Pontoons and Sand Bar

One of the things that Aaron and Kristina arranged for us to do was to rent 2 pontoon boats from a Marine base, and take them out to a sandbar in one of the inlets. Once we arrived at the sand bar, the tide started coming in and the "sand" of the sand bar quickly disappeared. In addition, it turned out to be a rainy day. So while it was definitely a favorite activity, I think Aaron and Kristina had a different idea in their head of how it would turn out.

This was the first time after he got burned that David went back into salt water. All of the boats on the sand bar knew he was in pain from his howling, poor guy. I was so relieved that eventually the pain subsided and he was able to splash around in the water.

Alina loves her big brother!!

Sam is wading in the water that came over the sand bar, with both of the pontoon boats behind him.

The ride back was chilly, with rain and wind and the breeze of the moving boat on top of it.

Everyone did what they could to cover up and stay warm during the ride back to port.

Aaron took everything in stride. How does it feel to be called "Captain" by your older brothers, Aaron?

Kristina is driving the first Pontoon boat.

Have I mentioned yet that each family on this trip had a 1-year old? We had four 1-year olds in tow with our group. The moving boat rocked each of the one-year-olds on our boat to sleep.

This was Alina's first cousin to call by name . . . "Bubba"

A relaxed bunch of kids . . . Hanson had Cooper, Maggie was holding Ruby while her parents drove the boats, and Sam was cuddling Alina.

Aloha

In the airport, getting ready to head through security.

We finally get to choose from the Alaska Airlines menu that says "Only on flights to and from Hawaii." Yummy. We got some of the yummy juice, our favorite being passion orange guava.

Paradise Cove was one of our favorite places. I liked the protected cove so David could explore. We saw multiple sea turtles swimming around us and sometime even poking their heads out of the water. 

Our sweet Beach Babe.

A dead crab . . . I don't know if they found it dead, or if it died after being explored.

We returned to Paradise Cove for an evening swim, and it was such a tropical paradise. Luau music was in the air from the neighboring luau. Sailboats were on the horizon as the sun was setting. It was so peaceful and wonderful, I would make this a must-do evening routine if I were to do it over again.

Sunnn-nny Days

We had another gorgeous summer, with lots of days reaching 80 degrees.

You can call it global warming, or climate change, or anything else you want to.

I call it wonderful. I love warmth in the summertime especially.

Deconstruct

We installed a new dishwasher, and within minutes (it seemed) David had the old one deconstructed.

We had a very dear set of missionaries in our ward at the time. David asked them if they could help him take the door off. They said they had to save that kind of work for P-day. So sure enough, they stopped back by to "help" him another time--which translated to David eating up the attention from a fully captive audience.

This boy gets lost in all the small parts for hours at a time.

(Our deck has been left with a few sharp object this summer, resulting in painful surprises. I guess it's the tradeoff for having David engaged in a single activity for long stretches--there are hazards to stepping anywhere near his work space.

A few weeks later, our neighbor gave him a big basket of nerf guns her sons had out grown. Those were all decimated the next day. We didn't even get any nerf bullets to try them out before they met their demise.

On another note, this hung around our kitchen for a few weeks. Popeye eats spinach, David drinks water infused with green onion. Bleck. I tried throwing it away a few times, but each time he would see me and come take a sip. Clearly they weren't very big sips, though--because that tiny bit at the top is all that was ever consumed. It finally found the drain after the boy was in sweet slumber, dreaming of taking things apart.

Piano Lessons

Once David started getting good at his scales, Daddy asked him if he (David) would give him (Daddy) a lesson. David was no dummy. He said he would do it for a quarter.

Half way through the lesson, David tried convincing Dad that the lesson was really worth $1. That was a small lesson on sticking with the agreed-upon price.

The good news is that Daddy now knows how to play the C scale on the piano.

Alina will often join David on the bench for duets on the piano.

Favorite Things: Alina

 Just a few favorites of the resident little girl at our house:

Ice cream.

Stories (said Sto-weee)--and sunshine on the deck.

Alina has so far liked her story time for herself. She rarely sits on my lap to listen to a book read aloud to her. If she has a book in her hand, she likes her own space and she wants to read it her own way.

Sometimes she'll retell the sto-wee in her own jibber jabber words, but usually she just quietly looks at a book then puts it down.


She beat me to the strawberries when I was making jam. 

Oh, how this girl loves berries and fruit!!

At least she was kind enough to sort some of them in to bowls, 

and not dump all of them on the floor.

Those yellow boots. I am so grateful for them. She is fond of them as well.

This girl loves to color. I can set her up to the table while I prepare dinner, and she happily colors. It used to be monochromatic. Now she has moved on to a color burst of every crayon in her bucket. David has never taken notice that there is more than one shade of blue or green to choose from. I think I'm going to be keeping up with this girl's art by purchasing the bigger box of crayons so she can discover all those beautiful colors!

Big Yellow Truck

David felt ingenious one day when he figured out how to turn the big yellow truck into a "trailer".

Thanks, buddy, for asking first before you put your sister in your "trailer" for a ride. 

And thank you especially for obeying me once I said "no."

So he found the next best thing to do with his big yellow truck:

he got his sister to give him a ride in it.

As often as he could, he encouraged the little engine to push him around.

 And she could!!!