Note: 209 isn't renovated). So we put if off all weekend and went looking in the general area off the base. Each of those houses proved to not work out. On some of the houses, the pictures we had viewed on the Internet site were deceiving. Others were super small and very expensive or not even available even though it was posted on the site that they were. So we went back to the housing office to accept the little house that we thought we were offered. The housing lady informed us that we WERE looking at the wrong house and needed to go look at 210 across the street. It ended up being absolutely adorable...it is small, but that is made up by the fact that it is a historical home that has been renovated in the cutest way possible. We are signing the lease today! The best part is that Ethan gets to go to the best of the schools in the area! So God skipped over Deryck's rank to put us in a better housing area, passed up 50 other families to get us in first, put my kid in a great school, and gave us a house (really on the first day we arrived) without waiting 60-90 days! If that isn't enough, some of our stuff is here so we get to move in this Friday! I'm absolutely amazed by how He has worked this week in our lives! Glory to you Lord, thank you!

First Beach Trip!

Don't you love those moments when you see excitement on your kid's faces. Excitement that is one of a kind, like the first time they see something. Rachel had it when she met Minnie Mouse at Disney World, Ethan had it when he realized that he was flying above the clouds in the airplane. Today we saw it again, when they first saw the ocean while standing on the beach. We trekked over to Bellows AFB on the windward side of the island today. The beach there is beautiful and supplies some pretty amazing waves to boogie board on, but also a neat little inlet where kids can get away from the big waves and play in small surf. The few hours we spent there were amazing and I will cherish watching my kids laugh and run in their first Pacific waves! The other picture I have added to this post is of the mountains that separate this part of the island from the rest. They are absolutely stunning. Words really don't describe them (so reader: you must visit so you can see them in person!) As I sat in the car and watched them roll by, I was reminded of the awesome power of God in my life. We are going into the housing office tomorrow to ask for a pretty special request. It very well can be denied, but after looking upon those mountains I know that NOTHING is too big for my God...because He made those amazing mountains and he can make our blessing come through tomorrow. I'll keep you posted if it does! Love to you all!

House Hunting...AKA: %#(*$#! House Hunting.

The Parks family arrived in Honolulu three days ago and the house hunt is on! We have driven to the places were are interested in and liked them both. Kaneohe definitely wins in the views category! The mountains are amazing and we can't wait to show them to you when you COME TO VISIT US! Today we are heading over to Ewa Beach to check out a few houses. The commute from that area seems long and annoying, so we shall see. Please be praying for us in this area since Deryck and I usually have VERY different needs/wants when it comes to choosing a house. Sorry I haven't posted any beautiful pictures of the area, but I promise to soon. Aloha!

Disney World!!

We spent 5 wonderful days at Disney World with my sister and her family. Ethan and his cousin Jack rode their first real roller coaster and loved Splash Mountain and its 52 foot drop! Rachel and Josie got to love on some princesses! We went to the Chef Mickey character dinner and the kids got to play with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto...you would have thought they had all died and gone to heaven they had so much fun. It was a time of awesome memories with our kids and we can't wait to go back in about 3 years after we return from our tour in Hawaii!

Which leads me to what is going on with HAWAII! We fly out of Little Rock in less than 2 days! We have been searching the internet for housing and we need some prayers in that area. It is expensive and tricky to find a good house with a GOOD elementary school! So please be praying for us!

And last, many of you might have already heard this but I had a pretty back car wreck this weekend. Deryck's mother tied the knot with Les up in Oak Grove, Arkansas, this past weekend. We left a couple things at the church, so I headed back to go get them. I lost control of my DAD's 4Runner (note: my DAD's not mine!) on an S curve. I turned it around backwards trying to correct it and then flipped it into a ditch. BY THE GRACE OF GOD, I am fine. Not one scratch, bump, or bruise from the wreck. The only scratch I have is from dropping out of my seatbelt (on my head) and crawling out. I had flip flops on and so I have a couple cuts on my feet. The 4Runner is totalled, but thank God for parents who love their kids and not their things. :-) I feel horrible, but am thankful to not have any injuries. So thanks for all the well wishes and phone calls.

Next time you hear from us we should be in Hawaii! Aloha everyone!

Fun with the Richardsons!