The Sturzinger's in Hawaii

June so far

2011-06-17T19:45:00.000-10:00

Well, this has quite possibly been the longest month of this last year. I say that because knowing Eric's coming back makes time go much slower and we also have had less to do this month than any other month while he's been gone. We've tried to fill our time with some of our regular weekly activities, like bible study and story-time at the library. Every Wednesday, they host a story-time for kids under the age of 5. It's a good chance for Marcus to learn from the older kids how to sit still and listen to stories. Sometimes they read for a half an hour and then do a craft and sometimes they read for an entire hour. This week, they made paper plate suns.

I tried to get him to pose for the camera, but he wasn't really into it.

Later that day, we went back to the library for their afternoon program. This one only runs through the summer, but it's different demonstrations. This week was a bubble show. They brought in a lady that can make all different sizes of bubbles and she also does tricks with them, like bubbles inside of bubbles. She put a grown man inside of a bubble at one point and also made a bubble volcano. I took some pictures, but being bubbles, none of them really turned out.

Today we went to the splash park over by our friend Chantal's house. When we first got to her house it was a little gray out and couldn't decide if it was going to rain or not, so we decided to go run a few errands I needed to get done. By the time we got done with that it was looking a little better out, so we headed to the park. Marcus had a blast running back and forth through the water and, of course, taking breaks to sit on the smaller fountains. I love the splash park because he can play on his own and I don't have to worry about him drowning or getting hurt.

For those of you not familiar with military deployments, what you see above is what we Military Spouses like to call the Donut of Misery. It shows as the year goes on how much time you have left. It's pretty depressing in the beginning, but as you can see above, it's exciting now!! Every once in a while, the DOM updates the caption under the circle. The caption now? Leavin' on a Jet Plane... He hasn't left yet and I don't actually know yet when he is leaving, but we're getting close. The hardest part is that I won't even have an approximate arrival date until a day out and I won't have an exact arrival time until 5 hours out...when they leave Los Angeles.

Please keep all of us in your prayers this next week as it will probably be the longest one in all of our lives as Eric travels half way around the globe back to us. We'll of course let you all know when he gets back.

May

2011-06-01T18:48:00.000-10:00

Wow, what a month! We're one month closer to Daddy coming home and we kept ourselves busy to make it go by faster.

We started off the month with a retreat at Ko Olina, which is an amazing resort on the west coast of Oahu. It was a well needed rest for all of us. Sorry, I don't have any pictures from that weekend, I was having too much fun relaxing and enjoying the resort.

That first Wednesday we had a big meeting with the rest of the spouses from Eric's brigade. It was meant to inform us of the redeployment process and give us some insight into our husbands' returns. It really didn't tell us much, of course. They don't like to tell you much in the military because it always changes and then people would get disappointed or upset. So, they just keep us in the dark and let us get surprised.

That Friday, we all went out to dinner for our friend Courtney's birthday. She took this cute picture of Marcus.

On Mother's Day, we went to Outback with our friend Chantal. We were planning to go to Ruby Tuesday, but the wait was over an hour and we decided we'd rather have steak anyway. I also got this cool mug from Eric and the boys. In case you can't tell, it's a heart made up of their three names.

The next weekend we all went down to the Baby Expo in downtown Honolulu. We got a lot of free stuff and some good information. We also went to the Pineapple Festival that weekend, which had a surprisingly small amount of pineapple but some really good jazz music. One of the vendors thought Marcus was so cute she gave him a free bracelet; I see this becoming a problem later in life.

The next weekend found us attending another retreat. This one was at the Hale Koa and I put both kids in the free childcare that was provided. The childcare was easily the best part of the retreat. It allowed me to have some much needed rest and relaxation. They build in a lot of free time to these retreats while the kids are still being watched because they know with our husbands being gone for a year we really need the break.

The view of the ocean from our hotel room

My feet, relaxing by the side of the pool (without any kids)

Marcus enjoying his first tropical drink, the Shaka!
(Relax, it's just a strawberry smoothie)

Marcus checking out the city before bedtime

Sesame Street has a program that they do in combination with the USO for military children. It's called Talk, Listen and Connect and they have shows about deployment as well as moving. They brought their show to Hawaii this month and we got to go see it. Marcus had a blast and got a cool Elmo light-up spinner. It's nice for the parents because it's basically a free Sesame Street Live performance.

Marcus enjoying the show

He absolutely loves Elmo

Friday found me attending another event for spouses of deployed soldiers. This month we attended ARTafterDark, which is a monthly party at the Honolulu Academy of Art. It was fun, with lots of good food, and I even ran into a guy I used to work with in the Marines. It really is a small world, I hadn't seen him in 10 years and ran into him and his family at the door.

On Memorial Day, military had free admission to the Hawaii State Fair, so we took the opportunity to check it out. Marcus got to go on a helicopter ride, the ferris wheel, and the giant slide. We also checked out the "backyard circus," which is basically a bunch of kids in costume doing silly acts. We tried to sit and watch the European-style circus they had as well but the kids didn't want to cooperate so we left that early. We did get to sit and listen to the 25th Infantry Division Home Front Brass Quintet as well as the Marine Forces Pacific party band. It was a pretty good day.

Marcus flying a helicopter

The Ferris Wheel

Dominic enjoyed the fair too

Me and Marcus on the giant slide

Marcus peeking out of the Ferris Wheel

Marcus' prize from the Midway

The last day of the month was pretty rainy, and I found a cool program called KidsBowlFree that enables Marcus to bowl for free all summer, so we went to the bowling alley on post. He had a good time and kept trying to take our turns too.

Getting ready to roll the first ball

Talking about the next shot while we wait for the ball to come back
(it was a split 8, so we had to pick which pin to go for)

Lining up the second ball

There it goes!!

Marcus actually ended up with a combined score of 161 points between the two games. Not bad considering the ramp wasn't stable at all and the ball only weighed 6 lbs.

Dominic trying out this bowling thing

I'll leave you with a few random pictures of us from around the house throughout the month.

Marcus reading to his little brother

Checking out the new pool

The first day it was actually sunny enough to use the pool
(it was a little chilly so he didn't spend much time in it, but we'll certainly be using it this summer)

I don't remember exactly what he was doing, but he fell in to his toy box and couldn't get out

Marcus holding his little brother (with Mommy's help of course)

Marcus' first homegrown haircut

2011-05-07T13:54:00.000-10:00

I gave Marcus a haircut on Thursday. It was my first attempt. It ended up a lot shorter than I expected, but other than that it looks pretty good. It makes his eyes look much bigger for sure. There's also no doubting whose kid he is.

Dominic at 2 months

2011-05-07T13:16:00.000-10:00

Dominic had his two month checkup on Monday. He was 23 inches long, 11 pounds 8 ounces, and his head was 15.25 inches around. That puts him pretty much in the 50th percentile across the board. He's started smiling recently and he's still waking and eating every three hours. At least we're in a routine.

A picture of Marcus at 2 months to compare

Personally, I think they look nothing alike. It'll be interesting to see how they compare as they continue to grow.

Easter

2011-05-07T13:10:00.000-10:00

What a great Easter we had!! Marcus got a ton of candy from our unit's event the week before, so I didn't even have to buy that much. I got him some peeps and a big chocolate bunny, but everything else was from the bunny bop. I also got him his first bible and a golf club set. Here's a picture of the basket before Marcus got his hands on it.

They have a program here on our post where single soldiers come around and hide easter eggs for you in your yard before sunrise, so Marcus had some eggs to find outside before we could go to church.

Marcus checking out his new golf clubs

Marcus' first peep

While Dominic and I were at church, Marcus had another egg hunt at daycare. Then it was off to our friend's house for brunch. Marcus got to participate in yet another egg hunt there. He was finally getting the hang of finding eggs, but this time they were camouflage eggs, so they were a little hard to find. Fortunately, he had the help of his best friend Cole, who was also the one that hid the eggs.

Marcus is still working on all of that Easter candy and of course, Mommy is helping as much as she can.

April

2011-05-07T12:52:00.000-10:00

The beginning of April found us attending a friend's 3rd birthday party. It was princess themed, but not to worry, Marcus didn't even notice. All he cared about was the splash park and the cupcakes.

The next day, we discovered a Scottish festival down in Waikiki. We were planning on just observing, but Chantal and I got talked in to participating in the housewife games. What are housewife games you ask? Rolling Pin, Frying Pan, and Haggis Toss. The rolling pin and frying pan were thrown for distance and the haggis was an accuracy toss into a frying pan.

They had us all wear kilts to truly get into the spirit.

Me participating in the rolling pin toss

Marcus wanted to try on the kilt, he kept tripping over it

The next day was our friend Chantal's birthday. We headed down to California Pizza Kitchen to celebrate.

The next Sunday was the start of Polo Season here in Hawaii. The polo field is up on the North Shore, right on the beach. It makes for an awesome Sunday. Marcus can play in the ocean, on the beach, or on the polo field. We spend about six hours up at the field just hanging out with friends, eating good food, and watching a little polo.

The girls enjoying the polo match

Marcus and Dominic napping

The second photo was actually taken at the next Sunday's polo match, it's become a regular activity for us. And Marcus wasn't actually napping, I think he just wanted to take a break from the action and hang out with his little brother.

That previous Friday, our unit had an Easter thing. They called it Operation Bunny Bop. We were late and missed all of the easter egg hunts, but a family we knew took pity on Marcus and gave him more eggs than he knew what to do with. He also got to meet the Easter Bunny.

He was a little scary, so Marcus had to be bribed with an egg.

The next weekend found us at an event held on Schofield that highlights the travel discounts that we can get through our base. It was also an opportunity for all of the units to raise some money for the family activities they put on through out the year. They brought in a group called "The Party Animals" for the kids.

