Feels more like home

Well it is starting to feel more like home. I have gotten involved in a couple of playgroups, one in my ward and one on Schofield base. Gracie has made some friends and we have been able to have some play dates she has enjoyed that. Our ward has been so good to us everyone is so friendly, they have really taken us in. That always makes such a difference. This week our ward had restaurant group. So a group of women headed to Honolulu to the cheese cake factory for a night out of the house and away from kids. That was a lot of fun and of course the cheese cake is amazing as always. There are so many women in our ward whose husbands are deployed. This has been eye opening to me. I must say I have a whole new respect for you Rashelle. But I am amazed by their attitudes. They carry on and are so upbeat. I guess it goes to say attitude is everything. So that is something for me to work on. But on a lighter note. We had a really fun week. We went bowling for mothers group and Gracie thought that was great. I of course forgot my camera I was determined to post more than just beach pictures. Deven and I of course went to the beach again. This time we got to do another dive. This was our first solo in the ocean and we did well. I was so nervous. I don't have those pictures on a disk yet so I will post some as soon as I get them. I hope they turned out. We saw a lot of cool fish and some crazy caves. I was so nervous something was going to come swimming out of one but nothing scary happened. We also found a botanical garden so close to our house. We spent this afternoon walking around and enjoying the shade as well as all the cool vegetation. Our little cheese. She thought this garden was like in the movie The Road to Teribiythia (I am sure I spelled that wrong) so her and Deven played like they were hiding and running from things the whole time.

Gracie decided she needed a rest so we found the trunk of this tree to sit on for a few minutes.

Deven and Gracie on the hunt for all the scary things in the garden.

She is becoming our water girl. She is learning the art of body surfing. She goes out and lets the waves wash her into shore. We couldn't get her out of the water. In fact she got sunburned under eyes so bad. I felt so bad. I forget I need to reapply after so long in the water.

This is the life. Deven just parked his chair on the edge of the water and let Gracie play I got a little R&R time on the beach. That always makes for a great afternoon.

We went down to Waikiki on Friday night because every Friday the Hilton has a fireworks show. We watched the fire works and then Gracie managed to get all wet in just a few inches of water we wouldn't let her get in but she found a way to experience the water anyways.

Another Weekend- Another Beach Yeah!!!

Well I won't lie, the beach is great but I am starting to realize and accept that I am living on an island. I had a break down this week, when I realized I had been to every store on the Island and I was not going to find what I was looking for. This is not all. It is different culturally and I missed my old way of life. I am going to have to get good at Internet shopping, the only downfall is it cost so much to ship it here. But I got to know my neighbor really good this weekend. Her husband is deployed and she broke her toe Saturday morning. She called Deven to see if he would take a look at it. It is most likely broken but there is not much they will do for a broken toe. She has two young children so Deven and I invited them to come a long with us to the beach. No one wants to be in there house on a Saturday She was able to wrest and prop up her foot while Gracie and her son Adam played quite well together at the beach. It is nice to go to the beach because then I feel like I am on vacation and not stranded on an island where it will take 6-8 weeks to get our carpet here. You got to love it!!! If you sense some sarcasm in this just know it will pass and I will feel so much better tomorrow.
Deven was trying to teach Gracie a few knee boarding tricks on a boogie board. She was yelling "hit it" and Deven would take off.

Gracie and her friend Adam on White Plains Beach.

Deven is determined. He is going to learn how to surf. We rented the board and he headed out. So who won the surf board or him. He was exhausted and only made it to his feet once. I didn't even get a picture I couldn't keep track of him amongst all the surfers. But he will try it again soon. He is persistent.

This picture is kind of gross but a big sperm whale died and washed a shore on a beach on the North Shore. It was causing quite a stir as it was bringing in sharks. They spotted a 9 foot tiger shark swimming there and so they wouldn't let anyone in the water. But we wanted to go up and experience the excitement. It is the big tan blog at the bottom of the rocks. It was so stinky but this doesn't happen very often so we wanted to be a spectator as well. Gracie was so facinated. They have since removed it and that was quite an ordeal as half of the whale fell out of the truck onto the highway and closed the road down for a couple of hours. When a road closes down on the island everyone feels the effects.

Guess What we did again

You can guess what kind of pictures I will be posting for a while. Deven and I have been trying to find a new beach to visit each weekend. We found this one on the North Shore. It is part of what they call the pipeline. It had great snorkeling and the waves were calm enough so Gracie loved it as well. The crazy thing is Deven and I both agreed the beach is so relaxing. Sometimes I don't feel like going but when I get there I always feel so refreshed and relaxed. I am exhausted by the time we get home but the good part is I always sleep well. Just on a side note I realized you get a lot more than you bargain for in most of our beach pictures. So I apologize for all the back ground people Deven and I have definitely seen more than we have wanted to on the beach. Deven and I are going to rent scuba equipment here and do a shore dive, they say it is amazing. Deven of course wants to go right away. I am trying to stall. (I still get a little nervous) Deven and Gracie love to play a game where they let the waves knock them over. I am not such a big fan this is a great way to get a swimming suit full of sand and no matter how hard you try it does not leave so easily. We thought we had rinsed Gracie down real well. We rinsed her in the ocean and in the showers at the beach. But when she went to get in the tub I thought we had brought the beach home. I don't know where all that sand came from. We almost filled a sand bucket. (I am not exaggerating)

Gracie loves to run in and out of the ocean she makes everything a game. But it entertains her for hours.

Today we also made our own kiddie pool. Gracie and I worked hard to dig a pool and she loved watching it fill up when the waves would come in, then she would run and jump in it.

4th of July

How can I sum up the last couple of weeks. I will just say busy, busy, busy. Things are getting so much better we have been working hard on the house and we feel like it is becoming home. This is the longest it has ever taken me to unpack. I usually have everything up (pictures included) with in a week. But we have been painting and doing minor things along the way. We are much happier with house but it has slowed the settling down process. (I'm not sure if that is proper grammar, but you know what I mean.) I have been really lucky Deven has had an easy first month I know it will get harder but I am enjoying him for the time being. Our ward has been great. They have welcomed us with open arms so much so they have already asked us to speak this next Sunday. I am a little behind on our updates, we don't have Internet hooked up yet the soonest they could come is July 9th, but some nights we can get signals off other peoples and so I am trying to catch up on stuff while we have the signal. Our 4th of July was wonderful. Our friend Belinda invited us to Weiamea Bay during the afternoon. I got my first experience paddle boarding I have wanted to try this since we got here. I had a lot of fun. It was a little tricky at first and I fall off everytime I turn around, but I got pretty good at going straight. Then in the evening some people in the ward invited us over for a BBQ. It was a lot of fun. Gracie made a lot of new friends. After the BBQ we all went to a big a foot ball field and watched the fireworks. Thanks to everyone who has been so good to us and for helping us to have a great 4th of July.
Gracie and some other kids doing sparklers. I tried to get her face but she didn't hold still long enough.

Me, paddle boarding on the North shore

This is the living room it is coming together slowly. I am still looking for a rug. I know what I want but I am having a hard time finding it. I might have to order off the internet. If you havn't figured it out by now houses in Hawaii are small so I am trying to keep it as clutter free as possible.

This is Gracie's room. It is coming together nicely. I still have a few nick nacks I am not sure what to do with but it's a work in progress.