Our Tsunami

I don't think there is too much to write about this considering the entire world was glued to CNN to see if Hawaii was going to be wiped out by a Hollywood style tsunami. But we did have an interesting day even if the wave was a dud. My first text at 3:40am came from an East coast friend who used to live down the road saying there was an earthquake in Chile and a tsunami warning had been issued for Hawaii. Apparently, many of those same text/phone calls were coming into our friends from family on the East coast and then we started getting calls from our friends who live in Ewa Beach that needed to get to higher ground and that they were gathering the few necessities and things they couldn't live without (in case their house was washed into the ocean) and heading up to our house on Makakilo Hill. We thought we seemed save enough here, but when we googled Makakilo's elevation a few of us were concerned that it's only 400 feet above sea level....but we are about 7 miles from the ocean, so maybe we'd be ok???!!! People (and dogs!) got here around 5am (we had 9 adults, 5 kids, and 3 dogs). Thankfully there are four families of our close friends here that live on Makakilo hill, so everyone coming from a flat zone was able to spread out among friends. And then we watched and waited just like everyone else in the world. We heard the tsunami sirens make the first warning at 6am and we scoped out the best spot to walk to so we could get a clear view of the ocean and Waikiki, but that's about as exciting as the day was. The kids played, people napped, people drank, people complained that we wished this were a work day, and then they all went home. THANKFULLY, they had a home to go home to, but it was somewhat anti-climactic!!


I must add that while living in Paradise for the past 7 years we've experienced an earthquake (before my blogging days, but pretty scary...shook us awake on a Sunday morning and we lost power, but not for too long), a tornado (just down the hill from us), we had what felt like a monsoon season when it rained for 41 days in a row, we have an active volcano (Kilauea) on the Big Island, and now we've experienced a tsunami (sort of). Thankfully, not a single one has caused much damage, and I suppose when we get hit with blizzards like the East coast has this winter, we will be complete! :)


A walk to the corner to see how many people had parked in the church parking lot to wait it out...it was like a tail gate party over there!
Colin drew a wave...we thought it was eeriely impressive for a 4 yr old.
The kids passing the time

Sorry, Michelle, I couldn't resist....at least I didn't tag you on Facebook! :)

The Birthday Bash!

I can't believe it took me so long to post such an important event!!! Hailey girl is FOUR!!!!!! Definitely not a baby anymore!!! I'm wondering how many 4 yr olds get a new bike for their birthday??!! Maybe it's a rite of passage out of toddlerhood. We celebrated all weekend long with a family trip to Putt-Putt on Saturday and a party with our friends the next day at Chuck E Cheese. Observing from the baby doll stroller... Such a good sharer (although Kailee up there really scares me!)Back inside to open the rest of the presents after Kailee's nap...Nosey Leila checking things out!

She LOVES these Look and Find books

Gotta love Target clearance...I found this Barbie Learning Laptop for 75% off!!!!!

Another awesome Target steal...didn't know anything about the game, but I couldn't pass it up for $6 (originally $26). And it's soooooo fun!!!!!!!!! If you've got a toddler, look around for this game! Kailee even loves to play!

On her Animal Scramble treasure hunt...

We went to Putt-Putt (or Pup-Pup as Hailey calls it) for her actual birthday fun. We scooped up Gavin along the way down the hill and the kids had a good time. Thankfully nobody was there (except the family you see in this picture) and they let us play for free! Kailee really liked putting her ball in the hole and Hailey and Gavin sort of got the hang of it, but also liked to climb on the Putt-Putt structures which drove me crazy because then Kailee copied them. Again, thankfully we had the place to ourselves! And it probably would have help if I put my camera away! :) I did for a bit! :)

She used a hockey style slap shot to guide her ball into the hole! Good luck trying to get a 4yr old, 2 yr old and 1 yr old to pose for a picture!

Back at home for cake!!!!!

Kailee mad because I would only let her have a small piece since it was bedtime! :)

Party cake at Chuck E Cheese

The girl loves her cake!

Hailey only eats the frosting!

We can't believe she's FOUR!!!!!

Our First Family Bug!

