seafood.

There is just nothing better than fresh seafood. Hands down our favorite little spot is up on the North Shore. We like it so much, we had to go twice. mmm mmmm there is no other place that can do coconut shrimp quite like Haleiwa Joes.

waves.

I absolutely love the lagoons at Ko Olina. They are beautiful and great to swim and snorkel in. However, every once in a while we just had the itch to play in some waves. So, we drove about 30 minutes past the resort and landed the perfect spot. It is a public park, but it felt like a private beach to us. Other than a few surfers, we were the only ones there.






Sometimes it seems like my pictures don't quite capture the beauty that we saw. But every once in a while the lighting is right, my settings are right and the picture is the perfect snapshot of the moment. The way it really was. I love when that happens.

Vans Triple Crown

The Vans Triple Crown Professional Surfing Competition was just up the road on the north shore while we were there in our favorite little town of Haleiwa. This event boasts the best surfers from all over the world. We loved just being there.

bliss.

{sigh} A week of sun, surf, and seafood has come to an end. It was pure bliss.

customers.

Last week after I picked Coleman up from school we stopped in the little gas station/market a few miles from our house known as Speedi Mart. Although Coleman loves school, he hates saying good-bye when I drop him off each morning. He tends to hold onto my leg and cry. We had no tears or leg-holding for a few days, so we were celebrating with a chocolate milk.

He walked in the front door of that store, walked right back to the back, pulled open the glass door and selected his chocolate milk. He then walked to the front of the store and placed it on the counter.

The lady behind the counter asked Coleman if the milk was his. He proudly said "Yes, because I didn't cry." To which she asked where he didn't cry. He said " at school." She then proceeded to tell him " aww, you don't need to cry at school, its fun". He then quietly said, "just a little bit". She said, " well i guess I can understand that, you are little."

Then she and another man in line kind of got laughing about "lying" to Coleman and telling him school was fun when it was not, etc. When we got just outside the door, Coleman looked at me and said, "mom, were they customers?" I'm not sure what he thought that word meant, but it made me laugh.

I then explained that the man with the beard was a customer and the lady was the cashier. I told him what each one meant. He totally listened to my explanation and then jumped in the van and we headed home.....

I love curiosity and I definitely love this kid. I'm pretty sure I could kiss his face off every day.

Preschool.

Coleman started his second year of preschool back at Snake River Montessori on August 31.
He knows the teachers. He knows the routine. And he is really soaking up all his school has to offer.
I am so excited to hear him tell me about the apple pie he made and the homemade rolls - where he "squished" the ingredients. He is singing and is a full participant in circle. He is playing on the playground with his friends. His teacher comments on how much he gets out of his day. Yeah!! Remember, last year, he simply observed most things!
The afternoons at pick up time find him grinning from ear to ear and telling me "I love this place". But the mornings find him in tears. The other day when I asked him why he cried every morning when he likes it there so much, he said "well, i'm gonna miss you". He quickly stops after I leave, but I only think we've made it a few days without any tears. kind of wish he would give me five and say see ya later mom! That wouldn't tug on my heart quite so much!

Elementary School.

The 3 older kids started back to school on August 24th this year. They were all actually pretty excited about the new school year. Everyone was happy with their teachers and were looking forward to seeing their friends again. The best part for me was that summer had not reached that all time low where I am so eager for school to start because everyone is driving me crazy! It was good to start back to school without having totally lost my mind!

Ashley is in second grade. She is in a class with an amazing teacher and lots and lots of her girlfriends. She is becoming a good reader and brings home fun books every night and takes AR tests nearly every day. Her speech is also improving. Maybe just maybe this will be her last year of speech. Not too many memories of second grade for me. Ms. Pope was my teacher, my little brother was born, and I had short ugly hair (that my mom still says was her favorite!)

Mitchel is in 4th grade and actually seems to be liking it. He was excited to have the same teacher Justin had last year. His favorite part I think is that there is no homework if he uses his time wisely in class. He is still not all too interested in reading, but he has managed to find an author he likes (Andrew Clements) and is willing to read enough to get by! You may recall from reading this that 4th grade for me was kind of the pits.

Justin is in 5th grade and although he is not in a class with many of his friends, he has a great teacher who is really pushing him and its a good thing. He also has a student teacher from BYU-I who is full of energy and teaches very fun lessons (and is quite cute too I must add!). He has a fair amount of homework each night and he is very diligent about sitting down and doing his homework as soon as he gets home from school. She has them do lots of creative writing exercises and Justin has decided he might just write a novel! He is still the reader. I think that just since school started he has read well over 4000 pages.

My 5th grade year was a great one for me. I had a teacher by the name of Mr. Rudolph. He was a tall, thin African American man and he was awesome! I remember that lots of my friends were in my class and we had fun assignments. I also remember that those of us that were ahead in reading got to go down to Ms. Bennett's first grade class and read with the first graders. I thought that was so cool. I remember that writing notes became a very popular thing to do that year - I remember always writing notes to my friends and I even recall making "note boxes" out of the little square kleenex boxes and taping them to our desks. It also became very popular to have these plastic basket things that we carried around with our markers, crayons, and all sorts of fancy pens in them. I wonder how much money I had my mom spend on those pens that you had to buy at a hallmark type store. I remember that this was the first year we "switched" classes. We went to Mrs. Becker's class for science and really thought we were big time. I wish I could remember more details about Mr. Rudolph himself, b/c my memories of him and 5th grade sure are good ones. I do recall that he had served in the Vietnam War and occasionally suffered from flashbacks. It also seems to me like some teachers, administrators, or parents didn't like him b/c of all the various ways he taught us - he didn't just teach us out of the book. It seems like they thought he needed to stick to the curriculum. Maybe that is not even true, but for some reason I think that. He passed away when I was in high school and I remember feeling sad about that but thankful for having been one of his students. Hooray for good teachers that leave lasting impressions. My kids have some teachers like that this year. And that makes me happy.