Family Time

Snorkeling

Posted on March 15, 2015 by theowenscrew

We slept in this morning until about 6:30AM. No alarm set, but the beautiful sound of hundreds of chirping birds coupled with a now established early routine had me and the kids bright eyed and bushy tailed earlier than planned. Pancakes, peaches and coffee to fuel us for the road then we were off. Instead of taking the Saddle road that goes around the island we went strait up over the mountains between Maunta Loa and Maunta Kea who both had snow on their peaks.

We were headed over to the Kona side of the island where hopefully it would be warm and condusive to a fun first snorkeling experience for the kids. Kahalu’u Beach Park was touted in our guidebook as the best place to snorkle with a big reef where beginners and intermediate snorklers alike would have fun.

As much as I would love to claim that it was love at first sight of a beautiful bright colored fish. That would not be telling the whole story. The kids have not really done any swimming where their heads have gone under in salt water before. And this whole allowing yourself to breath with your face in the water doesn’t come too naturally either, with some practice, and mask adjusting, and some tears we got it all worked out. Hannah is not too strong of a swimmer so she panicked a few times and tried to drowned me. It’s a good thing the water really isn’t that deep. By the end of the day the big kids had the snorkeling down and were excitedly discussing all the fish they had seen. Eve got so far as putting her face in the water with the mask and snorkle on and making friends with everyone on our side of the beach. All in all it was a good and successful day. We had a late lunch at Costco and headed back over the mountains towards home.

Categories: Family Time, Fulltime, Hawaii local attractions, Homeschool | Leave a comment

Breaking & Eating Our Coconuts

Posted on March 11, 2015 by theowenscrew

We stopped on our way home from work yesterday to pick up a machete at Sports Authority and before I even had time to change out of my uniform we we were elbow deep in husks. It was pretty fun. The kids were good about staying clear while dady worked.

The green one had soft flesh, clear water, and was pretty easy to break into. The meat was quickly gobbled up and we saved the water to drink with dinner. The dry husk of the brown one on the other hand proved to be quite a challenge.

It had sprouted….

The water was milky and sweet, but had a more rancid aftertaste. Caleb liked it better than the water and drake it right up. We donk know if you are supposed to eat the ball inside, but we did eat it also. It was sweet and airy, and we are still all alive this morning to tell about it. I am sure though if Chad comes across more coconuts that are just laying beside the road he will pick up the green and leave the brown, just sayin.

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Our Singer

Posted on March 5, 2015 by theowenscrew

Eve wanted some “quiet time” outside by herself. Grandma supervised her since she was so close to the road.

http://youtu.be/DIhxg1BAwro

She sings pretty much non-stop and its all ad lib. I just love her.

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A little more family time on our way home

Posted on March 1, 2015 by theowenscrew

Although it’s never enough time we will take what we can get. It has been great being stationed in California these last three months.

We’re so glad to be back in Oregon if only for a few days.

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Strength, Grace & Peace Please

Posted on February 25, 2015 by theowenscrew

Well we have now spent our last night at Grandma and Grandpa’s house for this visit. As we said goodbye to Grandma she said, “hey, we spent a LOT of time together and didn’t even drive each other nuts.” In a pleasantly surprised tone of voice. We left Hannah Banana there and they will bring her when they come to pick up their futon and vaccume in Thursday so it isn’t goodbye goodbye yet, but we are all feeling it. Caleb said, “the universe is unfair.” This will be a hard next three days. I have dosed up with Tylenol, ibuprofen and coffee just to keep my headache at bay, I’m not sure if it is stress, tiredness, or emotion, but as I sit here in the hospital parking lot getting ready to go in to work I am both so thankful for this journey and praying that God gives us the strength we need for this next couple weeks.

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A day with Sam all to ourselves!!!

Posted on February 23, 2015 by theowenscrew

The plan was to go to church then take off for the beach. We had thrown around the idea of going to the tide pools in Monday as it had been recommended by a family in our Full Time Families FaceBook group recently and heck it was a National Monument so it would be free for us to get into. With the day being overcast and not at all warm enough for the kids to swim at the beach, the vote to visit the tide pools a day earlier was unanimous. We had had a big breakfast so for lunch a small muffin and orange was served more as a snack than a lunch and then we hit the road. Since we had six people we borrowed grandma and grandpa’s highlander. The two older kids although disappointed not to be sitting by Samantha did like the cool third row seats. We stopped in La Jolla on our way down to San Diego to see the “Seal Beach/caves”

On our way down to Cabrillo we passed Point Loma Nazarene University, we joked that I should see if they have a CNM program (I haven’t looked yet, but I’m sure they don’t) so I could go to school there. It made me think both of Leah (from the FBC) and Nathan (from Salem Naz) as they attended there for college. The Cabrillo Tide Pools National monument was fun, we had high hopes for the tide pools as most of the free non monument tide pools in Oregon are so awesome this had to be even better. Right? We knew low tide was at 5:35 pm and the park closed at 4:30pm. We got there at 2:30pm right between high and low tide.

This little guy looks related to the trilobite.

The tide pools were kind of a dud. They were fun but nothing compared to Lincoln City, it was unfair to judge since it wasn’t true low tide. The rocks were awesome to climb on, we could have done that alone all day.

There are two light houses on Point Loma, one on the coast guard land.

