Picnic dinner with friends

Last Saturday we went to Dog beach on Hickam with our neighbors that moved last summer.  They are here visiting their Grandmother/Great-Grandmother for a few weeks.  Will has LOVED having his best buddy Adam back to play with and have sleep overs with again!  The water was warm, the sun had these beautiful stripes, and we were almost the only ones there.  Perfect end to a great day with friends!

 The kids walked out to those trees, the water was never more than knee deep, and had fun climbing around.

 I love his expression in this picture!

 Buddies!  So fun to have Adam and Lottie around!

A famous Oahu photographer, Clark Little, took this picture of the sunset the same night we were having our picnic.  I couldn't capture the stripes in the sun with my phone camera but he did with his fancy one!
Check out his picture Here.

Everybody going surfin

It wasn't everyone, just 7 girls on a Friday morning.  I went with some girl friends Friday morning to White Plains to surf.  This is the same beach I took dad for his surf lesson back in August.  The weather was perfect!  Waves were coming to shore straight and in regular intervals.  Ideal for surfing. Five of the girls took a lesson and 3 had never surfed before.  I didn't take a lesson this time.  I know I just need to work on catching a wave.  I have no problem standing up as long as I can catch one.  I took my board, which is 9 feet, and was able to catch several waves and started being able to make some turns in the wave!  After an hour, we were all exhausted and enjoyed sitting on the beach eating our picnic lunches.

It was a beautiful morning with Honolulu and Diamond Head in the background. 

 The girls starting their lesson.

 Group shot after surfing!  I'm on the left in the middle, turquoise shirt.

I wore my swim watch: 1. because it's a cool watch,  2. I was curious to see my tracks, 3. to know how far I went.  Below are the tracks I made surfing.  I went .92 miles.  Cool stuff!

Totally normal, right?

The other night at dinner a stray cat comes strolling near our table.  This is not uncommon when eating outside in HI, or to have chickens around.  Caroline is a huge cat lover and can't resist trying to get the cat to rub against her.  She knows that she's not allowed to try and pet the strays.  Side story: Will on the way from the parking lot to the restaurant saw a cat go into the bushes and stuck his head in the bushes to see where the cat was.  Justin promptly told him, "Do you want to keep your face?"  Will, looked out of the bushes with a confused look on his face. (It was funny)  He asked Justin why'd you ask that dad.  Justin then explained that he really didn't know if that cat would scratch his face off did he?  It got Will out of the bushes so we could go eat!

Eric was the only one left eating when the cat came by.  There was some of my burger left so Caroline took some of it and sat on the ground with the meat in her hand to see if she could get the cat to come to her.  The cat did and ate the meat out of her hand.  It then proceeded to rub all around her legs and back.  She was in heaven!

Justin says that Caroline reminds him a lot of Susan.  Her facial expressions, mannerisms, and such.  One is her big smile, which I was able to catch!  Taking after her Aunt Susan is pretty awesome!

 Eventually all 3 ended up on the front porch of this place trying to feed the cat.  Will was especially thrilled that the cat's tail rubbed on his face.  He said it was SO soft!

By the way, this cat did not like the fries.  But I sure do!!

Odds and Ends

Justin is back from his week in Cambodia!!!  The week went quick, thank goodness, and we have enjoyed having him home for the long weekend.  Caroline is recovering from a sinus infection. 

We had homemade pizza for a picnic dinner at the coffee table while watching football.  The middle one is dairy free for Will. 

 Justin is in that picture, back row, on the left side, at the bottom of the slide.

 Last Friday I had a girls morning.  We went paddle boarding along the river in Haleiwa.  We saw some turtles and then as we went under the bridge to get out on the bank there were some tourists taking pictures of something.  So Gina and I headed over to see what they were looking at.  They pointed us towards a huge Manta Ray!!  It had a wing span of at least 5 feet.  It was gliding so gracefully back and forth in the opening of the river.  We followed it around for a few minutes and it was amazing to be so close to such a beautiful creature!  Then we went and sat not he beach below.  We were even treated to some whales splashing their tails and breaching.  Amazing morning!!

 Will got a rock tumbler for Christmas.  We have been tumbling some of the rocks he mined the last time we were in NC.  The results were pretty neat.  Will loved the whole process even though it took over 2 weeks to complete.

 Eric has been begging me to put bird food back in our feeder.  I resist because the birds eat it all in about 24 hours.  So it can get expensive trying to keep food in there for them.  But with the widows open you can hear then chittering and eating and it is pretty fun to watch so many birds at once.

 Friday morning we headed up to the North Shore to see the 40 foot waves.  Will was in school but Caroline had a teacher workday.  The weather was not good at all!  Rainy, foggy, and windy on top of the spray from the big waves.  Below is some of the people watching the waves below at Waimea Bay.

