High and Dry--Flood Update

Hi All. A sincere thank you for all the prayers offered up on our behalf with the flooding issue this past week. We arrived home from Hawaii at 1:30 this morning. My mom picked us up at the airport and we planned to spend the night at their house since our neighborhood was evacuated last evening. However, by the time our plane landed the waters were receding. So, we headed for home and were able to drive right up to the driveway (after going around a barricade). Our house and the houses around us stayed dry. Praise the Lord! Thanks to our neighbor for moving Tadd's pick up to high ground and watching out for us in general. And to all the folks who called and offered us a place to stay. AND to all of you prayer warriors. The Lord has brought us through the rains yet again. His mercies fail not!
I'll finish up with Hawaii sometime later. This morning Ezra said "momma, I want to go back to Hawaii. Let's do it again!" However, they are both happy to be back in their own familiar surroundings playing with their toys.

Hanauma Bay

Two days ago we drove over to Hanauma Bay to do some snorkeling. It's not as fun since one of us has to stay on the beach with the kids while the other one goes alone--but at least we only had to rent one set of snorkel gear! We had fun seeing fishies and walking up and down the steep hill. Ezra fell sound asleep on the way up while still clutching a sand toy. Since the computer is almost dead and we need to get directions back to the rental car place, I can't write much more. I'll leave the captions to your imagination.

Some scenes from Haleiwa

Sorry Big Al, more beach pictures coming your way! Try not to throw up : )


a new rash guard to protect my poor child who was blessed with my skin.

Bikini-mama--guess what??? She tans! Yet another way she's like her grandma Hi-daho.

She also eats sand...lots of it.

Ezra floating in his turtle ring. He actually catches a few waves in that thing.

My boys.

Off to the water--it's awfully hard to pull him outta there!

Lots of sea turtles in the water and on shore around here.

We eat most meals out on the picnic tables by the ocean. This supper was made complete with fresh sweet corn we bought at a Saturday market just across the street from Pipeline.

6:30 AM--we get to the beach before the sun most mornings. Sandy pj's--only in Hawaii!

Sun. sand. waves. heat. warm breezes teasing your hair. foam from hard waves receding back into the ocean. the scent of salt in the air. children laughing in the ocean. surfers everywhere. sunscreen. sunburns. giggling. the air heavy with the scent of plumeria. bright flowers. These are all words I have in my vocabulary. The words to describe how I feel about all these things...do not exist.

Our Time In Ala Moana and Waikiki

The pictures are in the opposite order I wanted them to be in, sorry. And I don't have any time to cut and paste as the computer has no charger and each minute could be its last : ) So, here are some pictures and a small explanation at the end. I'll try to post more later about the second part of our trip which we are currently enjoying here in Haleiwa.

The above is what would happen each day in Ala Moana after our time at the beach--two little munchkins crashed out hard! With the time change, they get up early--between 5 & 6 and nap well.

Daddy and Caroline on the beach outside of Duke's where we ate dinner. The best part about Waikiki is the calm water and lit up beach so that we could wade in the surf even after dark.

Dinner at Duke's Canoe Club.

Playing on the beach after dinner. A great pre-bed activity!

Pretty flowers to decorate our hair.

In the water as soon as she hit the beach our first night in Hawaii.

Ezra wasted no time either.

The beauty we enjoyed our first night here.

For the first 3 nights of our trip, Tadd was working out of the BC Honolulu office. That means the kids and I were on our own stuck going to the beach every day. We would have some breakfast and meander out to the Ala Moana state park. It's a great beach for kids since the waves break way off shore and make the beach protected. There were lifeguard to make me feel safe with the kids in the water. Ezra and Caroline loved playing right in the surf with sand/water toys acquired from an ABC store with money grandpa and grandma gave them for just such a purpose. We enjoyed walks on the beach after dark in Waikiki and even some night time wading. Wednesday night Tadd's co-workers took us out to a lovely dinner--which our kids terrorized. Thursday we took one last look at the busy city and hit the road for Haleiwa. What a difference! Waikiki was fun and there was much to enjoy--but we are enjoying the solitude here even more. We'll try to post more later!

We've Arrived!

In Hawaii, that is. Daddy is working today and will have the computer with him. So, no pictures or report from me during the kids' nap time. We had a looooooong day of travel yesterday. It began at 6 AM when grandma drove us to the airport on a flat tire in our car : ( Sorry you missed your class and had to wait at the airport for AAA grandma. Thanks for the ride! We managed to get to the beach in time for dinner, sunset and frolicking on the beach. Ezra took exactly 10 seconds to run fully into the ocean. Caroline took even less. They like Hawaii. Today's mission: the beach...and the pool. It's a tough life. I'll try to have pictures tomorrow.

Once Upon A Time...

...There was a beautiful young princess.

One day a mean mommy locked her up in a tower with bars.

Lucky for her, a famous frog prince lived close by! He climbed up to the tower and saved her.

When he had taken her far from the tower, he gave her a little kiss just to make sure she was okay.

Then they stopped to pose for a few pictures taken by the formerly mean mommy with the camera.

The frog prince reminded the princess that if she'd only kiss him...he might just turn back into the handsome prince! So, she tried.

Huh, didn't work. Oh well, it was worth a try : ) They decided that as long as they were in costume they ought to head down to the local merchants and gather some candy!

FYI: Frog costume was made by a camera-shy gramma for her little froggy. Thanks gramma!!!

Happy Birthday Daddy-Man!

So, did you all hear about that lady who was so dumb that she took 3 months to figure out how to get into her own blog? And then she sent a link to all her friends and family and put the wrong blog name. Haha. That must have been embarrassing. I heard that she's considering some sort of therapy. Like an exotic get-away with her family or something.

Last night we had fun celebrating daddy's birthday. The creme brulee that I was planning needed to be refrigerated overnight...oops. Instead we ran to the local QFC bakery for an over-priced rich chocolate cake to make ourselves sick with. Ezra was so excited for cake! Good thing daddy had a birthday to accommodate him. We neglected to get any present-opening pictures. But there are quite a few with the all-important cake.



Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate.


Nothing like a good birthday wrestle session.



He sure does love his daddy.




Taste testing the goods...again.

Need any help with that candle, daddy?

This is currently one of my favorite pictures of the kids. Anytime love is being shown between the two I'm happy!

A little pre-birthday check-up from doctor Ezra. Note: those are not fancy earrings. They are some sort of elaborate bandage to help daddy's ear. And that's not a bonnet on his head. Again, some sort of medical device. What else can you expect from a doctor wearing only a diaper?