Tenth Tin Anniversary

Today is Dan and my 10th anniversary. Now that may not sound like very long to some people like my parents, who celebrated their 37th anniversary yesterday, but for me that is almost one third of my life, so I consider this anniversary a pretty big one. I mean, ten years!

Dan and I are not quite conventional when it comes to our anniversary. Most married couples, at least this is what I think, celebrate their anniversaries by the husband buying flowers and/or a gift for the wife, the gift usually being some type of jewelry or such. Since I have never been much of a store bought jewelry type of person, Dan and I decided to buy something together instead of buying gifts for each other. The anniversary gift to ourselves could be anything. Just something we both agree on. It could be something as simple as matching Tony Gwynn 3000 hits t-shirts, something as practical as a Dyson vacuum cleaner or something that just catches our fancy as we walk by, like our air chairs. We have yet to decide on our anniversary gift this year. I have been thinking and thinking, but all I have thought of is a nice new sewing machine, and I don't think Dan will go for that...

Just out of curiosity I looked up the traditional wedding anniversary gifts and found that the 10th wedding anniversary gift is tin. Not too exciting, but better than the first anniversary gift of paper. The diamond is the stone of the tenth, very nice, and the flower of choice when celebrate ten years of marriage is the daffodil. A bouquet of bright yellow daffodils in the summer might be a bit hard to get though.

This year we are going to celebrate our anniversary a day late. Tomorrow the boys are spending the night at Nana's. Yippee! We will have a nice romantic dinner at a favorite restaurant of ours, The Godfather. Then we will have the rest of the night and morning to ourselves. Pure heaven.

So here's to 10 great years and hopefully many, many, many more.

Say?!?

When Sammy was learning to talk if you said something that he didn't understand his response was a loud and clear, 'Say?!?'. At that point in his life Sammy and I were getting on each other's nerves fairly regularly, and probably as a result of that 'Say?!?' would grate on me each and every time. For a while now we have been getting along much better, and I realized that at some point my attitude on 'Say?!?' has changed. What used to be grating and annoying has changed to endearing and funny. Now it has become a bit of a cliche in the house, he still says it a lot, and when Suzy and I hear it we smile, look at him and respond back with a loud and clear, 'Say?!?'. It has become one of the examples of the funny things that our kids say that make us smile.

Probably my favorite saying of the boys now, and one that I want society at large to pick up on, is 'tippy'. Now, we are all familiar with the common English usage of 'tippy top' to mean something that is all the way at the top. Daniel started to extend the use of 'tippy' to cover much more ground. It really was an under utilized phrase. For example, when building Legos, Daniel will say, 'No, Dada, that piece goes on the tippy bottom.' Or while listening to a Jack and Annie story on books on CD he will let us know that the story has reached the 'tippy end'. Sammy has picked up on the usage, and now has incorporated 'tippy' into his daily vocabulary as well. I haven't yet used it here at work, but I fear it is inevitable.

Since today is Suzy and my tenth anniversary I would be remiss if I didn't say Happy Anniversary to the tippy best wife in the world. Happy Anniversary, Suzy, I love you.

Me at 33!

Yesterday was my birthday. Yep, I am now 33 years old. WOW! I still wasn't used to being 32 and now I've moved on to 33. This birthday also means that I am now only 2 years away from being 35 and that is only 5 years from 40 and then sooner than I know it I will be 50. Pretty frightening, huh? Boy, how the years have flown by. And on Thursday Dan and I will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary. Just amazing.

I had a great birthday. I was spoiled with so many cool presents, including a heart made out of Legos from Daniel, a beautiful handmade purse from my sister and a hand knit shirt from Nana. We hung around the house and relaxed yesterday as we are all trying to get back on San Diego time. Dan made a delicious Cajun shrimp dinner and got a mint ice cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery. Delicious!

This year I will find myself in a new stage of life. Daniel will be entering kindergarten in just a week. In addition to being a stay-at-home Mom, I will be learning how to be a school Mom. I also hope to get back to working a little bit while the boys are both in school. This is definitely going to be a transition year for me and I will have to adjust to a new daily life. I am both excited and scared to be leaving the familiar and venturing out into the unknown. But I have had 32 great years and each year seems to get better and better, so I know this year will hold many great memories and experiences. Here's to 33! Hip-hip Hurray! Hip-hip Hurray! Hip-hip...

