Beach Bums

After being in Hawaii for a month, we figured it was time to bite the bullet and hit the beach!  Ahhhh, I could get used to this life!  We spent Saturday hanging out at the beach.  Might I add that this beach was only a TEN minute drive from our house!  This was my first time putting my toes in the Pacific Ocean and Micah too, of course.  No complaints here!  Although, Micah may feel a bit different.  He loves the sound of the ocean and lounging in his tent, the water is a whole different story.  He was a bit concerned when the water was washing over his feet.  No worries though, he has some time to get used to it, his surf lessons do not start until next month!

The water was beautiful, surf was a little rough at this beach, so no swimming allowed.  You need flippers or a surf board to get in the water.  I enjoyed watching all the surfers and boogie boarders do their thing out their in the water.  Maybe we will learn to surf while we are here, who knows!

The dogs have also been introduced to the Pacific Ocean, pretty sure they loved it!  There is a beach in Kailua that is pet friendly, so in a dog's eyes this was heaven.  They got to romp around, swim, play frisbee, and roll in the sand.  Clearly, the back of the car got the worst end of this deal.  Oh well!  I have come to terms with the fact that the Flex is going to be filled with sand for the next 4 years!

Pictures do such a good job sharing our memories with you all, enjoy!!

Lounging at the beach

Playing

Love these two, aren't they cute?!?

Relaxinggggg

Hmmm, I am not so sure about all this

Uhhhh where am I?

Mommy and Micah

Snoozing on daddy

Snoozing on mommy

Rested boy=Happy boy

Swimming at the beach

Malcolm really enjoyed swimming

This goofy dog was too focused on playing frisbee to go swimming

How pretty is this?

Operation rescue the frisbee!

Our sweet little family

Sandy Sandy dog, who wants to take her home?

Just Another Day In Paradise

This morning on my walk I found myself thinking how in the world did I end up here?  If you would have asked me 5 years ago where I would be today, I do not think my answer would be living in Hawaii with a husband who is in the military.  Now that I am here, I could not picture my life any other way!  It is truly amazing how God's plans for little ol' me blew my own plans out of the water!  I am thrilled for this adventure and we are totally trusting in the fact that God has us all the way out here in Hawaii for a reason.

As requested by my wonderful father, pictures, pictures, and more pictures of Hawaii!  He really wants pictures of the big waves, but I do not have any of those YET, but I will, don't you worry!

So this past weekend, we decided to go on a "hike."  I thought since it was a paved trail, it would be a good place to start our first attempt at hiking there.  We went to the Makapu'u Point Trail, which is a trail made up of the old access road to the Makapu'u Lighthouse.  This lighthouse was built in 1909 and is now off limits to tour.  The lighthouse is still working and you are able to see the blinking light from our house.  Anyways, the hike was breathtaking, in more ways than one!  It was a gradual climb to the top with the warm sunshine beating down on us the whole way!  The view at the top was worth the huffing and puffing on the way up!  We even saw a few whales once we were at the top!  We saw lots of blowholes and every once in a while we would see a fin pop up!  Unfortunately, they were not super active, but for our first trip, I was happy to see just a glimpse of the whales.  They are active in the Hawaiian waters from about November to May.

Now for the best part, the pictures!

Let's Go Exploring!

Koko Crater

And we're off!

Mommy and Micah

Isn't God's creation absolutely amazing?

Far off in the distance you can see a "hill," our house is located at the bottom of that.

Straight down from the top, look at that blue blue blue water!

We made it to the top!

Sleeping baby, tired dogs

Snoozing away!  He may not remember it, but he has seen the coolest things in his little lifetime!

If you look closely, you can see people swimming in those pools, how awesome is that?  This has been added to my Hawaii bucket list!  We figured with dogs and a stroller, this may be a little difficult, so another day we will tackle this!

Makapu'u Lighthouse

Yup, that's a whale!

Chillin' in his stroller

Needless to say, after we got home, we all took a 2 hour nap...dogs included!

