Ky, Lisa, James and Ryan's journey through life
I’ve been meaning to take the training wheels off of Ryan’s bike for awhile now. And a nice Saturday afternoon gave me the perfect opportunity. He was wobbly for about a half loop around the park, but then he just “got it” and was off to the races. Good job Ryan!! We’re very proud of you!!
Youtube link:
I’m not sure what happened to 2011. I’m positive we had a lot to write about but I fell off the blogging wagon. So I found something that may inspire me to start writing again. Here’s to more publishing in 2012 and beyond.
1. Family members will surprise and hurt you, learn and move on.
2. Some friends are not really your friends…purge and find new ones.
3. You will go through some tough times, but you WILL survive.
4. Dogs are really a “man’s best friend”.. love them with all your heart.
5. When you least expect it, a very kind person will help you…be grateful & thankful for their kindness…one day you will repay them.
6. You will lose family and friends.. never forget them and remember the good times.
7. As your parents get older and more needy, understand they are still your parents.
8. Your children are the single biggest accomplishment in your life.. continue to teach and love them.
9. Regardless of religion, pray to GOD and be thankful for what you have.
10. It’s NOT all about you, be sensitive and caring to other people.
11. One day, it will all come together…be patient.
Happy 2012!
The summer went by too quickly! Maybe it was because we went on our summer vacation earlier this year or because we had a lot of activities to keep us busy, either way, summer has come and gone and the school season is upon us.
Ryan reached a milestone and started Kindergarten this year. We were lucky to have Ryan get the same Kinder teacher that James had. She does a great job with the kids and they all really like her. Ryan is doing great so far. He likes finishing up his homework so he can turn it in at the end of the week. Ryan also enjoys reading his “gold-star” books to us. He’s made quite a few friends and has settled into the routine of Kindergarten really well. We’re so excited that he enjoys school now!
We were also lucky that James got the same teacher he had last year. Because his teacher taught a combo 2nd/3rd class last year, she kept the 2nd graders she had to stay with her for 3rd grade. James is used to her style of teaching and he works well in her class. He was reunited with a lot of the kids he’s had in K-2 grade and that always helps with his learning environment.
This year, James also turns in homework every day (instead of on Fridays) and that has helped with our homework struggles of last year. He does his homework immediately and also continues to enjoy reading. We hope to encourage him to keep this up throughout the year.
Thursday – We took the opportunity this morning to go to the lagoon located on the hotel property. It was redone in 2009 and looks really cool. The sand is a lot more coarse over here because it’s man-made but otherwise it’s a cool place to hang out. We saw lots of people on paddle boards over the past couple of days and wanted to try it out ourselves. Lisa went first and got the hang of it immediately. It is actually really fun and relaxing. And trying it out in the lagoon first was a safe and easy way to experience it. I was even able to balance James on the front of the board and paddle around fairly easily.
After a fun morning at the lagoon, we decided that the boys were old enough to hike Diamond Head. We packed some water and sunscreen and started the trek up the dormant volcano. They improved the trail from what I remember and flashlights were no longer needed in the tunnels. (They added lights to the bottom of the path.) It was hot so we took numerous breaks for the boys to catch their breaths and stay hydrated. Ryan was a trooper the whole trip up. James had some more complaints but when he got to the top, he figured it was worth it, sort of.
Wednesday – On our 2nd full day on Oahu, we tried to go Hanauma Bay so the boys could swim and snorkel with the fish. Well, by the time we got out of the hotel, got our breakfast, coffee and lunch supplies, it was almost 10am. By then, the parking lot was closed. So we drove on and I happened to remember the way to Kailua because we had a photo shoot nearby a couple of years ago. At the time, we had gone to Lanikai but didn’t get a chance to stop at Kailua.
I followed the roads by memory as best as I could and we got to Kailua Beach with no problems. The beach is gorgeous! And the sand is super soft with no rocks at all. (The beach in front of our hotel has rocks all over the place and the sand is much more coarse.) We settled in for a great day of swimming, snorkeling, boogie boarding and just hanging out on a beautiful beach. We saw a lot of people rent kayaks and Lisa went to check on renting a 4 seater. But by that time, the winds had picked up and the waves were getting choppy so we figured we’ll just come back another day. It was a great day at Kailua and we’ll definitely be going back.
