Bella, Gabe and Josiah

Since I didn’t blog about each day, I have a lot to catch up on and let’s be honest, that’s a lot of work. So instead, I’ll just post a bunch of pictures of all the fun we’ve had in the last week. There’s nothing like getting spoiled by your aunties... Or sitting on your uncles... Every morning Gabe woke up and informed me that he wanted to go play with Auntie Rachael (who was already up), so a lot of this happened: Christmas Eve we went to Nathan and Cassie’s church and then to see the Honolulu Lights. A few more Christmas morning pictures: Nathan is so strong! Uncle Matt discovered a new way to feed the boys blueberries... We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center for a day and Matt and Nathan got to learn how to throw a traditional fishing net. Everyone else decided to learn how to throw a spear and the four of us took a canoe ride. Pat and I took the boys on a date to get Dole Whip, but they picked strawberry froyo

Yesterday we decided to go to Hanauma Bay. The day started out great...until we got out of the car and Gabe had an unfortunate encounter with the sidewalk. Luckily he’s a happy little guy and it didn’t get him down for long. Once we finally got into the park the kids got to play on the rocks while we waited to get in. When we got down to the beach, the boys and Uncle Seth started digging in the sand and I stayed on the beach with the stuff while everyone else went snorkeling. After a few minutes, the family next to me packed up to leave. Right before they left they told me that there was a storm coming in 20 minutes. We should have listened... After awhile, Auntie Cassie and Gram and Gramps came in, so I went out snorkeling with Pat, and Bella went back out with Auntie Katilyn and Uncle Nathan. The snorkeling was nice, but it did desperately make me want to go diving again... We were about to head in when we saw Nathan on the other side of the bay motioning about tu

The whole family is staying together in a house right across the street from the beach. It’s amazing! We’ve played at the beach every day and it’s been so nice. Since we’re so close, it’s easy for a few people to stay home if they want to, or to run home and grab something that we forgot. The boys have been having a wonderful time playing in the sand. It’s taken Gabe a few days to determine that the water is great, and it probably helps that Pat told him that he can spit if he gets water in his mouth. That’s super exciting... Bella has returned to her fish roots and spent an entire day in the water when she was the only one in it... Christmas Eve morning several of us took the kayaks out to the island. Apparently we picked the wrong day because it was pretty choppy and it was much calmer today. It would have been a much easier trip. Oops.

Merry Christmas!!!

On Thursday, the plan was to get off work, finish packing our bags, and get the house clean before running to the airport. Our flight was supposed to leave at 8:50, which is nearly an hour after Gabe’s bedtime, but I figured that we’d make it work. Then we got the notice that the flight was delayed until 10. While that gave us more time to get ready to go, that definitely messed up bedtime... We ended up sitting at the airport for even longer and our flight didn’t leave until 11:45. Gabe was wide awake until halfway through the flight, but at least he did sleep for an hour or so, since we didn’t land until 1:30am... By the time Uncle Tim picked us up and we got to his house, it was 2:30 in the morning... On Friday, we hung out with Uncle Tim for awhile and had brunch with Grammy and Grampa. Then Uncle Tim dropped us off at the airport and we were off again. Gabe slept a bit on the flight, which was nice since he’d hit the meltdown phase, sobbing because his balloon

For the last week I’ve been parking on a different floor of the parking garage. Most of the spots on that floor are reserved for specific people, but there are a few open spots. When I drove in on Monday, I looked at each spot, saying “Reserved, reserved, reserved...” For the rest of the week, as soon as I pulled into the parking garage Gabe said “Deserved, deserved, deserved...”

December 15. This day used to be significant because it meant that the Governor released his budget, signaling the beginning of the crazy season at work. Now it will forever be the day that I went to the hospital knowing that something was very wrong and ended up getting medivacced north where Gabe was born a few hours later. It’s an emotional day for me. It’s the day that the doctors started listing off all of the things that were going to be wrong with him. It’s the day that I told the doctor that if my son wasn’t going to make it, could he bring him back so I could hold him before he dies. It’s the day that could have very easily been the worst day of my life. Instead, it’s not. That day could have been so dark, but instead, it’s the beginning of an incredible story. A story of hope and life. God had a much different plan than anything the doctors told us would or could happen and now, three years later, we have the most amazing little boy. None of the things that were supposed