Day 184 / 13 To Go: Only in Hawaii...

Posted by: Cris

At 1:00 pm Grandma gathered the girls up in the truck and headed up the Windward side for a 30 minute drive to the Polynesian Cultural Center for festivities and shows.

What a nice, scenic, pleasant drive along the ocean that isn't too long... They were having a great day and finally about 9:00 o'clock Grandma called to tell me they were headed home after the show...BUT...they had just announced that due to a car accident that the road between there and home was closed and would be for several hours.

And because this is Hawaii, that means that there is no other road directly between here and there and in that part of the island, there aren't even smaller neighborhood roads to drive through to get around the 20 yard section of road where the accident is.

So, that means the only way for a tired grandma to get 2 tired girls home is to go the long way around the island which means that 30 minute drive above becomes this one hour and thirty minute drive below:

And I'm sitting here at home helpless to do anything. Ahhh...the charms of Hawaii.

On a positive note, at this moment while I type this blog I have also been chatting on Skype with Emilie who is now in Bagram...which means even though the trip will take another week and then it will be 6 more days after that until we see her, she is officially on her way home!!

Day 183 / 14 To Go: I won't miss...

Posted by: Cris

I didn't hear from Emilie tonight so hopefully that means she is officially on her way home. She was scheduled to leave Jalalabad and head for Bagram either tonight or tomorrow. She didn't call tonight so hopefully it is because she was enroute to Bagram.

Meanwhile, we headed out for dinner with Melody and the Friday night gang at Red Lobster.

She's cute...she can't help it. Juneau could manage to look over the edge of the wall to see how high up we were...

Nova needed a little help.

Melody brought princess crowns and necklaces from her collection for all the girls to wear.

Nova showing off her crown and her busted lip from today's trip to Shopping Play.

Tonight, the tally was 5 Adults and 7 Children. We felt VERY outnumbered. Additionally, Tim and I were the sum total of the "Y" chromosomes in the group. We definitely felt VERY VERY outnumbered.

All three of us can color all at once if we crowd in really tight.

Sisters sharing a color...

After eating dinner, we trekked out to the edge of the marina right across the street.

This vantage point is significantly closer than our usual spot at Magic Island so it is noticeably louder, as Juneau will confirm.

Heading for home after the fireworks...

Today was the last week I will be staying late in the Anatomy lab on a Friday afternoon until sometime next Spring. This group of medical students was awesome to work with, especially since some of them were my former students when they were taking anatomy while working on their master's degrees, so I will miss work with these guys but I will NOT miss being in the lab at until almost 5:00 on Fridays!

As it turns out, Emilie just called and hasn't quite started the journey but her departure is imminent. Godspeed mommy!

Day 182 / 15 To Go: Daddy time at the pool

Posted by: Cris

Today's cooking lesson: Grandma's famous pepperoni rolls. Today's plan was awesome. Grandma and the girls headed to the beach at the Hale Koa and played there until I got out of the anatomy lab.

When I got out of the lab I put on my slippers and my swim trunks and headed to the beach. The plan was to finally get Nova and Juneau to the pool - they've only been asking to 3 months. The pool at the Hale Koa requires military ID so once I was there, daddy and the girls went to the pool to play.

While, Grandma ran off for more exploring in Chinatown...

...the girls and I had an absolute GREAT time at the pool.

All the kids loved Juneau and Nova because they had brought a big pile of beach toys to the pool and shared with everyone.

Juneau jumped around the pool for at least a half an hour straight.

Nova was most into swimming around on this kickboard a little boy loaned her.

Nova must have swum around on the kickboard for an hour.

The rest of the parents at the kiddie pool got such a good chuckle out of this:

When Juneau took her turn at trying the kickboard, Nova stood at the side of the pool yelling "Yay Juneau, Yay Juneau, Yay Juneau..." at the top of her lungs.

It is hard to see it behind those sunglasses but those eyes are tired. The girls fell asleep HARD on the way home.

Today was the best day I've had with my girls in quite awhile. I hugged them extra hard today. I didn't know it when I went to the anatomy lab today but for the first time I worked on a cadaver of someone younger than me...a 35 year old guy who was diagnosed at age 10 with what amounted to juvenile alzheimer's. I couldn't help but think about the possibility that early on in life this little kid could have been a seemingly normal child that as his brain started to degenerate, his parents may have had to watch their seemingly normal 2 year old end up becoming a 14 year that reportedly had the mental function of a 5 year old. Add to that that I found myself standing over the body of someone younger than me and a part of my brain spent alot of time reflecting while I was dissecting this morning. So by the time I got to the beach and Juneau came running a full 40 yards across the beach to jump into my arms, I was fully ready to squeeze her extra hard.

