Hawaii - Picture Paradise

Hawaii is a beautiful place. And that pretty much explains it all. Everything from the flowers, to the sand, to the water are all amazing. So, naturally some of the 1,000s of pictures are of the scenery. Pictures don't quite do it justice, but they'll have to do until I can get there again.

Hawaii - Family Time

Of course the best part about our vacation is always having family time. The condos we stay in allow for us to not have to eat out for every meal. And it allows enough space for ALL of us to be together. That's a difficult task with how many of us there are! Most evenings are spent together away from the pool and beach. (Did we really bring clothes other than bathing suits?!) Because we were in Hawaii over Father's Day, Amy came up with a great trivia game for us to get to know all the fathers (pictured in the first collage, bottom right). We also spent time trying to keep the kids busy in the evenings so we weren't too loud for other occupants. One fun activity we did was ALOHA Bingo (pictured in the first collage, top right). Also, a favorite evening activity is to go get ice cream after dinner in Whaler Village just next to the condos (pictured with Adam taking a happy big bite of his ice cream cone.) Even with the condos, we always take time to eat at our favorite restaurants on Maui: Cheeseburgers in Paradise (yes, the name is true), and Hard Rock Cafe (also pictured in the collages below). The big group picture was taken after church. What a good looking 'Ohana!

Maui Ocean Center

After we got all packed up, we had several hours before we needed to be at the airport, so we visited an aquarium between Lahaina and Kahului.

Hawaii - Fun in the Water

So if the Partridge clan is not found on the beach, we are in the pool. (Or, my personal favorite - lounging by the pool.) The pool was remodeled from the last time we went, but the kids enjoyed it just as much. We sort of took over one entire stairway entry when all of us were together, but that's the way we like it! Loud and together! Other water activities this trip included Katelyn surfing along with some cousins and Chris scuba diving with his brothers. Katelyn tried being on her own board for her first wave, but that got a little too scary for her. She then rode the rest of the waves with her instructor. Chris of course enjoyed his scuba trip. It's a highlight for him each time.

Beach Time

We just got back from an excellent trip to Maui, Hawaii (big huge mahalo Mom and Dad!).  In spite of our lack of current postings, I  put this together on my new MacBook (from work).  I plan on posting more soon (as well as catching up).

Hawaii - Where's the Beach?!

Of course one of our favorite things about Maui is the beach. It has gorgeous sands and amazing views. The kids all loved playing in the sand. We built sand castles, dug, enjoyed the waves, visited, got some sun, and got our swimming suits full of Maui sand that will never come out!

Hawaiian Summer

I love Hawaii! I love family! I love being with my family in Hawaii! This year we made the trek again across the great waters to Hawaii. We relaxed, had fun, enjoyed each others company, and made memories. As I looked through all the 1,000s of pictures (really), I realized this could be no regular blog entry. So instead, I have grouped the types of things we did in Hawaii and will post that way instead of a travel-log. So here we go!

Point me to the Beach!

And when life starts looking up....something breaks.

It always seems like when something goes good, something else breaks. We are so happy with Chris's new job and we are looking forward to our upcoming trip to Hawaii. So what breaks? The water heater of course. Thankfully it's in the garage. Unfortunately, water seeps everywhere. Thankfully we caught it pretty quick. Unfortunately, there still was water damage and repair that needed to be done. Thankfully, we have good insurance! In all, the experience wasn't that bad. And now our new water heater is good to go for a long time.

New water heater with wall cut-outs to dry all the wet areas.

The entire wall with the water heater had to be cut.

The water seeped to the inside the house. The closet just needed new base boards.

 

This is the inside front closet. The only place on that level of the house that had carpet. It was soaked and had to come up to dry. Fortunately, we had leftover tile and we had them replace it with the tile instead of carpet. Bonus.

I should have taken some after pictures, but all is put back together and looking great.

Let the swim meets begin!

Welcome summertime. It means hot weather, lots of pool time, and swim team/swim lessons! Katelyn wasn't so sure about swim team this year. With our upcoming vacation, I told her she just needed to do 2 swim meets and then participate in swim team during the week for exercise. Because it wasn't an option, she said OK.

Swim meets are almost always super hot evenings, but a lot of fun to watch. Katelyn did a great job. She tried her hardest. In freestyle, she beat her own time from last year by 10 seconds. Way to go!

New swim team suits for 2011. 

Cute Megan waiting for the races to begin. 

Adam is the smart one. He's taking a nap before the event starts. Hopefully this will last!

Yeah Katelyn! Good work!

We have a new job!

Yipeee!!! So very happy that job hunting this go around was short lived. Chris has accepted a job with a company named Sycara as a developer. He was looking at either developing or automation testing positions to find as many options as possible. In one weekend, he had 2 offers and had to choose one. Happy day! Choosing was hard, but ultimately it came down to staying in developing and not going back to testing. Sycara is a very small start-up company with the backing of a big company. Small companies make me nervous, but we feel good about this opportunity. As far as my limited understanding of the computer world goes, the company develops tools for other companies to optimize their websites so that they come up first when someone searches for their services on the internet. The new word to me is "search engine optimization." I think that's as much as I'll understand. Just so happy to have work!