Lesson learned this week:  WEAR SUNSCREEN!  When I looked up this trail online, it even said make sure to bring lots of water and wear sunscreen.  I brought the water and put sunscreen on my face, but neglected to put it elsewhere.  I now have shoulders that are red as a beet!  Oooops, I guess the sun is a bit hotter here!  I am trying not to live up to my last name here, I want to have a little color!  Don't worry, I did put sunscreen on Micah!

Hawaii Life

It has been a while since I have gotten on here, I am hoping that once we are settled in, I will be able to write more often.  Not sure what I am going to write about, so I guess I will keep you all on your toes!  Life here in Hawaii is absolutely wonderful!  Our car is finally here, so now all of our stuff is officially on island and in our possession!  I do not know how anyone could not enjoy living here.  The weather is perfect and the scenery is beautiful!  I cannot believe that I can wake up every morning and see the ocean out my window.  I always said I wanted to live by the beach...dreams do come true!  Anyways, our house is really starting to take shape and look like a home.  No pictures just yet because it is not completely finished!  Soon though it will be, I hope!  Sam went in to work late today because he is flying tonight and I made him rearrange the downstairs because I wasn't liking it!  Needless to say, I don't think he was liking me by the end of it!  Probably wishing he was at work!

This morning I got this text from my mom that said, "You will NEVER find someone who loves, prays, cares, and WORRIES about you more than I do!"  I don't think I ever understood how much my mom really cared about me until I had my own son.  I have spent a lot of today thinking about that and how blessed I am to have such a wonderful mom as a role model.  And then that got me thinking that one day this little boy is going to be a grown man, I pray that he will know how much his mommy loves him.

Speaking of Micah growing up, it is happening way too fast!  I would like to push the pause button, or maybe the rewind button.  I am overjoyed that he is learning all of these new things, but at the same time it is breaking my heart that he is getting bigger and not this itty bitty baby anymore.  He is almost 5 months old!!!  Just in the past week, he has learned how to roll from his back to the front, so now he is a rolling machine.  I put him down on his play mat, and next thing I know he is all the way on the other side.  It is so much fun watching him explore and learn new things.  I so wish I could hear the thoughts inside of his head.  How cool would it be to explore the world for the first time?  I can see in his eyes how curious he is and how much he takes everything in when we go places.  Today I just sat back and watched him play, it is pretty amazing how smart babies are!  I am soaking up everything this little boy does because I know he won't be this age forever!  This little boy has totally changed our world, being a mommy is such a precious gift.

Lesson Learned this week:  Beets are not supposed to be sitting out on your counter prior to using them.  They turn quite soft and I can't imagine they would taste very good!  Supposedly they need to be stored in a dark, cool space.  Guess I should check this out from now on!  Never had beets, was going to be brave and try some new stuff this week, but that didn't happen!  We get a box of organic fruits and veggies every week, so it is forcing us to try veggies we would not normally buy!

Hi There!

Aren't I cute?  Hanging out at a cookout with friends from church

Action shot!

Home Sweet Home

It's here!!!

We have officially moved in to our house and have spent most of the week making it look like home.  I still find myself referring to Maryland as my home, I think it will always be home to me, but Hawaii is slowly becoming more and more like our new home.  It is kind of scary to think about, sometimes I still find myself wondering am I really living here?  I am trying to make the most of what is around us and not take the scenery for granted since I get to see it everyday!

We moved in on Monday and first thing Calie did was run upstairs.  We were calling her and calling her and she would not come down.  She eventually came running down the steps, we thought nothing of it.  Well, little did we know, she was christening the house with her smelly poop!  What a stinker, she is lucky that we really love her!

Living room and dining room (it looks much better now!)

This week has been exhausting, moving and unpacking is a lot of work.  The downstairs is pretty well together, while the upstairs is still a bit of a mess.  I will slowly post pictures as we get the place looking like home!  I can honestly say that I am shopped out.  Yes, that's right, I have had enough shopping for a while.  Please mark this day in history, April 6, I, Erin White am shopped out.  This does not happen very often, but we have done a lot of shopping the past few days.  I am ready to kick back and enjoy the house now!  Ahhhh I wish it was just that easy!

