Mini photo shoot

I got the boys to sit still and let me take a couple of poses of them.  I rarely get good pictures of them together, so this was a rare opportunity!

More March fun

We kept busy the rest of the week Dan was visiting too.  Here's a photo recap of all the sights we saw...

Hiked to Manoa Falls.  Since it had been rainy, the falls were gorgeous

 We spent a day being tourists down in Waikiki.  This is on the property of the Royal Hawaiian, the most iconic hotel on Waikiki.  (and one of the most expensive!)

 The royal Hawaiian from down the beach

 We also made a stop at the Punchbowl - National Cemetery of the Pacific

 Panoramic views from observation deck at the punchbowl

 We took a driving tour of the island and stopped by the chinaman's hat

 Adam found a coconut at the beach.  I shook it and it was full still so we brought it home to open up later.

 

Dan opening up the coconut we found at the beach

 Dan rented a Harley motorcycle one day to enjoy riding in the beautiful weather.

 We finished off the week with a trip to the beach.  We couldn't let him visit Hawaii without spending some time at the beach!

 Second beach stop that day - barbers point beach to see the lighthouse

Arizona Memorial

Monday of Dan's visit, we spent the morning at the Pearl Harbor Arizona Memorial.  I hadn't been down there since the new visitor's center opened in December.  The new site is gorgeous, it is all opened up with wide ocean views.  A huge improvement over the old center.  We spent some time walking around the grounds while we waited for our tour start time.  The tour of the memorial was somber as always.  

When we finished that, we headed over to tour the battleship Missouri.  I had never toured that vessel before, it is a pretty impressive ship.  When you walk up to it, the thing is HUGE!  It is one thing to see a picture, but another to stand right in front of it.  I didn't care for our tour guide, but the ship was interesting.  I've toured the submarine they have at the site before and if i were serving, I'd definitely rather be on the battleship than the sub.  Much more spacious (not to mention fresh air)!

We had Cole with us for the day too and he even did pretty well through all the tours and info.  He was especially impressed with the big guns on the battleship!

March visitor fun

March didn't start out too well, I was sick for a full week and the kids were down with the same thing for a couple of days.  Then my brother Dan came for a visit and we had a good time being tourists around the island.  We don't usually take the time to be tourists, every time someone visits we end up seeing parts of the island we've never seen before.

We had a busy first day after he arrived, we did two hikes, made a stop at the Pali overlook, and then went down for a picnic dinner at the beach to see the sunset.  I think everyone was well worn out by the end of the day.

Hiking Diamond Head

2nd hike - Makapu'u lighthouse - Adam is getting tired...

Pali Overlook - it was windy!

Sunset pic that Dan took

'THE' birthday present

As a kid, there is always one present that you just HAVE to have.  For Adam, it was the AT-AT walker toy from Star Wars.  The boys live, eat, and breathe Star Wars.  I told him it was too expensive since we were throwing a big party this year.  But then I checked and it had gone on sale on Amazon (plus free shipping of course!).  Then mom said she'd sent money for Adam's gift instead of trying to ship something.  Plus, Adam had a  non-stop campaign of how he was eventually going to afford to get one of these.  He was trying to figure out what jobs he could do to buy one.  

So between the good sale, my contribution, mom's contribution, plus the money I made Adam chip in out of his own money, he got an AT-AT walker.  It is the size of a medium size dog, but at least it doesn't eat or poop.  The boys love the thing and have their figurines in and out of it play acting out the movies with it.  It is suprisingly well made, really sturdy - so I think it was a good buy in the end.  

The big 0-7

Adam turned 7 today, and we had a big party for him over the weekend.  I had managed to put off having a big party until now, but early on he kept asking and asking so finally I gave in.  So we invited a bunch of kids he knows from the neighborhood, MOMS Club, and school.  We rented a bounce house and had pizza and cake.  It was a good time!  The kids all wore themselves out bouncing and playing on the playground.  We had a game with silly string and a pinata too.  Adam said it was the best party ever.  I reminded him we weren't doing it again next year :)

Adam outside his bounce house

Bounce on kids!

Birthday cake and candles

Cole and one of his buddies

Adam's with the mask decoration off his cake.  

After the party was over, we had a lot of fun family bounce time.  It was a good time and a good workout!

The party was a great time and I'm glad all the planning is over!