Like any kids group, it was a little cheesy

Marcus with his adopted siblings

Patrick, the boy holding on to Marcus, has 4 sisters (3 of which are standing right behind them in this picture). So, he loves it when Marcus comes over to play because they can do boy things. The girls love it because they can dress Marcus up however they want, like Mickey Mouse to their Minnie or a Prince to their Princess. He looks just like them, so he fits right in to their family, and his girlfriend Maggie is only a few months older. They got to enjoy the concert together while their mom and I got to relax for a few minutes.

March

2011-04-11T22:05:00.000-10:00

As one would imagine, March flew by with the addition of Dominic to our family. The month was actually pretty routine. Here's a photo recap.

Marcus discovered Splash Parks

We spent some time at the beach

Marcus' swing in our backyard (he wants to swing every day)

He really loves the splash park

Why do kids do this? (No, he wasn't the only one)

The new pool just down the street from our house, our new favorite spot.

Another month of deployment done. This one was celebrated at a spa night.

Dominic Michael Sturzinger

2011-04-11T15:19:00.000-10:00

I guess you could say March started out with a bang!

Dominic Michael Sturzinger was born at 11:58 pm on March 1.

He weighed 6 lbs. 15.5 oz and was 20 inches long.

Marcus was super excited to meet his new little brother the next day. He loves him so much! He loves to give him hugs and kisses and is always the first to let me know when Dominic's upset.

Our first family photo (minus Eric)

Dominic's first bath

A hug...

and a kiss

Marcus helping give Dominic his first real bath after his umbilical cord came off

My friend Bonnie-Jean got a new camera recently and wanted to take some newborn pictures, so she asked if she could come over and take some pics of Dominic. Of Course!! Here is just a sampling, the rest are on Facebook.

I love this one because he crossed his own legs to cover up his privates.

These teddy bears are from the base Eric is at in Iraq and he's lying on Eric's uniform.

Again, those are just a sampling, the full collection is on Facebook. We're also getting professional ones done this week for Easter. I'll post those as soon as I get them.

January and February

2011-04-11T13:32:00.000-10:00

January found us attending a halfway celebration for Eric's deployment. Yippee!!

The spouses from the unit got together to celebrate and take a few pictures.

Marcus and I are in the top left half of the H.

At the end of the month, I attended Casino Night, which was put on by the Blue Star Card Program. That night marked my 7th month of the deployment. I had fun and won some spa socks at the end of the evening.

The next day, Marcus and I got to create a Valentine's Day card for Daddy.

In February, Gary Sinise brought The Lt. Dan Band to Hawaii. I was able to put Marcus in daycare for the day and Chantal and I went to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for lunch (Why not make it a Forrest Gump day?).

We got to sit right up front and our friend Chantal even got to go on stage.

During the Half Way Celebration in January, we took a special picture for the soldiers for Valentine's Day.

We're in the left inner corner of the heart.

At the end of the month I got some maternity pictures taken on the beach in Mokuleia. (Good thing, because the baby came the next week.)

This is just a preview image from Facebook, but I love how sweet Marcus was being.

That night, thanks again to the Blue Star Card Program, I dropped Marcus off at childcare and went to see a play with my friends. That night marked 8 months done with deployment. What a great way to celebrate.

Chantal, Bonnie-Jean, her brother John, and me on the bus to the play.

Catching Up - December Part 2

2011-02-24T21:17:00.000-10:00

The second part of December found us with some welcome visitors. With Eric not here for Christmas, it was nice to have other family here to share it with. We spent a week at Bellows AFS which is an Air Force installation that exists purely as a recreation facility for military families and is located on the windward side of Oahu. For those of you not familiar with Oahu, it's located just outside of Kailua (which is where President Obama and his family stays when they come here). We had a cabin right on the ocean with a beautiful view. Marcus discovered during this week that he really likes the taste of sand. He didn't just experiment with the taste of sand, he ate handfuls of it. Here are some pictures of him actually playing in the sand and not eating it.

He even got a chance to go boogie boarding.

While we were at Bellows he figured out how to walk and he became unstoppable. He wanted to walk everywhere and he wanted to do it all on his own. He has since learned to hold hands when he's in parking lots and crossing streets, thank goodness!

Good thing Uncle Bill was there to keep him out of the ocean!

The next day it was time to head for home, but not before seeing Santa Claus land on the beach. Marcus got his very own candy cane and beach ball from this Hawaiian Santa. He even rode up on a jet-ski.

On the 23rd, we went for lunch at The Willows. This is a big deal for me and my mom as they serve the same Chicken Curry that my grandma used to make and my mom still makes today. It is absolutely delicious and deserving of the hectic drive into Waikiki, even during a rain storm which seems to happen every time I go to the restaurant.

Even with the rain, Marcus had to try out the restaurant's water feature.

On Christmas Eve, we got all dressed up and headed to the Post Chapel's Candlelight Vigil. We had planned on going to the caroling event they had on the 19th, but completely forgot.

And here's an extra bonus video of Marcus enjoying his first cinnamon roll ever! Just a warning, this video is about 4 minutes long. (I can't get it to upload right now, but I'll update this post when I get it working).

Christmas Morning!!

A new tricycle from Santa!

A percussion set from Santa!

A shape sorter from Uncle Ernie and Aunt Megan

A cool Elmo backpack with zippers, snaps and Velcro. He wears it everywhere.

That's it for December. We spent New Year's Eve eating crab and watching New York's New Year's Eve with Chantal. The best part of that, besides the crab, was that we were done watching it at 7 pm and Marcus could go to bed without missing anything.

January and February didn't have as much activity as November and December, so they should be easier to catch-up (theoretically).

Catching Up - December Part 1

2011-02-18T18:21:00.000-10:00

Marcus and I got back from our trip on the 19th, and really didn't do much for the rest of November. We did host Thanksgiving dinner, but I don't have any pictures of that day. All that I remember from that day was Marcus was sick and throwing up the whole time. That's probably why I didn't take any pictures.

In the first few weeks of December, we did a lot of Christmas stuff. We met Santa Claus a lot.

When we got back from our trip, Marcus was trying to get on the couch a lot and so I decided he needed his own chair. I went everywhere looking for one, but never saw anything I liked, until I went to our thrift shop. Of course, I found the perfect chair there (it has Elmo on it) for $5.

Marcus still loves this chair.
Notice the remote control on the floor.

He was watching The O'Reilly Factor.
I think that's his favorite show, that's the only one he'll sit in the chair and watch for an extended period of time.

The first Santa we got to meet was on the 1st of December. We even got to meet Mrs. Claus too.

Marcus finally calmed down with a little help from some sleigh bells after a screaming fit.

On the 3rd of December, we were treated to a free Hawaiian Christmas Concert and Dinner through the Blue Star Card program. This program is for families of deployed soldiers and whenever we're out doing something fun, it's usually because of them. Santa brought a toy for each of the kids attending the dinner and we were treated to a concert by the Kamehameha Schools Alumni Choir.

Marcus ready for dinner

Marcus' first present from Santa

The Kamehameha Schools Alumni Choir

The next night, the Blue Star Program was providing transportation down to Honolulu City Lights. This is the annual tree-lighting ceremony and Christmas parade for Honolulu. They also had rides there, so that's where we spent most of our time.

Marcus' first ride on a school bus.
I wasn't sure how it would go, but he did alright

This is our friend Chantal.
I don't talk about her on the blog much, but she is with us all of the time.
She helps me out a lot with Marcus, like going on rides with him.

Yay, another carousel!

Mommy's turn

The official Honolulu City Tree

Honolulu's Santa. He's somewhat of a landmark here.

The last Christmas event we went to was the Schofield Barracks Tree Lighting Ceremony. The pictures are pretty bad, but I've included one anyway.

The next Santa was found at the Haleiwa Farmer's Market. Marcus actually met this Santa last year too, so I've included a comparison picture.

The next post will be the second half of December, including Christmas.

Catching Up - November part 3 (Our last week together)

2011-02-16T21:11:00.000-10:00

This portion of the trip found us with 6 days to go to the two other parks we had planned visits to. Needless to say, this was the relaxing part of the trip. This ended up being a good thing as we decided this condo had our best accommodations of the trip. Even though we were staying in Kissimmee, which some will tell you is too far away from Disney World, we preferred it. There were tons of places to eat within walking distance, and we really weren't that far from Disney, though we had planned this portion of the trip to visit other parks because this condo wasn't as close to Disney as our other one.

We spent the first day after the cruise just relaxing at the condo, where Marcus decided to take his first steps. I was hoping he would take his first steps during this trip so Eric could see them and I guess he was just waiting until we had carpeting and we weren't on a ship (our house and the first condo we stayed at have concrete/tile floors).

Here's a video of Marcus' first steps. No, he's not wearing any pants, it's okay he's got a diaper on. I apologize for it being sideways, I don't know how to fix it.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the condo complex, they had two pools with hot tubs and an activity center as well as barbecue grills strategically placed around a pond and a large playground. Our favorite place was the activity center as Eric could go to the gym while Marcus and I played with a ton of new toys in their toddler area. They also offered family/kid crafts and activities several times each day, but we never got a chance to partake in them. They also had free popcorn which I think was Marcus' favorite part. We always grabbed some on our way back to the room after playing or going to the pool. This was actually the first time that he had popcorn, but he sure loves it now.

We ended the day at Cracker Barrel for dinner. I love their high chairs, they look just like our chairs and Marcus got to sit at the table like a big boy. Of course, we got him a treat at the Old Country Store on the way out.

