Visitor!

Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures of Hannah's (Jake's sister) visit to Oahu & then the next week I didn't get too many with Jenny (BFF) when she was in town! But we had a blast with her and were even able to go out on the town one evening!  Thanks Jake for making that possible!

haircut

Self portrait, Jack, age 4

Even though we are in somewhat of "vacation mode," regular life things still happen and tasks still have to be accomplished.  As much I love my long-haired boy, things were getting a bit out of control - couldn't see his eyes, taking too long to wash, etc...

At first I took a shot at cutting it myself, thankfully there are no pictures to document the mullet style that resulted in my cutting attempts!  So we set out to find a barber/salon.  The local Fantastic Sam's isn't far away so we thought we'd try it. 

Please know that I have taught ESL classes before and actually LOVE internationals, but getting a haircut from someone who speaks VERY little English is quite challenging.  I think my "not too short," came across as "the shorter the better!" Oh well.....Jack likes it so I guess that's what matters most!

post-haircut with Ms. Becky!

belated.....Valentine's Day

Happy belated Valentine's Day from the Spann family!



Hanauma Bay

Just around the corner is a beautiful marine life conservation park, well-known for amazing snorkeling & views.  It's so popular that if you aren't in the parking lot by 10am there is a big chance you won't make it into the park that day, due to the daily limit of visitors imposed by the park staff. 

I have never snorkeled before but I would love to try it out at this park.  Even just standing at the water's edge you are able to see all kinds of sea life! The boys really enjoyed being able to actually go in the water without getting trampled by a wave or pulled in by the undertow.

The snacks ran out at one point, so I rode a small shuttle up the hill to get some food for the boys.  While I was away Jenny, Becky & the boys had some fun with the birds.  About the time things started getting a little out of hand, the park staff reminded them NOT to feed the animals. Glad to have some pics of the funny moment!

Henry loves the sand so much and his favorite thing to do is to be a bulldozer, essentially belly crawling with his hands out front all over the sand.  So much fun......and SO much clean up!

Just another day in paradise....

Jack was "going to work" the other morning & I asked him if he needed anything else.  He replied, "No Mom, I have my snacks so I'm all set."  Yes, that's a headlamp and a hat, what every guy needs! :)



Someone else wanted his picture made too!

Cake

Art (Becky's husband & Jake's business partner) recently had a birthday which of course gave us a reason to have CAKE!  Jack insisted on making cupcakes with Becky, so we all enjoyed vanilla & chocolate cupcakes for several days. They were good but I am thankful there were a lot of people here to help gobble them up! 

Our Hawaii Home

Lots of catching up to do on the blog!  I have the pictures on the computer so I'll work on posts over the next few days, but for now I thought you might be interested to see our home away from home, or our "Hawaii Home" as Jack calls it.

Picture taken from the front sidewalk.  The homes aren't connected but they are definitely like patio homes, being very close to one another. 

Down our street

This is how the front entrance of every home looks - shoes, shoes, shoes!  Everyone takes off their shoes before they enter a home.  The boys are great at remembering.

This container was totally worth the baggage fees to get it here! We love having our toys!

Enjoying a little TV & library book time!

The side lanai (porch), also known as the drying rack!

Kitchen/Office/Grand Central Station

Our room, plus our sweet Henry gets to sleep in his PackNPlay.

Jack & Will's room

There is also a super large master bedroom.bath, where Becky & Art or other houseguests sleep, so I didn't want to post other people's stuff laying around. Now you've had the grand tour of our humble abode!  Every night I think of the window treatments and bed coverings that could go in this place, and then I remember that I won't be here forever & it's just right for what we need!

Race Day! & a little update

Well I've been remiss in posting about the running/healthy lifestyle plan, so I thought a very rough, sweaty!, red-faced, post-race picture would help y'all forgive me for the delay! Don't those gals look AMAZING after 3.1 miles??

Although the sun was blazing (we only typically run at NIGHT!) and I had forgotten what hundreds of pairs of feet would sound like running on pavement, the race went very well!  Thanks to Becky, my encouraging, faithful, running buddy, I ran the whole way and finished in 33 minutes.  I didn't have a certain time in my mind before we started but I was pleased as punch just to run the whole way & not finish last.  FYI - run in a military-sponsored race (ultra-family oriented) and you will be motivated to push past those elementary kiddos that are kicking your butt. 

