Time

It's time for me to update my blog. Too much has happened to try and play catch up, I am not sure I will remember it all....

Birthdays: Curren turned 9...Kealani turned 3...Shane turned 37....I turned another year older (ok 31)...and Morrea will be turning 7 soon.

School: The kids are both enjoying school this year. Curren is in the 4th...yes fourth... and Morrea is in 2nd grade. With Curren being in fourth grade we now are privileged to hear him proudly play his recorder. Morrea's favorite subject is art although she seems to excel in all subjects.

Halloween: We trick or treated, trunk or treated, and indulged on way too much sugar and chocolate.

Thanksgiving: One of my favorite holidays. We made a big Thanksgiving tree and each day the kids added a handprint or two with what they were thankful written on it. It was fun to read the different things they wrote. We enjoyed a great meal at our house with family, cousins, and the missionaries. Later that day we continued our family tradition of going to a local family's tree lot and picking out our Christmas tree. By the end of Black Friday our tree was up and fully decorated.

Work: The most exciting thing happening at the office right now is the raccoon that is living between the first and second floor of our building. It took occupancy about 2 weeks ago and has yet to be caught. It has designated Shane's side of the office as its master bathroom. For now we are enduring the smell of sardines in traps located in the ceiling. On the bright side our office will be closed for 2 weeks over the Christmas holiday.

That is about all I can remember. I love the Christmas holiday season and hope to take the time to enjoy this season of giving. We had our friend, John, grab some quick photos so that we could get our Christmas cards made and sent. He always does a great job. Here are just a few of our family.....

Summer....

Wow...I have turned into a terrible blogger, not that I was a great one to begin with. I am sure my blog updates will not be very frequent now that summer is here. Summer is our busy season here at the beach...as you can imagine. Aside from work we have been going to the beach every chance we get, spending time with friends, eating ice cream at our favorite shop Fantasy Isle, and growing our garden. Emma, David and Kainoa are with us this week and for a while longer so it has been fun having them visit. One of Emma's misison companions is coming up this weekend from Atlanta to visit so that should be fun also. Living at the beach is great and we always welcome visitors that come to spend time with us.

Shane, Curren and Morrea have been lucky enough to get cast as extras on One Tree Hill. Morrea had some time a couple months ago on the show. They have been on set for the past 3 days. Although I don't push them to do this stuff, I think it is a great learning experience for the kids. I was lucky (or unlucky) enough to have oral surgery on Monday so I did not get to be with them as an extra. They did get to meet and be on set with Jerry Rice yesterday so the kids were excited. I am not sure if they knew who Jerry Rice was before then, but they do now.

I can't really think of anything else to post now. I'm hoping to read a couple good books this summer, catch some good movies at the theater, spend as much time on the beach with my kids and work on my surfing some more. Oh yeah, Curren surfed for the first time last week. He got up on his 2nd wave. What a proud moment for his dad!

Just a few pictures of the kids having fun at their favorite beach spot.....

Kealani Hangin' Ten...toes on the nose!!

Sand Castle queen...

Surfer Curren....

Charleston

Some of my favorite pictures from our Charleston Anniversary trip. There are quite a few and I probably should have made a slide show, but I don't know how to. They are in random order....

Stoll's Alley

My hot hubby on the other side of the camera...at the Battery

Rainbow Row
The Palmer House

Don't know anything about this place except that it said US Custom House

Loved walking the streets of Charleston and looking at all the beautiful homes





Cooper Bridge...I did wake up in time to see this.

Someplace cool to be buried

Loved learning the history



Battery in front of our bed & breakfast

Great place to rest after walking all day

Edmonston-Alson House. Great history here. Our B&B was located at the back of the property

A Decade....

Shane and I have been married for a decade. We celebrated our 10 year anniversary on April 24th in Charleston, South Carolina. My first (but definitely not last) trip to charming southern Charleston. I absolutely loved it and had the best time ever. Shane was the best...took me to the best restaurants, booked us in one of the best Bed and Breakfasts right on the Battery, gave me unlimited spending on shopping (although I don't think I spent more than $50), and really waited on me hand and foot. He didn't even get upset because I was sick during the trip and ended up sleeping the whole drive there...and back. This is why I am married to this man!