We had an eventful appointment at the doctor this week with Micah.  Apparently Micah is too skinny and needs to gain some weight.  The doctor said to me, "Don't you see his ribs?  Only african babies are that skinny!"  Yes, I am dead serious, she said those exact words to me.  It took everything I had to hold back the tears.  She was rude and not my style of pediatrician by any means.  Needless to say, the first thing we did when we walked out of there was change Micah's pediatrician.  Here's hoping our next experience is a little better!  Thanks mom for the pep talk and reassuring me that I am not a terrible mom, even thousands of miles away, she still cheers me up!

Chef Sammy

And so the week is coming to a close.  Baby is sleeping, tasty kabobs on the grill, relaxing with my husband on the front porch enjoying the breeze, I would say all is pretty well here in Hawaii.

Lesson Learned this week:  You need to strategically plan when you do your shopping at the commissary here on base.  Today I thought I would sneak in there at 5 (they close at 6) and pick a few things up for dinner.  Oh no, the line was wrapped around all the way to the back of the store!  I snuck in the 15 items or less self-checkout line with 19 items!  I am a rebel, I know!  In the back of my mind, I was freaking out, thinking that once I got to 15 items the machine would shut down or something crazy like that.  I am my mother's daughter, I am so not a rule breaker : )

This would be our master bedroom, who would have thought?

A few bumps and bruises along the way!  We started boiling water with this pot without knowing it had gotten cracked during the move.  This was the end result of the pot, along with water ALL over the stove.  We needed a good laugh!

I think this is my new favorite spot in the house, so relaxing!  Even with a construction fence outside, it is still a cozy place to sit!

Micah watching mommy and daddy unpack!  

My healthy, not too skinny little boy after his first swimming lesson : )

I can't believe this scenery is all around us, I feel so blessed!  If you look off in the distance, our house is located at the bottom of that hill or mountain, whatever you want to call it!

We have officially been in Hawaii a week now, can you believe that?  I have not been writing much since we got here because not a whole lot has happened.  Sam started work on Monday, so I have been stranded at the hotel all week without a car.  I will say that the first few days were a bit of a struggle for me.  I was missing home a lot, but every day seems to get a little better.  A lot of it has to do with being cooped up in this hotel room!  Don't get me wrong, it is beautiful at this resort.  However, sometimes I feel like I am at the zoo.  You can hear everything, and I mean everything!  At any given time I can hear this obnoxious parrot squawking, dogs howling, roosters crowing, and cats meowing!  A little peace and quiet will be nice to have again.

OUR NEW HOME!!!!!!

The good news is that we arrived in Hawaii at the perfect time!  We will be moving in to our brand new house on base on Monday, in a little over 1 day!  I am beyond excited for this!  I miss cooking and having a space to call our own.  For the past month people have been asking where do you live and for the first time in my life I didn't have an answer.  We have just been going from here to there for over a month now, and finally we will have a place to call home!  You know what that means, we are ready for some visitors!

This is the view from our master bedroom!   Even with the construction, it is still beautiful!

We have done a little exploring the past week and everywhere is beautiful.  I don't think seeing the bright blue water every day will ever get old!  Today we spent some time at the North Shore with some friends.  We played the role of tourists, even though we are not considered tourists because we live here now : )  Anyways, we browsed through all the cute little shops and indulged in the famous Mashimoto Hawaiian Shaved Ice.  Driving down, I was able to have a peek at the big waves, yikes, they really do exist!  My dad and brothers are going to be in heaven when they come here, I am so excited to show them around, they are going to love it!  Maybe they will come and decide to stay permanently!  No pictures of the big waves this time, too many tourists were out and about today since it was the weekend, another time I will show you!

Shaved Ice!

Lesson learned this week:  do all your grocery shopping at the commissary.  We forgot lettuce to make a salad so we thought we would stop at Safeway on the way back to the hotel to pick up a bag of lettuce.  We came out with some plain old ordinary lettuce that had a price tag of $6.29!!!

Hard to believe that tomorrow is Easter, I feel so out of sorts, I don't even know what day it is!  Anyways, I hope you all have a blessed Easter, we miss you all very much!  It stinks being so far away from family, even more so when holidays come around!

View at the hotel we are staying at

Happy boy!

Another view from the hotel

Oh, Hi there! 

Micah's first take of the ocean, he was in awe!