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!

Sleep walking

Last Monday morning my neighbor told me that Will showed up on their doorstep, barefooted and in his pj's, at midnight.  He knocked and rang the doorbell.  When she answered the door he was crying and not making much sense in what he was saying.  She walked him back home and tried to get him to lock the door.
Will didn't remember any of it!  Since then I have been on the phone with the community center trying to figure out how to keep Will in the house.  Our doors have a dead bolt but when you turn the door knob it unlocks it.  Hopefully this week the issue will be resolved and latches will be added to the tops of the doors.
In the mean time we slide a rubbermaid container full of wooden blocks (with a few on the top) in front of the hall door so we can hear him (hopefully!) if he tries to get out.
Will has never left the house before but he has done some crazy things when he gets up to go to the bathroom.  Like peeing in the laundry hamper or...

leaves his pajama pants in the toilet!!

My sweet middle child!

Food still rules his world.  I walked into the kitchen and saw him staring longingly at the chicken I had roasted for dinner! Even with his food restrictions he is my adventurous eater and will try it all!

A little bit of change (for me)

The day we got back from Meow-e I went and got my hair cut.  It was getting pretty long, but unfortunately it wasn't quite long enough to donate what I cut off.

The before picture.  LONG hair

And the After!!

The hair dresser blew it straight.

Day 2

And what it looks like if I let it air dry.  It has gotten curlier the older I have gotten!  It is so easy to wash, run my fingers through it and go.  I really love it!! 

Road to Hana

After we saw sunrise we drove back down the volcano and on towards Hana.  Before I tell about our drive I will give you some facts so you don't have to look them up!  The road up to the top of Haleakala is 38 miles long.  It goes from about sea level to 10,023 ft in those 38 miles!  It was a dark, twisty drive up following a line of taillights.  The volcano is huge, over 34,000 acres.
The road to Hana is only 52 miles from the town where the airport is in Kahului, but takes over 2 hours to drive.  Why?  There are 620 curves and 59 single lane bridges!!  Caroline got sick a few more times before we arrived in Hana ready to get out of the car!  She only got sick in the car once (on the hotel pillow we had taken with us!).  The road is not down near the coast and is quite hilly as well.  Will also complained about not feeling well but never got sick (surprisingly).  I was driving and trying to straighten the curves out as often as traffic would allow (pretty sure that's a Crissman thing too Aunt Linda!)  There were plenty of water falls and views of the ocean along the drive.

The black sand beach. Although it was mostly pebbles.  Still cool!

Checking out the pebbles.  It was hot down there.

One edge had black sand.  Super neat.

We went on a little hike and this is looking back at the beach.

We stopped our hike here to watch the waves crash against the cliff and splash way up!

Thought the bright green plants were neat against the dark volcanic rocks and the blue of the water.

splash!

Of course they threw rocks in the water.

One of the many water falls on the ride.

We made it!  And stopped to buy some dramamine.

At this point we were looking for somewhere to eat.  We had taken dry cereal and snack bars with us and had eaten those earlier in the day (not Caroline) and wanted a real meal.  The only place still serving breakfast was a hotel.  The Travaasa.  So in we go for breakfast at 11am.

Beautiful view of the ocean in the background, wonderful breeze, and a cinnamon roll as big as Eric's head!  

 The breakfast crowd and left only 2 other tables had people sitting at them.  And come to find out the closed at 11 and didn't open again until later for lunch.  We lucked out!  The food was delicious and Caroline was glad to finally have something to eat for the first time that day.  After we ate we stopped at the little store at the hotel.  Found out it was a 5 start hotel!

On the way from the parking lot to the black sand beach.

In a cave down at the beach. 

 So after the beach and little hike we drove back towards our hotel.  The boys finally fell asleep about 1pm (after being up since 3 remember!).  Caroline was sitting in the front seat to help with the motion sickness.  I was the only one awake in the car!

Justin took this picture of the schronized sleeping!

We went and had a somewhat early dinner at the Maui crewing company and then back to the hotel for a quick dip in the pool and bedtime at 7.  I was not far behind and think I was out by 8!!  Great day full of adventures!  Caroline won't forget that drive anytime soon!