Rocket Boy

Peter, Ben, and Dirk participated in the Thanksgiving Day Morning Rocket Launch with our church. The boys loved launching and watching their rockets. It was a beautiful morning. It was so relaxing to just sit in the sun and watch the rockets.

wow-Christmas is over

The boys all dressed up for Christmas eve service.



Dirk and the boys at home.



A Christmas event on the Marine Corps Base where they had fake snow.

Live Nativity at Church- part of the choir and cast.

Peter was one of the shepherds.

The boys in their Christmas PJ's.

Wow-

Christmas is over. It always goes by so fast. We celebrated our Christmas a day early. Dirk had to work all day on Christmas day due to the president spending the holidays in Kailua. Peter has almost the whole Christmas story memorized because he played a shepherd in the Live Nativity at our church. Dirk and I actually organized the Live Nativity at our church this year. It was a very busy month. It was a great event with hula group, choir, stable, wisemen, live animals, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, and of-course shepherds. We had about 500 people come from the community and our church to see the two performances. God definitely was the true director because everything went so smoothly-lights, sound, weather, set-up/take-down, parking, etc.

Yesterday we spent at the beach and the boys had a great time and then last night we went to Christmas eve service. It was a relaxing day!

Late Halloween

Peter the knight and Benjamin the chocolate chip cookie with milk

The church had a Harvest Party which included eating a donut off a string. Benjamin loved it.

Yes, I know it is almost Thanksgiving but I wanted to share the cute photos of the boys all dressed up.

Xterra World Championship- Dirk did it!

Dirk did it. He waited ten years to be in this race. We are all proud of you. Sorry that the pictures are out of order. As many of you know a triathlon consists of a swim, bike, and run. I didn't get any pictures of the bike due to the kids misbehaving. But here are the pictures I did get.

Dirk let Peter run to the finish line with him.

They had to run on the beach between swim laps.

The swim

Dirk before the race with the kids. There was about 550 athletes in the race and about 20 different countries represented.

Benjamin is Two!

Ben is celebrating his two year birthday with homemade cake. He just got down eating pizza, so he is very dirty but ready for his cake. We had a party for Ben at the base gym and here are a few pictures.

The kids at Ben's Birthday Party. It was a lot of friends of many different ages. Ben is holding the balloon.

Ben is actually upside down in this picture. He is rolling in a tube.Benjamin is two years old. He is so funny and sweet. I love having him in my life and I am so grateful for him. He is definitely more curious than Peter was at this age. He doesn't like to hear "no". He thinks he is the same age as Peter and can do all the same things.

The Big Island

We spent a few days up at Kilauea Volcanoes National Park. Peter had been studying about Volcanoes- so he was ready to see lava and have some first hand experiences with volcanoes. We got to see lava flowing into the ocean, walked across one of volcano craters, saw steam vents, and walked through a lava tube.

We left Volcanoes National Park and headed to Waipio Valley.

We took a wagon ride in Waipio Valley and it was quite the experience. The tour was kind-of expensive and we spent most of it in a very hot van with a dog running around in the van with us. The Waipio Valley is only accessible by 4 wheel drive vehicles and it involves a very steep drive down and up a very narrow road. Our guide was really the first, unfriendly person I have met in Hawaii since living here. He had a lot of hostility and definitely no aloha spirit but the boys loved riding on the wagon and going through rivers... so it was worth it.

We spent one day driving around to all the different waterfalls on the Hilo Side of the Big Island.

We spent the end of our vacation in Waikaloa. Waikaloa is a big resort area, and we were able to stay in a condo and were able to cook so it saved us a lot of money. We only spent about $40 eating out over the whole vacation. One place that we enjoyed exploring was The Hilton Waikaloa Village. The village had a tram and a boat that you could take around the resort. The boys loved taking both of them. They also loved the water slides, bridges, caves, waterfalls, dolphins, snorkeling area, etc. that were part of the resort. The boys on the tram.

Kohala Sunset- the last day of our trip. We were sad to go... but we felt truly blessed to have the opportunity to have such a great vacation.

P.S. We wish you were there with us.

A day on the Bay

We took my sister Alisa out on Kaneohe Bay. We saw so many fish and a few turtles. It was a great time. Peter has become quite the snorkeler.

Dirk "working" out on the bay, he was checking his work emails.

Peter relaxing on the bow.

Ben was the skipper for the day.

The Lighthouse Hike

We are very blessed to live close by a very nice walk to the Makapuu Lighthouse.

The Lost Valley

Dirk had a triathlon at Kualoa Ranch and it happened to be the same valley that Lost the TV show is filmed. So after the race we walked up into the valley and it was so beautiful.

The picture above is Auntie Beth by the Lost Sign.

Ben and Annie by the You, Me, and Dupree movie sign.

Peter in Godzilla's footprint.

Dirk completed in the MountainMan triathlon. He did so well he qualified for the Xterra World Championship in Maui.

A great day for everyone

Dirk completed his third triathlon (for the season) last Sunday. He did great. The boys and I cheered him on and then we headed down to the aqaurium. Ben really loved the aqaurium. Ben is at the age where they love to walk/run around and look at everything. Peter really liked the audio tour and just soaked up all the new information he was hearing. It was really fun.

Laundry Baskets

The boys love to play in the laundry baskets. Peter has a great imagination and Ben is a great follower and playmate. Together they use the laundry baskets to go on all sorts of pretend adventures.

Rainy Day

We had a very rainy day today. It reminded me of Pacific Northwest but only a lot warmer. My sister arrived today. The boys and Aunt Beth headed out for a walk in the rain. The boys looked so cute in their raincoats that I had to take a few pictures. I hope everyone is having a nice, dry summer.

singing and praising

Peter and Ben love to sing and dance. Peter participated in Vacation Bible School and we bought the DVD of all the worship songs... so here are the boys watching the DVD.

4th of July Fun

The boys blowing bubbles and waiting for the fireworks to start at Kailua Beach.

...still waiting for the fireworks.

Ben watching the air show.