The next day, we headed out bright and early for Universal Studios. Marcus actually got to meet more characters at Universal Studios than he did at Disney World. I think this was our fault though because we had no desire to stand in line to meet Mickey and Minnie and he didn't know who they were anyway, so why bother. At Universal, the lines weren't nearly as long, and they weren't pushing you to buy their pictures, so we took the opportunity to meet some characters.

Marcus and Eric at the entrance to the park

The Simpsons, I think this might be the only family picture of the entire trip.

Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat

Shaggy and Scooby Doo

Marcus the Giraffe

Marcus and Eric as elephants

Marcus and Eric after Eric went on the Simpsons ride

The plan for the next day was Cape Canaveral. We started with the Visitor's Center and, silly us, thinking it would be free were so shocked by the entrance fee we left without going in. We ended up going to Patrick AFB, which was more interesting to us anyway, and an arcade in town. We learned that Patrick AFB has some awesome beach cottages to rent, which is good information for us as we're moving 8 hours from there in September. The first stop was the PX for a haircut and lunch. Eric's hair is shorter in all of the rest of the pictures, but you probably won't be able to tell.

The boys are ready for takeoff!

Marcus ready to go down the slide, we had to take his shoes off because they kept making him stop.

Hey, another family picture! This is the bay on the west side of the base.

This dock is the one behind the rocket from the first picture.
We were playing at the playground just outside of the Patrick AFB campgrounds.
(We sure do miss the services available on Air Force Bases.)

Once we finished exploring the Air Force Base, we headed back toward Kissimmee with a planned stop at a "fun center" in Cocoa Beach. It ended up not being as "fun" as we had hoped, because Marcus couldn't do the kiddie go-carts, he wasn't tall enough, but we still had fun at the arcade. We thought about playing mini-golf, but we had done that during the first week of our trip and didn't want to cart Marcus around while we did that again.

Marcus on the carousel

It was just his size, reminded me a lot of the old carousels at McDonald's.

Marcus trying to win some prizes

We ended up collecting enough tickets from the arcade to get Marcus a growing lizard. We still haven't made it grow yet, but we have it, maybe we'll wait for Eric to get home.

The next day we got up early to drive to Tampa for Busch Gardens. They have a cool program called Hero Salute which enables us to get free admission to one of their parks once a year. In the Orlando area, we could choose from Busch Gardens and Sea World. Normally, you could also choose the water park next to Busch Gardens, but as it was November, they were closed. We thought we would enjoy Busch Gardens more, so that's the park we chose.

We started with the Sesame Street area so that we could let Marcus experience as many activities/rides as possible. If we ran out of time at the end of the day, we didn't want it to be him that suffered for it. He actually hadn't watched Sesame Street at this point in his life, but he was enamored by the characters anyway.

Marcus completely enthralled

What he was so enthralled by

What Daddy? I'm trying to watch a show here.

Meeting Big Bird

Walking across the rope bridge with Daddy

Trying to do it all on his own

Ready to go!

Marcus getting ready to swing

Marcus actually spent most of this ride watching the girl behind him,
so this was one of the only pictures of him looking forward.

Marcus going down a water ride,
it had finally warmed up enough to tolerate these

Marcus climbing up some lily pads

Eric upside down on a ride while Marcus was taking his nap

Eric taking advantage of Marcus' nap on another adult ride

Part of the reason we chose Busch Gardens over Sea World, other than the Sesame Street area, was that it's theme is African Safari and they have a ton of animals. It's a lot like Disney World's Animal Kingdom. Some of the animals, you can walk around and look at, and some of them you have to take a train to see. Since there was a 10 minute wait for the next train, and it was the last train of the day, we decided to walk around and look at the other animals first. We discovered both along our walk and on the train that the animals seem to be much closer here than at Animal Kingdom.

Though you can't tell in this picture,
these elephants were actually dancing to the music being played in the area

Lions

Hippo!!

Eric!! Oh, I mean hippo.

Crocodile

The train pulling into the station

Marcus and Eric ready to get on the train

Waiting for the train to leave the station

Giraffe up close

Zebra!

The boys checking out all of the animals

Rhino's

We had time for Eric to go on one last ride after the train ride before the park closed, but we had to run to get there.

There they go

Marcus' first Happy Meal

Okay, I know the first Happy Meal isn't a major milestone, but we got back from the park so late, and Marcus napped in the car, that we wanted to just go through a drive-thru to get him some quick food before bedtime. We thought, what better time than this to have his first Happy Meal?

The next day, we spent most of our time hanging out in or around the condo relaxing. That afternoon we decided to try out another "fun" center, but again most of the rides wouldn't allow Marcus to ride even though they were supposed to be kiddie rides. Basically, it was just because he couldn't walk to the ride on his own, not because of his height. We did find this really big truck to take a picture next to though.

The next day was Eric's last with us in Orlando. We had to take him to the airport, so after playing for a little while in the morning, we headed to IHOP for a final meal.

Some last minute daddy time

A final family picture

Marcus "posing" for the camera at IHOP

Catching Up - November part 2 (Cruise)

2011-02-15T18:50:00.000-10:00

On the 8th, we drove down to Miami to board a cruise for the Bahamas. It was still cold when we got there, so we were wearing our sweatshirts, but were looking forward to the warmer weather down south.

Marcus and Eric on the gangway heading to the ship.

Checking out the model of our ship while waiting to grab some lunch.

Waiting for the ship to leave the dock.

Here we go!!

The first port we stopped at was Grand Bahama Island. There wasn't much to do right off the ship, just some shops set up specifically for cruise passengers, where we got some cheap souvenirs. Most people went on shore excursions to the other parts of the Island, but we chose to spend our time on the ship where we could enjoy it all to ourselves. It was kind of nice being able to hang out by the pool with hardly anybody else on the ship.

Marcus exploring the balcony.

Enjoying sunset from our balcony before dinner.

Posing with our towel bunny after dinner. No, we didn't add the sunglasses, the room stewards did that. This was actually the only towel animal we got on the entire trip because the rest of the time we were in the room getting Marcus ready for bed when the room stewards came around for the turn-down service.

The next day found us docking in Nassau, Bahamas. Again, we just walked around the shops looking for souvenirs and then spent the rest of the day on the ship. This was a much larger port, so there were more shops to go through. I spent most of the time on a mission to get the free jewelry set up for the cruise passengers.

The tickle monster attacked first thing in the morning.

The view of Atlantis from our balcony.

Marcus playing in the Under 2 Zoo. It really was just a bunch of toys in one of the ship's lounges, but they were new to him and it gave me a chance to read and relax while Eric was at the gym. Marcus loved it.

Our last port of call was Great Stirrup Cay. This is Norwegian Cruise Line's Private Island in the Bahamas. There were a ton of games and activities set up on the island, and we brought our snorkel gear with us, but we ended up taking the opportunity to relax on the beach. They served a barbecue lunch and we all had fun lounging around and playing in the ocean.

Daddy wake up!! I want to play!

The boys smiling for the camera before we get in the water.

On the tender getting ready to go back to the ship

Our ship from the tender

Part of the beach from the tender

The island from our balcony

The next day we docked back in Miami and made our way back to the Orlando area. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of our condo in Kissimmee, but I'll talk about that more in the next post.

Catching Up - November part 1 (Disney World)

2011-02-14T22:03:00.000-10:00

First, let me apologize for falling so far behind on the blog. Right about the time that Eric, Marcus and I met in Orlando, I started having computer trouble. I didn't want to download all of the pictures to the computer if it wasn't going to work, so I waited until we decided what to do. Now, we have a new computer and I can catch up for the last 3 1/2 months before the baby comes and I get behind again.

The biggest event during the month of November was Eric's R&R. Basically, that's a two-week period where the Army releases him from Iraq and will send him anywhere in the world that he wants to go. We decided to meet him in Orlando for a couple of reasons. One, we didn't want him to have to bear the entire travel burden. Meeting in the middle enabled us to have a little more time together. Another reason we chose to meet in Orlando was to make it a vacation for all of us. I didn't want to be distracted by my daily routine and responsibilities back here while he was home and I also didn't want anybody in Iraq getting the bright idea to have him go in to work for a few days while he was here (yes, that happens). The final reason we chose to go to Orlando was Disney World and cheap cruises. We've gone together a couple of times and wanted to share it with Marcus.

Below are the highlights from our wonderful trip.

We started with a week in a high-rise condo just outside of Disney World. It was located on Lake Bryan, which gave us beautiful sunrises every morning. We had 4-day Park Hopper tickets, and 5 days to use them, so we spent Eric's first day relaxing at the condo.

The sunrise from our balcony

Marcus and Eric getting reacquainted

The next day was spent at Disney MGM Studios. We wanted to ease into the whole Disney experience and knew this park had less rides than the rest of them. Marcus' favorite area was of course the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids play area.

Riding the Disney shuttle to the park.

Checking out the huge mushrooms

That's a really big dog! Good thing Kimber's nose isn't that big.

Now that's a can of Play-Doh.
Although, Marcus was much more interested in playing with the water nearby.

Sliding down a lung.
Marcus got really good at slides by the time we were done with this trip.

Looking at the WWII planes on the backlot tour.

Our second Disney day was spent at Epcot followed by a Monorail ride to Magic Kingdom. We really had no reason to take the monorail as Epcot took us all day, but we wanted to ride it once while we were there and figured this was as good a day as any.

Marcus and Eric exploring the fire truck

Waiting for the monorail to Magic Kingdom

We didn't take many pictures this day as we were busy actually doing stuff. The next day found us at Animal Kingdom. This was probably our most active park as there was a ton of stuff for Marcus to do and while Marcus was napping, Eric was able to go on the big rides, like Everest and Dinosaur.

We started with the Kilimanjaro Safari Ride to see all of the animals that Disney has to offer.

All ready to leave on our safari. Yes, for us warm weather folks, it was cold enough for sweatshirts. I actually had not planned for this possibility, so we had to run by Walmart and buy sweatshirts for everybody.

