Evening Walk

I have decided that preschoolers are a lot like puppies. The more you exercise them, the better they behave. So, as a result, I've started taking the boys on evening walks after dinner. We've only done it a few times, but so far they have looked forward to going and get very excited. I make them wear their "running" shoes and glow belts, which are flipping adorable on them.

The distance of our walks has been right at a mile. Tonight's walk was interesting because it was more of a meandering than an actual walk. We walked down to the beach access and looked at the waves. Keep in mind that these photos were taken with my phone. It was a beautiful evening. I love watching the sun set over the mountains.

Because of the tsunami warning, the beach has been closed all day. They put these signs up whenever the weather gets too bad for people to get in the water.

While on our walk, the boys adopted two pet rocks, petted two dogs, saw a chicken, and played hide and go seek behind every tree they came across. We finished the evening off with a bath with the new pet rocks and a peaceful bed time.

It's a Hummingbird

Tonight while reading the boys a book before bed, we were looking at a page that had a few birds on it. There was a parrot, a toucan, and just a regular looking bird. When I asked them what kind of bird it was, Brody said, "Just a bird." Luke piped up and said, "It's a hummingbird," which it wasn't. I do not recall ever talking with them about hummingbirds, so it caught me off guard a bit. I asked him what he meant by a hummingbird, and he responded with, "They hum. You know....HHHMMMMM."

This is a tsunami?

Despite all of the hoopla on the news today, it turned out to be a gorgeous Hawaiian day. The only problem was we couldn't go anywhere because of road closings. Other than that, it was a hot, still day here on our little patch of the island. Look at that sky! It's amazing.

This is one view from our backyard.

This is overlooking a grassy area by the mailboxes. What a gorgeous view!

Because I'm such a daredevil, I took the boys to the park not long before the big wave was supposed to come it. Seems it was the popular thing to do, as there were lots of kids playing outside and many families on their lanais looking out at the ocean.

This is "baby" Luke, my friend Megan's son. Love this boy!

Tsunami

We were awoken this morning by a phone call at 5 a.m. from a friend wanting to know if we had heard anything about the base being evacuated because of tsunami. What a great way to start the weekend! It didn't take long after that for Tom's phone and Blackberry to start going off. The long and short of it is, yes, there is a tsunami on its way to Hawaii. However, we are in a safe zone and should be fine. I will try to take some pictures of the ocean from our balcony this afternoon when it's supposed to be here. While I used to complain about hurricanes in North Carolina, at least in North Carolina you can actually evacuate if you need to. Seriously, where does one evacuate to when on an island! I will update later with photos.

Morning Walk

One of the best things about my morning walks is the view. I love this particular view at the end of our walks/runs as I'm headed down the hill to home. I literally can't believe this is where we live right now. The sky continually changes and never ceases to amaze me with its beauty.

Monkey in the Middle

Monkey in the Middle: "While I was otherwise preoccupied this morning (doing my hair), I heard Luke calling for me. When I went into the playroom, what I found was a caged Luke. He and Brody had taken all of the bins off of the bin holder, and Luke had somehow crawled inside. I’m not quite sure how he managed to do it. When I asked what happened, Brody responded with ‘Luke’s stuck.’ Seriously, they get into trouble so darn fast!

The "Companzees"

Last time we went to the zoo, we decided to go ahead and get a zoo membership. We’ve been on numerous occasions and decided that the $30 membership would more than pay for itself in the long run. This past visit, the boys and I went with our friends Megan and ‘baby’ Luke. On this particular adventure, we finally discovered the chimpanzees. I'm not quite sure how we have missed them up until now. The boys like to refer to the chimpanzees as ‘companzees.’ I have a feeling this will now be their favorite exhibit. We have been enough times at this point that they know where to go and what animals we are going to see. Currently, they like the elephants, zebras, giraffes, and llamas. The zoo is in the process of building a new elephant exhibit, so it will be interesting to watch the progress over the next year.

I Want to Fly a Helicopter

Every now and then we try to take the boys up to the squadron to see the helicopters. Today, Luke had to have on his flight suit and take his camo backpack "to work" with him. It was so funny to see him walking up to the helicopters with his flight suit on. They both love getting on the helicopters and being able to sit in the seats and pretend to fly them.

Luke has to wear his sunglasses because according to him, pilots wear sunglasses. Because, you know, if a pilot has it, he needs it too. I have a feeling he's going to be a total gadget guy like someone else I know.

Brody likes to wear his sunglasses on his head like mommy and daddy.

I was trying to get Luke to wave at the camera. This makes me laugh because it's as if he's saying, "just one minute please, I'm busy."

I have no doubt that one day he will be running the place.

This is teamwork at it's finest. While it looks like they are solving the problems of the world, they wanted to play with the computer and the phone but couldn't really get either one to work!

And here you have it, a boy who wants to be like his daddy and a boy who wants to be with his daddy (look closely in the background). According to Luke, that is his helmet. He knows where daddy keeps it and goes straight to it whenever we are in the office. Brody, on the other hand, wants to sit in the chairs and swirl around and figure out a way to get in the candy on the table.

After spending a little time up at the squadron, we went and walked out on the pier at the marina. While the boys have no idea what fishing is, they all of a sudden wanted to go fishing because everyone else was fishing. Fickle fickle boys.

Great Aloha Run

This morning I completed the Great Aloha Run (8.15 miles) in one hour and forty six minutes. I have been running with two friends of mine in an effort to be able to run an entire 5k in March. We meet three days a week with strollers and complete a running program called "Couch to 5k." I must say, running without a hundred pounds of stroller and boys is so much easier than running with them! Today's race was completed with an interval of running three minutes and walking three minutes. We were able to maintain this pace for the entire race for an overall pace of a 13 minute mile. The race began at the Aloha Tower in downtown Honolulu, went along Nimitz Highway, and finished at the stadium. It was a flat course, which made it much easier to maintain our pace. Other than a sore left foot, which I am hoping is from having my shoes too tight, I feel great and am very proud of how we did considering we've been "training" together for just four weeks.



There were several military units who ran in the race. It was very motivating to see all of them. There were also numerous middle and high school bands playing along the course. Nothing beats the all out excitement of middle school girls screaming for you to keep running!



This picture was taken at the starting line right after the National Anthem. If you look closely, you can see Aloha Tower off in the distance. It looked much closer in person. My phone doesn't take the best pictures.



This is Aloha Tower at daybreak.

How You Know You Have a Boy

Since the boys have started preschool, they have come home singing different songs every now and then. Usually, I'm not sure exactly what the song is. Around Christmas, they did a pretty good rendition of Jingle Bells. Well, it seems the latest they have learned is Ring Around the Rosy. However, their version is a little more on the boys side. It goes a little something like this, "Ring around the goesey, down down the poopy." The more I protest about this version of the song, the more they feel the need to sing it. All in all, it's quite obnoxious! I guess there will be no pockets full of posies in this house!

Happy Valentine's Day

In honor of the holiday, I thought I'd repost a picture of the boys from their first Valentine's Day. I loved those little outfits! If you can't tell, their jackets say Heart Breaker. Their jeans were just adorable on them. It amazes me how even then their personalities were so set. Luke was always so serious, and Brody looked at everything as if it were the first time he had seen it all.

Sweet little Lukey trying hard not to smile.

My chunka monk Brody as sweet as ever.