I'm way behind on blogging (most importantly about the birthday girl!!!!), but we were attacked Wednesday night by our first family stomach virus! I suppose we should be lucky that after being parents for 4 years that this is the first time that we've had to deal with barf! :) But the big unlucky part was that both Leevi and I got it too!!!! This virus has affected 8 of our friends (that I know of)...we were all wallowing in self-pity through text messages yesterday. Vomit, diarrhea, headache, body aches...lovely. Kailee started us off after dinner on Wednesday when she puked all over Hailey's hair and down her back! Poor things!!! I've dealt with my fair share of puking children (thank you Kownack Kids!) :) but this was the first barf (not baby spit up) from one of our girls. We got everyone cleaned up and got Kailee to bed and after she was down for about 20 minutes she threw up again! We went through 3 sets of pajamas and 3 bed sheets and 3 baths in 2 hours. We could not get Helpful Hailey to bed because she wanted in on all the action with Kailee. The most adorable part was when Kailee was up for the 3rd time I walked past Hailey's room and I saw her with her hands folded and praying "for God to take away Kailee's throw up" It melted my heart! After the girls were finally settled down, Leevi and I started to feel queasy but we thought it was all in our head. Little did we know that early the next morning we would be barf bonding together over the toilet and sink! Kailee woke up fine...it seemed to leave just as fast as it came. Leevi has it the worst. Poor Hailey was left to fend for herself most of the day yesterday while Leevi was planted on the couch and I was glued to the bed. She probably watched a months worth of t.v. and she helped herself to whatever food she wanted. :) We didn't care. Around 5pm last night I started turning the corner. Kailee was up last night with a fever and Hailey came in complaining about her stomach, but was able to get back to sleep. My headache still lingers this morning, but I'm able to function and try to get the house right-side up again...starting with a can of Lysol!!! Check back over the next few days for blog posts! And since I can't post a picture of sickies...here's a cute one of two healthy girls! :)

The Swamp Romp

I participated for the first time in the 16th Annual Kaneohe Marine Corps Base Swamp Romp!! It's a 5 mile run through the mud! And not just ankle deep mud...we're talking MUD PITS knee deep and thigh deep and mud rivers up to chest deep!!! We had to duck tape our shoes on to keep them from being suctioned off in the mud!! There were a few obstacles along the way, like a wall to climb over and crates to army crawl through, but mostly just mud!!!

I've played my fair share of soccer games in the rain and the fields got muddy, but nothing like this (Pic below is one of our most memorable rain games in college...I think we look somewhat clean because it was raining so hard and washed the mud off of us!) And I've participated in the Annual Octoberfest Oozeball (Volleyball) game in college...But nothing like this.... This was one of the mud fields we had to cross. I looked around online for pics of the actual mud pits that were thigh deep, but couldn't find any. You had to keep moving and try to stay on top of the mud because if you sunk there wasn't much hope for you getting yourself out without help! :)

The water truck at the end to hose everyone off. Most people just threw everything away! :)

Tiffany, Sarah, Rachael, Jamie, Me, and Sharice at the end of the race

Blog Book Complete!

My Blog Book finally came last week! It's amazing! I'm so happy I did it and hope I can keep up with it through the years. This first volume is from July 2008-July 2009. The program itself (download free from the web at http://www.blurb.com/) is pretty simple in the fact that it literally slurps your blog into a pre-set format, BUT I did have to go back through each entry and edit the font size and picture placement. I was frustrated because the program was pretty slow (even on my new computer), so I transfered it to Leevi laptop so I could at least sit with him in front of the t.v. during the evenings and plug away. It was worth the time. I ordered two copies (one for each child to have when they get older) This one below looks like a yearbook (8x10 hardcover w/image wrap)...there are SO many options. Pricing is based off of size/color/cover. Check out the website!

The Front Cover

The Back Cover

Holiday Weekend Randoms

Here are just some randoms pictures from last weekend that didn't fit any particular post...

Kailee pushing her baby
Hailey girl and the baby that always gets fought over!

Driving

Cheesing!

Hailey made this special necklace for me...I had no idea was she was creating, but she had a vision! :) She cut the paper herself and stapled it together!

She crashed hard while eating lunch before she was to get dropped off at the Buelows when we went golfing. It completely ruined her nap and we aren't sure if she even fell back asleep over there. Kailee brought these hats over to Leevi for them to wear during their game...

Playing "Go Fish" when we traded days and watched Gavin. They attempted to play up on the table so Kailee wouldn't bother them, but fat chance!

These are old dish towels that the girls have in their play kitchen and Hailey brought them over to create capes. You can't tell from the picture, but both girls are on phones with someone who needs to be rescued!!!! :)

Super Heroes to the Rescue!!!!!!!!!!!!! With my mad photoshopping skills (yeah, right) I added a shirt to my always naked child! I swear I buy clothes for this girl, but she always claims that she's hot! :)

Daddy, the Nerd Princess. And Kailee making one of her usual Stink Eye faces at Hailey who is holding her arm so she doesn't take off Leevi's costume! :) We laugh that Kailee is going to have permanant wrinkles between her eyebrows at such a young age from this face! :)