As for the goals -

1) Drink 64 ounces of water per day - for the most part this is happening, thanks to my trusty water bottle, but even as I type this I think my water bottle is in the trailer portion of Henry's tricycle....better get it asap!


2) Don't eat seconds or sweets, except on days beginning with S - This had to be modified a little this week.  Jenny was here visiting and we went out on Friday, so that became my Saturday.  Unfortunately, with Valentine's Day the sweets kept coming!  Hoping to get things under control....starting tomorrow AFTER my dinner date with Jake!

3) Exercise 4 days per week for 30 minutes each session (Jillian Michaels or Couch To 5K) - Definitely been running, taking only one or two days off per week.  We did take yesterday off to recover from Saturdays race, but we'll be back at it tonight or tomorrow.

4) Get to bed before midnight - glad to say that I am doing this nightly!! What a difference a good night's sleep can make in your life!

5) Only drink 2 Diet Cokes per day (or any caffeinated beverage) - Down to mostly just one cup of coffee in the morning. Had some occasional DCs while Jenny was visiting & slowly making my way through the packs she left here...

Pearl Harbor

It might sound crazy but we've been in Hawaii 4 weeks!  Until this week we hadn't visited the most popular tourist attraction (aside from the beautiful sandy beaches) - the Pearl Harbor area.  Although a lot of it was totally lost on Jack and Henry, they really enjoyed the submarine and aviation museum.

"I'm riding a rocket!"  - Jack (It's actually a missile.)

Henry LOVED this propeller.

Firing the big guns.

I like being a co-pilot!

I LOVE knobs and buttons!

I might outgrow this bed before my next birthday.

Definitely a favorite!

"These are weird seatbelts." - Jack

Something is missing.....

A lower front tooth has been loose in this little mouth for quite some time...

After a recent movie night, complete with popcorn, we discovered something was missing!

Every Day Activities

Even though we are in a beautiful state, and most days seem somewhat like vacation, we are still trying to establish routines & keep the boys participating in some of their normal daily activities.  A recent discovery of little Legos & a trip to a real Lego store, have prompted a daily activity of building. 

Jack also enjoys sword-fighting, "boinging" (or bouncing on the couch cushions on the floor), riding his bike, reading library books and playing anything his imagination can come up with at any given moment.

Henry also LOVES the Legos, but we really have to watch him because its the small ones.  Riding/being pushed on the tricycle and playing with Rufus are probably his top two favorite things to do right now.

Koko Head Crater

Even though my quad muscles have never felt like this before, the trip up Koko Head was absolutely worth every ounce of pain!  Koko Head Crater has a large staircase...1048 stairs to be exact - up the side of it, and is quite a hiker's delight.  Good workout and beautiful scenery!

Looking up from the bottom, the trail actually didn't seem too bad!

This is the bridge a little over halfway up.  We went around through a makeshift path since the railroad ties were wide enough for even Becky to fall through easily! (I didn't get a picture of it so I borrowed one from a trail site.)

Although I wasn't winded going up or down (due to the 3 weeks of running I've done), my quad muscles have never felt so used and abused! I guess the extra 50lbs of piggybacking Jack part of the way, put me over the edge. Jack made it a long way before Becky & I began the 20-20-20 system: 20 steps on her back, walk 20 steps, then 20 steps on my back. We did that about halfway up. Jake carried Henry the entire way on his back and probably made it to the top in half the time as the rest of the group! He never ceases to amaze me!

 

The hike was totally worth it for the beautiful view!  It was neat to be able to see our home and point out things that we have become familiar with during our short time here. We will definitely do this again, but maybe not with our kiddos!

Frogs

During our running we have spotted several mammoth sized frogs here in the island. I've never seen anything like them before!  One morning Jack found this frog, "Pickles," in the garage and promptly informed us he loved Pickles and would be taking Pickles home to Chattanooga. Henry, on the other hand, was only interested in throwing Pickles. No worries, before long Pickles was released back to the yard to his own home!