Lanakai Beach

Lanakai Beach

Between school and me not feeling comfortable taking the kids to the beach alone (most of the nearby beaches are not Caleb and Brayden friendly), Hurricanes, Blue Bubbles (tiny jellyfish that come out after a full moon), HEAVY rain that makes the water brown and advised not to swim in, and now tsunami's, makes going to the beach a harder than I ever thought it would be.  But, when we go we have a great time.  I don't usually take pictures because I worry the camera will get ruined or stolen.  But, today Bo brought his phone so I took a few pictures.

We went to Lanakai Beach.  It was an awesome beach with great sand.  But, the water was really choppy.  We figured the water would be better since the tsunami advisory ended two days ago.  Oh well, we still had a really fun time. We brought a surfboard, some buggy boards, and snorkeled too. Snorkeling was kinda hard in the choppy water so we spent more time on the boards.  

Caleb hung out the whole time on a buggy board with either Bo or I. He hated being in the wild water.  But, the choppy water made for some fun times on the boards.  Jack was the champion surfer.  He's never tried until today.  I posted a link to the short video below.  If you look in the background, you can see how choppy it is with Brayden behind him.  Here are the highlights from a great day!  

https://youtu.be/uOdyBOWrvkc

Check out those skills!

Hailey riding in

Conrad showing his moves

Caleb loving the Buggy Board (Don't mind my finger in the picture, oops)

This boat sailed off near us.  I just took a pic because it looked cool

Brayden is Five!

Last Tuesday was Brayden's brithday.  It was kinda weird being away from everyone and we missed Grandma and Grandpa.  I think most of the kids mentioned that it was different not having anyone else here.  But, we had fun anyway!

The night before his birthday I mentioned I had to go get a couple of things at the store for his birthday.  Jack then remembered he needed to do something and made him an activity worksheet with mazes and things.  That gave Hailey some incentive to find a gift too.  A few weeks back she drew up a coloring book.  She decided to give it to Brayden.  Then Conrad just had to do something too.  He went through his Pokemon cards and found some to give to him.  How sweet.  I didn't even say anything!  It was fun to see how excited they were to give their gifts.

Brayden wanted to be sure I got a picture of him eating his chips!

Caleb and I took Brayden to lunch at their favorite spot, Subway.  The kids can't get enough of that place.  The funny thing is that we NEVER went there before we moved here.

Brayden opened his cards and one gift before the kids went to school and then after Bo got home we opened the others and had cake and ice cream.  He chose carrot cake.

With his gifts

"Can I just open these already!"

Trying so hard to look at the camera and not his Rescue Bots.  Obviously, this was really hard.

Transformers!

Gotta have a true Brayden pic!

Watching Bo light the candles.  He blew them all out with one breath.  

Brayden got a good amount of Birthday money and decided to buy this Baymax toy with it.  He's now had a new best friend.  He love this guy!

At five Brayden Loves:

Rescue Bots/Transformers

Olaf from Frozen

Baymax from Big Hero Six

Smiling

Giving hugs and kisses

When Dad Comes Home

He really looks up to his brothers

He's the only one who wants to stay in Hawaii forever

To sum it all up Brayden loves EVERYTHING about life

We love so many things about this little guy:

He's HILARIOUS and makes us all laugh

His smile

His creative, inquisitive mind

He's so sweet

Receiving his hugs and kisses

The way he treats Caleb

He's happy in any situation

Brayden we are the luckiest parents in the world to have you in our lives.  I can't wait to watch you grow!  We love you!!!

Which One of These is Not Like the Other?!

Before I did haircuts today I had to take a picture of these Blondie's.  They've got some good highlights!  (Don't mind the messy hair we went to the beach today.)  Gini cut the boys hair right after we got here.  They were past due for one but before I cut it I had to get a pic of their hair.  Their hair has gotten so light I keep getting glimpses of them when they were toddlers.  Too cute!

The funny thing is that Caleb's hair isn't getting lighter.  We'll see if it does as time goes on.

Yep, That's a Shopping Cart Tree house-

On our side yard we noticed this tree house but the kids weren't interested in using it.  I think they were nervous to climb the rope and get in it. We decided to make a rope swing so they would play out there a bit more.   I guess this made them feel a bit more adventurous.  Jack surprisingly, climbed up first.  Conrad followed and then Hailey climbed up last.

The next day they played again.  Sadly, Jackson decided to sneak seven library books out and leave them.  It rained a lot.  I mean flash flood rained. Then, the kids decided to tell me about the books.  They were soaked.

Jack and I dreaded talking to the librarian.  The librarian was nice and said to bring them in once they dried and then we'll look over them.  Five days later and they are almost dry.  I'm sure some of them are ruined. But, I'm hoping a couple pass.  The standards are a bit lower here since books tend to get a little bit moldy sitting on the shelf.  These books shouldn't mold since I've been working on drying them all week...I guess we'll see what passes when I take them back in.

A Day at Sea Life Park

We went to Sea Life Park yesterday.  It was probably my favorite place we visited so far.  The kids had a great time too.  They had an aquarium on the way in, dolphin shows, Sea Turtles to feed, Penguins, and birds that would land and eat off of your hands.  Crazy!  There are a bunch of pictures on here but, I wanted them all for my blog book. :)

Surfin' on the dolphin

His tongue hanging out

Brayden loved feeding the birds.

Hailey didn't want anything landing on her. :)

The birds weren't shy.  See the one on my camera bag.  Two landed on Bo's head and another landed on Hailey.

Conrad's favorite part was feeding the birds.

Jack was happy to feed from a distance. :)

That is an island just off of oahu.  It's a good size, but it doesn't look like you can do much with it.