Uncle Tim arrived and Sam is loving having another guy around to read with, play Legos (Sam is the “Boss” for building projects) and romp around with at the beach. It’s great to see Dave and Tim have some time together, albeit squeezed between Dave’s work and school commitments. So far Tim has visited our beach, the tide pools where Sammy loves to play, base, the marsh trail, and the North Shore for snorkeling at Shark’s Cove. Yesterday was a town-wide block party with hula and other performers. Last night they figured out the rules for Dread Pirate – I heard something about raid or trade…sounded like a fun game for guys. Dave is looking forward to Neil arriving on Wed for a few days. I think there will be some pirate stuff going on then!

Yesterday my friends threw me a wild baby shower – sorta like a Survivor! episode. Angel coordinated it all – 9 women, 8 games, appetizers, presents and all in 2 hours! We had a kayak race down the canal, a pool race using kiddie floats, a fruit bowl race (a relay where you couldn’t use your hands), a poopy diaper toss (hilarious to see Angel’s “poop” mixture!) and cut the cord (with darts – whoever hit the umbilical cord on a drawing of a baby won). She did an amazing job and I was so touched not only that she and her co-conspirators would honor our baby this way but that so many wacky friends came out for it! In fact, it was such a hit that they want Angel to organize other strange parties 🙂 Wait ’til you see the pictures…

Here we are at Turtle Bay Resort… We sneaked away for an overnight while mom and Sam had a nice weekend together. We were only away for 28 hours (!) but it was wonderful to reconnect. This is just before going to dinner at a nice restaurant. Yes, we still talked about Sam a lot 🙂

Dave and Sam had a great time romping in the waves! This was after a full week and weekend of work around the house – Dave had to finish up exams/papers for school then clean up the guest room which was still a disaster after the kitchen remodel. We’re still working on that but it looks MUCH better! Just in time for brother Tim to visit for a month.

40/4=10 right? So how is pregnancy 9 months long?

People walk by me and say, “wow! you’re about to pop!” I know! But I’m still like 6 wks from delivery!!!!

One of my fellow honu guardians, Nancy, and her family are moving to the Sacramento area. We went up to the North Shore today to send them off and give Sammy a chance to play with the “big boys” one more time. Sam really enjoys playing “dead” with Frank and Dominic, as well as wrestling and romping in the water. The two bigger boys are 12 and 9 years old, respectively. They are so sweet to Sam and take such good care of him near the water. This is Sam with Frank. Aloha friends! Enjoy your next adventure 🙂

Here is a picture of little Ben at 32wks! His face is so clear – it was fantastic to “meet” him this early via ultrasound. In a way, he is even more real now than he was before :)  We saw his hair flying all over in the amniotic fluid as I laughed. (He has a LOT of hair!) He blinked his right eye. And he looks totally healthy. We are so blessed. He is also very big! It looks like he’ll be over 9lbs at birth just as Sam was. I can’t wait to hold him!

We really enjoyed seeing our friends for what has become an annual Easter egg hunt at the beach park. I think there were 10 kids this year! We also added an “event” to the festivities – the “manhunt”! The mommies hid eggs for the daddies to find. We had such fun watching them look for their eggs with the kids helping. Find the rest of the photos by clicking on Sam’s picture above.

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Easter . . . aloha nui loa from Alli, Dave, Sam and Ben 🙂

Kathy and Anneliese joined Mom, Pete, Sam and me for a submarine adventure today. We had a blast riding out to the submarine then diving down 116′ to some shipwrecks. The fish were colorful and plentiful. We also saw three or four turtles – huge ones – just hanging out on the wrecks. Sam was entranced for the entire 45min ride. I think the submarine was about the size of NR1 – I had a brief moment of claustrophobia (maybe being almost too big to fit through the hatch did it? just kidding!). I really truly don’t know how Dave did it to depths beyond 3000’… he is amazing. I will upload more pictures and video as soon as I can. Tomorrow is the big Easter Egg Hunt, including the “manhunt” where daddies get to look for eggs! Can’t wait 🙂

I’m 32 weeks now and can’t wait for Ben to arrive. I don’t see how I can get any bigger, but I know I will. I’m thankful all seems to be well and he is staying put until the time is right 🙂 I have an ultrasound next week to see how big he is. Hopefully he’s smaller than Sam was. His birth was … difficult. I haven’t gained as much as I did with Sam – about half as much so far. Maybe that’s a sign Ben will be smaller! We had only one day off for family fun last weekend due to Dave’s (and my) work schedule, so we dug our toes deep in the sand and chilled out for a few hours. We’re looking forward to our Easter Egg Hunt this weekend, and celebrating Easter as a family.

Asked Sam in the commissary holding up Gramma’s bacon and saying “what is THIS?” We trail-a-biked over to base this morning for his tumbling class. He did a great job going three miles each way on the bike, helping me pedal on some off-road sections. We sang the “bouncy” song to the tune of jingle bells on the way home. It goes something like “on the trail we go, bouncing all the way!”

Above is our annual Easter egg hunt invite…looking forward to more fun with our friends. Last year was a good time. Suggestions for what to put in the boys’ eggs (i.e. the daddies)? I put them up high in the trees so the kids can’t get them. I know some of you will have some really innovative (ah-hem!) ideas… The grown-up “eggs” are shaped like footballs or soccer balls.

Look at this cute little guy! He is doing all the paddling! He later said it was “hard work!” – I’ll bet those little arms got tired. He was proud of himself.

OK – this is my second day out and I’m totally hooked! I managed to get up and stay up for about an hour total in three separate runs!

TripAdvisor travelers ranked Kailua Beach #3, while Tunnels Beach (Kauai) and Waimea Bay (O’ahu) grabbed 6 and 10, respectively. Pretty cool that we live here. We’d have to agree that this is an awesome beach.

Some funny things Sammy has said recently, before I forget:

The ladies at the cleaners enjoy talking to him. One is from Kansas – we’ve been learning about states, so he remembers that specifically about her. She asked him where he is from and he replied “Da beach” in all seriousness. 🙂

Today he was excited to go to Goodwill, where mommy does her very sporadic shopping. I haven’t purchased anything new in quite some time. In fact, I’m so thrifty that I go to Goodwill on Tuesdays whenever possible for that extra 10% off! (Am I sick? Can I get help for this?)  I asked why he wanted to go there, and he said “I need some clothes” and I asked what kind of clothes, to which he replied “I need some WORK clothes.” So funny – not sure if that means working in the garden, working on cars and trucks, working on bikes, or working in an office like daddy…

“a load” according to Sammy. We were dragging about a dozen big bags of leaves about a block down to some trash cans. This was a favor for a neighbor so that their green waste would get picked up tomorrow. We were walking by anyway and figured we’d help. Sam was a real help dragging bags and pushing the cans out for pickup. We talked about how doing a favor is helping someone else out, doing something nice, etc. When I asked him later what a favor was, he said “a load” which is, in fact, correct, right? You bear someone else’s burden. I thought it was interesting how he interpreted it. (We had described the big bags of leaves as a “heavy load.”)

He’s been working really hard on this skill! He drops the ball then gives it a good kick. The ball is one that was sent to us by our postal carrier (Jeanine-Anne) in Coronado when he was born. So the ball is 3 yrs old and still kickin’! It was initially covered with a sweet note and mailed as-is (no package). We had a lot of fun receiving it, as did all the carriers in Poulsbo 🙂 Thanks again Jeanine-Anne! (This is an animated .gif – it should show getting ready, then kicking, in a loop.)