ALOHA from 2013

My, my, my!  How time flies!  I can't believe I've been in Hawaii 5 months already!  WOW!  Let's see...what all has happened in those 5 months?

1. Jason & the boys successfully made it to Hawaii from Georgia.  ALOHA to all the Shatterly & Parker cousins who are reading this. 

2. Omri finally made the long flight from Ohio to Hawaii.  He says ARF, by the way!  He also says the weather's a LOT nicer!   He has gotten in the ocean a couple of times.  I don't think he really cares for the waves, though.  He keeps trying to rescue the boys from them. HA!

3. I've "island-hopped" several time for work.  I've been to Maui 3 times & Oahu twice just for work.  I'd like to be able to go sight-see on those islands--maybe after the boys get grown & I don't have to pay for their tickets, also.  (Hey, a Mom can dream, right?)

4. I "met" my first sea turtle (Honu is the Hawaiian word).  As I was snorkeling, I put my head down as he/she was headed up to get air.  SCARED ME TO DEATH!  I got out of the water as quickly as I could & just sat on the shore gasping!  Jason, of course, was laughing at me for letting a gentle giant scare me.  He did eventually talk me back into the water & there was an OLD turtle just hanging out watching us watch him.  :)

5. The boys got new bicycles for Christmas.  They are tall enough now that they got "adult" bikes instead of kid bikes.  This is a big deal at our house right now.

6.  The boys have also played on their boogie boards so much we had to get them new ones.  They LOVE, LOVE, LOVE being in the water! (me--I don't like sand in my bathing suit, but love the water)

7. We had a traditional Thanksgiving with turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, etc.

8.  We still haven't gone to a luau, but we HAVE been invited to one in April.  We'll be celebrating a little one's 1st birthday.  1st birthdays are a BIG deal here in Hawaii.  There are over 200 people invited to this.   I got stressed over 10 people coming to my boys' first birthday party, I can't imagine trying to organize over 200 guests!  WHEW! 

9. We have gone to see the volcano a few times.  You can only smell it & see smoke from it during the daytime unless you fly over in a helicopter.  At night, if you go to the Jagger Museum at Volcanoes National Park, you can see the glow from the lava inside the crater.  It's pretty amazing.  (I'm attempting to post pictures from my phone onto here...we'll see how THAT works out!  HA!) 

10. We have watched countless surfers attack the waves.  I have decided this redneck girl is too chicken to try to surf!  I think some of these guys & girls have death wishes.  It scares me just to watch them sometimes.

11.   Hawaii is GORGEOUS!  My pictures cannot possible do it justice. (As I said, I'm trying to figure out how to get some on here for y'all.)

Til I figure that out, Happy Aloha Monday, y'all!

Dea