Our first Christmas in Hawaii

Awww aren't they cute? These are the little girls putting out cookies ad carrots for Santa and his reindeer. They are full of giggles... and here's what they woke up to Christmas morning. It is always so much more fun with little ones around for the holidays. I m not ready for them to be 13 like their big sister. She doesn't believe in the Santa thing any more and wanted to stay up and help "be Santa" kinda takes the magic out of it a little but she had fun putting batteries in tinkling baby dolls and voice recognizing puppies. So It's all good.

Moved in

So here is our home. The outside of it anyway not quite ready for indoor shots. We are in the middle unit of a three unit dwelling. We share a carport with the neighbor, there are 7 extra parking spots in the middle of the circle. Our back patio is screened in and it's pretty nice. We get a great breeze through the house which is great because it's 85 everyday and no airconditioning. :( Most people have window a/c units but it just isn't one of our top priorities right now since it is "winter". Our neighbors say we'll really need em come may-july.

We actually live on Pipi circle! HA! It is quite funny giving people our address. They always say "really?" Ugh welcome to Hawaii! Anyways we love our home and our neighbors and living onpost again after 3 years of civilan life in Lousy-ana. No freaky landlords to worry about here. :) Although the housing is privatized it still feels like normal post housing. You call maintenance to fix stuff and you get no BAH. So what's the major difference...not sure yet. I'll keep you posted.

First few days is Paradise

Our first few days were great. Jack didn't have to report until Monday so we had all weekend to explore. We went to alot of beaches. We couldn't pronounce the names of them but they were all really beautiful. This one is Hali'ewa (pronounced "holly- a- va" I think) here we saw sea Turtles swiming in the water. The next one we saw sea turtles sunning themselves on the sand at "Turtle beach" It was amazing to be so close to these huge turtles!
I am not sure which one of us enjoyed the beaches the most. Everyone has their favorite beach for different reasons. The little ones like Ko'olina because it's a "flat beach" no waves so they can swim and play with out worring about being swallowed by a wave. The teen likes the waves to boogie board on and splash around in. Jack likes to do lots of snorkling and has seen some pretty amazing fish. Me, I like them all I love to jump in the waves, I like to see the colorful fish and such underwater and I like just building sandcastles with the girls on the beach. This is going to be an awesome 3 years! Everyone please come and visit soon!

Arriving in Paradise

Here the little ones have just arrived in Hawaii. A nice fellow at the airport gave us all a lei... flower necklace. The girls thought this was great...ok well Sarah didn't but she's 13 and leis just aren't cool I guess. After we arrived at the airport Tom got all signed in and we got rooms at the Airport Best Western Plaza (Schofield Inn was full). We were all starving and tired so we ordered a Pizza, ate and went to bed. Ahhh in Hawaii at last!