Easy to spot

This scene is not uncommon around here.  Especially if we are not on post.

Can you spot Eric?

His hair is still super blonde.  Justin and I get comments all the time about his hair!  "Wow, he is SO blonde!" is a very common one.  It's not getting any darker living in HI that's for sure.  So who knows how long his hair will be super blonde, but for now, I love it!!

Even his eyebrows are still blonde!  His eyelashes have darkened some though.

My birthday

Saturday was a great day to turn 36!  Justin and the kids did a fantastic job making me feel special.  We started the day off with Will's baseball game, had lunch out, then back home so the kids could go to the neighbors' birthday party.  The highlight of the day was Justin making my birthday cake.  

Beautiful birthday flowers

The kids watching me open presents.

 So not only did Justin make me a cake.  He made me a from scratch chocolate cake for the first time ever!!  I gave him the recipe and left to go to the party outside.  He did the rest!

 SO. MANY. CANDLES!!

Caroline was taking the pictures!

The cake was delicious!  I'm pretty impressed at Justin's baking skills.  Thanks for all the birthday calls and messages.  I had a great day!

Swim lessons

Eric is half way through his first set of swim lessons.  Not even half-way through his first class the instructor said he needed to be moved up a level!  He wants to be on the swim team with his brother and sister and he is well on his way.  The videos are from day 2.  His instructor is great and besides the water being super cold (surprising I know) I'm a proud of this little guy!

Swim buddy, swim!!

Fun with friends

Last Saturday after Eric woke up from we got in the already packed car and headed to Waimea Bay.  It's one of our favorite spots and it's back on the rotation since the winter waves are gone.  The best part was that 2 other families were meeting us there for a picnic on the beach and swimming fun.  The guys and the big kids (Caroline, Will, and Matthew) all jumped off the big rock a couple of times.  Justin and Will went out on the paddle board and Justin also took the board out and let the kids jump off it.  Another family brought their 2 kayaks and we had fun with those too.

The clouds and few drops of rain may have made lots leave the beach, but not us!!  The water was perfectly calm and it's hard to believe a few months ago there were 40 foot waves here.

Justin and Will paddling

Somebody had a slip-n-slide set up and the kids had fun sliding.  That's Will getting some air!

Sweet Grace thought she was something else climbing in the chair by herself.

Dinner time!  

The clouds cleared and we got to enjoy the sunsetting.

4 or 5 kids on the paddle board

Playing until the sun set

The Cotovsky girls.  Claire (3), Grace (15 months), and Caroline (5).  I don't hold it against their mom that she graduated from UNC and then went to U. of Il to law school.  She's a great friend!

The beach, friends, sunset, swimming, and rock jumping all added up to a great evening!

Dinner and a sunset

We went out to eat Thursday night (last week) and then walked across the street to the beach to watch the sunset.  And it was just as awesome as that sounded!

That's the restaurant behind us.

View from our table!

What a fun evening and a beautiful sunset.  The best thing was we did the whole dinner on the beach watch the sunset again Saturday night!  Have I mentioned we love Hawaii?

Swimming with dolphins

Friday mooring early the babysitter showed up (6 am early) and Justin (no work that day) and I headed to the boat harbor in Waianea.  We were going out to swim with spinner dolphins, snorkel, and have an early lunch on a boat with a tour group.  We both had lots of fun and seeing the dolphins swim all around you and jump out of the water was just cool!  I don't have many pictures (camera batteries died) but it was a beautiful day.

Busy, busy

The last 2 weeks or so have been crazy busy.  Last week was VBS and the kids had so much fun.  Eric is still too young to go but he is looking forward to going next year.  So I would drop the bigs off for VBS at 9 and Eric and I would visit with a neighbor who was dropping off her oldest.  One morning we went over to the Starbucks so we could visit more.  Then we decided we needed to just get together for dinner.  So last Saturday we walked 2 streets over and had a wonderful dinner with friends.  They have 3 girls (5,3,15 months) and Eric just loves playing with Claire (the 3 year old).  Eric is still in pretty school, so Tuesday and Thursday mornings I would drop him off then drop the bigs off, then come back home and try and get the baby to sleep or go to the commissary then go back and get Eric then go get the bigs.  Then it was home for lunch, naps, swim practice, dinner, and base ball practice.  

Girl Scout event where the boys got to come along.  Painting pottery.

VBS I have 2 videos of the kids singing at church Sunday morning that I will add.

 I'm a home body and with 4 kids it's just not easy to get out.  So when a friend invited us to meet them at trampoline I agreed.  I packed a picnic lunch and after picking up the kids we drove on down.  It was a great day to do that since it had been raining all morning.  There was a 13 degree temperature change from my house to iTrampoline (on the dry side of the mountain)!  The kids had a blast, Gina and I got to visit while the kids all jumped, and they went to bed early!

Will got 4th place in his first swim meet!  He was so thrilled (not evident in the picture)!

 There has been more rain this week and the kids built a fort in the playroom.

It was a HUGE mess.  But the good thing is the kids are old enough they can clean it all up themselves (and they did!).

 Gina also invited us to meet her (she has 2 boys, 6 and 4 and a newborn baby girl) at the beach Wednesday this week.  It was a beautiful day for the beach hot, sunny, but crowded due to the King Kamehameha day holiday.

Beautiful!  I had planned on staying for about 2 hours so I could get back home so Eric could get his nap, but we ended up staying for about 4 hours!  We got home, rinsed off, unloaded the car, and then went to the library.  Caroline and Will helped a lot.  Taking 4 kids to the beach by yourself is no easy thing!  After the library we came home, I made dinner, then to was off to baseball practice.

Going to baseball practice and looking too grown up!

Yesterday morning Justin and I went and swam with dolphins and then that evening we all went out to eat with friends.  Saturday we went to Will's baseball game (off post this week) and it was cancelled because the other team didn't show up and then after Eric's nap we went to the beach and met the same 2 families that we have been doing stuff with the past 2 weeks.
SO MUCH FUN!

Family bike ride

So this was back at the end of May but I wanted to write about it.  After dinner one night we went for a family bike ride.  Not just any ride, but this was the first time that everyone was on their own bikes!!  Some of my most favorite memories growing up were the family bike rides we all would go on.  So doing this with my family was just awesome!

Not related to the bike ride except that this was on my cup at dinner that night.  The termites have been swarming lately and this one stuck to my glass.  We have lots of termite wings (the wings fall off) around the back hallway and kitchen area.  And they like my kleenex.

 We rode bikes to the small hills on the edge of post near our house.  Will calls them the "BMX hills" and loves to race on them.  I was hesitant to let Eric ride on the hills.  I wasn't sure how he would handle the speed and the bumpiness.  He still doesn't know how to put on brakes!

 After biking the hills the kids rolled down another hill.

Daddy and son riding side-by-side on the way home.

 Then a little after bath tickle/wrestle time.

Miles love tickle time as much as any of them!

Then it was story time.  Notice the lovely tan line on my foot in the corner?!

Justin has been super busy since that night and we haven't had the opportunity to go for a family ride since then.  I'm hoping that we can ride some more soon.
Here are some videos I took that night.  Eric handled the hills just fine!