Andy |

Aloha!

We survived the trip and made it to my dad and Leslie’s place on the island of Oahu! We drove 3 hours to Toronto (it was half the price to fly out of the Toronto airport vs Rochester or Buffalo). The kids enjoyed their Timmy’s donuts while we waited for our first plane.

We picked up our second flight in Vancouver. We BARELY had time to make it through customs (since we’d be entering into the US again) and got to our flight with minutes to spare. If I did it again I’d try to get a longer layover anywhere I had to deal with the customs process.

The first flight was 4.5 hours. The second was 6. It wasn’t enjoyable by any stretch, but honestly the kids did great! A lot was asked of them and it was an incredibly long day with time changes and both were troopers! No meltdowns and they were able to keep pretty busy between movies, coloring, games on the tablet, crafts and other activities.

We had to “make” them sleep too, I think they would have tried to push through but we put activities away and carved out a chunk of time on the second flight as “sleep” time.

Andy’s smiling because Ben is sleeping and quiet. Ben.talked.the.entire.time.he.was.awake.

My dad and Leslie picked us up at the airport and had beautiful leys for us. This is us the next morning, slightly more awake than when we arrived :)

They aren’t kidding about it being paradise here, it’s SO beautiful! Warm air and sunshine feel so good and it smells wonderful.

My dad is a Colonel in the Air Force and is on Hickam Air Force Base right now.

Sparing no expense for a Colonel, his housing is a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath, beautiful home on base.

Views out their livingroom window are amazing. They sit right at the entrance to Pearl Harbor.

The back patio, where I’m sitting going through photos. Birdies are chirping and I’m enjoying an iced coffee.

Some of the birds that frequent their feeder.

You can even see ships coming in and out of the harbor. Hickam is a joint base with the Navy occupying the other side.

A sweet moment with Cassidy.

Ben telling Leslie all his plans about coconuts and beaches. And drinking coconut milk. And the coconuts he’s going to bring back for his class. He’s set on coconuts!

Cassidy loved finding all the little flowers that fell from trees in their back yard.

Doggie Sadie was happy to have new visitors too!

And Prim just wanted dinner.

We’ve just stuck to activities on base so far. And I realized that the dog and cat made it into this post but I didn’t share any pics of my dad ;-) We visited his office and I have those photos and many more adventures coming up! So thankful to be here, it still seems pretty surreal!

Almost human again

by Heather | 0 comments

Let me preface this by saying we hardly ever get sick. Sure, the occasional cold or sniffles…but nothing like the past month! It started over February break, Ben got an ear infection followed by pink eye. Then Cassidy and I got the pink eye. Once we conquered that Cassidy came down with a fever that lasted five days! I felt so bad for her, no other symptoms but the fever and a runny nose but she had a rough time of it. Lots of snuggles, ibuprofen and popsicles on the couch to stay hydrated. While she fought off the end of her fever/virus I started a sinus infection. I have never been in so much pain, it felt like someone had punched me in the face my sinuses hurt so bad. I’m on day 9 of that and thankfully some of the pressure has started to dissipate. I never knew so many gross things could come out of my nose and eyes. Now Andy has some kind of nasty congestion and fever and stayed home from work for a few days. He had joked he was going to live out in the garage to avoid the plague but I guess he didn’t make the move out there quick enough.

I’m not sure I can take much more, everyone has been troopers but there isn’t a lot left to give! We’re still popping Mucinex and drinking water like crazy. I also used a neti pot for the first time! If you don’t know what that is, google it, it’s gross but pretty effective. Ben said he liked my new teapot…

A man and his cat

by Heather | 0 comments

Andy and Colby. Colby and Andy. It’s enough love and kitty smooches to make you gag ;-)

Christmas 2016

by Heather | 0 comments

Wow, it’s January already! I had every intention of sharing these a little closer to Christmas, but time got away from me. The weekend before Christmas we spent some time with Andy’s parents and Jared and Becky’s family. The weekend after Christmas we spent with my mom, Paul and Justin and Kate’s family. In between we had our Christmas at the house (and we got to skype with my dad, Leslie and Christopher in Hawaii).

