Back From Maui

We arrived home last night after wonderful week in Maui. It was great to see Ron's family and finally meet the extended family of cousins, great aunts and uncles, and family friends. It was hectic with so many people but we did manage to see a lot of the island. Here are some pics from our last day, yesterday. I'll post some more of the trip soon.
We were unaffected by the hurricane, though we did get rained on during our drive along the road to Hana... but as it is the "wet" side of the island, we didn't expect a totally sunny experience. Now that we are home, they are talking about a tsunami warning due to the Peru earthquake, but we are high in the mountains, so nothing to worry about. Thanks Amy & Tara for thinking about us though. :-)

Happy Birthday

Dear Grandpa / Great-Grandpa,

We hope you have a wonderful birthday celebration. It was so nice to visit with you and have you stay with us for a week. Ella is enjoying her Elmo chair and has become very possessive with it. :-) We'll be thinking of you as we try and get ready for Maui tomorrow. Enjoy the day and know that we miss you and love you. Happy Birthday!!

Love,
Tracey, Ron & Ella

Great Friends

It is by far the hardest thing about being in the military thus far, saying goodbye to great friends. We met Katie and Eric back in the early spring and have enjoyed having dinners, BBQing and hanging out with them. Ella, I believe, has had her first crush on Eric. She's usually quite careful about who she'll go to, choosing to suss them out for a little bit before venturing over to them. However, once she decided Eric was okay, she has constantly tried to get his attention and is quick to reach to be picked up or will bring him her toys.
Tonight, in honor of Eric's promotion (go Sergeant!), Katie and Eric invited us over for a celebration BBQ and farwell with some of his platoon. He leaves for training in Cali, before being deployed to Iraq. We'll possible see them (Katie's going home for the duration) in the fall for a bit between Cali and Iraq but we're not sure. It's sad to say goodbye but we will see them when he comes back in something like 15 months... and of course there's always email, it's just never the same. Eric had picked up a keg, so it was also Ella's first official keg party!

Immigration

Aghhhhh immigration! It's coming up 2 years since I received my residency card but I am now required to file more paperwork to "prove" that my marriage is legit. 4 days before I am allowed to file, they more than doubled the fee so Ron and I are coughing up almost $600 for some paper pusher to review "evidence" that I didn't marry Ron to come to the US.

Hopefully the "child produced from the marriage" is enough proof that I did actually marry because I love Ron. Sometimes I want to just say, "Trust me, if I was going to marry someone for a passport, there are many places I'd rather live" (Europe or Australia for example). Though I don't think that would go over well with the immigration department. :)

Bangs and Bumps

Yesterday, I took the girls hiking up Kolekole Pass. It was a gorgeous day and an easy climb so it was fun. I had Ella on my back which was a bit more of a workout. When we got to the top we sat around and took a rest. It's so beautiful!

I don't have Lahrissa for the rest of the week because Ted's taken holidays so it was a very laid back morning. Really quiet without a 5-year-old's constant nattering and questioning. I bought Ella some headbands today but had no hope of having her wear one as she pulls out any clips, barrettes or elastics within minutes of putting them in. She wore her headband most of the afternoon and she looks so cute! :) I was shocked that she ignored it, though she is starting to push her hair out of her eyes so maybe she was relieved something kept her hair out of her face. Here she is playing and dancing with her bells musical instruments...

Ella runs every where around the house. Forget walking, she is so her father's child with all that hyper energy! Tonight as I was putting the dishes in the dishwasher, she flew into the kitchen and wiped out...I think she hit the open dishwasher door but I'm not sure. She screamed for a second spitting blood and I nearly had a heart attack. It also looked like she might have busted her thumb, but then she was giggling and trying to run back into the living room. Her thumb is moving fine, and she just bit her lip so it stopped bleeding quickly. Oi, that was a lesson for me...don't leave the dishwasher door down, it gets in the way of speeding toddlers. We've taught Ella a couple of tricks, but I'll post the videos when we get back from Maui, we want to surprise Great-Grandma, Grandma, Grandad, Uncle Joey and Uncle Lee with them!

Weekend Wrap

Dear Grandma,

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you... I can't wait to see you in Maui soon. Only 10 more sleeps! :) There will be so much to do and so much to show you. I'm running around like mad now so you and Grandad will have a good workout. I'll show you everything I know about the beach... I'm an island girl now!

Hope you had a wonderful day.
I love you,
Ella xoxo

I can't believe another week has gone by and I have no pictures of Ella. Ron has gone back to regular working hours but after last week's training, he's landed the 5 to 1 shift. We're all extremely happy as he's a morning person anyway and unlike myself, he loves to get out of bed in the morning. It's much too early for me but to have him home all afternoon will be a treat.

Yesterday we went down to Pearl Harbor for a birthday party. Our neighbors just moved into a bigger house on Ford Island last month and we haven't had a chance to see it yet. It was so nice and new, with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths... we're so jealous! But we wouldn't trade our minuscule 2 bedroom 1 bath and the 5 minute commute for the traffic down in Pearl, it's a mess. We're happy up in the mountains where it's cooler and around the corner from Ron's work.

