The rest of the week and a Ball

The rest of the week was pretty busy, as usual.  Justin's birthday was Thursday and he had class in Waikiki all week (think lots of traffic).  I also had a spouse coffee Thursday night.  So besides opening his gifts there wasn't much birthday celebrating (we celebrated Sunday instead).  Then Friday night we went to the Military Police Regimental Ball.  Justin is not an MP but his headquarters falls under an MP Brigade right now so we could go.  We knew lots of people there so it was lots of fun! 

I also used my regular sandwich bread recipe to make a cinnamon swirl bread.  SO YUMMY!!

My neighbor and friend Dianne and I on our way to the ball.  I did her hair and she did mine.

The guys at the ball.

Swim-a-thon

I'm behind in posting by a week so I'm going to try and catch up in the next few days.

Last Saturday Caroline participated in Swim-a-thon with her team.  It is a fundraiser to help with operating costs.  The kids in Caroline's group were required to swim 50 laps in the 25m pool.  The kids that swim with the other coach had to swim 50 laps in the 50m pool!  No matter which group you swam with, that's a lot of laps!!  She did fantastic and actually swam 55 laps.
I got volunteered to take some underwater pictures since I had a GoPro and a waterproof pouch for my iPhone.  It was fun to swim under the kids and try and get some pictures.  About half of the pictures I took didn't work, but I did get some good ones.

Caroline swam in the lane with 3 other girls.

What a great smile!  And this was after!

The littlest ones goofing off for me!

Caroline in action!

Coming home and a cute story

We took a commercial flight home instead of waiting and wondering when we'd catch a "Space A" flight home.  We went from RDU to DET, to Seattle, to Honolulu.  We even got free food on the plane from Seattle to Honolulu!  

The day started out with lots of fun and games!

And ended with 3 tired kids! 

Will fell asleep like this!  Justin had a friend meet him at the airport and drive him to Hickam to get out car.   While we waited Will fell asleep in a light drizzle on the sidewalk with a heavy book bag on his head.

Sound asleep!

 Getting over the jet lag wasn't too bad.  We got home on a Wednesday night and kept the kids out of school on Thursday since they had woken up at 3:45am.  They went back to school on Friday and were quickly caught up with all their missed work.

Eric helping me wash the salt spray off my car.

Or trying to spray me!!

So here's the story part.  It's too cute not to share.

Will was talking to Caroline 

Will: Caroline, don't you think Mom needs to try a kukui nut?

Me: I don't eat nuts

Eric: But you eat donuts!

Me:  So true!  But those are the only nuts I eat.

That boy does know his momma!

A visit with the Schroeders

While we were in Salisbury Christian and Rachel drove from Kernersville and met us at Dan Nicholas Park.  Great park by the way.  We enjoyed a great day of paddle boating, train riding, carousel riding, animal viewing, and visiting.

Rachel, Meredith, and Caroline

Christian, Will, and Brandon

The group minus Eric and me.

Here we are!

Catching a ride with his big sister!

Our visit to Salisbury

We got to Grandma and Grandpa's house Saturday morning after our trip to Tweetsie.  We had been in touch with Jeff and Amanda and had arrived a few minutes before they did.  It was a surprise for the grandparents!!  And they were surprised.  It was great!  The cousins had a great time playing together.  

The family with the marlin Justin caught.  I have to have a house that this thing will fit in one day!

The kids helped put together a tent and then "camped out" that night.

 We also went to Tiger World and had a great time.  It was a perfect sized place for our aged kids.

Jackson, Lacey, Caroline, Will, and Eric

The HI kids with no shoes and the MN kids wearing shoes!!

Playing on the screened in porch.

A cuddle with Grandpa!

We had a great time seeing everyone!  Thanks for having us!

Tweetsie Railroad

One of the days we were in NC we went up to Tweetsie Railroad for the day.  Justin and the kids had never been.  It turned out to be a perfect day to go too.  School had just started in NC so we had the place pretty much to ourselves!  We saw shows, rode rides, rode the train, and had FUN!

The place was empty!

We even got Grandddaddy to ride the ferris wheel!

Having fun in the gift shop.  The "Davey Crocket" hat is a good look for you dad!

We even put pennies on the track for the train to flatten for us!  That was something I remember doing when I was a kid.

Thanks again Granddaddy and Mimi for a great day at Tweetsie!!!