We closed down the park, and with our piddley lunch food was our first next stop.
Samantha suggested a place called Stater 50/50 it got its name because it’s signature burger (and most of its burgers) are 50% ground beef and 50% bacon… Yes you heard that right. Crazy business. And it was crazy good. We are going to have to get back to whole foods plant based diet sometime I can feel my veins clogging just thinking about that burger.

We were super sad and reluctant to see Sam go, and oh so thankful that we got this quality time today. We love you Sam and will miss you as we head out at the end of the week.

Categories: California, Family Time, National Park | Leave a comment

Garage Sale day 2

Posted on February 22, 2015 by theowenscrew

It was good to see that most of the big items at the garage sale found new homes for a fairly decent price. The kids worked hard and enjoyed helping all the new people who visited the garage sale today. Uncle Richard and Marisa came for a while today which kept the slower times from getting boring.

In all we had a lot of fun, grandpa was pleased with the proceeds, and at the end of the sale all but a handful of the remaining items found a new home at the local second hand store called Hidden Treasures. Success on so many levels… Happy grandparents, empty garage, I didn’t get in too much trouble (grandma only asked what I sold a few of the items for), it’s over, and as far as we can tell everyone had fun. I had been praying for the people who came to the garage sale to be blessed by it, but most of all for my grandparents to be blessed and the clean garage goal to be met, so really all the credit is to God! Thanks be given were it is due.

After Grandma got home from work we all got together us, grandma and grandpa, Uncle Richard and Marisa, and Samantha. We invented a new hair style while we waited to be seated.

Dinner was bitter sweet, how will we leave our loved ones in one week. I guess it is better to just not think about it.

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Garage Sale day 1

Posted on February 21, 2015 by theowenscrew

I have been slightly nervous about this garage sale. Helping grandma and grandpa Lawhead is worth the trouble I might get into. The primary goal is to get the garage cleaned out so grandpa has some space to work on the many projects that he is so fond of doing. With it completely packed full of furniture, linens and and other random things just trying to walk through it was a chore. Where I feared I might get into trouble is that there is always some counting of the eggs before they are hatched when pricing and setting up for a garage sale. I didn’t want to disappoint. Grandma agreed that anything remaining after the garage sale would go to goodwill so getting something for items is better than getting nothing and I just hope that she doesn’t come home from work asking how much I got for each individual item. I decided that even if I get in trouble it was worth it if the goal was met.

The dealers (sharks) were here way early, shortly after 7:00am. We had had breakfast already and were just setting up. I wasn’t even sure what all was out there so when people were asking how much for individual stuff it required some fast thinking. They took a lot of things. It was a hopping place until around 10:30 am when we had our first lull. I think we did pretty well. The kids had a blast being personal shoppers for each new person who came to check out the garage sale. They quickly memorized what each thing cost and would find out the prices for people if they showed any interest in the items that they didn’t know the prices for. One lady even tipped Eve for all her help and warm enthusiasm. It was a day of bonding with this very cute grandpa!

Eve got wiped out and took a nap.

We ended up having quite a few attendees and a lot of fun. The garage is pretty empty and all swept out. Now to just keep from letting anything from the sale go back in. That will be the big job for tomorrow.

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Neville Public Museum in Green Bay

Posted on November 6, 2014 by theowenscrew

It has been a while since we have gone to a museum. This one geared towards children was actually quite relaxing. Relaxing, I know, museums aren’t supposed to be relaxing, but I guess since the kids have had limited access to toys each “toy” (hands on display) captivated their attention for much longer than it would have six months ago. They also play better together adding to the fun.

We were in the discovery room for quite a while, at least an hour before going up stairs. We found a rotary phone!

There were plastic dinosaurs, linking logs, puzzles, a barn with animals, groceries and a basket, this display that was designed to give children a graspable example of the largeness of the number one million.

It made me think of two things, crocheting (I know that is weird) and retirement savings. We (one of us) turned the wheel the whole time we were in the room which was about 30,000 rotations. You feel like you are wasting your time like getting to one million is an impossible feat. Then you settle into a groove and realize this isn’t a quick project but if you keep turning the wheel down the road a ways, a week or so and you will accomplish your goal if you just keep at it. In savings or retirement saving cents or dollars doesn’t seem like it would really do much in advancing your fight against debt or building a savings. If you never start turning the wheel then you really will never get there. After an hour we told the kids it was time to move on up stairs. Upstairs was a little less hands, on but was packed with Wisconsin history that was quite informative.

Wisconsin, home of the National Ice Age Trail, started it’s history with the Ice Age.

Ice Age history made way for the rich Native American history of the area, then the war of 1812 as the revolution didn’t make it over this far and the British continued to patrol the Great Lakes after the revolution because they did not want to give up the lucrative fur trade business they were conducting there. Then came the Victorian age to modern day.

This one was my favorite.

This is a the equipment like that which George Washington would have used as a surveyer.

The more recent section of the museum was centered around the Packers.

Caleb was wearing a green sweatshirt which made him partially invisible in the picture booth.

We had one last dinner at Erbert & Gerbert before leaving Wisconsin. I have 9 more shifts to work in the next 13 days. Our countdown is down to < two weeks.

Categories: Countdown, Family Time, Fun, history | Leave a comment

Victorville California is our next “home”

Posted on November 6, 2014 by theowenscrew

Aiming to be a little closer to family for the holiday season, we have accepted our next assignment in the Western state of California. 97 miles from my grandparents home, I’m excited to announce, “Grandma Lawhead, I’ll be home for Christmas!!!!” Oh, and New Years too! 12/1-2/28.

Categories: California, Family Time | Leave a comment