If you heard about the 2 Marine helicopters that crashed off shore this was what the weather was like for the initial search and rescue efforts.  There still hasn't been anything found.  Prayers for their families!

New Years Day Adventure

Since this year promises to be one of big adventures, mainly because we are moving this summer and don't yet know exactly where, but also because we have 3 kids!  So to start our year of adventures off right we took our bikes out to Keana Point.  It's a pretty tough tail rocky and a few small hills.  Nothing like the flat nice sidewalks we have around the neighborhood.  The kids did really well on the trail and Eric was the only 1 that fell and he only fell once!  I had hoped to use the bikes to get us to the nature preserve (which was 2.25miles) and still have energy to walk out to see the Albatross and monk seals.  But by the time we got there, rested, snacked, and explored the rocks, rain was coming.  So we headed back.  We made it to the car just in time!  The kids didn't get wet and Justin and I only got a little wet while loading the bikes on the rack.

Caroline getting ready to go!

Will getting ready.

The water and sky were just beautiful!

 You can see the dark clouds off on the horizon.

 I love the light blue the waves get when they are big.

 Will wanted to go exploring and then we all ended up down on the rocks exploring.

 Nice tide pools to check out.

 He's king of the hill!

The road was a bit bumpy!  But I could not have been prouder of how well the kids did!  

Caroline and Eric aren't sure they want to go again, but Will is ready to go back!!

Here's to a new year full of adventures!

Finishing a project

So this cross stitching project was started in 2004 (I'm assuming).  Here's the story (I'm partial to it).

Grandma Redfern started this beautiful cross stitch for her Dad (Justin's Grandpa Dick Riis).  I was pregnant with Caroline that year.  Well, early that fall of 2004 he passed away.  Grandma never picked it up to finish it.  When we were last in NC (August 2014) she was showing Caroline and me her sewing/crafting stuff.  I asked if I could take it.  I finally got started on it in May.  I worked on it occasionally through the sumer and then really stepped it up this fall when I was trying hard to get it finished in time for Christmas.

This is what it looked like when I got it.

I had not cross stitched since 2nd grade!  This was a little more complicated than the duck I did way back then.  It was slow going but I would take it with me to the pool, to gymnastics, football practice, pretty much everywhere and work on it.

 Almost done!

 Ta-Da!  I finished it in time for Grandma to open it on Christmas!

Grandma, I'm so glad you let me take this and finish it for you!  Love you

I'm still here!

So it's a week into the new year and the kids started back to school yesterday (Caroline) and today (Will).  The break was very welcome after such a busy fall.  Justin headed to Cambodia this morning and will be back in a week (short trip=more traveling time than in country time).  The kids' schedule is not very busy right now (thankfully) with the boys just doing gymnastics and Caroline doing gymnastics and swim team.
I added a few things to my plate (me things, not more kid things) and I'm hoping to get organized with my day and get back to blogging.  I volunteered (more like asked) to be in charge of the Facebook page for the Chapel here on post.  It has taken almost a year for someone to take me seriously and actually make me one of the administrator of the page (watch out Facebook!).  I just felt like if more information could get out, then the more people would participate in the service and with getting volunteers.  So far so good!  Then the other item I added was I became a consultant for Rodan + Fields!  Woo!  They are a great skin care company and I would love for you to check out my website here!  So I've been doing training with the company and getting ready to launch my business!  So exciting (and nerve wracking!).


Whomever gave me the reusable bags in the picture below (got lost in the crazy of Christmas morning, sorry)  I LOVE them!  They are so handy to just clip on my purse and even the bag boy at the grocery store commented about how nice and organized it was.  So thank you!!  And if you don't have any I highly recommend them.

 We all got gift cards to Barnes & Noble for Christmas.  We LOVE that store!  Seriously love it.  We all really enjoy checking out all the books and reading some while we are there.  Just great enjoyment for all of us!  While we were there we walked around the mall.  It's a huge mall with expensive stores, so we just window shop.  They kids loved playing in the koi pond and getting the fish to nibble their fingers.  Eric was the on;y one with a wet shirt at the end.  Success!

 Justin is a huge Marvel comic fan.  And for the past several years and still going there have been lots of Marvel movies made (Ant-Man, etc).  Being the fan that he is Justin signed up to receive a Marvel Collector Corps box (with goodies in it every other month).  Some months Justin gets a shirt and others Will has gotten the shirts.  I took one of the shirts and wrapped it around a canvas and will attach the pins and patches that come with each box.  The boys love it!  Caroline too.  Me, eh, whatever!

 Miles is still making friends wherever he goes!  Our neighbor Zoe loves for Miles to sit in her lap!  She often just comes right in our house and plops down and knows that he will soon be in her lap.  This was from this morning before we walked to school.  She sat on the curb and Miles immediately climbed in!!

And 2016 is off and running!!  Here's to a great new year with plenty of new and exciting things!