Turkey trot time

Race day was finally here and Eric was ready to go!  Although he told me the day before multiple times that he wasn't ready for his race.  Maybe it was nerves.  This is the third year we have gotten up early to do the Turtle Bay Turkey Trot.  The first year the Morris family was here visiting and Graham and Justin ran with Eric in the jogging stroller.  Then last year Justin and Caroline ran.  This year Justin and Eric were the runners.  

All dressed up and ready to run!

Eric's feathers blend into Justin's.

 It was not the best weather.  And hasn't been great weather for over a week.  Nut the rain held off until right after they crossed the finish line!  Notice how the trees are blowing.  It was windy!

 Those 3 guys in the blow-up turkey outfits won for best costume.

 Caroline and Will watching the big waves.

 Here they come!!  Will was helping them the last little bit.

 Sprinting to the finish!

 They had a wheelbarrow race for a GoPro Hero 4.  Caroline and Will had fun but didn't win.

Eric won $50 to the Oakley store for being the youngest participant!  He got a pretty cool backpack.  Which he can use when we move this summer and for Kindergarten in the fall.  He's excited!!

 We came home after the race since the weather wasn't good for beaching.  After enjoying a lazy afternoon of football we went over to a friend's house for Friends-giving.  It is so nice to have made such wonderful friends!

This is the group of friends we do most things with.  The kids all get along well and are stair steps in age.  There are 11 kids ages: 13,12,11,11,10,9,8,7,5,5, and 1.5!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Rain, rain, and more rain

So we've had about 5 days of straight rain, not even a little sun peeking through.  And everything feels wet to the touch around the house.  Some of my wood furniture is growing mold, most of my walls are covered with mold, and I'm having trouble getting my clothes to dry.  It's just so gross.  I've turned on all the window a/c units we have to try and dry the house out and bought some more fans, but so far I'm still finding new places with mold.  

The kids are tired of playing in the rain and just house hop from one friend's house to another.  Miles, poor thing, is in desperate need of a walk.  And my house is much more cluttered having more inside play time than out!  

Before all the rain started Miles had fun playing with his best buddy Pepper.  They play so very well together and it's fun to watch them.

 Eric saw Caroline writing thank you notes and he wanted to too!  Such determination.

 Saturday had all the makings to be a pretty hectic day.  Justin needed to be picked up at the airport, Eric had a birthday party, and Will had a football game.  I had spoken with Catherine (where Eric's party was going to be) and she was willing to have Eric come over early (like 8:30 am early for a 10 am party).  Because I needed to be at the airport to pick Justin up at 9 then take Will to his game at AMR by 9:30.  As with anything that is so well planned it didn't quite happen like that.  Justin's plane landed way early (while I was still in bed!) so we grab some dry cereal and went to go get him, come home thinking we'll grab a quick breakfast, drop Eric off (again early for the party), and head back down to Will's game.  But on the way home from the airport Will's game was cancelled due to rain.  So we had time for a nice big breakfast, Eric went to the party on time, and it ended up being a pretty chill day.  So very thankful for good friends that are willing to help out too!  I texted her multiple times that morning with the changing plans.

After the party we ended up bringing 2 sisters home with us to play.  The girls played American Dolls with Caroline for a while, then they all went worm hunting in the rain, then I found Justin playing Kids vs Parents with 5 kids.  I joined him to help out!  Fun day!

A Little (or big) Boys Dream

Yesterday Eric had a pretty darn good morning.  He went for a 22 minute run only pausing for 2 sips of water along the way!  So proud of how he is doing.  1 week until race day!  

(Side note)  Will came in my room the other morning and got in bed.  I was up reading so he joined me and then Miles thinks if the kids are in bed then it's ok for him to get in too.  We snuggled.  Then I stretched and Miles rolled over on his back to stretch and I couldn't resist taking this picture.  Will's first thing in the morning smile was great!  

 Towards the end of our run (me biking, E running) we spotted an awesome rainbow and tried to run under it (great motivation).  We didn't get rained on at all (you can see my shadow in the bottom of the picture).  And we never made it under the rainbow.

 We stopped to watch the workers cut down this huge tree.

 Then got to watch them remove the old asphalt and throw it into a waiting dump truck.  Then this little excavator would scrape the layers of asphalt off the curb area and pull up random roots.  We must have watched for a good 45 minutes!  We watched for so long that the supervisor gave Eric a poncho, safety glasses, and reflective pants.  Eric was thrilled!!

