His Eyes

Our son loves taking pictures. These are the pictures he's been making into memories for all of us on this trip to the Big Island. He has a beautiful eye.

The last of September

He is number 6 in orange. He was so close to getting a goal!

We were lucky to have the tiger keeper standing next to us and talk to Chrissie the Tiger.

This is when is normally gets candid, hence my facial expression. 

Jumping with Syssa. 

First day of fall campfires, early morning soccer games, going to the zoo and a birthday party of a friend to finish it off. That's how our September ended.

House Swap: Island to Island

Last month I emailed an acquaintance in regards to house swapping. I met her and her husband back in 2010 when stopping in to their store. Jennifer was so engaging and serene and Brian, enthusiastically informative of many things about their life on Big Island. At the time we were looking to move to the North Shore and  it was great having a good conversation with an enjoyable couple.

Remembering them, I thought of how great it would be to stay on a organic coffee and green tea farm and explore the island that is known for its four seasons year round. Big Island has Mauna Loa the largest active volcano in the world, as well as green and black sand beaches, lush jungle, dessert and snow on mountain tops. Needless to say, we wanted to explore our neighbor island.  To our luck they were down with the idea.  We have successfully organized, packed, cleaned the house and left for Big Island. I look forward to what we find and share through our travels. More to come! Have a great week.

A little push.

Richard turned a corner last week with only 3 years until he's thirty. We've been discussing how to make our last years in our twenties count. Isn't funny that we become such the cliche when we feel crunched for time only when we realize we have little time left. Ahh, and this is why we can all relate to cliches. We really look forward to planning to explore more with the kids. It's good to feel a little push to plan, sometimes it's a jumping off point simply to do what you've been doing but in a different approach. For us it has encouraged us do more should to shoulder. 

What great picture to display my view. Thanks Alyssa for taking these. 

Celebrating Snuggle Season

Most of you have family members or friends with September birthdays, myself included. It is well known that if you go back ten months people are right in the middle of holiday bliss and new years resolutions.  And with the combination of cold weather and the fuzzy feelings of appreciation for family, you along with many (my husband & I) might have been conceived. Hense the title of the post. This week we celebrated my sweet friend Taylor's birthday as well as mine. It was a lovely week with great weather.

We moved here when I was twenty four and now turning twenty six and know how fortunate I am for the friends we have in Hawaii. My friends made my birthday insanely special and we went to the Cafe to celebrate Friday night and ended it with shopping at the vintage boutique. I love all these women and it was a lovely way to transition to my new year!

Yes he made a C. Cute man, this one.

My family always makes my birthdays special and this year sweet sister came up to represent the group. No Courtney Birthday could be complete without my favorite dessert- carrot cake. Richard made this one with extra pineapple and coconut for a hawaiian style. Delicious! We played games, I read all my sweet cards (and book our son printed and made me) and enjoyed my gifts. I only get 4 days to enjoy being the same age as Richard and this is one of them. He turns twenty seven on Thursday so I'm sending all of you blessings because when you get so much you want to share it.

The shortest photo shoot EVER!

To all who love baby showers and/or Instagram: This one's for you -side note, I do not have an Instagram name so I cut and pasted this from a friends. Me with my lovely two friends Corinne and April, I do love both of these women. All celebrating Mama Maleah's little girl about to grace us with her presence in the next few weeks.

My LoveLees, they are so funny together. They thought it was absurd I asked them to kiss for a picture.  That's not weird of me-is it? Bobby D's quote made me think of this moment and blogging our family. "Take care of all your memories. For you cannot relive them. " -Bob Dylan 

This is nothing shy of a miracle- Richard set up the tripod in our backyard and we managed to take this one and only picture on our first try. We needed a family picture for family board at school so we had three kids who had just taken showers and put on something clean. They had NOT eaten dinner either!!!! Say it with me folks,  Ah-May-Zing! That being said if you receive this picture for the next couple of Christmas cards from us, you know why now. Just kidding... not really. 

No School Bells on Monday

As a kid my grandparents lived three houses away from a church they attended. We would hear the church bells ring from their yard, I can recall how familiar the sound was. His school bells have the  kind that rings a pleasant four part sound.  On a really calm day you can hear it at the beach across the street.  It's lovely how a sound that my children will associate with their own childhoods is so similar to a memory of my own.  Here are the kids this week.

One of many comic books, titled "The Funey froits and vegti bolls" : ) She working on her homework, they draw the food they harvested from school and discuss what they thought of it. This week was Lilikoi. 

Not the trees you'd expect but these trees tell me I'm 20 minutes from home.

Moms love these forced smiles and silly faces... sometimes it's all we can get.

He's already digging soccer and we all know he has the energy for it. He may have found his sport! 

Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone, aloha!