Monthly Archives: July 2008

Sea Life Park

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We went to Sea Life Park yesterday with some friends and their kids – three moms and 9 kids all together. Whew! One of the moms is a friend of a friend but it turns out she went to UVA as well! We had a lot of fun together and I bought an annual pass for Sam. He loved the aquarium, seeing the sting rays up close (they were huge!) and turtles, then the dolphin show. (More pictures in the album.) We learned more about stingrays today – they are a relative of sharks. That lead to more learning about different classes of fish – those with cartilaginous bones and those with real bones. Then wiggling our noses to learn about cartilage vs bone. I write the new vocabulary words up on a white board for Dave to check when he gets home so he knows what the “preschool” lesson was for the day. He can also check the white board to see what I have in mind for dinner (that’s so I don’t forget!). I’m trying to be better organized 🙂

LCAC at Bellows

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We went to Bellows AFS for a walk and light dinner at Keneke’s on Saturday afternoon. It was a nice, peaceful, inexpensive outing. We like it there so much because it’s really spacious and there is a ton for kids to do. It’s also where we camp and go trail running.

picnic dinner

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We decided to shake things up a bit this week and have a picnic dinner tonight. It was windy, but fun! More photos are in the album. I think this is the first shot of the four of us in one frame! Dave is working a lot and doing schoolwork each night, so we have to make the best of a few minutes here and there for fun. This was a good time. Sam went to the museum today with our friends, so he has been talking nonstop (once again) about volcanoes and lava, and playing native Hawaiian instruments with sticks…He was such a good boy today, and very funny. I enjoy him so much. I’m so grateful I get him all to myself every day 🙂

Ben is 2 months old!

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I’ve been bad about doing photo shoots of Ben, sorry! Here’s the latest picture, albeit a self-portrait snapped last night while Dave and Sam were mini golfing. Ben enjoyed watching their antics 🙂 Sam likes to hit his ball then dart off to grab Dave’s and drop it into the cup for him. He sees putting as a waste of time I guess! He loved all the little hills to trot up and down throughout the course. He’d sink the ball then exclaim “Off to the next hole!” and trot down the path behind Dave. We also did some bumper boats – Sam split a gut laughing as he squirted water from the little “gun” in front. Dave has to go into work today so we’ll have to come up with some more mischief…it is the weekend, after all!

Sam is a big jogger :)

We went for a late afternoon jog to the farmer’s market, then to Coldstone for dessert (Dave was in class tonight). Sam wanted to jog ALL THE WAY HOME (his emphasis). So I said ok! thinking this won’t last long. He did the whole way – just over a mile - with lots of funny little arm movements and new jogging styles, like “pedal jog.” That’s when you jog like you’re biking, but don’t move your arms (obviously – you don’t move your arms while biking, right?). Your legs travel in circles, though. Tough to do for me but he did a good job pedaling! 😉

Lanikai 8K

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The boys and I ran the Lanikai 8K today (5 miles). Dave was a real trooper and acted as race crew 🙂 Despite a few hiccups, like the sign-up location moving at the last minute to a spot 1/4 mi from the start, we all got to the starting line in time. Just barely!

Space-a-ing with Sam was so fun!

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But I want to do this with two kids in a month or so? Am I totally nuts? I am so glad I took this picture although it was the LAST thing I wanted to do upon finally returning home after 6 weeks of travel across 2000 miles and 10 different homes. Our space-a trip was long on the return as well, and the last (third) leg of our flight ended up not going. So we had to take a shuttle to Phoenix and buy a last-minute ticket home. Oh well – Sam knows where Phoenix is now and those are some fond memories. He often talks about flying on the KC-10 and taking the big trip with mommy. And they say kids don’t remember stuff until they’re three years old. . . I bet he’ll remember that trip for a long time 🙂 Thanks, mom, for reminding me with this picture 🙂

freaky root

Sam gets to pick out the strangest fruit or vegetable he can find at the commissary each week. We’ve eaten some different stuff…but this week was by far the weirdest thing I’ve ever picked up – a gobo root (above).

A double serving of bonehead juice, please!

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I did a timed set-up and take-down of this simple dome tent for an upcoming Mommy/Sammy/Ben camping trip.

“Am I a crazy hiker?”

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Yesterday we did our first family hike – the Makiki Valley Trail. We had a great time, and found a nature center to check out when it’s open (we hiked on the Fourth).

Ben is rolling over already!

I thought it was a fluke last week when he did it, then he rolled again a few days later and mom caught it on film. Today was the third or fourth time. Go Ben!

June pictures in album

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Here are Sam and Anneliese mixing up the ingredients for ice cream at Sam’s “Big Brother Party” on June 21. We had so much fun! There are pictures and several movies in the album this month thanks to mom capturing some of Sam’s craziness. Mom leaves today 🙁