A baby and mommy giraffe. This giraffe was only two months old.

A family of elephants

Next we headed off to Dinoland while Eric waited for his Expedition Everest fast-pass time to come up.

Getting ready to go on TriceraTop Spin

Checking out the sights from up in the air on TriceraTop Spin

Going down a slide in the Boneyard

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

For some reason Daddy thought it would be fun to play in the water when we were already cold

Playing in the sand at the big dig

Marcus is so good at sharing

Once Eric had gone on Expedition Everest and Dinosaur, we headed over to Rafiki's Planet Watch which has a petting zoo and some other conservation exhibits. The best part was the ride on the train over there.

Waiting for the train

Let's Go!!

Petting some pygmy goats

Look, Mommy was actually there too!

The last day at Disney World was spent at Magic Kingdom. This was another day with not very many pictures because we were so busy going on rides.

My two boys on the carousel

Crawling through a tunnel on Tom Sawyer's Island

Crossing the barrel bridge, it sure was wobbly!

Marcus' favorite attraction of the whole week. Just kidding, but he did spend a long time playing on this rock.

Daddy showing Marcus how to protect the fort

Waiting in line for Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride

Here we go!

On the Jungle Cruise

Wow, I feel like I just relived that week trying to get it on the blog. I was planning on posting all of November in this post, but since it took me so long to get this week up, I'll have to do it in parts. Next up? Our 4 day cruise to the Bahamas.

Baby Sturzinger #2

2010-10-22T19:23:00.000-10:00

I had my 20 week ultrasound today, and we got some pretty good pictures. We don't know the sex yet, it's in a sealed envelope to be opened when Eric and I are together in November. Here are the pictures from today.

Marcus' birthday parties

2010-10-22T16:59:00.001-10:00

Ok, so it's been a while since his birthday, but we just had his party in Hawaii last weekend due to all of our travels. We didn't have his 12 month check-up until this Monday either, so it's ok, we're just behind on everything. Here are a few pictures from his party in Oregon and his party here in Hawaii.

Marcus' cousin Henry

My friend's daughter Emily

These last three are from the party in Hawaii.

Here's a video of him going after his cupcake.

Marcus is One!!

2010-09-21T18:21:00.000-10:00

Marcus turned one today. It was a pretty uneventful birthday. I have a party planned this weekend for all of the babies that I know in Oregon, and then we'll have another party for all of the kids back in Hawaii. Here are a few pictures of Marcus today experiencing a few firsts.

Getting strapped in for the first ride facing forward in the car seat.

All strapped in and with a snack cup, we must be ready to go.

Getting a few one year pictures taken.

(Okay, we took a lot.)

Blowing out the candle on the birthday ice cream.

(We're saving the cake for the party this weekend.)

Mmmm...Ice Cream!! It's mighty cold.

Opening presents. What could it be?

Kleenex!!! Best present ever.

That's about it for the birthday. I'll post pictures from the party this weekend, and as soon as I get the pictures that were taken today I'll post those too.

A new video

2010-08-10T16:58:00.000-10:00

So I know I haven't posted anything for a while. Marcus and I haven't really been doing much, so there hasn't been much to blog about. We go to meetings, run errands, or play at home. Not much exciting going on in our lives right now.

Marcus has started walking around the house a little more, holding on to the couch, the coffee table, the computer desk; basically anything that he can reach. He finally figured out a few days ago what the toy I got him a few weeks ago was actually for. Take a look for yourself here.

He's still not standing up without holding on to anything, so we still have a little while before real walking, but this is still exciting.

A birthday party and real food

2010-07-12T19:21:00.000-10:00

This weekend, we went to our friend Savannah's 1st Birthday party. During the party, they stripped all of the little ones of their clothes and sat them in front of cupcakes. Marcus is not ready for cake yet, so he didn't get to partake, but he had a cracker to eat while they were working on theirs. Don't worry, he doesn't know what he's missing yet, so he didn't really care.

Here's our friend Savannah eating her cupcake with her mom Mary Alice.

Tonight was Marcus' first exposure to feeding himself dinner. He has had finger food snacks before, but never the whole meal. We've been doing Gerber jar foods and I decided I should try out real vegetables and meat for him to eat. We started with turkey hot dogs and green beans. He doesn't like green beans from the jar, but I thought fresh green beans might be different. He ate some of them, but he definitely preferred the hot dogs.

Like Father, Like Son

2010-07-06T19:42:00.000-10:00

Just like Daddy, Marcus fell asleep in front of the TV at 7:00 tonight.

4th of July

2010-07-06T19:40:00.000-10:00

Marcus and I went to the 4th of July Spectacular on Schofield Barracks this weekend. It was a great time to hang out with a lot of the wives from Eric's unit. Smash Mouth was the headliner and we had a ton of good food. We were there all day, which was draining, but it was a lot of fun. Marcus loved the fireworks; he just sat there and stared at them. Here are a few pictures from our day.

If you look closely in this picture, you can see his teeth.

Some random pictures

2010-06-30T15:12:00.000-10:00

Marcus seems to think that if he sits under the coffee table I can't see what he's getting into.

He's recently started using his Bumbo as a walker. I think we need to get him a push around toy.

Marcus giving Kimber a hug. She promptly got up after these pictures were taken.

Friends and Fondue

2010-06-28T11:56:00.000-10:00

Marcus and I had some friends over last night. I didn't get any pictures, because I never think to grab my camera during things like this, but I'll do my best to describe the scene. I wanted to do something fun for my friends whose husbands are deploying in the near future. I thought, what better than a fondue party? Nothing. We had a blast. It took a ton of prep on my part, but fortunately you can prep for a fondue party over the course of a few days.

We started off the dinner with a cheese and cracker tray and the fabulous artichoke and jalapeño dip with pita chips from Costco. I can eat the entire tub of this dip by myself in one sitting if I don't portion it out, it's so good.

Next it was on to the fondue. We did a basic vegetable broth as our cooking liquid and I prepared beef tenderloin and chicken breast cubes as the meat dippers. I also served pre-boiled bite-size potatoes, broccoli, and four colors of bell peppers to dip. On the side was the Sturzinger family take on California Pizza Kitchen's Waldorf Salad; mixed greens, granny smith apples, green grapes, walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, and papaya seed dressing. Sooo good!!

I also made several dipping sauces for all of the cooked food. Soy-wasabi sauce, which is exactly how it sounds, some soy sauce with some wasabi mixed in. Lemon Teriyaki sauce, which is soy sauce, lemon juice, sugar, and ground ginger. A mustard sauce, which is mustard, mayonnaise, sour cream, and a dash of worcestershire sauce. A horseradish sauce, which is horseradish, green onions and homemade whipped cream. This was my first time making my own whipped cream, I did it by hand - no cheating with the stand mixer - and it was easier than I thought. The last two sauces were just store-bought BBQ and ranch.

Then on to dessert, which everybody was waiting for. We did a chocolate caramel dipping sauce with a ton of dippers. There were Krispy Kreme donuts, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, marshmallows, pineapple, strawberries, oranges, and raspberries. There was also supposed to be pound cake, but I forgot it in the freezer. Oh well, just means I have an excuse to have a mini-fondue party with my neighbor Heather with the leftover chocolate.

To top off the night, my friend Andrea (who I knew from Panama City) was on the island for work and was able to make it. Her husband is in the Navy and is currently deployed to the Persian Gulf for 6 months, so it was nice being able to include her in our pre-deployment festivities.

All in all, it was a great night. Good food, good friends and a whole lot of fun.

2nd Brigade's Deployment Ceremony

2010-06-24T18:40:00.000-10:00

Even though Eric already left, Marcus and I went to his unit's official Deployment Ceremony. This is where they officially ready the units for the deployment. The 25th Infantry Division's band marches in front of the units to signify that they are ready to go into battle, the 25th ID's Commanding General inspects the troops, and then their colors (flags) are cased to ready them for transport.

Here's a panoramic shot of the entire ceremony.

This was the band marching in front of the brigade.

This is Eric's Company.

This is the entire brigade.

Afterwards, they had a party at the conference center here on base. It was okay, but the best part was that I won two tickets to the Champagne Brunch at the Hale Koa that Eric and I just went to before he left. I was just going to give it away since he is already gone, but then I realized it doesn't expire until next September, so maybe we'll go out for my birthday after he gets back. It's a nice little something to look forward to.

D-Day +1 (and 2)

2010-06-23T16:01:00.000-10:00

The day Eric left, things went pretty well, and I started thinking this wasn't going to be too bad. Marcus went to sleep at 8 that night, so I got to hang out with my neighbor for a little while and just relax. The next day, however, I got to pay for Marcus going to bed so early. He decided to wake up at 6:30 (normally he doesn't get up until at least 7:30, sometimes 8). I don't know if he thought "Without Daddy here to do it, I'm going to have to wake Mommy up early" or what. Eric had gotten into the habit of waking me up at 5:30 when he left for PT and I was looking forward to finally sleeping in.

Last night, Marcus fell asleep at 7. I was sure he was just going to take a short nap and then wake up again as he has been known to do. He did wake up once, but put himself right back to sleep. This morning, he woke up at 5:30. I'm not sure that I like this trend. I'm actually glad that he woke up when he did today though, because about ten minutes later I had an MP (Military Police Officer) pounding on my front door. It seems that they found a little girl, probably about 2 or 3 years old, wandering around in front of my house with a sippy cup and they thought that she was mine. I had actually never seen her before, so I wasn't much help, but they did eventually find her parents.

I just hope that Marcus doesn't try to go to bed at 6 tonight. I'm thinking that this bedtime trend might be due to the fact that Eric used to play with Marcus at night and keep him stimulated until bedtime, whereas I tend to keep more of a mellow environment. Or, it's just because his first two teeth are coming in.