OK, we’ve been in Hawaii for almost a whole week and I’m finally getting around to putting something up on our blog. Here’s the rundown.
Monday – We took Hawaiian Airlines this time. Yay! After last year’s fiasco of taking United and having multiple flights with no food and having to take the red-eye back, I just decided to pay the extra cost for the convenience. And it was well worth it! But we are only staying in Oahu this time so there was no extra inter-island flight necessary. There was the usual airline food served but at least we got fed. The flight took a little longer because of headwinds so we arrived a bit later than anticipated. But getting through the airport security was a breeze and we had a nice uneventful flight.
We picked up our car and did our normal routine of stopping at Zippy’s for lunch. After checking into the hotel, we went to Wal-Mart and Foodland to pick up snacks and groceries for the week. That’s one of the nice things with having a full kitchen on vacation. We can save a lot of money on breakfast and lunch by cooking in the room. We had an early dinner and called it a night since we were still on Pacific time.
Tuesday – Because we were still adjusting to the new time zone, I woke up at 5am and went for a quick run. I did a 4 mile loop along the beach and Kalakaua Ave. It was actually kind of rough because of the humidity. My shirt was drenched with sweat by the time I was done. I’m sure I offended some of the people riding up the elevator with me. The boys were already up when I got back so we headed out to the beach for some early morning swimming and sun worshiping.
After lunch in the room we decided to check out the pool in our building and it was perfect for Ryan. It was 3.5ft deep at most and had nice hot tub also. Ryan loved it. It is now one of his favorite pools besides the "pirate pool" at the Westin on Maui.
We went out to Kalakaua Ave. that night for dinner and ended up at the Korean restaurant we almost always go to. They had changed it up a bit and turned it into a "hot pot" sort of place. But we tried to order just our usual dishes anyways. They let us, but the cost of the food much higher than I remember. I’m not sure if we’ll be going back there the next time we visit. It was around 8:00pm when we finished and the boys were super tired. I had to carry Ryan back most of the way. James was a trooper and was able to soldier on with us as we stopped into a couple of other stores on our way back to our hotel room.
I was cleaning off the desktop and came across something Lisa had written after our trip to Disneyland last year. I wish she had told me about it earlier so I could have posted it onto the blog sooner, but nevertheless, I felt it was worth writing about even over a year later. I’m sure the boys will find this amusing when they get older.
Things I Learned This Trip (After Disneyland 2009)
Let’s see what we discover after this year’s vacation.
I like hockey. The boys like hockey. (Sucks that the Sharks couldn’t get past Chicago in the Western Conference Finals this year!) As we walked through the game area at Great America, we walk by the hockey shooting game. You get 5 shots to get it into the goal. The goals at the bottom corners are worth 1 point, the ones in the top corners are worth 2 points and the one in the middle is worth 3. Ryan saw people trying to shoot goals and wanted to give it a try. I was hesitant at first because it was $5 and I saw some adult players who couldn’t even make one goal. But in the end I gave in (like I always do) and let Ryan give it a try. He made 3 out of 5 goals! And won himself a San Jose Sharks teddy bear in the process. Good job future NHL’er Ryan! We missed the first shot in the video, but trust us, it went in.
Wow, I’ve been really bad about blogging. It seems like there are so many activities that are lumped into the last few weeks of spring and into summer that we’re just too busy to write about them all. I’ll try to catch up in the next few days (or weeks).
At the end of April, Lisa and I ran in the Mission City 5K Fun Run. As part of the run, we received tickets to get into Great America since they sponsored part of the run and the course wound through the park. This was the first 5K we had run in years but we both finished better than expected.
After the run we took the boys to Great America. Some friends gave us two extra tickets so we asked Amy and Seina to come along with us. Everyone had fun on the rides and enjoyed all of the junk food. It actually wasn’t too busy and the weather was nice so it turned out to be a wonderful outing. I compiled some photos and video clips and made the mini video below. I’m starting to really like my Macbook Pro. = )
We finally got around to putting a photo and video slideshow of our trip to Lake Tahoe together. I’m still working out the integration of multiple songs so it isn’t so abrupt, but here’s our first pass at it. Hope you enjoy! (Keep an eye out for the little snippets of video.)