Kayak to The Moake Islands...or The Moakes

Today, we went on our first kayak trip since we arrived on the island...can you believe it has been over a year!!! We went with 2 other couples and had an amazing time. Though we came back with tired arms, we got to see a Monk Seal sitting on the beach who didn't give a darn about us, beautiful islands, and one camera that took a dip and is currently soaking in a baggie of rice. So much fun and though we love our sweet kids, we were happy to leave them at home and have some Deryck/Shan time!

The Richardson's in Hawaii

Neil and Melissa came to visit us and we had the most wonderful time. It is always a blessing when God brings good friends who are really like family into your life. We snorkled, boogie boarded, ate at Duke's, hiked, at tons of chocolate chip cookie dough, and laughed for 7 days. Neil and Melissa, thanks for spending the "quiet time" away from your sweet kids with us and our CRAZY kids. WE LOVE YOU!

P.S. The hiking picture of Neil and Deryck is from the "Stairway to Heaven", also called the Haiku Stairs. It is 2, 120 ft. up and 3, 922 steps. They had a blast!

Halloween and Fall Party!

Though Halloween has come and gone, here are our pictures. Ethan got to dress up for school and decided on a surfer dude. They both went trick-or-treating with their friends and dressed up as a Clone Trooper and Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. Ethan also had his fall party where they decorated pumpkins and had homemade rootbeer.

Dayton's Visit

Dayton, Deryck's Dad, came to visit us the first week of October. It was a blessing having him here. He and Deryck went on the Admiral's Tour of Pearl Harbor and we spent many days boogie boarding. We had the best time with him, especially Ethan who had the week off for fall break.

New Beach Pictures

I realized it had been a while since I took any beach pictures, so here they are. These were taken at our favorite spot, Bellows. Enjoy and be jealous...unless you are coming to visit this year.

Rachel turns 4!!!

Who can believe that is has been 4 years since God blessed us with sweet Rachel? She has been such a hoot to watch grow up. There are times she is still a silly little girl, but she is also growing in to a young sassy thing who's mouth gets her in trouble...a lot. (Hmmm...who does that remind you of?) On her birthday, she got to go to McDonald's for breakfast and pizza for lunch. She got to open presents that afternoon (while we Skyped with our Daddy who is in DC this week) and after dinner all our church friends sang Happy Birthday and had cake at our small group meeting. Then on Thursday (today) she got to take one friend to Chuck E' Cheese. She chose her sweet friend Addison. We had a wonderful time and ended it with a trip to Cherry On Top, which is a make-it-yourself yogurt place. Here are a few pictures from our 2 day celebration! Also, because it took 2 days to get in all the celebrating, she asked me if on Thursday the 23 if she was now 5 because she had two birthday days :)

Soccer Time!

Ethan started playing soccer again a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, they are 0-2 at the moment, but we are hoping to reverse that this Saturday. He is #4 in the pictures. We are working on staying with the game and going after the ball. My crazy kid seems to have a habit of kicking once and then yelling for someone else to go get the ball. Also, we are trying to reduce the number of dive and rolls he does in front of the goal as he runs back to defend it...it is hilarious!

Swim Lessons

After we returned from the mainland, the kids both took a couple rounds of swim lessons. Ethan has become a great swimmer. He is long and lean, with his ribs sticking out (because I can't get the kid to gain weight for anything) he is looking like a young Michael Phelps...now if he sticks with it and wins some gold medals someday...hmmm. Rachel is becoming much stronger. She now can get in the water without floaties, but has to stay close to the side. She thinks she is a much stronger swimmer though than she actually is, so I still keep a close eye on her. She can last a whole 10 seconds or so before starting to go under.

~First Day of the 1st Grade~

I never imagined that I would be that parent crying as I dropped my kid off for a first day of school. I think between the move and late start last year I was so happy to get Ethan off to school, it never occured to me that he was getting bigger and we would miss him during the day. Well not so this year! We took the 2 block walk to school this week and we were hardly out of the house before I looked over at him with his new backpack on and realized how tall he had gotten this summer and I was all misty eyed. I was wiping tears at the end of the first block! He looked so grown up in his uniform this year and he was so excited. Somewhere along the walk he said, "Mom, my chest hurts." I was all worried until he finished up the statement with "I think it is because my heart is beating so much because I am so excited!" I then proceeded to tear back up at that point and then had to hide it from a few other Moms who were walking their kids to school. So here are pics of our big morning. Deryck will pick him up at 2:15 this afternoon since he missed "Meet-n-Greet" day with Mrs. Mineshima.

Lego LOVE

We have offically entered the world of Lego's at the Parks house. Ethan could play with them all day long! So the rest of us have now decided to drop the Hawaiian tradition of taking our shoes off at the door so we can preserve our precious feet from sharp Lego corners!

Poor Phoebe

It seems that Phoebe is OVER-loved. Rachel just loves to squeeze and hug her. Yes, in one of those you can see Phoebe's rear and she runs behind Deryck trying to get away!

That being said, Phoebe is doing great. She hasn't had any accidents in the house lately (which is a relief on my part since I can't convince Ethan to clean it up). She is much more comfortable and her favorite thing is going down the street to the big open field in front of Ethan's school to chase the kids and fetch her mini tennis ball.

~PHOEBE~

During our time on the mainland the kids showed us how much they love animals...especially dogs. Though they tell us all the time, with our long trip back home, we put getting one on the back burner. Ethan and Rachel's love for Ralph, Minnie, Sally, Tucker, Sundae, Lucy, and Annie (all of the family pets we encountered this summer) made it abundantly clear that upon our arrival on the island we needed to find a pet for these sweet kids. After looking for a week or so, we stumbled upon an Army family (thanks to Craigslist) who needed to "re-home" a mini wiener dog. So I introduce to you...Phoebe! She is one and half, a sweet girl, wonderful to the kids (no matter what Rae does to her) and very obedient. She has been with us since earlier this week and there is not a moment where we thought we had made a wrong choice by bringing her home.

And yes, she is wincing away from Rachel's hand...thank goodness she is so sweet because Rachel is still learning to be sweet and soft to her. :)

Pictures of our sweet cousins and friends from our trip home to the mainland

*Still trying to figure out how I didn't get pics of Lexi and our time with the Richardson's or the Black's! Ladies, I need some pics (really that is for you LB)

Summer at the Lake!

Even though we live on a beautiful ocean, it is always nice to go home to the lake. My parents have a home on Greer's Ferry and we spent most of our time on it tubing and swimming. Ethan has become quite brave! He couldn't stand or sit still on the tube...his poor cousins!