I am truly blessed to have Shane in my life and at the head of our family. 10 years has certainly gone by quick, but I have enjoyed every minute of it. I love that he is my eternal companion and that I have an eternity to spend with him.

Pictures would make this post a whole lot better, but Shane has gone to a fishing tournament so I haven't had time to download and resize them. I will do that when I get a free moment though and definitely post some of my favorite.

Coastal Living

Living on the coast has been a great experience. One of the many benefits that I really enjoy is the food...of course! More specifically the food that comes out of the ocean. There is nothing better than fresh seafood right off the boat. We are lucky to have easy access to such. The other day we heard that a shrimp boat had come in and so Shane and I took a quick break from the office to ride over the bridge and get some shrimp. I took my camera along so here are a few pictures.

Professional advertising

Welcome to the Shrimp Shack
Dock to the boat

Boat from across the waterway

Looking up at the nets

Weighing the shrimp on the scale

Basket full of shrimp


Jumbo shrimp with heads on $3.50 lb

First Day of Spring

The first day of spring at Holden Beach. Looking forward to a spring and summer filled with many sandy days at the beach.

Can you see the shrimp boat in the water?

Snowshoe

We took a fun 5 day family trip to the mountains of West Virginia last week. My mother in laws husband has a condo at Snowshoe Mountain in the Rimfire Lodge. We were able to take advantage of a free place to stay as well as some great hookups on lift tickets thanks to him (Randy).

Our trip started out on Wednesday with an 11 hour drive from our house to the lodge. It was a pretty long and tiring drive that included several potty stops, a planned stop at the grocery store before heading up the mountain, and 2 unplanned stops due to vomiting children. Poor Morrea got carsick first and left her lunch on the floorboard of Mimi and Randy's car. After cleaning that up and continuing on for about 25 minutes it was Curren's turn to leave his lunch in our car. Everyone was relieved when we pulled into the parking deck and were able to unload and finally relax.

Thursday's highlights were Curren and Morrea attending ski school. They have never skied before and really enjoyed themselves. Randy was able to get them free tickets to ski school and they spent about 3.5 hours with a small group and ski instructor learning the basics. By the end of the lesson they were able to ski the bunny hill and ride the lift.

On Friday Shane took me out on the slopes to do some snowboarding. I would consider myself a beginner boarder since I have only been twice before with the last time being before I had Kealani. After practicing on the bunny hill and a couple rides up and off the ski lift we headed for a fairly easy slope. I made it to the bottom in one piece and really enjoyed being able to spend some time with Shane. Later that day we took the kids to the tubing hill. They really enjoyed that. It was nice having a tow rope to haul us back to the top of the hill. Kealani was too young to ride the tubing hill but Randy (or Mimi as she calls him) snagged one of the tubes and played with her on one of the small hills nearby.

On Saturday we all took to the slopes (minus Shane's mother who was watching Kealani). It was fun to watch Curren and Morrea going down the regular ski slopes. They really picked up on the skiing and can't wait to go back again.

Our trip ended Sunday as we travelled back home. It started snowing early that morning with the forecast calling for snow all day so we were a bit worried about the drive down the mountain since our car is not 4 wheel drive nor did we have chains. The roads down the mountain were covered in snow but Shane did really well. He wanted me to drive since I had 'experience' from living in Utah, but I told him no way since I am extremely prone to carsickness and have to sleep or keep my eyes closed almost the whole way up or down the mountain. Only thing bad that happened on the ride home was Kealani getting carsick on the way down the mountain and throwing up on me.

Overall we had a great trip despite the car sickness and the windchill temps of 16 below. It snowed almost every day we were there. The kids had lots of fun and that was our main goal. Even though Kealani didn't get to ski she got to play out in the snow a bunch which she loved.

Here are a bunch of pictures from the trip...sorry for the overload but who doesn't like to look at pictures... :)

At the tubing hill

View from the condo

Morrea and Curren at ski school

Morrea with the ski instructor

Kealani pulling her tube up the hill

The kids playing on the snow mound in the village

Me shredding the hill (or my muscles which were so sore the next day!)

Curren at ski school