Aries turned 3 yesterday and Ella was excited to see him again. Maikou and her two kids used to come over to our pool and Ella would follow Aries around and giggle uncontrollably at his little boy antics (jumping head first into the water, dumping water over his baby sister, etc.) Aries of course loved the attention and would always call for Ella: "Come here, Ella"; "Look at this, Ella". Maikou said Ella's the only girl he'll play with! They're too cute.

We had good BBQ and Maikou's home made egg rolls yesterday and then today our neighbors cooked out and we had more BBQ and homemade lumpia (Filipino egg rolls). Yummy! I need to learn how to make them.

Elmo

Here is Ella's new Elmo chair. We all love it as Elmo has to be the cutest thing on Sesame Street. Ella loves to drag it around with her even if it means pulling it up on the couch. So we now have an Elmo chair, an Elmo doll, Elmo bibs and an Elmo puppet book... don't tell Ron but there's another Elmo plush and sing-along CD on it's way! Ella's "Canadian Girl" onsie still just fits but we might see if Auntie Erin can bring a larger one when she comes to visit in September... us Canadian girls have to represent here on an American military base ;)


p.s. and yes, Steph and Matt, Ella is still pounding away at her new xylophone though one of the sticks rolled under the stove but as you can see, that doesn't stop our little musician ... now we're just waiting for the other one to disappear! :) Hee hee!

Climbing

Ella climbs everything. She's all over the furniture, her picnic table, the step stool; she tips over boxes and the laundry baskets to see how she can use them to climb something out of her reach; and she uses the handle on the oven and the storage drawer underneath to see what's in reach on the counter. She also flopped herself out of her crib today too as I was in her room cleaning. I left the side down and turned around to see her flip over the rails and land on her butt. She was more scared than anything but did bite her tongue.

Great-Grandpa bought her an Elmo chair that giggles and shakes for a few seconds when she sits in it. She loves it and nose dives right into it. She loves to sit in chairs, on the couch, her stool, the preschool table. She'll crawl right up and sit politely with her feet crossed and her hands in her lap. It's adorable and I'll get some pictures soon.

Ron and I bought new phones, it's been a long time coming as we've had the same phones for 2 1/2 years now. My cellphone ended up in Canada with my Dad so we thought it the perfect time to upgrade to camera phones. Of course, mine is pink and girlie so I'm happy. I also bought the Bluetooth gadget to go with it and though I hate when people walk around with it in their ear, talking away, I figured it'd be a safe thing in the car. I'm always out and about and talk on my phone while driving...I know, not the safest thing so now I'm going hands-free. I'll post some pics soon.

Oooh, Auntie Erin is coming September 27th for 2 weeks! We are so excited to show her all the beaches we've found since she was here last... though there was a shark attack at one of them a couple days after we found it... we won't be going there!

Time- realllllly flying...

Okay, seriously! I have no idea where the time has gone. I've been so addicted to posting and I can't believe days are going by so quickly. I mean, I know they say that when you have a child, but does it really have to be this quick!

My dad flew in late Saturday night and is staying in Waikiki with Stephen. My Grandpa is staying with us and enjoying a relaxing vacation with his great-granddaughter. We've toured around the island, been swimming at the hotel in Waikiki and eaten much to much at some local restaurants. Ron is still drinking his diet and has been home catching up on school work (I wouldn't want to go watch people eat either). Here are some pictures of the last few days....

Belated Update

Yes, we really have been busy, or at least it seems that way. Ella and Lahrissa are still getting on great and keeping me busy. I've been creating a preschool curriculum for Lahrissa that I'll use for Ella when she's ready so I've been using up my computer time when Ella's napping on that.

Ella is loving all her new toys and I finally found her an Elmo that was reasonably plush and not expensive. Elmo is her favorite character, he's on her bibs and she watches a bit of Sesame Street. She's crazy for him and blows kisses, shrieks and giggles whenever he's on TV! I've been wanting to get her the plush Elmo chair that shakes and giggles when you first sit down but with all her new musical instruments I thought I'd better wait (and Ron would kill me for buying her more toys!)

My brother (Ella's Uncle Stephen) and my grandfather (Ella's Great-Grandfather) flew in on Thursday night. It was a long flight from Toronto and Stephen, being young and energetic is go go go. My Dad flies in tonight and Stephen got them a hotel in Waikiki to be closer to all the tourist action. Luckily, we've asked my Grandfather to stay with us as we're much more laid back and Ella's nap and bedtime schedules are much more forgiving! :) Next time Stephen will have to bring a buddy or better yet a date and then he'll have someone to peruse the island with.

Today, Ron, Ella and I got tickets to take a tour of the new Hawaii Superferry that's starting this summer. It has just arrived in Honolulu and should be starting it's routes to Maui and Kauai any time now. They were doing tours of the new boat today and despite the hype (it's about time there was a boat running between the islands!!!) it wasn't very big. Maybe 1/2 the size of a BC superferry?? You'd have to check the website to get specifics but it's only 1 1/2 car decks and 1 passenger deck with 3 lounges (the front lounge is first class and more expensive. There are no outside decks either. The tour was quick, nice to see and we'll definately be taking it at some point. Maybe a quick couple of days to Kauai.

Well, sorry it's been while. I really can't believe where this week has gone!