today marks the second week that I have been gone. It's only 13 day's but it is the second friday...who's counting.
We were able to get into the north shore of Hawaii for some swimming. Wake Island was deep sea fishing from an old landing craft...i spent most of my time at the bow getting drenched by the waves. It has not stopped raining since we arrived in Japan. Miss you all and wish I could speak with you directly...Safe travels Stacy! Boy's, I saw yellow-yellow's uncle in the waters of Hawaii...

Sigh

Well, at least the countdown begins...





















































That's him in the front seat

And off he goes...

The Pool

Hello Bloggin enthusiast's: My beautiful wife bought me a digital water-proof camera for my birthday and we got some still shots of the boy's at/in the pool. The camera is cool, the picture quality is really good, the cleanliness of the water at the YMCA is a little suspect!
I'm leaving in 6 day's for a 6-7 month deployment to Japan, trust you will all take good care of her while I am gone. James, thanks for breaking the mold and allowing us men to write on the blogs...Happy 4th of July!
Brian

Happy Father's Day

What a blessing the Lord has given us with the wonderful dad's in our lives. We love you. Happy Father's day!

It was a beautiful saturday and a great time to head out for some fishing with the new fishing poles that Brian got for the boys.
They set up shop at the pond behind our house. Rumor is that it has fish and no alligators - sounded like a good place.
Noah was quite the serious fisherman. I think they meant business that day!
Jacob kept an eye on his bobber, unfortunately it never really "bobbed"
Nothing was biting so I took the opportunity to snap a photo of the strange boat that is abandoned in the woods next to the pond. Hmm, maybe they were fishing there once upon a time and just didn't know when to call it quits. We will have to be aware of a good stopping point...
At last, an on-looker! But it was just a turtle who wouldn't take the bait. We were still determined to catch a fish!

Instead we ended up at the ER. Fishing in the pond wasn't producing any bites so we headed to some ocean waters! The only problem was that it was in a tidal area so it was muddy (and slippery). Both boys managed to nearly reel in a crab, but it all came to an end when Jake fell and gashed his leg on an oyster shell. We can say that we still haven't had our first stitches though! Apparently oyster shells carry a bacteria that, if a cut is closed up, is guaranteed to cause infection. So, they cleaned it up, put Jake on antibiotics and told us how to care for it. I'd rather care for a stitched up area than a gaping wound... maybe next weekend will be better.. and I think we'll stick to fishing at the pond.

More of the house

Here are pictures of the back of the house, the backyard (facing out I took a picture looking left and a picture looking right), the computer room (which I am still not settled on, but it is what it is for now) and the master bedroom. It is hard to capture what the rooms really look like on camera, but I tried to pick the best that I could. The office and the bedroom we painted and I am LOVING my brown walls!! I've got plans for the backyard, but those will have to wait for a little while. Anways, enjoy a peek into our home. Oh, and it isn't always this clean!

Beach

Last weekend we had some beautiful weather here so we took advantage and headed to the beach. It was a great day. The atlantic waves are not as big as the pacific, so it was much easier for the boys to be in the water. Turns out they love "jumping" the waves and going out as far as they could (while we were with them, of course!). While we were in the water we saw multiple dolphins jumping not far from where we were - I was as excited as the kids! On the shore we found some horseshoe crabs ( we didn't know what they were, but looked them up when we got home). We played frisbee, built sand towers and enjoyed hanging out together. It was a glorious day!