CHRISTMAS 09

This Christmas me and Ezra were able to go visit my family TOGETHER!! This is the first Christmas and Thanksgiving Ezra and I were able to spend together since we moved to Hawaii, we have been here for 3 years now. It is amazing how fast time flys. We had such a good time at home just hanging out with family and playing in the snow. Heather and her family came and we all stayed at my Dads and then we went up to Cassy's and stayed for a few days at their house. I think we have been going to Cassy's and staying Christmas Eve for years now, we are so thankful they let us stay and watch their kiddles open presents. Not having little ones of our own to open presents on Christmas kind of sucks so they have always let us be there to watch them and their kiddles and we love them so much for always taking us in!! Smokey stayed at one of Ezra's friends, we were so lucky because he took such good care of him and spoiled him. I don't think Smokey really wanted to come home after that, but we missed him to much to let him stay anymore over there. We didn't get to see my Mom this Christmas and we miss her very much. We hope everyone had wonderful holidays and we are looking forward to seeing everyone who is coming to visit this year!! That last Post really worked!!

COME VISIT!!

So Ezra and I were talking last night and we decided that not enough people come visit us. We live in Hawaii for craps sake and we still can't get people to come see us. You can have a free place to stay, and transportation and even a tour guide (or not)! There is clearly so much to do here that you couldn't even do it all in one trip if you tried, and you could even come and just sit on the beach if that is all you wanted to do. It would be so much fun and we would love to have you here!! We just miss our family and friends and want to see them more often. We know how hard it is to fly these days and the expense is ridiculous, I will have flown 5 times this year by December, and I know how tough it is especially when some of you guys have 4-6 in your family's. We just don't want anyone to think that they aren't invited to come visit! Come take advantage of us in Hawaii, it's okay!! We love you either way, but we would love to see more of our family and friends!

Frog Hunting and Water Pumps

One thing I mentioned that we did in Missouri on this trip was FROG HUNTING!! Ezra's family has 3 ponds on their property, they are full of fish, snapping turtles, and FROGS!! Many of you know my issue with frogs, slimy, jumping, living frogs. Well I finally got revenge on all the years of torture. I know that this wont end their tortures ways but I at least got rid of a few in this world that wont be able to haunt me! Okay that sounds crazy. Ezra actually did most of the frog hunting since I had a hard time just looking at them, and then to have to stare at them through the scope until I could get steady enough to shoot was way to much for me! I did get a few though. Here's some pictures.
Also I added a SISTERS CLUB picture, the members will understand!!

Missouri Trip

Ezra hasn't been home for almost 4 years, and we weren't sure when we would get back out there since we never know when he is going to be home. So we decided to go for 2 weeks to visit his family in Missouri. We had such a good time, it was really nice for us just to spend some time together playing and hanging out since he hasn't been home for at least 9 months in the past year. We got to do so much in just two weeks it made the time fly by. We went to a Cardinals game and hung out in St. Louis with his brother and his girlfriend, fiance we might as well say!! Then we had a few family BBQ's so we could see everyone, which was a lot of fun. They are all so close to each other both sides of the family, it made me miss my family so much, I wish we all lived that close together and could do family BBQ's. Then his parents took us to the Mark Twain caves, if any of you have read the Tom Swayer Books you know what I am talking about. It was cool to see where he actually came up with all the cave storys for his book. Then we went to Nauvoo, and we went frong hunting, and they took me to a Red Neck Wedding, for real!! We I also experienced my first Tornado Warning. It was scary to say the least. I have never seen a storm like I did that night. They had flooding the next day and so we visited on of the dams that almost gave out because there was to much water.
One of the coolest things about Missouri though are the Fireflys, they were so amazing to see at night. Every night there were just thousands of these flashing lights, it was so pretty, I wish my Mom could of seen them. We also got to meet our new niece and also spend the week with Braden. Braden is our 6 yr old Nephew that we haven't seen since he was just a year old. It was so much fun to spend time with him, we had so much fun with him.
We had such a good time just hanging out on their farm and seeing everyone.

Hidden Beach

There is one corner of the island that you can't drive on because there are no roads. It is where Waiana meets Wailua. The only way to get around this point of the island is to either hike or four wheel out there and even then you can only four wheel so far. So the other weekend we decided we would four wheel out there and hike back in because we had heard of this beach called "Hidden Beach", got its name for obvious reasons. So we don't know if we actually ever found it but we did find this beach and hung out there for the day, it was so pretty and just me, Ezra and Smokey which was neat. Snorkeling is supposed to be amazing when the waves are down, and even though they didn't look very big in these pictures it was pretty rough. For those who are familiar with the islands there is a picture of Ezra on a rock and behind him you can see the island come out to a point, that would be the point you drive around to our house past Haleiwa and Waimea. We are definitely spoiled and blessed that we get to live in Hawaii.

Lazy Puppy

So Smokey has started to do this cute deal while we are eating. He gets tired of looking at us and begging so he rests his head now on the table or on our knees and just watches us until we either give in and feed him or he figures out that we aren't going to give him our food. He loves to sleep on the coffee table because it is much cooler on there, but the other day we had placed his food on the table so we could vacum or something, and next thing we knew he was lying on the table eating his food (He always lays down when he eats no matter what). It was just really cute with his head all the way in the bowl and laying with his little legs kicked out to the side.

4th of July Week

We had visitors for the week of the 4th of July. My Aunt, Cousine and their friends came and stayed with us for about 10 days! We got to go kayaking at Lanikai, and bonfiring at Bellows, and got to do this little tour deal which I highly recommend! On the 4th of July we went to Bayfest. Bayfest is a deal they put on for the military at the Kaneohe Marine Core Base where Ezra works. We got to see Little Big Town who sings one of my favorite country songs "Bring it on home", and Rodney Atkins who was awesome! Then a huge fireworks show was shot right over your heads on the ocean. It was awesome! We always have so much fun when people come visit us, wish more people could come visit us!