Christmas Eve we went to the candlelight service at our new church. Grainy pictures, it was dark! Somehow Andy ended up with all our candles by the end.

Somewhere in 10 years of marriage, colored lights took over our house. Don’t tell Andy, but I kind of like them now :)

Christmas morning!

Winning the lamest parents ever award, we got Ben a booster seat for Christmas. He’s 6 and was still in a 5 point harness (nothing wrong with that, it is safer) but he’d been asking for a “big kid seat” and we figured it was probably time. He was excited!

We were so lucky that Aunt Gabby and Aunt Danielle got to sleep over Christmas Eve and spend all day Christmas with us. Aunts are awesome at putting together lego sets!

Andy got a book about poop from my dad and Leslie…

Ben’s “big” gift was a pirate set with a ship and fort. We got it off of ebay, and some pieces were missing (so we did kind of feel like the lamest parents ever). But he didn’t seem to mind.

Mermaid from my dad and Leslie. Look at those smiles!

Gabby’s gift to the kids were crocheted blankets (knitted? I honestly don’t know the difference) Cassidy’s was a pink mermaid tail.

And since Ben’s favorite color is purple, he got a purple dragon.

Danielle brought her ukulele and the kids had fun singing with her. Their favorite song was “You are my sunshine.”

Danielle snuggles.

Gabby snuggles.

We had our holiday dinner Christmas afternoon. Some of us were still in pajamas. And some of us don’t know how to take nice pictures. I should note that after church on Christmas Eve I thought it would be fun to use cookie cutters to make cut out pizzas. It made a mess and when the shapes baked they kind of turned into blobs. The kids thought it was fun though and I suppose we made a memory. Mom tried (life motto). The adults just make one big pizza on the pizza stone afterwards.

The kids really enjoyed Christmas punch in wine glasses (ginger ale, cranberry juice and sherbert).

Christmas sunset. What winter scene would be complete without snowmobile tracks through the yard?

Finally, we have Andy’s insanely bright insanely green LED light he delighted in sharing with the neighborhood. From outside it looked like the aliens had come and were beaming us up. We saw everything pink afterwards.

I loved sharing our low key Christmas with family this year! So thankful Gabby and Danielle could join us and make some memories.

Just keep swimming

by Heather | 0 comments

We may have watched Finding Dory three plus times over Thanksgiving.

Anyway…

We also headed to Niagara Falls as a family over Thanksgiving break. Friends of ours had won a free night’s stay at a hotel, but unfortunately moved out of state before they could use it. So they gifted it to us!

The original plan had been to visit the Aquarium and do some touristy things before heading to Andy’s parent’s house on Thanksgiving day. Andy wasn’t feeling great before or during the trip though so we pretty much just bummed around the hotel. The kids loved staying up late watching TV and eating snacks in bed. They slept pretty well (Cassidy and I shared a queen bed, Andy and Ben also shared a queen). Our room neighbors stayed up pretty late and woke up loud and early which was a little annoying, but I suppose nobody really goes to a hotel to sleep well.

The kids doing a puzzle the next morning. They were bright eyed and bushy tailed!

Hotel picnic breakfasts are awesome!

Poor widdle sick Andy. Haha, the poor guy did actually feel pretty crummy.

I took the kids down to the pool and we were excited to find a mini aquarium too! I’d never actually told them we were planning to do the aquarium (I tend to not tell them things ahead of time because then I have to answer questions for days).

So fun!

This one was Ben’s favorite, with sharks and stingrays.

This is a perfect depiction of the kids’ personalities :) Ben is cautious, calculating and a little hesitant to try new things (even if he is super friendly and outgoing). Cassidy just goes for it, wants to do it herself and and is very determined that she will succeed at it.