 And if watching all the road construction wasn't enough, 2 helicopters landed in the field right beside  the commissary as we were walking in.  We stopped to watch them too!

He picked his own outfit out!!

Big day for my new 5 year old!!

Veteran's Day

Last Wednesday we went to a new to us beach.  We went to the first lagoon when we typically go to the 4th one.  It was nice and warm and sunny.  Something that has been lacking around our house lately (lots of rain).  

Below is just a random picture of Eric after one of Will's football games.  The chair is almost as big as he is!

Caroline and Will are both in the tree!  Can you spot them?

Beautiful!  We enjoyed snorkeling and enjoying a relaxing morning before Justin had to pack for his Cambodia trip.  He left the next morning.

The boys played not he rocks as much as they did the water.

Mom!  Take a picture of us!

Caroline whacked her head as she was walking under the branches trying to get to the boys.  It bled like crazy and we almost left.  I used fresh water and rinsed it off, determined we were probably ok, so we stayed.  It stopped bleeding and some quiet time in the shade was all she needed.  The picture os what it looked like the next morning.

We are missing Justin but do get to FaceTime with him and he will be home Saturday morning.  So not much longer!

A place for a picnic

Yesterday was another fun friday morning with my girl friends.  We hiked out to Kaena Point then up to a pillbox.  The views were amazing as you could see both the North shore side of the island and the Waianae side of the island.  

There were 3 other ladies at the top to took our picture for us.  And we stayed up there and had our lunch.  What an amazing place for a picnic!

 We also got to see 2 rainbows.  One on the way down to the coast and another on our hike.

 You can see where we are going in the very top right on the picture.  Up!

 That's looking back towards the North shore side.

 Looking at the point.

 And the North shore side to the left, Waianae side to the right.

I want to come back up here during whale season to whale watch!  I need to bring Justin up here too but probably won't take the kids since was over 5 miles total.
It was a great morning and nice to see the sun since it's been so rainy at our house lately.

Here's a map of where we were from the info from my watch.

What's going on?

The last time we went to the beach we also had Andrew with us!  One of these times he comes for a visit(work really) I'll have to make sure I get a picture of him.  But it was a great afternoon spent at a beautiful beach.  (no sharks) The kids boogie boarded and had a great time then we had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen before taking Andrew back to the MCBH.  

Playing in the surf, his favorite thing to do!

 This Brazilian Cardinal came to visit us.  He was beautiful.

 Then Justin and I attended a Champions breakfast at the middle school with Caroline.  She made honor roll of the first quarter!!  So very proud of that girl.

 The boys are still training for their run on Thanksgiving day.  Will isn't competing in the race but he's still training.  To be honest about this, I'm not sure how race day will go.  They are doing the couch to 5k program but there are still tears when they have to run more than 5 minutes without a break.  Eric needed new shoes (he went up 2 sizes! and that helped) and he's fighting a cold.  We'll see!

 Friday Eric's Pre-K class walked to the fire station.  He wanted me to go with him so I did.  To get them all there in 1 piece they hold a rope with loops knotted on it.  It worked really well and looked so cute.  Eric is now the tallest in his class!!

He's the blonde with his arm behind his back.

 The kids got the chance to tour the station and see where the firefighters sleep and eat, spray the water hose, climb in the truck, and learn about the fire suit and all the gear.  It was a fun time.  Then at the end the 3 moms had a race to see who could but on the gear while the kids sang the ABC song. It was fun and the kids thought it was great!  The first question Justin asked when I told him was if I had won.  Of course I did!  Will got his competitive nature honestly!

This week conclude with a swim meet where our team was co-hosting (meaning we provided food, etc for the coaches and volunteers) and I ended up being the announcer.  Yep, they gave me a microphone!

"I'm medium E!"

Eric turned 5 yesterday!  5!!!  How can my baby be 5 already?!

He had a great day and loved getting all the emails, phone calls, and birthday songs sung to him.  It was a school day for him which made it even better to be able to celebrate with his friends.  He asked me to bring in cupcakes with sprinkles for his class.  Then after school we went to Baskin Robins for a cone of mint chocolate chip.  He chose the menu for the day which included biscuits with apple butter for breakfast and dinosaur chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, and peas for dinner.  Chocolate cake with mint chocolate chip icing topped off a great day!

Happy birthday Eric!!