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.