Father's Day Weekend

2010-06-22T12:43:00.000-10:00

This weekend was Eric's last here in Hawaii. He wanted to hit up the beach one last time and then go to Buffalo Wild Wings. We sure are happy Marcus likes the water. He loves hanging out in his inner-tube.

Then it was time to say good-bye to Eric for a while. We're all grateful technology has come so far in the last few years. I don't know what we'd do if we couldn't talk to him occasionally.

Back on Oahu

2010-06-22T12:14:00.000-10:00

Once we made it back to Oahu, we decided to hit Waikiki Beach for some fun in the sun.

Even though the big boys thought the water was cold and were afraid to get in past their lower legs, Marcus was anxious for some water fun.

After the beach, and honestly the real reason for the drive down to Waikiki, we hit up Mac 24-7. It was recently featured on Man V. Food on the Travel Channel and it looked too good to pass up. Everything they serve is huge, like these pancakes that we shared. It's 3 pounds of pancakes and 1 pound of toppings. We opted for bananas, chocolate chunks, and peanut butter. They offer this as an eating challenge for one person in 90 minutes, but the three of us couldn't even finish them together.

Our Trip to the Big Island, Day 4

2010-06-22T11:18:00.000-10:00

Day 4 on the Big Island had Eric going on a 15 mile hike along the coast and me and Marcus visiting the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory. We got to learn all about how Macadamia Nuts are harvested and watch the chocolates being made. We also bought some candy of course. When we got back to Volcanoes National Park, Marcus and I hiked 1 1/2 miles out to see the Petroglyphs drawn on the lava. When Eric finished his hike, we all headed up to the Hilina Pali Overlook.

The view from the overlook.

We were pretty high up.

After dinner, we drove out to Pahoa to see the active lava. Our camera didn't take very good pictures of it, but it was pretty cool to see the lava both where it was coming out of the cone and also where it was hitting the water.

Our Trip to the Big Island, Day 3

2010-06-20T16:36:00.000-10:00

Our third day took us outside of the park. We headed south along Volcano Highway to Black Sand Beach to look for sea turtles. We had brought our snorkel gear with the intention of swimming with sea turtles, but forgot that the south side of the island is the most active wave-wise in the summer. Needless to say, there was no snorkeling to be done. We did see a sea turtle though.

Next we headed down to South Point, the southern-most point in the United States. Before we got there, we made a stop at the Punaluu Bakery for malasadas and bread pudding. We picked up a loaf of sweet bread too.

Of course, it wouldn't be a vacation for Eric without a hike, so then we hiked 2 1/2 miles to Green Sand Beach.

This is the view from the top of the cliff overlooking Green Sand Beach. It's pretty treacherous getting down there, so we didn't actually go, but maybe next time when Marcus is bigger.

On the way back to the cottage, we stopped off at the Volcano Winery where we got to sample some tasty wines. They had one made from Macadamia Nut Honey infused with green tea. The honey is not actually made with macadamia nuts, but instead the bees collect the pollen from the macadamia nut trees. This wine would go great with chinese food on a hot day when you don't want hot tea.

Our Trip to the Big Island, Day 2

2010-06-20T16:20:00.000-10:00

Our second day started early with Eric heading out on a 10 mile hike to the Napau Crater. Marcus and I chose to go on a 3 mile hike up the Pu'u Huluhulu Cone. Both hikes started at the same point, Marcus and I just had to pick Eric up down the road at the end of his day.

The boys in their cool shades before we started.

This is where we said goodbye to Eric. We were able to see him again when we got to the top of our cone and he was hiking through a large lava field. He didn't know we were there, so he didn't get a picture of us, and he had the camera, so we couldn't take a picture of him.

Once we picked up Eric, we decided to drive down Chain of Craters Road to where the lava meets the ocean. Marcus and I got to stand on some lava that had gone completely over the road.

Behind Eric and Marcus is the Holei Sea Arch. It's lava that has been carved out by the ocean waves.

On our drive back up to our cottage we stopped at this crater, which I can't remember the name of now.

Our Trip to the Big Island, Day 1

2010-06-20T15:52:00.002-10:00

For Eric's block leave prior to deploying, we went to the Big Island for a week.

Here's a picture of Marcus on the flight over.

I looked at this trip as a chance to relax before we were separated for a year, while Eric looked at it as an opportunity to hike all day. We stayed at Kilauea Military Camp, which is right inside Volcanoes National Park. We decided to stay within the park for most of the week rather than trying to drive all over the island. This allowed Eric to go on some hikes while Marcus and I could relax in the cottage or do some shorter day hikes.

We got there on the afternoon of the 1st and headed straight to the Jaggar Museum. Here are some pictures of the Kilauea Caldera from the museum.

Next, we headed to the park's visitor center to figure out which hike we could do right away before the sun went down. They directed us to the Kilauea Iki Crater. It was pretty cool as we got to actually hike inside the crater.

This is a picture of Eric and Marcus looking out at the hike ahead of us. If you look closely, you can see the trail through the crater (the light line pointing toward Eric).

Eric and Marcus inside the crater. Yes we had to climb back up to the top of that ridge behind them.

Once we finished the Kilauea Iki Crater, we realized we had enough time to go to the Thurston Lava Tube as well. It's basically a cave made from hardened lava.

Eric and Marcus about to head into the Lava Tube.

Eric and Marcus inside the Lava Tube.

After the Lava Tube, we finally headed to KMC to check-in and check out our room.

Hawaii State Fair

2010-06-20T15:52:00.000-10:00

Before we went on our vacation to the Big Island, we decided to check out the Hawaii State Fair. Eric and I were a little disappointed as it was really more of a carnival than a fair, but Marcus was enamored with the Fire Ball. He just stared at it going around and around. It was free for Military on the day that we went, so it was at least worth the money.

Crawling?

2010-06-06T21:52:00.002-10:00

I'll let you guys decide if this counts or not.

Video of Marcus crawling

The blog is fixed

2010-05-31T12:58:00.001-10:00

I don't know what happened, but my blog template stopped working last week. Don't worry, it's fixed now.

Marcus' new favorite activity

2010-05-25T18:13:00.000-10:00

(It was Eric's idea to put his play mat up against the built-in bookcase.) The good news is, it's a built-in, so it won't fall on him.

Military Appreciation Day

2010-05-25T17:53:00.000-10:00

Saturday was Military Appreciation Day at the Honolulu Zoo, so we got to go for free. We also got free lunch and a free sunburn. What a great day!! Here are a few pictures.

Marcus enjoying the free ride.

Giraffes!! Marcus doesn't understand the concept of looking where we're pointing, so he spent the day looking at our fingers instead of the animals.

Marcus checking out the peacocks.

This trip to the zoo was definitely more fun than the last trip, Marcus actually looked at some of the animals this time.

Our Cutie Patootie!!

2010-05-19T17:28:00.000-10:00

I just had to share this picture. It is too cute.

Okay, these aren't bad either, but the first one is my favorite.

Marcus sure loves his new laptop. He plays with it all of the time. His favorite activity? Closing it and waiting on Mom or Dad to open it for him.

Here's a picture of the family (minus the picture taker, of course).

Eric also wanted me to post some pictures of the latest hike he went on. Marcus, Kimber and I were sleeping while he did this. (We're not crazy!!)

This is the Hawaii Loa Ridge, which is only open to Hawaii residents and Military, so it's pretty exclusive. He left at 6 am to go on this hike, which is why the rest of us were sleeping. It's beautiful, but we'll have to wait until we get a hiking backpack before we can go up there as a family. It's pretty treacherous.

Marcus' new pool toy

2010-05-09T15:46:00.000-10:00

We finally got Marcus a pool toy last week, so we took him back to the Hale Koa pool yesterday. As you can see from the picture, he loved it. He could float around, and kick all he wanted. He also loved to splash us in the face with the water inside his tube. Towards the end, he leaned back in the tube and was totally relaxing in the pool.

Warrior Ohana Day

2010-05-04T15:55:00.000-10:00

Last Friday, I got a chance to participate in Warrior Ohana Day. It was a chance to participate in activities that Eric has to do in the Army. I was on a team with other wives from Eric's unit. We started out with a trip through a convoy simulator. We got to act like we were in a Humvee and got to shoot at enemy targets. Then we moved on to an M-16 simulator where I had 4 confirmed kills. I also got to take apart an M-9 and M-16. Our team was the second fastest at taking apart and putting back together our weapons in the groups that we were with at the time.

The next part of the day was one station from the Leader Reaction Course. This was an obstacle that we had to complete as a team. Fortunately, I had done many of these in the Marines, and we ended up completing ours two minutes faster than the team before us.

(In all of these pictures, I'm in the grey baseball cap)

Here's our team at the beginning of the station. We had to get the two ammo boxes (on the right side of the picture) and our entire team to the other side of the area without touching the ground.

Here we are after we completed the station. We were not told until afterwards that there were gloves for us to use and those pipes were hot after sitting in the sun all morning.

The next portion of the day was a modified Army Physical Fitness Test. I say modified because we only had to do 30 seconds of push-ups and 30 seconds of sit-ups. Also, it didn't matter if we did the push-ups on our knees or not, so of course we all did them on our knees.

After the APFT, we headed out on the two mile road march. That was fun, and we actually ran a good part of it. Once we finished that, we got to do the obstacle course, which was our last activity. There were six stages to the obstacle course. We started with the high wall, where we had to get all of our team up and over a 10 ft. wall. Next was the weaver, where you're supposed to weave over and under 4 x 4's that are mounted at increasing heights and then they decrease again. For this day, we just had to go over them, so it was a lot easier. We then headed to the high step, which is shown in the picture below. You weren't allowed to use your hands to get over the beams.