Hanauma Bay

Yesterday we decided to brave the crowds at Hanauma Bay in the hopes of seeing some amazing sea life. Being only ten minutes or so away from the famed snorkeling beach we decided to head out early and see what adventures we could find.

We arrived nice and early, around 8 a.m., but we were definitely not the only people hitting the beach early. Already there was a crowd of tourists waiting to go down the the bay. Why was everyone waiting, you may ask. Well, Hanauma Bay is very different from the Hanauma Bay I visited years ago. My memories were of parking at the top of the bay and then lugging all your beach paraphernalia down a steep hill to the water. This time we had to pay to park and then we were surprised to learn we had to pay $5.00 a person to get into the beach. After paying we were required to wait to watch a 9 minute educational video about Hanauma Bay. Finally we were free to go down to the beach.

I have to admit that I was seriously wondering if the whole thing was going to be worth all the money and hassle, but it definitely was because Daniel actually went out snorkeling with Dan and Papa. And the best part of all was Daniel saw a sea turtle. After all the years I have gone out snorkeling I have never spotted a sea turtle, and my son's first snorkeling experience includes a sea turtle sighting. How exciting! My Dad said Daniel didn't take his head out of the water the whole time they were out there.

I thought Sammy might give the snorkeling a try, but he was happy to just float around in the water while I tried to point out fish swimming below him. I didn't get to go out too far because I was tugging Sammy around, but I did get to follow along behind a rather large humuhumunukunukuapua'a. There is something about the quietness of being under the water, watching fish so close you could reach out and touch them and the oneness you feel with the ocean that makes snorkeling such an awesome experience. I am so glad Daniel was able to experience it.

Snorkeling must be very engrossing because before we knew it it was already time for lunch. We packed up our gear and said our goodbyes to the bay. Back when I was a kid we had to hike back up the big hill with all our bags feeling much heavier than when we arrived. I am sure we complained the whole way up. Luckily there is now a shuttle that will take you back up to the top, for merely one dollar a person. My dad and I were ready to hike it back up, but looking back it was probably worth the dollar not to hear my kids complaining or having to carry them.

I am glad we went even despite the crowds, hassles and fees. Daniel swam with a sea turtle! So totally worth it.

Back to Hawaii

I am sitting here on a plush sofa staring out over the Pacific ocean. Earlier this morning we visited with some family friends/extended family up in Kaneohe Bay. What an amazing place to visit. Living here for over six years I lost my sense of wonder at the amazing beauty here. Immediately on the first evening here just a few days ago, the wonder came back. Papa and Tutu invited us to spend almost two weeks here at the beach house they rented for the month. Papa is already convinced that next year he wants to get the same house again. Just down the beach from Bellows, we are literally just feet from the Pacific. Sammy has been serenading us with requests to 'go to the ocean'. So much so that on our first day I think that he got washed off/showered four times. It is a good thing that this place comes with a huge closet filled to the brim with towels. I, of course, got toasted the first day, and spent most of yesterday in doors trying to calm my burning legs down. That didn't preclude an early evening walk with Papa, Suzy and the boys searching for crabs last night.

The one story from yesterday that I wanted to get down before I forgot is from our visit with the boy's great-grandparents, Thelma and Homer. They live in the middle of Oahu in an area called Mililani, which was about a 30 minute drive away from the beach house. After stopping for a short visit with the family we made a quick run to the Walmart that is just down the street from Homer's place to pick up some stuff for our house. As we all were walking back to the car, Sammy, in all of his worldly wisdom said, 'Can we go back to Hawaii?' 'Uh, Sammy, we are in Hawaii.' 'No, this isn't Hawaii'. And looking around we all agreed that no, the Walmart parking lot really is not Hawaii. So we rushed back to the great-grandparents place so that we could return to Hawaii.

I just paused again, so I could stare out at the blue, blue ocean for awhile. The boys are both 'napping', Tutu, Papa and Suzy went to the store, so it is just me and the sound of the surf. I didn't think that vacations with the boys could be a vacation, but so far there definitely have been moments where I have actually been able to relax and enjoy myself. Thanks Tutu and Papa, for inviting us out. When do we come next year?