Tag Archives: family

Christmas Party!

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I invited my football team over for a Christmas party this week. I was a little nervous ahead of time because people are TERRIBLE r.s.v.p.ers these days. So up until people started showing up I was really only sure of two or three ladies. Thankfully more showed up. I made a giant 8lb pork butt in the crock pot and turned it into bbq pork sandwiches. Of course I had told everyone to bring sides or dessert and every. single. person. brought a dessert. Really? So I made some mac and cheese really fast. But there was plenty of food in the end. We all had a really good time, the kids had a great time, so it was pretty much a success!

Mah Girls

 

Group shot with some of my girls. Don’t worry, the pregnant one doesn’t play, she is one of our assistant coaches wives!

We ate, drank and were merry. Can’t ask for more than that.

I’m Back!

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So I am a little irritated by myself because I was doing SO good posting this month and was planning on having posts ready to go for our trip so I didn’t have to worry about it. Nope totally didn’t get to it.

Oh yeah, also? We went to California! I didn’t say anything beforehand because I am paranoid of people breaking into my house. Yes, I am crazy.

Anyways, we flew to the SF Bay Area to spend Thanksgiving with some of my insanely awesome family. We hadn’t been there since 2008? Sometime before we moved to Spain, Omar was just a baby! So the kids got to see cousins, aunts, uncles, and their great-grandma! It was SO great to see everyone again. My aunt Nell threw such a wonderful Thanksgiving. Her house was packed to the brim with friends and family and I spent a wonderful day cooking with my family in my aunts kitchen. I would stop and look around at the family and friends I grew up with and say, “I can’t believe I am here!” The kids had a great time, we ate ourselves silly and spent a ton of time with our family. We are closer now to our California family now than we have been in a long time, so it won’t be 4 years before we visit again!

My biggest bummer? I left my DSLR camera battery at home. I was BEYOND angry. And since my camera is a few years old no one carries the battery. So I had to make due with my ipod (which thank goodness I had!)

Meeting the pilot on our flight!

 

Fun with tape at Aunt Nelly’s house!

 

Thanksgiving Day… Steph prepping sprouts. They came on a stalk! I was so impressed by that!

 

Mckenna and Nick on potato duty. We actually barely had enough mashed potatoes! NO leftovers!

 

Uncle Bill brings the BEST sodas!

 

Me and my beauty. Pre bake…

 

Headresses were made. They were awesome…

 

Cooking, cooking, cooking. And yes, even Aunt Nell was in on the headdress action!

 

Uncle Fred, aka the big turkey.

 

Obligatory turkey picture. It was fabulous and again, NO leftovers on a 23lb bird!

 

Me and Nell!

 

One. More. Bite. Of. Pie!

 

Omar and Great-Grandma Maryann! It was SO great to see her!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spend the Day at Hanauma Bay

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There is a reason that everyone raves about this place when it come to snorkeling, it is FANTASTIC!

Hanauam Bay is a natural preserve and because of this you have to jump through some hoops when it comes to visiting.  First off, get there early, the parking lot isn’t huge and once it fills up, they close it. We got there at 9:30am and they were only letting in 25 more cars.  The park is right off of H-1 so there really isn’t anywhere else to park nearby.  Parking is only $1 for the day, not bad at all.

There is also a charge to get into the bay, $7.50 for each adult (kids are free). However, if you are a resident (which we are, getting those Hawaiian driver’s license’s are totally worth it!) it’s free. After that you get to line up, yet again to watch a short video about the history of the bay and the conservation efforts being made to keep it safe.

It’s a pretty steep walk down to the beach itself…

But they have a little tram you can ride down (and up) that is $2 for a round trip.

The walk down is fine, the walk up is no joke!

The view is pretty nice as you walk down the hill…

I didn’t take a ton of pictures while we were on the beach, we put all of our valuables in a locker so we didn’t have to guard our stuff. There are bathrooms, lockers, snorkel rentals and lifeguards on the beach, but no snacks or drink sales.

The snorkeling was outstanding, all of the rock in the picture is reef and the fish were everywhere. We saw a moray eel within minutes of getting in the water (the only one we saw all day) and huge naso tangs, goat fish, spotted puffers, and humahuma triggers.

Once the tide started to come in it got really choppy and difficult to swim. I went out one last time before we left and was getting tossed around. Plus the visibility was getting worse and it was no fun to be out there.

The view on the ride home isn’t half bad either…

See that? That is a TRAIL going up the side of that mountain! Insane!

Impromptu ER visits (are there any other kind?)

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The responsible party.

So we were having a wonderful Saturday afternoon playing frisbee in the front yard along with a couple of neighborhood kids. M went chasing after a frisbee and wasn’t looking where she was going… She tripped over the edge of this concrete thing and fell right onto the concrete base. At first (because I am just a horrible person) I may have laughed and said “See, this is why we keep telling your brother to stay away from those!”. But then I realized she really was hurt. Thank goodness daddy was there to pick her up and carry her inside (the girl is almost my size!).

Once inside she didn’t calm down and was crying pretty bad. I grabbed some ice, my purse and told her we were going to the ER. She said she was fine (in between tears) but into the car we went. She said her wrist and hip hurt the worst but she had scraped her knee and elbow as well. I was pretty much convinced that she had a fractured wrist.

What a happy camper!

Lucky for her I had my point and shoot still in my purse from earlier in the day! I get to document the whole thing!  I am so so so grateful that our ER is pretty much always empty. We’ve never had to sit and wait for a bed – I’m actually trying to think if there is even a waiting room. The guys were super nice and made us stop halfway across the parking lot so they could get M a wheelchair (she was limping and holding onto me). So she was in right away and we just had to wait for an x-ray on that wrist. (By this time her hip was feeling better)

The corpsman asked me if she had x-rays before and I said no, only dental ones. Then after a few minutes remembered, oh yeah, she had a chest x-ray when she was like 5 because they thought she might have pneumonia. I can’t remember everything, okay!

Time for an x-ray.

She did great the whole time. They took three different shots and some of them were painful for her but she held them.

Taking pictures as I am hiding behind the glass...

She thought her wrist x-ray looked pretty cool. I am so mad that I didn’t get a good shot of it, or at least be able to tell where the bones are in this picture instead of a white blob!

Doctor came and talked with us and said it didn’t look like a fracture or break. She is pretty much just battered and bruised after her fall. M was pretty bummed since we missed her girl scouts Earth Hour party but she needed to take it easy and sit on the couch. I’m thinking tomorrow morning she is REALLY going to be feeling it.  The ortho doc is going to double check the x-rays this week just to make sure they didn’t miss anything but I am hoping we can avoid a cast!  M had previously stated that she wanted to break something because she wants to wear a cast. After this she said if a sprain hurts this bad, there’s no way she wants to break a bone!