I know these diatribes into the wonders of human anatomy don't connect with plenty of people who will read this, but the experience continually changes who I am.

Day 181 / 16 To Go: Fun at the zoo

Posted by: Cris

The downside of living in what still must qualify as "rural Oahu" is evident tonight in my inability to post the super cute videos of Nova singing and Juneau demonstrating her quickly developing reading skills due to internet problems out here in the boonies. I managed to get some pictures uploaded so for tonight, those will have to do. Isn't the point of having the Roadrunner as your mascot and namesake the idea that you too are fast in your data speed? I guess not. Even grandma has taken to taking pictures of the ocean outside our window.

The girls and grandma headed out to the zoo this morning.

It had been quite awhile since the girls have been to the zoo so they had a great time.

For some reason they were particularly captivated by the wagon and milk can in the kids petting zoo area.

They were entertained here for at least 20 minutes.

And of course, the fact that is says "dress up and play" on the wall means Nova was happy to follow these instructions.

And of course they spent their fair share of time at the playground in the middle of the zoo. They can go play on a jungle gym ANYWHERE but still, everytime they go to the zoo they end up having to be pried away from the playground.

As luck would have it, I was able to get away from work around 1:00 which meant I could meet the gang for lunch just down the street from the zoo at Burger's on the Edge.

The girls were excited to show me the videos from the day, especially of Nova singing (hopefully stay tuned tomorrow).

By the time we finished eating, Nova was ready to cuddle up to daddy and take a nap.

While the girls slept I went out to tackle some work on the part of the fence I'd been avoiding...patching up the part down the hillside. As hard as it is to believe, working on a project on a 45 degree angle makes it a little harder and a little slower to progress than under normal circumstances.

On a serious note, I'm sure days like this are particularly hard to everyone out there who has a loved one deployed. An Afghani pilot got into an argument at the Kabul airport with U.S. military members who were part of a training team and he opened fire, killing 9 U.S. servicemen making today the deadliest single day in Afghanistan for U.S. troops since 2006. Obviously, when compared to the types of days that were common in past wars, this is a minutely small number...but I know that is little solace to the 9 families who lost their deployed loved one today. These days always make me anxious but especially today since Emilie is only a few days from leaving Jalalabad and then a couple more days before she should be out of Bagram and out of Afghanistan. Even if it will still be a few days more until we are together, her getting out of Afghanistan can't come soon enough.

Day 180 / 17 To Go: 2 + 3 = ?

Posted by: Cris

These busy Tuesday's are making me tired...luckily only 1 more real Tuesday to go before finals week. These Tuesday's always make it tough to scrounge up pictures for the blog but luckily Grandma's phone has been clicking away and provided me with some highlights from the last couple of days.

Nova had voted to go back to the beach with "no rocks and no waves" (Ala Moana where they went yesterday) but Grandma and Juneau wanted to go someplace closer and with a little waves so Nova got her first lesson in getting out voted.

A beautiful day on Windward Oahu...

As the tide came in little by little and creeped up the beach slowly but surely, Nova was tracking the progress and seemed a little concerned about it all. Finally, when they got into the truck to go home, Grandma figured out why she was so concerned when she asked "Do the waves ever come all the way up to the truck?" Grandma reassured her that they don't and that seemed to satisfy her.

The beach never gets old...

Nova Stickley? or Bono?

Juneau continues to burn clean through her sunscreen...I swear that putting sunscreen on that girl is like lathering her in cooking oil before hitting the beach...she just keeps getting darker and darker and darker. Don't be jealous Aunt Betsy!

I'm trying to get Juneau started on becoming a little math nerd. She is still using her fingers but we've started adding numbers and I think she actually gets it. Next week I'm going to see how she does with Pi.

Both the girls are really getting a sense that mommy's return is imminent. Tonight at bedtime, one of the last things Nova said to me before I left the room was "I wish mommy would hurry up and come home." And almost every day they fill me in on..."after grandma, then aunt Coral comes and then we get on airplane to go to Ohio and see mommy!!"