After the high step, we conquered the balance beam and cargo net. The last obstacle was the low crawl. The soldiers had intentionally wet down the low crawl and as a result, it was one giant mud puddle. For some reason, they thought that their wives would enjoy getting muddy.

We didn't learn until afterward that it was actually the direct fault of two of the husbands from our team. They were the ones that had come up with the idea of adding the water. So, here is a picture of us after crawling in the mud.

The best part of the day? Eric watched Marcus the whole time so that I could just enjoy myself. This picture was the first time that I got to see Marcus that day.

I think he thought I was dirty, he didn't have a very loving look on his face.

We ended up winning the sportsmanship award for the day. Here is a collage made from some more pictures from the event.

Swimming

2010-04-24T15:55:00.000-10:00

We went down to the Hale Koa today to hang out at the pool. We decided to take Marcus for a swim and he loved it.

Marcus' laptop

2010-04-23T14:11:00.003-10:00

Eric got tired of Marcus banging his hand on his laptop, so I got him his own. It was only $3 at the thrift shop and it actually has a lot of activities that he can do when he gets older. Right now, he just bangs on the keyboard, but it saves Eric's laptop the beating.

Makapu'u Lighthouse and Haleiwa Beach

2010-04-21T12:40:00.000-10:00

On Saturday, we decided to go on a hike with Marcus and Kimber. This was the first time for Marcus in the backpack, so it was a new view for him. I think he enjoyed it, he got to kick Eric in the butt the whole time. This is a picture of Eric, Marcus and Kimber at the beginning of the hike. The picture below is at the top with the lighthouse in the background.

After we finished the hike, we went to Whole Foods for lunch and Great Harvest Bread Company for some wonderful bread. We then treated Kimber to a day at the dog beach. She had a blast playing with the other dogs. Normally she spends most of the time trying to get as far away from the water as possible, but this time we found a beach on Hickam AFB that doesn't have any waves and she loved it. I think she must be afraid of waves. She even went swimming for a part of the time.

On Monday, we drove up to the north shore to get some Matsumoto's shave ice and hang out at Haleiwa Beach Park. We had the beach all to ourselves, it was awesome. Marcus even got to try shave ice for the first time.

Eric's Promotion

2010-04-16T11:37:00.000-10:00

Eric was promoted to Captain yesterday. It was backdated to March 23rd, so we have some back-pay coming, but the ceremony was held yesterday morning. Here are a few pictures. We have some better ones coming, but these are what our neighbor Heather took for us.

Before his promotion

Putting his beret back on with his new rank

Eric taking the Oath of Office

After the promotion

6 month Marcus

2010-04-11T10:23:00.005-10:00

Marcus and me at Hickam for a baby shower.
Marcus and Christina at Hickam.
A more calm face.
Pretending to be swamp thing or something, maybe he's hungry.
Eating his ring.
Watching tv all by himself on the bean bag chair.

NTC

2010-04-11T09:54:00.006-10:00

I found Marcus like this on afternoon, just fell asleep on his own.
A beautiful view of the Mojave Desert on the bus ride out of Ft. Irwin.
This is what happens to the cover of the bed of truck when winds are up around 50 mph.
Side view.
My desk in the "box" at Ft. Irwin with dust all over the ground to make it cozy.
This is what happens to plastic porta-potties in high winds.

This one was blown 100 ft away from the rest.

Helping Pack

2010-04-11T09:46:00.002-10:00

This is Marcus helping me pack for NTC by chewing on wash cloths and grabbing my clothes.
This is Marcus modeling my hat. His head will be big enough pretty soon.

Holiday Ball

2010-04-11T09:16:00.005-10:00

This was the official picture for us at the Holiday Ball Dec 17, 2009. It was at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel and was definitely not worth the money. On the positive side, it started off our 2 week Christmas leave in Oregon (from which we have no pictures).

4 months old

2010-01-25T11:33:00.003-10:00

Wow, I can't believe we've made it four months already. Marcus had his checkup today. He weighed in at a whopping 17 lbs 10 oz, putting him in the 84th percentile for weight. He measured 27" long, putting him in the 94th percentile for height. His head measured 17.5" around, putting him in the 91st percentile for head circumference. Basically, he is a big baby. I can't wait to see if he keeps it up throughout his childhood.

He still hasn't rolled over yet, but he loves sitting in his Bumbo and playing with his toys as you can see above. He's verbalizing a lot more now, still no real words, but a lot of noise.

Lately, we've been helping Eric get ready to go to California for training. We still go to the beach most weekends, and even got to spend a day with my brother and his family in Kailua. We got a Wii for Christmas, so I spend a lot of time playing that as well.

We really enjoyed coming home for Christmas and getting to see everybody. We can't wait to see you all again soon.

November

2009-12-14T09:42:00.009-10:00

Ok, so I'm horrible. I didn't update the blog for the entire month of November. This will be a summary post of everything that happened during the month.

The first weekend, we ventured out to the Honolulu Zoo. It's not as good as the Portland Zoo, but for being on an island, it's actually larger than I expected.

Here's a picture of me and Marcus in front of the Giraffes.

After the zoo, we watched the Beavers stomp the Cal Bears 31-14. Check out Marcus in his awesome Beaver gear.

The next weekend we went to the Waikiki Aquarium and the Arizona Memorial. Marcus slept through the aquarium, there wasn't much to see, and fussed his way through the Arizona. Here he is trying to blow a raspberry on the boat out to the memorial.

The next weekend, we headed to Hickam AFB, where Marcus slept the whole time and Eric and I got to try out paddleboarding together. This was my first time, and it was a blast.

Our sweet baby sleeping so we could enjoy the beach.

Me and Eric getting ready to hit the water. Here's a video of us coming back to shore.

For Thanksgiving, Eric had some guys over and we had a great meal. I tried something new this year and made the turkey in the crock-pot. It came out so moist and freed up my oven for all of the sides.

The next day we headed to Hanauma Bay for some snorkeling. Here's a picture of Marcus looking super cute in his surfing hat.

Saturday we hit Bellows AFS for some awesome boogie boarding. It was probably the best day of boogie boarding I've experienced since taking my first lesson at Bellows after Dan and Jen's wedding.

Marcus sure loves to sleep at the beach. I keep bringing his swim diaper out with us, but he never wakes up so that we can try it out. Here's a video of Me and Eric boogie boarding together.

On Sunday, we headed up to North Shore for the Haleiwa Farmer's Market. They were having a holiday fair and Santa was there for Marcus' first encounter. He handled it beautifully. From sleeping in his stroller, to a quick change into his Christmas outfit and placement on Santa's lap for pictures, and sleeping back in his carseat; I don't think he knew what happened.

And of course, when on North Shore, we had to stop at Matsumoto's for some shave ice on the way home.

And that was November for us. Next I'll try to tackle December so far. Maybe it won't take me so long to post it this time.

Pumpkin Hunting

2009-10-26T11:40:00.002-10:00

Marcus, Cindy and I visited a pumpkin patch yesterday. This is the pumpkin that we found, but we didn't end up getting it because Marcus didn't approve. (Just kidding he was asleep.)

Marcus' first hike

2009-10-16T14:55:00.002-10:00

Eric had Monday off before leaving for training on the Big Island, so we decided to head to Diamond Head for Marcus' first hike. He did great, he slept the whole way and woke up at the end ready for a meal.

This picture is of Eric and Marcus on the second to last (and very steep) staircase of the journey. It was scarier going down this staircase than up it.

A view of the crater from the top.

What an awesome view of Waikiki. This shot includes the entire strip from the Hilton Hawaiian Village to Kapiolani Park.

And yes, I was there too. A shot of all three of us at the top with Waikiki in the background. It was a great day for a hike.

2 week checkup

2009-10-05T15:14:00.003-10:00

Marcus had his 2 week checkup today. He is doing well, and obviously eating enough as he now weighs 9.3 lbs and is 22 inches long. He's gotten on a pretty regular eating/sleeping schedule, so we're actually both getting quite a bit of sleep.

The picture above is for those of you that are complaining about the lack of pictures of me on the blog. It's hard to get a picture of me with Marcus as whenever I hold him he thinks it's time to eat. Hopefully he'll get over that soon.

Miss you all!

Marcus Logan and Kaena Pt.

2009-09-23T19:31:00.013-10:00

On Saturday Christina's parents, Marshall and Karen, Christina and myself hiked to Kaena Point, the westernmost point on Oahu (the first 2 pictures are of the actual point). On Sunday, we took Kimber to a dog friendly beach so she could try swimming and she did a great job. I would get in the water and she would run toward me and start doggie paddling when it got deep enough and immediately swam back to shore because she got tired. She is still a little afraid of the waves crashing but hopefully when the wind dies down we can take her back to the same place so she can swim more.

Marcus Logan Sturzinger was born on September 21st, 2009 at 9:50 PM Hawaiian time. He was 7 lbs 15 oz and 19 1/2 in long. Christina and I woke up that morning to her having strong contractions and a few hours later headed to the hospital down in Honolulu. We were immediately admitted and after about 12 hours (including 3 1/2 hours of pushing) we had a baby. He had quite a bit of hair for a baby.

This is Christina and me before the hard part.

This is Marcus a few minutes after birth.

CHECK OUT THESE VIDEOS:

Video 1 Click Here

Video 2 Click Here - Sleeping

Video 3 - The joys of parenthood

These three were taken the next day. In Christina's defense, she was a little tired.

This is him as soon as we got home. He likes his rocker, trying to throw gang signs at me in the second picture.

No Baby Yet

2009-09-17T18:41:00.003-10:00

Sorry there is no baby yet in case you are wondering, so we will post pictures and stuff after he is born. Probably will be born some time on Friday, 9/18.

