Aloha!

Aloha! Billy, David, and I went to Kauai earlier this month. Although it rained most of the time we were there, we still managed to have a lot of fun. Luckily, there were a few days where we could go and play on the beach. It was David's favorite thing to do on our trip.
A small cave we explored near the north shore. David was a bit wary to go in at first, but curiosity won and he ventured in.

This picture was taken minutes before it started to rain.

David and Billy after it started raining. The tourist shops were prepared and had ponchos for sale. I guess that comes with Kauai being the wettest spot on earth. Oh, a few more interesting facts: Pineapples take two years to produce, one for it to grow and another for it to ripen; bananas are really herbs and not fruit; most of Kauai's vegetation is not native to Hawaii and those that were native plants have been overrun by non-native plants; finally, Smith's Family Luau had the best tasting fruit punch I have ever had.

David partaking of the ambrosia of the gods, it was so good!
This is a couple of hours after that rainstorm. That was one good thing about the rain, it didn't last long and before we knew it, the sun was out. Unfortunately, the same thing happened with the rain.

Happy Halloween (A little late, I know)

Halloween was pretty busy for us. We flew in to Salt Lake that day from BFE. David handled the flights very well. We then had to rush somewhere to find last minute costumes and the only one we found his size was the Chewbacca costume. Unfortunately, the feet were missing, but when you wait 'til the last minute, I guess you can't be too picky. Billy and I decided to dress up, too. Billy was a skeleton or something like that and I dressed as a witch. Creative, aren't we?


David went trick or treating in Logan with his cousins, Nathan and Kaitlyn. Since the flights and everything we did that day, he was a bit tired and cranky. The first door we went to, he got a sucker. We got that sucker out and he was golden for the rest of the night. He's clutching a sucker in all of the pictures we took of him. Pretty funny. At least he wasn't cranky.


At the doors, David would yell "'ick 'eat!" He had a blast! The only person who could guess who he was right off was a gentleman dressed up as Obi Wan. Must be the force ;).

'Yo

'Yo, everyone. That is how David says hello when he gets on the phone. As you can see, David is handling the move well. I think a lot better than I am. I've been missing Utah like crazy. Weird, I know, but true. Lots of stuff I took advantage of. Even though we have housing now, it still doesn't quite feel like home yet. It doesn't help that all of our belongings are in Utah and we have to wait until the first week of November to get them packed up. I'll have to post some pictures of this godforsaken place so you get an idea of what it's like. Ok, really bad attitude, but Billy's comment should say it all. When he first got back here, he said, "Wow, except for you and David, it feels like I never left Iraq." Not a good sign.

Living on base is a little, ok, a lot weird. For some reason, I get a little anxious coming on to base. They have guards posted at the gates and I always feel like I'm going to do something wrong and get in trouble. All the warnings Billy gives me doesn't help at all! Dim the lights at night to get in the gate. Go the speed limit because MP's are worse than cops and you'll lose your priveleges if you get too many points taken away. Pedestrians (marines) always have the right of way so stop for them. They even have dress codes of what you can wear into the commissary and exchanges. Ok, not that I'd ever wear what is not permitted, but I'd like to think I can walk into a store with my belly shirt on and my pants riding way below my butt, showing off my lovely boxers. I mean who doesn't want to see that;)!

There is an upside to all this, though. This past weekend, we went to Palm Springs and surrounding cities. We stayed at Desert Oasis. Swimming in the outdoor pool in the middle of October was so nice. And there was a lot of green foliage everywhere!

We'll be home on Halloween so I plan on visiting my favorite restaurants and shops. Everyone feel free to come join us! Hopefully, I'll be able to see all my favorite people! Talk to you later.

Da-da

Billy got back from deployment on Oct 7. David kept on pointing out random marines in their uniforms and saying "Dada" before we even saw him. I guess he remembered his dad in his cami's and so every man with that strange haircut and cami's was Dada. When he first saw his dad, though, he was very shy, holding his hands together with his head down. That shyness didn't last long and before long he was having a blast with his dad.

The first couple of days, he would call his dad "Mama" and Billy would respond with "I'm not Mama, I'm dada" over and over again. Well, today, while dada was at work, David came up to me and said "Dada." Sigh...how soon they shift their loyalties. It's actually great, though. It's fun to watch the two of them interact. David's favorite thing is to play cars with his dad. I think it's so funny how he will make such accurate car sounds like engine revving, sirens blaring, and cars crashing, etc but he can't pronounce words as accurately. He's such a boy!