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!

Megan's parent program - End of the Year Review

Is it really that time of when we have the end of a school year? Wow. Discovery Club was amazing this year for Megan. She has grown into a wonderful little girls who I'm not afraid to send to Kindergarten anymore! Their end of the year program was a review of all the things they've learned. Since Chris isn't working he was able to come to this final program. Megan was really excited to show things to her dad too. Here's a look at Megan through the year: (you can click on the collage to see it bigger)

Rockin' My Country

The theme for the girl's spring dance recital this year is Rockin' My Country and these kids ROCKED it! And a BIG thank you for all the hard work Amy and Kaley do to put on a great show. The girls have grown a lot this year in dance and it was fun to see their hard work. Since I've been through a couple of these recitals now, I know I have to gear up for a long day and unexpected twists and turns to my schedule. This year was no different, but overall I think (as I want to remember it) all things weren't too bad. Great job girls!

On stage after the show.

These are looks of "thanks for the flowers, I'm tired and hungry, can we go now?"