EIB Ceremony

2009-09-12T17:48:00.002-10:00

Eric spent last week training for his Expert Infantryman's Badge and the testing was held this week. This meant two weeks of early mornings and late nights. The testing included an Army PFT, Land Navigation, a 12-mile ruck march in 3 hours or less, and infantry specific knowledge tests. The final event was the 12-mile march this morning, for which Eric had to get up at 3 am. The rest of us got to sleep in and attend the award ceremony at 9:30. While Eric will downplay the effort involved in earning this badge, out of 480 soldiers attempting to earn it, only 106 completed the requirements.

Hanauma Bay

2009-09-12T17:22:00.003-10:00

So on the Friday of Labor Day weekend, Eric and I finally went to Hanauma Bay. For those of you that have not been to Hawaii, Hanauma Bay is THE tourist destination for snorkeling. They have a good assortment of fish to see, but they also have a very large assortment of people. Recently, they have started limiting the number of people that can visit per day because it was getting out of control. We left our house before 7 am in order to get there before all of the tourists. When we arrived, there were hardly any people on the beach and we got our fill of snorkeling before it got too packed. Here are a few pictures:

Eric at the top of the hill overlooking the bay.

Christina relaxing on the beach before we got in the water.

Eric enjoying the water after finishing snorkeling.

The two of us right before we left the bay.

Really? A day off?

2009-08-21T17:36:00.003-10:00

Eric had the day off today, so we went to the beach. We decided to head down to Hickam AFB as I have never been there and Eric said it was a great beach. This first picture is the panoramic view of the beach from where we were sitting. It was a beautiful day and the water was crystal clear and very refreshing.

One more belly shot, as people have been complaining about the lack of pictures of me on this blog.

One thing we noticed while driving through Hickam, you can definitely tell the difference between an Army base and an Air Force base. Hickam is extremely better looking than our base. We were definitely jealous; Eric because of the running trails everywhere, myself because of the beautiful houses.

Baby Sturzinger at 35 weeks

2009-08-12T11:09:00.004-10:00

I was a little worried about not having gained any weight during my pregnancy, so my provider was kind enough to schedule a growth scan today. The baby is doing well, coming in at 5 lbs. 13 ozs. which puts him in the 47th percentile. He’s right on track for his due date of September 15. The best part of this ultrasound was being able to see him almost fully developed.

Here’s a picture of his pouty lips and cute button nose.

And a picture of his whole face.

The ultrasound technician also verified for us that he hasn’t changed sexes in the last 15 weeks.

All’s going well. We almost have everything we need for his arrival. The last big thing we need to get is the car seat/stroller combo and then we’ll be ready for the hospital.

The baby's room

2009-08-06T16:48:00.005-10:00

We got a crib this week and got it put together today, so I thought I'd post a couple pictures of the almost finished baby room. The only thing left is to put up some wall decorations which are in the mail. I should have them next week.

This first picture is looking into the room from the doorway. At the bottom of the picture is a dresser with the baby book on it. Eric's cross-stitch birth announcement is on the dresser too waiting for me to find mine so that I can hang them up on that wall together with our baby's birth announcement. In the center of the picture is our bookshelf full of stuffed animals. There are even more stuffed animals/dolls hanging above the bookcase.

These two chairs and end table are just to the left of the bookcase. We're not sure yet if the leather recliner will stay in this room or get moved out to the living room.

Kimber's already found her favorite spot in the baby room, right on top of the monkey rug. She fits perfectly from ear to ear.

Here's the finished crib with the baby's quilt and the changing table behind me. And for those of you complaining about not having seen my belly, the first belly shot. I certainly don't look 8 months pregnant, but I feel it.

And a close up, just in case my belly's not big enough for you.

I also put the bassinet together last week and it's in our bedroom ready for the baby. It's a gorgeous German piece that was lent to us by my neighbors back in Oregon.

Next I'll post pictures of the finished back lanai/guest room. The house is almost done, I just need to hang pictures on the walls and remove all of the extra boxes.

Baby Registry

2009-07-19T15:37:00.002-10:00

For those of you that have been waiting, we have finally registered for baby stuff. We are registered at both Walmart and Target. If you're thinking about getting us one of the bigger things, and don't want to pay the outrageous shipping costs, let us know what you want to get us and send a gift card for the amount. We'll go to the store and pick it up so nobody has to pay for shipping. We made sure to register only for things available on the island, so we know that this option will work. Though I haven't registered there, we can also get almost everything at the Post Exchange, so if you don't like the idea of paying sales tax, you can also get us a gift card from www.aafes.com. For those of you that can shop on base, feel free to get anything from our other registries at the exchange. We miss all of you and can't wait to see you all again soon.

4th of July Weekend

2009-07-08T08:59:00.008-10:00

Our 4th of July weekend started early this year. Eric's unit had a BBQ down at Ewa Beach in southern Oahu on the first. The best thing about this beach? Dogs are allowed!! Most of the tourist beaches don't allow dogs, but this beach is part of a housing community that some of Eric's coworkers live in, so they allow dogs. This was the first opportunity we had to take Kimber to the beach, so we were excited. She was a little timid when approaching the ocean at first, but as soon as we got in the water she was okay with it. I can't say that she loved the water, but she didn't run away either. She had more trouble dealing with all of the people than the water and spent most of the day hiding under the picnic table.

This beach is located directly west of Pearl Harbor and provides great views of Honolulu as well as Naval ships entering the harbor. Above, you can see Diamond Head, which is on the far east coast of Oahu and below you can see a naval ship on it's way in to port. It was pretty cool sitting on the beach all day watching ships come in. We even got to see a submarine!!

These two videos are the ships that we got to watch entering the harbor. It was the first time either of us had seen an operational submarine out in the ocean. Pretty cool!!

The next day, our neighbors went out on a shark tour so we watched their dog Amber for them. Amber and Kimber are best friends and will not go out to the bathroom without saying hi to each other. You can see how good they are together as Kimber shares her spot with Amber on the couch below. It's a little hard to tell them apart, but Kimber's the one in the back.

On the third, we decided to go on a hike with Kimber up to the Makapu'u Lighthouse. There's a great view of Koko Crater about halfway up the trail, so we stopped for a picture and water break. We all needed it. Even though it was only a two-mile hike, it was a hot day.

A view from the almost top, you can see Rabbit Island behind us. Rabbit Island is also visible from Bellows AFS, which is our favorite beach.

Here's the lighthouse. Even though the hike is known as the Makapu'u Lighthouse Trail, you don't actually go to the lighthouse. You go above it and can look down at it.

Yes, Kimber made it to the top too. Here she is with Eric at the top. You can see the lighthouse down on their right through the fence and there's even a hang-glider over Eric's left shoulder. There were actually hang-gliders all over the sky that day.

On the fourth, we went to a BBQ at one of our neighbor's houses. It was great for Kimber because everybody brought their dogs and we stuck them all in a fenced backyard so they could run free. Kimber isn't allowed off leash much, so this was a treat for her as she got to play with all of the dogs without us around. After the BBQ, I headed over to Schofield Barracks for the 4th of July festivities. We were severely disappointed because they didn't have funnel cakes, but other than that it was an okay celebration. The fireworks were actually better than I expected and they put together a good show. Sorry, no pictures of that day.

On the fifth, Eric and I decided to hit the beach again. This time, we went to a secluded beach suggested by our neighbor, Heather. It was great, there were plenty of shady spots for me to cool off in, as well as a sandy bottom in the water so we could wade and cool off as well. We even got to see some sea turtles. They came right up to the beach. The one above happened to stick his head up as we were taking the picture (thanks for posing, Mr. Turtle). Below is a video of the two turtles that came the closest to us. There were quite a few in the little bay we were sitting in. At one point, somebody said that they had seen seven turtles in that area alone. We'll definitely have to go back and go snorkeling there sometime.

Eric's Birthday and Father's Day

2009-06-23T15:24:00.004-10:00

I got lucky this year and Eric's Birthday was on Father's Day, so I only had to get one present for him. He also hates getting things, so I decided to get him a Stand-Up Paddleboard lesson instead. He seems to have enjoyed himself even though he spent the entire preceding week telling me I better not be getting him Paddleboard lessons. Here a few pics documenting the day.

The weather was kind of crappy with 30 mph winds and a light drizzle, so everybody else cancelled and Eric got a one on one lesson. They started out the lesson on land learning how to use the paddle. And here they are hitting the water.

You start out kneeling on the paddleboard to get used to balancing while paddling. The guy standing in this picture is the instructor. Eric seemed to catch on pretty quickly and can be seen standing in the next picture.

As you can see from the above picture, Eric was just learning how to stand and has his knees bent to make it easier. At this point, they disappeared for about an hour up a river so that Eric could practice before hitting the ocean. The picture below is after they returned. You can see he looks much more comfortable on the board here.

He had such a great time, he's ready to go again this weekend.

Just had to share this.

2009-06-14T12:14:00.002-10:00

This is how Kimber sleeps. I've seen dogs roll over before, but not sleep on their backs for extended periods of time. She loves it and frequently sleeps this way for hours at a time. It must be the heat.

Our New Dog

2009-06-08T19:05:00.002-10:00

This is our new dog Kimber. I picked her up from the Humane Society today after a mad dash around the island to get all of the necessary supplies to take care of her. She is a 2 yr old Labrador Retriever mix and weighs ~45 lbs.

She is a very relaxed dog and gets along great with the neighbor's Labrador Amber. We're not completely sure if she's completely housebroken, but so far she's very well behaved and responds to commands well. (Though she does perform a down when you tell her to sit.)

Eric's looking forward to getting back here so that he can take her for a run. We're glad we finally found a dog that we could call our own.

It's a...

2009-05-01T12:28:00.006-10:00

BOY!!

So, we weren't going to tell anybody, but I let it slip on a phone call with my mom and we figured it wasn't worth keeping a secret after that. Here are the 20 week ultrasound pics. The above picture is the baby's head to the right with both of his arms above.

This picture is the proof that it's a boy. It's a little hard to tell what everything is, but imagine a little boy sitting on a photocopier and this is what you would see.

This last picture is a shot of the bottom of his left foot. Overall, the ultrasound technician told us that he is above average at this point. We were a little worried because I haven't gained any weight yet, in fact I've lost weight, but he weighs 14 oz right now.

I know many of you are waiting for pictures of my belly. We haven't posted any yet because there isn't really anything to see at this point. I'm still wearing all of my old clothes, so you can only tell I'm pregnant on a good day. I'll post one when I get bigger, don't worry.

Boogie Boarding

2009-04-18T17:47:00.005-10:00

Sorry for the enormous delay, we just haven't been doing anything exciting lately. Our stuff arrived on the 6th of April, so we've been unpacking for the last two weeks, leaving no time for the beach (except for Eric).

Today we took a break from unpacking and drove over to Bellows AFS. It is by far one of the best places to boogie board on Oahu and it's limited to military personnel so there's always room. It was absolutely gorgeous when we got there, and the water was nice and warm. I sat on the beach while Eric tried boogie boarding for the first time.

This is the beach at Bellows.

Here's a pic of Eric catching a wave. They weren't very large today, but that was better for learning anyway. What follows are two videos of Eric catching some waves. Enjoy!

2009-03-22T16:54:00.001-10:00

This is Eric now. After a while scouting for mopeds in the area, I found this baby in Honolulu and bought from a guy who was moving back to the mainland in a few weeks. It goes almost 40 mph and can probably get up to 60 on a good hill. This is mainly for me driving to work and back which is only about a 5 minute drive, so it will save quite a bit of gas since it gets between 80-100 miles per gallon. It will also be perfect for going to northern beaches which are closer and I don't have to drive on the freeway to get there. It has a push button start but also a kick start in case I feel like a cool biker guy sometimes. The second picture is of me getting ready to roll out of the parking lot, peeling out because it has so much torque (49cc engine).

2009-03-17T17:23:00.003-10:00

On Saturday we headed out on a search for furniture. We went by Walmart and Kmart just to see what they have and then continued on to the Navy Exchange at Pearl Harbor. As we were walking in, we spotted this beautiful brown leather sectional for $1000. We couldn't pass it up and had it delivered this morning. Eric has already found his favorite spot to watch The O'Reilly Factor.

In case I didn't say it before, the Navy Exchange at Pearl Harbor is huge. By far one of the largest I've seen. I thought the one in Japan that I went to was large, but it doesn't even compare to this exchange. I could easily spend all day there. After buying this couch, we headed to Costco for our first big grocery trip. That was fun.

On Sunday, we finally went to the beach. Sort of. We were originally on a trip to look for Mopeds for Eric, and when we realized all of the stores were closed, we ended up at the Hale Koa. For those of you that don't know, the Hale Koa is an all military hotel on Waikiki. It's right next door to the Hilton Hawaiian Village at the far west end of Waikiki, so it's a pretty secluded portion of the beach. The great thing about the Hale Koa is that any DoD personnel can use their facilities, even if they're not staying in the hotel. I showed Eric around the property and got to see the additions they've made since I was there last and then we headed to the pool. We spent about an hour there, we didn't want to get burnt on our first trip to the beach, and then headed home. So we didn't really spend any time on the beach, but it sure felt good to be out in the sun at the pool. Sorry, we don't have any pictures, we completely forgot to bring the camera until we got there. We're hoping to get to the beach again this weekend, so we should have some pictures soon.

Pictures!!

2009-03-12T12:54:00.008-10:00

We finally have pictures of our house. I promise it looks smaller in the pictures than it really is. No, there are no pictures of my belly as I'm not showing yet. So here's the front of the house.

This is the view from our front door. Doesn't look like much, but helicopters take off from that vicinity all day. That's kind of fun to watch, but gets really annoying at night when you're trying to sleep. It's not like a commercial airport that shuts down at night.

This is the view to the west looking at the mountain range you have to cross to get to the private army resort on the west coast. We're actually surrounded by mountains, so it's kind of like being back in the Willamette Valley.

For some reason, whenever people take pictures of me I'm eating something. Eric is no different, he thought it would be funny to take a picture of me being lazy on the couch watching TV and eating chips and salsa. Oh well, at least I have an excuse now. So this is our living room with loaner furniture and our brand new TV on the floor. It's actually quite large and behind the built-in bookcase behind me is the dining room which is larger than it looks as well.

This is another view of the living room, this time from the dining room. In the picture above, you can see the sliding door that leads to the back lanai.

What follows are a few pictures of the back lanai which we're thinking about making into a guest room. It's even larger than the second bedroom, which will be the guest room until the baby gets here. There is also a front lanai, but it's not as big and you can't see out of it because of the type of screen they used.

This is the view of the backyard from the back lanai. It's pretty large and unlike most bases, we don't have to mow it ourselves. There's an avocado tree back there and across the parking lot is a mango tree. There's no fruit right now, but it's supposed to be really good when there is.

This is the second bedroom, pretty basic, just a bedroom. It does have a walk-in closet which is more than I can say for the master bedroom.

Here's our teeny-tiny bathroom, yes, only one. But who spends all day in the bathroom anyway?

The next few pictures are of our messy bedroom since somebody doesn't like to pick up his things.

The next two pictures are the kitchen. They don't do it justice. It's not huge, but it's much larger than the pictures show and it's larger than any kitchen I've had in a rental before.

This is the view from the kitchen into the walk-in pantry. The pantry is about the size of all of my previous kitchens. Through the door in the center of the picture is the laundry room.

That's our house. It's only a two bedroom, but it has storage everywhere. There are two closets in the hallway between the two bedrooms, three built in bookcases, a large storage area where the water heater is, and a shed outside.

2009-03-08T10:38:00.003-10:00

Well, we've been here a week and so far we've found a place to live (we move in tomorrow) and have bought a new TV and camera/camcorder. We're still looking for furniture, but we have loaners from the base for now so we at least have something to sleep and sit on.

We're excited to move into our own house as this will be the first time we've lived together in almost a year. It's only a two bedroom, but the living areas are large and the built-in lanai's make it seem a lot bigger than a two bedroom. We'll take pictures as soon as we move in so you can all see what a base house looks like here in Hawaii. I'm just glad that the kitchen is larger than a closet, which is what I've been dealing with for the last two years, and that the house has a washer and dryer.

We aren't getting cable set up in our house until Thursday, so it's going to be a long week without anything to do. Maybe we'll go bowling a lot. Or go to the beach.

Normally, you'd think: "You're in Hawaii, go to the beach." But it's been raining the entire time we've been here so being outside isn't that appealing. It's supposed to be done raining for a while as we got the same storm that Oregon got, but we're not so sure about that. The good news is that even though it's raining, it's still warm.

Eric had to work this morning, which he wasn't happy about, but he's "volunteering" at a charity motorcycle ride for military families so at least it's a good cause. He's pretty anxious to get a moped, so we'll probably have to go shopping for that next. Eventually he'll have a breakdown from all of the money we're spending, but he's okay for now. I'm still working for three more months, so that's easing the blow a little.

Ok, I promise the next post will have pictures of our house.

We finally made it!!

2009-02-28T18:11:00.003-10:00

Well, after making Eric suffer through the Fort Benning training environment for nine months, the Army has finally sent us to Hawaii. We got in to Honolulu at 10 pm on February 27. We were both extremely tired as it was 3 am in Georgia and Eric still had to check in and get us a ride to Schofield Barracks. We finally got to our room around midnight and were quickly sound asleep.

Eric woke up promptly at 5:15 am today and thought for some reason that I would enjoy getting up at 6. He succeeded in waking me up at 7, which is still much earlier than I had intended when we got in at midnight. Eric was looking out the window all morning and didn't like what he saw, rain!! Once the rain stopped, we headed out. However, for those of you familiar with Hawaii, just because it stopped raining doesn't mean it's not going to start again and it has been drizzling on and off in 5-10 minute spurts all day. We didn't have a rental car today, we're getting one tomorrow, so we spent the day exploring the base on foot. Most of the services buildings are within walking distance of our room, so it was nice to explore. We went to the exchange, commissary and furniture store, and then walked past the medical center, chapel, theater, outdoor recreation center, and gym. We also got to walk through the new housing area and really liked what we saw. Now we just hope we can get a house in there. The chances are high as Eric's entire brigade just got back from Iraq and most of them will be moving soon.

After we got done exploring we went back to our room to catch up on some much needed sleep. Eric just got back from a run. He decided to tackle the mountains to the west of the base and realized it was much steeper than he originally thought.

Tomorrow we'll get a rental car and explore some of the island highlights. Some places on the agenda: Haleiwa for some of Matsumoto's Shave Ice, a classic hawaiian plate lunch and to hopefully catch some surfing, the Dole Plantation for some Dole Whip and some fresh pineapple, a drive along the island on Kamehameha Hwy, a possible stop in waikiki to see some of the classic tourist traps, the Navy Exchange at Pearl Harbor which is supposed to be the largest exchange on the island, and finally Costco to get our membership going. If we have more time, we might also drive to the west side of the island to explore the beaches over there.

Well, that's all for now, just wanted to let you all know we made it and what we've been up to. Sorry we don't have any pictures, we're in the process of picking out a new camera and once that happens, I'll add photos to all of my descriptions so you have a better idea what I'm talking about.